Black Library Weekly: Enemy Action

How high a price is too high in the War on Scalpers?

Sometimes you just hate to be right.

When this week’s Sunday Preview announced the release of Mike Vincent’s Helbrecht: Sin of Hope, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that- once again- the Special Edition will be available through a Wednesday preorder window.

Two weeks ago, after seeing both Steve Parker’s Deathwatch and Guy Haley’s Raldoron: Revenant get a new preorder window for their deluxe editions, I turned to Sir Ian Fleming for a very applicable bit of sage wisdom: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

We’re now at that third time, so I think we can assume- at least for the foreseeable future- that deluxe Black Library offerings will be held during a Wednesday window. And that does appear to be exclusive to the Black Library, too; a Limited Edition of the Space Marines Codex also going up for preorder is still going to be offered at the usual Saturday time.

Why the Change?

For some gaming companies like Wizards of the Coast, transparency is something of a corporate value. While not every decision is explained to the buying public, they do a fairly consistent job of explaining why it is they do what they do when it comes to consequential or controversial issues faced by the fanbase.

For example, here’s a recent piece from designer Gavin Verhey explaining the company’s logic in reversing course on a decision involving a recent, online-only booster set. You may not agree with the decision (many didn’t), but at least you could appreciate that they took the time to lay it all out.

Alas, it’s our burden to have fallen in love with the property of a company for whom transparency is a bit further on down the list of virtues. On very rare occasion we’ll get a bit of damage control, such as when the plug was pulled om the Era of Ruin Limited Edition in June of last year:

But in general, for consumer-facing decisions like the preorder window we can only read the tea leaves and make educated guesses. Companies as a general rule don’t run on whim; if they take an action- especially one that will directly impact consumers- there’s usually a reason behind it. You may not like the reason, it may not be a particularly good reason, but there’s assuredly a motive of some kind.

For this new- and apparently permanent- Wednesday preorder change, the most likely candidates appear to be:

It’s a website performance issue. With demand for Black Library deluxe editions appearing to be on the wax, perhaps there was some core performance impacts that were adversely affecting other preorder customers. With Games Workshop, tabletop miniatures and models are the core business and it’s not hard to imagine that the surge of activity from the book segment could be problematic for site performance. Punt that window over a few days, and voila! A more balanced traffic load.

It’s an anti-scalper measure. This one’s a little tougher to get to, but it makes a certain amount of sense, right? After all, if they’re looking to tamp down speculative buying on Black Library deluxe offerings, it may be easier to do that when you’ve isolated their window of activity from the other lines of business. In other words, they’re easier to flag when you’re not awash in all the other traffic that the tabletop game generates.

Consider what we’ve seen in the last two preorder windows. The initial allotment goes up for offer, and quickly sells out. So far, so normal. But then in both cases (Raldoron and Deathwatch), folks have reported seeing ‘bubbles’ of restock popping up throughout the same day. These bubbles sell out pretty quick as word spreads around the community, but they tend to be more frequent than what we’ve seen in the past.

Could this be GW taking an active hand in canceling abusive orders and returning their purchases to inventory? It’s certainly possible. And while I’m hardly an expert on GW’s corporate practices, this seems like something that’s more likely to occur during normal business hours (Wednesdays at 3pm BST) as opposed to all day Saturday.

In policing, kettling refers to the (somewhat controversial) crowd control tactic whereby the police establish a cordon of officers around a protest or demonstration, thereby containing the civilian participants within a tight perimeter. By moving from an all-day, staggered regional-release model on Saturdays to one global window on Wednesdays, has GW adopted a kind of kettling tactic to counter scalpers? It seems quite possible.

That’s because…

Games Workshop hates us and drinks in our suffering isn’t really an option here. Successful companies don’t wantonly screw with their consumers. They make bad decisions, yes. They suffer the law of unintended consequences, yes. But they typically try to avoid just screwing people around if they can help it, because as any fisherman can tell you, it’s important to keep the fish on the hook if you want to reel in your dinner.

So maybe here’s a question we should be asking ourselves:

Is it worth dealing with the hassle of a Wednesday preorder window for our deluxe-edition books if it means that scalpers can be more effectively excluded from the marketplace?

