STATUM ATLANTICUM MMXXIV

Phew! That’s another year into the archives for us! And what a year!

If we had a theme for 2023 it would be RESTOCKS! As you know we moved manufacturing from China to the US in late 2021 but it was a very, very painful move. Production mishaps, slowwwww production, mispacks, delays, and growing pains. So many growing pains. But like the phoenix we have been put through the fire and have risen anew!

Our US team is now firing on all thrusters and we actually have a significant amount of manufacturing overcapacity in place for the future. For the last several months we have been focused on reprinting boxes, running plastic, and filling up the three global warehouses we operate from (US, UK, and Australia). The Release Schedule page has gone from having dozens of out of stock items to - at the time of this writing - having 3 out of stock products. Two of those are back in stock next week including the long out-of-stock WW2 French Partisans (which had a mold issue that needed to be fixed and is now fully operational again). The last out of stock set - Afghan Warriors - just had the box reprinted and will be topped up just in time for the follow on set of Afghan Cavalry’s release next month. Happy Days!

Knock on wood, this new production speed and our refined inventory management system (which is always a challenge when three warehouses all the way around the world are involved!) will mean we can be well ahead of any product shortages before they actually go out of stock. So - Universe-willing - we should never have a product out of stock again (besides new products that are on pre-order before general release).

Now that the production and restock issues have been addressed, we’ve turned our attention to getting back on track! The US move really set us back about 2 years from our plan (no plan survives contact with the enemy as they say - or the on-shoring of lost manufacturing expertise!) So now it's time to really put the pedal to the metal.

Right at the end of 2023 we released the Grognard Cavalry and the Dark Ages Shields boxes. We quickly followed up in January with the Skeleton Cavalry and Chariots. The WW1 Russians and the Quar Game are on pre-order for release later this month (February 2024). Coming up we can look forward to the previously mentioned Afghan Cavalry in March, the British Expeditionary Force (a Vox Populi release - more on how that came about below), The Last War Game (more below on that too) at Salute in April, a new standalone horses set - Light Horses (the same ones that were used with the Afghan Cavalry), new textured 25mm round bases (3mm height with a bevel edge), Conquistador Cavalry (another Vox Populi release), the Citizens of Rome box (in partnership with Footsore Games and Miniatures for their Gangs of Rome game), and several sets that we haven’t even hinted at yet that are already in the engineering/tooling phase.

This year will also see the release of some new types of hard plastic sets from us. We’re very excited to test these ideas out and think you’re going to love them. More on that soon!

THE DAMNED

Last year also saw our first foray into the world of crowdfunding with our very successful campaign in partnership with MiniWargaming to release The Damned - a new faction for our Death Fields range. The Damned will be our largest release ever with a mind-boggling 13 hard plastic sets!

Along with continuing to push out regular new releases we have been working steadily to get all The Damned sets into hard plastic and will be accelerating that effort to get these out as fast as possible.

VOX POPULI

As we mentioned above, the new BEF and Conquistador Cavalry sets have successfully transitioned our new Vox Populi voting system. Many of you know how it works (and the whole thing is explained HERE on the website) but in short we gather votes via the form of gift vouchers you purchase that allocated votes to the 12 Vox Populi sets that are live at any one time. The set with the most votes moves onto a second phase of pre-production orders. When that set generates $6000 in pre-orders (with a nice discount for early backers) we then invest the rest ourselves to turn the idea into a hard plastic frame and set. Once one set goes through to plastic, we have a big poll to replace it in the list of 12 and the process begins again.

The BEF was the first to make it through and now Conquistador Cavalry have very quickly hit the $6000 goal and the parts are being refined for feedback so that we can get to a final frame layout and head to tooling. I can announce here that the Conquistador Cavalry is being replaced in the list of 12 with Classic Fantasy Elves which received the most votes this time around!

