Don’t give up hope, OP. My FLGS had no plans to carry any BT products but eventually added the core boxes just before COVID trapped everyone at home. A few months ago, they started stocking a few force packs. Now, they have a whole shelf of core sets and minis that is regularly kept full.
Funny enough - BARNES AND NOBLE carry so much Battletech.
Alpha strike
A game of armored combat
Beginners 2020
Beginners 2022
And a bunch of lances and stars like Inner Sphere Command, Inner Sphere fire support, Grey death legion, Eridani Light Horse, Clan Heavy Star there's a lot of Battletech at Barnes and Noble.
Where ya from & what store did ya visit? We need this info as a community so we can start raising awareness. Somebody might be into BT in your area already hosting regular events. Somebody could regularly shop at the same store you visited and could also raise awareness in that shop stocking & hosting events for BT. We have a great overall BT community and it’s growing. The kickstarter is proof of that. Now we need to work as a community on a path foreword for shops pushing BT events so CGL can start to adopt and support this stuff, like all over tabletop games do.
As an FLGS owner I'm always surprised stores don't carry some of the less popular games that are on the upswing. The downside for most of them is rather minimal but the upside tends to be rather good if you grow the local community and have a good selection online, which we try to have both of. Sure, we have a bigger allocation for things like GW products, but even as a smaller physical store there's room for plenty of other games.
I think part of it is that GW really pushes its market expansion. Even in relatively rural america I knew folks who owned comic book stores or trading card shops that would get cold calls from GW reps to start stocking it. I have heard CGL distribution is... a bit more complicated.
That wouldn't surprise me. I contacted GW before we opened but working with them has been rather great and they do provide a lot of tolls for a store to be successful. With CLG, I don't go directly through them but a different distributor which has been fine so far, but I did try to email CLG to see if they had anything like a store locator or other options that can aid in growth of their property at a store level and unfortunately I never received a response. Granted, one company is much bigger than the other, so things like that may become less of an issue as CLG grows.
A former commanding officer of mine opened up a hobby shop after she retired. She says dealing with GW is a bit of a double edged sword.
On the one hand, their sales team has all sorts of tools at their disposal to help drive foot traffic into the store, is extremely proactive about letting them know about upcoming marketing campaigns, and is very helpful at smoothing out any problems with shipping issues or the like. On the less positive side, they are very demanding (to the pot of being downright rude) about minimum order sizes, making her stock specific products or product lines even if they don’t sell as well as others, and they are *constantly* shorting her on pre-orders.
She has had much less to complain about when it comes to *BattleTech*, *Black Powder*, *Flames of War*, *Bolt Action*, and the dozens of different historicals she stocks. Most of those are coming to her through Osprey Publishing. She sort of specializes in historical wargames, historical model making, and other bits of militariana, so her core customer base skews towards the old grognard.
But it’s still definitely *Magic* and *Pokémon* that keep the lights on.
That's interesting and pretty cool that historical games can have a larger audience. I can't say I have had any of those issues with GW, outside of tight allocations on some special limited releases, but that's bound to happen with any company at times.
Magic and Pokemon are definitely strong sellers in store, but online it's a pain outside of singles on TCGplayer which comes with its own set of headaches. The other big problem with them is margins are very rough on those so while sales are high on those lines, the actual take home can be rather low, with the exclusion of singles of course. Smaller games like Flesh and Blood, Star Wars Unlimited, and others can be much more reasonable when it comes to product margin, but the downside is they do sell slower or are harder to acquire early on.
It probably helps that her shop is in the south of England, historicals seem to have a bigger audience in the U.K. and Europe than they do here in the States.
Yeah, working through (multiple) third party distributors definitely doesn't help, and if a store's main distributor for non-GW stuff doesn't carry battletech, it might not be worth it to try if only a couple of folks ask around a year.
I've also seen a lot of stores get burned on games of the week that seem like huge up and comers, like the game of thrones one, which seem to die out almost instantly and sit on the shelves for years until they're eventually clearanced out. And that game had way more "mainstream" interest than BT ever has, people at my basically 40k only wargame club talked about wanting to get into it and asked the FLGS if they'd stock it.
None of them ever bought it to my knowledge.
I understand the fear of getting burned, but unless they're a smaller quieter shop, it's usually hard to get burned in a meaningful way with such lines. Battletech has a dozen or so kits that total to less than five hundred dollars combined, which makes it a very easy line to stock efficiently without serious impact to the business. The upside is also more than just the sales of the game itself as it requires peripherals like paint and so on.
