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Wargamers loosing common sense?

Over at the 'Tiny Tin Men' blog Phil Dutré had a little rant about a 'soulless' plastic miniature that came with the last issue of  Miniature Wargames.

The magazine itself advertised it with the sentence below on its website:

...plus – for an exclusive for print purchasers – there’s a free Household Knight plastic miniature worth over £12.

OK, nothing against the magazine at all (I have a big pile of them and like Phil I am a magazine collector) and of course nothing against a manufacturer who does do everything to promote his product and brand.

 


The upper part from the cover of the December 2020 Issue of Miniature Wargames. The included miniature on the right, the 'value' in the upper left corner.

So far, so good. But, I must beg you: If you ever see me buying a single 38mm plastic mini like that for 12 pounds (13.14 Euros) ... please wake me up.

I never had heard before from 'Conquest - The last Argument of Kings' and I must confess that I am a little bit ignorant nowadays when it comes to the newest and coolest wargaming products. It feels like a new player enters the field every few months now and it simply is impossible to follow all of them. It is not easy to keep up and keeping up is of no real use anyway.

In the comment section beneath his blog post Phil guesses it's a system played with fewer figures and so they have to be more expensive. A quick look at the website of the manufacturer and the onlineshop revealed that it is not. It's a mass combat game with 'real' units and so on. 


From the Onlineshop. 42 Euros for three miniatures means 14 Euros for one. In plastic. And there is no Bourbon in it I suppose...

Wow, this is, from my perspective, expensive. I would never give that amount of money for three plastic miniatures of that size - regardless how fancy, complicated and 'modern' they are designed. When I see people buying wargaming stuff like that I have the strong feeling that we in the western world are going to loose more and more the economic common sense.



Another example from the shop. Infantry units seem to have a more reasonable price tag. To be fair, 12 Miniatures for 36 Euros does not sound so bad. 3,- Euro per figure is not too expensive - if you like plastics. And if you don't know that you still can buy metal minis that are much cheaper...

But I fear you will have no chance in any 'Conquest' game without some special characters (20,- Euros per mini...Wow again!) and some expensive monsters. And there is a rulebook (49,- ), Army Support Packs with 'Spell Cards' and the like (25,- Euros) and so on. It is not easy to see how much you will have to pay to get a sensible setup without studying the rules in detail, but I guess it will cost you a minimum of around 300 Euros. To be honest, I think the average player will invest around 450-500 Euros or more for his first army

Wargaming isn't a cheap hobby most of the time. (It can be cheap, but thats another story.) But the new trend to sell plastic miniatures more expensive than a lot of the metal minis on the market is strange. And that people buy the stuff is nothing that I will ever be able to understand. Yes, they are 'modern'. And?

OK, maybe my opinion isn't so important because I am nearly out when it comes to new products and systems. I don't need them. But as an experienced wargamer I still can do the maths and see the system behind this product. 

The most dangerous part is the unusual 38mm size that binds you to 'Conquest' because you won't find very much fantasy minis from other manufacturers. No exchange, no cheap addons or substitutes from the outside. (Correct me if I am wrong.) No use for the minis in combination with other wargaming systems and miniatures if you ever stop playing 'Conquest'.

You will be bound to this system and that is a stupid decicion in a market that offers you an abundance of fantasy miniatures - old and new - that more or less fit together. In the IT business we call that a 'vendor lock-in'.

The wargaming hobby isn't always about making sensible decisions. But you can try, it's still allowed.

1 comment:

  1. I guess both of us simply aren't part of the target audience for such games anymore :-)
    I can imagine that some figures have a certain "cool" for younger players, but I'm long past that stage ...

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