Is Games Workshop Making the Combat Patrol Boxes WORSE? 

Love that they advertise the Space Marine Combat Patrol as having 13 Miniatures. They're counting the Teleport Homer...

They took out the Impulsor tank from the old SM combat patrol and they continue to sell it without it for the same price, so yeah, GW is absolutely purposefully making these "value" boxes worse

Combat Patrol was initiatlly advertised as being bigger Start Collecting boxes, but they're just regular Start Collecting boxes but with worse discounts while costing twice as much.

The thing is that the 'recipe' for an ideal combat patrol box isn't difficult to figure out: •A character •A unit of core infantry •A vehicle •A charming 4th unit - focus on new sculpts ~500pts - just above 30% discount

Consumers: This deal is getting worse all the time GW: Pray i dont change it any further

Yes, no way about it. The new Mechanicus box is by far the worst one

Seeing these now has me putting on a tinfoil hat and wondering if GW was playing 4D chess when they announced the Combat Patrol gamemode. They can make new boxes with terrible value and claim "it's for balance", thus enabling them to also cut out bigger models from the bundle boxes.

Of course GW is going to shrinkflation the combat patrols. They're the pinnacle of nickle-and-diming customers.

My theory is that they cant increase the price so they decided to make the contents value worse.

These seem even to or worse than the old start collecting boxes, but for significantly more.

Just GW starting to pick up on shrinkflation, with worse and worse offerings for the same price. I'm actually surprised it took this long for them to start reeling in combat patrols and such.

I hate that we lost start collectings. they were such a better entry point for the hobby

Poorhammer podcast just released a video about the quality of the boxes as well. I highly recommend checking it out

A combat patrol should be a character, a basic troop, a special unit, and a “big”. Tryanids and Necrons have actually held this up so far so I have a little hope.

Even this year's battleforces were a little lacking in value, some boxes are 330 usd compared to the 350 usd they all had last year. Some aos boxes were down to 320 usd in value. They cutting back fr.

The fact that they feel this comfortable putting up these blatantly awful deals, they must be absolutely confident that 40k fans have no restraint or budget concerns. Or maybe they’re just trying to shakedown the playerbase for every penny they’ve got before that recession finally happens and people for real can’t afford to add another product to the shame pile.

It were priced like a Start Collecting the AdMech one would be a really cool box of models.

I feel like they'll continue the current trend. Before GW had to, at least a little, try to hit the 500 points mark with how combat patrol was free form building, but now that they make the lists to be exactly what's in the box they can put as little points as they deem fit

I like the Admech box in terms of unit choice... we haven't gotten a Manipulus in a box, and the Flybois and Horses encourage a unique, mobile playstyle not shown elsewhere (most boxes come with Kataphrons)... but there is no centerpiece, it has a low points value, and a lowered savings just isn't nice no matter what.

When GW stopped trying to load combat patrols with 500 point armies and started individually balancing the boxes with made up rules/points that was the end of them needing to have equivalent value in the boxes.

To me it look like someone has planned out Christmas boxes for each army and then they have removed the big models and made them into Combat Patrol boxes. Auspex Tactics should make a video where he compare them against each other under the Combat Patrol rules. Like points and how would they stand up against each other.

Still remember the start collecting box insane deals like the tau crisis suit ones ;.; what a time

I just picked up the Dark Angels combat patrol a few weeks ago. Haven’t done the math on its value but it’s full of really great stuff.

Now I’m worried about the Adepta Sororitas combat patrol. The current one is great but the Sisters codex is this summer… hopefully they don’t ruin it.

I feel that Combat patrols becoming their own game mode have come at a significant detriment to the quality of the boxes as "Start Collecting" sets.

And GW still wonder why so many people are looking into using 3D printers

I can't believe I am a grey knights player asking for the army to not be touched, it's already been a rocky edition

Worst was the "Spearhead" Marines box. Same as the Marine patrol before, just without Impulsor, for the same price.

I remember not very long ago that the _"Start Collecting"_ series was £65. And I do mean around 2 years ago when some were still on the market. The Chaos Space Marines box came with:- 1 x Master of Possession 2 x Obliterators 2 x Greater Possessed 10 x Legionaries 1 x Venomcrawler I believe they were from the Shadowspear box, but considering they were new then, and that just the Venomcrawler and Obliterators are £45 from GW, _and_ is online only, something else is up. The current Combat Patrol swaps out the Venomcrawler for the aging Helbrute, you get the new Havocs instead of Obliterators and Greater Possessed, a Dark Apostle instead of the Master of Possession, and the multipart Legionaries rather than the Shadowspear ones. This might sound comparable at first, until you spot that it costs _£95_ instead of _£65!_ Almost 50% more. Not to mention the new box lacks versatility compared to the "Start Collecting" series. And that's without considering eBay prices. (Small note: Element Games still has the Start Collecting box for £55.25, but for ever unavailable. Boo.)

