Introducing: Goonhammer's Subscriber-Only Content

Those of you backing us on Patreon already know this, but for the rest of you, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching a brand-new content service and app. Starting next week, Patrons at the $10+ per month (Warhound) level will have access to new subscriber-only competitive 40k content and Data Slate.

New Content?

Were launching a new sub-site on Goonhammer dedicated to data-backed, app-driven coverage of competitive Warhammer 40K, written by some of the best players in the world. We’ve assembled a veritable murderer’s row of top players to write all new competitive content, covering everything from shifts in the meta to how to play some of the game’s most important units.

These articles will run exclusively for $10+ Patrons three times per week on the site, written by a roster of pros and successful competitive players, some of whom you’ve seen on Goonhammer already, some of whom you haven’t. They’ll be breaking down the meta, lists, and most importantly, responding to your questions and requests! We’ve set up a channel on our Discord for Patrons to request topics, and you can also hit us up on Patreon if Discord just isn’t your thing.

Data Slate

The second thing may be an even bigger deal: We’re launching a brand new app just for $10+ Patrons called Data Slate. Data Slate is our in-house stats engine - the tool we built to power Competitive Innovations and Stat-Check's dashboard. Data Slate comes with a searchable database updated every Monday containing data on every list, game, and unit from every major tournament run worldwide. Data Slate lets you get a real-time look at the meta, how it’s changing, and who’s winning. Best of all, you’ll be able to use our custom search tools to search for lists, getting as granular as searching by unit or detachment names, event placing, and whether they scored a TiWP. We also collect weekly stats in there for Age of Sigmar and Kill Team.

With Data Slate you can quickly and easily get lists for any army. You’ll still need to subscribe to Best Coast Pairings to see lists which weren’t top 4 finishers at GTs, but now you can also go beyond GTs and look at RTTs and Teams events.

Speaking of Teams events, we’ve also got Teams stats, pulling results from teams events run worldwide. Want help building a matrix? Check out our new Team Stats page to see how a given army or detachment performs against every other detachment in the game, with average scoring differential and game counts.

We'll eventually be supplementing this with data from non-teams events, and let you create your own custom matrices using past event data.

What If I'm Not a Competitive 40k Sicko?

Hey, we hear you. If you’re a hobbyist, there’s plenty of stuff to love in Data Slate as well! Our Colour Matcher tool - sponsored by the Army Painter - can help you get a matching color for any paint in any range, while the Scheme Annotation Tool can be used to generate paint guide images like the ones in our How to Paint Everything articles. And for showing off your models there’s Display Cabinet, where you can upload photos of your armies, store, and organize them, and link to them in Administratum. If you've ever wanted a better way to store and organize photos of your army, this is it.

Listen, I’m gonna level with you: We should be charging more than ten bucks a month for Data Slate, but I already decided this was the right number, and you get this on top of new, custom competitive content.

Exclusive Patron and Tabletop Battles App Features

In addition to Data Slate and the new content, you get access to all the other good $10 stuff - early access on tickets for Goonhammer events, plus features in Tabletop Battles that free and $5 tier users won’t be able to see, such as Forecast Mode, which lets you project the end of games without changing the current game state. It’s ideal for playing in a teams event when you want to see how things might go without mucking up the game state in the app. And we’re working on more features for $10 patrons this year as well, so stay tuned for those.

Questions

I can tell you have questions. Let’s answer the ones I expect you’ll be most likely to ask.

So does Goonhammer have a paywall now?

Great question. Not for anything we've previously published and not for any currently-existing features and columns on the site. We aren’t going to paywall any of our old content - you’ll still get access to the firehose of content we put out in a week, including competitive innovations, detachment focus articles, reviews, lore explainers, and coverage of balance updates. This subscriber-only content is all-new, and exclusive to this new subsite.

Why does it cost money?

Because we’re paying the people who write the articles and build the apps. Specifically, we’re paying them more than we pay for our standard articles, and we’re already spending as much as we can afford on the rest of the site’s content. If we want to add more, we need to pay more, which means we need more money to pay the authors.

Why do I still need a Best Coast Pairings (BCP) Subscription to View Some Lists?

Simply put, because that's their business model and we aren't in the business of stealing from them. We're providing the analysis and info on the meta and the ability to search through games and events. They're the ones providing the backbone for running events and collecting the lists, and we respect that.

If the list came from an event that wasn't in BCP however, you'll be able to see it normally.

What about other games?

Another outstanding question. Right now competitive 40k is our biggest, most passionate audience but if there’s enough demand for similar coverage on other games, we might consider it. It's worth another mention that Data Slate does include data for Kill Team and Age of Sigmar, so if you want faction stats or winning lists for those, we've got you covered.

So what are you still thinking about? Mash that $10 reward tier and sign up - you won't regret it.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: 40k | Warhammer 40k | site announcement | Data Slate