There’s no right answer here, nor is there a wrong one. One person’s upgrade is another’s downgrade. But I think it’s worth at least considering this in the frame of what GW has been doing to fight scalpers. Recall that in July’s Black Library Reader Satisfaction Survey (full results here), there was plenty of room for improvement in this area:

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Canceled In Error

That brings me to this story that came out this week from u/PronouncedLikeJIF¹ on the Black Library Subreddit.

I was one of the unlucky people that had their Claws of the Maelstrom SE order cancelled on Wednesday. I called customer support and they confirmed it and that unfortunately the only advice/help they could give was saying to watch the site in case it came back in stock.

Getting successful orders through is stressful enough as it is; it definitely feels bad when an order gets canceled. But here’s the really interesting part:

I just received a follow-up email from CS about my order saying:
“Recently, your order for the Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom (Special Edition) was cancelled in error.

This occurred during the review process we implemented to help prevent people from ordering multiple copies of this item and reselling them rather than enjoying it as intended.

While we cannot replace your order we would like to offer a gesture of goodwill to you in the form of a voucher for the cost of the item toward a future purchase.

We understand this does not fix the error we caused, but we hope this provides some consolation for the mistake.”

Review process, you say?

This is where GW’s corporate communications department could use a little nudge, because the goodwill that could come from a public acknowledgement of this would certainly help mitigate some of the frustrations felt by the community.

Imagine seeing something like this:

You might still be frustrated about the change to Wednesdays, but at least you’d understand why- and perhaps even appreciate that they’re trying something to help counter the scalpers.

This is also nicely anodyne; it doesn’t tip the hand of how GW is investigating orders for potential disqualification, so there’s no obvious ‘workaround’ for scalpers to counter-program into their bots.

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Hello from the Trenches

Before we dive too much further into all things Black Library, I want to take a quick second to talk about the email that went out to Subscribers on Saturday. As you know I try to be sensitive to how much goes into your inbox from the Wordforge, because not every one is into every thing. Imbox clutter sucks, and I don’t want to contribute to it.

I debuted a new feature this past Saturday, Trench Crusade Weekly, and just as with my other content I made a new Category for it. On Substack, having different Categories lets readers subscribe to them individually. That means the RPG readers can just get the RPG content if they want, the Black Library folks can limit themselves to just the Black Library, and folks who want both can opt in to get them if they wish to.

When creating a new Category, Substack gives us authors the chance to import our existing subscribers into the feed for the new content. I intentionally did not select that, figuring that I’d be happy to start the Trench Crusade subscriber list at zero and let folks opt in as they wished to. After all, while there are a lot of thematic similarities (and a number of Black Library authors) involved in TC, it is an entirely separate property.

Imagine my dismay, then, when Substack shotgunned it out to everyone anyway.

I’m not sure why it did that, but I want to acknowledge that here so folks don’t think I’m cavalier with their subscription preferences.

For more information on how to customize the emails you get from the Wordforge, you can find that in the site’s intro/FAQ piece here (under “Managing your Notifications”). It’s super easy and takes just a second, and I appreciate your patience.

Now, back to the books!

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September’s Giveaway Winner!

Last week was a tough one personally, dealing with the suddenness of my wife’s passing. I can earnestly say that reading everyone’s expressions of gratitude was a real comfort, as well as the personal outreach from Black Library writers and readers alike. When asked as I am on occasion, wait, you don’t charge for your Substack? What do you get out of it? my answer is always, ‘oh buddy, if you only knew.'

Our stories may be filled with the grimdark, but there is kindness and generosity everywhere you look. For that- and so many other things- I remain tremendously grateful.

But of course there can only be one winner, and I fired up the ol’ Tzeentch-o-mizer² to determine one. Big congratulations to reader Willis, for winning this month’s book giveaway of a Special Edition copy of Bjorn, the Fell-Handed by Justin D. Hill.

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Hachette Job

Hachette Book Group has had a long relationship with Games Workshop, offering a number of different subscription-based product offerings. Their Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection is one of their best-known releases, reprinting a hundred different Black Library novels with terrific spine art that forms a diorama on your shelf³.

With their current Combat Patrol magazine run approaching its conclusion, they’re rolled out their next series to those of us here in the US. Spearhead will follow the same approach: a magazine full of guides and lore, accompanied by a number of miniatures to build and paint.

The obsessive completionist in me is drawn to these like I am any Warhammer printed matter, given that there’s no shortage of lore and even short stories inside. However, for those considering a subscription let me offer a word to the wise: do not let your credit card lapse if you’re a subscriber.

