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I went to the FLGS for the first time in a while and chatted with the store owner to see what the hits and misses of 2015 were. The list below is a bit biased towards my interests as I asked both about what I expected to be popular as well as games I hoped would be. Please apply all the anecdotal "your local meta isn't mine" salt you want but here is a list of what's hot and what's not by me.

Hot

D&D 5th ed: The owner said about half the pathfinder groups switched to it as did the lonely single 4th edition one they had for years. I was a bit surprised but not shocked given that I'd heard good things consistently about 5th unlike 4th.

40k: A bit of an upswing given a recent ongoing campaign with about a half dozen regulars. That is better than a few months ago when the 40k "day" dwindled down to 1-2 games a day but still much worse than the dozens (as in multiple dozen) players who would show up back in 5th. I'd put this as a "hot" since it is technically better than this time last year. A kill team campaign failed earlier this year and most of the remaining players (including in the campaign) are unabashedly "tourney" players who only bring hard lists to seal club.

King of War: Smoking hot. Pretty much all of the recent WHFB players in addition to lots of GW hating players who dumped WHFB years/editions ago have picked this up. I was really surprised by how popular this was (one mega game was being cleaned up and a normal sized game was ongoing when I was there on "40k" day). Its rare that one ruleset appeals both to new teen players and the 50+ silverback grognard demographic. Reaper bones gets a good amount of new cross over sales for this, moreso than existing WHFB and AOS stock.

Frostgrave: Campaign starting up in a few weeks. Terrain was being made that day for the campaign and about a half dozen folks were there to just chat about it. It seemed like there was a lot of cross over with the KOW crowd.

Xwing: Weekly tourney style group with about a dozen regulars (7 that day). No themed scenario games like I prefer but rather just strictly Ffg tourney rules play.


Not

40k Rpgs: No interest or sales to speak of for any of the half dozen. A bit sad for me as an ex-gm and player of Deathwatch. An old player from my campaign tried getting Only War going earlier this year but gave up after a session or two of no shows.

Shadowrun: Same as 40k above. Sad as well as the setting and mechanics are a personal favorite.

AOS/WHFB: DOA. A couple of folks profess to like it but sales aren't good and it isn't played. Most WHFB folks who tried it moved to Kings of War instead.

Mantic Scifi: Given the KOW response, I asked about the various scifi games from Mantic. No interest, games played, or sales unlike KOW. AOS/WHFB End Times created an instant vacuum that KOW filled unlike the slow death spiral of 40k.

Robotech: Nothing. The few booster packs that sold went to battletech players.

Heavy Gear: Not stocked since I stopped demoing it to raise interest and since I myself stopped special ordering it (the owner would usually tack on a few starter items for store stock when I ordered).

Halo Fleet Battles: Lots of initial interest PRIOR to release and then nothing upon release. The owner himself was surprised by this as was I. I personally was rooting for this one as my next big game in my collection.


Anyways, feel free to comment on the above as well as add surprising local metas/interests of your own. There were others like Dust that I wasn't sure where to put. When ffg had their blowout sale last year, the owner bought multiple pallets of stuff at 75% + off and passed on most of the savings by selling it at 50% off. I used to see it played and he said it still is occasionally According to the owner but I haven't seen it played since Jan 2015 and there was still pretty much the same stock there as my last trip a few months ago (I keep looking at the soviet tank myself!) And the two folks who I know that played said the bubble burst after a few months. Lots of folks bought due to the nice models and low prices but there wasn't much staying power once the novelty wore off. There were other popular games like Bolt Action and Flames of War that I meant to ask about but forgot.

The most surprising thing at my FLGS (and the most good thing, for me personally) is that Malifaux has BLOWN UP. The manager told me a couple months ago that it was a top 3 selling game, but the in-store playing community hadn't really changed. Then last month we had 12 people for a 3 round tournament, and then there's 24 pre-paid attendees for this month's event. Aside from Magic, it seems like easily the biggest thing going on right now. Part of that is WHFB players who chose this over KOW and AoS, but I've been pretty amazed at how big the community has grown lately.

