US stores, White Dwarf (US) 310 and The GW US Catalog

On my recent trip to the US west coast I went into a couple of stores while in Palo Alto - DJ Hobbies in Campbell and Games Kastle in Santa Clara (both near San Jose).

Both stores had a respectable range of miniatures. DJ Hobbies is a kind of hobby superstore, with far more on, say, model railways and dolls houses than on minis. As a result of the layout many of the models were behind glass, including the blisters, which made browsing problematic. They had good ranges of Reaper (a lot of Reaper), Foundry, Copplestone, Rackham, WarMachine, WarGods, Iron Wind, Rezolution and Magnificent Egos. For GW they had boxes but as far as I could see no blisters. They had some smaller historical brands such as Old Glory on special offer. I probably missed some stuff but in general if they stock the range you're looking for and you have a good idea of what you want, it's a good store (and parking is easy).

Parking was a bit more difficult at Games Kastle, a far smaller store hidden behind a gas station. I've still no idea if I parked in the right place. It's a more traditional RPG and minis store, with a similar set of manufacturers to DJ (no Foundry or Copplestone or obscure historicals, but add I-Kore and FOW). Anyhow, I'd recommend both, but with the caution that a decent minis store in the UK would probably have a similar range (excepting Reaper, which has awful distribution in the UK - try Orc's Nest in London is my best suggestion).

One difference is the availability of slightly different GW product. I picked up White Dwarf 310 as a comparison, since it has similar material to UK 311. The main cultural difference between the UK and US teams (more on this in a second) is that the US guys seem more conversion-happy. There's an excellent article about using the Black Templar models and sprues for other (mainly custom) chapters, which you won't find in the UK edition (and, since we now have the UK 312 table of contents, we know won't appear. Also, the Direct Services section in the back includes some suggested alternate models (ie conversions), with bitz order numbers; a good idea and substantially more than the half-hearted UK Convershun Clinic. As of US311, they are offering this section as a downloadable PDF.

Less good is the idea of going through a bunch of the battalion boxes and suggesting army lists around them, with bigger lists to show you how to expand. Great idea. But it feels like a catalog view and the points scores for the less efficient packages (WFB empire and 40k imperial guard) are entirely absent.

Other differences - the greater geographic distribution means more (and more local) Games Days, and more Golden Demons. So instead of charging you for the GD highlights as a separate volume, they get regular coverage in WD. Missing from US310 compared to UK311 - Index Xenos/Dark Eldar, Spirits of Athel Loren (painting WE tree spirits, but I think this came from the US in the first place). On the other hand, the US WD doesn't seem to use GW's fantastic art for covers, preferring instead model shots.

To my mind the US edition wins by a very slight nose.

Finally, a discovery - it's not often that something from GW can be counted as good value (actually I don't recall using this combination of words together before), but I do recommend getting hold of the Complete Catalog and Hobby Reference for 2005-2006 for $30. This 670 page hardback has a list of every orderable item for mainstream GW lines, by catalog number. Strangely, it doesn't have the US prices (these are downloadable as a separate item), which leads me to believe it was produced as an international deliverable.

In addition to the models (painted and unpainted), it includes brief tactica on each army and showcase sections, as well as the "alternate models" suggestions as per White Dwarf.

The main downside - it isn't complete. In two respects - firstly it stops after the Wood Elves, so no Black Templars and no previews of the Dwarves, the Tau or anything else likely to be delivered in 2006 (for WFB, I understand it's Orcs and Goblins next). Secondly, it doesn't include the classic/collectors/archive or (except for a passing mention) specialist lines (now all merged into one, as far as the SKU numbers are concerned). They're covered in a separate catalog, available shortly (and referenced in 310US, which describes this catalog as "complete" in inverted commas - same old GW then, just as we were warming to them). But, it's far more complete than the laughable UK catalog, which not only doesn't list the various part numbers but actually doesn't show the alternate sculpts for particular blister models. Anybody remotely serious should get this guide instead, and treat the non-purchase of the UK catalog as an effective $8 discount on the real one. Additionally, if you get the forthcoming specialist catalog as well, you can avoid the cost of all the "Collectors Guides".

I asked a UK GW employee why this wasn't available here. Difficult, as he wasn't aware of it and when I started to describe it he immediately assumed the only explanation for the size was the inclusion of the specialist stuff - "the US players are far more interested in the specialist games than in the mainstream stuff" he bluffed, gamely. So, an additional point, if this is true. In that case, why has GW all but killed their specialist line, and allowed the emergence of numerous competitors in the US and Europe for skirmish tabletop gaming? Maybe they're as badly run as I thought. A while back another (different) GW employee told me the reason for the death of the specialist line was "they take the best sculptors away from the more profitable lines". I could kind of buy that, from a business point of view, if it wasn't for the case that a) GW recently announced a profit warning (worried about the decline in the LotR franchise now all the films have been and gone), b) their employees are basically telling me that they aren't investing in the main game in the largest economy where they sell goods and c) Mark Bedford, to take a random example of a specialist games sculptor, is now at Forge World.

Whatever, I don't run their business. And I suspect if they want to raise profits back to where they previously set an expectation what they really need to do is find a new franchise to ride, not roll the Mordheim rock up a hill. But ... gah. Anyhow, if you want a GW catalog, buy this one.