And by ‘lapse,’ I mean any and all interruptions, from simply being overdrawn to the more exotic situations like having your card expire or being canceled and reissued due to fraud. Most other subscription services will give you ample opportunity to remedy a failed billing attempt by updating your billing info, carrying on like it was nothing at all.

Not Hachette.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that by the time you receive an email advising of a billing issue, it’s already too late to restore your subscription (I had to cancel a card due to suspected fraud). Nor do they allow you to ‘restart’ your subscription where you left off, either. You’re just… out of luck, pal. Have fun buying single issues off the website if you want to try and see the collection through.

It is startlingly consumer-unfriendly, and gave me advantage on my saving throw against succumbing to temptation and going in on Spearhead. It looks like a terrific offering and I love to see the Age of Sigmar support, but as always… caveat emptor.

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Arrivals & Departures

In this section I look at what’s coming up around the corner (Arrivals) and what’s landing on bookstore shelves (Departures).

Arrivals

Holy mackerel, what a week for us readers! First up was another Wednesday reveal, offering a look at two more upcoming Black Library novels.

Raptors: War and Shadow is the second offering from William Crowe, whose debut novel⁴ Veterans of the Fall (review) was released just this past May. This time instead of the Astra Militarum it’s the Raptors Space Marines he’s writing about, but this isn’t the first we’ve seen of him there either. Crowe’s first Black Library story, The Shot That Kills You, was part of 2024’s Space Marine Successors Week and featured a lone Raptor fending off a Drukhari raid. It was also a standout selection in the No Peace Among Stars anthology (review) earlier this year, so I’m delighted to see him returning to the Chapter.

Next we’ve got the debut of Tom R. Pike, Crucible of Fire. This one, too, features a return as it brings back a character we last saw in his short story Worm of Valhalla. Featured in the Death and Duty anthology (review), I also considered this one to be a standout story in its collection, and was excited to note when Analog Magazine foretold Pike’s upcoming Black Library novel back in July.

Happily, both books appear to be hardcovers, but no hint yet of whether or not deluxe editions will be offered.

Now on to the week’s preorders, we’ve got Mike Vincent’s second Black Library novel Helbrecht: Sin of Hope. Note that this is preordering Saturday for standard hardcover only, with the Special Edition being offered in the “Wednesday Window” on 9/23.

While we recently saw Rob Young making the rounds with Ghost of Cadia, the sequel to 2023’s Longshot, his previous novel is arriving in paperback. Master of Rites features Ferren Areios of the Ultramarines, and I’d previously reviewed it here.

Now this was unexpected- it’s a Dawn of Fire omnibus! Containing Avenging Son by Guy Haley, Andy Clark’s The Gate of Bones, and Gav Thorpe’s The Wolftime, this is a great way to dive into the nine-novel saga that tied into the game’s 9th Edition.

The series has remained something of an enigma in terms of availability. The hardest book to source has long been the fourth, Haley’s Throne of Light, but The Wolftime and Nick Kyme’s The Iron Kingdom have also proved elusive for some. As you’d expect in the secondary market, that scarcity has translated into a premium price- if you can even find one.

With this omnibus, The Wolftime will be seeing a print reissue, and one wonders if there will a second volume down the road which will finally get Throne of Light in front of more readers.

Another Warhammer Fantasy omnibus gets a snazzy new reissue under The Old World branding as Gav Thorpe’s Sundering series goes up for preorder. This contains Malerion (formerly Malekith), Shadow King, and Caledor, plus an extra novella and short story!

Departures

Just one hitting store shelves this week, with Guy Haley’s Raldoron: Revenant. It looks like both the Special Edition and standard hardcover landed at the same time, which answers a question I’d had about the new preorder window and books released in more than one edition at a time.

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ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Warhammer content!

Warhammer Wordforge

• This week’s Black Library feature was a review of the audiobook for Sandy Mitchell’s Death or Glory. Could a bit of Cain fatigue be setting in?

• In addition to the new Trench Crusade Weekly, the standard Warhammer RPG Weekly covered the bases for the role-playing folks. With Cubicle 7’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay’s 5th Edition now released⁵, community reactions are starting to trickle in.

