There was a time from the late 90s to mid 2000s where games workshop were not the only sci fi wargames about armies of unique varieties clashing? I think it bred true competition even if most of these competitors never lasted, they did cause pressure on being a bit more consumer friendly, to onboard hobbyists and to be really creative.
I was a kid immersed in bionicle back then.But it must have been a better time to be a wargamer into sci-fi stuff as the positives outweighed the negatives back then.The problem today is that when indie projects get momentum and a whiff of the money meals gw eats everyday they start making stupid anti consumer decisions then flop and warhammer wins again.It doesn’t help that the alternatives now collect insufferable contrarian hipsters in their communities which make newcomers go back to the warhammers because the following is so big it is easier to find decent wargamers.
>>98345345I was a kid too, discovering that other settings with just as many factions and (at the time) units as 40k a few years ago blow my mind. I don't think people knew how good they had it. Warhammer 40k beat out the competition because of it's great setting and models, and guides and campaigns and books. But a lot of the games in the collage also had magazines, campaigns, novels and beautiful rule books. They are fun to explore, in a dead lobby on an old game sort of way.I agree with the newer alternative games attracting a bad crowd. I think there was something powerful about the thick rulebooks with settings info and dioramas of battles. Some decisions have been utterly shocking from the creators of these games. Others just don't seem to have a purpose.
>>98345385eh gw had their own stores that did them a lot of goodrackham metals were aesthetically superior to gws metals at the timewarmachine had a tighter ruleset better suited for tournament gamesyou even had janky stuff like the legend of the 5 rings miniature game
>>98345333They mostly self inflicted their own demises when GW was historically weak.
>>98345345>stupid anti consumer decisionsThis is rarely the problem. Historically, what's killed /awg/s that might have competed with GW is logistics. They fuck up so badly they burn LGSs and distributors who never want to work with them again.
Based. I like picking up these random miniatures for my Stargrave crewsVor, Void, Havok, Trinity Battlegrounds, all the rest.
>>98345805Dude thank you so fucking much. I've been looking for Trinity Battlegrounds for about 4 years. I saw the starter box one time and bookmarked the webpage which then got nuked. I didn't remember it's name at all and never was able to find it. You are a lifesaver, the game and the box really captured my mind back then.Pic related are my most recent purchase from today, just the books. I want to read the fun lore and see the diorama pics and the how to terrain tutorials. I'm going to make a VOR ZYKHEE force. I dig their tribal vibe.
>>98346014Trinity Battlegrounds has returned now, sadly not in an active development state but it has been revived as a digital format. PDF rules and terrain, all the old models are acanned and cleaned up as STLs for 3d printing. It's pretty cool.Out of the old 90s-core sci-fi wargames Warzone has a special place in my heart. I still play it when I can these days, collect models when I can find them. Has another new incarnation now, too. Hopefully that goes the distance this time.
>>98345333i remember walking into Toys R Us in the 90s and finding one of Warhammers competitors stocked on a shelf. I forget which one.I think they were even preassembled and prepainted
>>98345333Welcome to capitalism.
>>98345333No because theres more than ever now and I see far more players playing different systems than ever before. The 90s and 2000s set the stage for Warhammers market dominance because other companies couldn’t begin to compete. Pretty much every company has tried a scifi or fantasy competitor by this point.
>>98347408That would be Havok by blue bird. That could have done well but argos barcode system meant you were getting basically a blind box every single time. It had a comic series by 2000AD
>>98345345Bionicle didn't exist back then. They had lego scifi submarines and arctic world space men stuff.Mein dear Zoomer
>>98347625They existed in the early 2000s.I should have clarified that.You win, boomer or as the generations after zoomers like me say: “unc.”We’re the 90s and 2000s really a better time to be a wargamer and ttrpg player?
>>98348460well it was cooler and cheaper so yeah
