Secret Weapon

I just finished priming my ogre leadbelchers. They shoot a barrage of artillery like junk at opponents. Assembly was a little tricky and I had to use putty on a couple of their shoulders.

The bulls are partially painted, but I wanted to wait before I took another photo.

I've been talking with other players and they're a bit afraid of a frontal assault from the ogres. They're devastating in a charge. The strategy some armies will use to combat this is to avoid that frontal assault, moving around a lot and laying down missile weapon fire.

To combat this avoidance technique, I've got an open secret weapon, the Gorger. Gorgers are big, stupid, powerful ambushers who come in on a table edge of your choice somewhere between the second and fifth turn. This means that if some missile weapon unit is hiding out on a table edge, avoiding my bulls, I can attack them from behind with this bad boy. It's a direct counter to the skirmish strategy of shooting and running away. It throws the enemy's army into disarray.

I'm letting everyone know now because I may not use the gorger in my armies. But you should have in the back of your mind that at he could arrive.

Gorger: Lunch time!

Hot & Not

This is the calm before the storm regarding the build-out. We should see major progress on signs and the build-out next week. Meanwhile, some things that are doing well in the store and things that are slowing down (or dead). I'll base this on game departments, since most gamers only play in one or maybe two categories. If you're an across the board kinda gamer, you're one of a rare breed.

Collectible Card Games. This is a category that always seems to run very hot and very cold.
Hot would be Magic, especially the new 10th Edition. Our Magic sales have done very well lately as other local stores have closed and our name is getting out there. Box sales have been phenomenal, something we've slowly built up towards. The stores who sold boxes cheaper than us went out of business (a warning?). We wait patiently for Chaotic, which is supposed to be the next big thing. Pokemon remains relatively steady (slow), but it was previously dead.
Cold would include some games that have died off of late, including Naruto, Bleach, The Spoils, Eve, BSG. Some of these had good runs, like Naruto and Eve. The Spoils died on the vine despite pre-release tournaments with good feedback. It suffered from bad timing, along with Eve.

Role-Playing Games. Small press stuff has the energy, but the bulk of sales is still bread and butter D&D. This is still our biggest category and sales are remarkably robust, even on slower selling lines.
Hot would be Spirit of the Century and no other small press books at the moment. We've been running Spirit events in the store and everyone, I mean everyone, is impressed with this simple to play system. This Summer I've been re-ordering older D&D titles like mad, especially Magic Item Compendium and Player's Handbook II. I think they may both be outselling the new releases. Accessories do very well too: critical hit decks, flip mats, battle mats and dice.
Cold: Our other big games have seen few new releases: Mutants & Masterminds? Shadowrun? Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay? I haven't looked at the radar, but hopefully we'll see some after Gencon.

Miniatures. Painted miniatures not associated with a game are in a big slump for us right now. There's nothing hot for us, but we're eagerly awaiting the new pre-painted Reaper miniatures. I'm hoping these sell well, even though they're not getting new people into the painting hobby. I used to take a lot of chances in this category, because I had so many mini painters. Now many have gone for various reasons, and nobody has taken their place, despite attempts to grow the community with out painting contests and classes.

Tactical Miniature Games. These are the ones you buy and paint. I also include AT-43 in this grouping because of the rule set and it's non-collectible nature. I expect this entire category to take off when we move and have adequate game space. TMG's are almost as strong as role-playing for us.
Hot would probably only include AT-43, which is growing at an almost alarming rate. New player's are slowly getting into it and new releases sell better or as well as my top games. It's still barely holding on as my number ten game on my top ten list, but it seems to have momentum and energy. The rules are fairly easy, but sophisticated enough to appeal to miniatures gamers, not the collectible minis crowd. I've read the new Confrontation rules will be similar.
Cold would include Privateer Press with their Hordes releases. Hordes is much less popular than Warmachine and our new league attendance is down by a third. Hordes doesn't sell poorly, just not as well. There remains a collective yawn when it comes to Flames of War late war releases. We've seen a blip in sales for Warhammer Fantasy, since we're starting up the new league.

