![Pure Sci-Fi Nostalgia! War Rocket Review | Hydra Miniatures [7 Days Early Access]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2026/02/unboxing-hydra-miniatures-war-rocket-coverimage-225-127.jpg)
Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition Goes On Pre-Order
May 17, 2014 by brennon
The time has come. The grim dark is descending and a new edition of Warhammer 40,00 is now up for Pre-Order by Games Workshop. Will you be reserving your new book and all associated gubbins?
So your choices for the rulebook are that you can either go for the standard set which contains the three hardback books within the slipcase or you can splurge on the Munitorum Edition of the rules which comes with a condensed version of the rules, the rules themselves, a mixture of different reference charts, some coins for marking objectives and the Psychic Power/Objective Cards needed for the game.
Talking of cards you can buy them separately of course. The Psychic Cards come with all the powers you'll be summoning during the new phase of the game and the Tactical Objectives bring a whole new spin to the Maelstrom of War scenarios that are presented alongside the standard ones from 6th Edition.
Last but not least is the Visions of the Dark Millennium art book which is filled with a whole bunch of visual content to get you stocked for Warhammer 40,000. Pretty much this will be your go to coffee table book if you're so inclined.
Do you think you'll be diving into this new edition?
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
![Zenit Miniatures’ Samurai Warlords Now Live On Kickstarter [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2026/02/samurai-warlords-launch-main-600-338.jpg)
Studio copy ordered last night, two things…
1) Very impressed with the new e-commerce platform GW have put in, very slick and ‘felt’ like Games Workshop (and I mean in a good way)
2) Will be interesting to see when it arrives!
You had to order a copy?!
lol Yup
They are the ones who should be paying you, or in the very least send you a copy for review
Ummm Games Workshop…..
Will be interesting to know if the fluff/history has moved “forwards” and if any extreme events have taken place!
More interested with the now probable Warhammer Fantasy Reboot !!!
Aye me too, I’m more excited about the rumoured Brettonian release which I think is happening given their appearance in the new Wood Elf teaser trailer (best bit of the entire thing imo lol)
I stopped playing 40K a while back but I was tempted to buy this as it looks very slick… then I saw the price.
Does GW charge these prices because it knows it can and some people will still snap it up? It seems to me that they must… (£200 for the Munitorum Edition!!!).
In a word, yes. It’s what an economist would call Personal Pricing. For example, if you had a book that cost you £10 per unit to produce, and third of your potential audience would pay £15 for it, another third £25, and the other third would pay £30, then on the face of it you should charge £25 as that would make you the most profit. Drop down to £15 and you’d sell more but make less money, go up to £30 and you’d sell less and make less money. But what would make you the most money is selling it for £30 to the third of your consumers who are willing to pay it, £25 to that third, and £15 to that third. The obvious problem is no-one is going to pay you £30 for a book they can for £15, so you have to find a way to hit each person’s price point they’re willing to go up to, their Personal Price. There are different ways of doing it. You can get people to pay more by giving them ltd editions or pre-release access. Conversely you can get the people willing to pay less by offering it on sale at a later date, which is essentially how the second-hand console gaming market works.
All of the above is long-winded way of saying that GW know they have customers willing to spend a lot of money on their product, so they capitalise on that by offering them something which seems like a superior product at big mark up so they can hit their personal price.
I hate to say it but £50 is more than reasonable imo for the Rulebook(s) in and of themselves –
– anyone who has been to uni knows how horrific text books can cost. Some push towards £100. And they’re never in colour…
£200 is a limited edition set. If people buy them, they buy them. They’re not going to turn people off (unless they’re stupid) because they are non-essential. I do question whether someone will actually use the A5 limited edition rulebook given the cost though. And I wonder if any of these buyers actually use them – I know I kept my Limited Edition 8th Fantasy Book in its box, never opened …
There are many people who will look at £200 and just say “how much? Is GW insane?” but I can also predict that the 2000 copies will sell out.
GW do know that there will always people who complain about the prices but also know that there are 2000 people who will buy this edition.
Personally I am just getting the normal version
No
I was going to buy the books, but it now seems that the iBook version contains the complete contents of all three books, (unlike the previous digital version which was just the rules). I already own a few digital codexes and they are a joy to use.
50 quid for the standard version (three hardback books) does not seems too bad. Does anyone know if it is A4 or A5?
Probably A4 for the main books and A5 for the condensed rule book based on their past products.
I’m speechless.
Nice to see the ebook versions out at the same time. The cynical part of me thought they might hold them back til the new starter set to double dip some sales.
Was hoping to put a FW order in this month, think I am going to have to delay that so I can get these ones. Won’t be shelling out £200 though I must admit.
