It never ceases to amaze me that despite the doom and gloomers, the wargame market keeps on growing in total dollar sales terms, total number of games published and total number of games sold.

While I have but anecdotal evidence nearly every KickStarter launched for wargames is making its numbers! Case in point the latest Flying Pigs title OST Volume III is now up on kickstarter. Off of KS, the pXXX pre order systems seem to be being filled at a rapid pace too!

KICKSTARTERHERE It launched just a few hours ago and is just 1.5-2.0k short of its modest 18k target. Great to see!

Along with this growth comes innovation. New ideas on mechanics.

Larger format counters, bigger hexes! Art that takes full advantage of technology to evoke period and scale.

Old School Tactical is a case in point. New game play ideas, and new formats and higher quality are evident in this tactical system. Similarly GMT’s recently released Last Hundred Yards also takes a fresh look at tactical combat with some innovative mechanics that in fact take a fair bit to get used to they are so different.

Other new publishers have explored print on demand such as Hollandspiele with tremendous success, launch over 40 titles in an amazingly short time with superb attention to quality in their rule books and designs.

As more niche publishers emerge the common thinking has been that they would cannibalize the larger publishers and slow their release cycles and reduce total sales volumes.

This does not seem to be the case. If any thing the second tier publishers of wargames – Compass, Legion Games and Revolution Games seem to be ramping up their releases as well! Now it is likely true that in Compass’s case they volumes may be lower [they do not disclose pre order numbers that I’ve been able to see], and they appear to be suffering some quality issues with their ‘Deluxe Designer Editions’ of old “classics” in new skins, generally they have been very well received. The biggest failing has been the haphazard development process for Starkweathers designs that are plagued with significant issues. Legion on the other hand has continued to ramp up and press very solid games, on innovative titles. Revolution also has a ‘hidden’ pre order system but its ziplock titles and boxed games on older classics being re imagined are also doing very well and I’ve enjoyed each immensely.
Is MMP a Tier 1 publisher? I guess so because of ASL. But other wise its hard core base of buyers continues to buy ASL editions and 2nd versions and revised 3rd editions faster than can be stocked. While the OCS/BCS/SCS titles all really just come when they are ‘done’, and the formula at MMP appears to be just as it was in the early 90’s. small hexes, small counters, black and white rules in the main. The quality of end product here is just amazing though. Solid system designs from Dean Essig, and significant research from the likes of Carl Fung and others mean the games have great historical bones. Their legions of faithful playtesters continue to do excellent work.

The big hoss GMT Games has driven volume up also. with strategic investments into its amazingly successful COIN series C&C series they have used these sales dollars to expand into non wargames based titles [see I can even type Euro…;)]. While the number of hex and counter titles shrinks there, the hard core stuff coming out is superb – Next War series, Combat Commander and the GBoH titles keep a element of wargamer street cred for GMT.

So in some ways while we may feel inundated by niche players, by carefully selecting them and trying them we can really experience a wealth of innovation not seen since the early 80’s.

I’m excited for the next few years of war gaming and what will come next!