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Here is something i thought was kinda neat.I went to my two local fow retailers and it looks like flames of war is beating the pants off GW in sales in my area.One store is constantly severly low on stock and he restocks on a regular basis and the other one has more product than gw.He has just as good of a selection as the Warstore!!i even heard him talking about FOW,saying that it is his most popular wargaming product!Does anyone have a simailar story they would like to share?

I wish I did. If it's not some sort of card game or GW product, then our NSFLGS is not to interested. FoW was a big thing once, but they have no desire to stock any of Battlefront items.

I would agree with this based on my own observations and anecdotal pieces, however I haven't yet seen any figures or empirical data. I for one shifted on the basis of price alone.

That doesn't sound like much of a basis for concluding that FoW is more popular than games like WH40k. If the internet is any guide, GW's games are still far more popular. Just look at the responses to any thread on WH40k compared to other systems. Even Warmachine, which gets a lot of attention in the US, is relatively small outside the US. And of course GW has its own retail outlets - a lot of independent retailers don't like to stock GW stuff, and focus on other systems. I'm sure there are areas where FoW is the most popular game amongst the wargaming community, but that's about it. That may change, of course, although I suspect that there's a limit to the popularity of a game based on a historical conflict. There's another angle - Battlefront minis don't really appeal to non-gamers, as they're essentially just wargaming pieces. None of this is a dig at FoW, I just think your observation is a bit of a stretch.

I know no-one who plays FOW... My historical group all play KGN and Rapid Fire.

Tailgunner wrote:That doesn't sound like much of a basis for concluding that FoW is more popular than games like WH40k. If the internet is any guide, GW's games are still far more popular. Just look at the responses to any thread on WH40k compared to other systems. Even Warmachine, which gets a lot of attention in the US, is relatively small outside the US. And of course GW has its own retail outlets - a lot of independent retailers don't like to stock GW stuff, and focus on other systems. I'm sure there are areas where FoW is the most popular game amongst the wargaming community, but that's about it. That may change, of course, although I suspect that there's a limit to the popularity of a game based on a historical conflict. There's another angle - Battlefront minis don't really appeal to non-gamers, as they're essentially just wargaming pieces. None of this is a dig at FoW, I just think your observation is a bit of a stretch.

MAybe where you live At.Most of players i my area,the serious players are almost all Veterans.Here is one good example.One of my players was in the 173 Airborne when they made their Air drop into Iraq.He plays USA Para,that is Artillery heavy.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Here is something i thought was kinda neat.I went to my two local fow retailers and it looks like flames of war is beating the pants off GW in sales in my area.One store is constantly severly low on stock and he restocks on a regular basis and the other one has more product than gw.He has just as good of a selection as the Warstore!!i even heard him talking about FOW,saying that it is his most popular wargaming product!Does anyone have a simailar story they would like to share?

This is not the case in my area, either. Though my FLGS does carry a decent stock of FoW, it occupies a small corner of a wall, and they do not seem to have anywhere near the full range of blisters and boxes (though this might be partially my biased in playing Italians ). GW games, on the other hand, occupy a full wall plus some of the store, and most everything is kept in stock.
Play wise, however, Warmachine seems to be the biggest, with Warhammer 40k and FoW behind it. Most of the regular Warhammer 40k (my area never was big on Fantasy) players in my area [Including me] have given up on GW games and switched to Warmachine or FoW, though most play Warmachine now.

I liked the idea of Warmachine, then realized I may have to spend just as much on the models as GW charges for theirs. Hence Malifaux. All of my FoW items come from the Warstore.

well in my area FoW has replaced 40k, there used to be 6-10 40k people every week now theres 1-2 and 4-10 FoW.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Here is something i thought was kinda neat.I went to my two local fow retailers and it looks like flames of war is beating the pants off GW in sales in my area.One store is constantly severly low on stock and he restocks on a regular basis and the other one has more product than gw.He has just as good of a selection as the Warstore!!i even heard him talking about FOW,saying that it is his most popular wargaming product!Does anyone have a simailar story they would like to share?

At my FLGS Flames of War is the biggest of the mini playing groups and Warmachine is the second. Malifaux is starting to build a following. 40k is rarely played and I have not seen nor heard of anyone playing WFB in the store ever. A few other games happen a little more often than 40k. A lot of the gamers in the store are older and that might have an impact. The youngest players in our FoW league are 10 and 13 I think...the next youngest player is around 30.

GW has just done a good job of pushing itself out of my local market: Extreme requiremnets for retailer minimums to carry specific lines; Continually rising prices (anyone note the $33 price tag on the 40k 25th anniversary figure??); Instead of writing good rules and improving them with later versions they instead change the rules and instead of making them better make them "different". FoW, Warmachine and Malifaux are all well written games, that seem ready to improve themselves as they go forward. Their prices are not necessarily cheap, but you can pick and army that will enable you to minimize costs in Warmachine and FoW, and Malifaux just doesn't require that many minis anyway. Add in other customer service aspects like Battlefront printing and distributing free sticker pages to correct lists in some EW books due to rules changes brought about by customer complaints and issues and giving away free V.3 rulebooks to existing players with the full V.2 rulebook and you get fewer reasons to bother with 40k.

Mind you I still buy 40k minis from time to time. Working on two armies right now and thinking of getting back into Lord of the Rings for a fantasy fix, but FoW I play pretty much every Sunday at my FLGS so it gets a lot of my diposable income.

Skriker

Only two in my group play FOW, myself and one other.

In the UK I would go as far as to say FOW is not even the most popular WW2 game, that would be Rapid Fire I reckon.

In South Wales Flames of War is very popular and is gaining all the time. I know of 28mm WWII wargaming but the scale makes things clumsy and almost Platoon sized actions which is IMHO crap.

Big P wrote:I know no-one who plays FOW... My historical group all play KGN and Rapid Fire.

Don't play Force on Force anymore Piers?

I still love your Ambush Valley Piers, thanks for making a game 'that's fun for the PAVN/VC player also.'