Warlord Games 'Aesthetic' Change?

[Ragnar]

Opinions may vary, but I think the old Paul Hicks BA sculpts were far better than their replacements.

This.  Also, I think that the original BA range may possibly have been the best on the market.

[Kommando_J]

True, although the man himself Paul Hicks seems to view them less fondly than us .

Good point about test of honour, only its creators can save it now as warlord has gone the osprey route and is churning out cheap games with minimal support, the purchase of wargames factory was a big shame as tbh they come across to me as some of the most flat/uninspiring minis ive ever seen.

''I'll never understand the reasoning behind their choice of scale.
"We'll make them off-scale with every other manufacturer in existence. That way, we'll... we'll maximize sales and..."''

Warlord has gone the same route with its doctor who range it seems, although the plastic ww2 stuff has gotten better as they have gone along, personally I think it must be the new sculptor/painter of the ECW/Aussie ranges, both look...not up to snuff to warlord normal standard, the aussies especially...the paintjobs are very basic.

[nic-e]

True, although the man himself Paul Hicks seems to view them less fondly than us .

Good point about test of honour, only its creators can save it now as warlord has gone the osprey route and is churning out cheap games with minimal support, the purchase of wargames factory was a big shame as tbh they come across to me as some of the most flat/uninspiring minis ive ever seen.

''I'll never understand the reasoning behind their choice of scale.
"We'll make them off-scale with every other manufacturer in existence. That way, we'll... we'll maximize sales and..."''

Warlord has gone the same route with its doctor who range it seems, although the plastic ww2 stuff has gotten better as they have gone along, personally I think it must be the new sculptor/painter of the ECW/Aussie ranges, both look...not up to snuff to warlord normal standard, the aussies especially...the paintjobs are very basic.

The dr who range is bizarre.

"this character can travel through time and space, And we make miniatures from a whole host of different time periods that could cross into that setting... Let's make them the wrong scale! "

"we announced this game two years ago, lets give it its own website separate from our core site, and not update it"

"lets leave a huge gap between the release of the miniatures and the game, causing people to loose interest!"

"lets release two games with no cross compatibility"

Were they high?


The wargames factory sculpts do their job, they aren't goign to amaze but they can be made to have some nice poses. Warlords painting and posing isn't selling them tho. TBH I like wargames factory as a company once it was taken over, They sent me hundreds of pounds worth of free stuff to complete my final piece for college and they sent our gaming group a crate of miniatures for playtesting for 1/4 retail.

[Major_Gilbear]

I think the comments about Antares here do (possibly) miss one subtle thing; although it is released/marketed/sold through Warlord, it's still a semi-outside joint venture (by "Dark Space Corp", co-owned by Priestly and Stallard). That might explain why it has proportionally more attention that some of Warlord's other games.

I also think that the #1 thing damaging sales for companies like Warlord (and Mantic...) are poor sculpts in weird sizes, closely followed at #2 by incomplete ranges and infrequent releases.

Every time I look through Warlord Games' catalogue, I find myself thinking "Hmm, if only they looked less derpy". The ex-Pro Gloria figures are a great example of a missed opportunity where the interest-generation and sculpting leg-work was all done for them, and where they even had a popular ruleset in place to support it already; how they could then make such a limited release of the originally-planned kit, and so long after they announced they'd bought the sculpts that a lot of interest had waned, is therefore truly baffling. There is a perfect example where I find myself looking at the original models, then at the released model pix, and sighing wishfully.

The Antares range is at least internally consistent because the number of sculptors working it is very limited (Wojtek does all the Boromites, Steve Saleh does all the Freeborn, and Russ Charles does everything else I think). Even then, whilst I understand that they are not to everyone's taste, I am very pleased that most factions now have a basic plastic kit, and that there are enough releases for each faction to give the games some variety.

In the end though, assuming that they continue as they are with sculpts/scales, I do think they would do better to pick say four or five games as "core games", and put the others into a "Specialist Games" style category. It would be clearer in terms of managing expectations, and I think it would help focus their sales better. I will probably continue to pick up occasional models here and there, but I don't think I'll be buying into any other of their games any time soon.

