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Miniatures and Wargames Survey 2008

Miniatures and Wargames Survey 2008 - Wargaming

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Saturday, 08 March 2008 04:40

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What genre of wargames do you like to play?

Historical	63.47%
Fantasy	64.40%
Alternate History (Steam Punk for example)	40.56%
Modern/Near Future	41.18%
Science Fiction	69.66%
Other	1.24%

Beyond the above large genres of gaming, horror was by far the most popular. There were also responses for sports type games. During the follow up questions, many people placed horror in science fiction or alternate history. Games like Blood Bowl were generally classified into their fluff setting genres.

What historical periods do you play in?

Prehistory (Caveman/Dino Wars)	6.81%
Ancients (Up to the Fall of Rome)	33.44%
Medieval (Roughly 500-1400 AD)	34.98%
Renaissance (1400-1700 AD)	20.43%
Napoleonic Era	30.65%
American Revolutionary War	15.79%
American Civil War	26.32%
English Civil War	16.10%
Cowboy Wars (Generic Wild West)	21.98%
WWI	21.67%
WWII - Pacific	17.34%
WWII - Europe	48.61%
Cold War Period	14.24%
Modern/Post Cold War	16.10%
Other	8.36%

One of the unfortunate situations with historical games is that it is a very large stretch of time that gets broken down into a lot of wars, periods and genres. Nearly 5% of the other responses included English Colonial periods in Africa, India and the Middle East. Following that you have the Seven Years War which came in at around 3% of the responses (this includes related conflicts such as the French Indian War). After that you have generic pirate games which are not specific to a given era with about 2.5%. Rounding out the more popular mentions were the Spanish Civil war. During follow up questions, the Spanish Civil War enthusiasts seem to be divided equally between the two wars (1820s and early 1900s).

In addition to these there are several smaller more specific wars mentioned - many of which I had moved into the broader categories above in order to maintain the accuracy of the survey in relation to other respondents based off from what follow up conversations revealed (for example, the Dark Ages period was posted in others by a few users - however most who gamed Dark Age period games placed it in the Medieval slot).

What scale do you prefer to use for prehistorical miniatures?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	59.09%
20-25 mm	18.18%
10-20 mm	9.09%
Other	13.63%

The great folly of this survey. When entering in the questions for this survey, I ended up repeating a mistake related to the scale question over and over again. The proper division for this should have been 25 Heroic to 32 mm and 32 to 54 mm. The two options were grouped into one option and I didn't notice it until over 100 people had taken the survey. As a result I contacted nearly 300 respondents in regards to this and other scale questions. The results were fairly uniform and roughly 97% used 25 Heroic to 32 mm miniatures for wargames. Around 2% used 40 mm miniatures and the remainder were larger than that.

What type of prehistorical games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	7.14%
Smaller Unit sized battles	7.14%
Skirmish Battles	78.57%
Naval Combat	7.14%

What scale do you prefer to use with Ancients?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	31.19%
20-25 mm	20.18%
10-20 mm	37.61%
Smaller than 10 mm	6.42%
Other	4.59%

What type of ancient games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	46.20%
Smaller Unit sized battles	27.17%
Skirmish Battles	15.22%
Naval Combat	10.33%

What scale do you prefer to use for Medieval games?

54 mm and larger	0.88%
25 Heroic to 54 mm	38.60%
20-25 mm	28.07%
10-20 mm	25.44%
Smaller than 10 mm	2.63%
Other	4.39%

What type of medieval games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	34.01%
Smaller Unit sized battles	30.96%
Skirmish Battles	28.43%
Naval Combat	5.08%

What scale do you prefer to use with Renaissance games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	35.82%
20-25 mm	22.39%
10-20 mm	28.36%
Smaller than 10 mm	5.97%
Other	7.46%

What type of renaissance games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	39.32%
Smaller Unit sized battles	29.91%
Skirmish Battles	22.22%
Naval Combat	6.84%

What scale do you prefer to use for Napoleonic Era games?

54 mm and larger	1.00%
25 Heroic to 54 mm	18.00%
20-25 mm	10.00%
10-20 mm	51.00%
Smaller than 10 mm	12.00%
Other	8.00%

The first question which generated actual "Other" scales. Roughly 3% of the other responses were for 1:1200 scale naval miniatures. Roughly 1.75% were for 1:2400 naval miniatures. The rest were like those above - alerting me to my 28 mm mistake.

What type of Napoleonic games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	80.80%
Smaller Unit sized battles	30.30%
Skirmish Battles	22.22%
Naval Combat	17.17%

What scale do you prefer to use for American Revolutionary War games?