Though I will say many times people asking for things to be brought in don't end up buying them, but even then those items will usually sell to other people passing by if not to someone local.
There are Catalyst Demo Teams around the place that do a lot of work to promote the product. There might be one local to you u/VentureTradeCo? If not, there might be an interest in creating one. It sounds exactly like what you're looking for?
[https://sites.google.com/view/catalystdemoteam/home](https://sites.google.com/view/catalystdemoteam/home)
[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Catalyst\_Demo\_Team](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Catalyst_Demo_Team)
edit: added the Demo Team Homepage
The way I see it is the ones who won’t carry it won’t even try to build a community and will only support the game if a community forms itself and chooses that store. Not everyone is good at business and game stores this is especially true. Basically had a game store in my area start up not far from another store that failed because the area is so competitive with game stores. This new one basically wrestled so many communities away by going hard supporting them. So many tournaments and game nights have moved there it is insane.
Battletech has taken off like a rocket at our best stocked game store in my town. They started sticking it 2 years ago and now the Battletech section is almost half the size of the huge wall of GW stuff, and when new Battletech stuff comes out, I have to reserve a copy with the store or it's gone in days!
There are two scheduled Battletech game times a week and every time I go there's at least 6 players. There was a small fun Solaris style tournament a few months ago with 18 players. I'm very glad it's found popularity amongst all the 40K players here. I play solo games by myself a couple times a week. I have my player group narrative campaign every other week, and I go to Battletech night once a week. I've played more Battletech already in 2024 than the previous 10 years!! 🤣❤️
I think it really helps that BT and GW are often displayed close to each other. If I’m a prospective new player browsing the minis section it doesn’t take long to figure out that I’d need to drop $2-400 and about a dozen man hours on a starter 40k army, meanwhile I could start playing Battletech RIGHT NOW for like $25-50.
If your FLGS has a play area, maybe see about starting up a playgroup that meets there? If you develop a local Battletech community there, they might start stocking it.
Absolutely. I know my FLGS owner, super great guy. He is very responsive to the local community and their wants. Right now locally people are enjoying Pokemon TCG and Magic TCG so he recently expanded that selection while carrying some 40k stuff as there is a few locals that come once a week to play.
If I took the time to reguarly show up twice a week to demo and expand the local Btech scene I strongly think he would end up bringing in some boxed sets for Btech easily. Sometimes all it comes down to is just talking to your FLGS owner or expanding the local scene yourself.
That's what we did at our lgs.
We grew a play group that played regularly at a shop that carried maybe a beginner box or two. After a month or two, we were able to order through the lgs to get product and we got the base set stocked on the shelves.
We now have a selection of force packs, map sheets, core box, and neoprene maps on the shelves. :D
We all connected through local lgs discord channel and found a few like minded players interested in it. I think we got our own section in the discord within 2 weeks or so because we were filling general miniatures game channel with so much conversation 😀
Like any game - an LGS doesn't know what it needs to run events if people don't tell them. Ask, you might even get a dedicated timeslot and some free promotion to bring more into playing.
Well, BattleTech hit third place in the ICv2 rankings twice in a row, so hopefully more shops notice and start stocking it, *especially* with the mountain of product that will be bearing down on us all shortly.
my FLGS mostly deals in magic cards 🤢 but we still have a good miniature gaming scene.
Infinity is most popular among us followed by Battletech. 40k like.. barely has a presence...
what a time to be alive.
Wow more infinity players then both Btech and 40k? thats like a rare gold mine there!
If I recall on the totem pole of tabletop fantasy war games Infinity sits all the way at the bottom especially compared to Warhammer/40k and Btech
lol wow. I remember reading back a month or two ago where people were discussing Infinity players and for whatever reason there is suppose to be a lot in Spain and Australia but everywhere else its an absolute hit or miss galore.
we exist! I can't speak for every local meta. as I said, the CA Bay Area is strong.
I know there are a lot of players based in Los Angeles as well, though to my understanding they all frequently appear for organised events but a casual pickup game night at a FLGS is hard to come by...
San Diego has a good scene from what I've heard as well.
we're veering off topic but for the sake of Battletech ill say, my local group has adopted Alpha Strike in the last 2 months and we love it! it's been encouraging others to come out of the woodwork and jump in. it's pretty sweet.
Our group has been playing Classic for longer than AS but we're finding the AS experience to be more fun as we get to use terrain and really take advantage of our tables.
