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Even complicated games are easy to learn if there is an enthusiastic player eager to teach you how to play.

 godardc wrote:
Isn't Space Hulk a bit too much complicated for being a family game ?

Space Hulk has very simple, logical mechanics. Very straightforward, at least in it's basic form, and I've used it to introduce people to wargaming/40k.

That being said it's utterly unsuitable as a family game simple because unless you start splitting up squads of marines or control of the Genestealers it's only a two player game.

I'm not sure what GW games I'd recommend as family games (which for me have to be fast, fun and pick-up-and-play). In amongst the massive variety of modern family games now available think you'd have to be pretty GW-mad to push one forward as a preferable option. Possibly going back to something like Space Crusade or Trolls in the Pantry? Although I haven't played the new Warhammer Quest games so don't know if they would be suitable.

Assassinorum could be a family game if the assassins were push fit models
4 players, quick to play and easy rules

 godardc wrote:
Assassinorum could be a family game if the assassins were push fit models
4 players, quick to play and easy rules

That was going to be my suggestion. It's a surprisingly okay game hampered by its lack of variation in replay. I bought it for the assassins (got a deal where the box cost less than the four assassin models) expecting nothing from the game and was pleasantly surprised.

That Barnes & Noble exclusive game with the Space Marines and Necrons looks great for younger players - as well as us old timers who fondly remember Space Crusade. Using tokens for the Necrons was quite sensible, but if one really wanted the miniatures that badly, then the "Start collecting Necrons" box set would fix that. Shame its not here in the UK...

They've also done a lite version of Blood Bowl called Blitz Bowl which makes one wonder if Necromunda could have one of its own....

Never knew blitz bowl was BB lite !
Yeah I could see push fit premade gangs, some carboard terrains ala Dark Imperium etc. and light rules.
Could work !
But no, Necro isn't a dead game: where I live, there are few games in stores / flgs but several campaigns have been launched since october by different people

A couple of mates have been waiting for the game to finish being released.
We bought the starter box. We played it a couple of times on the tiles from the starter.
I got Gang Wars 1-4, and a Van Saar box. I've been buying scenery for use in 40k and KT since Shadow Wars, to use in this.
When the books were re-released, we got the ePub versions.

We're only just now working on getting games going.

To add to the comments about stock on stores:
We went to our local 1-2 man GW store, looking to get into Blood Bowl. No stock, apart from a Skeletons team box they had returned recently.
The GW manager is well-versed in telling us to order it through the web console they have set up, and get it sent home for free.
There is no shelf space for specialist games after their first 2-4 weeks of release. If only GW learned to stock their shelves sideways, and they could do what FLGS do, actually sell stuff people come in asking about. The non-GW store had a couple of BB teams in, loads of the cards packs (that GW has no stock of any more), but no rules or starter box.
GW doesn't know how to handle the specialist games after the Warhammer rebranding they kicked off a couple of years ago.

I think part of it is also production strain. Don't forget over this last year we've seen the GW main store run out of stock on quite a few things and that's with over 800 products not being stocked in stores (both own and 3rd party) and being weborder only.

The new factory GW is building might well help resolve these issues; allowing GW to produce more stock to allow specialist games to be stocked in their local stores in greater volume.


They might also try other tricks such as producing re-useable cards so that they can have a shelf of product cards that shows off the model in store, but which you then just buy, scan and order for home/store delivery. That not only makes the buying more interactive, but also lets GW local stores sell products that some gamers might not be aware exist and imlupse purchases on products that otherwise would only be seen online. Cheap and light on shelf space and yet lets them show off a lot more - could be used to also show off forgeworld stuff

Its a niche game so wont have mass appeal, I don't play Titanicus or Kill team don't mean its dead.

Kiarn wrote:
Its a niche game so wont have mass appeal, I don't play Titanicus or Kill team don't mean its dead.

It's only a niche game because GW doesn't market it properly or stock it at their stores.

SamusDrake wrote:
They've also done a lite version of Blood Bowl called Blitz Bowl which makes one wonder if Necromunda could have one of its own....

Minimunda: The Game of Controlling the Local Furnace Stack!

 Overread wrote:
I think part of it is also production strain. Don't forget over this last year we've seen the GW main store run out of stock on quite a few things and that's with over 800 products not being stocked in stores (both own and 3rd party) and being weborder only.

The new factory GW is building might well help resolve these issues; allowing GW to produce more stock to allow specialist games to be stocked in their local stores in greater volume.

