40K vs STAR WARS – Choose Both
The Warhammer vs Star Wars fight is going white hot – and you are the winners!
You will recall that a year and a half FFG and GW publicly parted ways, ending a long multi-year licensing deal.
With FFG and GW now being the General Motors and Ford of the tabletop industry, their competing product lines are heating up in a play for the consumer’s hard earned dollars. Let’s do a quick rundown to bring you up to speed:
Games Workshop:
A new energized GW focussed on the customer is here and hitting things out of the park, release after release after release.
Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition
The grimdark is the crown jewel of GW and is white hot with last summer’s launch of 8th Edition. The fans have embraced the new system, and it is cranking away on all cylinders. GW makes top shelf minis that continue to wow customers. A usual, they maintain an impressive weekly release schedule that keeps the plastic crack flowing.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar
The “new guy on the block” for GW is turning 3 this year and has found it’s sea legs. The General’s Handbooks revitalized this game overnight and it is starting to really emerge as a unique high fantasy universe. Ranges like Kharadron Overlords are showing that GW is willing to break past tired fantasy tropes and make innovative new designs. After a few years the fluff is finally coming along as well.
Specialist Games
From Necromunda, to Adeptus Titanicus to Blood Bowl, to Shadespire GW is bringing back the fan favorites with modern technologies. The sky is the limit on these products, and they are getting GW back it’s roots in the boardgame / skirmish segments.
FFG
FFG has the Star Wars licence, perhaps the most potent on the planet and they are leveraging it into almost every sub-genre in the industry from tabletop to RPGs, boardgames to dice games, to card games. I’m sure more will be along soon.
X-Wing
Now a staple in the industy, combining gorgeous pre-painted models, fast gameplay and one of the lowest barriers to entry for new players. X-wing has been the success story every other company out there wants to emulate.
Star Wars Armada
X-wing’s fleet based counterpart – lets the thinking admirals duke it out among the stars. The miniatures again are amazing and fans await the games’ continual expansion.
Star Wars Legion
Here is what everyone is waiting for. Tabletop miniature wargaming at roughly the same 30mm scale of 40k, set in the Star Wars universe. The minis look nice, the price point is solid, and the gameplay is fast, easy to learn and combines familiar elements of Star Wars Armada, Runewars and a smidge of X-Wing.
Star Wars DESTINY
Pushing ahead into the DICE Masters genre, again FFG is pushing the Star Wars license into niche after niche in the industy. Again – the Star Wars License sells itself.
Can’t We Just All Get Along
The grousing and “my game is better than yours” has already begun online, and the arrival of Star Wars LEGION will only raise the stakes as 40K has a potent direct competitor for the first time – maybe ever. But as always I ask myself – “why do we do this to each other”. There is no invisible puppetmaster forcing gamers to choose one system over another, yet it seems that we humans love to self-segregate any chance we get. Tabletop gamers doubly so.
I say – try them all! Play what you think is fun – with no preconceived notions – and with no past legacy baggage. Remember that 40K just went through a complete floor to ceiling rework only 8 months back and is also effectively a brand new game. We’re all supposed to be having fun – right?
~We may truly be in the Golden Age of tabletop gaming now. What do you think of GW and FFG’s offerings as of now?