54 mm and larger	1.96%
25 Heroic to 54 mm	23.53%
20-25 mm	29.41%
10-20 mm	23.53%
Smaller than 10 mm	9.80%
Other	11.76%

What type of American Revolutionary War games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	62.75%
Smaller Unit sized battles	62.75%
Skirmish Battles	31.37%
Naval Combat	13.73%

What scale do you prefer to use for American Civil War games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	14.12%
20-25 mm	16.47%
10-20 mm	55.29%
Smaller than 10 mm	4.71%
Other	9.41%

Nearly 2% of the others responses were for 1:1200 scale miniatures. There were a small handful of respondents that played with 1:600 miniatures.

What type of American Civil War games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	74.11%
Smaller Unit sized battles	44.71%
Skirmish Battles	27.06%
Naval Combat	18.82%

What scale do you prefer to use for English Civil War games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	38.46%
20-25 mm	21.52%
10-20 mm	21.52%
Smaller than 10 mm	13.46%
Other	5.77%

What type of English Civil War games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	71.15%
Smaller Unit sized battles	65.38%
Skirmish Battles	28.85%
Naval Combat	5.77%

What scale do you prefer for Cowboy Wars (Generic Wild West) games?

54 mm and larger	2.78%
25 Heroic to 54 mm	59.72%
20-25 mm	29.17%
10-20 mm	2.78%
Other	5.56%

What type of Wild West games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	1.41%
Smaller Unit sized battles	15.49%
Skirmish Battles	100.00%

What scale do you prefer for WWI games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	28.57%
20-25 mm	21.43%
10-20 mm	20.00%
Smaller than 10 mm	12.86%
Other	17.14%

Nearly 5% of the other responses were for 1:144 scale miniatures (aircraft). Around 4% were for 1:6000 scale naval. There were also a few responses for 1:2400 naval miniatures.

What type of WWI games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	31.43%
Smaller Unit sized battles	58.57%
Skirmish Battles	52.86%
Naval Combat	27.14%
Aerial Combat	44.29%

What scale do you prefer for WWII, Pacific Theater games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	14.04%
20-25 mm	15.79%
10-20 mm	38.60%
Smaller than 10 mm	12.28%
Other	19.30%

Around 7% of the others were for 1:2400 naval miniatures. Both 1:6000 and 1:1200 had about 1%.

What scale of miniatures do you prefer for WWII, European Theater games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	18.35%
20-25 mm	17.72%
10-20 mm	47.47%
Smaller than 10 mm	12.03%
Other	4.43%

For WWII - European Theater games, 1:300 seemed to be a popular scale for aerial combat - having about 2% of the others responses.

What type of WWII games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	32.39%
Smaller Unit sized battles	58.69%
Skirmish Battles	39.43%
Naval Combat	21.13%
Aerial Combat	19.72%

What scale miniatures do you prefer for Cold War era games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	8.69%
20-25 mm	17.39%
10-20 mm	26.09%
Smaller than 10 mm	41.30%
Other	6.52%

Roughly 2% of the others responses were for 1:2400 scale naval miniatures.

What type of cold war era games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	28.26%
Smaller Unit sized battles	54.35%
Skirmish Battles	41.30%
Naval Combat	23.91%
Aerial Combat	23.91%

What scale miniatures do you prefer to use for Modern/Near Future games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	41.51%
20-25 mm	18.87%
10-20 mm	20.75%
Smaller than 10 mm	15.09%
Other	3.77%

What type of modern era games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	13.46%
Smaller Unit sized battles	55.77%
Skirmish Battles	80.77%
Naval Combat	15.38%
Aerial Combat	19.23%

What scale miniatures do you prefer to use for fantasy games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	72.85%
20-25 mm	15.71%
10-20 mm	5.23%
Smaller than 10 mm	0.95%
Other	5.23%

What type of fantasy games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	50.48%
Smaller Unit sized battles	63.94%
Skirmish Battles	72.11%
Naval Combat	10.10%
Aerial Combat	3.37%
Other	2.88%

Most of the other responses relate back towards the other choices. However dungeon crawls are a bit unique and are worth mentioning. Around 1% considered that a favorite.

What scale do you prefer for Alternative History games?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	68.18%
20-25 mm	18.18%
10-20 mm	5.30%
Smaller than 10 mm	3.03%
Other	5.30%

What type of alternate history games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	25.19%
Smaller Unit sized battles	52.67%
Skirmish Battles	86.26%
Naval Combat	12.98%
Aerial Combat	16.03%

What alternative history games do you play?

