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So we used to have 18 40k players that played several times a week, over that past year and a half we have maybe 3-5 guys that play once a week if that. It seems most people have fled to Warmahordes, X-wing, and STAW with some players moving to Mantic and (whoever makes blackpowder). Are you guys seeing a similar outflow. Hell to be honest there is more talk and excitement/dread over the Borg Cube coming out then there is 7th edition.

I think a lot of it has to do with organization and events. We have a guy at my FLGS (Not the owner) who sets up and manages multiple events every month like campaigns and tournaments. A majority of the events are based around Warhammer but they include other games like Warmahordes so it keeps the interest up and helps the store owner to move product.

If you're only playing random pickup games then I can see where the interest might fall off.

A local group I keep in contact with is heading that way. You see people talk about painting 40k stuff, but you also see people talking about wanting to get a game in, and some times those same people getting angry because nobody plays anymore.

Everyone just moved over to warmachine for the most part.

I'm still holding on to my warhammer fantasy army. Even if it feels like only 5 people in the USA play it.

Not just in my FLGS, but also in my meta in general.

Everyone is moving on to Warmahordes.

The whole Fantasy crew at my FLGS split up at the begining of this year. They have been going out for quite sometime now. The Fantasy day became a bring in your whatever game day and now is a vacant spot. The 40k group is still around, although it is not growing there is still a few vets that can gripe about every new edition. The other store, a bit longer of a drive away, has many more 40k players although I have never been there to play a game with them yet. And the new GW in my area has maybe 8 people that show up to play games.

Not really. my FLGS is doing well, the Fantasy guys I don't see often anymore but I think they are gone for personal reasons of their own (like work and family)/
40k is doing just fine if not doing rather well. we are slowly getting more people, I think 2 guys just joined and got eldar and some other army recently.

Sigh, I wish my local games club played WHFB.

Even the local GW store doesn't have any players for it.

:-(.

My local local area just had its biggest fantasy tournament ever with 26 or so people and 40k seems to be doing well with roughly double that, but that is all thanks to a relatively new club running events.

The FLGS they meet at has just swapped managers and decided its no longer profitable to stay open Friday night's for them and the local GW recently got a new manager too, which is not a good sign. Looking beyond the 30 minute drive radius of me fantasy tourneys are down to 20 odd players from the 100 or so they could draw before 8th. 49k isn't nearly as dire but its definitely not selling as well as it used to.

Fantasy is pretty much dead as can be. Very few players.

40k is trudging on, but it is nowhere near as popular as it used to be.

We have no market for Fantasy.

But 40k is still going strong. We operate in a college town in the rural midwest, so we're suffering a little letdown in attendance based on winter being over and outside activities being back on the table. We've still got regulars, and our numbers should swell back up in the fall. We do lose our teenage players to the Clix crowd regularly, but they didn't really play seriously anyhow.

40K is doing rather well at my FLGS. We are in a six month long campaign and about to go into month five so it's still active. Though there is talks of a lot of people starting up Warmachine. Fantasy on the other hand is non-existent where I am sadly.

After seeing the new rule book , a lot of people put their armies on sale. I wouldn't say that w40k is dead , but out of 30+ people playing it . Half played it only durning tournaments and now most of those are droping the game in favor of other systems.

WFB is kind of a dead , the only people that play it are veterans with huge armies. There wasn't a new WFB player in months. Some people tried , but when they heard how much a 2500 army costs , they all quit. Right now there are more infinity players then WFB players and WFB day was changed in to a Infinity night ,and the store doesn't even sell infinity .

Well, it seems to be, at least to a certain extent.

The veteran players seem to move to WM/H while the players who returned from a break are playtesting 40k or Fantasy.

From about 35-40 regulars, where most had 40k and Fantasy and dominance of one system over the other went in waves, my local club is down to about 5-6 guys in Fantasy and another 5-6 in 40k, and 10-12 in Warmachine.

We still have a large 40k and fantasy following. But many people also play X-wing, Warmahordes, Malifaux.

We still have a specialist game day however.

I mostly play at home now a days because feth driving across Capetown to get to a game. You want to play me? You come over to my house brah.

This also means I have no idea what the FLGS are like anymore.

Another observation at our local store is that there are basically no new players who want to get into the hobby, just players who came back from a longer break.
Dying is not the right word, maybe shrinking.

6/7 days the local store is awash with MTG kids - not being derogatory, the average age is probably 12-13. Tuesday nights a handful of 40k players practice for this tournament or that. I couldn't really care less, as I exclusively play at private homes or the local club.

I know 40k is prevalent in my local club but several people have been talking about moving away from GW products. X wing/Star Trek has really picked up recently and I myself have been eying up Malifaux for a while.

40K is still pretty strong ay my local club, but theres a good spread of other games and systems now. Fantasy has withered from being game #1 with the majority of people playing and prepping for tournaments to almost nothing - there was a game last week which drew comments from people because of being such a rarity nowadays.

