The miniature department gobbled up that space, allowing us to expand the walls of minis. Flames of War got another blister rack and we added two racks for Lord of the Rings miniatures. I'm convinced that War of the Ring, the mass battles game for LOTR, will be at least semi-successful. Even if our local crowd digs in their heels and resists, I'm sure the local GW store will do a lot of promotion for us. We'll be adding a good amount of Lord of the Rings miniatures between now and the April 4th release.
I've read through the book briefly and I'm no expert, but I like what I see. It reminds me a bit of AT-43 meets Warhammer Fantasy. It's got an I go-you go system of play. I go in my move phase, then you get your move phase, etc. The game seems like it would be fast, and includes both a movement and a charge phase. There should be a lot of flanking and maneuvering, and with sequence of play seems more engaging than other GW games. I'm thinking of a Harad army.
As for the toys, the pallet will be transformed into toy credit. We'll likely bank some of that for restock of popular toys, but I'm also thinking we'll expand our jigsaw puzzle section. We've had a steady stream of customers for puzzles since the holidays.
More puzzles? That'll make my wife both happy and sad - happy for the selection, but sad for our budget!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if FFG will sue GW for their use of the name "War of the Ring" - since they already manufacture a game by that name, and since GW made them pull and rename the "Wings of War: Dawn of War" game to "Wings of War: Dawn of World War II".
ReplyDeleteSPI had a game by the same name well before FFG even existed, and Decision Games still owns the rights to all SPI properties. If anything though it's Tolkien's estate that licenses the title I imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe SPI game is long out of print. The FFG game is currently in production.
ReplyDeleteIt goes a long way to showing the hypocrisy at GW in how IP is viewed.
Apropos of nothing really, but how about an update on how your indy minis are doing? Did they get more room in this expansion too?
ReplyDeleteThe indie minis got a little more wall space, mostly to make room for Uncharted Seas.
ReplyDeleteI've also started putting indie character minis in the Reaper section. If you're looking for a rogue, why look in several places when you can just look at the rogue section?
Indie minis in boxes are between the FoW minis and the paints, Indie minis in blisters are with the Reaper minis.
ReplyDeleteIt's an imperfect situation, since they are not all in one place, but seems to work okay.
The indie minis that are "tactical miniature games" are with other TMGs, while the indie minis that are aimed at role playing games are over in the RPG section. I think it makes sense. Do customers really care whether something is "indie" or not? Well, I guess some do.
ReplyDeleteThe new LoTR game sounds interesting...
ReplyDeleteWhen does it come out?
-Josh
4/4
ReplyDeleteI feel like a dork. I reread the post, this time actually reading it, and I saw it. D'oh...
ReplyDelete-Josh
No problem, it wasn't exactly written for clarity.
ReplyDeleteThe game does look cool. I have been dusting off some of my LOTR minis in anticipation...
ReplyDeleteI have an old-school Balrog (a metal one), although I need new wings for it. I believe those are special order.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that Moria Goblins are an army in this game yet. I have a few of those guys too.
But the army I really want to play are the defenders of Minias Tirith.
I've mentioned it to Steve. I'd like to give it a shot when I come home during summer. Anybody up for it?
-Josh
War of the Ring Quickstart Rules:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/ctlm2c
When my sister-in-law first visited your store (I've converted her into a boardgamer...), her one comment was that she was disappointed in the selection of puzzles. Games Unlimited used to have a huge selection and I think she was hoping for something similar. In other words, good decision (even though I'm not a puzzler myself and couldn't care less).
ReplyDeleteSales for both board games and puzzles DOUBLED in December, partially thanks to Games Unlimited closing in 2008. Before they closed, we struggled with puzzles. It also helped that the Danville GU store ran out of puzzles early in the season and starting referring customers to us. We sold almost all our Ravensburger puzzles within a week of receiving them, partially because of this.
ReplyDeleteYou can let your sister know we'll have a much larger puzzle selection soon.