Flames of War - the most popular wargame in the world...

[Lovejoy]

I was just reading the new Wargames Illustrated, and in the 'From the Editor' bit, it says 'Flames of War is the most popular wargame in the world.'

So.... anybody know if that is true, or has the wargames media embraced the 'alternative facts' culture too? 

cheers
Michael

[Daeothar]

I bet they forgot to poll GW headquarters for that one... 

It might be that they're referring to historical wargames? Or even more specific; WW2 wargames? I don't know; they might be right.

As an aside though; I heard somewhere that X-Wing is now the world's most popular miniatures game. Not quite the same as 'wargame', but still... 

[fred]

Really?

More so than 40k? or WHFB?

I think the only possible measure is by sales, any kind of comparison of playing numbers is probably very hard to get. But sales figures will be confused by multiple games produced by one company, and by the difference between rules sales and figure sales.

I'd quite happily go with FoW being the most popular historical wargame - just due to its marketing, and having established a base before Bolt Action got started.

But I'm not entirely sure what being the most popular proves. This is mainly a hobby of niches within niches.

[Cherno]

I guess it goes as follows:

GW - Tabletop Game (or "The Hobby )

FoW - Wargame

[Sbloom141]

It must be Historical.

I'm sure I read an article last year which indicated X-Wing had overtaken 40k as far as miniatures based tabletop games go. Can't remember if that was based on sales or polls or what have you.

[Derek H]

Nobody knows.  There are no audited sales figures. 

[Landsknecht]

It must be Historical.

I'm sure I read an article last year which indicated X-Wing had overtaken 40k as far as miniatures based tabletop games go. Can't remember if that was based on sales or polls or what have you.

Last year, the single game of X-wing Miniatures by itself made more profit then ALL the games produced by Games Workshop in North America.

It's been years since I have played a GW game.  I have drifted to other game systems.  I tried Kings of War to replace Warhammer Fantasy Battles but was not happy with that system.  I like Dragon Rampant, so that will probably be my replacement for WHFB.  As far as ground combat sci-fi miniature gaming, Infinity has replaced WH40k for me.  Frostgrave has replaced Mortaheim.  Descent Journeys in the Dark 2nd edition has replaced Warhammer Quest.

As far as Flames of War, I think everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what 4th edition will do to improve the system.  I am lukewarm about it because it looks like they will be focused on MW North Africa which has little interest for me, hopefully they will do the MW Eastern Front soon.

[Lovejoy]

Isn't Wargames Illustrated owned by the people who do FoW? They have some kind of involvement, don't they?

They used to be owned by Battlefront until a couple of years ago, but I'm pretty sure Dan (the editor) owns it now...

Nobody knows.  There are no audited sales figures. 

This is an excellent point... as much as I'd love a 'Top 40' for minis games, the info just isn't out there.

My personal guess would be 40k as top minis games, both in terms of spending and player base, with everything else a long way back. Even X-wing seems to have died down after a very good first couple of years.

It wouldn't surprise me to see FoW as top historical game. But Bolt Action can't be far behind it...

[carlos marighela]

Maybe. Shite usually floats to the top.

I suspect it has peaked, at least locally. The nearest and biggest minis retailer to me used to have a wall of the stuff. Now I'd say there's no more than a dozen blisters in the shop. Might be a stock/ supply thing but they certainly don't seem to be shifting much product.

[Sunjester]

As far as Flames of War, I think everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what 4th edition will do to improve the system. 

Really?   Personally I don't know anyone who even plays FOW now.

[joroas]

I thought Team Yankee was the new FoW! 

[Cubs]

I was tempted by FoW when they brought out a load of lovely early war mins for North Africa, but then when I saw the battle reports in WI ... how each battle just looked like a horrible mash of opposing models at such close range they were actually touching each other ... and I resisted fairly easily. Plus the enormous marketing campaign and saturation in WI, it got old very quickly for me.

[Elbows]

FoW lost me when their prices went through the god damn roof with extremely mediocre models to boot.  Originally (what around 2000-2001?) the attraction was very reasonably priced models - a platoon of infantry for a reasonable cost.  Now their crappy little 15mm vehicles cost $15-20 a piece? Get stuffed Battlefront.

If the rules were decent I'd play it with the wonderful alternate stuff from PSC, even Zvezda.

[MartinR]

There is actually a very decent set of rules in there,  and I suspect for historicals the statement may well have been true in the sense that FOW had say,  10% of the market  and the other 500+ WW2 rules shared the remaining 90% of the market between them.

I  do wonder if BA has claimed that Crown though,  that is what all our local ex FOW players seem to play now.

[joroas]

It will be interesting to see how well FOW 4th edition does......