Tabletop Battles

• Kevin Stillman offered up this week’s Lore Friday review, diving into the Illustrated and Annotated Edition of Nate Crowley’s Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!.

Warhammer Community

• A new Age of Sigmar line release means a new mini-short for the Chronicles of Ruin series. For the Sons of Behemat, that means we get to hear about the King of the Bigs!

• The upcoming Space Marines Codex will be arriving in a stunning Limited Edition. These sorts of release make exquisite accents to any Black Library collection, and this one is clearly no exception.

• Finally, this week’s Pages from the Black Books download is all about the wars in the margins that happened during the Heresy. The big battles like Calth and Isstvan get a lot of attention, but in a galaxy at war the conflict played itself out in miniature in nearly every corner!

WarhammerTV (paywalled)

• Nothing for the Black Library this week.

Around the Webway

• Concilium Historica Imperialis posted a Book Club review this week of Dark Imperium, by Guy Haley. “Iomhar and Chamlan focus on the book’s mix of large-scale war, political cleanup, and character work, while also debating its title, cover, and place in the broader timeline.” Sounds like a deep dive indeed!

• Jen and Keri of the WH40K Book Club are back with their latest review, this time taking a look at Jude Reid’s Armageddon: Season of Fire. They found this one highly enjoyable, and you can check it out here.

• This one’s a little tangential, but I’ve written before about Andrew James Spooner and how he absolutely nails Malus Darkblade in the audiobook narrations. I came across this video clip from the new Blood of the Dawnwalker game, and stopped cold when I heard Brencis speak. Love to see my favorite narrators pop up in new things!

Cold Open Stories

• No featured story this week.

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Quick Hits

• Wargamer had the opportunity to chat with Graham McNeill (False Gods, The Ambassador) about the lore design experience for Trench Crusade.

• Cavan Scott (Secrets of the Tau, Attack of the Necron) has a new comic coming up for preorder. “The Sopranos meets Lucifer in the supernatural horror crime drama, Godfather of Hell, where friends are close, enemies are closer, and revenge is a dish best served cold - or hot as Hell.” There are some neat preorder perks including acces to an exclusive livestream, so check it out if that sounds like it’s your jam!

• If you’re around London on Halloween night, Kim Newman’s (Drachenfels, Beasts in Velvet⁶) Sarah Minds the Dog and Mildew Manor (or The Italian Smile) are being performed at the Old Red Dog Theatre. Tickets are available here!

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming releases from the Black Library based on the available preorder information we have. As always, take all of this with a grain of salt unless it’s Games Workshop-confirmed.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, and anything in bold has been added (or updated) this week.

Upcoming but Undated

• Cold Covenant, by Peter Fehervari

• Crucible of Fire, by Tom R. Pike

• Raptors: War and Shadow, by William Crowe

Current PODs in Production

• Hive, by Dan Abnett (Special Edition)

Upcoming in 2026

• Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom, by Marc Collins (hardcover, Special Edition, 9/19)

• Voice of Command, by Richard Swan (hardcover, 9/19)

• Dawn of Fire: Crusade of Vengeance (paperback, 10/3)

• Helbrecht: Sin of Hope, by Mike Vincent (hardcover, Special Edition, 10/3)

• Master of Rites, by Rob Young (paperback, 10/3)

• The Sundering, by Gav Thorpe (paperback, 10/3)

• Words of Waaagh!, by DK Books (hardcover, 10/6)

• The Sundering, by Gav Thorpe (paperback, 10/6)

• Auxilia, by Russell Zimmerman (paperback, 10/20)

• Dropsite Massacre, by John French (paperback, 10/20)

• Apostle, by David Annandale (paperback, 10/20)

• Death Rider, by Rhuairidh James (paperback, 11/19)

• Ghost Legion, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 11/19)

• Chem Dog, by Callum Davis (paperback, 12/17)

• Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords, by Denny Flowers (paperback, 12/17)

• Ashes of the Imperium, by Chris Wraight (paperback, 12/17)

Thanks again for joining me for all the going’s on in the Black Library, and see you next week!

1. That reminds me of a certain comic I’ve enjoyed from time to time…

2. Also known as Random.org

3. Track of Words did a nice little overview on it with a picture of the full diorama here.

4. It was billed as a novel, at least.

5. In PDF form, at least. We’ll have to wait awhile longer for the physical release.

6. Both written as Jack Yeovil