Guild Ball has really taken off at our gaming club, looks good but doesn't interest me.

Frostgrave seems to have pulled in a lot of initial interest, but the people investing heavily seem to be the same lot who got into DZC in a big way when that first came out and abandoned it shortly there after

Other than that the one I'm always puzzled about is sizable group of heroclix players who always seem to be having a fun time with a game I just have no idea why they like

Batman: The Miniatures Game is taking off like crazy. Tons of people are playing it lately here.

Munchkin. My club fething loves Munchkin.

They're also pretty enthusiastic about D&D 5e. We're all beginners and no-one has DM experience, so I volunteered to run the campaign and I invested in £50 worth of the 5e rulebooks (I tend to collect rulebooks even for games I don't play ). We're playing the 5e starter campaign Lost Mine of Phandelver, on Saturday we'll be playing part 2 of the second scenario (Klarg's Cave). I have quite a large LOTR/Hobbit collection, so I'm well stocked with miniatures.

Given the doom and gloom threads, 40k is thriving. Also, Magic, WMH, and some AOS.

X Wing is meh.

Hot games at my FLGS:
1. Dust
2. 40k
3. Warmahordes
4. Heroclix
5. DnD and Pathfinder
6. AOS

I went into my FLGS one day recently and found everyone talking about or playing guild ball all of a sudden.

At Giga we have a lot of hot games right now, in no particular order:

40k, Batman, Battletech, Warmachine, XWing, Kings of War, Infinity, Malifaux are all huge.

AoS is dead. Frost grave and Judge Dredd a good start but have dwindled, as has Dropzone Commander, Dark Age and Wrath of Kings.

Bolt Action is a small core group.

I'm interested to see how Flames of War goes since we have decided to stock it again, and Team Yankee.

Super excited for Gates of Antares in a couple of weeks

40K is still popular, mainly because people have stuff. I'm not sure if it has really decreased or gained people, it is a lot of the same old so don't see a lot of new blood. WarmaHorde and X-Wing is fairly big and tends to have new faces. Malifaux has been growing more lately.

There is interest in Batman, unfortunately since there is no real US distributor and the only real way to get miniatures is direct or online. It makes it harder to promote a game that isn't readily available in the store unfortunately. Infinity had a similar issue as Batman, but that was awhile back. The only thing really taking away from it, is not having a dedicated person to push it in store. I've thought about it, but I don't have that time anymore like I used too when I was promoting gaming weekly. I no longer have my regular Sunday game meetup.

the MY Little Pony Card game.
Im dead serious, even here in Santa Cruz, 40k night must have atleast 3 pairs of people playing it. They tend to keep to themselves. the boxes are at the counter, so I see that they replace the booster packs often, cause everytime I go in there, its a new box.

40k
WMH
Hero Clix
Infinity.

Another store nearby has Malifaux as #1.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
the MY Little Pony Card game.
Im dead serious, even here in Santa Cruz, 40k night must have atleast 3 pairs of people playing it. They tend to keep to themselves. the boxes are at the counter, so I see that they replace the booster packs often, cause everytime I go in there, its a new box.

To be absolutely sure, you should dust the box with different color glitter every time you go there. The MLP players will think it's just a part of the box and you can see just who is buying it. That stuff sticks to everything!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sergeant Horse wrote:
At Giga we have a lot of hot games right now, in no particular order:

40k, Batman, Battletech, Warmachine, XWing, Kings of War, Infinity, Malifaux are all huge.

AoS is dead. Frost grave and Judge Dredd a good start but have dwindled, as has Dropzone Commander, Dark Age and Wrath of Kings.

Bolt Action is a small core group.

I'm interested to see how Flames of War goes since we have decided to stock it again, and Team Yankee.

Super excited for Gates of Antares in a couple of weeks

I'm a bit surprised at Batman. Do you have to special order it or is it widely available? Any interest in Halo Fleet Battles as Gigas?

