Warhammer alternatives

[Doom Beard 78]

I think GWs success stems from creating a unified product in a unified scale. If you look at historical there are dozens of rules, then you have the divisions of scale which further compounds the issues. The established player base also is attarctive as you are assured a game against a variety of players

Why do a 10mm skeleton army for HOTT when you may find it next to impossible to find another person local to you who also has a desire to do 10mm HOTT

[Hobgoblin]

Why do a 10mm skeleton army for HOTT when you may find it next to impossible to find another person local to you who also has a desire to do 10mm HOTT

The trick's surely to do a couple of 10mm armies - skeletons and orcs, perhaps - so that you can provide both sides and then - if you find an opponent who enjoys the game - get them to paint up some armies and do bigger games with the orcs and skeletons on the same side. And so on - and then you can use the armies for Warmaster or Mayhem or Sword and Spear.

I think you're right about GW's success, but it's also true that the historical players tend to use the same armies for lots of different games - perhaps a DBA phase, then onto Impetus, then FOG, then ADLG, then back to DBA. So another part of GW's success is somehow convincing a certain portion of players that there's only one 'true' game to play with a given set of miniatures.

It's a bit odd, really; the players who skip from one ruleset to another (whether in phases or one game at a time) are probably getting much more out of their armies and a much broader range of gaming experience - plus the chance to compare rulesets and find what works best for them.

Oh - another potential use for your dwarf army: Of Armies and Hordes from Ganesha Games. It's excellent and very innovative. You have to divide your table up into zones, but that's easily - and subtly - done with regular or scatter terrain. And you can use absolutely any basing, so it's perfect for getting huge numbers of different miniatures on the table together.

You can design your own units for it, but there are almost 700 unit types in the official lists. With 110+ different dwarf units, I think everything in your army is covered. Certainly, the gyrocopter, handgunners and slayers are, and you'd have several options for each of the other units. 

[Elbows]

I agree it can be hard to find fellow gamers, which is why I suggest two things - one already mentioned.

1) Build opposing armies, and all the terrain yourself - get a mat if you need to travel and host it at a store, etc.  Many gamers will "try" anything, particularly if there's no investment.

2) Go to the store and try Oathmark.  Meeting the players is more important than liking the game.  After a few games or a while you may find some guys you get along with, and then you bring up the subject of trying other games, etc.  I met my local gaming group through the local 40K scene (a game I generally detested when I started visiting the common locations).  I ended up playing a later version of 40K but more importantly those same players that I hit it off with became my buddies for dungeon crawling...Old West....WW2 in 15mm...role-playing games, etc.

So go try some Oathmark, if only to meet the people you may end up gaming with.

[BZ]

I think GWs success stems from creating a unified product in a unified scale. If you look at historical there are dozens of rules, then you have the divisions of scale which further compounds the issues. The established player base also is attarctive as you are assured a game against a variety of players

Why do a 10mm skeleton army for HOTT when you may find it next to impossible to find another person local to you who also has a desire to do 10mm HOTT

I dont think so. It may be theoretically the same scale, but practically it isnt... Their newer miniatures are getting close to 35mm. Using their old and new miniatures next to each other looks worse than any other manufacturers 28mm miniatures mixed.
Yes there are different scales in other games, but the giant variety is mostly in historicals (which are no way competitors of GW) and not in sci-fi/fantasy. There the small ones (15-10-6mm), but I think the real competition for GW are the 28mm rulesets.
I think the success of GW is the player base (however as I see, a lot of people leave them, the there are still tons of old players), and their marketing steamroller... No other company has any chance today to come near to them. And they know and exploit that...