Empire of the Dead Price

[flags_of_war]

It's not really a game or style that interests me but i was wondering why the figures are so bloody expensive? £25 for 8 figures is crazy.

[Svennn]

Why just pick on EotD?  There are plenty of others flogging at around that price, especially if it has VSF/Steampunk conotations.

Whatever business model works for them I presume

[flags_of_war]

Why just pick on EotD?  There are plenty of others flogging at around that price, especially if it has VSF/Steampunk conotations.

Whatever business model works for them I presume

Point taken but im not really picking on it. I just see it getting promoted more than i probably do others. As i say im not into this period and have nothing against anyone who does want to pay for it. I was just wondering what was so good to make it that expensive a box set.

I presume you don't need as many figures as you would for a historical gamer as i would be bankrupt haha.

[Brummie Thug]

It works out as just over £3.00 a figure which isn't do bad imo they are rather nice.

If you shop around you can get the sets cheaper. I got mine from Square orange Games at £21.25 per boxed set free postage which again brings it down to about £2.65 they are good value for money.

Some figures are cheaper for this period yes but then so is the quality. All depends on what floats your boat they are quit the happy medium for me.

[Van-Helsing]

The quality is excellent, the range nicely rendered and imaginative, West Wind also offer 100% replacement policy for miscasts as well.

Cheaper per Miniature than Lead Adventure (and less fussy), and as my good friend Brummie pointed out - you can get them at discount.

You get eight miniatures in a Starter Box (ten in the Zeds, but you need ten for a "Mob") - a starter Faction has 6-7 Men in it, so you even have a little room for growth!

[robh]

You think that is bad.... A single human character blister at discount for Carnevale is £9 for 1 28mm figure 

[flags_of_war]

The quality is excellent, the range nicely rendered and imaginative, West Wind also offer 100% replacement policy for miscasts as well.

Cheaper per Miniature than Lead Adventure (and less fussy), and as my good friend Brummie pointed out - you can get them at discount.

You get eight miniatures in a Starter Box (ten in the Zeds, but you need ten for a "Mob") - a starter Faction has 6-7 Men in it, so you even have a little room for growth!

Cheers for the info. I agree they look great but ill probably stick with historics.

[v_lazy_dragon]

I've a tendancy to be stingy, but I didn't think the prices were too bad. As Van-Helsing has said, a box will happily make a faction, and trying to put together some of the more varied/unusual factions (Holy order, Werewolves or Vampires) from other ranges tends to lead to about the same price anyway (give or take a couple of pounds). People knock the sculpting style and quality, but personally I like it - it paints up well, looks good and doesn't have masses of extrenuous details to fuss around on. I also think they've gotten past some of the more awkward poses they occasionally got flak for.

In terms of other Steampunk/horror  ranges : I would say that they are 'Expensive' compared to the Blue Moon horror range (8-12 figures for £20), Foundry Victorians (10 figures for £20) or say Artizans Old west range (12 figures for ~£22) but cheaper compared to the likes of the Reaper Chronoscope range (~5-6 figures for ~£20-25) or LAM (6 figures for ~£21.60) - all those quoted exclude postage costs, which varies a fair bit....

[Pappa Midnight]

I actually thought that they were pretty reasonable for "character" type minis.
I've got a few historical minis ( mostly ECW) and haven't got a problem paying around £3.00 a mini for un-mounted character types. I would probably have a bit of a fit paying that much for rank and file troops however ( God bless plastics!!!) especially if I'm going to field a battalion or two!!!!
At the end of the day people will only pay what they want to pay.

PM

[Dolmot]

Stating the (almost) obvious, there are three major reasons affecting the prices of skirmish game minis:

1) An average customer isn't going to buy more than a dozen minis or so, overall. Those purchases must cover the costs of rules development, support, and simply paying the rent for a few years. (Admittedly a part of the development costs is included in the rulebook price.) It's a necessary evil of complete rules+minis products with extended support. A company churning out basic napoleonics in a fire-and-forget manner won't have to worry about such matters.

2) These minis typically have unique design with unusual detailing. You can't just take a generic marching pose dolly and swap the helmet. Also, they often employ relatively expensive sculptors and studio painters. And they may have posh single-mini blister packaging instead of bulk plastic bags of lead. It all adds up in design and delivery. (The extent of this obviously varies between companies.)

3) There's a big difference between "one customer will only buy one copy, ever" and "an average customer buys 10 of each pose" when it comes to covering the sculpting and moulding costs of a single mini. Even big names like Reaper often need several years to recoup the startup costs of their character minis due to the one-mini-at-a-time sales pattern.

I'd say £3 per model is in the cheapest end of the scale for character-based skirmish games today. It's not the 80s and generic lumps of lead any more. And observing the rate of these companies going titsup, I'd suspect even £5+ per mini prices aren't exactly a licence to print money. You can try it yourself, of course.

[commissarmoody]

I just want to know if they have a US distributer yet? 

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Stating the (almost) obvious, there are three major reasons affecting the prices of skirmish game minis:

1) An average customer isn't going to buy more than a dozen minis or so, overall. Those purchases must cover the costs of rules development, support, and simply paying the rent for a few years. (Admittedly a part of the development costs is included in the rulebook price.) It's a necessary evil of complete rules+minis products with extended support. A company churning out basic napoleonics in a fire-and-forget manner won't have to worry about such matters.

2) These minis typically have unique design with unusual detailing. You can't just take a generic marching pose dolly and swap the helmet. Also, they often employ relatively expensive sculptors and studio painters. And they may have posh single-mini blister packaging instead of bulk plastic bags of lead. It all adds up in design and delivery. (The extent of this obviously varies between companies.)

3) There's a big difference between "one customer will only buy one copy, ever" and "an average customer buys 10 of each pose" when it comes to covering the sculpting and moulding costs of a single mini. Even big names like Reaper often need several years to recoup the startup costs of their character minis due to the one-mini-at-a-time sales pattern.

I'd say £3 per model is in the cheapest end of the scale for character-based skirmish games today. It's not the 80s and generic lumps of lead any more. And observing the rate of these companies going titsup, I'd suspect even £5+ per mini prices aren't exactly a licence to print money. You can try it yourself, of course.

Interestingly, I began typing up these very same points, but you have hit the nail on the head better than I would have!
I completely agree. Their sculpting however, is internal, as is their painting I think.

[Eisenfaust]

I just want to know if they have a US distributer yet? 

I read that FRP and Noble Knight were their "distributors" stateside.

[Varangian]

In addition to what Dolmot pointed out (which is a really great explanation of the differences in business models btw):

Right now a lot of companies are also having to hedge their bets with the outrageous price increases in tin. Metals in general are skyrocketing, and tin itself has apparently gone up 80% in the last year. If anything is pewter obviously this affects pricing really directly.

Companies can't just make money to cover what they spent, they have to make enough to cover what they will spend. This sort of cash flow equation is always a little tricky, add to the mix a material component that has more than doubled in the last couple of years, and you end up with some crazy things going on.

This is why so many companies are going to resins and plastics. I'm actually shocked to see that more companies haven't raised their prices a TON or switched over to new materials entirely. The only justification I can think that would really keep people from looking for alternatives (in a steady growth model) is the thought that metal will stabilize, or even decrease.

Their pricing seems pretty fair to me actually....

[richarDISNEY]

Its not the minis...
I think the rules $ are a tad high.
Either way, I still bought them...