WFB Most Popular Armies - WITH DATA!

[Bigred]

First of all, go here:
[URL="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/07/academic-study-of-tabletop-wargamers.html"]Academic Study of Tabletop Wargamers: The Results are in! Part 3: Wargames and Armies We Play[/URL]

Then look at the chart of what armies players own.

Attachment 4320

Attachment 4319

Interesting stuff.

Here's my question - Why is the delta as a ratio between the most popular and least popular army in WFB less than half what it in in 40K?

WFB: Most popular: Warriors of Chaos: 306
WFB: Least popular: Tomb Kings: 149

40K: Most popular: Space marines: 1075
40K: Least popular: Sisters of Battle: 293

[Kirsten]

possibly down to the all plastic space marines and all metal sisters, whereas in fantasy stuff has had a lot of plastic for ages. maybe people find fantasy armies more different to one another and collect the one that appeals

[Wildeybeast]

Those are good reasons. It could also be that GW doesn't push one race as the archetypal one so people exercise more freedom of thought when buying armies. Warhammer players tend to be more mature and so exercise more freedom of thought when buying an army. The fact that they all the 8th ed armies are pretty well balanced may have something to do with it. Maybe the fact you have half as many respondents skews the figures somewhat. Most likely a combination of all these factors (and probably more that I haven't thought of). Whatever it is, I would go so far as to suggest this is clear evidence of what we all known for a while that you get a different type of player in Warhammer as you do in 40K.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Likely because the 40k fiction, advertising and art is mostly space marines doing space mariney things. All of the 40k starter sets have included Space Marines, I don't think Warhammer Fantasy has ever had any repeat appearances in the starter set.

[GrauGeist]

The clearest evidence is that there are a lot fewer Fantasy players than 40k players, and that the worst-selling* 40k army (Daemons - 419) out-sells the best-selling Fantasy army (WoC - 306).

*Sisters (293) don't count, as it appears GW is phasing them out. The thing is, if GW is phasing out Sisters supported by 293, then all but to Fantasy armies should be on the block.

Fantasy is an albatross about GW's neck, and is the likely reason Specialist Games got the axe.

[eldargal]

I wish people would stop with the idiocy about SoB being phased out, we know Jes Goodwin was working on them few years ago and we know from a very reliable source (Harry) that they had a 5th edition codex being worked on. For some reason the release has been delayed, that is all.

The lists seem to roughly correlate to what I see in my extended gaming circle, though internet surveys are always a bit problematic in my opinion. Something else to rememeber would be the potential bias towards the American market where Fantasy is much less popular than in Europe.

[GrauGeist]

I love how Sisters got several new Formations and Formation packages for Apocalypse - only a bonafide moron wouldn't see it.

[eldargal]

Right, because what would sisters get exactly? Oh right, a whole pile of exorcists, how exciting. Not getting formations in a supplement is indicative of exactly nothing.

[jouso]

Here's my question - Why is the delta as a ratio between the most popular and least popular army in WFB less than half what it in in 40K?

I'd say starter sets.

40k is all about marines and more marines fighting something else.

Fantasy has a nice mix:

8th: Skaven and HE
7th: Dwarves and Goblins
6th: Orcs and Empire
5th: Bretonnia and Lizzies
4th: HE and Goblins

Other than O&G (which probably account for their popularity) there's a healthy mix of armies.

My own collection of O&G and elves starts from that 4th boxed set we split between me and my brother (he has since quit, so I took his elves for my collection, at early 7th).

[Xigorth]

First of all, go here:
[URL="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/07/academic-study-of-tabletop-wargamers.html"]Academic Study of Tabletop Wargamers: The Results are in! Part 3: Wargames and Armies We Play[/URL]

Then look at the chart of what armies players own.

Attachment 4320

Attachment 4319

Interesting stuff.

Here's my question - Why is the delta as a ratio between the most popular and least popular army in WFB less than half what it in in 40K?

WFB: Most popular: Warriors of Chaos: 306
WFB: Least popular: Tomb Kings: 149

40K: Most popular: Space marines: 1075
40K: Least popular: Sisters of Battle: 293

No Dark Angels in that survey, but they do have Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and Grey Knights. That may also skew the amount of "Space Marines." If we safely assume ~200-300 Dark Angel players out of the SM bunch, then IG, CSM, and "Vanilla" SM are fighting for top spot almost equally.

Another way to look at it is 1075 Space Marines + 493 Blood Angels + 478 Grey Knights + 431 Space Wolves = 2477 total Space Marines.

On the Fantasy side the only part that surprises me is the popularity of Bretonnians.