D&D Minis vs. Warhammer?

[edge3343]

Warhammer is a racket. I got so sick of GW changing stuff, I now have well over $1000 in old Warhammer minis that have seen more action on the D&D table than they ever did on a battle field.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I doubt it. Warhammer is designed to cycle in new players every 4 or 5 years. Plus, the market for the D&D minis is much different from Warhammer. Granted, there is some overlap, but there are a lot of Warhammer players that never play D&D. Games Workshop is an industry juggernaut. It would take something of insanely huge proportions to cut into their market share. Even with the ridiculous prices and increases there is no stopping them. I'd love to see another company stick it to them, but it'll likely never happen. Of all the companies, I'd say Rackham has the best chance.

 

[Flyspeck23]

The difference with the D&D minis is that they are poor quality (comparred to the Warhammer ones) and there is no real talent involved with putting the army together (in terms of assembly and painting).

But most kids playing Warhammer (and nowadays there are more teenagers playing it than adults) don't paint their collection at all, or only apply one or two basic colors - seeing the insane amount of miniatures they carry away after each visit of the FLGS*, that's no wonder.

I'd guess that a sizeable percentage of Warhammer players would see an increase of quality of their collection's painting if they'd switch to D&D miniatures


[* I've seen it a few years ago, working as a clerk in a small comic book/gaming store.]

 

[Captain NeMo]

Naww, D&D couldn't cut into GW's sales simply because far too many people have already sold their souls to them. I personally have spent about £200-300 on warhammer over the past year and regret it, big time. Every time a price increase is announced, the reaction on major Gw forums is: "Oh my god, another increase?! GW suck! But I guess it'll be worth it for that kool new marine type...."

But yeah, Rackham have the best chance of sticking it to 'em.

 

[wingsandsword]

As I've often heard it said: "Warhammer 40k, truth in advertising, because it takes $40,000 to get started"

But yeah, as others have said, my FLGS dedicates about 1/4 of it's entire retail space to GW stuff, and every time I'm in there I always see somebody buying at least $100 of Games Workshop stuff. They have their dedicated, loyal fan base and D&D Minis isn't going to phase that really.

 

[SWBaxter]

In terms of popularity, is the D&D skirmish game cutting into the popularity of such games as Warhammer? Just from the cheaper cost factor, I could see how it might...

Warhammer marketing encourages their customers to treat it as a lifestyle more than a hobby - you buy Citadel minis and paints, GW rules, plus wildly overpriced glue/tools/flock/terrain/etc. and then spend huge amounts of time practicing and perfecting painting techniques so you can eventually show the whole thing off at a Grand Tournament. From that point of view, cheaper cost factor simply isn't important - GW aren't marketing to price-sensitive people, their plan specifically involves hooking customers who like to spend huge amounts of money and time on a gorgeous army that they may or may not play some day.

I think the first D&D minis game might have been aimed at the Warhammer audience, since that sold unpainted metal minis. Clearly, WOTC changed their mind about the customer they want to go after - I suspect that's at least partly due to a failure to dent Warhammer's custoemr base - and the current pre-painted plastics are the result. WOTC is going after D&Ders and mini gamers who want a bunch of minis they can use right now, whether it's in a D&D game or at a small game store tourney, and don't much care if the minis don't look that great in comparison to Warhammer/Reaper/whatever. If the D&D minis are impacting other companies, I'd think it'd more likely be MageKnight and Heroclix. Just at my local store, it looks like MageKnight have taken a hit - almost no tournaments and events - but Heroclix are really strong, played more than D&D or Star Wars.