Island of Blood

Games Workshop is positioning the new Island of Blood starter set for Warhammer Fantasy Battle as a great deal for players at $99 and when you compare it to what you would pay for the pieces individually, it is. Given that the rule book by itself sells for $75 and the miniatures, if purchased separately would run around $350, $99 for the set is a steal. I know of stores that are ordering a dozen as they have players buying 2-3 just for the pieces.

However (and you might have noticed I was building up to a however), the price point puts it out of the range of a good intro set. If you are wanting to get people into the game, especially something like Warhammer Fantasy Battle, you need to offer them a gateway product to get them started, something relatively inexpensive they can buy to see if they like the product. WOTC does this with D&D and HeroClix does this with the Batman starter. THe average new player is not going to drop $100 to see if they like the game or not and the people who are buying it would have bought the pieces anyhow.