STATUM ATLANTICUM MMXXVI

It’s that time of year again - although maybe a little later than normal as there just hasn’t been time to have a proper look back and a look ahead with all that’s been happening!

What a whirlwind year AGAIN for Wargames Atlantic. We came close to doubling sales year-over-year once more and the trends are continuing in 2026.

We released 38 hard plastic sets in 2025 and although that is a great pace comparatively in our little industry we can do better! 

Remember when there used to be a short little row of them? Now they're three deep!

Loads of Unreleased Molds!

Although we "only" released 38 plastic sets in 2025, we ended the year with nearly 60 new molds that have only just started to be injected. Part of that was the 10+ Damned molds, part of it was just being "enthusiastic" (because face it we just want to make plastic sets!), but a bigger part of it was knowing that we were well on our way to launching several new game systems (i.e. the focus of our second five year plan here - see last year's note!)

So with Baron's War continuing to expand with King John, with loads of new Quar, with Classic Fantasy Battles in heavy playtesting, with Death Fields Arena on deck, and also with Sharpe and some other games in deep development, we needed more sweet, sweet plastics ready to go to support them as they came out. 

Of course, everything takes longer than you plan - and "we will sell no wine before it's time" here - so DFA and CFB are being heavily, heavily tested and refined in preparation for their releases. The Barons' War roadmap for future releases is also being optimized to make sure we're fully supporting each one with loads of new plastic sets. And Sharpe is undergoing significant work to live up to his epic reputation! 

The mighty King John tome has been a huge hit - and deserves tons of new plastic sets!

We also had ALL those Damned molds. The crowdfund fulfillment is all sent out (some mispacks and confusion for a couple orders being sorted still but almost behind us) and the very first of the Damned has started to release to everyone everywhere. The Damned Army Box and the Damned Mauler were first out of the gate. In a couple months we'll have Damned Infantry, Female Infantry, and Brutes - and the rest will follow. We hope you like your Damned models! 

Bi-Weekly Release Schedule

To facilitate all these coming releases we've also adopted a new schedule. We started two weeks ago with those previously mentioned Damned sets and that starts a schedule of new releases every two weeks on Friday. So June 12, 26, July 10, 24, August 7, 21, etc. you will have new sets releasing. Sometimes there will be one, sometimes two, sometimes three or more on a given Friday. 

38 sets? Those are rookie numbers!

All Those New Games...

We mentioned all the games coming down the pike. Let's dive into them one by one so you know what's in the works: 

• Death Fields Arena: our fast-paced skirmish set in the Death Fields universe where The Greatest Sport is War! was released as a free download. Thousands of you have gotten a copy and we're very interested to hear how it's going for those of you who have given it a whirl! Jump on in to our Facebook group for the game here and let us know what you think! We're hard at work on two new factions/plastic sets (one is in file prep and the other is in design) so that we can launch a two-player starter set. 

• Classic Fantasy Battles: our Grand Battle Scale (10mm) mass battle game is charging ever closer to launch! The rules and rulebook are being refined and we are working on the two player starter set for the game. We also have a dedicated and very active Facebook group you can check out here. You may have noticed we've slowed down a little on releasing hard plastic sets for CFB - but I wanted to make sure we were getting closer to having the full game ready before turning on the tap. It's very clear there is a huge demand for hard plastic 10mm fantasy and the next three sets are in box design now with 4 others in some stage of layout/tooling. So hold onto your 10mm hats! 

• Quar! The NEW starter set is in production now with the various bits and bobs being printed and getting ready. This will feature the updated rules and also include two brand new factions (although everyone is either a Crusader or a Royalist in the end!) Those factions will get fleshed out with additional sets throughout the rest of the year as we gear up for the BIG Quar Game release - that's right you are going to have rules that will let you load down your 4' x 8' table with QUAR! 