I feel like the Grey Knights, Drukhari, Custodes and Genestealer Cult Combat Patrol will be panic bought now

It’s crazy that GW continuously does this kind of thing and still make bank. 3d printing is the way to go bros.

15th edition NEW! Space Marine Combat Patrol! 1 x Primaris Lieutenant, 10 x Intersessor (Colour your own) cut outs with plastic stands!

Nids will get the same treatment as Sisters, where the new mono pose models will still be in combat patrol for next 5 years, especially as it can’t have the best weapons you need for 10th.

Rippers unit can now be a single model, so technically it can be a squad of 1/1

I'd say they already are a highly expensive model making company and the excuse of having to raise the cost to match inflation is BS. It's just an excuse for more than the regular increases. I'm not finding much value in these but I'm pretty happy with the Army's I got

Honestly I believe they should have options of different combat patrols, keep the old boxes and keep both combat patrols. This will add a bit more variance and can make you guess what your opponent is bringing but you know what faction you are taking on.

GW has their customer base whipped to an embarassing degree to be pulling this lol

Also you roughly get a 1000 point army of necrons if you mix the current combat patrol with the old one

I genuinely am angry with the Necrons one. Its the starter elite box from last edition, but with a doomstalker. But what hurts more is that that box was 99 dollars usd before tax, and 130-ish with the doom stalker + Space Marines. Whats this new one cost? 160. And buying all kits individually 210…. You save 50 dollars… 50… usd… Thanks G-Dubs….

The Sisters on is decent enough. Not sure what theyd do to change it, maybe up the Arco numbers or the repentia (and remove the other unit). But they'll probably just remove the rhino and call it a day, so it'll be like the Ltd Ed box they released for the Sisters. That way the points > £$ falls drastically and pleases the Overlords in Nottingham

I wonder what they’ll do for the World Eaters and Drukhari considering they have some very usable units in them. I half expect GW to pull a 180 and just add more tzaangors to the thousand sons box.

If they fuck up the GSC patrol people will RIOT

Never thought I'd be glad for my combat patrol to be the death guard one. Gw would have to try very hard if they wanted to make it a worse option for me than the current one.

If they make the GSC Combat Patrol worse, that'll be truly absurd, since the high value of that box is the only thing keeping GSC even remotely affordable.

The Necron one is even less valuable now then it was on announcement, when it was announced the Indomitus pattern Overlord was still exclusive to the starter kits, now it’s getting an individual release

Thousand sons Combat patrol will change to ... flat 50 Tzangoors.

In Australia I just got a 3d printer for 200 bucks. Don’t let them abuse you anymore my fellow Aussies

The preview of the new Admech combat patrol made me decide to 3D print my admech army instead! Wanted a more grimdark admech either way and GW seems to insist on making admech robot cowboys nowadays..

Looks like upcoming custodes patrol will have like 10 prosecutors, 10 witchseekers and centura...

For the love of god I hope they release more chaos daemon combat patrols. Khrone is awesome but where are the other 3 gods :c

Can someone tell me what is the base size for a Carnifex? All I've seen is conflicting information online

Dont forget too these boxes are meant to be played against each other. 270 points for Admech in a 500 point format. And they have neither a tank nor any anti-tank.

You just need to compare the most recent Admech combat patrol with the GSC combat patrol to see

Was hoping for better. Necrons from indomidus plus combat patrol wasn't bad

I'm almost certain Custodes will be redone and scaled down content wise. So will anything that has a vehicle in it, I suspect, with maybe the exception of a few walkers. Though the AdMech one really confuses the hell out of me, given these are supposed to be self-contained for Combat Patrol (as in the game mode) and I have a really hard time seeing how that's going to happen with that one. Though there are some CPs that are already insanely stronger than others, in the few games I played with the DA combat patrol, I won most games by virtue of the Redemptor and Inceptors simply annihilating everything on the board with the Chaplain and the Intercessors getting a participation medal. And there are a few others that are much more unpleasant in the hands of a semi-experienced player.

