Warlord Games Rant

[pbeccas (Paul)]

If you subscribe to Warlord Games newsletter you would have got an email today in regards to postage.  For me living in the rest of the world I now have to do a minimum spend of 50 pounds to place an order, and for that privilege I get to pay 25 pound in shipping.  And because they are so lazy with calculating true postage they will include a free plastic kit from a choice of their choosing to offset the postage cost. 
For years Warlord have been gouging overseas customers by charging VAT at checkout.  And they still are.  On top of that they are now forcing us to spend significant amounts of money at the checkout and forcing us to select one of their plastic products, no doubt selected from the items that are not selling.
I am done with buying product from them.  It's significantly cheaper to purchase from resellers.  If there is an option to buy a similar product from a different manufacturer then I'm going to take that caption.

Thank you for listening to my rant.  And thank you Peter Pig for being a reliable retailer since my first purchase from you in 1998.

[Colonel Kilgore]

That is very sad to hear, Paul, and not a little shocking.

But you've come to the right place. This section is all about grumbles  - ideally not about Peter Pig and RFCM stuff!

Simon

[John Watson]

I understand your pain Paul. I used to either subscribe to or buy off the shelf most of the UK war-games magazines going. Even living in the UK this was not cheap. I realised though that I was only reading small percentage of each one. A wargaming friend of mine pointed out that what I spent on them each month would buy me at least one Osprey and that was what he did. I can see the sense in this. I have quite a few Ospreys which I return to again and again. The magazines mostly ended in recycle after six months. So I stopped buying war-games magazines almost entirely.
John

[martin goddard]

Paul....ouch.
The times they are a changing.

I think Warlord has had a lot of new "ideas" about their postage.

From what you say Paul I think this idea will only last 3 weeks.

The trick is to make any change sound like an intended plan.

Popular ones are (THESE ARE NOT WARLORD RELATED, JUST OBSERVATIONS)

1.  "Passing  the company on so that a new owner can take it to the next level" = this company is really in big trouble and losing money.
2. "re- release" (within 6 months)  = The existing product is appalling
3. "A last opportunity to buy" = no one is buying this product
4."This product is selling really well" = This product is not selling well at all
5 "unmissable offer"= avoid this offer

It is vital to never admit things are not going brilliantly (got that from V Putin Esq.)


martin

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I'm in agreement with John about magazines. Back in the day (before the interweb thingy) I'd glean the odd wargaming related article from Military Modelling once a while and scan the 'classifieds' for ads of shops and groups near me. Then praise be!, actual wargaming specific mags came along. They were one of the only places I could go to and feel like I had a 'normal' hobby. I bought them off the shelf regularly over the years and watched them slowly turn into either advertising vehicles of one particular producer or concentrate on periods that tickled me not at all. This irked me because I knew there were still a large number of independent gaming shops out there with all sorts of fascinating stuff seemingly not featured at all. Then the list of articles interesting to me dried up. Then they went online and I even contributed one or two articles in my time but still seemingly evolved down the same route. Thank the dice gods for fora like this one which have periods, figures and (hopefully) a like minded community I am engaged with. Not only do they offer pastoral care to 'lead addicts' such as myself with hints and tips but help me spend my money on more worthwhile stuff! I think the printed Wargames mag has had its time.

[martin goddard]

It was
"The people get what the people want"

Now

"The people want what the people get"




martin

[Leslie BT]

Agreed Paul.

Agreed John, I hope that you are getting back to good health.

It is good that there are a number of other manufacturers at present, so Warlord are no longer King in the market place..

[Matías]

I had no idea about Warlord doing that. I did get into the hobby thanks to Bolt Action, purchased the Band of Brothers starting set as my first thing, assembled it, painted some Americans and then never touched it again, changed Ruleset and Scale after that.

About magazines, I started fairly recently in the hobby so didn't live trough magazines golden age, and living abroad the only viable option is purchasing digital. From all the magazines I have seen, I only purchase specific issues of WSS. It has interesting articles and scenarios or campaigns, and it always has at least a mention of Peter Pig stuff.

[Leslie BT]

That's the same to here in France.

[Colonel Kilgore]

But at least Warlords' ACW Rapid Deployment System (aka box of paints) looks handy and readily usable for 15mm armies?

Simon

[Smoking gun]

Simon,
Thank you for that, I'd seen mention of the ACW Rapid Deployment System and had assumed it was something to do with their ACW game miniatures, not a paint set. I may look into it.

The marketing hasn't worked on me.😁

Best wishes,
Martin Buck

[Colonel Kilgore]

Here you go, Martin:

https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/epic-battles-american-civil-war/products/black-powder-american-civil-war-paint-set

£29.50 for 9 paints and a wash. Which feels a tad on the expensive side. But you do get a free sprue of their plastic figures to practice on.

Simon

[Leslie BT]

Plastic or Warlord Resin?

[Colonel Kilgore]

Plastic or Warlord Resin?

Presumably whatever they make their Epic ACW figures out of. In the email they sent me, Warlord refer to them as "plastic".

Simon

[pbeccas (Paul)]

Those paints are relabelled Army Painter.  Cheaper to get the product number and buy them direct.