Warhammer Imperium Magazine – It’s a Trial!

Last Updated on June 25, 2021 by FauxHammer

Hey all, just wanted to throw out this announcement post as a few people have queried this and I want to be clear that “for now” at least. Warhammer Imperium is just a Trial Run. More info below.

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I have tried guys, I have really tried to make this as clear as possible. In every post so far I’ve noted this is a Trial and in the main 1-80 issues contents post (of which we know of 4/5 issues fo far) I went into explaining the trial in great detail.

But still, there are numerous people, for various reasons questioning if this is a trial. I’m here to tell you that “yes” it very much is just a trial right now? 100%, no backsies.

Feel free to read this and still not believe it, but we’ll find out this info is correct in the next 3-6 months either way.

Update 15/03/21 – Hachette just confirmed it to everyone

Gone are the days when Hachette would be radio silent despite complaints. Now they are appropriately responding to the community as a whole if you check out their Conquest or Imperium Facebook pages. or if you subscribed, you will have been greeted today by one of the following emails.

Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Collection

Thanks to everyone who has shown their interest in the brand new Warhammer 40,000: lmperium collection. This is currently a limited regional run to judge the level of uptake for the product.

We have been overwhelmed by the positive response to the collection, and we are now working with Games Workshop to bring the full national launch to fans as quickly as possible.

Anybody who has subscribed to the test run will not be charged at this time and your subscription will remain on pause until the national launch date. We will be in touch directly once we have confirmation of a date.

We are very excited to bring Warhammer 40,000: Imperium to you in late Summer 2021.

Hachette Partworks

But for the sake of it, I’ve kept the article below as it was first published.

But the takeaway from this is that it appears they already have enough interest to take this to full production. (not bad considering it’s only been 5 days since the first issue was released!)

Is Warhammer 40,000 Imperium a Trial?

Yes, it is a trial run.

Why is Hachette only doing a Trial Run of Warhammer 40,000 Imperium?

It’s standard practice, that’s all. Any partworks magazine will be trialed before general release. They do this to estimate the uptake before ordering thousands of copies of an 80 issue magazine.

Despite how popular Warhammer Conquest and Mortal Realms were, this is still the way it’s being played right now with Warhammer Imperium. The data from this trial (both purchases and subscriptions) will help Hachette determine how many copies of each issue they will need to create if/when going country-wide.

Can I get the issues during the Trial Run?

Possibly, if you happen to live in or want to drive to any of the areas where the trial is taking place and pick up a copy then yes, you can definitely get your hands on it. But that is the “only” way to get the issues right now.

Where in the UK is the Warhammer Imperium trial taking place?

As we knew this would be a trial we set up a post in our Facebook group so people could tag the stores where they spot copies.

Despite the Facebook algorithm being a bit of a pain and tagging every location when someone says “I didn’t find any at X” we narrowed the list down to the following locations so far.

Specifically around Norwich and Southampton

As for shops, if you have a local Newsagent who frequently stocks Partworks Magazines then check with them. Though there have been reports of some people’s newsagents saying they will not stock the mag due to some change in the “Sale or Return policy” (a standard policy used by newsagents for these types of magazines).

I’ve seen this said a couple of times from different people, but have no personal experience as I;m out of the trial area.

But also, we need to be aware that with the Covid Pandemic, some smaller businesses, like newsagents, may be opting out in order to protect their businesses by sticking with only necessary amenities – we are all still in lockdown right now after all this mag has already been delayed a month due to the lockdown, it was meant to be out in Feb.

The most likely stores appear to be both ASDA and WH Smith

Why is Hachette’s own Customer Service telling me “this is not a Trial”?

Yeah, I know!

Look, everyone, I don’t get this either and I also think it’s a bit daft in the age of the Internet and Social Media. Especially when it comes to sci-fi mags where more of us are a bit more technically inclined and will frequent specialist sites and online groups/forums etc. But let me try to explain.

From Hachette’s point of view. They really probably don’t expect a massive community of one of their magazines to get together and plot to the level of details that wargames strategists do. Remember this is a company whose roots are firmly embedded in things like Disney Cross-Stitch and Peter Rabbit Quilts. They have model collections too but this is their only Wargames Series.

I was about to say “go check Facebook for those collections and see how big those comunities are or even if they exist at all”. But I did, and Disney cross Stitch actually has over 3 times as many people as our Warhammer Imperium group, which is the largest of the many Imperium groups on Facebook – ouch.

But still, we’re a community who go out of our way to figure out what a model could be from a weirdly angled and highly cropped photo drip-fed to us by GW.

Anyway, I digress. Hachette’s way is always to trial a magazine in a set region.

