I made it to my sort-of local GW this weekend to pick up the new boxed set. (I failed my will save against the power of the plastics.) They had the new set out and assembled and base coated. The rule books were there to be examined by curious pastry pilfering hobbit fingers. However, aside from the books, all that was available was the cardboard display sets. It was conveniently located next to the register.

I popped in to get some paints a while back, and it happened to be during a 40K release (Kill Team, I think) and you would've been grateful to have had Balin's ear horn. You could hardly move around the place. This weekend, almost no one was there. Interestingly, the new Age of Sigmar stuff was all fully painted, as was the 40K stuff, but our table sat woefully undercoated. C'mon guys, the Dead of Dunharrow are as easy to paint as the AoS undead.

The staff (only one guy), didn't seem overly interested in pushing the game. A few customers came in and looked at the display and boxed set. The commented they would buy it, but didn't know if anyone would play. I said *I* play and want more opponents. One said he thought the game was dead, and wondered about it. I dutifully explained our golden age, dark age and resurgence. I emphasized that the fan base is what kept the game going for five long, dark years and that much of what we had created got officially adapted.

Really, there is much to be loved by MESG by other players. In fact, much of the recent rules for our system have been adapted, especially for 40k. Like Kill Team? I know you do. We have a rules set that lets you field a "kill team" of miniatures that gain experience and lets you slowly build up a force that can later become an army for the main game. Like skirmish games? Yeah, 40K has a version of that now, they call it "Cities of Death" or something. We have been skirmishing since 2002. And yes, we field massive armies from time to time. No, we don't have tanks and planes, but our monsters are pretty darn fun. Come to the dark side, we have cookies.

If I have to push the game harder than the staff do, will our resurgence be as short-lived as a troll in the sun (they turn into raisins, you know)? What do you think? What have you experienced?

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

My local Gamers Gambit is starting it, and they are fairly crowded. Many Warhammer fans, I know me and a friend would go, possibly another, and others expressed interest and knowledge of the game... It is alive on the East Coast of the USA.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

Went to my local gw today, display by the register also, mainly because all shelf space is taken up by their other games. Had an open box under one game table, nothing built or painted. No new dice sets or measuring sticks in store. Lamented with store manager that MESBG needs new terrain, heck, I would be happy with a set of just statues. Elf statues from Rivendell, the statue in the courtyard of Minas Tirith, Helm Hammerhead at Helms Deep, etc.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Nope. No dice sets or measurers in the Calgary store either. They tried to get me to order them through the computer in store, which I will *never* do. I'm not putting my financial information into a public computer.

The dice especially, are impulse buy items. They should be placed with the magazine next to the register. This is how my FLGS does it, and it works great for them. They cost slightly more than the magazine, so yeah, I'd buy a set. They really dropped the ball on this one. Even the non-faction specific dice sets for other games should be here as well. The FLGS has them on a shelf below the register with nice lighting so the ones with embedded glitter literally sparkle, enticing you to buy. A little metallic paint on those dice, nice lighting and they practically jump into Christmas stockings on their own.

I watched a video about food on Netflix the other day and they showed how moving oranges to the register increased purchases over 100%. Oranges. See, I'd make a great store manager. Khandish mercenary merchandising for the win!

Yeah, we do need new terrain, or at least the original scenery pack to re-release with Gondor at War. They actually had Warhammer tombs on the board with the Army of the Dead. I cried a little inside.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

That's a shame, because the dice are really, really nice IMO. I bought the One Ring dice on an impulse buy for my Rivendell Elves army that I'm starting, and I think they're really good looking - way better than any product photos I've seen online. In addition to all the other reasons that you mentioned, I think they'd sell a lot more if people had a proper idea of what they actually looked like.

I went back to the Calgary GW to buy paint, and what an epic journey that was, and the Middle Earth display is now in the back corner. The starter set is still out, but still unpainted, so there's hope.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

I'm sorry to hear how poor the Middle-Earth SBG scene is near you. Maybe my location is exceptionally fortunate, but SBG is currently enjoying a fantastic revival around me. I went to a new club on Sunday, where there are at least four new SBG players, and several other people there who saw us playing our games also expressed interest in playing SBG.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings