Plastic Wrack Irritation

Is it just me, or was anyone else highly disappointed when they opened the new plastic wrack kit. I knew I was being ripped off somewhat with only 5 models for £22, but calmed myself by arguing that at least they contained parts to make gunners and pilots for raiders and venoms.

Then I opened the box and realised that the gunner and pilot parts mean that you can't even make the 5 wracks the kit is supposed to provide you with!

You can make 5 wracks and a venom pilot, or 4 wracks, a venom pilot and gunner, or 4 wracks and either a raider pilot or gunner.

Looks like my raider squads will be 8 strong then, and my venom squads will need some magnets so I can swap the gunner's arms up when he has to dismount

I have not perchest any of the new wraks yet. Would it not be posible to switch out some of the fine cast wraks mix up some parts and use them as the pilots?

Yup, I had the same experience :/. But sadly there's nothing you can do. I luckily had a few spare finecast Wracks and just used them as pilots/gunners, as Ecam already proposed.

Cheers
Caspaar

Yeah, sadly I never bought any wracks until the new codex. In fairness, I'll probably only rarely actually need the models anyway since I plan on using them as scalpel squadron mainly, so they'll largely be staying on the venom, it's just annoying.

Mind you, possible ebay opportunity!

The last free thing GW has offered to customers is the cottage blue print in MODELLING WORKSHOP, White Dwarf 130 - October 1990

Now I happen to know that's not true, cos I didn't start collecting until 1994 and I've had plenty of stuff free with White Dwarf over the years. Granted, they haven't done anything for quite a while as far as i know, but 1990 is a massive exaggeration.

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

but 1990 is a massive exaggeration.

exaggeration can sometimes be interpreted as french humour.

I've been referring to it as the "wrack tax." Yes, it's irritating and expensive. (GW you say?)

The wrack tax aside, I think it's a great kit. I think the models are gorgeous, and I love the all the options and bits included.

I suppose if they didn't include the extra bits for pilots and gunners, and I was converting models for vehicle crewmen, I'd be paying the wrack tax anyway on top of doing a lot more work. So there's that. I guess.

I did some quick math on this matter:

1 box of Wracks + 1 Venom = 5 Wracks incl. 1 Ossefactor and Acothyst with Liquifier, in a Venom with Wrack pilot, but no gunner.

Cost: £22 + £18.50 = £30.50

Conclusion: Half an average squad-in-transporter for nearly the price of a full one.


3 boxes of Wracks + 1 Raider = 10 Wracks incl. 2 Ossefactors or Liquifiers and Acothyst with Liquifier, in a Raider with Wrack pilot and gunner + 3 spare Wracks (2 Venom gunners?) and 3 spare Venom pilots.

Cost: £22 x 3 + £22.50 = £88.50

Conclusion: Ridiculously overpriced and inconvenient!

Good idea to magnetise the gunner arms though, you've saved yourself a wrack there!

your looking at it the wrong way round. They INCLUDED these - its the first time they have offered anything like this before - they are extras on the sprue. It gives you options... if they had not included them on the sprue you would have to buy more kits anyway!

Massaen wrote:

your looking at it the wrong way round. They INCLUDED these - its the first time they have offered anything like this before - they are extras on the sprue. It gives you options... if they had not included them on the sprue you would have to buy more kits anyway!

This is my take as well. I bought the kit when it didn't include those items and was made in Crapcast. $33 USD in Finecast. Now you get more options, the gunner option, and a Wrack torso for a Venom pilot. for $3 more with more quality of materials (plastic). I do get that it is an expensive kit, it wasn't cheap before, but the models really are beautiful in a hideous sort of way.

This coming from the idiot that owns 8 mono-pose Finecast Grotesques, so take that for whatever it's worth

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing that the option are in there - but more specifically that everything I read about the kit from GW in White Dwarf etc led me to believe that you could make a squad of five guys and a gunner/pilot.

Incidentally I built them yesterday and loved the way the kit actually goes together - I know they're supposed to represent agonisers but the whips in the kit are gorgeous - I can see myself mixing those with the whips from all the other kits to make a lash squad, something like the vampire guy from the end of the film Underworld.

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

I know they're supposed to represent agonisers but the whips in the kit are gorgeous

I'm pretty sure those are meant to be Electrocorrosive Whips.
And now you know why only Acothysts can have them in 7th ed.

One is an agoniser, the other is an electro-corrosive whip (since the acothyst has both as an option).

Given the similarity between the two whips (thus the ease with which they can proxy each other without being a WYSIWYG problem), and the fact that a min-sized squad can take 2 liquifiers if using an acothyst, I would have preferred if they included a second liquifier in place of the agoniser.

Erebus wrote:

One is an agoniser, the other is an electro-corrosive whip (since the acothyst has both as an option).

Given the similarity between the two whips (thus the ease with which they can proxy each other without being a WYSIWYG problem), and the fact that a min-sized squad can take 2 liquifiers if using an acothyst, I would have preferred if they included a second liquifier in place of the agoniser.

I would think that you could pretty easily get someone to trade a liquifier for an ossifcator if you listed it.

Oh, I'm more inclined to use ossefactors than liquifiers. I'd just like it if GW included enough options on the sprue to kit out units in full (must resist ranting about Trueborn and Scourge).

Erebus wrote:

Given the similarity between the two whips (thus the ease with which they can proxy each other without being a WYSIWYG problem), and the fact that a min-sized squad can take 2 liquifiers if using an acothyst, I would have preferred if they included a second liquifier in place of the agoniser.

So true. Seriously, what did GW think people used for Electrocorrosive Whips before that bit existed? Not that they were really worth taking in 6th, but still.
About the Liquifier, I'm not sure if they had actually planed for it to be an option for the Acothyst when they made the spure. Squad champions normaly don't get to carry the special weapons. The Finecast Haemonculus had a Liquifier though, so it had to be in the armory.

Rokuro wrote:

I did some quick math on this matter:

1 box of Wracks + 1 Venom = 5 Wracks incl. 1 Ossefactor and Acothyst with Liquifier, in a Venom with Wrack pilot, but no gunner.

Cost: £22 + £18.50 = £30.50

Conclusion: Half an average squad-in-transporter for nearly the price of a full one.


3 boxes of Wracks + 1 Raider = 10 Wracks incl. 2 Ossefactors or Liquifiers and Acothyst with Liquifier, in a Raider with Wrack pilot and gunner + 3 spare Wracks (2 Venom gunners?) and 3 spare Venom pilots.

Cost: £22 x 3 + £22.50 = £88.50

Conclusion: Ridiculously overpriced and inconvenient!

I bought a box of Wracks today, and learned from the manual that there was an error in this calculation of mine: Each box contains a Venom pilot and either a gunner or a Raider pilot! There is only one model per box to be used as a standing crewman!
So that means...

5 boxes of Wracks + 2 Raiders + 1 Venom = 2 squads of 10 Wracks in Raiders with Wrack pilot and gunner + 1 empty Venom with Wrack pilot and gunner + 4 spare Venom Wrack pilots.

Cost: £22 x 5 + £22.50 x 2 + £18.50 = £173.50

or

6 boxes of Wracks + 2 Raiders + 1 Venom = 2 squads of 10 Wracks in Raiders with Wrack pilot and gunner + 1 squad of 5 Wracks Venom with Wrack pilot and gunner + 5 spare Venom Wrack pilots.

Cost: £22 x 5 + £22.50 x 2 + £18.50 = £196.00

£196.00 for 2 1/2 squad-in-transports!

Your original calculations were correct, I don't see the issue there.

The point is that:
1. The previous Wracks box didn't have any parts to build crew members, so the extra options to customize are nice in my book.
2. They are just that, options. There are plenty of conversion ideas for transports themselves making the rounds; I don't see anyone complaining that there aren't any Coven bits in the Raider or Venom kits.
Also, I have never had issues fielding transports without visible crew members. They serve no ingame function, and I quite like the "ghost ship" vibe it gives off.

If you are like me and had gotten some Wracks in Finecast and had some of them come deformed, you could take the deformed finecast wracks, remove their arms and add the crew parts from the plastic Wrack kit to make the pilots and stuff. I did that for my damaged finecast Wracks.

Well they could have just made five wracks without those extras.
I see no reason to complain, at all.