Warlord Games operates on a traditional publishing model. They sell physical books and, through their partner DriveThruRPG , sell official watermarked PDFs. The company invests heavily in playtesting, photography, historical research, and graphic design. Giving away the core rulebook for free would undermine their ability to produce new supplements like Campaign: D-Day or Italy: Soft Underbelly .
Keep an eye on Humble Bundle . Warlord Games ran several digital sales in 2020-2021 where you could get the 2nd Edition rulebook plus 5-10 supplements for as little as $20 total. These were official, DRM-free PDFs. bolt action 2nd edition rulebook free pdf 2021
On TTS, players needed digital copies of rulebooks for quick reference. Some TTS mod creators controversially included the full rulebook PDF as a "courtesy," which Warlord Games quickly had removed. This cat-and-mouse game led to more people searching for standalone PDFs. Warlord Games operates on a traditional publishing model