I mentioned Target Games (makers of Chronopia for you old-timers) in a recent vid. Here's a response I got.
Here is what happened with Target games. The Swedish Parent company expanded too fast. The gaming side of the company was doing pretty good and was getting ready to release a "Epic" scale version of Chronopia. The Swedish company was getting into video games, Candy manufacturing and even dabbling in movies. I remember going down to the US HQ of Target and seeing all these cases of some odd novelty candy that was shipped to them to try and sell. The European based design studio saw the company collapsing and formed their own game company and produced Void using a lot of stuff sculpted for Warzone. It was a shame, they had a pretty good system. By the new company tried to release the new versions of the game the damage was done and it was hard to get any store to carry it again. Back in the late 90's GW went through a phase where they tried to expand to get exposure everywhere like they have in the UK. They hired more people to make high pressure sales. They talked to every store that had hobby in its name to get them to start carrying the GW "Hobby" products. The regular GW customers really got screwed, if they didn't buy enough they would get ignored or got pressure put on to buy what ever they had a bunch of in the stock room. It was even worse if business was going too good in a area then they would start to ignore the retailers and then put in one of their own Hobby Centers. After a few years they found they had a lot of independent stores with unwanted product and a bunch of unpaid invoices. They got rid of most of the sales people and closed most of the stores and settled on the current sales model. The model works fine as long as there is not too much competition, once that happens they will have to re-think their pricing. The closest competition to GW currently is Battlefront and FOW. About 75% of what I am painting is Flames of War for customers. The entry point is cheaper then Fantasy or 40K, and the rules are close to what GW puts out. Another good company to look out for is Wyrd miniatures. I have been having some pretty good sales of painted Malifaux on Ebay. Right now the largest problem I can see for GW is the dwindling support for their games. I think you mentioned on your Adepticon reports that other systems were starting gain more footage at the convention.
Steven Skutell
www.hoardpainting.com
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I went to post a comment on your blog but you don’t have comments allowed so I thought I would email.
Talking about Target Games I was a huge fan of Warzone (based on the RPG Mutant Chronicles which had a movie come out last year and also numerous card games) and I was a fan of Chronopia as well. It was an interesting system which had us change the way we looked at our 40K games and take them unit by unit to make it more tactical.
Also with the FLGS we used to play in with the changes with Heartbreaker and the rapid expansion they went through until they went bust left them with a ton of product that no one would touch.
This was really sad since we started off a tournament scene over here in Australia which was getting more and more people coming across from GW games for the breath of fresh air a new game gives you!
I'm currently sitting on 4 Warzone armies that I don't think I could even give away at this point.
Also Speaking of older Gaming Systems, Did you ever come across Leviathan?
When you were deciding on Shawn's Ork theme I was thinking the Orks from there could have fit with their Gangis Khan feel!
As for the mention of Malifaux to you in the post “Fan talks about Target Games”, this is one I think you should try since you only need a hand full of figures to play.
Also another if you like the small skirmish games you could also have a look at Pulp City (http://www.pulp-city.com/) which you can relive your childhood by playing a wargame with Superheroes. Also for now the ruleset is free to download from their website so you can’t go wrong!
(if you want to check out my wargame painting have a look at the link to Tales from the Warzone link in my Signature)
Thanks for all the entertainment on youtube!
Damian Smith
Co-host of Kryptographik, A Podcast Covering Horror, Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy.
Host of Welcome to Heavenside, A Doktor Sleepless Podcast.
The Furnace:
Tales from the Warzone: http://www.
Kryptographik Website:
Welcome to Heavenside:
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