Community > FACO

Spartan Day #2 at Gamer's Haven

(1/8) > >>

Dakkar:
All,

I'm looking to plan a Tacticon follow-up demo day for Spartan stuff in September.

Are any weekends better than others? 10th works for me until dinnertime, 17th is open so far.

Greg - I'd love for you to run HALO Fleet and Ground demos if you're game.

I'll gladly coordinate Firestorm and Planetfall demos/ megagames.

And I'll shoot to have the Iceland set ready for Dystopian Wars demos.

I want to use this as a local recruitment drive really... if sales don't pick up somehow, I don't see Rob supporting Spartan in 2017...

Thanks!
Dale

Landlubber:
I would be happy to run demos of both Halo games, and can assist with Dystopian Wars. Right now, all my weekends are open in September.

I hate to sound like a downer, but...good luck generating interest. I'm just about done leading demo efforts for any of Spartan's products. Don't get me wrong, I love the games and will continue to purchase the miniatures and play them with whomever is interested, but I don't think anyone in the area is interested beyond the group of players we've already established, and I'm tired of beating the drum. As far as I know, we had two "new" people play at the Spartan Games demo day we ran at the Haven in April. Both played in the  Halo demo. One was 9 and was there with  his mom. The other guy was military, newly-assigned to the area, and was just looking for something to play while he was waiting for his 40k stuff to show up in his household goods. Haven't seen either of them since. And on "Spartan Games nights" at the Haven, usually the only people there to play Spartan products are me and whomever my opponent is (that's not a dig at those of you who can't/don't play on Monday nights at the Haven--it just is what it is). Maybe it's just not a good night, maybe Spartan's games are being played on other nights at the Haven, but I seriously doubt that. The staff even made a sign with my store forum name on it and put it in the Spartan section of the store, advertising Monday nights as Spartan Games Night, and I have yet to receive any requests for demos. The sign has been up for at least three months.

I'm not sure why we can't seem to generate more interest in these games. I've heard too many times the argument of "there are just too many game systems out there." While there certainly are a dizzying array of miniatures games currently on the market, Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada have both been around longer than many of the other current games that are tearing through the Haven and the wider miniature gaming world--Malifaux (I think), X-Wing, Star Trek: Attack Wing, Guildball, etc. You would think the older game systems would have a more "established" group of players--and some do (anything GW, Flames of War, etc), but the Spartan products don't, for whatever reason. Hell, as I was leaving the store this past Monday, the staff had already written in the table reservations for Tuesday--Malifaux all the way. And I'd bet (given the few times I've been in there on a Tuesday) every table was full. There just is no interest at that store for fleet-scale space or oceanic naval games, besides the few people who already play (most of whom are on this forum). The only interest I've seen at that store in large model-count games is 40k, WH Fantasy (or whatever it's called these days), and Warmachine. And every time I see on the store forum that someone has just moved into the area and is looking for a gaming group to join, they are either RPG players or 40k players.

Additionally, Spartan has the only current mass-produced, non-historical naval fleet game that I'm aware of (Dystopian Wars) and two of the probably only three mass-produced space fleet games (Firestorm and Halo: Fleet Battles--I'm counting the third as Star Wars: Armada). So it's not like Spartan is competing with the 28mm sci-fi/fantasy crowd or the 15mm historical crowd for players--their games are, for the most part, unique.

Maybe we'll see a bump in interest with the new Halo ground game, given Halo's wide appeal and recognizability, but I won't be surprised if we don't. I talked to one of the store staff yesterday, and so far I'm the only person who has pre-ordered the starter box for that game.

So yeah, I'll be there, because I enjoy playing the games and I enjoy seeing them on the tabletop. But I'll bet you lunch at Taco Bell that we don't generate any new players. Don't get me wrong--I sincerely hope it does. And I sincerely hope we get more players in general. But I just don't know if that's going to happen. And if Rob drops Spartan in 2017, well, I can't say I blame him. I tend to order all my Spartan stuff through him, so hopefully even if he does stop carrying it I can still order it through the store. I'd prefer to order through them even for a game they don't carry than go straight to the manufacturer, but that's just my own personal philosophy.

Sorry. Didn't mean the above as a rant. Just calling it like I see it. Happy to discuss the finer points with anyone interested.