• Sharpe's Rifles: the one many of you are waiting for! We've been taking our time with this because we are the custodians of this incredibly beloved character and his stories. But have no fear the rules are being worked on and many more models are in development. Along with continuing to do the combo 54mm/28mm character sets (Harris, Hagman, and Perkins are next!) we will soon start tackling unit boxes for the French, Spanish, and "generic" Riflemen. So keep your powder dry and get ready for Sharpe in 2027!

• Other Games: there are several other things in the works. The core mechanics of DFA and CFB lend themselves to be customized in several ways and we've been thinking of loads of plans for how to build some new games and plastic releases around those. We're also working with partners on several projects that will result in games-in-a-box. 

Mock up ideas for the new team boxes

The Studio

A big change this year was having an actual office for part of the UK team. We've always been very virtual in our organization with people on three continents now and when you add in the various freelancers who do things now and then we're up to five! 

But it became clear we really needed a dedicated space for playtesting, photography, and a video studio. Gaz Prior who leads many of our marketing efforts and is responsible for a lot of the figure photography, video editing, ads, working with folks like Peachy, sorting prize support, and trying to break rules during playtests! 

Charlie and Gaz have been doing regular videos in the studio - 53 in the last year! - and that work will continue with more special guests, unboxings, rule breakdowns, and more. 

We've actually utilized this space so well we're moving into a bigger one right now! 

Do what he says.

Outsource Work and Partnerships

We continue to do a load of work for other companies and have been expanding our partnerships to help bring more plastic to your wargames tables. We seem to be attracting a lot of interest from folks who want to make the leap to hard plastic. In some cases it's someone planning a crowdfund that just wants to calculate the options - to long established companies that need significant work done. We have been doing everything from just file prep and tooling to soup-to-nuts development: sculpting, file work, tooling, box design, injection and printing, and distribution. We're happy to help! A rising tide lifts all boats and the more wargames companies and products there are the better it is for the hobby and for everyone! 

For partnerships, along with Josh Qualtieri's Quar, Pete the Wargamer's wild and wacky accessory sets (a new one in tooling now!), Reptilian Overlords, Mark Mondragon's Iron-Core range, the gladiators we made to help support Blood on the Sands, all the cool Marcher sets, and the Piano Wargames lovely French Napoleonic miniatures, 2026 will see the launch of more products for most of those partners but also the addition of a couple new ones! Mum's the word at the moment, but some very good things in the works! 

A teeny tiny portion of the outsource work we've done for a customer!

Big Changes in the Design Studio!

Some of you may have seen the news from a few weeks back, but we've made some big changes in how we design our figures...with the most significant being the promotion of Rob Macfarlane to Art Director. As you know Rob is a near legendary sculptor who cut his teeth at Games Workshop and Forge World and was one of my first freelance sculptors here at Wargames Atlantic. A few years ago he made the leap to full time and now he is overseeing the full sculpting team. 

As part of this, Rob is helping elevate our game by establishing common dollie sizes for our miniatures so that - within reason - almost every arm, head, etc. will work with every body going forward. We've always been close when it comes to this (and kitbashing is one of our central tenets as a company - more on that below) but this will bring us that much closer. 

He's also stepping in to oversee the day-to-day work of the team and mentoring them on how to take a model from good to great. 

28mm design is a tricky thing. You can't just scale down a human to 1/56 - you have to alter the proportions and sizing of detail. And in many cases less, but emphasized detail, is MUCH stronger than over-detailed models that end up a muddy mess and hard to paint - and just don't look very good on the tabletop! Rob is a master of 28mm and is helping push the other members of the crew to new heights. 

Rob and Andy Hobday rolling their eyes at something I'm saying probably.

The Sales Team

2025 also saw the arrival of Karl Boucher, formerly at Warlord Games, who came in as our new VP of Trade Sales and who has done a tremendous job in helping get Wargames Atlantic into more stores all around the world.

A new trade portal launched on the site that allows retailers to manage their own accounts and place orders at 3AM if they like without having to talk to anyone. This took a little bit of technical finagling but folks seem to have adapted well to it! 

