Morning.
Just commented on the thread about GW's retail boxes coming to random non-gaming stores near you later this year, and it's got me thinking.
Way back in the early 2000's, GW did LotR. And from that came the De'Agostini Partwork for LotR. Each month you got a scenario and model. And by all accounts, it was really rather popular - and it certainly reached an audience that most wargames don't.
In a sense, said partwork was the Heroquest of it's day. Don't believe me? [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Games_in_Middle-earth]Rrrreeeead arl abah it![/url].
As a staffer at the time (key timer, nothing fancy) I heard certain rumblings about the possibility of seeing 40k done as a partwork. Of course, and as you can no doubt guess, that never actually bore fruit (and may well have been nothing more than idle speculation, such are rumours!).
But, could now be the time? GW were for a long time The entry to hobby wargaming. These days? Still dominant, but not the only gateway to a world of plastic and resin and metal and sometimes plastic/metal crack.
I think a partwork could be an interesting way to get new blood into the hobby, and one that doesn't necessitate having their own stores in every town. I'm betting I don't need to go into the nitty gritty of the ups, so I'll leave that.
Do you reckon it could work? What sort of format do you think would sell well?
For me, I'd like to see it done in the same way as they're doing campaign sets, but with a simplified rules set (the bare bones, move, shoot, fight etc) doesn't really take up much more than AoS' infamous 8 pages at their heart. Removing stuff like difficult and dangerous terrain, and keeping USR for unit specific datasheets really reduces down the number of pages needed to show how to play the game.
So the first issues would come with spangly lammy cardinated rules, some miniatures and a scenario (along with painting tips, and possibly paints). Over say, the first six, you'll have a squad or two per side and a general, and all necessary gubbins to have them built and painted.
As the series progresses, new and interesting units are introduced as simplified kits, and slightly more complex rules.
By the end of it (typically 80 issues seems to be intended) you've got two reasonably sized armies.
But hey, I'm not a marketing exec or a publisher, so the above is just suggestions rather than a how to.
Thoughts?