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Okay, we now have numerous manufacturers producing ranges in plastic, allowing gamers access to cheaper alternatives to GW and their frequent price hikes. So who do you think will rise above the rest in terms of popularity? Personally I think it will be Mantic's year; they are going the right way by selling their stuff as bundles and battalion boxes so people can put together armies at a more cost effective price. Also if the rumours of a possible sci/fi range are true they may even be a real threat to the status quo(not the band!).
I'd like to also mention Wargames factory as they also look promising but they really need to work on things like poor distribution of their products in the UK (can't get zombies anywhere,shops say they have been waiting all year for a restock), and actually answering their email enquiries. So what're your thoughts?

Mantic's stuff is good but MUCH MUCH too derivative of GW. Yeah yeah we're all drawing on the same fantasy archetypes blah blah blah but come on, KAOS Dwarfs? With centaurs? Yeah... sure...

I do love WGF but at this point they're too scattershot, I can't figure out what their priorities are and their once impeccable customer communications are well, quite peccable at this point.

The Perrys and Warlord put out great stuff but historicals are not for me.

Reaper only seems to do prepaints so they're not really in this game.

GW is scattershot, some years they release NOTHING I want to spend money on. Next year will depend on how the Grey Knights and Inquisition models look.

For me my money will go to the company that can provide flexible multipart modern and sci-fi kits. WGF Greatcosts are a good start, I hope to see more like that.

PP is selling so much they can't stock their distributors. The MKII rules seem to have given warmahordes a huge boost... so maybe it's a year for them to really rise in popularity?

Hard to say, if I knew (and had spare capital) I'd buy stock

Warlord's coming out with Blackpowder variants for Ancients & English Civil War. Their models are great, and they sell other companies (like the Perry's) stuff on their site as well. I think warlord will own historicals next year. I also think we'll be seeing more and more WFB empire players using 28mm historical mini's rather than GW.

I think, like Kid Kyoto, that Mantic makes great minis for a great price, but are so focused on being a GW replacement that their own game will be largely, but not completely, ignored.

PP moves from strength to strength, I expect their plastics to continue to improve.

Still, let's face it, no one is poised to take over GW's dominant market position by the end of 2011.

The questions I would like to know the answer for is this: If another company did take a chunk of GW's sales due to their awesomeness, what would GW do about it?

I don't think anyone will take over GW position in this hobby for a long, long time but other company's are planting their seeds. Wait another 5 years and we will see.

Some fantastic stuff is coming out thats non GW and people like myself are just looking for an excuse to leave.

I love my Eldar, but can't stand any of the other races. Iv already found PP replacements for some units\characters for my army. Thats money taken away from GW right there.

GW is still king, but I see definite headway for companies like Wargames Factory. Their stuff is getting much better, and still keeping a low cost. The Perrys aren't going to get a significant market share anytime soon, since they're not focusing on big selling periods like sci fi and WW2. Napoleonics are lovely and their work is excellent, but unless they start making Nazis, zombies, spacemen, or some derivative of all three we won't see them being up there with GW.

Unless GW royally screws up (more so than usual) they'll still probably be the bigshot. PP could steal the initiative I suppose though but I never really payed attention to the actual company itself. Doubt the many historicals would rise to the top top. Historicals have existed as a niche of a niche hobby. But I do not doubt their skill (or at least most of them, the one shots like Gripping Beast probably only do plastics once in a blue moon and I've grown tired of WF) I do hope I can finally get some plastic crusaders or WW1 soon though

Just took a look at wargames factory & they'll definatley be seeing some of my money for those greatcoat troopers. Cheaper & better looking than the cadians I was gonna buy as insurgents.

I'll be sticking with Warmachine, Hordes and Flames of War this year. I could well dabble in Helldorado if the English rulebook is released.

I see the demographics for 15mm WWII changing this year. Peter Pig and West Wind have both just started to release blisters, both of which undercut Battlefront's rapidly bloating prices. If someone else released a rival 1/1 15mm ruleset things could get very interesting.

I'll continue to ignore GW while their rules continue to be poor and their models overpriced.

When I was looking at alternative games to GW, I thought about Warmahordes or Flames of War as both are popular locally. The buy in for Flames of War seemed very steep, like GW steep. Unless you're doing 100 point games of WM/H (which most people aren't playing more than 35-50 points) you can get in for under 100.00 through savvy purchasing after doing some research into your chosen faction.

