"Next Plastic Ancients Set produced???" Topic

With Wargames Factory and Warlord Games slowly churning out new sets of quality multi-pose 28mm plastic ancients sets, where should they turn to next (among ancient sets that is).

Both have covered middle period Roman sets and Celts. WF has Numidian Foot and Germans coming out soon. Aside from these what sets would you want released over the summer?

1) Punic War Romans n Allies,
2) Punic War Carthaginians n Allies,
3) Complete set (all arms) of Early Germans,
4) Pontic (Mithradatic) Sets (all arms),
5) Roman Command and Artillery for existing sets,
6) Seleucids
7) Armenians
8) Partians
9) Sarmatians
10) Classic Greeks or Later Greek Mercenaries
11) Thracians
12) Macedonians
13) Egyptians
14) Finsih Numidian Line (Cavalry, etc…)
15) Later Imperial Romans
16) Later Germanic Tribes
17) Screw the Ancients, I want some Dark Age minis!
18) Sod the Ancients, I want some Medievals!
19) Toss the Ancients, I want some Renaissance minis!
20) Other (write in subject)

If you have multiple picks, list in order of importance.

Mine? Heres top 5:

1) Punic Wars Rome (w/ Italian Allies)
2) Punic Wars Carthaginians (w/ Spanish incl)
3) Pontics (Scythed Chariots!)
4) Greek Mercenaries (Theureophroi, etc…)
5) Sod the Ancients, I want some "13th Century Samurai"

Thanks for your input.

1. Sod the Ancients, I want some "13th Century Samurai"
2. Sod the Ancients, I want some Medievals!
3. Mycenean Greeks!!
4. Ancient Hebrews!

1) Punic War Romans n Allies,
2) Punic War Carthaginians n Allies,
3) Complete set (all arms) of Early Germans,
4) Pontic (Mithradatic) Sets (all arms),
5) Roman Command and Artillery for existing sets,

1: Dark Age fan myself. Multiple to pick from Saxon, Frank, Viking, Carolingian, and many others.(Prefer 9th century Saxons and Authurian troops)

2: I could add to my Hittites

2) Punic War Carthaginians n Allies

I'd love to see mycenean greeks.

My order would be

Mycenean spearmen
Mycenean chariots
Mycenean archers
Mycenean slingers
Mycenean heroes

I would like:

1) Vikings
2) Normans
3) Saxons
4) Macedonians
5) Punic War Carthaginians

Let's get it right "Mycenaean"

1. WWI Turks
2. WWI ANZAC
3. WWI Brits
4. WWi French
5. oh yeah, and some WWI Germans

medievals!

WF was going to do medievals, but nobody is pre-ordering them. Both the men-at-arms and the archer boxes had not had any major changes in months.

get off your duffs and vote, medieval fans!

See, this is exactly where the Wargames Factory business model wins. The market dictates what gets produced, directly. It's like a poll that actually matters.

The only Ancients I'd be looking at would be Egyptians. I'd keep my eye on other plastic sets for conversion possibilities, also. But really, I'm not the target audience here.

(I'd love to see a set of the super-evil bad guy "Persians" from _300_, but I risk getting strung up for suggesting that on TMP.)

Let's get it right:

1. WWI Turks
2. WWI ANZAC
3. WWI Brits
4. WWi French
5. oh yeah, and some WWI Germans

are not ancients.

Well, if they would be _really_ early WWI…

Griefbringer

Ooops, I've been smoked out! I forgot the obligatory "sod, or is that , the ancients, I want some modern cannon fodder"

That bleep is over a relatively innocent period expletive…

"Let's get it right "Mycenaean"

%@#^&*)( spelling ^%$@(*& !!! 8)
How about some spacemen?

2. Sod the Ancients, I want some Medievals!

Perry Miniatures are supposed to be releasing WotR plastics later in the year. :D

1 – Classic Greeks Hoplites in corinthian Helmets
2 – Egyptians
3 – Pontic (Mithradatic) Sets (all arms)
4 – Did I mentionned Classic Greeks?

#17 (Dark Ages), but that would also include #15 (Late Imperial Roman) and #16 (Late Germans)…

…but that's only if we're talking old stuff. I'd rather see some modern stuff taht isn't zombie.

Rob

I don't see how you can have such a list, and not include Sodomite Cavalry.

Egyptians
Egyptian enemies
Aztecs and related folks

Thank you for reading ;)

Come to think of it, I'd see some 7th/early 6th century hoplites in bell cuirass. Some geometric/dark age Greeks would be nice also.

Watch out for Sodomite Patrols!

My guess is that 90% of you would like to see what you are proposing, but most of you relize that the economics for what you want are … not encouraging. At least, I HOPE you are realistic.

Why would you say that, John?

You don't think geometric era Greeks would sell in the thousands of boxes needed to make it worthwhile?

Nobody's bothered to make them in metal, so there's gotta be a gap in the market. Right?

That's one theory, sure. Just not Occam's.

See, this is exactly where the Wargames Factory business model wins. The market dictates what gets produced, directly.