Karl has been expanding the team as well and they're all very happy as long as Tony keeps up with restocks! 

Manufacturing on "Both Sides of the Pond"

The big news in 2025 was the unnecessary economic disruption caused by the tariff nonsense. This has caused ongoing pain and financial stress to so many companies and consumers in both the US and abroad. We quickly realized we would have to adjust how we do things to mitigate their negative effects on the business. 

We have been manufacturing our plastics in the US since late 2021 - that move was driven in large part by the disruption to global shipping caused by Covid - although it had also been a long term plan for the company to be able to manufacture domestically. The tariffs pushed us to make another manufacturing move - this time to the UK! 

We have now been manufacturing "on both sides of the Pond" for over a year. All products for the US market are made in the US. All products sold anywhere else in the world are made in the UK. Sarissa is our warehousing/fulfillment partner in the UK and Griffon does the same for us from Erie, PA in the US.

Recently we also were able to turn on box printing in the US as well. Previously all boxes had been printed in the UK (it just made financial sense to do it that way pre-tariffs). 

The only ongoing challenge is that DHL seems to reinvent the wheel every time molds ship back and forth between the factories. But Steve @ Sarissa who handles all our fulfillment out of the UK and the mold shipments back and forth has been doggedly pursuing them to help them get it sorted. Knock on wood, we will have fewer issues with it going forward. And someday, as we grow, we'll probably just make two of each mold for each factory and not have to worry about the logistics of moving molds back and forth. 

Last Year's Big Reveal

One of the big news item in 2025 was who I (Tony/Hudson) was and the refunding of the old Defiance Games Kickstarter. Hundreds of backers made the choice of a refund via Paypal/wire or a 150% store credit on the WA website. The silver lining from all this is that we can now get back to making some of those great sets that were abandoned back in the day.

First up is the now iconic hardsuit designed by Alex Iglesias (FlyingDebris). Mark Mondragon has sculpted the suit and various weapons options that Alex concepted and this is coming to hard plastic! What other designs from that range would you like to see brought back? Let us know below!

Let's get this bad boy out from under fictional alien suns and onto the tabletop! Sculpted by Mark Mondragon. Concept and artwork by Alex "FlyingDebris" Iglesias.

I also got to make my first public "appearance" in the pages of Miniature Wargames Magazine - check out the article by clicking here for the pdf: 

What We're All About 

Some of my comments above have touched a little on what we're all about at Wargames Atlantic. I wanted to expand on that a little here.

We have a deep belief (and a lot of data!) that our hobby and the little industry that serves it is not a finite pie that you need a zero-sum-game attitude to fight over. Wargaming is a growing hobby that is attracting more and more people who want to disengage from their phones and all the AI and other BS that clutters their lives and get tactile and analog for a little while. 

Is the hobby greying? TL:DR = Not at all. 

On one end of the hobby you have the Warhammer IP ecosystem 900 lb gorilla. GW does a great job of evangelizing "The Warhammer Hobby" through their retail locations and increasing leveraging of their IP assets. This pulls in a lot of fresh blood each year that in some cases discover and engage with the rest of the hobby - i.e. everyone else. So GW players tend to skew much younger than the norm (18-34 years old). 

You then have the players engaging with non-GW fantasy and sci-fi games that also tend to skew younger (25-45).

And finally you have the historical gamers who skew 45-65 (i.e. they're grey - but they always have been!) Historical games appeal to (primarily) men "of a certain age". Many of those men played Warhammer when they were boys or young adults. The historical wargaming segment is not greying, it just happens to be a segment that appeals to men of that age. 

There are some other interesting trends that I won't get into here but all of them tell me unequivocally that the wargames hobby is alive, well, and continuing to grow with no end in sight!  

I'd be okay being sent off to this one. As long as nobody plays with "nasty little 15s"!