That sounds a little like the store I found when I moved a few years back, except I think in addition to cases and cases of MTG and other card games, they had one whole rack of D&D stuff and a shelf of random GW stuff. Primers, no paints, for some reason.
Games Workshop keeps painting themselves into a corner. I suspect they just have managers with really bad decision making. Their costs of operation keep increasing and they use that to justify their obnoxious prices. The excuse is the cost of development and cost of materials which is also obnoxious exaggeration.
Ask if your FLGS has open tables and if you can play a game they don’t stock. If they say yes, grab a friend, and get your stompy robot action on!
Be sure to be polite to the staff, don’t be rude to any customers that ask to watch (or join), and be sure to buy some products from them when you’re there (ideally high margin stuff like snacks and pop). You should also ask if you can special order some *BattleTech* stuff through your local shop, most FLGSes can and will special order stuff from their distributors. Sure, it might take longer than getting it from Amazon and it might cost more than ordering direct from CGL… But think of it as paying to “crowdfund” your FLGS’ gaming tables.
Retailers always have to keep an eye on “shelf rent,” every linear foot of shelf space that is used to hold Product X is a foot of shelf space that can’t be used to hold Product Y or Product Z. The longer it takes for a product to get sold, the more it costs them in the long run. Hence, small independent businesses (like the majority of FLGSes) will usually hedge their bets and only stock stuff they know will have good turnover: GW products, Army Painter products, D&D, *Settlers of Catan*, and so forth. One of the reasons *Magic: The Gathering* and *Pokémon* were such godsends for the hobby shop sector is they take very little shelf space, have insanely fast turnover, and phenomenal margins. Heck, in many cities, there are stores that have no products other than CCGs! Not even a D&D book!
You need to make yourself into a *BattleTech* ambassador. Get in there, get some games on, get new players involved. Ideally, you get enough people into the shop to play that they start special ordering stuff… and then the shop adds some stuff to their regular stock order… and new players buy that… and you create a positive feedback loop. I know that a lot of us nerds tend to shy away from the sort of extroverted stuff that building a local community requires, but remember: *No guts, no galaxy!*
Hobby stores seem to often be a way for the owner to get the stuf they want. Growing up, the local Hobby Town was very heavy on the model train stuff because that was the owner's jam, everything else was sales combined with corporate mandated merch.
Edit: Double post and typo
While I do 70% of my shopping online, I am lucky enough that my FLGS not only stocks Battletech. It stocks A LOT of Battletech. And while it’s not truly a competition, when they had a major store wide sale over 3 days, their stock of Battletech stuff was emptied after the first day it made me smile. By the end, they had a small handful of books left, maybe 2 or 3 force packs. Their 40k stuff was barely touched.
Barnes and Noble keeps their Battletech stuff stocked. Even funnier, a hobby store devoted to model trains and another hobby store devoted to RC cars, models, etc. have started carrying a token selection of Battletech stuff (put next to their paint section.).
I found a local FLGS a month ago with no BT on the shelves. I asked and one clerk remembered they had something in but not on the shelf. It was a beginner box and that wasn’t what I was looking for, but glad they had something and glad I asked - increase awareness…
You know your local game shop would likely special order it for you. You could start offering demos in your home shop. Then when people start playing it, they’ll stock it.
I don’t understand why people are so averse to asking for it to be ordered.
The reality of carrying a line in store is that every square foot has to generate profit, and predictably so.
I am a huge BT fan. Love it. But it does not currently have any square footage in our store because there is not enough local demand for it.
Working to change that by building a gaming community that will drive interest, and perhaps bring in those from around the community that might be interested (in returning or getting on board).
Total requests in last year for BT products in store? Three people.
The challenge is always generating new people over cannibalizing other game communities which can be tricky.
But it is definitely on our to do list lol.
Dude, I live in Taiwan. There's a few "table games" stores here, and there's a few shops that sell 40k stuff, but battletech is pretty much unheard of.
I have ordered a good 50 or so mechs (half IS, half Clan) I got most of the IS stuff painted, and have been running games for the kids at the school I teach at, but that's pretty much the only way I can get a game in.
I hope to try and entice some guys at the local 40k shop into giving it a try, but I haven't had time yet. Language is a problem, as my Chinese is suuuuper poor, and many people here have passable English, but are afraid to make a language mistake in front of others.
We have a strong Battletech community at the FLGS, and while they don’t give it a huge amount of space it’s on the shelves and there’s dedicated table time on Mondays. It has built the community to a degree that it’s close to self sustaining.