Or invest in a MTG event deck.
I really wish you could just buy the books separately. I’d be interested in picking up the new rulebook just to see how things are going with 40k – barely even played the last edition because none of my friends liked the rules changes very much, so investing in this edition would be a gamble at best. A gamble that, at £50, I’m not going to take.
The other gamble is how long the rules will remain relevant. I feel kinda miffed about shelling out for the big rule book for 6th edition, and only two years later learning that it’s now irrelevant.
Technically I should get the new rules in order to keep playing, but I’ll probably give this a pass and grab the mini-version when that’s available instead. This will be the first main rulebook since 2004 that I will be skipping, just because GW have shaken my faith in how long they’re supporting each edition. Previously I thought it was a safe bet that a high price item like that was good for around four years, but for all I now know they could release 8th edition this time next year.
I hope this doesn’t end up like SEGA abandoning consoles and fragmenting their market.
They way they have packaged this up looks ACE, very desirable/collectible looking.
A painted turd is still a turd, so no.
You can put make up on a pig …
£50? I have no interest in the fluff. I read the occasional 40k novel but I don’t care enough about it to deem it as an essential inclusion in the rulebook product.
Saying £50 it good for 3 hardback books is neither here nor there – it shouldn’t be in 3 separate books unless you can buy them separately – they’ve made it look more desirable by doing that – more exclusive – and as such it allowed them to sneak the price up a bit higher.
I can only assume they have a rabidly loyal fan base (no surprise) that will defend this but have they even seen the pricing structures for other games?
Infinity – free rules and you get enough minis to play a full game for £30 or less.
Bolt Action – £60 will get you a decent sized army including a tank or two in those starter boxes. The rules beefy and are hardback and around £20 (very nice book too!). Even the separate (mainly optional unless you want stats for the newest units) are about a tenner on amazon.
Malifaux – mini rulebook available for a tenner, a whole crew is £25-£30, a deck of cards is a fiver. That’s it.
Even boardgames like Zombicide are better value – dozens and dozens of minis and high quality boards for £65. A lot for a boardgame but you get a lot for your money.
And all of the above games are amazing so if you haven’t tried them I suggest you do.
I was considering starting an army for 40k the other week, just as these rules were announced. Then I counted up the cost of it and it quickly became prohibitive.
The price for the rules just broke the camels back.
However, if they do an amazing box set with mini rules again I might consider it since the starter sets seemed to be good value. I bought the Island of Blood and Dark Vengeance sets and was happy with what I got for the money.
To be fair though, and I’m no GW white knight, but the player community at large has been waiting for a split between fluff, the HHHobby and the rules for a long time to come, and now people are bashing what they wanted…
GW not often but at times just can’t win it appears..
It’s not really a split if you can’t buy them separately.
I just hope they have some new artwork and fluff. Very tiring to see the same pictures over 2 editions.
Try 20 years! 🙂
It says in the white dwarf they’re gonna update the mini rule book in dark heresy “soon”.
I mean vengeance…
I have a limited amount of money for my wargaming hobby. I spend less and less each year. So it is likely that I will spend my limited funds on a new game to have new experiences. I am not sure that the GW release will fall into that “new experience” bucket. I can simply continue playing with the current or older rule books. Over the years, I purchased D&D core books about 9 times. And friends have gifted me their old core books. I have enough books to play any edition of D&D and have books to pass around to each player. I am not so sure I will do the same with 40k, mostly due to my current habits and available game time and funds.
It looks mighty slick. The collectors edition doesn’t interest me whatsoever, especially at that price but for the regular rules set it’s pricey but does look awesome.
Discounters are doing it for £40(ish) delivered which doesn’t seem to bad to me if I can get a good 2 years out of it.
Sure other game systems have their rules given out for free, which is great. I enjoy them immensley (hello Infinity) which gives me enough spare change to sink into GW lol. Flawed thinking for sure but it works for me ;P
It’s annoying that they’ve brought out a new edition so soon after the last one (especially as I’d not got into the rules yet), but the fact it’s now in the rules that you can have “unbound” armies, is awesome, and it means I have more freedom with the minis I’m collecting for my fluffy armies and I don’t have to buy an HQ and Troop choice first in order to have an army to game with (I’ve always bought what I liked and could afford first anyway), which is fantastic.
It’s also great that the big book is now split up into it’s components, and that the hobby section is in it’s own book is great! At 144 pages, I’m hoping it will have a lot of hobby stuff in there, including, as I think it’ll be likely, painting guides for each army, and even better, conversion and hobby guides for experienced and newcomers alike – which I love to read.
And that the rules and fluff are separate makes it easier to transport (if you need to) and to get to the relevant bits of the rules that you want to read.
