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I was online this morning shopping for some cables for my Electronics this and found this,
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ambush-Valley-Vietnam-1965-1975/15760715
I know they have been expanding into Wargaming rules.They even have a few 20mm ww2 models listed with the sourcebooks.
It looks like wal Mart atm actualy haves most of the Osprey and Warlord GAmes rules and sourcebooks in stock,Nice discount free shipping.THis is kool as hell for me being a Rural living USA COrnbelt, Mid westerner.Makes getting source books alot easier for us.
Now with my bithday being a NoN drinker now.It looks like i may have to pick me the rulebooks that i have been wanting now.
FOrce on Force with the coldwar and Vietnam supplements and a BA Core rulebook. Again wow Walmart is even selling NAp rules.
I think this great for Historical gaming and will help make it more into the Mainstream even more.It is just funny how Gw has told walmart before to sit on it .You will never be a wargaming retailer.Now with this nice partnering with OSprey Publishing and walmart i think is great for us gamers.
Especilly for new players and the youngers ones with doubting parents about the hobby,Just point that you can go to wal mart and buy the models and supplies that you need.
A few last thigs again wow and a nice discount,http://www.walmart.com/ip/Field-of-Glory-Napoleonic-Wargaming-Rules-for-Napoleonic-Tabletop-Gaming/1693
This one is For Big P, Now that your work is being sold wal Mart.Anyway do you think OSprey will ever or do they help with the BAttlegroups rules set books for publishing or Distrubution?Because i know a few people that wouls be interested in playing if they could get the books easier.
Time to Gloat.
hahah GW,your sales are going down the Toliet like last nites Beer and Buritos.Because of your arrogance me and hundreds of other gamers have left.I had 20 yrs plus wrap up with them and now seeing this i think are divorice has just been finalized.DUE to your bad attitude and high prices.But thanks for taking my wargaming Virginity.
enough for now,before i go into a rant.
One last thing ,ROck on OSprey for partnering with Walmart for Book sales.It might turn out to be true that BA is slowly becoming the New 40k and why not it was written by the GW 40k and Fantasy Designers.

Wow I thought this was a joke. But they really do have the rule books. Well is this just not a kick in the face to all the game stores. I have a prediction here. Once the word gets out to all the independent stores bolt action will be the shortest lived game in history with everyone refusing to sell it or allow it to be played at there shop. Hope Wal Mart starts selling the models and allows people to play there.

Well... never thought my book would be in Walmart!

Nope, Osprey has nothing to do with Battlegroup, all done by Warwick and me.

Wow, congrats Bip P! (I guess?!)

You see quite a few of the Warlord books in the big internet discount sellers (More4Less and the like), definitely think they can only benefit from getting as much distribution as possible.

It's a shame that Hobbycraft here in the UK doesn't sell Battlefront or Mantic stuff any more, although AFAIK they seem to have cut back on everything that isn't a sparkly stuff to put on top of cakes. Stores local to me have even stopped selling GW stuff actually.

Pacific - some forbidden planet stores stock the books and some minis most will order in if wanted

I will be impressed when I actually see it on a shelf of a Big Box and not an online store. The only recent "wargame" I have seen do that is X-wing for a Holiday Saeason.

Chances are they have none actually in stock, they just wait until someone orders it and get the orders for the week fulfilled using "Just In Time" logistics.

I have often seen rulebooks such as Osprey's publications in major book shops.

I bought my Bolt Action books off the shelf at a Chapters location here in Canada (Chapters/Indigo is a nation wide book seller).

yeah, if you look at Wal Mart's site, the books aren't actually no the shelves. I looked to see if there was a store near me that had it, and they could all have it delivered and ready for pick up by Sept 5. So none actually in stock at the physical store

Fireraven wrote:
Wow I thought this was a joke. But they really do have the rule books. Well is this just not a kick in the face to all the game stores. I have a prediction here. Once the word gets out to all the independent stores bolt action will be the shortest lived game in history with everyone refusing to sell it or allow it to be played at there shop. Hope Wal Mart starts selling the models and allows people to play there.

Ridiculously and childishly over-react much?

