"Games/Rules That You Thought Would Be Successful" Topic

Which miniature wargaming ruleset or game did you think was going to be the next big success, but it never gained popularity?

AT 43, Warzone, and Urban War. Oh well, I can use the ministry for Warpath.

IHMN, Congo, Frostgrave, oh wait maybe I am in the wrong crowd.

Vor: The Maelstrom.

Dark Age.

Warmachine (oh, wait…)

Congo seems to have vanished after a big splash.

All Quiet on the Martian Front.

It seems to be limping along, but I was hoping for better.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Define success.
Define popularity.

All very subjective, viewed from everyone's little private wargaming bubble.

AT43. I invested heavily then it all crashed.

None of the WAB successors seem to have become dominant but I'd expected one of them would.

Robotech Tactics RPG – The kickstarter should've got players in. I knew lots of people who got it, but I've only seen it out once.

Dust (back in the Battlefront days, though the Kickstarter caused that to stall). Still gets played enough to have a few big meet ups around the world but I am the local player base for it.

Hoping Warpath Firefight can take over from Dust (they have pretty similar feel to the scale they play at).

AT43 I liked non-random, not blind packed, prepainted figures. And the game itself was fun.

Congo. I'm still painting and building terrain but it seems to have gone quiet.
I had read that ther was a campaign book coming?

Robotech
Dust
Relic Knights

Basically, if your game is a wildly popular yet failed Kickstarter, you're doomed.

Most Osprey rules sets if not all of them….. half life measured in miliseconds…

Vor
All Quiet on the Martian Front

Best game no one played: Rezolution
Cyberpunk including hackers. Good rules system. Never fully supported by the designers then they moved on to another game.

Chainmail, the D&D metal minis game from 3rd edition.
I know it would be the basis for the prepainted blind box plastic minis game. But we never got into that. We were too sad to see the end of our beloved Chainmail.

FoG

I had hopes for both Void and AT-43. But I admit I didn't help and didn't buy anything. Looked at figures from both a lot, though.

I thought Void rules looked nice and clean, with the right about of "system".

andy

Defining popular as 'seemed poised for success and then virtually or actually vanished' All Quiet on the Martian Front, DUST, and AT-43 all vie for the crown; games seemed like they were set for years of development, lots of gaming press coverage, strong blog presence, and then poof, gone. Ok, so DUST is still limping along but I can't find it any LGS and I've never seen it played.

-Will

"None of the WAB successors seem to have become dominant but I'd expected one of them would."

I was surprised by this as well. Hail Caesar seems to have emerged as the leader, but not by much. Recent rule sets such as To The Strongest and Kings of War seem to be cutting into it as well.

"Most Osprey rules sets if not all of them….. half life measured in milliseconds…"

Having played a few of these I've come to the conclusion that they are OK, but not great rules. The books are just a few rules ideas thrown together with a lot of white space in the margins, making what should be a 10 page book into 30-40 pages. Five minutes after leaving the game you can't remember who was on what side, who won, etc., as the games are kind of non-descript.

My vote would be Arc of Fire. Simply one of the best WW2/Modern skirmish rules that have come out in the hobby. They simply didn't gain any traction and now you rarely even hear their name mentioned.

Void. Clean straight forward rules. Clean, good looking, easy to paint minis. Still a fave of mine even if I don't get to play it much.

Dark Age. Big booth and presence at Origins every year with events. But away from that I never hear about it anywhere. Awesome looking minis too.

I'll add Wrath of Kings to the list too even though it's a newer game. Simple fun rules with great looking minis.

Battlefield Evolution
DUST
Mars Attacks
WAB
Great War (GW WWI)
FOW Viet Nam & Arab Isreali War versions

On the flip side – I expected X-Wing to die quickly

I thought Tomorrow's War was going to replace Stargrunt. Not so much, it turns out.

I'll add Wrath of Kings to the list too even though it's a newer game. Simple fun rules with great looking minis.

It's been around for a while, but I really don't see any action with it, either. Nifty minis, and a very different rule system.

I don't know that I'd count AT-43, Warzone, VOR, etc- games that were dragged under when their parent companies went Tango Uniform.

Relic Knights may have been hurt by the fact that quality of the initial plastic minis was substandard.

On the flip side – I expected X-Wing to die quickly

Just out of curiosity, what was your reasoning?

I thought Tomorrow's War was going to replace Stargrunt. Not so much, it turns out.

Oh yea! I remember thinking the same thing; and now you barely see a peep about it.

I don't know that I'd count AT-43, Warzone, VOR, etc- games that were dragged under when their parent companies went Tango Uniform.

Fair point; those in the case of AQTMF I think the game drove the company's demise….

Relic Knights has the issue in that it really is a niche topic; anime-inspired setting but not tied to an actual anime. Anima Tactics had the same issue and eventually faded away.

-Will

Wilderness Wars

Beneath the lily Banner did not do as well as I had hoped.

At the time? Void for sure.
It seemed poised to step into the gap left by Warzone.

Tomorrows war seems pretty popular around the inter webs, but both that and star grunt got buried by Gruntz I think.

AQTMF
Possibly Congo? It seems to have gone quiet.

and from a personal observation, I don't see much Black Powder stuff going on anymore…

Black Powder seems to be fairly regional.
I always felt it was more popular in the UK.

I should add that I was surprised Wizards ended the plastic D&D minis game, it seemed to be selling extremely well.

I have been on the retail side of the business for more than 33 years. I have seen many rule sets with promise but never had the marketing presentation to increase popularity. Too many to name.