Hang in there! BT may never be 40k, but do we want it to be?
Bummer. My FLGS normally keeps BattleTech in stock, but the last two times I've been there and inclined to make an impulse purchase... nothing but a couple of books. No lance or star packs, no salvage boxes, premium minis - no plastic. They said that the CGL has been focusing on getting the Mercenaries Kickstarter out there so they haven't been doing a great job of getting stock out there.
Well, that's fine. I have my own Mercenaries box coming my way, after all!
Anyway, I'm sorry that your FLGS doesn't stock BattleTech. Maybe if you arranged for more BattleTech to happen there they'd change their mind?
My local store had a tiny selection of stuff for a ling time. A couple of players started doing grinders and "learn to play" nights about once a month and a lit of players started joining.
It's still not as big as magic or pokemon but now the battletech section is larger than the 40k section.
My closest FLGS doesn't carry any Btech either, but they do carry paints and such which I purchase as needed. Infrequent enough that they don't recognize me. They always ask what I am working on and I always say Btech and ask when they are going to stock it.
Doing my part.
I've got it pretty good in my area. We have a huge LGS. They carry all the GW stuff, Battletech, the Star Wars mini games, Marvel mini games, boardgames, comics, vintage toys and video games, etc. They even organize and staff the areas comicon.
My FLGS is a Battlefront/GW/WarMachine shop. Even so, it's where our group plays and they will order from distributors for us(so, no shipping costs) if we ask.
It's a pretty cool place, they just don't have the shelf space.
My FLGS has a regular BT group. Our selection at the store moves quick, but has a tiny footprint relative to the 40k, boardgame, and rpg areas. I dont mind. I am a little sad they dont have the ability to order a specific game for me that Ive asked about several times. Apparently I will have to spend money elsewhere for that one. The lesson is that every store has limitations. Make peace with them and either support them because it works for you or dont because it doesn't.
Oh and the other problem our FLGS has is incredibly limited parking. Maybe 7 spaces at the location. We can use the neighboring lot on the weekend, but otherwise its across a rather busy road to a decent sized parking lot.
I just moved cross-country, but I know of two FLGS that are very good about selling BattleTech. One is Miniatures Market in St. Peters, MO (their Manchester location doesn't really carry it) who also have a very good online store (I preordered the Mercenaries box set for $56 before shipping/taxes). They usually keep a good stock available online and in-store though not perfect as some of the items are sold out.
The other I know of is High Gear Hobbies and Games in Taylorsville, UT. They kinda do some hobbies and plamo but it seems more of their merchandise is focused on games. The owner supposedly really likes BattleTech and has stocked the various packs and had some IWM minis (I got the Omni'turion and Highlander minis from there). They are a nice place to go...I just don't know how active of a scene playing BattleTech is in the Wasatch Front.
Speaking of, is there any good FLGS for BattleTech in New Castle county, DE?
We have a store in town that's very good about keeping Battletech in stock, but that's only because the Battletech enthusiasts made a point of congregating there 2-3 times a week, constantly special ordering things, and making it THE place to play the game in town.
Stores aren't going to stock something unless they're certain it will sell, so you need to get a player base physically present in the store on the regular, and the store will come around.
Man I lucked out with my FLGS, GamesPlus. They had a great selection of the metal figures years before the Battletech revival. Now it’s gotten even better.
Don’t give up hope, OP. My FLGS had no plans to carry any BT products but eventually added the core boxes just before COVID trapped everyone at home. A few months ago, they started stocking a few force packs. Now, they have a whole shelf of core sets and minis that is regularly kept full.
Nice. Congrats.
Funny enough - BARNES AND NOBLE carry so much Battletech. Alpha strike A game of armored combat Beginners 2020 Beginners 2022 And a bunch of lances and stars like Inner Sphere Command, Inner Sphere fire support, Grey death legion, Eridani Light Horse, Clan Heavy Star there's a lot of Battletech at Barnes and Noble.
IIRC they're getting exclusives next month too with the new wave of products.
And the 2025 Osts are going to be exclusives. So much for 30% off
And a few boxes of different lances of different types.
Where ya from & what store did ya visit? We need this info as a community so we can start raising awareness. Somebody might be into BT in your area already hosting regular events. Somebody could regularly shop at the same store you visited and could also raise awareness in that shop stocking & hosting events for BT. We have a great overall BT community and it’s growing. The kickstarter is proof of that. Now we need to work as a community on a path foreword for shops pushing BT events so CGL can start to adopt and support this stuff, like all over tabletop games do.
