Death by a Thousand Cuts

All About Miniatures co-host Dan made the comment recently that the new Games Workshop game Aeronautica Imperialis was insanely expensive at $70. I countered that there are historical games in this price range: not the least of which is Fear God & Dread Nought the WWI naval wargame. To further the comparison, a fighter for the Games Workshop game will cost you $12 and a GHQ WWI ship will cost you $11.95. It would seem that the Games Workshop game’s price isn’t out of line with other games not generally perceived as being insanely expensive.

The thing that makes these games seem expensive is the startup cost. For the games mentioned above, you need to outlay a fair bit of money in one chunk. A game like Flames of War is actually MORE expensive than either of these two games when you consider that a complete set of rules for late war Flames of War will cost you $115. The only difference is that you don’t buy everything all at once making the cash outlay more palatable.

I don’t know why, but war gamers seem to prefer a death by a thousand cuts when purchasing their rules, sourcebooks, handbooks, painting guides, and sundry.