Jump Start?

[Gardensnake]

What can we do to help jump start Warlord to make it even more popular and bring in more players? I know this may seem a bit odd to say in here but Warlord really isn't as popular as say Warhammer Fantasy or Confrontation which is a shame because it is superior to both. For my part, I'm working on getting the contents of the Starter set painted and going to start running demos at my LGS. Any other ideas?

 

William

[Castlebuilder]

William,

 

I was in the same boat when I started hanging out at a nearby hobby shop. The owner supported me running games, but wasn't interested in carrying any Reaper stuff because he felt GW stuff was the rage. I've played several games there, and while turnout hasn't been fantastic, the game is growing. The owner is even starting to order in some Warlord minis. Best advice I have is to let the game speak for itself - play the game at the local shop, and once people see it, interest will grow.

 

Castlebuilder

BL # OH 007

[Brushmaster]

Demo,Demo DEMO.

The only way to go . Must have painted minis and good terrain , but in the end , the game speaks for itself in its playablity .

 

Can't understand your comment about Confrontation though , the minis are nice but the game bites the big one .

[Froggy the Great]

www.reapermini.com/bl has information about joining Black Lightning, Reaper's demo team. I highly recommend you check it out if you're interested in promoting Warlord as much as you seem to be.

[Gardensnake]

Can't understand your comment about Confrontation though , the minis are nice but the game bites the big one .

 

Opinions about the game aside, if you ask the majority of people, Confrontation will rank higher than Warlord. This is a misfortune true and alleviating that misfortune is the reason behind my original posting.

 

William

[ElementsWarden]

I do not know if you have played Confrontation, but I think it is an awesome game. Confrontation has a more complicate system and requires more knowledge and perhaps more skill than Warlord.

Warlord has the potential to be a great game, please do not get me wrong. I also believe GW games are made for the lowest common denominator and thus why it is so succesful. The problem is the more complicated you make a game, the more people cannot play it and most often the longer it takes to play (ie. Clan War ... My son cannot play clan war or Rag-Norak.)

 

Push Warlords strengths...

-Fast play

-Small amount of mini's (compared to GW)

-Less expensive (compared to GW not Rackham)

-targets are named before attacks

-true skirmish

 

What did I miss?

[toy soldier mick]

I think getting Warlord going starts with converting gamestore owners. This is a key step that many publisher sanctioned demo teams don't ever grasp. Permission to demo at a store - and thankfulness that demos are being run at a store are a good step - but if it doesn't translate over into inventory being carried for the game - not much is going to happen.

 

Demoing as often as you can to your friends and strangers is a great way to start the process but will fizzle before critical mass is achieved unless gamestores see the benefits of carrying Reaper, and specifically, Warlord.

 

Right now is a very low point in the hobby gaming industry. Many stores are strapped for cash and are very hesitant to pick up new inventory for an unproven system. This is where knowing some of the financial benefits of selling Reaper is helpful in a quest to Convert the Store Owner.

 

Why selling Reaper is good for a store:

1. They have awesome miniatures for Roleplaying that are very affordable. D&Ders and others love to collect and paint them for their games.

2. They have a huge selection and even if you can't afford to carry the whole line in your store Reaper provides excellent catalogs that generate additional sales and plenty of special orders (if good customer service is applied!)

3. Reaper provides a swap service for stores - so there is less risk to carrying their miniatures. If certain miniatures are not selling after a while - send them back and refresh your stock!

4. The profit margin on Reaper is better than GW and (IMO) Reaper is easier to deal with.

 

Why selling Warlord in particular is good for a store:

1. They are still great RPG miniatures and if Warlord doesn't sell well - they are still swapable for the Dark Heaven line.

2. THE BARRIER TO ENTRY IS MUCH LOWER THAN MANY OTHER MINIATURE GAMES. It is much easier to demo Warlord to someone and generate a sale than demo game_x and generate a sale because the initial purchase is quite affordable.

3. A store WILL generate more sales after the initial box - if there is a good community of gamers playing it at the store. It's affordable to start a secong army. It is less than $10 to pick up a new hero for the game (this is crucial - many kids come in the store once a week with $5 - $8 and if there is nothing to sell to them in that range they will not buy anything). Plus there's the primer, and the paints, and the brushes, and the army cases and the dragons!...

 

(Caveat: if the game holds together as a game and the army books release smoothly and to the acclaim of the audience and the books are beautiful - this will continue to be A Good Thing)

 

I think the above statements would be very helpful in convincing a store owner to give Warlord a try - especially if a dedicated, well groomed demo person volunteered to help get it going. Then it's just a matter of doing what gaming fanatics do best: spread their joy of the game...

 

(we kicked off Warlord in our store less than 5 weeks ago and now have about 24 people playing - I think a big reason that it's been growing so easily is that all you peeps on these boards are so nice and friendly )

[ladystorm]

and that folks is why the Toy Soldier is the top Active R.A.G.E. store in the states.