ORIGINAL GAMES

This Quar’s War: Clash of Rhyfles is a collaboration with Grimsical/Zombiesmith to bring their beloved Quar to hard plastic as part of a 2-player game that includes a 48 page rule book, activation cards, a poster/quick rules reference sheet, and 6 D6. This Quar’s War represents the first of many new tabletop products we will be producing both in partnership with others and as our own original games.

Next up will be The Last War in partnership with Will Rahman Daultrey which will feature his highly popular Forbidden Psalm: The Last War rules and our plastic WW1 figures along with all the things you need to play the game including dice and tokens. We plan to release the game for Salute in April.

But this is just the beginning. We have several rules sets in development and have been working behind the scenes to bring our own original games to life with some of the most brilliant rules developers in the industry! We are in no rush though and want to make sure we’re releasing games that are fun, original, easy to pick up, and a great value. These will eventually include both games-in-a-box type standalone games and larger rule sets that can cover a genre or historical period and be supported OF COURSE by lots and lots of plastic sets!

Our philosophy for original games is that they need to be supported with ongoing releases: scenarios, how-tos, battle reports, and of course more plastics. So we want to take our time and get it absolutely right the first time.

ATLANTIC DIGITAL

At the end of 2022 we began our foray into the digital/3D printing world with the launch of our Tribes subscription program on MyMiniFactory and the Atlantic Digital section of our site. To say this has been a success is the understatement of the year. We’ve been blown away by the response to our digital figures and it is just incredible to see folks posting painted examples of models we literally released hours before. We now have created over 200 digital products with at least 11 new ones being added each and every month!

The way Tribes works is that you pay $10-12/month to receive 11 sets of digital files. These include something for each of our ranges: First Empires, Decline and Fall, Blood Oaths, Renaissance, Napoleon’s Wars, Imperial Conquests, The Great War, World Ablaze, General Accoutrements, Classic Fantasy, and Death Fields. We know not everyone has a 3D printer or is even into 3D printed models, but for those of you who are it’s a tremendous value.

For those without printers you have two options - you can either send the files to a friend or service to print for you or you can purchase printed versions of the sets from our partners at Only-Games in the UK. Only-Games is also going to be launching a US-based service this year so for those in North America you won’t have to deal with shipping from the UK. We have been working to build products on Only-Games and hope to have all the sets on there in the next several weeks.

This year we also started a major expansion of the digital products store at Atlantic Digital with the addition of other creator’s 3D miniatures and also downloadable PDFs of rules, scenarios, and other publications like Henry Hyde’s wonderful imagi-nations book: Martinstaat 1744. This year we will continue to add new models and publications so if you know of anything that you think would be a good fit please let us know!

The digital area is also a great place for us to test out sets that could end up becoming plastic sets. So far several have gone this route with The Damned having been the first and now followed by the Les Grognard Cavalry and soon the Sneakfeet, Spanish Guerrillas for the Peninsular War, Werewolves, and others.

The other thing that has been amazing to watch with the digital products are the mashups and kitbashing that is being done not only between the digital sets but between the digital and plastic sets. We deliberately have made sure that there is cross-compatibility among our historical sets parts (heads, arms, etc) and also among Death Fields releases.

And that brings us to…

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

As I mentioned we take care to make sure there is cross-compatibility across the parts we make because we believe having more options leads to greater creativity and also can scratch an itch for those who can suddenly build a unit that would otherwise only be available in metal (and in many cases not available in any medium).

Another thing we strive for with our plastic sets particularly is trying to extend the use of the parts on the frame as fast as we can. Hence including sci-fi options on the Lizardmen and Landsknecht Ogres sets and huge numbers of head types in many of our historical sets.

We do these two things (cross-compatibility and lots of extra parts) because we’ve noticed a worrying trend in especially the plastic wargames world: mono-pose sets and “just enough” parts type sets.