At my FLGS (Valhalla's Gate), here is what seems to be hot and what seems not to be:

HOT:
Warhammer 40k: We recently started (or rather restarted) having a regular open play night for it (by popular demand), and we have a tournament almost every month. We have a good group of regulars, plus a few new faces every now and then, including some who travel for two hours to attend the tournaments.

X-wing: Very strong presence at my FLGS. There is a weekly play night, and regular tournaments (not sure about schedule as I do not play it).

Malifaux: Also strong, with a weekly play night (not sure about tournaments).

Warmachine/Hordes: I see someone playing this almost every time I come in. I don't know if there is a regular night for it, but it is popular.

Star Trek Attack Wing: Doing okay, but starting to dwindle.

Flames of War: Plenty of events, and even dedicated terrain for it at the store.

Pathfinder RPG: I see a group playing this every weekend I'm in there, it seems. Must be doing pretty good.

Magic: The Gathering: This is probably the most popular game played at my FLGS. They have multiple events most weeks.

Dropzone Commander: This game is starting to take off around here. I've seen a couple of demo games while I was playing 40k, and the store stocks plenty of stuff for the game.

Dice Masters: There is a weekly play night for this (same night as 40k, different tables), so it must be doing okay.

NOT:
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: I don't think I've ever seen anyone play this game in the store, although the store does stock some of the new releases. Haven't noticed any of them disappear, so I might guess they aren't selling well, either. I've heard a possible explanation for the lack of players: a couple of years ago the store had a problem with the group that played WFB, not sure what went on but the group alienated themselves from the store. That is probably why no one plays AoS here (although they do play at the other game store in town).

Firestorm Armada: The store is closing out their inventory for this game (not sure if its dead everywhere, but its dead here).

Dystopian Wars: I used to see people playing this a fair amount, but it seems that the store has stopped supporting it. Sad, as it looks awesome!

DUST/Tactics: I used to see a lot of this being played, but now...not so much.

I've never even seen many other games being played here (Batman, Infinity, etc.). As you can see, we do have a fair number of games that are going strong. I only actively play 40k, but I've considered X-wing and I do have some MtG cards and Dice Masters dice.

There seems to be a fair mix of games at our club.

WMH, WHFB 8th, Infinity, X-wing/Armada, AoS all have regular players. Guildball is popular, but I think on

Firestorm Armada, Uncharted Seas & Dystopian Wars were all popular but seem to be dying back a bit.

Dropzone Commander never really took off.

Bloodbowl remains ever popular and we have regular leagues at the club in addition to the many other in the local area (4TK/Wayland are both within 30mins). This usually has 10+ players a week for normal play.

40k seems to be back on the agenda again after it waned somewhat and that was prior to the new HH boxset.

Surprisingly Warmaster seems to be taking off, there seems to be a vein of old players in Essex. Even I dug out an old Undead army and have signed up to a tournament in January at 4TK in addition to one organised nearby by the Specialist Games forum. Regular games to be had, Great fun!

A Mordheim league should be in the offing in the New Year too.

The popular games at my local club are Magic, blood bowl, X wing, and a small amount of 40k and fantasy 8th. Dystopian wars seems to be becoming fairly popular as well

Heroclix is super popular at my FLGS. I don't play it but they hold events and 30 people show up.

don't get into the FLGS much anymore, so blah, blah, blah. This is also an amalgamation of a few different stores. So here it is...

HOT

Magic- Shock!

My Little Pony- Actually brings in a wide range of people, including younger ones.

Historicals- I mean like hardcore historicals, not just WWII. Every Monday they seem to bring in something different, they get a big board, and a good size group. It blows my mind.

All Quiet on the Martian Front- I was like LOLWUT! The Historical guys seem to like this one too.

D&d 5e and Pathfinder- These guys and Magic players take up most of the space. Therefore, lot's of Reaper gets sold too.

Battletech- It is not uncommon to see this being played. I think it might even be part of an RPG too.

Clix- I have never seen a Clix game being played, but they do have a Clix night that I have never been too.

NOT

Robotech RPG Tactics- They got two starter sets. I bought one and the other is still sitting there.

