What should a store that is just starting in minis carry?

[timlillig]

Matt asked this in a different thread. I thought it deserved a thread of its own.

Sean at Brainstorm has been pushing for more gaming, stocked some X Wing and is looking for ideas on what minis line to carry.

Their knee jerk reaction was 40K but I told them to hold their horses unless there is a small fortune laying around to launch that line.

I've heard that the initial kit GW tries to get stores to buy is something like $4000.

I think some of the smaller skirmish games might be a good idea. Infinity or Wrath of Kings for example. Wrath of kings has the advantage of being relatively few different products. So it might be easier to initially stock than a bigger game like Warmachine, which was in more or less the same position 10-12 years ago. Infinity now has a two player starter, which is nice. Of course, I don't know if there are people interested in buying Wrath of kings or Infinity.

[harms]

If the goal is to make money then none might be the right answer, but I think X-wing is probably the best choice. That is quite popular now. A couple of times I would make a list and then buy one of the ships I needed at the store before the tournament. (only prep needed is to punch out the counters and assemble the maneuver dial) Another option might be minis for role playing if you get any role players there or Reaper Bones if you want to see what the reception is to minis that require some amount of hobby time investment to use.

kevin

[PatrickWR]

I agree with x-Wing, Reaper Bones, maybe Heroclix, D&D Attack Wing. Basically collectible minis games are a good way to get started and introduce new players to the games.

[timlillig]

The new Learn to Paint kits based on Reaper Bones are supposed to be quite good.

[Eilif]

-X-Wing is your best bet for starters.
-Infinity is a good second bet
If you're going to add a bigger game, I'd suggest Warmachine. It's still got a big scene, none of the GW drama and buy in is low enough for anyone to get involved. It's extremely tight rules system seems to also have a big appeal to those who play CCG's.
-Also worth investigating would be Mantic. Maybe not Kings of War or Deadzone first (those can come later) but their Dreadball game seems to be doing well and will be a nice entry point into the "warpath" universe that will be expanding massively at the end of 2016. Also the Dwarfs kings hold series of games are a nice entry point.

I would advise against adding 40k for a while because there are already alot of 40k outlets, the buy-in is huge and generally it seems to do best at places with large gaming areas.

Reaper Bones is a good entry point for figure painting, though P3 paints and hobby supplies might be best to stock if you do or plan to do Warmachine.

[timlillig]

If they are interested in Warmachine, definitely look into what support -tournaments, prizes and that sort of thing- they might be able to get. I suspect that the support available is limited within a geographical area and may already be claimed for Chicago. in other words, you would have to be X miles away from Chicagoland games, Games Plus, and whoever else does official Warmachine tournaments

[Chivenger]

What ever minis they decide to offer, they need to support them with either painting classes, hobby times, or other gathering opportunities.

And Organized Play is a must. That means finding a player (or staffer) to run the games. I don't recall seeing any geographic requirements about being X distance from existing venues when I was running Monsterpocalypse for Privateer Press. But that would be up to the venue to reach out to PP and inquire about becoming an official venue.

I would agree X-Wing is a good starting place. HeroClix is not a horrible idea but it as stopped being accessible to new players not willing to commit to learning a LOT of complicated rule and ability interactions. And they ran HeroClix in their previous location. So they should have a good handle on the demand for that game.

Another line that might be worth investigating would be Malifaux from Wyrd Games. The IP was a little too dark for me. But I liked a lot of the mechanics and other figures and the people who tend to play it seem like a lot of fun.

A new game on the market is Arena Rex. It's a mythical gladiator game, the figures are exquisitely sculpted, some people who I respect about games really like the rules, and since it's new, they could have the field to themselves in Chicago .

[xnickbaranx]

I have really strong feelings about this as someone who's worked in LGS' on and off for years.

Matt, if you are seeing this!

Absolutely do not encourage Sean to commit to any miniature game that he or his helpers is not going to immerse themselves in 100%.

It's as simple as that.

The buy in on 40K is worth it if he intends to live and breath it (and as I understand it is lower now as they have varied stockist levels. I watched a presentation on it at ACD Games Day in May). But if the store doesn't live and breath it, it will not net sales.

And though many of the other miniature game systems have much smaller buy ins, they also have much smaller communities that are very very cliquey.

Next Dimension, for example, carried Warmachine, Malifaux, Infinity, X-Wing, Attack Wing, 40K, WFB, Bolt Action, Mercs, Wreck-Age, and even a few others I am missing.

They actually sold 40K, WFB, and a tiny bit of Infinity (because there were 2 city bound Infinity players who supported both NDG and Draxtar) and X-Wing (mostly online sales but the occasional random/impulse sale). They tried to court other communities to come in and failed, partially because Marc was a weird/dramatic character, but partially because when people have a comfortable place to play that they are happy with, they don't uproot "just because".

Additionally, most of the miniature gamers who played 40K/WFB at NDG owned a little Warmachine or Malifaux because they got hyped on it for a minute, but then couldn't convince each other to commit to playing any of them, and there was no leadership in the store to guide and excite them. And the biggest difficulty in maintaining a profitable line is maintaining an interested player base. So Sean should carry only what he and his helpers are hyped to play because their enthusiasm for whatever game it is, is absolutely essential to it's success in the store.

If no one at Brainstorm feels a strong inclination toward anything, then he should stock games like X-Wing, Imperial Assault, Zombicide, and maybe Shadows of Brimstone. Games that require very little commitment, require no painting or assembly to play, and who's theme is enticing without all of the barriers to entry. Each of these systems have expansions as well, so people who play and like the games will likely expand on them a bit.

Carrying miniatures is not for the passive store owner. Either you live it or you don't unless your overhead is pretty low and you can afford not to care.