I think with MK2, and Privateer proving that you can overhaul your system AND release books for all of your factions in a single calendar year (if Minions hits before the end of January) that they've set the bar for all others. With Wrath due out mid year, and the further development of their plastic line, I think that Privateer Press customers are in for another great year.

George Spiggott wrote:
I see the demographics for 15mm WWII changing this year. Peter Pig and West Wind have both just started to release blisters, both of which undercut Battlefront's rapidly bloating prices. If someone else released a rival 1/1 15mm ruleset things could get very interesting.

Not to mention people are finally considering plastic 15mm. Might not have the best detail but at least you dont have to field heavy metal tanks and such

kenshin620 wrote:Not to mention people are finally considering plastic 15mm. Might not have the best detail but at least you dont have to field heavy metal tanks and such

I clean forgot about those 15mm Russians. I agree 100%.

GW have made a lot of the improvements I was looking for with the advent of 8th- better rules support and much better game balance. So I say GW, because I've grown tired of Hordes for now, at least. (I'm pretty easy to distract though so that probably won't last!)

Its still gonna be a GW year and will continue to be so after it, because aside from Beastmen (who I liked, but most on the interwebs seemed like they didn't), everything that comes to mind of what they released in 2010 was stellar.

NELS1031 wrote:Its still gonna be a GW year and will continue to be so after it, because aside from Beastmen (who I liked, but most on the interwebs seemed like they didn't), everything that comes to mind of what they released in 2010 was stellar.

Well unless you hate space marines or all the extra rulesets no one seems to play (stupid spearhead)

But yes I think GW did a brilliant job at bringing back Dark Eldar and bringing BA from the bottom to the top in one book change. If they could only satisfy the old fantasy players though

Ha, Spearhead. Imagine how much more they could have gotten done if they weren't so focused on making dumb new rules?

"Oh look, Apocalypse! I've got to run out and buy 10 Carnifexes, 3 more Prisms, 100 Tactical Mari...oh I see what you did there."

I would like to imagine it will be an Infinity year next year, but the tooth marks of reality are still sore on my hind quarters, so unfortunately I don't believe GW will be toppled from its "leading" spot.

Personally, I will be supporting alternative games where I can, like Inifnity and MERCS, even if I don't get to play, I will support with my $$$

I wish companies like Mantic et al, the best, but I also think they've really boxed themselves into a tight corner, especially as they're clearly targetting GW as a rival.

The miniatures for WM/H are starting to look a little nicer, and where before I really didn't have time for them, now they are starting to look tempting. I might poke my nose into that barrel and see what I can find.

It could very easily be a Mantic year. Fantasy is all the rage in my area and producing comparable models for much less than GW prices means that this dynamic company could wind up stealing GWs thunder. They've been open for what, a little over a year and already have 3, almost 4 armies for sale.... It will be interesting to see how far they go.

agnosto wrote:It could very easily be a Mantic year. Fantasy is all the rage in my area and producing comparable models for much less than GW prices means that this dynamic company could wind up stealing GWs thunder. They've been open for what, a little over a year and already have 3, almost 4 armies for sale.... It will be interesting to see how far they go.

That would be cool to see Mantic become more successful, because competition is great and even greater for us consumers. But like KK and Delephont said, they are just... too similiar. I've heard good things about their dwarves, elves and undead but I've never bothered to look at them. You know why? Its dwarves, elves and undead. Staple fantasy stuff that folks have been doing for decades. Boring stuff, great prices yes, but still boring.

I'd go all kinds of crazy if they produced a 28mm fantasy army themed on Arabic or Asian mythology/imagery that could be used in place of Empire or Chaos, as examples. Instead they spend their time trying to be Diet GW. And I think that will hurt them in the long run, like Delephont said.

Just my 2 cents.

Yea. Amazes me to no end that no one has done any eastern (middle to far) armies in plastic. Completely open territory that no one is doing! (why hasnt perry done plastic samurai wars yet?)

kenshin620 wrote:Yea. Amazes me to no end that no one has done any eastern (middle to far) armies in plastic. Completely open territory that no one is doing! (why hasnt perry done plastic samurai wars yet?)

There was some talk of the possibility of GW doing something like that for Fantasy. But it died fairly quickly in part due to comments about stereotyping and the inevitable issues that raises.

I would suspect that has a lot to do with why you don't see all that many ancient non-Western figures.