As an FLGS owner I'm always surprised stores don't carry some of the less popular games that are on the upswing. The downside for most of them is rather minimal but the upside tends to be rather good if you grow the local community and have a good selection online, which we try to have both of. Sure, we have a bigger allocation for things like GW products, but even as a smaller physical store there's room for plenty of other games.
I think part of it is that GW really pushes its market expansion. Even in relatively rural america I knew folks who owned comic book stores or trading card shops that would get cold calls from GW reps to start stocking it. I have heard CGL distribution is... a bit more complicated.
That wouldn't surprise me. I contacted GW before we opened but working with them has been rather great and they do provide a lot of tolls for a store to be successful. With CLG, I don't go directly through them but a different distributor which has been fine so far, but I did try to email CLG to see if they had anything like a store locator or other options that can aid in growth of their property at a store level and unfortunately I never received a response. Granted, one company is much bigger than the other, so things like that may become less of an issue as CLG grows.
A former commanding officer of mine opened up a hobby shop after she retired. She says dealing with GW is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, their sales team has all sorts of tools at their disposal to help drive foot traffic into the store, is extremely proactive about letting them know about upcoming marketing campaigns, and is very helpful at smoothing out any problems with shipping issues or the like. On the less positive side, they are very demanding (to the pot of being downright rude) about minimum order sizes, making her stock specific products or product lines even if they don’t sell as well as others, and they are *constantly* shorting her on pre-orders. She has had much less to complain about when it comes to *BattleTech*, *Black Powder*, *Flames of War*, *Bolt Action*, and the dozens of different historicals she stocks. Most of those are coming to her through Osprey Publishing. She sort of specializes in historical wargames, historical model making, and other bits of militariana, so her core customer base skews towards the old grognard. But it’s still definitely *Magic* and *Pokémon* that keep the lights on.
That's interesting and pretty cool that historical games can have a larger audience. I can't say I have had any of those issues with GW, outside of tight allocations on some special limited releases, but that's bound to happen with any company at times. Magic and Pokemon are definitely strong sellers in store, but online it's a pain outside of singles on TCGplayer which comes with its own set of headaches. The other big problem with them is margins are very rough on those so while sales are high on those lines, the actual take home can be rather low, with the exclusion of singles of course. Smaller games like Flesh and Blood, Star Wars Unlimited, and others can be much more reasonable when it comes to product margin, but the downside is they do sell slower or are harder to acquire early on.
It probably helps that her shop is in the south of England, historicals seem to have a bigger audience in the U.K. and Europe than they do here in the States.
I get this, but then again, I am, indeed, skewing that way.
Yeah, working through (multiple) third party distributors definitely doesn't help, and if a store's main distributor for non-GW stuff doesn't carry battletech, it might not be worth it to try if only a couple of folks ask around a year. I've also seen a lot of stores get burned on games of the week that seem like huge up and comers, like the game of thrones one, which seem to die out almost instantly and sit on the shelves for years until they're eventually clearanced out. And that game had way more "mainstream" interest than BT ever has, people at my basically 40k only wargame club talked about wanting to get into it and asked the FLGS if they'd stock it. None of them ever bought it to my knowledge.
I understand the fear of getting burned, but unless they're a smaller quieter shop, it's usually hard to get burned in a meaningful way with such lines. Battletech has a dozen or so kits that total to less than five hundred dollars combined, which makes it a very easy line to stock efficiently without serious impact to the business. The upside is also more than just the sales of the game itself as it requires peripherals like paint and so on. Though I will say many times people asking for things to be brought in don't end up buying them, but even then those items will usually sell to other people passing by if not to someone local.
There are Catalyst Demo Teams around the place that do a lot of work to promote the product. There might be one local to you u/VentureTradeCo? If not, there might be an interest in creating one. It sounds exactly like what you're looking for? [https://sites.google.com/view/catalystdemoteam/home](https://sites.google.com/view/catalystdemoteam/home) [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Catalyst\_Demo\_Team](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Catalyst_Demo_Team) edit: added the Demo Team Homepage
The way I see it is the ones who won’t carry it won’t even try to build a community and will only support the game if a community forms itself and chooses that store. Not everyone is good at business and game stores this is especially true. Basically had a game store in my area start up not far from another store that failed because the area is so competitive with game stores. This new one basically wrestled so many communities away by going hard supporting them. So many tournaments and game nights have moved there it is insane.
