Industries change, but playing with toy soldiers can only change so much. The modern plastic kits I get now from Mantic haven’t changed a huge amount from the Airfix kits my Grandad used to get me from the newsagent when I went to visit. The basics of wargaming are still recognisable since their inception. Chess hasn’t changed much in a thousand years.
The digital revolution however, has the potential to change it more than ever before.
Just look at the music industry. It was ruled by ‘The Man’. Big record companies called the shots and manufactured what the kids would buy and listen to, jumping on trends and reacting to fill gaps in the market, just like many industries. But going digital changed that. Kids would hear a song on the radio or see them on TV or in a magazine, save pocket money and go down to the record store or Woolworths to see if it was still in the charts. Listening to the whole album and poring over the record sleeve and lyric sheets and art work. It was a product that sold and had worth. Now, a song can just be downloaded in seconds. No money, no artwork, no chain of industry or distributers. Free. And if you don’t like it you can just not bother with it. When you have something so easy it has less worth. When you have to save up your pocket money you listen to an album over and over because you bloody well worked for it and you have to listen to what you have access to.
What does this have to with wargaming? Well, against all the odds, 3D printing has given us our own digital revolution. You want a new unit or monster for your army? A quick search online, a couple of minute downloading the STL files, another few minutes preparing it in the software, a few hours in the printer and BAM! New toys.
So what does this mean for the companies who produce miniatures?
Adapt or die. In a similar way to the record industry it polarises. The impact of 3D home printing is yet to be fully realised but as the machines get cheaper and cheaper I see more and more people printing their own it is becoming a very real issue.
At one end of the scale you have the big boys like Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games. The intellectual property and huge corporate machinery involved will help them survive. Their sales may take a hit here and there but they enforce you to use their actual models (in a myriad of subtle and not so subtle ways….) and develop their games to such an extent that it’s hard to use alternatives. Want to use other elves? Tough. Because Games Workshop Aelves (BLEARGH!!!) actually ride giant flying turtles and have weird transvestite cow giants. They’re so specific that you have to pay their hideously inflated prices if you want to join in. So you want a cheaper alternative. I’ve already seen several 40K knock off STL files on line and heard of others being taken down. The stories of them going after smaller companies are legendary too. So because they’ve engineered this specificity and protect their IP they’ve generated a sort of bubble which the 3D market will find hard to penetrate. The Chinese and Russian re-casters have given them an utter hammering for this approach but that’s a different story….
And Fantasy Flight Games? Rather cunningly include the actual rules and cards with their Star Wars models meaning it comes as a complete package. You could print extra models if you could find the files but you’d need to find the rules and accessories too. Clever boys! Plus Star Wars is owned by Disney. You NEVER go toe to toe with the House of Mouse!!!
So the big boys will survive. Plus because of their size they have other media/merchandise/marketing pies and diversity is key.
And the other end of this polarisation it’s the smaller companies who will struggle as they simply won’t have the infrastructure to deal with shifts in the market. Unless they adapt of course. Making models can be expensive, property rents, making moulds, paying wages, IT costs…. It all adds up and they need to sell enough to cover those overheads. STL files are a cheap way of selling product without those overheads. Now there are lots of small independent sculptors who can now make a living through churning out regular STL files and selling them separately or on a subscription like Patreon. So far I’ve subscribed to an old buddy Duncan ‘Shadow’ Louca who does a tremendous selection of stuff, from dinosaurs, demons, tanks, mousles, minotaurs, giants, monsters…. The other Patreon is Artists Guild who do a new faction every month. Some I’ll use, a lot I won’t but the sculpts are amazing! There are plenty more individual artists doing similar and the quality can be astounding. In a way it’s created almost a cottage industry and it’s given a new opportunity for ‘the little guy’ to carve a niche. There are other ‘boutique’ miniature companies, notably Raging Heroes and Lost Kingdom Miniatures that produce truly amazing miniatures (my Raging heroes ladygirl werewolves have possibly seen more tabletops than any other of my units in Kings of War) but have embraced the new wave by selling both pre made miniatures and STL files. Again the diversity will help them survive depending on which way things go. The entire situation could change in a matter of months if the technology changes/evolves.