Spartan Games- Nothing. No interest here in any of them.

WWII in any flavor- Considering how this is exploding on the net, I am super surprised.

Space games- Again, I am surprised I don't see more X-wing. However, the FFG store isn't too far away so that may account for the lack of X-wing int he FLGS. However, there is also no HALO, Firestorm Armada, or anything.

Moderns- I don't see anything happening with Moderns at all.

Fantasy Miniature Games- Dead. Nothing going on.

Guildball is white-hot locally, it's just crazy!

Kings of War is picking up and I have high hopes for it.

Malifaux and Infinity have been and continue to be really big.

40k is lagging a bit compared to last year at the moment... still a huge seller, just not a lot of folks playing it as they're trying out the other games mentioned, but it's still the big dog on the block. Similarly for Warmachine / Hordes.

DUST is quite popular in Telford and environs apparently, along with Star Wars Armada and X-Wing, I'm told.

Games being played in my neck of the woods:

Infinity is massive at our store - this accounts for maybe 50% of the minis games currently being played. The main driver for this is that a few of the locals lost their minds and between four players have procured enough terrain to for SEVEN tables... Not just Mototronica stuff... I mean full on MDF or Plastic terrain tables... EIGHT if they recruit back one of the guys who's on hiatus, NINE once the newest guy finishes his terrain set... On the usual game night, there are at least two kitted tables, usually with two more possible tables in reserve...

The other games being played are: 20% Warmachine / Hordes, 20% Malifaux, 10% X-Wing

Armada came and went... 40k is on life support... there's the odd game that happens from time to time. Age of Sigmar is a non-starter.

Card wise: MTG is steady. This new thing Force of Will seems to be a thing, displacing Cardfight Vanguard from it's perch above the Anime CCGs. Netrunner is on-and-off. There's a burgeoning Warhammer Conquest group as well.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Munchkin. My club fething loves Munchkin.

Locally, we have a tabletop wargaming club and a separate board/card game club. The wargaming club loves Munchkin and I actually see them playing it more than any given wargame, while the board/card game club unanimously hate Munchkin and refuse to play it. *shrugs*

I feel like the stores near me are kind of bog-standard when it comes to games played.

Magic reigns supreme, with some Pokemon and Yugioh mixed in there. I think Netrunner and Doomtown are the bigs LCGs.

Two of the stores don't have much of a tabletop presence beyond stocking GW and Xwing stuff. At the other two, Warmachine/Hordes and 40k are the big games (each at one store).

If anything, it's the group that I belong two that plays all the non-standard games: All Quiet on the Martian Front, Frostgrave, Empire of the Dead, Kings of War, etc. Although Guildball might be getting traction at one of the stores? I'll buy into it if I can get rid of my WWX minis.

At Games & Stuff (south of Baltimore) it's 40k, wm/hrds, x-wing and Malifaux.

At Bel Air Games (far north of Baltimore), it's WM/Hordes, and Malifaux. There was this card game Vanguard for a while, but that seems to have died.

Titan Games (North of Bmore) it's 40k, Warmahordes, Malifaux and Guild Ball.

 Dark Severance wrote:
40K is still popular, mainly because people have stuff. I'm not sure if it has really decreased or gained people, it is a lot of the same old so don't see a lot of new blood. WarmaHorde and X-Wing is fairly big and tends to have new faces. Malifaux has been growing more lately.

There is interest in Batman, unfortunately since there is no real US distributor and the only real way to get miniatures is direct or online. It makes it harder to promote a game that isn't readily available in the store unfortunately. Infinity had a similar issue as Batman, but that was awhile back. The only thing really taking away from it, is not having a dedicated person to push it in store. I've thought about it, but I don't have that time anymore like I used too when I was promoting gaming weekly. I no longer have my regular Sunday game meetup.

Golden Distribution and e-figures both carry Batman, Golden has great stock. Let your store know, or I can ship models to you


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 warboss wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
the MY Little Pony Card game.
Im dead serious, even here in Santa Cruz, 40k night must have atleast 3 pairs of people playing it. They tend to keep to themselves. the boxes are at the counter, so I see that they replace the booster packs often, cause everytime I go in there, its a new box.