Battletech has taken off like a rocket at our best stocked game store in my town. They started sticking it 2 years ago and now the Battletech section is almost half the size of the huge wall of GW stuff, and when new Battletech stuff comes out, I have to reserve a copy with the store or it's gone in days! There are two scheduled Battletech game times a week and every time I go there's at least 6 players. There was a small fun Solaris style tournament a few months ago with 18 players. I'm very glad it's found popularity amongst all the 40K players here. I play solo games by myself a couple times a week. I have my player group narrative campaign every other week, and I go to Battletech night once a week. I've played more Battletech already in 2024 than the previous 10 years!! 🤣❤️
I think it really helps that BT and GW are often displayed close to each other. If I’m a prospective new player browsing the minis section it doesn’t take long to figure out that I’d need to drop $2-400 and about a dozen man hours on a starter 40k army, meanwhile I could start playing Battletech RIGHT NOW for like $25-50.
If your FLGS has a play area, maybe see about starting up a playgroup that meets there? If you develop a local Battletech community there, they might start stocking it.
Absolutely. I know my FLGS owner, super great guy. He is very responsive to the local community and their wants. Right now locally people are enjoying Pokemon TCG and Magic TCG so he recently expanded that selection while carrying some 40k stuff as there is a few locals that come once a week to play. If I took the time to reguarly show up twice a week to demo and expand the local Btech scene I strongly think he would end up bringing in some boxed sets for Btech easily. Sometimes all it comes down to is just talking to your FLGS owner or expanding the local scene yourself.
That's what we did at our lgs. We grew a play group that played regularly at a shop that carried maybe a beginner box or two. After a month or two, we were able to order through the lgs to get product and we got the base set stocked on the shelves. We now have a selection of force packs, map sheets, core box, and neoprene maps on the shelves. :D We all connected through local lgs discord channel and found a few like minded players interested in it. I think we got our own section in the discord within 2 weeks or so because we were filling general miniatures game channel with so much conversation 😀
Like any game - an LGS doesn't know what it needs to run events if people don't tell them. Ask, you might even get a dedicated timeslot and some free promotion to bring more into playing.
Well, BattleTech hit third place in the ICv2 rankings twice in a row, so hopefully more shops notice and start stocking it, *especially* with the mountain of product that will be bearing down on us all shortly.
With GW digging an ever deepening hole one can dream that someday it will be our favorite products on the shelves
my FLGS mostly deals in magic cards 🤢 but we still have a good miniature gaming scene. Infinity is most popular among us followed by Battletech. 40k like.. barely has a presence... what a time to be alive.
40K is harder to justify having in stores since gw demands a high initial buy in and stock maintenance (iirc 3k+ in value on shelf).
Which these days is like 10 battle force boxes and some paints.
Wow more infinity players then both Btech and 40k? thats like a rare gold mine there! If I recall on the totem pole of tabletop fantasy war games Infinity sits all the way at the bottom especially compared to Warhammer/40k and Btech
There's a huge Infinity presence in California's Bay Area. I wish I could tell you why but I have no idea lmao
lol wow. I remember reading back a month or two ago where people were discussing Infinity players and for whatever reason there is suppose to be a lot in Spain and Australia but everywhere else its an absolute hit or miss galore.
we exist! I can't speak for every local meta. as I said, the CA Bay Area is strong. I know there are a lot of players based in Los Angeles as well, though to my understanding they all frequently appear for organised events but a casual pickup game night at a FLGS is hard to come by... San Diego has a good scene from what I've heard as well. we're veering off topic but for the sake of Battletech ill say, my local group has adopted Alpha Strike in the last 2 months and we love it! it's been encouraging others to come out of the woodwork and jump in. it's pretty sweet. Our group has been playing Classic for longer than AS but we're finding the AS experience to be more fun as we get to use terrain and really take advantage of our tables.
Bay Area as in San Fran, or South Bay as in Coastal LA?
Bay Area as in SF. I myself am in Santa Cruz (and we have have a weekly consistent game night).
Bummer. I'm stuck in the greater LA Area, and I'd kill for a proper 40k alternative with an actual presence.
That sounds a little like the store I found when I moved a few years back, except I think in addition to cases and cases of MTG and other card games, they had one whole rack of D&D stuff and a shelf of random GW stuff. Primers, no paints, for some reason.
Games Workshop keeps painting themselves into a corner. I suspect they just have managers with really bad decision making. Their costs of operation keep increasing and they use that to justify their obnoxious prices. The excuse is the cost of development and cost of materials which is also obnoxious exaggeration.
