The Loose Association of Wargamers

I just noticed that it's been announced that Hornby have bought a 25% share of Warlord Games, with the option to buy a majority shareholding in a years time.
Will this mean some of their 1/48 Airfix kits being rebranded as 28mm to add to Warlords ranges?

Triple the price and sell them under the Bolt Action brand. Look forward to the armoured train set though.

Wonder what it will do to Warlords deal with Italeri.

I knew Hornby were sat on a cash pile after covid profits. It makes some sense given Warlords plastics involvement.

Wonder if it is a sign that Warlord have money issues themselves.

by FreddBloggs » 11 Jul 2023 06:34
Wonder if it is a sign that Warlord have money issues themselves.

Introducing regional pricing lost them quite a few customers here. Why would I want to buy something from them when it's 20 quid in the UK but the equivalent of 27 quid for me, because of where I live? Plus you can add 35% shipping if I don't buy over $100USD ($149AUD) in their shop? One of the major local shops (TCC) has already dropped the price on their stock by 10% and it's still ridiculously over-priced (would you pay over 35 quid for Armies of Great Britain?).

A drop in Aussie customers won't worry them, but if the same backlash has happened in North America then they may have been hurt.

The 25% stake reportedly cost £1.3million, A company valuation of £5mil sounds quite a lot for the wargames sector!

I seem to remember GW valued at around £3.5bn

I stopped buying Warlord stuff (other than much cheaper second-hand/eBay) a couple of years ago when their price rises just made everything silly. Plus they dropped all their mixed-tank boxes (combos of 1/2 light tanks and 3/4 heavier ones, or vice-versa) which were not only competitively priced, but also a good starting point for "What A Tanker"*.

[* Mind you, some of those Early War combos, involving tanks with defensive values far higher than their "strike" potentials, could make for very long games, where you quickly whittled it down to one-a-side, but then ended up having to ram each other to bring the evening to a conclusion before everyone had aged to the point where they couldn't remember where they'd parked the car. ]

Regional pricing!

They really did take the mantra of do everything GW do, to heart......

I have watched the Hornby programs on the tv which are very interesting, I wonder if they will do an episode about Warlord games. That would be high profile for our hobby.
https://uktvplay.co.uk/shows/hornby-a- ... tch-online

Willz.

My biggest hope is Warlord Plus Airfix equals 20mm hard plastics.