A New Golden Age of Gaming

This is currently a great time to be a player of games. Not video games, mind you - tabletop games.

Indeed, while the videogames industry languishes and contracts, being increasingly dominated by a few monolithic  publishers and publications, there is an unprecedented diversification in the wargames and boardgames market.

We are, as gamers (and I shall just use that term from now on to describe all of us who play our games with dice, cards, miniatures, and friends), exiting a period of time for the industry that may in some respects be seen as a kind of dark age.

Nearly three decades ago wargaming was cool. I was a boy in the Eighties and it was an exciting time for those who, like me, loved sci-fi and fantasy. Special creature effects were being invented, as was the modern movie and the VHS player. Satellites were joining the world up (yes, this was before the internet) and the most influential roleplaying game of all time, Dungeons and Dragons, made it to the UK.

I still remember, nearly thirty years later, being invited to my first ever D&D session. The game was described to me. I couldn't believe or comprehend it. 'You can do anything you want?', I asked. 'How?'. It was an awesome experience.

From the success of D&D sprang Games Workshop. From being an importer and distributor of American games, this Nottingham company was able to become a creator. Warhammer Fantasy and then Warhammer 40,000 were born. For a while, maybe half the kids I knew collected and painted their miniatures or played pen and paper RPG's. It was never 'cool' cool, like being great at football was cool, but it was accepted and widely understood.

Things changed over the next few years.

Few other companies in the industry were able to thrive and survive through the nineties and noughties. A few tried and even made good products. Rackham Miniatures, were, I am told, great figures. But none could match GW's success. Well, I say success - really we're  talking about survival here.

Thats because I don't believe GW is the only large miniatures company to make it across two centuries solely because they made products that were so good noone could possibly compete. Its more a case of there being so little money in the industry's pool as a whole it only could sustain that one big fish.

Think of how much competition there has been for the hobby money of GW's traditional customers since the Eighties ended. The internet was invented. So was internet gaming and, really, the modern game. VHS, then DVD, then Blu-ray. And console gaming. When I was a lad, toy soldiers was all we could spend our cash on. Since then the alternatives have grown exponentially.

In the face of all these broadened horizons, gaming became a niche product.

This may all be about to change though.

Look at how much competition there is to GW today and where it has come from.

For a start, there is Privateer Press. In 2011, Warmachine overtook Warhammer Fantasy as the biggest selling wargame! They sold so well in fact, they could not match demand with product, a problem that likely cost them the chance to outsell even 40k. This, with no retail outlets of their own.

This year Mantic is getting serious. Despite having product for sale on the net and shop floors for some time now, their recent Kickstarter found more than 1500 backers willing to stump up $355,000 to support them. This massive cash injection meant Mantic's Five Year Plan for development got compressed down to about 6 months, a 'Dare to Dream' meeting had to be held to come up with new ideas for stretch goals, and nearly twenty new lines and an expansion have been added to their portfolio.

Boardgames have enjoyed similar success. Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster is now the highest funded boardgame on Kickstarter, raising just south of $1M for Studio McVey and CMON in a month. Can you imagine what that sort of backing means for a small studio like the McVeys'?

SW:BFA overtook another CMON boardgame, Zombicide - $781K, and a Steve Jackson remake, OGRE - $923.7K, on its way to the top spot, showing there is massive support for indoor games that use dice and models and require friends to play.

It doesn't stop at Kickstarter though. This year saw DUST Warfare released, building on the success of Fantasy Flight's DUST Tactics boardgame. Great models, great setting, and a simple ruleset will make for great sales. Super Dungeon Explore and Descent also scratch that itch, for lovers of Fantasy, dungeons, rolling dice and looting monsters.

Much of the success of these games is owed to the internet. Like many other lines, internet selling and fast shipping have opened up massive new markets to localised sellers. GW survived at least in part thanks to its network of retail outlets. A strong high street presence has kept them enough in the public's eye to maintain sales and a turnover of new customers. In fact, their recent profits have been driven more by 'efficiency', i.e. firing staff and opening one-man stores, than increasing sales though. While this strategy may become an increasingly burdensome millstone around GW's neck, its rivals are not so encumbered and are reaching areas and markets without having to worry about renting floorspace or sales staff.

Its perhaps also telling to consider where a lot of the talent for the market's expansion is coming from. Its GW again. Alessio Calvatore is a name that crops up again (Mantic) and again (DUST) in discussion of new games. The Perry twins, Mike McVey, Rik Priestley, and Bob Naismith are all names familiar to longtime GW fans - all now work for, with, or as the competition.

