Battlefront Miniatures purchases Gale Force Nine...

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**Ghaz**

Battlefront Miniatures Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand is pleased to announce that we have purchased Gale Force Nine, LLC.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11 February 2009

Battlefront Miniatures Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand is pleased to announce that we have purchased Gale Force Nine, LLC.

John Kovaleski, CEO/Founder of Gale Force Nine writes “We at Gale Force Nine (GF9) are very excited about the new opportunities that this partnership represents. By becoming part of the Battlefront Family, GF9 will have access to new distribution channels, production capabilities and R&D resources years ahead of what we might be able to do on our own. We look forward to continuing our rapid growth in our role as the premier gaming accessory developer and manufacture for the hobby game industry.”

“I could not be happier that John and his team have joined with ours and I know that despite the obvious business advantages combining the two groups of dedicated hobby enthusiasts gives us both an added boost to allow us to achieve even greater things. The two operations will see little initial impact in the short term, as we already have our supply chains linked in Europe and Australasia. As new projects and future plans come on line, the two operations we will be making some changes to adapt to the expanded business model,” says John-Paul Brisigotti, Managing Director of Battlefront Miniatures.

Gale Force Nine will continue making all the great products which the world has come to know. We also have a lot of exciting new projects which will be announced soon.

About Gale Force Nine

Gale Force Nine, LLC. (GF9) is a game manufacturing company that was started in 1998 specializing in the design and distribution of laser cut components and scaled models for the miniatures gaming industry. Since our humble beginnings, GF9 has grown into the premier gaming accessory company producing counters, markers, tokens, templates, and terrain for use with the most popular miniature games in the world.

Gale Force Nine, LLC. is located in beautiful Earlysville, Virginia, where the gaming is extensive and the competition intense!

Visit www.galeforcenine.com for more information.

About Battlefront Miniatures

Battlefront Miniatures are the worlds leading historical gaming company producing the Flames of War WWII miniature game and its full range of models and products. From their head office in New Zealand, Battlefront service the demand for Flames of War from local offices in the US and Europe manufacturing and retailing direct to stores around the world.

Visit www.flamesofwar.com for more information.

**H.B.M.C.**

Is this a good thing? Doesn't GF9 produce things for other games?

BYE

**Moopy**

I was wondering the same thing when it came to one GAME company making the other's products.

**Ghaz**

H.B.M.C. wrote:Doesn't GF9 produce things for other games?

Yes they do, although I'm not sure what kind of agreements they have with those companies. In the past, they did markers and templates for Warmachine and Hordes (seemingly since discontinued). Currently in their online store you can find products for Babylon 5, Rezolution, Legend of the Five Rings, Urban War and some of the WizKids games along with the Flames of War products.

**H.B.M.C.**

Well if they're anything like Catalyst and IWM, there's a chance that their contracts with Wizkids swap over to TOPPs and remain active until they come up for renewall.

But even if we ignore that, now that they're owned by what is essentially a competitor to these other games, will they be asked/told/made to stop producing these tokens/counters, meaning they only produce generic and FoW counters?

BYE

**Le Grognard**

Seems like BF is going all Wizards of the Coast in the early 90's:

Battlefront acquires Wargames Illustrated 12 February 2009

Battlefront Miniatures Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand acquires Wargames Illustrated Magazine.

“It has always been a dream of ours (Peter and I) to show the world just how wonderful the entire historical gaming hobby can be in the same way we have done with WWII and Flames of War. Despite having focused on WWII we have always been historical gamers in the broader sense and when the opportunity of being able to take over the reins of Wargames Illustrated arose we jumped at the chance. We have always felt that our weekly web updates gave us some of the fix for Flames Of War but now with the broader printed medium we are very excited about what the future will hold. We have plans to re-launch the magazine soon with an increased page count, a wider range of articles covering every game, scale and era of the historical hobby combined with broader distribution globally so that getting hold of the foremost historical gaming magazine will be easier than ever” says John-Paul Brisigotti, Managing Director of Battlefront Miniatures.

More details will be coming soon so keep an eye on both websites for more information.

Wargames Illustrated has been the foremost historical gaming magazine for over two decades. Based in Nottinghamshire, England the magazine has maintained a strong editorial balance covering the whole spectrum of historical wargaming bringing the breadth of miniatures and games in the market to the spotlight for 256 issues.
Visit www.wargamesillustrated.net for more information.

**Ghaz**

H.B.M.C. wrote:Well if they're anything like Catalyst and IWM, there's a chance that their contracts with Wizkids swap over to TOPPs and remain active until they come up for renewall.

But even if we ignore that, now that they're owned by what is essentially a competitor to these other games, will they be asked/told/made to stop producing these tokens/counters, meaning they only produce generic and FoW counters?

BYE

That's the thing though. I don't really see them as a competitor, per se. Battlefront is historicals (World War II ) while the others are fantasy and science fiction. While they are both indeed wargames, I believe that they're different enough with different target audiences not to cause a problem.