To be absolutely sure, you should dust the box with different color glitter every time you go there. The MLP players will think it's just a part of the box and you can see just who is buying it. That stuff sticks to everything!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sergeant Horse wrote:
At Giga we have a lot of hot games right now, in no particular order:

40k, Batman, Battletech, Warmachine, XWing, Kings of War, Infinity, Malifaux are all huge.

AoS is dead. Frost grave and Judge Dredd a good start but have dwindled, as has Dropzone Commander, Dark Age and Wrath of Kings.

Bolt Action is a small core group.

I'm interested to see how Flames of War goes since we have decided to stock it again, and Team Yankee.

Super excited for Gates of Antares in a couple of weeks

I'm a bit surprised at Batman. Do you have to special order it or is it widely available? Any interest in Halo Fleet Battles as Gigas?

By Friday I should have a major part of the range in stock at the store. One of my distributors has great stock. Halo hasn't gathered much interest yet, needs more people to pick up the intro

Thanks for the Halo update. I wish it were better news though. :(

Also, if anyone else reading this thread was wondering, "what the hell is this guild ball thing that has come up a bunch of times?" like me.. here ya go.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/661901.page

Malifaux, Guildball, Infinity, X-Wing/Armada are really popular. A fair bit of warmahordes as far as I can tell too.

40k seems to be alive, but fantasy is dead as a doornail.

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in Mordheim and Bloodbowl, there's been people playing both the last couple of times I've been there.

If you'd asked this a couple of years ago there would have only been two answers for my club. 40k and Fantasy, the former was mostly gone during 6th but 7th finished it off and the latter was wiped out by Endtimes/AoS.

Magic the Gathering was also popular for a while however I'm glad to say that lot now play in a local store. They were loud to the point making playing games difficult (ie having to shout to be heard) and their behaviour almost got us kicked out of the room we hire at a local school.

These days it's more like this:

Bolt Action: By far the most popular traditional miniature wargame we play as it's essentially the only one. Other games have had a brief period of interest (Infinity, Malifaux, Tomorrows War, Warmahordes) but none have really stuck in the way Bolt Action has. Though since there are still club members with lots of fantasy miniatures I do hope that at some point KoW or another fantasy rule set might see some interest.

Star Trek Attack Wing: Most clubs in the area play X Wing however we prefer this, this is simply because as a group we prefer Star Trek to Star Wars. That the game also has more viable factions also helps as it keeps things interesting.

Board/Card Games: This is what you're most likely to see us playing. Usually we'll play a couple of large games in an evening and a few fillers at the end of the night.

RPGs: Another popular choice, currently there's a Shadowrun campaign on the go, last session we actually changed rules from Shadowrun 5th ed to a modified version of Savage Worlds. This was because despite Shadowrun being a great setting it's an appalling rule set.

So we're a fairly odd group really. I can't help but think that the club needs to be rebranded from being a wargames club to a tabletop games club.

Hmm, based on the last night at my club ..

There's a few RPG groups, playing Pathfinder, WFRP 2nd and one group that have been playing since D&D 3rd ed, but no idea what they're using now.

A few board gamers; one group has been playing Firefly recently, but they play all sorts.

A coupld of Armada games, an Infinity and a Dropzone Commander game (Infinity had a bit of a surge earlier in the year, but the guy who was pushing the escalation league hasn't been seen in a couple of months, and most folk didn't get past the "yes, this is a great idea!" stage). A 40k game, some Malifaux, some Warmachine and some Guildball. Not Batman this week, but it'll be back, no doubt.
And a group of guys who play homebrew games; recently they've played Star Wars using old WEG 25mm miniatures and a variant of the Warmaster rules.

Funnily enough, Bolt Action is the one set of WW2 rules I've never seen used. There's alsomost always a WW2 game in 20 - 28mm going on, but it's always different rules; perhaps Chain of Command, but I've never really looked into it.