None of this is meant to imply there is no talent or no successes outside GW's stable or the games mentioned in this article. What I am implying is the market is ripe for expansion. While in times past there could be only one, today there is room for many many smaller businesses to live, thrive, and survive. The exodus from GW of well established names and talents shows that these guys see this too. They no longer feel they have to put up with whatever strictures working for GW placed upon them. They don't have to make games for someone else any more - they can make them for themselves. And instead of shareholders (one in particular) raking in dividends from their hard work, they can take all the profits too.

At least where I live, this optimism is being matched by retailers. Wayland Games are now installed in their massive new warehouses in Hockley, Essex, and recently published concept art of their gaming space. I have been there and I have  to say, the visualisations they released don't do the place justice. It is huge.  A new store/game space also opened up in town this past weekend too. ROTDOG has lots of floorspace and lots of games to sell. Their range does not include GW or PP though, suggesting the owner is confident he can make money just from selling other games (DUST, SDE, etc.) and renting tables.

This means that my small town, Southend, now has three retailers and four gaming spaces currently available.

What does the future hold?

I believe it is entirely possible tabletop gaming will overtake PC and console gaming as the cool pasttime for a generation of children and young adults growing up today.

And why not?

There was a time, barely more than ten years ago, when internet and console gaming was uncool. Seriously! When I played my first online shooter (Star Trek Voyager - Elite Force!), dial-up was the standard and playing games over the net was really not a widespread activity. Multiplayer games, at least for the PC were barely even invented!  It was really only when Halo was released that local console multiplayer became popular, I couldn't tell you what game made internet gaming take off.  But we have a generation now that grew up with the net and gaming over it and considers it to be normal, natural, and cool to do.

Things change though and what is considered the norm by one generation very quickly becomes a fad to the next.

People like to play together. I suggest that what has stopped them doing so in recent times is a lack of choice, more than an ingrained aversion to tabletop games, and a cool looking new alternative - internet gaming. Price has been an issue too. But tabletop games are getting cheaper (at least if you price them by volume. And ignore GW) and consoles and PC games are getting pricier. Seriously - £50 for another COD game? That is the same/extremely close to the last one I bought? And that I will only play for four or five months before exchanging it for a clone? And that on top of my £150-200 console.... Compare that to a boardgame where every game can be different, new models or expansions can be added, and where your friends can come over to play too. It costs less, lasts longer, and is not the same game as you bought last year.

So, a new Golden Age of Gaming could well be nigh. What has been a dark time for gamers, with little choice, few places to play, and some small amount of social stigma, could well be ending. We are entering a new period, with great choice, great variety, and new places to play and opponents and teammates too. Its a good time to be a gamer - I hope you are enjoying it too :)

First Impressions - Cryx Army Deal

I mentioned recently about taking the plunge and buying a Cryx army from Privateer Press's Summer Sale store. It was a great deal - 25 points and a free rulebook. I'll admit that, having ordered the thing, I was a little anxious this week about the possibility of losing all my savings to a big customs bill. It seems HMRI may have been asleep when my box arrived in the UK though as it was delivered today and no extra charges :)

So, I've been totally free to enjoy the contents. And there is a lot in there too.

As well as the plastic Cryx Battlegroup, you get, in metal, a Skarlock thrall, a Warwitch Siren, and a Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls. I also got a boxed set of five Mechanithralls and two more blister packs, each with two more metal Mechanithralls. Although that and a really nicely put together softback copy of Warmachine Prime MKII.

As I really have no idea what use the metal mini's will actually be in a Cryx army yet, I have been able to indulge my phobia of metal mini's and dived straight into the plastic starter set.

In comparison to GW product, assembly is generally easier and faster with PP's plastics. Each model-type comes in its own plastic baggie, already clipped from the sprues. There is a little cleanup necessary before you can begin gluing though. Some of this is to file down some fairly obvious marks where pieces appear to have been yanked off their sprue, rather than carefully clipped. There is also more flash around some of the smaller details, teeth, claws and such, than I am used to seeing on comparable GW models. But this is easy to trim off and, considering the fact the parts come bagged and ready-clipped, the PP models are easier and quicker to put together than a GW model.

Apparently other miniatures games are available.

