http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/7.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net GW 40k/fantasy have been the main wargames for 15+ years. We have a great club scene and lots of regular tournaments.
However, increasingly people have become a bit jaded with GW (embargo, etc) and have moved on to other games. Warmachine and Malifaux especially have picked up a lot of players. This has actually lead to a huge fragmentation of the player base, such that you're not guaranteed to get a game of whatever you've brought along to a club because everyone has picked up a different set.

I want to get people in to Dust Warfare. I think its a great game that has a closer scale analogue to 40k than Warmachine does: a typical game has 8-12 squads of troops backed up by 2-6 vehicles.
I have the support of a local game store who carries the full Dust Warfare/Tactics range to promote this game - they're allowing me to sell some of their Dust stock, meaning I can take some boxes along to demo games and sell it afterwards if people are interested.

How should I (or how would you, or how have you in the past) go about promoting a game to the extent that you could hold an annual tournament for that game with 20+ people attending. It doesn't have to be DUST: any game that you play that not many others do. How do you build up to tournament level? Perhaps a retailer could give an example of something they've had to do to promote a new game.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572470.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572470.page GMT
I think you'd be a lot more successful by getting people to try the game rather than just show pictures/talk to them about it.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572504.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572504.page GMT
You don't have to make the game walk on water, but if it looks good on the table, you can discuss the game with a good conversational skill, and know what your talking about, you'll do fine.

People like seeing new games. Especailly if they are presented by people who know what they are talking about.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572610.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4572610.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4575805.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4575805.page GMT
And if you have access to weblinks that show off some cool paintted armies and/or the game's homepage the better.

Just some thoughts. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4575855.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4575855.page GMT FLGS about whether he'd be interested in stocking it if I can garner enough interest. So really, from my own personal experience - have everything you need to demo it, make it look good and make it fun ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4578889.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4578889.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4613139.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4613139.page GMT -Full knowlege of the rules
-NIce thematic terrain.
-Well painted figures
-A really friendly manner

That's really all you can do. If it still doesn't catch on, then it wasn't meant to be.

I'm a member of a club that doesn't play any mainstream wargames, but rather than trying to promote a new scene, we just searched around for like-minded players and started a small group. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4614859.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4614859.page GMT
However in my area there has been a guy running Warmachine demo's for awhile, and has generated much interest. Probably because he's a toon and likes to show off various internet broken combo's on the people he's teaching.

Best way to run a demo is to take 2 people who are interested, and walk them through playing each other.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4632781.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/465153/4632781.page GMT