If they added _one_ *Sydonian Dragoon* to the AdMech box it would tie in the "theme" of the combat patrol, up the whole selling point of the "starter box" and match rather nicely with the Necron one, with the Dragoon even having an anti-walker lance for the Canoptek Doomstalker. But that would be both fair towards your customers, _and_ give the impression that you listen to them. Love the hobby, but the corporate side is a total monopoly nickle-and-dime operation. Combat Patrol is such a great idea for a starter box that it's frustrating to watch GW once again fall into their worst habits.

They already made the Tau box worse in the switch from Start Collecting to Combat Patrol and I doubt the Death Guard box could get any worse so there isn't much more they can do to me tbh.

I wonder if they will switch out the sisters combat patrol as well, since that would make the monopose army set sculpts completely unavailable…

It's the chocolate bar method. Rather than increasing the price of the chocolate and alienating the customer from purchasing what should be a treat or an impulse buy they reduce the weight of the chocolate included in the bar.

I sell these at 10% off in my shop. So "Online Only" boxes are still available to order from 3rd party at a discount!

It comes down to "Group Margin" costs are going up, so either the price goes up, or the contents of down. Expect more of this, then a price rise later next year.

It's definitely making me eye the Genestealers one. I had been intending to buy one or two last year but then 10th coming out kinda made me pause buying anything cause it felt like they'd gutted some of the things I liked about them. I suppose at least they don't have many options in terms of units on what they can swap out and in.

As mainly a Necrons player, who recently started on a DG army, I would NEVER buy the current DG Combat Patrol. I hope they make one with a Blighthauler, Bloat-drone, or Helbrute, some of either Terminators, and Plague Marines. Plus a virion and a Lord (or Typhus). I feel like that would make some kind of sense.

Jesus that Admech patrol... 270 Points... I remember the day combat patrols would have approx 500 points and I started playing like one year ago... If anyone would get that box to play a 2000 point game, they would have to spend over 800€ which is just nuts.

Crazy that the space marine and tyranid ones are half of the starter set and way more than that starter. You can spend less money than one of these and get both combat patrols

If anyone likes Grey Knights or Custodes, buy 2-3 of the combat patrol now cause the boxes are insane and they will 100% get slaughtered when their new ones come out.

Maybe its part of rebalancing the boxes for the combat patrol mini game thats a good way to introduce people to the hobby. Though, they would surely need to do something with that admech box to get it remotely balanced points wise

Are the Combat Patrols going to be online only now?

I think GW needs to bring back Start Collecting Boxes and either make the Combat Patrol gamemode similar to Kill Team where it is treated as a separate line, or make them defunct if nobody really cares about it. Like hell, keep Combat Patrol around and bring back Start Collecting Boxes as supplements for Combat Patrols with varying prices that would get the army close to 1k points with as much variety between the two as possible. This would mean that for Combat Patrol: Orks, where you get a lot of Boyz, the Start Collecting would include transports and a Mek Boy, Weird Boyz and stuff like that. (Notice: I am not an Ork player; Ork players, please think of good supplements to get your Ork Combat Patrol to 1k pts) This would even mean that GW could lower the price of Combat Patrols that are objectively terrible value (AdMech) whilst making up for it with a good valued (and more expensive overall) Start Collecting box! Solves the problem of certain combat patrols being worse than others for collection purposes, but makes certain armies more affordable to play for the actual gamemode, which wouldn't be an awful idea. Might incentivize more people to play Combat Patrol

If death guard ever get a new combat patrol, hopefully it's the Dark Imperium models. I want Lord of Contagion.

Remember the tau boarding patrol box? Good times

Dark Angels and orks get new combat patrols spring 2024 🎉

The Space Wolves Combat patrol is just normal marines and a Tactical Warsuit.

Also, here me out. New DG box. Lord of Contagion, Biologus Putrifier, 10 Plague Marines, 5 Blightlord Terminators, and 10 Death Guard Cultists. 505 points, and if you need any more value, just add a Myphetic blight hauler. 605 points now.