Whilst GW do have a lot of SKUs and I understand why specialist isn't carried in most of their stores, a lot of this is a problem of their own creation. They're so afraid of 3rd parties these days that rather than making a great new modular Ork Buggy/Wartrack kit with lots of options they made six completely new products, none of which have any options (always built the same way each time) and none of which are interchangeable with one another. And for the Orks, no less, the single most ramshackle kit-bashy race in any of their games. For a company that has problems getting things in stock for months, I don't see how intentionally adding a ton of very similar products to their already stretched production lines is a good idea.

 Toofast wrote:

Kiarn wrote:
Its a niche game so wont have mass appeal, I don't play Titanicus or Kill team don't mean its dead.

It's only a niche game because GW doesn't mark it properly or stock it at their stores.

We have seen this before!

Necromunda is discussed in fierce details over at yaktribe every day. I play it regularly with my friends. But nobody else is watching us play.

Baxx wrote:
Necromunda is discussed in fierce details over at yaktribe every day. I play it regularly with my friends. But nobody else is watching us play.

You're also in Norway. Specialist games seem to be much more popular in Europe than they are here in the states. We don't have gaming clubs, we have Warhammer stores and FLGS. If a product line isn't stocked at either of those locations, and no official events are run for that game system (like the recent Kill Team campaign organized by GW HQ), the game is not played. That was the case when I lived in Ohio, Alabama, and in Florida. Talking to my friends around the Southeast, that's the case in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky as well.

Why you don't have gaming clubs? I only know the gaming history from the city I grew up, but apart from starting playing in the basement and at friends, the gaming club was the foundation where you met new people and the hobby grew. It is the free-minded open community, where people bring whatever minis they like, play whatever game they like and pay a yearly fee of about 30$. What is or isn't stocked in any store has little to no effect. There aren't much events (locally), so what is played is what people bring to the tables. On the other hand, we never had any FLGS with space to play in.

Part of the reason I play specialist games today is nostalgia. Necromunda was the first miniature game I ever played, so it has a special history to me. Blood Bowl was also one of the early games I played, along with GorkaMorka, Mordheim, Battlefleet gothic etc. I'm not quite up to date with all the numerous games around today, but I see others at the club play things like batman miniature game, some x-wing, star wars miniature game, bolt action, flames of war, kill team and shadespire etc. Of course games like 40k and fantasy/AoS has always been on top.

Gaming clubs are nowhere as big in the US as in other parts of the world. In Europe, I'm told, there are community centers and church halls for cheapish rent. In the US such spaces are very hard to come by and their access price is at a premium. Also, even if a church would allow cheap or free access, the moment that demon-looking guys come out (are you guys playing D&D???) on the table or war is mentioned, it can close doors.

In Washington DC I tried a group that wanted to meet in the local library, for example. It wouldn't work because the availability fo the space was always random so you couldn't plan recurring meetings. Had we tried to rent a suitable space, it would have been a few hundred dollars.

Yeah we had some problems during the past getting good locations. In the first years, most members were youths under 18 years old, so because of that we got a very nice place in a public community center (the type of place where you'll find various activities like wall climbing, skate ramps, dance practice etc). But some years later, most members were grew to be adults and that place was only preserved for youths. So we've been to various places like renting school class rooms in the evening. At the moment our club has free space at the library which is just awesome.

I haven't been able to find anyone locally to play with. And now it seems to be in direct competition with kill team, which isn't going to help at all. I'm probably going to just ebay the stuff I bought already and give up.

Necromunda is awesome... You don't have people to play against... make your own team and play... Idk if different in the states but in AU we get along and have the "mate syndrome". Years ago, I made a table asked some gaming mates to make some miniatures (was for original Hero quest or space hulk or something I think). Went from there, introduced necromunda. We played for like 10 years or something. I moved location and did the same thing. Now have a Necro group/infinity etc. We play different games but is the same format. We all play each others games etc.

Just do that. go to local, find people interested, ask questions, and then play together.

 argonak wrote:
I haven't been able to find anyone locally to play with. And now it seems to be in direct competition with kill team, which isn't going to help at all. I'm probably going to just ebay the stuff I bought already and give up.

Not to mention AOS skirmish and kill team arena. So many mini skirmish games!

Spectral Ceramite wrote:
Necromunda is awesome... You don't have people to play against... make your own team and play... Idk if different in the states but in AU we get along and have the "mate syndrome". Years ago, I made a table asked some gaming mates to make some miniatures (was for original Hero quest or space hulk or something I think). Went from there, introduced necromunda. We played for like 10 years or something. I moved location and did the same thing. Now have a Necro group/infinity etc. We play different games but is the same format. We all play each others games etc.