**Hordini**

Gale Force Nine will continue making all the great products which the world has come to know. We also have a lot of exciting new projects which will be announced soon.

It's right there in the press release. It doesn't sound like they're planning on going in a totally different direction or anything.

aufnehmen

**Agamemnon2**

Le Grognard wrote:Seems like BF is going all Wizards of the Coast in the early 90's:

Battlefront acquires Wargames Illustrated 12 February 2009

Battlefront Miniatures Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand acquires Wargames Illustrated Magazine.

This is interesting, and potentially fun. WI is a great magazine, and I trust Battlefront cannot change it into their version of WD without angering a vast reader base. If all they do is add FoW articles and ads for upcoming models, I'm game. As long as they still feature and review other companies' stuff.

**H.B.M.C.**

Hordini wrote:It's right there in the press release. It doesn't sound like they're planning on going in a totally different direction or anything.

Keep in mind though that any products they're producing for other game systems will be produced as part of a licence contract. They're going to continue producing what they're making right now because they have agreements to do so, and being bought by the FoW guys doesn't make those contracts instantly void. What the release doesn't address (not that it really should, it is early days after all) is whether they're going to allow the GF9 people to reacquire those licences once they come up for renewal.

BYE

**Agamemnon2**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
Hordini wrote:It's right there in the press release. It doesn't sound like they're planning on going in a totally different direction or anything.

Keep in mind though that any products they're producing for other game systems will be produced as part of a licence contract. They're going to continue producing what they're making right now because they have agreements to do so, and being bought by the FoW guys doesn't make those contracts instantly void. What the release doesn't address (not that it really should, it is early days after all) is whether they're going to allow the GF9 people to reacquire those licences once they come up for renewal.

Or whether GF9 will simply do what they did when their Warmachine/Hordes license expired, which was to create those generic Warcogs counters to fulfill the same niche. I don't think game companies can really claim IP protection over, say, a 5" round blast marker.

**H.B.M.C.**

You're right, they can't. And I was not aware of the 'Warcog' thing either. I suppose that's also a solution. And then there's the other side of the coin - they may not want to continue some of their contracts, be it because they were unsuccessful or simply that renewal is too expensive.

So I guess not such a bad thing afterall. Good luck to 'em. I, as strange as this may sound coming from me, tend to prefer GW's bright green counters, mainly because I find tiny silver text on a black background hard to read, but some of my friends have GF9 tokens and they are quite nice. Also nice to see the FoW guys doing well enough that they can actually buy companies, especially in today's economic climate.

BYE

**oni**

I hope that the joining of these companies doesn't 'change' the current product line, but only adds to it. If this doesn't turn out to be the case then I am sure glad I got my GF9 package yesterday.

http://pitoftheoni.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-got-mail.html

**mikhaila**

H.B.M.C. wrote:You're right, they can't. And I was not aware of the 'Warcog' thing either. I suppose that's also a solution. And then there's the other side of the coin - they may not want to continue some of their contracts, be it because they were unsuccessful or simply that renewal is too expensive.

So I guess not such a bad thing afterall. Good luck to 'em. I, as strange as this may sound coming from me, tend to prefer GW's bright green counters, mainly because I find tiny silver text on a black background hard to read, but some of my friends have GF9 tokens and they are quite nice. Also nice to see the FoW guys doing well enough that they can actually buy companies, especially in today's economic climate.

BYE

The Warcog thing was a bit odd, not on GF9's part, but on Privateers. Privateer had someone paying them money to make a quality product. The contract came up for renewal, and they notified GF9 by fax, on a friday, at 5 minutes until closing. Not a great way to do business. Then in the following months, have failed to put out any product to replace the stuff GF9 was doing.

GF9 stepped up and made Warcogs, somewhat to spite PP I'd suppose, but it also gives gamers access to a quality product. GF9 is a great little company. I expect them working with BF will result in good things all around.

**legoburner**

All very interesting, thanks for posting the info. I have thought for a while that battlefront were more likely to be taken over, I didnt see them buying GF9 or wargames illustrated coming at all! Hopefully wargames illustrated will start carrying some regular FoW articles as that is my biggest problem with it right now.

**methoderik**

Yeah, I see this as a plus for both sides, and us as gamers. Both companies seem pretty stand up.

If profitable, I doubt BF would cut certain product lines from other game companies.

I would think the reverse would happen. The "others" may take offense to BF profiting from their game systems.

I need to start using all the FOW stuff I bought a year ago.

**Platuan4th**

H.B.M.C. wrote:Keep in mind though that any products they're producing for other game systems will be produced as part of a licence contract. They're going to continue producing what they're making right now because they have agreements to do so, and being bought by the FoW guys doesn't make those contracts instantly void. What the release doesn't address (not that it really should, it is early days after all) is whether they're going to allow the GF9 people to reacquire those licences once they come up for renewal.