In here fantasy seems to be much more popular because of polish players' fixation on ETC-comped tournament games. As for 40k.. lately it's doing better because as far as we only had a handful of 40k players, few fresh guys came to ask around and start buying 40k armies, so our more experienced players can be of help when it comes to list building, playing and making a purchase plan.

But overall it's TCG's that rule at our FLGS for some time now and younger generations tend to start M:tG decks rather than toy soldier armies. That being said, GW stuff sells like hot cake here with the owner constantly having to order additional stuff for people, so I guess the hobby's not dead!

They're long dead. And we used to have a huge community for both.

The games are not dead. if they were then GW would be an exclusively online retailer by now, maybe attending (and being ignored, just like Battlefront at the Derby show) the odd wargames show.

It is the physical community that is dying. For some reason or another, judging by a lot of the comments on this forum, and others, as well as people I have spoken to, People are playing the games more in private homes or small private clubs and rather than having the social interaction of a club or FLGS, they have access to forums such as dakkadakka. Why travel to a FLGS or club when you can make friends on dakka and game with your own group of friends in the comfort of your own home? People used to go to clubs for the social side of the game, but now this is indecline as forums become more popular, the community is dying as a physical community through such things as a lack of support from GW, and growing as an internet community.


Though the prevalence of popular new alternative's such as infinity and warmachine + GW's price rises and changes to the game haven't helped..but

Maybe because the player base is shrinking it's forcing GW to put up their prices. As less people buy their stuff, so their profit goes down, increase the price and you get to stay around your profit margin (maybe)

Add to all this the fact it's now summer in the Western half of the world, and I' don't know about most people, but i'd rather be outside playing cricket, re enacting or engaging in some other outdoor activity rather than stay inside painting figures and pushing them round a table, I leave that for the winter months.

 necrovamp wrote:
Maybe because the player base is shrinking it's forcing GW to put up their prices. As less people buy their stuff, so their profit goes down, increase the price and you get to stay around your profit margin (maybe)

As an Australian I can tell you right now that, at least in our part of the world, the price increases definitely did come before the players leaving the game.

We have shrunk from seven to four active 40K players here. We're very much friends outside of 40K as well but we find ourselves playing and painting less and less often.

 necrovamp wrote:

Maybe because the player base is shrinking it's forcing GW to put up their prices. As less people buy their stuff, so their profit goes down, increase the price and you get to stay around your profit margin (maybe)

Or perhaps the player base is shrinking because the buy-in to start the game has become so expensive that it is no longer attracting new blood... ?

We are seeing fewer and fewer new players entering the games systems, the prices also see old players putting the stuff down and looking for something else and then? Ever decreasing circles, ever decreasing player bases, those willing to remain and stomach the prices can't get games and throw in the towel to go play new systems with their already left mates...

We are privy to the sales figures for GW, whilst price has climbed steeply over the years, we have not seen a matching rise in sales and of late, seen little to no growth. That means a shrinking sales base.

That's really not good. So, perhaps, maybe, GW might look at holding prices level or even lowering them... But that would mean admitting something about their current tactic, and that seems to be a difficult option for a company with such a bullish public persona.

There's been a decisive shift to Mantic's games, along with XWing, at my gaming club. We've got a core of about 8 members, all of which used to be avid 40k players.

One of us sold up lock stock and barrel when Escalation was announced to be tournament legal. One of us got hold of a pre release copy of Deadzone and got a lot of people hooked, which led on to Dreadball, which everyone seems to love. And then half of us have pledged on the DBX Kisckstarter. XWing came next and a few of us have dabbled in Malifaux and expressed an interest in Dropzone Commander and Kings of War (and Warpath when it hits KS).

Most of us have still got 40k armies, but it's becoming more common to get through an entire session without ever seeing a tape measure.

Thanks for the replies so far, I have seen several people play Dropzone Commander however our LGS dislikes it because he can't order it. Is Malifaux a solid system and good replacement for Fantasy?

Its getting to be that way in my area, we have a few dedicated guys fo weekly games. The tournement scene is a little better

I play Malifaux and I love it, however I would compare it to Mordinhiem not Fantasy. Kings of War (Mantic) is an excellent replacment to Fantasy and what's even better, you can use your GW armies. The regimental mechanics are so much better than the GW hoard and small unit mechanics.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 necrovamp wrote:

Maybe because the player base is shrinking it's forcing GW to put up their prices. As less people buy their stuff, so their profit goes down, increase the price and you get to stay around your profit margin (maybe)

Or perhaps the player base is shrinking because the buy-in to start the game has become so expensive that it is no longer attracting new blood... ?

This.

BTW I dont like playing with people I dont know, and currently only play with friends who actually arent into the hobby, but are happy to use whatever I have. They enjoy the game, but scoff at the prices, and have never painted or anything. So I do all the work. And I am ok with that. I have never been one to hang out at gaming stores and try to pick up a random game with some random. But as I look at the prices I think of my friends and how the price of the hobby is such a barrier. Its why I try to make the most out of the starter sets each time I get one. And I rarely build much beyond them.