Warhammer AGoT

[alldragons]

would anyone else die of smiles if games workshop and GRRM worked out a GoT mini's game? No lack of awesome units to draw on, only thing is the existing fantasy minis are a little similar i guess. I'm asking if it would ever happen in your opinion.

[tea_bird]

I've always been mildly interested in starting Warhammer, but never really took the plunge (I like the idea of personalizing my army) but I think ASoIaF would push me over that edge.

[Xapi]

You guys should give Battles of Westeros a try.

Although it's certainly not a proper wargame, it is a great tactical game pitting two armies against each other, with many scenarios based directly on the battles from the books, and it really captures the theme by making the great commanders (Eddard, Robb, Tywin, Jamie, the Mountain, the Greatjon, etc.) a really significant part of your army, and being able to turn the ide of a battle throught a brilliant move by them.

[Alester Florent]

Honestly, I can't see it happening. While GW once did licensed products, they've only acquired one new property for tabletop (Lord of the Rings) in the last twenty-twenty-five years and don't seem to have an interest in acquiring any more. They've closed or sold off their licensed and generic fiction arms too to concentrate on their in-house IP. I suspect they might have even ditched Lord of the Rings if it wasn't such a cash cow. They're not even supporting their own specialist games arm any more.

They might also be concerned that since they already have two fantasy battle ranges (Lord of the Rings and their own Warhammer) that taking on a new one would end up cannibalising their own sales, and while GW have made a number of questionable business and marketing decisions in the past, they probably have a point.

In any case I think Dark Sword (http://www.darksword...asterworks.html) already have the licence for 28mm ASoIaF figures (and very nice some of them are too!) so that would be another obstacle.

For what my opinion is worth, I'm not convinced that GW actually have it in them to make really good games right now anyway. They've produced some truly outstanding ones over the years, but of their current products as games I think only Lord of the Rings is really any good, and that's both very simple and also well over ten years old. I can barely get into the current editions of Warhammer or 40K at all and their recent one-off releases have been either rereleases of old successful products (Space Hulk) or flat-out abysmal (Dreadfleet). So if we're looking for a high-quality battle-game, GW might not be the best bet.

On the other hand, while there are a lot of companies making really quite good figures, whether there's anybody out there who's got what it takes to produce both a good game system and figures both sufficiently numerous and affordable to make a success of it. Possibly Mantic, although I'm not a massive fan of some of their actual figure quality. It doesn't help that GW is still to a large extent the gateway to the fantasy tabletop hobby, so for someone smaller to pick up the licence would be a big risk both for GRRM/HBO and for the company taking it on. On the other hand, it could be the making of one of the indie manufacturers and finally overthrow the GW monopoly.

[Landgraft]

I'd like to see that Dark Sword licence, because I'm very curious as to how it was worded. One thing that certainly no-one can dispute is that they are for display, not wargames. They also don't fall under most 'traditional' descriptions of 28mm, but judging by the current skirmish market scale has become open to interpretation.

Regardless, wargaming in Westeros is quite a well trod path and google will dig you up a hundred different variations on 'the one true way'. I myself have currently started putting together a few Stark foot using a combination of the Teutonic Infantry from Fireforge Games and some bow arms from the Perry WOTR range. I plan on turning those Perry figures into opponents, borrowing the Fireforge crossbows to replace their bows and some Warhammer Empire Knight arms to give the infantry some shields and melee weapons while still keeping with a plate armoured look that feels more suitable for the blasted Southrons. I might make them Tyrells or something, though, because even just making House Stark rather than Manderly or anything else feels a bit too obvious. On the other hand, the Fireforge Infantry come with fur cloaks, one of which has a wolfs head on it. Too much of an opportunity to pass up.

If anyone is looking for miniatures at some point then I'm happy to discuss it. I invest far too much time into these kinds of things (which is why the only GW bits of this project are some dusty old arms!)

EDIT: If curious about the Fireforge Teutons I suggest not being put off by the somewhat dubious Greathelms. There are more than enough heads in the box that you only get as many antler men as you want.