In theory, I think that from a business model perspective, WF & WG have gone for the relatively low volume, high gross profit model. Whereas Victrix & Perrys with a larger potential customer base could afford to go for volume with lower profit margins.
Victrix and Perrys are both out-selling WF/WG 5:1 according to the local games store. Victrix are the more popular Naps, Perrys make up volume in ACW sales.
Because Victrix wins on detail, Perrys need to diversify away from Victrix to remain competitive.
Perrys and Victrix will have a gentleman's agreement not to compete head-to-head.
WF/WG need to have higher profit margins due to their niche periods – e.g. the market for Zulus and Brits is low, even lower for their sculpt style/figure size.
The interesting factor for me is that the WF/WG wish-lists are almost all for figures that are readily available in metal from multiple manufacturers. Just how serious are they?
Also, making figures for niche markets is high risk, and even riskier to stock. Retailers work on gross profit per stock turn and meter of shelf space. Low stock turns are usually bad. So as John The OFM said, most wish lists are likely to remain just that.
Bottom line is that Victrix and Perrys are in prime display position in my local store. WF/WG are on the shelves.

Im not sure that addressed the original question…

thehawk – you crack me up!

I'm interested to understand your perspective on "high gross profit" model? Are 60 cent figures high gross profit in your world Russ?

1) Punic Wars Rome (w/ Italian Allies)
2) Punic Wars Carthaginians (w/ Spanish incl)
3) Pontics (Scythed Chariots!)
4) Greek Mercenaries (Theureophroi, etc…)
5) Sod the Ancients, I want some non-GW plastic fantasy!!!

Looks like its Dacians from WG:

warlordgames.co.uk/?p=2281

Victrix and Perrys are both out-selling WF/WG 5:1 according to the local games store.

This is the definition of anecdotal evidence. Stores vary so widely in what's popular.

The interesting factor for me is that the WF/WG wish-lists are almost all for figures that are readily available in metal from multiple manufacturers. Just how serious are they?

Uh, it's the customers themselves telling them what they would like to see made. That sounds pretty serious to me. It may be in metal, but people want it in plastic. Hence the zombies being such a big hit.

I think part of the difference here is that you're focusing on sales in the store, and I think we're seeing a shift to online sales here, where space on the shelves and stocking isn't as much of a concern.

These are the only current WF sets over 50% and hence at all likely to be produced in 2010:

Classic Greek Hoplites – Number Needed to Enter Production: 406 – Percentage Complete: 59%

Early Imperial Roman Legionaries – Number Needed to Enter Production: 449 – Percentage Complete: 55%

Not a lot too look forward to on that front!

Many are already on their way from Wargames Factory.
1) Punic War Romans and Allies,
2) Punic War Carthaginians n Allies,
3) Complete set (all arms) of Early Germans,
10) Classic Greeks or Later Greek Mercenaries
11) Thracians
14) Finish Numidian Line (Cavalry, etc…)

WF already have a very comprehensive range of Celts. From the three boxed sets you can make – warband, slingers, javelins, command, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, cavalry command and chariots.

WF have already announced German warband, command, javelins, archers, light cavalry and cavalry command. They will go on sale soon.

The Numidian infantry set can also be used for several ancient archer, javelin, light infantry types. These are on sale now. I suspect that other head and shield variants will be along soon.

Numidian cavalry are planned according to Howard on the WF forum but are dependent on a new horse sprue.

Here are some samples
link

Mick

Just saw this thread. For me,

Choice 1 & 2 Anything Punic,
Choice 20 Mycenaean, (I say Trojan so I do not misspell it) Choice 20 Shila, and Choson era Koreans.
Choice 6 Seleucids
VR
James Mattes

About time James! Good pics.

You're all just going to have to wait, it took about 30 years before plastic 1/72nd / 1/76th / HO /OO / 20mm got up to more than about 100 different boxes.

Course, there's almost 1,000 now so be careful what you wish for (and I think just about everything listed above is available)

And, as a second thought, and picking up on the OFM's comments, if they are practical to do in 1/72nd why would they not be practical in 28mm hard plastic ?

Because the main market for 1/72 is diorama builders and collectors. 28mm is wargamers, a much smaller market.
And I'd like generic Dark Age infantry. Round shield, spear, tunic, trousers, shoes and bare head. I can then grab some heads from West Wind and do Late Romans, Germans, whatever. Some armoured torso would be nice, one per sprue. These would be so generic that they could fit any army from 350AD to 1000AD.

actually @agent brown, I think the market for 1/72 from our youth was for kids.diorama. and collectors… the current crop of quality 1/72(caesar, zvezda) seem to be alot more oriented to the wargaming hobby. The new crop of 1/72 seem to be better proportioned/researched and complete in range(and easier to paint with"plastic primer")I am actually contemplating selling off all my painted and unpainted metal 28mm and replacing with 1/72… mad, I know..heresy

I have several thousand 1/72 plastics (mainly Ancients) and the nearest I've got to constructing dioramas is with DBx bases. Although I am considering some larger Impetus groupings…