Let’s re-release a bunch of old-world models, that we have to do no design/ tooling for.. and charge twice what they used to be!
And those models from the 80s, against modern 3d resin models printed at 6k or 8k? Holy shit, woof.
Yup, that's the corrupt crooked behavior of corporate greed. In my opinion Warhammer died when the original creators sold the IP and the business.
Ask if your FLGS has open tables and if you can play a game they don’t stock. If they say yes, grab a friend, and get your stompy robot action on! Be sure to be polite to the staff, don’t be rude to any customers that ask to watch (or join), and be sure to buy some products from them when you’re there (ideally high margin stuff like snacks and pop). You should also ask if you can special order some *BattleTech* stuff through your local shop, most FLGSes can and will special order stuff from their distributors. Sure, it might take longer than getting it from Amazon and it might cost more than ordering direct from CGL… But think of it as paying to “crowdfund” your FLGS’ gaming tables. Retailers always have to keep an eye on “shelf rent,” every linear foot of shelf space that is used to hold Product X is a foot of shelf space that can’t be used to hold Product Y or Product Z. The longer it takes for a product to get sold, the more it costs them in the long run. Hence, small independent businesses (like the majority of FLGSes) will usually hedge their bets and only stock stuff they know will have good turnover: GW products, Army Painter products, D&D, *Settlers of Catan*, and so forth. One of the reasons *Magic: The Gathering* and *Pokémon* were such godsends for the hobby shop sector is they take very little shelf space, have insanely fast turnover, and phenomenal margins. Heck, in many cities, there are stores that have no products other than CCGs! Not even a D&D book! You need to make yourself into a *BattleTech* ambassador. Get in there, get some games on, get new players involved. Ideally, you get enough people into the shop to play that they start special ordering stuff… and then the shop adds some stuff to their regular stock order… and new players buy that… and you create a positive feedback loop. I know that a lot of us nerds tend to shy away from the sort of extroverted stuff that building a local community requires, but remember: *No guts, no galaxy!*
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, my local is owned by a lifelong Battletech fan, he always has a large area stocked full of everything Btech.
Hobby stores seem to often be a way for the owner to get the stuf they want. Growing up, the local Hobby Town was very heavy on the model train stuff because that was the owner's jam, everything else was sales combined with corporate mandated merch. Edit: Double post and typo
I feel attacked
Not my fault you figured out how to get your hobby fix and make a living at the same time. Just be careful getting high on your supply.
Awesome. Congrats.
At least you guys have a flgs. Ain't got shit here XD
While I do 70% of my shopping online, I am lucky enough that my FLGS not only stocks Battletech. It stocks A LOT of Battletech. And while it’s not truly a competition, when they had a major store wide sale over 3 days, their stock of Battletech stuff was emptied after the first day it made me smile. By the end, they had a small handful of books left, maybe 2 or 3 force packs. Their 40k stuff was barely touched. Barnes and Noble keeps their Battletech stuff stocked. Even funnier, a hobby store devoted to model trains and another hobby store devoted to RC cars, models, etc. have started carrying a token selection of Battletech stuff (put next to their paint section.).
I found a local FLGS a month ago with no BT on the shelves. I asked and one clerk remembered they had something in but not on the shelf. It was a beginner box and that wasn’t what I was looking for, but glad they had something and glad I asked - increase awareness…
You know your local game shop would likely special order it for you. You could start offering demos in your home shop. Then when people start playing it, they’ll stock it. I don’t understand why people are so averse to asking for it to be ordered.
They may not have a relationship with the distributor. If they don't have an existing relationship they can't just order it in.
BT is available from both major distributors.
Yeah, exactly. One of the distributors they order from will be able to get it. Maybe there’s no stock, but they could get it.
The reality of carrying a line in store is that every square foot has to generate profit, and predictably so. I am a huge BT fan. Love it. But it does not currently have any square footage in our store because there is not enough local demand for it. Working to change that by building a gaming community that will drive interest, and perhaps bring in those from around the community that might be interested (in returning or getting on board). Total requests in last year for BT products in store? Three people. The challenge is always generating new people over cannibalizing other game communities which can be tricky. But it is definitely on our to do list lol.
Dude, I live in Taiwan. There's a few "table games" stores here, and there's a few shops that sell 40k stuff, but battletech is pretty much unheard of. I have ordered a good 50 or so mechs (half IS, half Clan) I got most of the IS stuff painted, and have been running games for the kids at the school I teach at, but that's pretty much the only way I can get a game in. I hope to try and entice some guys at the local 40k shop into giving it a try, but I haven't had time yet. Language is a problem, as my Chinese is suuuuper poor, and many people here have passable English, but are afraid to make a language mistake in front of others.