So I’ve ordered my copy – but I’ll wait longer to buy the next edition if it comes out so soon again though.
Now I’m waiting to see what the boxed game will be. First of all I’m hoping that the cover will have a painted battle scene. Dark Vengeance’s cover was dead ******* boring; there was nothing there to spark the imagination! As for minis – it’s gotta be the classic Space Marines vs Orks right? I’d like to see the Crimson Fists facing the Orks as a nod to Rogue Trader (with a new version of the Rogue Trader artwork, but now showing the Crimson Fists holding their ground against the orks) and the Crimson Fists fluff written about them since Rogue Trader, battling them on Rynn’s World.
But, who knows what GW will do next? I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. 🙂
I’m looking forward to this edition. I will at this point take anything that is not 6th ed. because the state of it now is a ruined mess imo..
I’ve not played 40k for a while now and at the moment I have no immediate plans to jump back in. I can’t say I got my monies worth out of 6th either as far too many other games saw to that.
I’m not shutting the door completely, a lot will depend how the new rules are received by those around me. If it looks to be a good game then I daresay I’ll join in I have 2 large armies and I won’t want to miss any fun. If I don’t, then I’ll wait to see what 8th’s like. 🙂
If GW took your average home construction sixty-cent fired red brick, 2 1/4″ tall x 8″ long x 3 5/8″, and put their logo on it, then amped it up with sufficient fluff, they could probably sell it for $30.00. The GW community would look upon it with awe, debating the pro’s and con’s of the new brick, and wondering if they could afford one. Those who bought the previous flawed brick for $15.00, which was a ¼” smaller, would lament the now-useless masonry in their possession, and would discard their bricks, as would their friends. Old bricks, after all, are incompatible with new bricks.
And GW would tell everyone that this time their brick is flawless, even though the previous six versions of the brick they made were out of square, inconsistent with previous bricks, and crumbled under scrutiny. Who wants an old brick like that when you can have a new perfect brick? And you’ll never ever need another… not even after two years.
Given the modular nature of the brick, many would daydream about the purchase of multiple bricks to perhaps build a stellar marine compound, or whatever, and GW could well box three of these for $80.00 for their loyal and grateful gamers who have never heard of sixty-cent fired bricks. And of course, the new brick would have enough appeal to be labeled as a strategy brick, whereas the old brick was not.
Man, really got to get me one of those bricks.
lol
hmmmmmm bricks………..
wow 200 for a rule book ?? that’l attract a lot more teenagers into the hobby.
I’ve spoken before about the cost of the rules, which is only exacerbated by a 2 year cycle, however, the collectors version is worth a comment.
I bought the last 2 or 3 collectors versions. 6th colectors was £80 (from memory) and I bought it not because it was limited, but because it as a tangibly better book. No spine cracking and pages falling out, it had better materials, better binding, and for me was worth the extra because of that.
Another previous collectors one I have came in a box too like this one.It was less than half the cots of 7th and the box was a proper metal thing done up like an ammo box.
This one seems like £200 for a different cover and a cardboard box, along with the £45 visions book thrown in. That for me sums up GW as a company and how it has progressed over the year.
It used to be expensive, but you got tangible value for the money with a quality product. Now they make everything as cheaply as possible (the proofreading on any book released in the last 2 years for instance) and charge top money for it.
I am waiting for a new starter box, Rumoured as Blood angels Vs Orks, although a GW store manager from Norfolk has told me it’s likely to be DV with a 7th ed mini rulebook instead of 6th….I ******* hope not! My first 40k starter was 4th ed, marines vs Orks, and now my sons are showing a (slight) interest I’m wanting to introduce them with a start box. They like able and red mehreens…. Im always been an ork fan 🙂
£50 for the rules I think is fair, the old book was £35? The new books promise more coverage of hobbying, and with GW’s pricing policy, I think a £15 hike over 2 years isn’t bad.
Just been on our club page and all the guys I’d expect to be excited about a new release are not happy bunnies. They’re all disgruntled by the amount of cards and books they have had to buy recently. The only two defenders are both GW store managers strangely.
But the days of Dark Millennium (loads of cards) and 3 books were GLORIOUS.
Remember when White Dwarf has a card section in the middle and you got free wargear cards etc? Good times!
Sadly I doubt we will see a return to that. Although those rules where clunky
Not one for me, not playing much currently and certainly not 40k – besides my regular opponents have confirmed not picking it up – going to stick with 6th or stuff like int he Emperor’s name. Price point is not excessive to my view – but wrong for me.