Just do that. go to local, find people interested, ask questions, and then play together.

..

Baxx wrote:
Why you don't have gaming clubs?

In the cities I've lived in, there was no suitable space to have a gaming club other than renting a store in a strip mall. That requires a business license, insurance can be expensive, and rent is typically $2k+. If you only charged $30/yr, you would need 800 people to sign up, and that's just to cover rent. That doesn't even factor in insurance, utilities, tables, play mats, terrain, lockers, TV, internet access, etc. It's just not economically feasible here. Libraries don't have space that's always available and it's too hard to bring tables, gaming boards and terrain and set it up every time you want to play. An apartment would be too small and not laid out very well for that type of thing. I had a table at my townhouse and a few friends would come over to play sometimes, but that's not quite the same as a well established gaming club. We looked into setting one up but even in Alabama where rent was cheap, it was still nowhere near doable unless someone who was independently wealthy was willing to cover half of the cost for the whole group.

 Toofast wrote:

Baxx wrote:
Why you don't have gaming clubs?

If you only charged $30/yr, you would need 800 people to sign up, and that's just to cover rent. That doesn't even factor in insurance, utilities, tables, play mats, terrain, lockers, TV, internet access, etc.

The club I go to is:
In a church hall, used for dance lessons, scout/guide meetings, etc. This means there is a shared 'rent' from the church, and insurance and such is part of that.
It has tables and lockers. There is a kitchen, but with just a microwave and a sink,
They charge £2 or £3 per session, adding up to ~£150 per person per year,
Terrain is either provided by players, or bought out of surplus takings.
It is open 4 hours a week.

There is no TV or internet access.
Mats are sheets, bought from a market stall, or in a sale.
Scenery is often home-made (we are lucky to have a very good modeller for that).
Other opening times were discussed, but this is often enough for most people.

So, you don't need anything dedicated, as that is a store.

 Pacific wrote:
That's a great piece of advice there, agree with it 100%

Get some gaming buddies, play the games together that you want to play. Blood Bowl, Necromunda etc were games with thriving communities before the relaunches. They will continue to thrive long after GW has stopped releasing new items for them.

These new releases now will help prop up these communities even more, and get a whole generation of younger players that weren't about first time around, to get into them. And rightly so, as Necromunda is a bloody brilliant game, in one of the most immersive and downright cool settings that GW have ever produced.

Yep. Works here too as well for smaller games.

From what I've read the issues with hobby clubs and the USA is linked to a few elements:

1) They have more retail outlets with gaming space; which aren't just GW stores. So there's often more store level support, even if the store only supports select titles (and most geek stores heavily support Magic the Gathering before wargames); its already acting as the social hub for the area.

2) They don't have the same hobby club level support network. The UK (as an example) is readily used to the idea of community centres and church halls being used for clubs; and at the kind of finances clubs operate with and are thus able to pay.

3) In some areas of the USA there are religious limitations on the use of things like Warhammer in church properties - demons, blood, magic and such are frowned upon and would not be permitted.


I think its a cultural thing, however it could also be that with more active store support a culture of club formation hasn't grown up as strongly.

 Overread wrote:
From what I've read the issues with hobby clubs and the USA is linked to a few elements:
2) They don't have the same hobby club level support network. The UK (as an example) is readily used to the idea of community centres and church halls being used for clubs; and at the kind of finances clubs operate with and are thus able to pay.
3) In some areas of the USA there are religious limitations on the use of things like Warhammer in church properties - demons, blood, magic and such are frowned upon and would not be permitted.
I think its a cultural thing, however it could also be that with more active store support a culture of club formation hasn't grown up as strongly.

Or a sports club, or art store, or whatever. If shops have a spare room for groups to use, space is the main requirement.

But, I've dragged this way off-topic, so sorry about that.

Definitely a dead game locally for sure. Still trying to scrape up a player or two. Building from the ground up is the only choice. No necormunda comunity to speak of. How long before they discontinue the models ?

Ah yes. Locally dead so dead worldwide. What an amazing pile of evidence!

Oh wait. It's the OP with his crusade against specialist games.

tneva82 wrote:

Oh wait. It's the OP with his crusade against specialist games.

Its more of a general gak posting crusade.

tneva82 wrote:
Ah yes. Locally dead so dead worldwide. What an amazing pile of evidence!

Oh wait. It's the OP with his crusade against specialist games.

Unfortunately I do not have access to the “worldwide” player base.

I actually own necromunda and I am attempting to build up a small group of players with some friends. It’s our only choice as locally necromunda is dead. There is no necromunda scene at the local FLGS or GWs.