That said, I have had some problems this evening making glue, well, glue things together. The plastic PP uses is different to GW's. It feels more like a traditional toy manufacturer's plastic, its glossy, almost as if it needs to be washed before assembly. I used GW's thin plastic glue, Humbrol Poly Cement, and Loctite Powerflex superglue. The latter was used largely out of frustration when certain parts just didn't seem to want to stay stuck together using the other glues. The plastic glues do seem to work - eventually - but, for the jaws of the Bonejacks and the blades on Deneghra's back in particular, sometimes I just needed something guaranteed to stick hard and fast.

Anybody knocks this guys jaw off, I knock your jaw off

One other slight anomaly I found when putting the models together was that the smaller jacks all come with slotted bases - slots they just don't need. I have greenstuffed those gaps up now, but, let me tell you, it is not easy getting that thin strip in there, underneath the jack and between its legs, when you're worried about the thing falling because it was so hard to glue them down. My pro-tip here - fill the gaps before you stick the model down :)

It kinda looks like they're taking a leak down there...

All in all, a nice evening's work to put together the beginnings of my Cryx force. Now I just have to decide whether I should have sprung for the P3 paint set to go with them when I was at the Wayland warehouse yesterday....

These boots are made for hiking

Well, the latest GW price sheets are out and there are some corkers on the spreadsheets. A lot of the rises are what one might refer to as incremental. Some would even say reasonable. But check out the hikes on Razorbacks and the Space Marine Battleforce and tell me that's not GW milking the old cash cow a little too much...

Any way, all this makes me very glad I bought a Cryx army from Privater Press last night. I've no idea if half the units are any good, but the worst case scenario is I end up ebaying the surplus units once I get to grips with the game.

I also enlisted as a supporter of Studio McVey's Kickstarter campaign and bought a copy of Sedition Wars. Well, I will have bought a copy whenever they actually cast and box the thing. (Still not happy about paying a UK studio to ship me a game from the States though...)

I did, however, decide against the Mantic Kickstarter though. As much as I want to support UK studios, and promote diversity in the industry in general, I really am unlikely to ever play the game or paint all the miniatures they would send me. Plus there's my experience at Salute, where people where happy to push me towards the sales stand, but not exactly champing at the bit to show me how to actually play the game.

There's one other thing about Mantic that worries me too. For all their talk about innovation, my read of the rules for Warpath, Mantic's sci-fi game, is that it's basically a simple version of 5th edition 40k. Same turn sequence, same rolls to hit and wound. The only difference seemed to be the absence of armour saves. The factions in both Warpath and Kings of War are recycled from GW's games too. So... is Mantic's mission statement basically to make the same games as GW - only cheaper?

Given the massive market share GW has, it's perhaps not the worst business model. It's just not - inspiring. Plus given that 6th edition 40k is just around the corner, isn't Mantic at risk of looking even less inventive and agile, selling a copy of an old game the market leader doesn't even make any more? But then again, Warpath isn't even officially released yet so perhaps the finished product really will be an innovative and novel take on tabletop sci-fi.

Moving to Privateer Press?

I've been talking about it for a long time, but this might be when I finally jump on to the PP bandwagon (or us it a ship?).

It's coming up to that time of the year when Games Workshop bumps up all it's prices and, if the figures that have been published for American sets are to be believed, this year is going to be a whopper.

I'm not even going to bother trying to understand why they do it. I know it's about making profit and the final prices are decided on by people far removed from the actual costumers. But it's just getting ridiculous.

A couple of years ago, when I walked back into a GW for the first time in twenty years, a boxed starter set cost £50. Now some of them cost £65. It is likely then that these same boxes well cost over £70 in a month's time. Warhammer is now approaching absolutely laughable, insane, prices for a hobby product intended for a mass market.

There is a tipping point for the price if these models, after which, it is no longer sensible to buy them. The value-added which GW beings to it's products - the great background lore, the supplementary products (books and CD's), it's retail network and associated gaming clubs, will just be outweighed by the fact noone can say with a straight face they paid nearly a hundred pounds for twenty models and a vehicle and then another twenty for a crappy finecost commander, and forty more for the rulebook.

I think we are there, or thereabouts. The competition is circling, waiting to snap up all the customers. I bet they can't believe how easy GW is making it.

On that note, PP is doing a 'summer sale' thing. Importantly for EU customers, there is free worldwide shipping on Warmachine and Hordes starter sets (if you live in Essex, it's still slightly cheaper to collect it from Wayland Games though). They are also doing army bundles for around £75. Each one is, the site says, 25 points and you get a rulebook too. I did a quick comparison of the contents of the Cryx and Retribution sets and their prices at Wayland and it looks like you basically get the rulebook for free - a saving of around £20.