Board Games. Part of our stock build-up has been getting all the board games on my wish list, notably all of the top rated boardgamegeek games. We now have over 500 board games.
Hot would be Battlelore expansions. Turning a board game into a miniatures game was a brilliant idea. Also on the hot list: Hive, Wings of War: Dawn of War, Infernal Contraption (card game) and tried and true games like Power Grid and Settlers of Catan. People eagerly await the last Killer Bunnies expansion.
Cold would be Zooloretto, which won the boardgame of the year award in Germany. I've played it. It's good. Get one. It's a light game. I picked up a bunch of interesting (I think) old-style kids games at the Game Expo that have seen no love. Kids board and card games in general are hard to sell, mostly because kids are too busy nowadays, but also because I don't know as many of them (yet).

Collectible Miniature Games. These have been disappointing of late. Wizards of the Coast owns this market and their Star Wars and D&D minis line saw weaker than usual releases. I think we sold a total of 6 Heroclix booster packs, so there's no love there either.
Hot would have been Axis & Allies War at Sea if it had been available this Summer. It's back this week, but the thrill is gone.
Cold is well, just about everything else. Star Wars Alliance & Empires suffered from line extension -- is there anything actually new in this set? The Night Below D&D release lacked enough must-have monsters. Single sales were down and case sales were very slow. I'm told the distribution was very good with the cases, which may have slowed sales of the release. That's good for the customer. Heroclix is now a token game that we stock very lightly, about four boosters is a safe number. We tried organized play all last Summer, but it did little good. The local comic book store sells cases, but we've seen declining sales over the last several releases. We used to order several cases and now we're down to half a dozen boosters. Put a fork in it.

Looking back over the list, you might think things are pretty bad, but actually our sales are up substantially for the Summer. There's never been a better time to be a gamer. There are more options now than ever before, which is part of the problem with keeping up as a retailer. If there's something hot I missed, please let me know.

GW Sales Down

Sounds like a good justification for focusing on the retail stores (as they've been doing).

The vertically-integrated Games Workshop, which owns and operates 348 retail stores (24 were opened and 11 were closed during the year), saw its sales via its own stores rise from 48% to 49% during the year. Direct online sales also gain a percentage point of share going from 10% to 11%, while sales through independent retailers declined from 42% in 2006 to 40% in 2007.

Drink Cooler

I'm looking at getting this one. It's a 22 cubic foot model for around $1000-$1200.

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SUMMIT's SCR1500 is their largest full size beverage merchandiser. A fully frost-free, fully cantilevered adjustable shelf, this 27" wide and 25" deep all-refrigerator has large 16 cu. ft. capacity. This model also features an internal fan with on/off switch, adjustable thermostat and is tropicalized for plenty of reserve capacity in hot ambient temperatures. Designed for heavy duty use, with rugged construction, and all the features needed for long life and maximum product storage the SCR1500 has it all.

My New D&D Campaign

Here's the premise:

We're in an alternate version of the Middle-East on a planet called Tash. The main homeland is a kind of ancient Lebanon. Various peoples live in harmony. The Tashtak are essentially Arabs; educated, wealthy, and powerful due to a dragon bloodline. The elves are the original ancient race that lives in their homeland next door. Their a bit haughty, but mostly because they've seen everything and the other races are uppity newcomers. The other races were created by the gods, but the elves were just always there. The halflings are nomadic tradesmen and craftsmen whose populations tend to grow at very high rates (they're like rabbits in many ways), resulting in inner conflict. The dwarves are another created race and play the usual underground craftsmen role. They generally dislike all the groups.

Conflict is inevitable. The elves got a bit too powerful thousands of years ago and rose up against the dragon kingdoms. The dragons banished them from the continent, throwing the elves from their homeland. The elves vowed to return. Meanwhile, over the many centuries, the expanding halflings moved into the old elven kingdom. The dragon kingdoms eventually fall and the dragons retreat to another continent. The Tashtak, the dragon's descendant's, are the natural inheritors of dragon power, as they're blooded and more powerful than the average human. They are the default rulers of the realms.

The elves return! The halflings are kicked out of their homes, previously the homes of elves and have a difficult time finding a place in the world. They're like gypsies. The Tashtak are threatened by the elves return and work the middle-kingdom politically at first, but eventually exercise their will through force. The people of this middle-kingdom are literally caught in the middle. And of course, in typical fantasy fashion, an outside force threatens everyones destruction.