BYE

I wonder about that, too. I think they'll keep producing the generic items, but I doubt the Wizkids items will be continued(partly as Topps has already all but sold Heroclix, and I don't think anyone's picking up MW

A). As for the other licensed stuff, no idea.

**George Spiggott**

PP's involment with counters, markers and templates has been poor and misguided with the sole exception of their licensed GF9 stuff.

PP's Wreck markers are expensive and heavy (if well made) and their Hordes tokens were fiddly and poorly made. We're still waiting for their Warmachines ones.

The generic GF9 warmachine-ish tokens look really good although they aren't out yet.

**Platuan4th**

George Spiggott wrote:The generic GF9 warmachine-ish tokens look really good although they aren't out yet.

They aren't? Then why has Little Wars in Baton Rouge had them in stock since at least December(I saw them when visiting my parents)?

Also the GF9 Online store has them listed as released October 17, 2008.

**H.B.M.C.**

Platuan4th wrote:but I doubt the Wizkids items will be continued(partly as Topps has already all but sold Heroclix, and I don't think anyone's picking up MWA).

The negotiations for the Topps stuff is continuing, but on the Mechwarrior: Dark Age front, Topps withdrew the rights from sale (along with Shadowrun) because it proved to be so popular (ie. lots of bids) that they decided that they could make some more money off of it. Not wonderful news for Catalyst, but at the very least Topps didn't sell it to someone else.

BYE

**RussWakelin**

The Gf9 Warcogs (the Warmachine gaming tokens) and Warclaws (the Hordes gaming tokens) have been out for some time. Gf9 is currently working on expanding the line.

I have both a set of Warcogs and Warclaws and like them a lot.

We also happened to just have interviewed Aaron Dill, the lead designer over at Gf9, in our last episode of The D6G:

http://www.thed6generation.com/index.php?post_id=429837

Too bad this news hadn't dropped before that interview. That would have been juicy. Although I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to say anything.

I wish nothing but the best for GF9, I've always enjoyed thier products. I hope they continue to flourish as a part of Battlefront.

**Hordini**

Yeah, I'm hoping for good things too. I'm not overly surprised that BF bought these two companies though, they've been expanding pretty rapidly over the past few years. I just hope they don't end up biting off more than they can chew.

I may end up getting a subscription to WI if BF handles the transition well. I hope they'll still accept submissions and such.

And yeah, I don't see BF getting rid of the tokens and support products for other games that GF9 makes, but it probably depends more on how the license renewal works whenever it comes up. It's nice to have a good place for quality tokens and that sort of thing for lots of games, and hopefully that will continue. GF9 has done some really cool 15mm terrain for FOW too, so I imagine we'll be seeing more of that too.

Honestly though, if BF wasn't planning on continuing on with the sort of accessories for multiple games niche that GF9 has established, I'm not really sure why the would have gone to the trouble of buying them, rather than just making their own tokens and accessories for FOW.

**robertsjf**

Agamemnon2 wrote:and I trust Battlefront cannot change it into their version of WD without angering a vast reader base

Ad for Battlefront Tiger pg 2
Ad for Battlefront Stuart Platoon pg 4
Ad for Battlefront Russian Mid War Infantry Company pg 5
etc....

**Hordini**

Is that in the latest issue, robertsjf?

**chaplaingrabthar**

Did NOT see that coming. I mean, I knew FoW was doing well (might finally bite the bullet and start my own [2nd Ox & Bucks, D Company] British Airlanding Force) but not well enough for WotC-style expansion from Battlefront

**chris_valera**

chaplaingrabthar wrote:Did NOT see that coming. I mean, I knew FoW was doing well ... but not well enough for WotC-style expansion

Pretty much my reaction. But good on them for having the cash-in-hand to buy out another profitable company, one that will continue to add revenue to their bottom line in the face of an economic downturn. Pretty ballsy move to make, in the face of a possible recession.

Smart move, no matter how you slice it.

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com

**two_heads_talking**

I wish John of GF9 would post up and give us his "outlook" on things.. I know he used to lurk here, wonder if he's still around?

**Captain Vyper**

Hopefully they will allow GF9 to keep truckin, GF9 make great stuff for everyone elses game. If it aint broke dont fix it. I am sure there will be a few things that change but thats the nature of such things. What I do hope to see it GF9 release their wod form build kits finaly, and not just for high end high price tag custom tabels.

I spoke with one of their guys at length while at GenCon a few years back about that. He said basically GF9 would only relase finished products so there stuff all ways looked good ( or at least good to them) and finished products have a appropriate price tag. They just did not want "naked" kits with their name on them going to the masses. A bit of lofty thought for a small business esp as their great price points on stuff. I think they could have made a mint. Hopefully with BattleFront's money backing them they can push these out. Minature Scenry out of Oz and Flying Tricycle are the only ones doing these sort of building currently anothe compant would not hurt that market. Beside the Oz ones are getting harder to get as the War store isnt stocking them any mmore and FT has not made anything new in forever!

I own a TON of GF9 stuff, love their product I hope they keep on truckin