NELS1031 wrote:That would be cool to see Mantic become more successful, because competition is great and even greater for us consumers. But like KK and Delephont said, they are just... too similiar. I've heard good things about their dwarves, elves and undead but I've never bothered to look at them. You know why? Its dwarves, elves and undead. Staple fantasy stuff that folks have been doing for decades. Boring stuff, great prices yes, but still boring.

I'd go all kinds of crazy if they produced a 28mm fantasy army themed on Arabic or Asian mythology/imagery that could be used in place of Empire or Chaos, as examples. Instead they spend their time trying to be Diet GW. And I think that will hurt them in the long run, like Delephont said.

Just my 2 cents.

As young a company as they are I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They're kind of stuck in that they need to produce the same old boring stuff to draw a customer base before they can take a gamble and delve into something different. They're taking a small chance with the "Kaos" dwarf line and it might in fact be a test case for them to see if it's time to start going off the beaten path a bit.

Let's see where they're at in say 2 more years (still fairly soon) they could do some incredible things.

2011?

Dust Tactics and Pulp City for me, anyway.

Reaper minis has a few things going for it as well with those faction boxed sets, and PP is doing a great job of trying to stay relevent. ( If only they would revamp and rerelease thier RPG range, though...)

IMO though, 2011 is the year of the indi's. It is far time that we see a resurgence of the late 70's as far as Independent gaming companies. It's been coming to this stage for quite some time because the big dogs on the block haven't learned why Detriot failed, so expect them to start downsizing this year.

In Texas GW is dominant with 90% of the marketshare.

PP I dont think competes at all.

agnosto wrote:As young a company as they are I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They're kind of stuck in that they need to produce the same old boring stuff to draw a customer base before they can take a gamble and delve into something different.

I disagree with this, because it relies on the same ass-backwards logic GW uses: X gets model support, so X sells, therefore X is popular and should get more model support. I'd far rather they expand the market by looking for popular but unsupported concepts that they could monopolise, instead of everyone fighting over the generic orc market.

For me personally, if GW, Mantic or AoW release plastic female soldiers, they'll get my money. If that means I'll end up with AoW Dark Elves Repentia, Mantic Angels Seraphim and GW SoB SoB, so be it.

I think warmahordes will do better in the US since its more tournament driven and its more 'build' / 'list' orientated.

Wargames Factory had a great post a while back on thier forums where they explained the economics of their decisions.

Basically they look at breadth and depth of sales.

How many people will buy a set AND how many will they each buy.

So they've not done WWII yet because although many people will buy plastic WWII figures they feel each person will buy few sets since most 28mm WWII games are skirmish sized. You really don't need 100 GIs to play.

Other things like Samurai are popular in the abstract but as far as sales just not at the level of ancients, American Civil War or Napoleonics.

Fantasy and SF are different of course, but require creating your own IP which is a lot more labor intensive than googling 'Union Soldier 1862' and copying what comes up.

So that's something to keep in mind when wondering why certain eras aren't covered.

I remain shocked no one has done modern NATO and 3rd world/middle eastern insurgents in plastic but probably the issue is still depth. Lots of people might but 1 or 2 boxes but that sort of warfare just does not need 200 figures on a side.

AlexHolker wrote:

agnosto wrote:As young a company as they are I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. They're kind of stuck in that they need to produce the same old boring stuff to draw a customer base before they can take a gamble and delve into something different.

I disagree with this, because it relies on the same ass-backwards logic GW uses: X gets model support, so X sells, therefore X is popular and should get more model support. I'd far rather they expand the market by looking for popular but unsupported concepts that they could monopolise, instead of everyone fighting over the generic orc market.

For me personally, if GW, Mantic or AoW release plastic female soldiers, they'll get my money. If that means I'll end up with AoW Dark Elves Repentia, Mantic Angels Seraphim and GW SoB SoB, so be it.

I think you misunderstood my point. Mantic is playing it safe by producing decent quality miniatures at a lower price than the dominant company in the market (GW). What this does is it siphons sales from GW, building a customer base for Mantic from which they can build on later. Much like all the iPhone clones (made by samsung and other companies) and the google operating system did to Apple.

Unsupported concepts like Chaos (Khaos) Dwarfs? GW dropped them and now Mantic is going to capitalize on that (being optimistic here). Call it a test case.

Actually 2011 belongs to me.
I filed in court just yesterday my ownership of the entire year of 2011. I am being benevolent though an will only charge a $.01 (US) use tax fo anyone that plans on living in my year... I am not greedy after all.

I think GW will continue to dominate....especially with circulating rumors of more expansion and new models!