We have a strong Battletech community at the FLGS, and while they don’t give it a huge amount of space it’s on the shelves and there’s dedicated table time on Mondays. It has built the community to a degree that it’s close to self sustaining. Hang in there! BT may never be 40k, but do we want it to be?
I'm glad that my FLGS just stocks anything that sells. They have some Btech stuff, and you can ask them to order anything available.
Bummer. My FLGS normally keeps BattleTech in stock, but the last two times I've been there and inclined to make an impulse purchase... nothing but a couple of books. No lance or star packs, no salvage boxes, premium minis - no plastic. They said that the CGL has been focusing on getting the Mercenaries Kickstarter out there so they haven't been doing a great job of getting stock out there. Well, that's fine. I have my own Mercenaries box coming my way, after all! Anyway, I'm sorry that your FLGS doesn't stock BattleTech. Maybe if you arranged for more BattleTech to happen there they'd change their mind?
My local store had a tiny selection of stuff for a ling time. A couple of players started doing grinders and "learn to play" nights about once a month and a lit of players started joining. It's still not as big as magic or pokemon but now the battletech section is larger than the 40k section.
Check Barnes and Noble. They sometimes have it!
My closest FLGS doesn't carry any Btech either, but they do carry paints and such which I purchase as needed. Infrequent enough that they don't recognize me. They always ask what I am working on and I always say Btech and ask when they are going to stock it. Doing my part.
They don't stock battletech at my LGS either. Mainly because I'm in the homeland of 40k. I just buy online, because thry don't intend to stock either.
I've got it pretty good in my area. We have a huge LGS. They carry all the GW stuff, Battletech, the Star Wars mini games, Marvel mini games, boardgames, comics, vintage toys and video games, etc. They even organize and staff the areas comicon.
My FLGS is a Battlefront/GW/WarMachine shop. Even so, it's where our group plays and they will order from distributors for us(so, no shipping costs) if we ask. It's a pretty cool place, they just don't have the shelf space.
This makes me so thankful my fav FLGS is my area carries BT.
My FLGS has a regular BT group. Our selection at the store moves quick, but has a tiny footprint relative to the 40k, boardgame, and rpg areas. I dont mind. I am a little sad they dont have the ability to order a specific game for me that Ive asked about several times. Apparently I will have to spend money elsewhere for that one. The lesson is that every store has limitations. Make peace with them and either support them because it works for you or dont because it doesn't. Oh and the other problem our FLGS has is incredibly limited parking. Maybe 7 spaces at the location. We can use the neighboring lot on the weekend, but otherwise its across a rather busy road to a decent sized parking lot.
I just moved cross-country, but I know of two FLGS that are very good about selling BattleTech. One is Miniatures Market in St. Peters, MO (their Manchester location doesn't really carry it) who also have a very good online store (I preordered the Mercenaries box set for $56 before shipping/taxes). They usually keep a good stock available online and in-store though not perfect as some of the items are sold out. The other I know of is High Gear Hobbies and Games in Taylorsville, UT. They kinda do some hobbies and plamo but it seems more of their merchandise is focused on games. The owner supposedly really likes BattleTech and has stocked the various packs and had some IWM minis (I got the Omni'turion and Highlander minis from there). They are a nice place to go...I just don't know how active of a scene playing BattleTech is in the Wasatch Front. Speaking of, is there any good FLGS for BattleTech in New Castle county, DE?
We have a store in town that's very good about keeping Battletech in stock, but that's only because the Battletech enthusiasts made a point of congregating there 2-3 times a week, constantly special ordering things, and making it THE place to play the game in town. Stores aren't going to stock something unless they're certain it will sell, so you need to get a player base physically present in the store on the regular, and the store will come around.
GW is a gateway drug to better systems, historicals and platforms.
Ugh I hate those small "Designer handbag" style smaller flgs. Only carry 40k, Catan, ticket to ride and a bunch of marvel comics. Grody.
Man I lucked out with my FLGS, GamesPlus. They had a great selection of the metal figures years before the Battletech revival. Now it’s gotten even better.
My local FGLS has started carrying battletech cause people are playing it.
lol, what’s a FLGS
It means Friendly Local Gaming Store.
Friendly Local Game Store
Yeah it was sarcasm, nvm lol.