And as this is a Kings of War blog, what effect will this have on Mantic? From what I’ve already written about the other companies puts Mantic in rather an awkward position. For a start they don’t insist on using their models. But equally, that has always been the case and Kings of War has been growing steadily despite that. Why? Well for a start Kings of War is cheap. You can easily get a tournament sized army for £100-£150. 3D printing is cheaper still but can be a lot of hassle. It’s just easier to buy a box. And because of Mantics pricing you won’t see them as re-casts. It’s just not worth it for the recasters. Plus the actual quality of the models has improved leaps and bounds recently. There will always be alternatives but people are starting to want to play games set in Pannithor rather than it just being a Warhammer knockoff and want the atmosphere that the Mantic models have. There are plenty of gaps in the model range that you can explore with printing and some models you’re not fond of can have alternatives. While Games Workshop enforces their own models at tournaments, Mantic does not. In fact they offer prizes for best Mantic (still only 90% of the army) army. Give a man a carrot and he gets fed and likes you. Hit a man with a stick enough then eventually he will turn around and bite you. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen the amount of Mantic armies increase quite a bit.
Obviously, all this is just my opinion based on my experience. So how has 3D printing affected my mantic armies so far based on everything I’ve just said?
Well, I needed a couple of pegasi for my Forces of Nature. I have one already (an old GW one) but I printed another one off. I got the file for free off thingiverse and it’s not a great model but it will do. And it cost pennies. Mantic don’t actually make one. Same goes for the Manticore (one of Duncans sculpts) which will be a Beast of Nature.
The King of War Central London group are doing a fun army painting competition for the summer and I’m using it as an excuse to finally get all those Northern Alliance models done that have been sitting around for months. With 3rd Edition, the list is so similar to the Varangur army list that I can add in some uglier units and get two armies for the price of one! Super! So with this in my head I printed Duncans Hag models to be used as a Magus conclave. Again, Mantic don’t make models for these.
I also got 3 of Duncans Earth Elemental sculpts and they look like they could be used as Ice Elementals too. So here is the crux of the argument as to wether it will effect sales. I was never going to buy any ice elementals. The Mantic model is gorgeous, no argument, and I’d happily buy one for a Vanguard force. However it is just one sculpt. And when you transition that to Kings of War then having hordes of them looks a bit poo. Sure, you can convert them a little and bend them a bit with a hairdryer, position them slightly differently and at different heights but it’s a lot of extra work. One horde will look okay. Any more and then it it really shows. And at £30 for 3…. For 3 hordes that’s £180. That’s a bit painful on the pocket. And I don’t mind spending money on quality miniatures but that much for monopose… I wouldn’t pay it. I could get a Mega army set for half that and have Snow Trolls instead and that’s a bargain. So I’m 3D printing 3 hordes of Ice Elementals. 3 different poses and in different sizes to add more dynamism. In effect, although Mantic make the models, I wouldn’t have bought them so it won’t take away from their sales. In fact it means I have more spare cash to buy models I really want.
The Wraiths are a different prospect. I have 5 of the old ones, add in the vanguard one and a phantom conversion and I have a troop that has seen great success in my Undead army. I’m not happy though, the models are old and not up to modern standards and thanks to my foray into contrast paints, they look crap. I’m a bit embarrassed to put them on the table. I got 3 STL sculpts of some rather lovely wraiths (again a Duncan sculpt-he’s a talented fellow!) And printed out enough for 4 troops. I can put them together to make 2 regiments if I want too. AND by putting them on slightly larger bases I can also use them as Phantoms in a night stalkers army. Mantic also make the models for these and although they’re okay, I would never buy them as they’re just not my cup of tea. Some of the Nightstalkers models are gorgeous. I’ll have plenty of Scarcrows, Butchers, fiends and Reapers when I get round to doing them but the Phantoms just don’t hit the spot. I wouldn’t spend that money.
I have other plans, a Chaos War mammoth for Warhammer (I’ve always wanted one) which will be a bit smaller and I can use it (them? Two would be nice….) in Kingdoms of Men and Orges. I’ve also got some ‘Ashen Inquisitors’ files which will double as Twilight kin impalers and Undead Soul Reavers. Either Mantic don’t make the models or they’re older sculpts I’m not fond of.
At the end of the day, while it may be cheaper in the long run, 3D printing is space and time consuming, messy and with a costly start up.
Revolution? Will it change the industry we know and love beyond recognition? I don’t know but it will be interesting to watch. And for Mantic Games? I think they will weather the storm. Their models are generally cheap enough to be cost effective anyway and the models are getting good enough not to need alternatives. Wraiths excepted. Plus they have so many different games with such a wide audience, strengthening IP and great community that that key diversity will mean they continue to grow and delight us! And who knows, maybe they’ll start throwing us a few STl file exclusives here and there.
And back to the music industry, the last few years has seen a huge market for vinyl as nostalgia for that idea of collecting and having something of worth has come back into play. The cost of old Warhammer models has seen a massive surge on eBay recently as out of print models once regarded as trash has now become like gold dust. These things always come around again.
The future is grey, no matter how you like it.
Get older. Don't grow up. 