The Barons War Second Edition from Wargames Atlantic has gone off sale for the time being for what is, probably, the best problem a wargaming/miniatures company can have: it was too popular. It sold too well. But why?
I’m new(ish) to historical wargaming. Having made the same journey that many wargamers do starting with Warhammer, seeing other fantasy and sci-fi games that exist and are attractive for various reasons Then I turned 30 and suddenly historical warfare became interesting to plop down on the tabletop. I would likely not have gotten into historicals if it weren’t for two things: great miniatures in plastic and a host of friends that I can ask questions to about what’s “right”. Then I learned that what’s “right” before a certain, rather recent, period of time is answered with “we don’t really know”. Refreshing, unexpected.
The one thing that has been missing, for me, and seemingly for many? A starter set. That’s it. That’s all that’s been needed.
The “Right” Minis
In games like Warhammer or Star Wars Legion it’s easy to know what’s “right” to use for the models in your army. You’re directly told by one company what box sets are what units, what they look like, and as a minimum give an easy reference to what they should look like if you’re doing something a bit different. You know where to find this information: it’s on that company’s website. Easy.
Historicals don’t have this. There is no singular correct company to buy miniatures from and most people’s collections will use a host of various companies that just about work next to each other, with some being a bit bigger or smaller. This is something that is consistently asked online: will X company’s models look ok next to Y company’s? The answer in most cases is “yes, on the tabletop you won’t be able to tell”. For some this is fine, for others it has to be exact. That’s up to you.
How do you know what models will be appropriately armed and armoured? You can use google to find reference images, but some might seem contradictory. You can pick up Osprey books that cover very specific regions and time periods to see what your collection “should” look like. Then you go onto one of any number of sites and find a slew of metal, resin, 3D printed, and plastic miniatures and it is extremely overwhelming. It was for me! Every single person I asked about where to get minis from gave me different answers. In no order these were Victrix, Wargames Atlantic, Perry, 1st Corps, Medbury, Gripping Beast, Foundry, Warlord, Claymore Castings, Alternative Miniatures, Bad Squiddo, and many more that I’m either forgetting or just haven’t seen yet! Each of these sells their own miniatures and categorise them in different ways, too. Even better? Models that may be labelled for a certain time period/conflict could very easily work for another. If you’re new to this, as I still am, it can be hard to know!
The idea that you have to have the “correct” models isn’t quite right, thankfully. There’s a fair bit of leeway. A guy in simple clothes with a bow will cover a vast range of time periods. When we’re looking at medieval period (early, mid, or late) what you want to try and have an eye for is the armour being used. In this example, The Barons’ War, we’re talking about earlier medieval period where there’s a lot more chainmail and not any of that heavier, shinier, plate. Not yet. That’s a hundred or so years later.
Plastic is King
For newer players, anyways. Metal minis are something that we at the Goonhammer Offices are split on. Actually we even covered this in depth not long ago, check that out. Personally I love single-piece metal minis; good ones, anyways. There’s just something about the hand-sculpted metals that just feel good to paint and great to play with on the table. Right up until they chip, of course. A lot of hobbyists, regardless of age or longevity in the hobby hate metal minis, and understandably so! They are different to paint and it’s endlessly frustrating when they do chip a bit of paint off. If they’re more than one piece they can come apart with relative ease, which can lead to more chipping, and can be very frustrating to pin to keep together.
Plastic minis manufacturing has come an incredibly long way over the last decade. I’m not an expert in this field but friends of mine that know more than me tell me that it’s a lot easier/cheaper to get good plastic sculpts in 2025. Part of this is the ease of digital sculpting, too, not relying on hand-sculpting minis and getting that onto a sprue somehow; I have no idea how this ever worked, don’t ask me, that’s not what this article is.
Personally, the best historical plastics on the market now are Victrix and Wargames Atlantic when it comes to pure quality and crispness of sculpts. There are many other companies making plastics and I love the Perry minis I have but realistically I bought them because neither Victrix or Wargames Atlantic make those kits; they’re not bad, you can just tell they’re older. The fact that these two companies are able to, and are, making incredible looking plastic miniatures makes historical wargaming that much more accessible. I know of at least one wargamer, other than me, that has come across to historicals very recently solely because of how good modern sculpts look and she was nice enough to write a couple sentences on this:
“For me it’s more that I’ve disliked a lot of historical minis that I’ve seen and the quality of the Baron’s War minis was the first time I really found my head was turned by a historical figures line. The fact that there is a decent value starter set helped me make the impulsive decision to buy, but I do also feel like it’s interesting to contrast with like 40k/AOS starters where those products get people into that specific game, but personally I have little interest in Baron’s War itself and intend to use the minis for other rulesets. That’s obviously very possible with historicals in a way that the more imaginative ranges can’t be used in the same way.”
Medieval Period Popularity
Mid-posting about why the Barons’ War box set especially seemed to sell so well I couldn’t help but think about the other Medieval games that have come out very recently with, very probably, much more popularity behind them to start with. Within miniature wargaming, I am of course referencing Saga Age of Chivalry. Saga is one of the easiest gateways for wargamers to get into historical gaming; it doesn’t require a silly amount of models (roughly 30-50 per side) and has an easy-to-learn rules set that is excellent with quite a lot of depth and plenty to think about too. This was my first experience seeing that innovation in tabletop gaming truly is in the historical rulebooks.