Yes, they have a website set up for it and everything. But their (arguably archaic) approach is to release a mag in set areas and make it look as real as possible. The people who pick up that mag would likely visit the website and consider subscribing. Any calls to their customer service about this mag would need to be handled as though it is a normal continuing publication.

If they admitted it was a trial, this would very likely throw off the results of a trial. We’d have people buying multiple copies or subscribing multiple times in order to artificially inflate the popularity to ensure the mag goes live (yeah, come on guys, we pay £90 for one sprue of models, of course, we’d throw money at multiple copies of this mag to ensure we get the rest cheap).

But this could lead to either Hachette releasing a subscription that may ultimately fail. Or best case, publishing over the odds when it comes to how many copies of each mag they make when it goes Nationwide.

So no matter who you call or who you email or what your newsagent told you. This current run is a trial run only.

The reason I personally disagree with this approach from Hachette (specifically for Warhammer fans) is that we are a very tight-knit community. We’ll discuss this in length, read articles on it, and argue about it despite how wrong some of us may be.

Oh, and people like me will post about it to reveal the truth

I have subscribed online, will I still get my issues soon?

Maybe, I genuinely don’t know.

When Mortal Realms was in its trial, I subscribed straight away. I was outside of the trial area and the result for me is that they never turned up during the trial. I don’t know if this was different for anyone who was in the trial area or if that’s irrelevant and there were just an initial limited number of subscriber copies sent out and I missed the boat.

But for the majority, the issues will probably not arrive until the mag launches properly.

Is it even worth subscribing then?

Do you want the magazine? if yes, then yes.

For one, subscriber numbers will be one of the metrics Hachette uses to decide if this mag goes to full publication. So if they don’t get enough subscribers then the magazine may never even get released.

Also, based on both Conquest and Mortal Realms, those who subscribed during the trial were rewarded for their patience by getting a couple of the first issues free.

Whether they do that this time or not is uncertain, I may have just screwed the pooch for everyone here by announcing this publically!

But anyway, it’s worth a shot. and since they won’t charge you until they actually despatch the mag. Why not? Last time we all had to re-confirm our card details too before the proper subscription was billed and started. So if that happens again, you won’t even need to opt-out if you change your mind later.

When will Warhammer Imperium release Nationwide?

Hmmm, I’d say we’re looking at 3-6 months after the trial ends.

I didn’t record the release dates of Warhammer Conquest issues and searching on Google only brought me back to my own site – darn! But I did find this post from Warhammer Community from 29/08/18 saying “Warhammer Conquest issue 1 is out today”.

Mortal Realms Trial started on 28/08/19 and the Nationwide release began on 08/01/20

From what I understand, full runs of partworks magazines tend to begin only 2 times a year. One of those is in January (as Mortal Realms was), the other is at the end of the summer (as Warhammer Conquest was).

So I’m inferring from this experience that we should expect Warhammer Imperium at the end of the Summer. Though Covid may have affected these dates which could mean it’s brought forward or delayed further.

But it does make sense as Mortal Realms is due to be concluded with issue 80 on 01/08/21

But one thing is for certain, as soon as I know the release date, I’ll be publishing it here on FauxHammer.com – and if I keep being nice to Hachette, maybe I can get it as exclusive info!

How can I trust FauxHammer is right about all this?

If you’ve been reading the site for a while, chances are you aready do, thank you for your continued support!

For the rest of you, it’s cool, you’re likely new to all this, or someone you already know and trust has told you otherwise. Or even Hachette themselves have said it’s not a trial (see above). and that’s fine.

Let me list the reasons we are certain about this.

• We’ve been writing about Warhammer Partworks Magazine for almost 3 years.
• This was exactly the same for Mortal Realms & Warhammer Conquest
• We have a direct working relationship with Hachette’s Marketing Team
• We had all the exclusive info on Warhammer Imperium (until most of it leaked) – but the pic of the new Captain is still exclusive to us, yay (seriously, try to find a higher quality copy than 678 x 768 px – the max image with for body content for our site)
• The Magazine has only turned up in a couple of regions in the UK.
• The Imperium website is live, but there is no direct link to or mention of the series on Hachette’s own site. (despite that site being the one that leaked the collection in the first place).
• There has been no online or TV marketing for the series.
• “It is known”
• “This is the way”
• Our contact at Hachette told us it’s a trial

Hope that covers this topic to enough degree that we can now stop the arguments. Sure, discuss away that you agree/disagree with the approach of a trial. But I just wanted to put the point to bed that this is a trial. I’m truly sorry if that disappoints you.

But it is coming so subscribe if you want it and let them know of your interest.

Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)

Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.

Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores

• UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
• US/Canada: MTechCave, GameKastle, eBay (US), eBay (CA), Amazon
• Germany: Taschengelddieb
• Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
• Australia: eBay, Amazon
• Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours

• 3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic

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