We also believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and we work hard to partner with companies to help them make the leap into hard plastics (as we also believe that hard plastics are the "gold standard" for wargames miniatures). As I mentioned above those relationships take a variety of forms and are tailored to each partner and their goals and strategies. We can't take on every project someone proposes but we aren't going to stop! 

We believe 28mm and 10mm to the eyes is the standard way to measure wargames models and our new dollie system will ensure there is no scale creep coming from us! 

We believe kitbashing and customization should remain at the heart of the hobby experience and that's another reason we've introduced the dollie system for our sculptors. I can see as we get to 200-300-400 hard plastic sets you will be able to mix and match and build virtually anything in hard plastic. Glorious. 

The Future

We're excited to get a LOT more hard plastic sets out this year along with more games. We'll be adding sets to each of our ranges over the coming year and supporting the games with more hard plastic. We have some big surprises coming too - things we haven't previewed that have been in the works behind the scenes. Like this...

Shame about those new cartridges. Sculpted by Thieu Duong.

One longer term thing I'm working on personally is a Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) setting and game. It's a universe I've been puttering around with for many years and it arose from my love of Space 1889 and movies like Zulu, The Men Who Would Be Kings, The Last Samurai, The Wind and the Lion, Glory, etc. 

I wanted to create an alternate history VSF setting that was also hard science and true to our own history. So in this setting there is no aether, no habitable Mars or Venus or the Moon, no steampunk stuff tacked on. 

What I did want was interesting locations, even more interesting alien races, the nations of Earth racing to stake their claims across a stellar network of a dozen plus worlds with high tensions among both themselves and the native inhabitants of those places with shifting allegiances and Realpolitik and the Great Game on an interstellar scale. And Napoleon! 

There have been significant changes geo-politically on Earth since Napoleon and his Old Guard summoned the first "Sky Whale" to Egypt in 1815 and found themselves on Haarkuun several weeks later. Humanity has had over 40 years to contend with the reality of this much larger universe. But human nature doesn't change and humanity in 1866 is much like in our own timeline.

I'm excited to bring this out but it will be a longer term development. We first need several hard plastic sets for the humans in the setting which will appear as standard Imperial Conquests sets. This will, of course, mean that the historical human sets will need their historical opponents in hard plastic - so there is a bit of work to do before the game can come along (guess who that will be for the Sepoy Mutineers above). The first of these sets is in tooling now. The first game-in-a-box will feature 3 factions (that can operate alone or ally with each other in some cases). 

Although it's a long ways off, I did want to preview two of the alien races. The first are a crab-like race that can be found on several worlds in the network including our main setting on Haarkuun (where Napoleon forged his off-world empire). The Krukari are tribal nomads who act as mercenary forces for both human and Haarkuunian armies. These will first be released as a digital set if you'd like to use them for something else while you wait for the game! 

Krukari Warriors - shorter than an average human male. Sculpted by Gia Huy.

I had been a huge fan for many years of the Oshiro Models Martians. They were absolutely perfect for the main race of Haarkuun. James @ Oshiro was kind enough to sell me the range last year and we forged ahead to redesign them for hard plastic. Two other Haarkuunian frames are in development for the first game release as well. 

High Haarkuunian War Party. Painting and Photography by Chris Hindmarsh.

High Haarkuunians are traditionalists fighting against the intruders from Earth and Napoleon's empire on Haarkuun. Sculpted by Thieu Duong.

I hope you enjoyed this little preview. I'll try to update on progress throughout the year as we move closer to developing the setting, game, and factions. 

Thank you!

If you've made it this far - well done! Or should I say "I'm sorry!"? Thank you all again for another wonderful year and we hope that 2026-2027 can be as filled with excitement, fun new plastic and games, and lots of enjoyment of the hobby! 

Thanks again everyone! Now it's...

HAPPY WARGAMING!

Painting at the top of the article is a piece from Deborah Randall's incredible East Coast Wave. You can visit Ms. Randall's wonderful gallery in Kennebunkport, Maine. Her website is here.