I absolutely bought the standard starter set and then went to ebay to get the barbs for only $18. Way cheaper. Plan on doing the same thing with the librarian soon as it is also around the sub $20ish here in the states. Basiclly getting both CPs for the price of one

i am scared of what they will do to Tau combat patrol, maybe they will release a couple of the new Kroot models, and make a Kroot patrol :D, with farstalker kinband included or something

I'm like 90% sure they said the old cp sets aren't going anywhere for admech

Seems to be 3 things going on here; 1, shifting stock that isn't selling by bundling it.2, manufacturing cost increases being compensated by reduced contents. 3, trying to balance the Combat Patrol game mode by taking out vehicle / tank kits.

i'm most interested in how the new combat patrols play into each other, since thats their main catch since 10th. nids and marines had a somewhat balanced match up and necrons seem to be on a similiar power level, but how tf is adepticus mechanicus going to hold up

I was at my local shop and had the old Tyranid combat patrol in my hand…idk if I need 30 more Termaguants though, but I don’t have the other models, i actually have the leviathans set and the 20 termaguants and 2 rippers that come with Space marine 2 board game. Idk anyone think that the old Combat patrol could nearly round out my army(70 Termaguants and a handfuls of other models)

I snapped up a DA combat patrol when you first made comments on this trend. They're going to cycle to different patrols, no doubt.

Ad Mech box is low in points because of the “eh make it a horde army?” Issue but really nice in terms of models so feels very much like a points schmoints situation to me

Honestly, I feel like they should make them monopose e2a models, and just include more. Also, blood angels one will DEFINITELY be redone, now that assaults are out. Im betting 5 jump assaults, 5 dc assaults, jump captain and probably a librarian or sanguinary priest.

I kinda wish they would keep the old combat patrols listed on their site. Like change the old ones to "made to order" but once the actual product runs out they would just collect the individul boxes and ship it in place of remaking the products box. Cheaper product... to actually move it Better options for new players in the terms of "where would I like to start"

I say this every time. A """""""""""discount""""""""""" compared to what they usually gouge for in their monopoly isn't really anything to celebrate. Even at 50% off, most infantry character models are still blisteringly expensive for a single tiny plastic game piece.

Are all the combat patrol legal even the ones they replace?

Is that a surprise to ANYONE?! Hell, I'd say the worst part about these combat patrol is how they make for an objectively bad entry product for people looking to get into an army. That kind of box should contain the mainline infantry of the army (at least 2 units), a HQ that works with said infantry, a vehicle and a bike sized unit. The necron is the perfect example of a box being okay, but a whole unit short to be really good (it should contain 2 warrior unit). Oh and ofc having monopose minies missing wargears is totally unacceptable, ESPECIALLY now that wargear are free upgrades.

Tbh I'm not sure how to evaluate admech and Necrons just yet. I feel the codexes need to be released and tested a bit to really know. My gut though says these units will not be so good as to warrant a sub 30% discount on a horde faction.

Yes. Next video, Auspex.

The necron CP despite being less points is still a better box, I just hope Destroyers get improved in the codex. I cant say anything for the Ad Mech other than its a new discount box even at a 19% discount. At least GW had the smart idea of having both boxes be playable for CP. Unfortunately, given how good the Ork CP is, I think its gonna get replaced with a Beast Snagga CP just to switch it up with more recent models. More than likely it will pair well with the recent Battleforce and include units that werent in that box, similar to how the other battleforces paired well with their CP. I just hope GW could keep both around since other factions get variants like SM and Eldar

They couldve at least added a chicken walker on the ad mech combat patrol...

i mean this is gw were talking about what did yall expect?

Blood angels needs a rework. Hopefully with jump marines

I expect to see this trend continue until combat patrol stops being a discount altogether, and instead gives you a shitty art print or something a la the absolutely abysmal collections they do on the website sometimes

I managed to get 2x necron combat patrols for $187 AUD. msrp from GM was $250AUD. I'd say I got a pretty good deal especially someone who is starting ojt their first army. Thats almost 1000 points just from 2 combat patrols! And because the duscount was so high I managed to get overlord with translocation as well as lokhust heavy destroyer

The decreased value lately (not just the prices themselves, also the points per euro) made me only buy new models from third party stores now. Before, I supported my local Warhammer shop despite knowing that I could get a lot of stuff 10-20% cheaper elsewhere. Not anymore...

Combat Patrols should cost like $85...

I think they want to make them shit, to be able to Quit the whole combat patrol thing in the next edition, saying that nobody buys them anyway. If they wanted to make them good, they would still be making Boarding Patrols...

I would add, that from what i've heard the most recent killteam and warcry were quite a bit lower value than previous ones (they removed the terrain but didn't reduce the price that much). This definitely seems like GW is on a trend to make discount boxes less discounted (except maybe big fomo ones like the christmas battleforce). Another possibility is they are anticipating on their next inflation price hike so that they don't increase the boxes price when that happens.

Also GW: "I wonder why 3D printing has become so popular in our customer base."