 

[Qwyksilver]

Congrats Mick!!!

I think that is absolutely fantastic you've gotten so many people in.

[Vil-hatarn]

Toy Soldier rules. I was already planning to play before I went. I've converted half a dozen warhammer players at home already...all of them went for the pricing advantage. And the models. And for the sake of resisting GW.

[Brushmaster]

I do not know if you have played Confrontation, but I think it is an awesome game. Confrontation has a more complicate system and requires more knowledge and perhaps more skill than Warlord. 

Yes I did once in a demo at a Con here in Oz a few years ago . Myself and several friends ( I mean several) , did not like it . It didn't take off here .

 

and that folks is why the Toy Soldier is the top Active R.A.G.E. store in the states.

Thats nice for you folks but we(Sydney) have a problem with politics and economics , too numerous to go into , that hold back both the introduction and development of new products .

I do my best by demoing when I can a my FLGS and intend on doing a demo at a tourney latter in the year . I did interest a couple of kids at my club , one was geniunely interested in Reptus .

Oh well you can only offer it to people and see what happens!

[Maceswinger]

I tried talking my local store owner into getting some reaper products. He can will order the stuff specificlly for you but not get any for the store. I have to drive an hour to a store who actually carries some Reaper miniatures.

 

My local shop won't carry Reaper because he has the complete line of Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) miniatures, which has a way bigger following then D&D around here. The figs are cheap and fit to most of the chars in the game. Reaper figs are just to large compared to them for Dark eye gamers to buy them. This is germany however.

 

Once I get around to painting my Demo forces (I plan on taking Crusaders,necro, Razig and mercenaries) I will do a demo in his shop. He was worried that the game would to expensive so I told him a army starter would actually do for the beginning. I hope I can eventually talk him into it :)

[Inquisitor]

Hey guys, I do demos at the Toy Soldier and this is what I do...

 

--I play other games- I dont ram Reaper down peoples throat and I dont trash other games. Hell I play 95% of the games that are played in the store, but I subtley push Warlord because it is such a fun game.

 

--I ran a demo the other day for the kids, four armies on the table - first time around just a met in the middle death pit..fun but pretty standard then I reset it and put some treasure in the center of the table for a treasure hunt. I prefaced with the story that there was treasure and it was cursed, the first one to pick it up and off the board wins but beware MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA once you pick it up the owners of the treasure will appear and try to reclaim it ( add lots of theatrics). Well the Reptus kid grabbed the treasure and i randomly put Razigs boys on the table and the kids went beserk.... they didnt even know who it was but it didnt matter play it up make him seem really scary. I didnt take anywhere close to enough to succeed and randomly attacked here and there and the ensuing hoots and hollers alone brought three other kids over to check it out.

 

-- If your the one on point for Warlord in your store then try to be a little of every gamer... why would a fluff player like it, why would a painter like it, a power player ect.. And try to be interested in all the armies not just yours, even if you dont like dwarves cause they keelhauled you last saturday ( Mick you shall pay) the kid your talking to might really be interested in them.

 

[Skipper]

--I ran a demo the other day for the kids, four armies on the table - first time around just a met in the middle death pit..fun but pretty standard then I reset it and put some treasure in the center of the table for a treasure hunt. I prefaced with the story that there was treasure and it was cursed, the first one to pick it up and off the board wins but beware MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA once you pick it up the owners of the treasure will appear and try to reclaim it ( add lots of theatrics). Well the Reptus kid grabbed the treasure and i randomly put Razigs boys on the table and the kids went beserk.... they didnt even know who it was but it didnt matter play it up make him seem really scary. I didnt take anywhere close to enough to succeed and randomly attacked here and there and the ensuing hoots and hollers alone brought three other kids over to check it out.

Why inquisitor, you dawg......thats quite ingeneous. I may have to steal your idea next time I'm n the store.

 

I use a simular method of letting them duke it out at first and then the second round we draw for random missions. That way everyone has a reason to be there. Loads of fun, but I really like your idea.

 

Skipper

[FreeFall]

I've done something similar with a graveyard. You raid each grave and there's a random roll to see what pops out, treasure or beastie. I hadn't thought of specifically gearing it to kids, but that's a great idea!

 

--I play other games- I dont ram Reaper down peoples throat and I dont trash other games. Hell I play 95% of the games that are played in the store, but I subtley push Warlord because it is such a fun game.

 

I considered this over the weekend while I was in MT. I haven't played anything but Warlord and CAV since I dumped Battletech. I ran into a new WizKids game that I liked(though I'm ashamed to admit it), Pirates. It's cool, but not really complex. I then realized that if I play this game and maybe even bite the bullet and play some Mechwarrior, I might be able to pull people over into Warlord and CAV. I'd have to consider playing MW:Dark Ages along the lines of taking one for the team, but hey if it allows me to poach a few CAV players, it might be worth it.