Dakkar:
I can't say you're wrong overall, and I too am tired of preaching in the wilderness. Aside from the Vanguard bump I get for what promos I can schedule, Spartan doesn't advertise worth a damn, except for their "Project of The Moment". And their recent sales policies have all but alienated US retailers and distributors over the past year. I should be going nuts for new PLANETFALL, or the dream Firestorm fleets I've waited years for (Syndicate and Omnidyne), but I can barely muster a meh.
If they alienate stores, stores won't push it, and that makes a huge dfifference.

All that said, a good while back, I labored for a year or two to generate more Warmachine players after deployments and school changes dropped the group from 12 to 6 or less. Eventually, something shifted, and the group exploded. (And now has promptly left again...) Meaning its cyclical, and it only really dies if we let it.


--- Quote from: Landlubber on July 22, 2016, 02:58:25 pm ---There just is no interest at that store for fleet-scale space or oceanic naval games, besides the few people who already play (most of whom are on this forum). The only interest I've seen at that store in large model-count games is 40k, WH Fantasy (or whatever it's called these days), and Warmachine.
--- End quote ---

I would argue that. The fashion right now is 28mm man-scale skirmish games. And not even "large army" - Malifaux and Guildball and Infinity are dominant; plus smaller army games like 40K Kill team, Age of Sigmar, and SAGA has big sway.
Spaceships don't fit in that model, and if they do, X-WING sucks all the air for that.
Without Spartan making a better sales case for its games (which TASKFORCE obviously did not do), that won't soon change.
I do think there's a fleet-scale hunger, but it needs to be sold to with a better hook - the return of BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC being the most likely hook.
All it might take for Spartan is a really nice FIRESTORM or DYSTOPIAN new edition/new box set. If they had half they attention to graphic design that GW has, and rules-ease that Privateer has, they'd sell like hotcakes. But what Box art there is doesn't sell it (or deters sales in the case of blank Planetfall boxes!). The IP is murky and impenetrable for most. And I think many would rather read the badly translated INFINITY Rules than assay your average Spartan Rulebook (let's face it, they've barely improved in clarity and structure).

So my bottom line is, despite flaws and all, I'll keep trying a while longer, hoping for that release that re-energizes things. But my early year plan for fleets in all major factions plus more has fallen WAY down in scope. I'll keep the Faith as much as my own permits, but mainly because I don't see XWING and SW ARMADA appealing to me as much. And as much as I dig the HALO system, I think the easy analogy with what LOTR did to Warhammer has come to pass. HALO has drained energy, resources and attention away from the core games, but without becoming as viable a system on its own. GW couldn't solve how to bring WFB back from the LOTR split until both systems died, and AoS was reborn from the ashes. We'll see how Spartan weathers...

Landlubber:
I guess I don't tend to think of the games in those terms (marketing, appeal, manufacturer's relationship to stores, etc). I look at them like "This is a fun game, why aren't you people playing it?!?!?!?" As I look back, what drew me into Dystopian Wars (which then turned into Firestorm, Halo FB, etc) was the image of the Prussian Imperium-class sky fortress on the first edition rulebook. But you're right--the current DW rulebooks don't have any artwork and there is nothing for the Planetfall boxes. I think the DW, Firestorm Armada, and Halo boxes are a little better, as they show actual models or drawings of the models, but nothing like the chainsword-swing Ultramarine on the cover of the 40k book (or whatever image they have).

Like I said, I personally enjoy the games and I like the miniatures, so I won't stop buying or playing Spartan's games unless I absolutely have no opponents left (which hopefully won't ever happen). I hope that your LOTR analogy is wrong, and that Halo doesn't damage the company or cause irreparable damage to any of their other game lines (you could argue that's already happened with Dystopian Legions, but that game was suffering from lack of support even before the release of Halo: Fleet Battles).

Eh. These are First World Problems. Dale, I didn't mean to hijack your thread, my apologies. I would be happy to run demos for whatever you need for the demo day. I can certainly support Dystopian Wars, Halo: Fleet Battles, and Halo: Ground Command. Hopefully I'll have the majority of my Halo ground units painted by then. If nothing else, those of us who DO play can gather around and have our own Games Day.  :D 

So if you're going to run that in September, I won't bother trying to set up a "games day" for our group that month.

Quickdraw:
I won't be home at all in September. You'll have to count me out.
If you need any of my models though, let me know. Hopefully I can get my Halo Ground stuff painted real quick and you guys could use that too.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page