Links: Czech Designers, Thor's Hammer, and Our Family Plays Games on Social Media

Sustainment students from the Command and General Staff College used a board-based wargame to practice principles of sustainment in their elective class April 22 at the Lewis and Clark Center.


The game, Thor's Hammer, (not related to the commercial e-game of the same name), set in Norway and Sweden, was designed by game-design students at Georgetown University in cooperation with the Department of Sustainment and Force Management at CGSC. CGSC's Department of Simulation Education assisted in the design and development of the game...

During the after-action review, students pointed out some game issues such as the game favoring defense over offense and allowing for regeneration of units that could not be regenerated in the field. They were also able to see how the game reinforced the principles of sustainment, principally anticipation, survivability and integration, and how during the game they changed the priority of supply or priority of support to adjust for game events.

My store Games and Stuff is fairly miniatures-heavy; minis and related paints and accessories account for over 25% of my overall sales. We carry a lot of miniatures lines and probably too many paint lines. However, those customers that are the traditional wargamer/hobbyist types (i.e. competitive players and serious modelers and painters) probably spend on average more money than any other category of customer. It's highly unlikely a new gamer is going to come into your store and want to dip their toes into something like The Horus Heresy. That's a hobby product for a hobby customer. In some respects, that end of the minis market has a fair amount of tolerance with regards to price increases. Games Workshop has been raising prices near yearly for ages, and I only see more units moved each year.

What's more complicated is the matter of WizKids. I don't even think of my average D&D Nolzur's or Pathfinder Deep Cuts customer as a "miniatures" customer, but as an "RPG" customer. And as such, they're looking for different things from a miniature product. Usually, it's price, convenience, and a certain grab-and-go functionality.

So far, those latter two points are winning against rising prices, but they won't forever.