That outside force is TBD, but I know they have lots of ogres....

The world will be unknown by the group, for the most part. We'll use Mighty Empires tiles to represent the map, giving out new tiles as the world is explored.

My primary objective is to play a conventional fantasy campaign. I've been doing a planar campaign for years now and I long for the hills and meadows and mundane monsters.

Byblos Castle in Lebanon

Tribes

I'm liking the Moonbiter tribe and their yellow paint scheme. You don't see a lot of yellow on miniatures. This is the time when I procrastinate to avoid actually painting the figures. It's research (really). Our TV at home died today, so I might actually get some painting done (or more research).

In other news, My car stereo was replaced again today as well, so maybe I'll stop by and pick up that XM Radio receiver and schedule an installation. The CD changer in the store is starting to act up. I just hope it can make it until the move.

What's really on my mind is a stupid equipment lease problem I've been having. We've finally settled a lease contract dispute with First Data, a sleazy big company to be avoided (but you can't if you process credit cards). Nevertheless, my credit was dragged through the mud over the last several months and it will take a long time for it to recover. Luckily I've got enough credit already to do what I want, at least for now. It did create a couple problems with new vendors though, which was more embarrassing than anything else.

This is a problem with having a small business. Everything you do as the business reflects on you as an individual. You could try to sign a contract as your corporation or LLC, but only big companies can get away with that. For example, our new store lease required me to sign twice, just to be sure, once as an individual and once representing the LLC.

As for the build-out, today is about waiting. I'm waiting for my sign guy to make a sketch so I can present it to the property management company. After that I have to get a sign permit from the City of Concord. I'm also waiting on a quote from my second contractor (my brother).

Construction

Today has been about construction, both in the new space and my Ogres.

The landlord is doing the tenant improvement work this week. This includes removing the plumbing and side wall for the area that used to have the hair washing sinks. The place used to be a beauty school. There were also several doorways to the neighboring suite that have been drywalled back to normal.

I've gotten my first bid for our build-out project from my landlord's contractor. It was ridiculously expensive. I already planned on someone else doing the work (my brother), probably at half the cost.

My insurance agent inspected the place yesterday and everything is going well in that arena. He got the property manager to authorize a full electrical inspection (why didn't I think of that?). I learned that the roof is a year old, which is good to know.

The business cards are finished and the flyers are being printed right now.

I'll be renting a truck later this evening to bring the new 4x8 table to the new store. We'll also be using the truck to haul construction materials for the second table. The moving and construction begin next Thursday.

Tomorrow I get my new car stereo installed (the third, under warranty). After that I can get the XM Radio installed that I was writing about a couple of weeks ago.

And finally, below you can see a box of bull ogres assembled and primed (today's craft work). This was my first time working with plastic models. I found it much easier than metal. Warmachine models took a lot more patience and either a pin vice or glue accelerant to get certain parts to stick together. The only think to remember with plastic is to spend some time going over the sprues before assembly. I had all my models attached to their bases when I realized that they had shoes. So I had to pop them off, glue on shoes, and re-glue them to the bases.


Here's my army list so far. It will change as we play the campaign. We acquire wealth that we can use for strategic expansion of settlements, mining or just adding troops. My troops are very hungry, so their upkeep is high. I'll likely keep this list for the first few game sessions before adding more. Not included on the list is my leader.

500 Pts - Ogre Kingdoms Roster

Bulls (3#, 164 Pts)
2 Bulls @ 164 Pts
Bellower Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Ogre Club; Light Armor; Causes Fear
1 Crusher @ [58] Pts
Ogre Club; Light Armor

Bulls (3#, 164 Pts)
2 Bulls @ 164 Pts
Bellower Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Ogre Club; Light Armor; Causes Fear
1 Crusher @ [58] Pts
Ogre Club; Light Armor

Leadbelchers (3#, 165 Pts)
3 Leadbelchers @ 165 Pts
Leadbelcher Cannon; Light Armor; Causes Fear

Total Roster Cost: 493