[Kommando_J]

''I think the comments about Antares here do (possibly) miss one subtle thing; although it is released/marketed/sold through Warlord, it's still a semi-outside joint venture (by "Dark Space Corp", co-owned by Priestly and Stallard).''

Honestly had no clue...but not surprised.

''In the end though, assuming that they continue as they are with sculpts/scales, I do think they would do better to pick say four or five games as "core games", and put the others into a "Specialist Games" style category. It would be clearer in terms of managing expectations, and I think it would help focus their sales better. I will probably continue to pick up occasional models here and there, but I don't think I'll be buying into any other of their games any time soon.''

Same, I find the odd great sculpt but their is no point in investing in a non-'core' game as support could be non-existent, I think things took a turn around the time of GoAT release, they stopped doing custom orders...which they had promised to but never brought back.

I've also noticed despite their best efforts a downturn in decent online articles, they had some before but I think they realised that since they had stopped the bits service...a warlord staffer talking about all the bits he used(and got for free) for a conversion article might not work as its far more expensive to buy full kits.

I wrote in a few times with article idea but never heard back 

[Cubs]

I wrote in a few times with article idea but never heard back 

An old complaint. They need an office manager, because communication response is patchy. It's not that nobody wants to help, it's just that it doesn't seem to be anyone's responsibility to decide who takes ownership of incoming coms.

As an example Paul Sawyer once asked me why I hadn't painted anything for Warlord. I replied that I had contacted them for just that when they were asking for painters, then he (Paul himself) had promised to get back to me. I had reminded him a week or so later and he apologised and promised to get back to me. Then a few months later I reminded him again that he'd promised to get back to me ... and he apologised profusely and promised to get back to me. Then nothing and I gave up. He gave an embarrassed 'urm' in reply at the time and ... never got back to me.

Efficient office managers are highly under-rated in companies where poor memories and loose business practice are hurting the operation. 

[Kommando_J]

Its a bother as the original reply in my case made it sound like they were definitely interested(it helped my writing was centred around using specific warlord products).

You are right about a manager, i've messaged them trying to sort things out only to get messaged back a few days late by someone different.

[Kommando_J]

I must say, gonna sound like a fogey here but...not like this whole scale creep to 32mm going on at the moment, fallout, walking dead, doctor who, necromunda, age of sigmar etc...is this how 25mm folk felt when 28mm and heroic scale showed up?

[Cubs]

...is this how 25mm folk felt when 28mm and heroic scale showed up?

Yes. I remember buying my 'Citadel fighter' for 30p back in the 80's and then not being able to use him a few years later because he looked like a Gnome!

[Kommando_J]

...Oh God...it has begun!

[Kommando_J]

Just saw online that the new Aussie units are 32mm pretty much(as its what the sculptor is used to) somebody put them u[ next to a more recent mini and he was sill massive.

[Corso]

Don't like their australians - the recent plastic stuff they did is much better.

I'm still waiting for an italian infantry plastic kit - at least a generic kit with multiple head options for bersaglieri ,alpini and arditi.

I always prefer quality over quantity. Victrix take a lot of time to release something, but the quality is superb. Warlord many times is taking the opposite route, quantity over quality - something a wargamer appreciates but a modeller does not.

[carlos marighela]

Just saw online that the new Aussie units are 32mm pretty much(as its what the sculptor is used to) somebody put them u[ next to a more recent mini and he was sill massive.

Australia is nation of big, burly chaps*. Once upon a time it even produced rugby players.


*Just as well if you are toting an Owen gun the size of a drainpipe.

[carlos marighela]

I just saw a couple of blisters in one of our local retailers. They look bloody massive, 32mm to the eye would be my guess.

[Poiter50]

I received the Papuans recently and they are tall figures but strangely flat, I think the compression on the rubber moulds is too great. They are also meant to represent KNIL Guerillas as well which IMHO makes them way too tall as KNIL "natives" would be shorter or more of the stature of Javanese and Balinese.