Warlord becoming the next GW?

[Kommando_J]

Before I begin, I will admit quite freely, that I used to be quite the warlord fanboy, years of accepting how GW did things as the 'norm' and then suddenly I discover warlord and realise that miniature companies can do discounts! And do like their customers!

All great but now over the past two or three years especially, I have noticed that as Warlord become bigger I am liking them less and less.

The rot set in with Antares I think, I recall after the disastrous kick-starter when warlord where gearing up and releasing the first minis trying to put together a bits order from warlord, I was rebuffed by the mail order people as they claimed that being so busy with the Antares release they didn't have the tie but...things would return to normal after things had calmed down...they never did.

Next I noticed that while customer service was as good as it's always been in terms of quality...length of time for replies had gone way up, also bargains are nowhere near as good as they used to be, now the sales are in many cases obviously just them putting down the prices of less popular kits to shift them for warehouse space.

And now we have the current ongoing problem, too many properties, i'm told they suffered real losses with cruel seas and yet decided to go on ahead with the 2000AD properties, black seas (dont forget their doctor who range and the boardgames from friendly companies they also plug) and i have to wonder where it will all end!?

I miss the company of old that concentrated on its wide selection of 'core' games, now they seem to come as an after though (apart from bolt action that has a million german tank variations) not to mention in an odd and  very GW like move they now are doing their own finecast...that nobody asked for, isn't cheaper, and indeed, in the case of the new SPQR re-releases...is actually worse value.

And now today I see that they are putting up prices with no reason given (http://www.warlordgames.com/announcement-price-adjustments/) and I just have to wonder how long before we see GW 2.0

(I will say I definitely regret getting the warlord membership which seemingly doesnt work with most sales and feels like a bait and switch when they went from a free armoured car in the first month to sprue samples.)

Thoughts? Am I spot on/being too pessimistic?

[Brummie]

Honestly I've not liked a single thing they've ever done and have steadfastly avoided Warlord, even when I worked in retail and we sold their stuff, I never took to any of it.

The quality of their ranges is just so hit and miss, the only 28mm WW2 stuff I liked was the Chindits, even though the metal quality was poor, worse still everything else they did for WW2 bar maybe the vehicles was just naff.

They also seem to be the company that buys up everyone elses stuff with only a couple of decent IPs of their own.

I may sound harsh, but Warlord has never sat right with me since they started out.

[Kommando_J]

The chindits I will agree are good (work of the great Paul Hicks) the buying up of ranges to ''get at'' a few select minis or sitting on them for years is stupid I will agree also.

One thing that I think is very telling is that their newer Australians are massively out of scale with the rest of the range and especially the chindits , the chindits are a svelte 28mm while the rest are more robust...then you get the Aussies which are clearly in 32mm scale .

Their mucking about with SPQR has put off many, massive problems yet instead of fixing them they are just releasing repackaged smaller/more expensive units and apparently an expansion is in the works.

[Gibby]

What amazes me is that every new rulebook they bring out seems to be full of errors. Was it 17 pages of errata for Cruel Seas the day after release? A friend of mine said Black Powder 2nd Edition was so full of errors that he went back to 1st edition (and was miffed that 2nd edition seemed ill thought out and that it was done for the sake of it).

Perhaps a worrying sign that they're rushing out too much too quickly.

[Pzkpfw_Steve]

When Warlord Games launched their new website, I noticed that prices to Canadians were way more then just the exchange rate could explain. a box of plastic (ww2)infantry went from being around $38CDN to $60 CDN!  and Canadians are getting screwed on minimum value for free shipping too.

I'm not sure what they are thinking with this.  they aren't in the same kind of market situation that GW is in.  I mean i can get a good portion of their non ww2 28mm plastic offerings from companies like Perry Bros, who even boast better quality, and are generally cheaper then their pre-new-website Canadian prices.

I was never prone to buying their products, but there are a few things that are hard to find for what was a similar price.  I'll definitely be looking at alternative sources now!

[FreakyFenton]

To be honest, I really liked them before their site change. I bought a lot of models and used plenty for conversions and the like for my Wehrmacht and such.

But with the new site, the price change sort of alarmed me, as did the sudden loss of quality in some models. The RSOs I recently got seemed weirdly thought out with the cab needing some filing and filling done. At first I wondered why people bash them seeing as the models weren't -that- bad per se. But now the price and site change is there I begin to wonder what they're aiming for.

Other games as mentioned previously get bought, and then painfuly neglected like the Terminator models line, with restocking taking ages. Some models disappearing to never appear again and so on.

Costumer service though, I can't complain about. In that regard I sort of felt they were very forthcoming. Often times sending stuff that was lacking or broken with spares in a matter of a mail. Sometimes even a whole new kit. 

[armchairgeneral]

Not a fan of Warlord’s figures but I do like their Bolt Action Rules which I use for WW1. Very miffed they pulled out of the WW1 supplement that was initially promised.

I really liked the Korean War supplement which I thought was good value. I am just disappointed they aren’t supporting it with the figure ranges required I guess because it isn’t selling well?

I don’t game Cruel Seas but surprised to hear they took a loss on it as it seems popular and successful?

[pixelgeek]

i'm told they suffered real losses with cruel seas

Got a link for this?

[pixelgeek]

My experience with their customer service has been pretty good. I've gotten replacements from them quite promptly.

I think they do have an issue with editing their rulebooks and proofreading. I am not sure what their process is but it clearly needs to be changed to avoid issues like Black Seas and SPQR.

I think they are a small company that is pushing too much product out the doors and it means that everyone there has two jobs to do and only the time to do one. Things consequently suffer.

They are growing at a fast rate and that is always a difficult thing to do correctly.

[Kommando_J]

Just talk with a friend who was in contact with higher ups, would rather not say who, he just mentioned it offhand..although now that I tihnk about it, it may have been red skies, but either way, all of these new CAD-sculpted ''vehicle games'' just being churned out right now bore the hell out of me.

It's especially annoying as others have pointed out that other companies like perry are so much better value (they come with well researched guides even) and they have a huge back log on units.

[DivisMal]

Well, I did and do like their Celts...


...but honestly: everything you just described is totally un-GW.

They have not used their available ressources to slowly build upon an IP (Warhammer, 40k) that selling boxed games or computer games with that IP makes sense.
They rather show a very strange business model, which I kinda like, that sells ...well everything they can get their hands on.

Where do you actually see anything that can be compared to the biggest (and in many cases most professional) company selling little toy soldiers?

[3 fingers]

Only dealt with them once , Black Friday sale bought my brother in law a bolt action tiger tank and added couple boxes of figures on a whim.
Communication was excellent but waiting to near Christmas for delivery when I’m in the uk is unacceptable imho.

[Duncan McDane]

They also seem to be the company that buys up everyone elses stuff.

Buy it up and then let it die a slow death... 
Still nothing new to show for their Colin Patten Dark Age stuff...

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I have to admit to not really knowing what the post title is asking?

Which GW?

The pre-coup one?

The buying lots of IP one?

The "One True Manufacturer" one?

The reaching out to the wider players one?

The alienating their existing players one by retconning one of their games?

The very large range of games one?

The financial success one?

The television programme one (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/14/warhammer-tv-series-games-workshop-sales?

Or none of the above.

[Brummie]

Buy it up and then let it die a slow death... 
Still nothing new to show for their Colin Patten Dark Age stuff...

Which is one of my biggest bones to pick with Warlord. I had some of Colins Vikings just before he sold the range off. With the range now being at a standstill for god knows how long I just gave up and got rid of them.