Runewars - A new major Player?...

Fantasy Flight, the people behind the X-Wing and Armada franchises have recently announced a mass-battle fantasy miniatures game

Featuring 48 unpainted miniatures in the base set, this is very definitely a game of regiments and heroes, and looks to be borrowing heavily from the aforementioned Star Wars games for its' on board rules mechanics.  Unlike those however, this is not tied to a specific franchise, and allows players the liberty to paint miniatures as they choose (or not) to.

Now in fairness, such games come and go, somebody every few years gets it into their head that they can take GW on in this market, and until Age of Sigmar appeared they all came up short.  That change couldn't have happened at a better time for Mantic and Kings of War, who got a huge boost from Games Workshop retiring Warhammer Fantasy.  But Mantic, for all their success can't put the support behind a game the way Fantasy Flight can.

You see Fantasy Flight is owned Asmodee; arguably now the largest board game company in the world, with serious clout - one of the few companies able to engage both miniatures, card game and board game markets seriously.  Unlike many entrants to the field they have a massive and growing revenue to support their intentions; 200 million Euros (about £150m) in 2015 and growing every year since 2001.  Moreover they're bought many games companies - Fantasy Flight included - and had the good sense to let them continue to do what they're best at.

By comparison in the same year GW had revenue of £123m in the same period, steadily falling.  And doubtless with similar profit issues.  

So is FF a serious threat to GW?  Well, it's interesting to also note that in the last few days the suggestion is that FF's long partnership with GW to produce board and card games based on their licenses is to end [*Edit: announced officially an hour after I wrote this!].  Maybe somebody is feeling threatened, maybe someone else doesn't feel they need them any more and is ready to strike out on their own...

Of Course, RuneWars could be a massive failure, it may not find its' target demographic at all.  I'm not too sure that'll be the case though, and if this game is supported in the way the likes of X-Wing and Imperial Assault have been in the past I suspect GW could get very nervous indeed...