There are a lot of RPGs and "gamer" boardgames like Descent available from retailers like Book Depository, Ozgameshop (an online videogame retailer - they also sell miniatures like FoW). How about major retail chains like Target selling FFG's X-Wing?
This argument sounds a lot like GW's excuse for shuttering sales to online retailers, and deserves the same level of contempt. Anything that gets out hobby wider availability is a good thing.

Absolutely! This hobby needs to do everything it can to make sure it reaches the next generations, and boxes & books on the highstreet are still an important part of that.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I have often seen rulebooks such as Osprey's publications in major book shops.

Yes right, my local Waterstones has Ambush Alley, the Osprey books and copies of Descent, X-Wing (amongst numerous other board games).

Its a real shame that GW hasn't been actively pushing to spread the hobby. They're the ones with the power and position to do so, and they'd be the ones best placed to benefit from a general increase in wargaming. I've never understood why they won't advertise and work to make deals with other companies to spread their product around.

 argonak wrote:
Its a real shame that GW hasn't been actively pushing to spread the hobby. They're the ones with the power and position to do so, and they'd be the ones best placed to benefit from a general increase in wargaming. I've never understood why they won't advertise and work to make deals with other companies to spread their product around.

Deals? With other companies? This is Games Workshop! They think that people will buy their stuff just because they have maybe one or two stores in the local region and because their buddies told them to. Oh, and when people who are interested do come to have a look they'll find that the store is closed for lunch break.

The B&N closest to me had In Her Majesty's Name and the first expansion book in stock for a while. I have yet to see B&N stock a proper historical rule set (although they do carry the other Osprey series) and my guess is there is no good place in the store to sell it. If only big box chains had a "table top wargaming" section!

On the other side of the coin, I have not seen GW products (minus the odd WD) in big box stores for about 5 years now.

The greatest thing GW ever did was get their stuff in Barnes and Noble because then it all got clearanced at 90% off within a year and a lot of deals were to be had

GW's complete package contains just too many products to make sense for a main stream book store. We've all seen product sit on store shelves for years. A given person is interested in a subset of their offerings in terms of what game and army they play and if a local customer base doesn't have someone who both plays army X and wants unit Y, it can sit there indefinitely.

The historical rules books are effectively stand alone products. And they can be retailed like books rather than games, so they're a good fit.

If GW wanted to be a good fit with these retailers they'd design a product like Heroquest. And books that can be sold on their merit as books alone. Black Library somewhat fulfills this function, but with their fracturing of their lines into novellas and limited editions, GW seems to be moving away from mass market trade paperbacks even with Black Library.

 argonak wrote:
Its a real shame that GW hasn't been actively pushing to spread the hobby. They're the ones with the power and position to do so, and they'd be the ones best placed to benefit from a general increase in wargaming. I've never understood why they won't advertise and work to make deals with other companies to spread their product around.

Actually, in terms of the industry not becoming more monopolised, I think it's a good thing that GW doesn't do that. It's letting other sci-fi/fantasy and historical miniature lines prosper in the face of GW's incompetence.

I have often seen the Osprey historical reference books in regular book shops. It isn't much of a step to carry the Osprey wargame books too.

Agreed, just a matter of where to put them. B&N had the IHMN books next to the D&D (etc) stuff, which makes sense for a steampunk or mythological game but less for something like World Aflame or Ronin -- just in terms of who might be looking for it, I mean. I don't get the impression historical gamers are necessarily fans of fantasy roleplay (although there is doubtless some overlap and perhaps that is enough).

I think most veteran game-players probably buy their rulebooks from specialist suppliers like Caliver Books (UK) or Amazon or the publishers directly.

Waterstone's (a major UK bookseller) is the kind of place an idle browser might possibly see a wargame rulebook and buy it on a whim.

Amazon's prices are comparable to WalMart's, especially some of the third party sellers on Amazon.

It is cool to see WalMart carrying Osprey rules and books though. Ordering for store pick up allows folks to get it ordered then pick it up while doing their normal shopping. Cool stuff.

If you're ordering from the UK and want really cheap rulebooks, Booksetc. is pretty good - you can get the Hail Caesar rulebook for £17, the Bolt Action army books for about £7(!) Ambush Alley for about the same as well I think.