I assumed, like many probably do, that historical wargames must be very old-fashioned and rather static; after all how could they be very interesting when it’s just all humans with roughly the same level of tech as each other? A far cry from what I assumed made games interesting and I was so, incredibly, wrong! So, Saga is just a great game. It covers a range of periods each with its own supplement and array of armies to collect for it. The most recent of these is the Age of Chivalry covering the whole of the Medieval period including later Barons’ War if you like and 100 Years’ War among others. This was a long-awaited supplement with a lot of excitement behind it and was released just earlier this year. Being able to have one collection of minis for various rules sets is one of the best parts of historicals and the Barons’ War starter set works perfectly for it, even if the armour is slightly on the early side. As I’ve said before, that’s fine, it doesn’t really matter.
Outside of tabletop wargaming, earlier this year Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 released. I’m one of those terrible gamers that will just pick up a game and not care too much if I played the first one or not, if the one that’s come out looks fun. This was certainly the case. Despite not having played the first iteration it was very clear online just how popular this title is. With over 75,000 reviews on Steam which are “very positive”. IGN gives it 9/10 and Metacritic 89%. I don’t actually know if these two sources are great, but they’re all good numbers. There’s great crossover between wargames and videogames and I don’t think there’s any mistake that the timing has helped build more interest and hype around this time period. How many of us have played a video game and gone “well shit, I really want to paint an army of that now” and when a set comes out that lets you do exactly that with one click with rules included it becomes a very easy buy.
Starter Sets
One of the hardest parts getting into a new game is not knowing what you need to get for it. How many models do you need? How many of each type? Is one box of plastic minis enough? Can you even take certain models in your army/warband? You may be able to find a review of it from us or on another channel that helps but even then maybe the specific thing you want to do wasn’t covered in enough depth to really know. So, you have to get the rulebook. Have to read it through to figure out just what to buy. Maybe you’re like me and it’s hard to understand a brand new rule set just from reading it and need to get it on the table to understand it.
That’s where starter sets come in. When you buy a starter set you expect to have enough models to play with, at a minimum to start with, and to learn the rules with. From that point on maybe expansion packs exist like for By Fire and Sword 2 which makes it very easy to get going. Seriously, those starter and expansion sets are fantastic, other companies should make note. Maybe you figured out what kind of playstyle you want to lean into and want to get more cavalry or more infantry with certain weapons. It doesn’t matter so much though because you already hav a solid base of miniatures to use. You didn’t buy a bunch of stuff that you’re not going to ever use. Ok, maybe you did, but that’s on you then.
I’m not going to go into too much detail here about the Barons’ War game, if you want to know more about it VarianceHammer recently reviewed it for us. It looks fun! I can’t say for certain. I haven’t played it yet and never played the first edition either. In short you put together a warband of a couple dozen models, smaller warbands than what Saga has you play with, and their equipment matters slightly more than Saga too. The starter set comes with some pre-made warbands for you if you’re entirely unsure how to build the minis; with enough minis for two players to get going. Speaking with people that have played the game these pre-made warbands seem solid, not just things that you’ll regret having built later on after playing more of it. That’s fantastic. More of this, please.
What is, probably, the most popular historical wargame on the market has been selling start sets for years too. Bolt Action was, and still is, built around being familiar enough to Warhammer players and having starter sets makes it very easy to pick up. This is no mistake, the guys behind Warlord Games knew that this is part of what makes Warhammer so successful and easy to get into so they did it too, after all they used to work there.
Victrix have announced their upcoming game Pillage, too, recently which is a Dark Ages skirmish game with smaller bands than Saga that sounds to be very good. My understanding is that this is a game that already exists in some fashion but only in French, and that Victrix are dealing with the English translation/version. Don’t quote me on this. They’re making starter sets for Pillage which can only be a good thing. We haven’t seen these boxes yet but it’s great to know they’re starting to package their models specifically for gaming instead of just a bunch of sprues in a bag; and will likely work as excellent sets for Saga too.
The Perfect Storm
This isn’t to take anything away from Wargames Atlantic at all. They do a great job, better than many companies seem to, at marketing their box sets and I was seeing an incredible amount of advertising all over social media for this game well before it was on pre-order. The external factors are difficult to ignore though too. If Saga Age of Chivalry and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 hadn’t both preceded this release would it have sold to a degree of needing to stop orders to catch up? Maybe, but I’m positive that they certainly helped. Clearly the interest surpassed Wargames Atlantics expectations.
Regardless of the success of this release it’s also glaringly obvious that simply having starter sets available for historical wargames make them that much easier to dip your toe into and try out. Making games more accessible to an existing player base of wargames can only be a good thing, and making these games accessible to people simply interested in wargames is even better. I’m extremely happy to be seeing this shift take place where companies making these beautiful minis are packaging them up into starter sets; very excited to see what the Victrix ones look like soon(?) and how those might work for various other games, too.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