Steam Punk/Victorian Science Fiction	39.83%
World War Two Alternatives	42.75%
Pulp Gaming	30.74%
Other	8.40%

After filtering out the various other responses which fit in other categories, there were two of note left - Weird West style games and Kung Fu theater type games. Neither of those fell into the other categories. There was also some interest in other eras of history including the Renaissance (Da Vinci machines which worked as well as clockwork machines).

What scale do you prefer to use for modern/near future miniatures?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	55.97%
20-25 mm	17.91%
10-20 mm	11.94%
Smaller than 10 mm	11.19%
Other	2.98%

What type of modern/near future games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	10.52%
Smaller Unit sized battles	44.58%
Skirmish Battles	63.78%
Naval Combat	9.28%
Aerial Combat	12.38%

What science fiction games do you play?

Space Combat	36.53%
Post Apocalyptic	27.86%
Star Wars styled games	17.34%
Games Workshop 40K style games	43.65%
Alien Invasion Games	18.58%
Zombie Infestation Games	23.22%
Other	12.38%

8.36% of the other responses refer to large robot based games. Another 4.95% are targetted towards more "realistic" sci-fi games. The remainder are a bit of a mish mash of space westerns, colonisation and other game styles.

What type of science fiction games do you prefer to play?

Mass Combat/Epic Sized battles	29.10%
Smaller Unit sized battles	51.70%
Skirmish Battles	54.18%
Naval Combat	10.22%
Aerial Combat	13.00%

For simplicities sake, I have combined the space combat with naval combat. Space combat by itself only occupied 0.87% of the responses and a majority of the follow up questions considered space combat to be a flavor of naval combat.

What scale do you prefer to use for science fiction miniatures?

25 Heroic to 54 mm	68.44%
20-25 mm	10.22%
10-20 mm	5.77%
Smaller than 10 mm	9.78%
Other	5.97%

Where do you most often game?

	2007	2008
At home, in a game room.	31.15%	23.30%
At home on the dining table.	11.48%	15.09%
At home elsewhere.	4.92%	5.90%
At a game store.	21.31%	21.33%
At a friends house.	19.67%	15.52%
At conventions.	-	2.96%
At gaming clubs.	-	15.41%
Other	-	0.33%

The handful of other results reference playing where ever they can play.

How many miniatures do you normally game with per side?

	2007	2008
10 or fewer	4.92%	5.58%
11-20	3.28%	11.49%
21-30	4.92%	10.50%
31-40	14.75%	8.20%
41-50	14.75%	14.77%
51-75	60.66%	10.50%
76-100		12.15%
101 or more		26.58%

What sized game tables do you prefer to play on?

2' x 2'	0.66%
2' x 4'	0.99%
4' x 4'	14.44%
4' x 6'	40.36%
4' x 8'	23.95%
Other	19.37%

10% of respondents like to use as big of a game table as possible. 5% don't have a preferred size, and use what ever is recomended by the system in question. The remainder used a variety of game tables larger than those listed above with the majority using a 6 foot by 8 foot table.

What games systems do you use?

Warhammer Fantasy	29.72%
Flames of War	20.12%
DBA	15.48%
Warhammer 40K	38.39%
Warlord	11.46%
Warmachine	19.81%
Warhammer Historical	24.46%
Warmaster	9.29%
Fire & Fury	15.48%
Warmaster Ancients	12.07%
Hordes of the Things	8.36%
Other	66.25%

In addition to the selectable options, write in answers were accepted for this question. The results were as follows:
.45 Adventures (1.36%), 1644 (1.36%), 5150 (1.97%), AT-43 (3.62%), Armies Of Arcana (2.30%), Battlefleet Gothic (1.64%), Battletech (1.97%), Blitzkreig Commander (1.64%), Blood Bowl (1.97%), Brother Against Brother (1.36%), CAV (1.36%), Check Your Six (1.36%), Confrontation (3.62%), Dirtside (1.64%), Disposable Heroes (1.36%), Epic 40K (2.63%), Full Thrust (4.93%), General De Brigade (1.36%), Hordes (2.63%), I Ain't Been Shot Mum (3.62%), Infinaty (3.29%), Johnny Reb (1.36%), Lord Of The Rings (2.96%), Mordheim (2.63%), Necromunda (1.97%), Piquet (2.30%), Rezolution (2.30%), Savage Worlds (1.36%), Song Of Blades And Heroes (1.36%), Stargrunt (1.64%), The Sword And The Flame (3.62%), Wargods Of Aegyptus (1.64%) and finally Warzone (1.36%).