I do think reducing a game edition to a 2 year cycle is a massive negative – which is a huge factor on the price point for me. It also rules out Horus Heresy as it is almost certain a re-print will be forced by next edition if this does not – and that possibly being by 2016 mean those books become to expensive for me to justify.
As an aside, I happen to think if this fails to sell well it could be what is required to wake up the GW HQ to the need for a re-engagement with the community. I also suspect that it will sell, despite all internet grumblings and be the green flag for GW consider exactly how quickly they can churn new editions and have the community will eat the cost.
Looks like I’m in the same boat as so far none of my friends have said they were going to buy in. I agree with @dags £50 is not excessive for 3 books but then I would only want the one.
I am pleased to hear they brought back the hobby section. By far one of my favourite aspects of the BIG BOOK from previous editions.
I am also partial to a good bit of fluff and having not even bought a 6th ed book and not played 40K for a few years I will be getting this as I intend to get back into 40K now that allies and unbound forces are written into the book.
I see my Biel Tan and Space Wolves having a VERY tense and short lived alliance hehe. “What do you mean Ragnar can’t use this farseers skull as my new drinking flagon!”…SLAP!
Add me to the CBA (can’t be ar$ed) pile. I’m quite miffed that they are asking for another £50 so soon after the last £50. I’ll wait to see if it’s ok as a system before I get the shrunken rule book. There are just so many great games out there right now and I am not sure GW have woken up to that. I went to the mantic open day on Saturday. Met ronnie, allessio, jake etc. what a great bunch of guys they are. I understand ronnie may have been playing with us but in his seminar he took a number of straw polls to see what direction his company should go in. And he answered questions. Hard questions. He seemed to really respect his customers. GW otoh don’t seem to give a damn.
Tl/dr I will wait and see.
I agree. Although the issue with Mantic is the quality of the models. Personally I think the sculpts aren’t too bad but the restic material is horrid. Now they have switched to hard plastic for some releases so I’ll reserve judgement on them till I see them.
However they do have a far better relationship with their customer base. GW have forgotten their customers in favour of their consumers. at any other time I’d say £50 for 3 books (even with the horrible covers they’ve chosen) would be a good deal but as others have said: it’s only a good deal compared to buying single books. If that isn’t an option then they’re merely fleecing a deludedly-loyal fanbase for everything they can get.
The option for unbound lists sounds great for thematic players but the end result will be horribly broken army lists from competitive players, removing what little balance exists in the system. I, for one, will definitely be giving it a miss unless I’m proved wrong.
I think this whole thing just goes to show how on their arse GW actually. Clearly trying their hardest to rinse even more money out of their IP and loyal fans. What’s the point of getting into a game as involving, time consuming and expensive as 40k if they now plan to move the goal posts on everybody every two years? They just aren’t a good company to do business with anymore so I don’t intend to. As much as I love the fluff and mini’s, I also love my hard earned wages and want the most value for it I can get.
It’s the 2-year cycle that hints of desperation. The actual changes and the price point are very much “meh, so what do you expect from GW!” Releasing a game 2 years ago that was so buggy that, even in its 6th edition and after over 25 years of playtesting it couldn’t survive for two years is just rubbish.
Of course, it isn’t anything to do with “improving” the game, its a simple cash cow to boost their May sales numbers and pacify the shareholders who got edgy after the 1st si months results threatened their dividend. Which is OK. The problem, such as there is one, is that there are multiple deluded individuals who get stuck in the “must upgrade” syndrome. But that’s their business I suppose!
I don’t know if I’m not becoming desensitised to the prices, because they don’t have the ‘ouch’ factor that 6th edition had.
What really stings is the 2 year cycle. I shelled out for the reliquary edition of 6th thinking it would have a fair amount of use in the years to come. Now it’s about to become redundant?
Sorry, I won’t be buying into this.
… I guess I should have put a ‘probably’ in before won’t in my previous post. I’m a sucker for bling and the Munitorum box looks sweet. Shame about the a5 rulebook though. I wonder if that means no starter box this edition?
Can we just wait until the rulebook is out before dissing GW peeps?
What if 7th edition is actually the best version written, stripped of the all the large issues that 6th and previous editions have? What if it was actually heavily tested by a new set of game designers? What if it completely balances the game out and has had a lot of serious thought into it?
What if GW has had teams going over all the major issues of 6th, flaws and problems, and have actually fixed it all? We just don’t really know of yet.
Maybe, just maybe, they’ve actually sorted things out.
And I thought I was sarcastic 😉
I was trying to be fair! … wasn’t trying to be probable…
After 27 years with 7 editions maybe its time to admit that game design isn’t really your forte
Just read in this weeks White Dwarf that the Dark Vengeance boxset will be getting a rulebook upgrade, so it looks like no fully new starter box for this edition.