[DEfan]

I don't know if there are many Japanese based players out there but I thought I might tell the rest of the world about 40k in Japan.
GW opened here about 18 months ago. There are 3 stores in the Tokyo area. The prices are pretty good comapared to what I'd pay in other places around the globe. Space is a problem for most Japanese people and I think a few rule changes regarding range and movement have been made to approach these difficulties.
The average table here is probably half the size of a western one. The Japanese use centimetres instead of inches but the movement and ranges are out of whack. Normally a troop can move 6 inches each turn but in Japanese 40k that only equates to 12cm. They have removed that extra 5.4 mm to every inch which makes a significant difference.
The Dark Eldar are the only race without a codex at this point. You can download or print off the DE profile and any other codex for free, which is great, but what I have seen is often different to an English codex.
Blasters are non-existent. Disintegrators are Ion cannons and I think they can only fire on maximal blast. The Destructor has regular flamer rules and a haemonculus is 45 points. Mind you, he comes equipped with Frag and krak grenades, the flamer and the poison blades and is allowed 1 item of wargear. Dark Lances are 1 point higher in strength. Reavers are only 20 points but only one in 3 reavers is allowed a shredder upgrade. The Wyches get their invulnerable save in CC but not the other cool stuff associated with Wych weapons. Characters are limited in wargear choices. The DE lord, there is no Archon or Archite, can choose up to 3 items. Any other character can choose just 1 item.

 

[Lord Penny Pincher]

Dear DEfan,

I have visited the Japanese GW website and was indeed surprised to see the entire codex for the Orks and Chaos available for download (for free!). Granted reading the codex took me a very long time (Japanese is not my first language), but roughly what percentage are the Japanese GW prices compared to the Australian of American prices?

 

[DEfan]

Heya Penny pincher,

Well, a battleforce set me back 11,300 yen. The US wins this round, 90 friggin dollars(!) but the Aussie takes an absoulte pounding by both markets. The mark up is a bit silly for Aussies but then I am sure that a few of them might have found out about Scrap Dragon, a bloody good dealer of 40k stuff.
Visit XE.com for a currency converter and whack in these prices from the price band
A=800 yen(Haemonculus), B=1200(Hellion), C=1400, D=1600(Incubi blister or DE lord), E=1900(DL blister), F=2300, G=2600, H=3100, I=3700(Scourge and Talos), J=4300(raider), K=5000(ravager or 10 wyches or 3 reavers with weapon upgrades), L=5300(raider squad),M=6600, N=7900, O=9100, P=10100, Q=11300(Battleforce), R=18300, S=24000, T=32500, Y=35000 and finally Z=You are fooking nuts.

 

[Splata]

Wow that is really odd. Are there any other major changes to the rules over there? Ie. do the other races have massive changes or are we the only ones under the thumb?

what is the most played race? Do tau get a good look in? I would assume they would as they were designed on anime but you never know with these things

 

[DEfan]

Tau are indeed the most popular army at my local store, followed by the nids and the marines. I am the first and only DE player in our vicinity. I think the Japanese can co-relate with gundam when they play Tau. They want to shoot big guns in a sci-fi game like this and the tabletop gaming concept is very fresh and original to them. The nids appeal to Godzilla otaku.
As for the rules, the manager has only ever said that the rules are far more simplified than overseas. One example is that grotesques do have the feel no pain rule as described in the rulebook. They have attempted to streamline the rules to make them more generally well understood between races without as many quirks. Perhaps that is why the Wyches are without the wych weapon effect. If your opponent has to constantly check rosters for stats it might bog the game down so anything clunky gets dropped in favour of smooth sailing. I can't say much for the other races at this point because I am still trying to build up a heap of models and suss out some grey areas. I will have to explain the extra little nuances that are missing in the current DE profile when I'm done and front up in a week and a bit for "veterans day" as a well read noob.