This post marks the first of its type here at Man Battlestations: A overview of a game and its current status with respect to company support, fan base, and future outlook. As such, these articles might need to be revisited from time to time, as they will undoubtedly be made somewhat obsolete by official announcements and other developments! The first game I’ve chosen for this treatment is the Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures game, more commonly known as War at Sea. While the concept for this topic has been floating around in my head for a while, some recent posts over at the Forumini have inspired me to push ahead and write the first one. Read on to see my thoughts on the future of War At Sea!
For the uninitiated, War At Sea is a “Collectable Miniatures Game,” or CMG, produced by Wizards of the Coast (WotC), which also produces games like Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. The CMG model involves releasing miniatures in “sets” of several dozen. These sets are collected by purchasing randomized booster packs that contain several miniatures (5 in the case of War At Sea). Thus, the CMG business model encourages a strong sense of community as the easiest and most cost effective way for players and collectors to complete their sets is to trade with each other.
First released in 2007, War at Sea now includes 6 full sets plus a starter set, encompassing 291 unique units (granted, this total includes many “reprints” that use the same sculpt but have a different paint scheme and/or stat card). This is an impressive number of pieces, and with a few notable exceptions provides a nearly complete selection of the major combat vessels that served in the navies of World War II. Recent developments, however, have cast a pall over the future of the game. The first bad sign was the December 2011 firing of the game’s designer and primary champion within WotC, Rich Baker. This event, coupled with persistent rumors that Wizards of the Coast is looking to abandon the miniatures market entirely in favor of more lucrative product lines, have led many to conclude that the game is officially “over.” This viewpoint seems to have gotten a recent boost due to a post made on the WotC forums, to the effect that another set of War at Sea is not currently in the works.
These types of events often tend to cause a game to enter into a death spiral of sorts, where fewer and fewer players are actively playing the game. However, there are some promising signs that this will not be the case with War At Sea. First, there is no reason to completely rule out that there will not be a seventh set for the game; WotC is typically cagey about its intentions, and so there is a real possibility that another set could be released, though it would not be before 2013 at the earliest. In the mean time, 3D print on demand services such as Shapeways offer an alternative source of appropriately scaled miniatures. However, the real reason to be optimistic about the game’s future is its enthusiastic and well-organized community, in the form of the Forumini. This forum is dedicated to all three of the Axis & Allies miniatures games, and provides a place for gamers to discuss the game, create custom units and cards, show off their modeling skill, and even play games online. In a truly unprecedented move, WotC has also named the Forumini as the official sanctioning organization for Axis & Allies Miniatures tournaments. Thus, the Forumini has significant power to shape the future of the game, since it can grant official status to units not produced by WotC. In fact, this process is already underway; a group of dedicated players called Team Poseidon is on the cusp of releasing a whopping 72 new unit cards for the game.
So, there you have it. War at Sea is a mature and well-established CMG that has, at best, a slim chance of receiving a seventh set of minis. However, the game is far from dead, as there are many members of the wider War at Sea community who are stepping up to design and produce new miniatures and cards to fill the vacuum left by WotC. While I am relatively new to the gaming scene in general, this seems to be something new and unusual; as I mentioned before, the end of new sets usually sounds the death knell for a CMG. Only time will tell if this confluence of technology and community support will be enough to save War at Sea from the same fate, but at this point the signs are encouraging.
Until next time, Good Luck and Good Hunting!