"Which country has the most influence on the industry. " Topic

As to the current state of wargaming (and all that encompasses) what country currently has the most influence on the state of affairs?

1) The UK
2) The USA
3) Other (please elaborate )

China.

No IP laws to speak of and some of the worst labour and industrial pollution standards around, and even what exists of both of those are very poorly enforced. But they can make a lot of stuff. Cheap. Which makes it more accessible, greatly expanding the reach of the hobby.

UK

Just miniatures, then UK. Add board games and computer games, then US.

For design I would say the UK but etotheipi raises a very good point.

I'll throw Germany into the discussion because we wouldn't be gaming WWII without them.

Defining "the industry"--a term I hate as much as "the hobby"--as miniature warfare, then I think the UK. It's tied with the US as the biggest market, it's vastly more concentrated--meaning you're more likely to know other miniature wargamers, and to know them in non-wargaming contexts--and it's much smaller. Should be much easier to propagate a new idea there.

Sometimes I think having a new wargaming idea in the US doesn't count. All the Anglophone miniature wargaming world knows Grant, Young and Featherstone--not to mention Barker. Mention Vietmeyer or Morschauser and no one outside of North America has heard of them.

China?
What wargaming stuff is made there?
Unless someone over there is making a 28mm Washington Crossing the Delaware….

Winston, if I'm not mistaken Games Workshop has some of their boxed games and miniatures made in China.

And that's not counting the knock-off 40k miniatures made currently in China, Singapore, Russia and Ukraine.

UK for making great figures (from a vast amount of companies )and innovation ( plastics etc etc ) . Then the US for buying them in vast quantities .

How big is the difference in sales volumes between UK and US?

UK

Teppsta, I've been told by dealers it's more or less equal between the US and the UK. We just do not have the UK's high proportion of wargamers in our population. But I don't know how you'd verify sales volume. Too many small companies, and surely not all lines sell equally well on both sides of the Pond.

Consider that almost all my microscale has to be imported, for instance.

UK, hands down

Remember the UK is also the main supplier of miniatures in the whole of Europe.
You do have some German, Italian and eastern European producers. But they are a tiny fraction next to the UK.

China?
What wargaming stuff is made there?

Check your box. It may say where it was made (lots of import laws require that). Or it may say where it was "assembled" (same laws, different circumstances), in which case you can pretty much guarantee it wasn't made in the listed country, but only shipped there to be assembled (that is, the sprues put in the box).

As Uesugi Kenshin says, lots of loose stuff on online auction sites are of dubious origin. My rule of thumb is if it looks like the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. And I am a well known cheapskate on such matters.

UK then the USA … But IMO the US is certainly catching up !

If you are buying metal miniatures from china, wear gloves, they probably have a fairly high lead content.

Depends.

Here in the Rimworlds :), we are heavily influenced in playing style by UK companies and styles, but as to what we buy and play . . . We tend to follow the UK, with a few exceptions, like the fact we have taken on the CMON Wrath Of Kings game in large numbers and the revival of Battletech when the UK has lagged far behind on both games. UK-based games are often popular when played, however the bulk of imported games material is US in source.

UK. Terrain, game mats, rules, minis, clubs, conventions. They have it all