First let’s talk about mono-pose sets. Hard plastic is arguably the best medium for wargame models - incredible detail, light yet sturdy, customizable, a dream to combine with plastic glue (stop using super glue!!!), and takes paint extremely well. But if you’re just going to give the customer a bunch of parts that can only be stuck together in one way - what’s the point? You might as well throw a one-piece pvc model in a box and call it a day. This method removes a huge part of what makes the hobby fabulous: customizing your models and army to be uniquely your own. We not only want you to build your figures in unique part combinations we are thrilled when you take parts from other places and customize. We will always strive to avoid designing mono-pose kits.

"WHY CAN I ONLY BUILD THIS MINIATURE ONE WAY?!?!"

Second, “just enough” parts sets. We believe in cramming as many options as we possibly can onto our frames. On one hand, yes we need to make sure you can get enough riflemen or spearmen in a set, but once some of these basic criteria are met let’s go crazy and get optional weapons, more head types, and more fun bits and bobs onto the frames. You won’t be able to use them all but this one set will be much more useful for a much wider group of hobbyists - whether they are building an army, kitbashing, or just painting and collecting. Some say “if only they didn’t have x or y on the frame they could put another body” but I would argue that bodies are not what creates the majority of the variety in the look of a unit.

There are only so many ways you can pose a body to be realistic for various fighting techniques, movement, etc. Advancing left foot forward, advancing right foot forward, legs planted shoulder-width, kneeling right foot ahead, kneeling left foot ahead, quick advance left foot off ground, etc. etc. and not all are appropriate for all types of units. I would tell you that another arm pose or other optional bits will get you more unique looks in your unit than another body would. Especially with arm poses where the full arm is available to model onto the torso giving you much more variety with how you pose or clip to angle. And let’s not get into the debate over whether or not prone or kneeling poses should be included!

Now, that all said, I’m certain someone out there is saying: “Ummm…Prussian Reserve?” And yes, you are right that it is both mono-pose and limited to only head choices. But it’s also an “Army Builder” set designed to flesh out your Prussian army with a lot of cannon fodder type troops that can be built and painted very quickly! And not to mention they’re a tremendous value! Let us know in the comments below if you’d like to see more Army Builder sets.

WARGAMES ATLANTIC OUTSOURCE

We continue to manufacture hard plastic products for other companies through Wargames Atlantic Outsource. The German Sentries and SAS sets were done in partnership with Grey For Now Games and we are hard at work on the next joint product for them. We have also been working with Footsore Miniatures and Games to bring out the Citizens of Rome hard plastic set and we’ll be doing more with them in 2024.

Pete the Wargamer had a successful Kickstarter to create a “Dead Animal Bits” frame that he’s hired us to produce and that is in process. We have also done a significant amount of hard plastic frames for a customer who we will be able to talk about once those products are out in the “wild”. And we are always being approached with projects that may eventually turn into more plastic.

DISTRIBUTION

We continue to sell through our website and service customers (depending on where you live) from the US, UK, and Australian warehouses. For EU customers we have been using the IOSS system through our partner Sarissa Precision in the UK (who manages our warehousing and fulfillment). IOSS pre-pays VAT for EU orders that have a combined (product and shipping price) of €150 (so EU customers try to keep your orders under €150! Shipping is free for any order over $50 so break them up into smaller orders and it will help make sure the postman doesn’t try to squeeze you before delivery - although we’ve had a few incidents of clueless postal people trying to double charge!)

Our sales team has been significantly growing our distribution through both distributors (who sell on to brick and mortar stores) and to stores directly. If your FLGS (friendly local gaming shop) isn’t stocking us, ask them why and let us know who they are and we’ll do our best to help them order from a distributor or directly from us.

ROLL ON 2024

So there we have it, some ponderings on 2023 and what’s been happening and some glimpses into 2024. I’m most excited to show off some of the new product types we’ve been experimenting with over the last few months. We closed out 2023 with 41 hard plastic products in the catalog. We’ve already added 3 so far so let’s see where we end up as we start our 6th year!

Artwork by Peter Dennis