In addition to these systems, the following were also mentioned however they registered with less than 1% of respondents:
AE-WWII, AK47, Battlesystem, Aetherverse, Age Of Eagles, Age Of Reason, Air War 1918, Air War C21, Alien Squad Leader, All Things Zombie, Ambush Alley, Anima Tactics, Arc Of Fire, Armati 2, Astounding Tales, BAR, Battle Of Five Armies, Battlefield Evolution, Battlefront WWII, Battleground WWII, Battlelore, Battlelust, Baybylon 5:A Call To Arms, Beamstrike, Brigade De Armee, British Grenadier, Carnage and Glory, Canvas Eagles, Car Wars, Chain Reaction, Chainmail, Challenger, Chaos In Carpathia, Chapultepec, Charlie Company, Chronopia, CLA, Clan War, Coffin For Seven Brothers, Cog Wars, Cold War Commander, Column, Line And Square, Combat Commander:Europe, Combat Zone, Command And Colors, Command Decision, Cowboy Wars, Crossfire, Extra Terrae Crepusculum, DBM, Dark Age, Days Of Knights, Defiance: Vital Ground, Desperado,
Distant World Battles, Donald Featherstone's System, Dreamscape, Dungeon And Dragons Miniatures, Face Of Battle, Fantastic Worlds, Field Of Battle, Fly Or Die, FNG, Forlorn Hope, Gå På, Gaslight, Gear Krieg, General Quarters, Gorkamorka, Grand Manner, Grande Armee, Great Rail Wars, Great War, Gutshot, Halo Actionclix, Heavy Gear, Hell Dorado, Heroclix, Heroscape, Horrorclix, Imperial Commander, Iron Ivan, Iron Stars, Jagpanzer, Kampfgruppe Commander, Kiss Me Hardy, Le Feu Sacre, Legends Of The Old West, Little Wars, Litzkrieg Commander, Luftwaffe 1946, Metal Storm, Metropolis, Micro Armor, Modern Face Of Battle, Mustafa's Nappy Rules, Mustangs, Napolean's Battles, No Limits, No Quarter, Nuts, Occult Wars, Old Trousers, On Watch, Operation WWII, Panzer Korps Commander, Panzer Minatures Rules, Pax Limpopo, PBI, Polemos - Napoleonic War, Polemos - Great Northern War, Price Of Glory, Rampant Colonialism, Rapid Fire, Red Baron, Renegade Legion, Rippers, Rugged Adventures, Rules Of Engagement, Saganami Island Tactical Simulator, Science vs Pluck, Seekreig, Six Gun Sound, Skank, Spearhead, Star Mogul, Star Trek, Star Wars (West End), Star Wars Miniatures, Starfleet Battles, Starguard, Starship Troopers, Supersystem, Tannhauser, Tooth And Claw, Triumph And Tragedy, TSA Colour Command Series, This Very Ground, Troops, Weapons & Tactics, Urban War, Valor & Steel & Flesh, Void, Volley & Bayonet, Vor: The Maelstrom, Warengine, Warrior Kings and finally Wings Of War.

So anything of note here? Take a look at the top ten from last years and this year. It is possible that a bit of WWII fatigue is setting in, as more and more weird wars games come out. The addition of Apocalypse to the 40K line may have helped to give it a bit of a bump as well. Although DBA dropped in the overall ranking list - the percentage stayed fairly close to the same as last years.

	2007	2008
1	Warhammer Fantasy	Warhammer 40K
2	Flames of War	Warhammer Fantasy
3	DBA	Warhammer Historicals
4	Warhammer 40K and Warlord	Flames of War
5	Warmachine	Warmachine
6	Warhammer Historical	DBA and Fire & Fury
7	Warmaster	Warmaster Ancients
8	Fire & Fury	Warlord
9	Warmaster Ancients	Warmaster
10	Hordes of the Things	Hordes of the Things

Is there anything else relating to wargames and miniatures that you would like to offer?

A large portion of the comments which were given were targeted towards the survey itself, however there were a few common comments for the industry:

Don't abandon unpainted miniatures. Prepaints may be nice for some gamers, however many like to paint as much if not more than the like to game.
More industry support for gamers outside of conventions. A magazine would be nice. Many people do not have easy access to game stores, and conventions are fairly limited and can get costly. [Note: there are several magazines already, however many are very focused or do not have very good distribution.]

And a final comment that I think was very well said:

"For all the glorious miniatures and painting skill shown and all the stunning terrain and buildings it is still the camaraderie and leveling of the classes that brings me back again and again to the gaming table. Where else would a high price lawyer, a Madison Street executive, the guy who imports a brand of expensive foreign cars playing with a high school teacher, a warehouseman and a factory worker with no class barriers? I have friends older than most gaming products and remember 25 cent figures but my friends from the beginning are still friends now."

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