So, my only real dilemma is which to go for -Cryx or the Retribution?

Flagpole

Just a few minutes to spare while some paint dries to put out a couple of
thoughts on the recent Salute show at the Excel.

I went with an open mind. I went with an open wallet. I went, increasingly
disillusioned and frankly bored with GW games and products, with an eye to
discovering some new games to play and models to buy. Wayland Games
will be opening their new warehouse and gaming centre near me quite soon
so I thought I might get a headstart on collecting a new system.

Over an afternoon of trailing around the Excel, talking to players and reps,
and reading rules and demoing games, a couple of big differences became
apparent between Games Workshop and the competition.

When it comes to low barriers to entry, pretty much every major alternative to
GW games are streets ahead. Warmachines and Hordes, Infinity and
Mantic's offerings all offer free rule sets and cheap miniatures. It can't have
escaped anyone's notice Mantic are practically trying to give their mini's
away - barely a week passes without some mega-bundle deal arriving in my
Inbox, imploring me to buy a thousand Warpath mini's for £10.50 (or a
figuratively similar price). These boxes all come with free rules and there
were indeed several bundle deals at Salute giving free leader blisters, bags,
and the like with purchases of new armies. Warmahordes also come with the
stat cards you need to field the models and free rules are readily available to
download. Infinity has slightly more complex rules, meaning a rulebook
seems a must, but, like Privateer's games, you need very few miniatures to
start playing the game. Compare these startup costs with 40k or WFB,
where you are likely to have to spend around £100 just to get started, then
another £100 to get competitive, on models that aren't cheap to begin with
and increase in price with chilling regularity.

But, and this is important, GW is in turn streets ahead of all its competitors in
a key area - sales training.

Take my experience at the Privateer Press stand for starters.

I turned up, nice and early in the day, big smile on my face and asked a member of the
'street team' for a demo of Warmachine. 'Ah,' he said, 'can I show you
Hordes instead - its pretty much the same as Warmachine?'. Not a great
start, not showing the customer the product he has asked for, but I was in a
cooperative mood so I said 'OK' and off we went. Twenty or so minutes later we wrapped things up and I told my guide and another member of the team that had wandered over to help explain some
rules that I would really like to play the Retribution of Scyrah but didn't know
what models I should buy as there was no starter set for that faction.
'Hmmm,' they said, 'there is a recommended starter list though.'. When it
became apparent they weren't going to tell me what it was, I asked them for
some names and they rattled off half a dozen. I figured I could memorize
the list as it seemed to be largely the names of significant monsters from
Greek mythology. Then there was another awkward silence which I broke by
walking away to look for some of these beasties on the display racks along
the back wall of the stand. It turned out they didn't have most of the names I
was looking for in stock (perhaps explaining the crew's reluctance to help me
find them). They didn't have them at Wayland's stand either, although at least
the store staff there were friendly and helpfully suggested popping in to the
warehouse after the show wrapped up.

Turns out PP were actually the best customer experience I had that day. At
the Infinity table I got a game with a very friendly guy who unfortunately was
new to the system and didn't know all the rules. At the Mantic area I watched
a game of Warpath for a bit before asking one of the company reps if I
could look at the rules on the table in front of her. She said 'yes', then walked
away. Well, if you're not that interested in potential customers, I'm not that
interested in playing your game.

Its a shame really. I get why it happens - noone in the industry does retail
except GW so there's not an abundance of sales staff working for anyone
else. But seriously, why go to the trouble and expense of setting up stands
at the biggest sales opportunity in the UK and man them with people who
don't know the games, don't have an interest in bringing in new players, and
can't be bothered to even deal with people who come and ask them
questions? The marketing managers who come set these things up should
be just a little bit ashamed that the people they put in place were so
unprepared or unable to do the job they needed too. The creatives who work so hard and do such a good job at making entertaining games with gorgeous miniatures should be quite angry they are not being marketed in any way close to effectively.

So, I came away empty handed. The games I wanted to play didn't want me.
The mini's I wanted to buy weren't for sale. And so I shall probably end up
just pumping more money into GW - a company that scorns me, but still
works hard to pull me ever closer (yeah, I'm aware thats pretty close to
definitions of abusive relationships or, perhaps more aptly, those between
crack addicts and their dealers). They want to rip me off, but at least they
want me.