 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Miniature wargaming and Board game publisher |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | John Stallard, Paul Sawyer, Alessio Cavatore, Rick Priestley |
| Products | Bolt Action (wargame) |
| Website | Warlord Games |
Warlord Games is a British miniatures and wargame publisher, based in Nottingham, UK.
History
[edit]Warlord Games was started in 2007[1] by former Games Workshop employees John Stallard and Paul Sawyer. With Bob Naismith their first production was Roman legionary models. The Black Powder rules were bought from Rick Priestley; Rick then wrote Hail Caesar rules for Warlord.[2] In July 2023, Warlord sold 25% of shares to Hornby for £1.25 million.[3]
Description
[edit]Warlord Games produces both miniatures for wargames as well as the wargames themselves. Black Powder, set in the era of the "horse and musket", is mentioned in several books dedicated to wargames set in this period. For example, Donald Featherstone, in his 2010 book Battle Notes for Wargamers, cites the rules used in Black Powder as especially suitable for recreations of the Battles of Wynendael,[4] Prestonpans,(Jacobite uprising)[5] Guilford Courthouse (American Revolution),[6] Maida,[7] Aliwal (Anglo-Sikh war),[8] Wilson's Creek (American Civil War),[9] Little Big Horn,[10] and Modder River (Boer War)[11]
Warlord Games's most popular game to date is the Second World War setting Bolt Action.[citation needed]
Their games are well-known enough that they were used several times by Rick Priestley and John Lambshead in their 2016 book Tabletop Wargames: A Designers' and Writers' Handbook to illustrate various points. For example, Priestley and Lambshead point to the "Blunder Table" in the wargame Black Powder, using it as an example of a mechanism that "introduces a moment of high drama into the game. It drives the narrative of the battle. Although the result affects only one side the roll engages the attention of both."[12]: 48 Likewise, Priestley and Lambshead use Bolt Action to explore nested systems of sequential mechanics, giving as the example "shooting that results in one or more hits (primary rolls) results in a morale effect (represented by a 'pin' state) even where all those hits fail to cause casualties (secondary rolls)."[12]: 50
Javier Gomez in his 2015 book Painting Wargaming Figures, used figurines produced by Warlord Games as examples to demonstrate various ways to paint historically accurate figurines for use with specific battles, including a Thirty Years War gun and crew,[13]: 224 a Roman centurion[13]: 285 and a Celtic warrior.[13]: 302
Games
[edit]- Hail Caesar!
- Pike & Shotte (English Civil Wars and the Thirty Years War)
- Black Powder
- Black Seas
- Bolt Action
- Blood Red Skies
- Conflikt 47 (alternate WWII history mixed with alien technology)
- Judge Dredd Miniatures Game (in conjunction with Mongoose Games)
- Beyond the Gates of Antares.
References
[edit]- ^ ltd, company check. "WARLORD GAMES LIMITED. Free business summary taken from official companies house information. Free alerts. Registered as 06400769". Company Check. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
- ^ "About Us". Warlord Games. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
- ^ "Acquisition and Extension of Loan Facility, 7 Jul 2023 11:23 | Shares Magazine". www.sharesmagazine.co.uk. 7 July 2023. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
- ^ Featherstone 2010 p64
- ^ Featherstone, 2010 p74
- ^ Featherstone, 2010 p84
- ^ Featherstone 2010 p94
- ^ Featherstone, 2010 p103
- ^ Featherstone, 2010 p112
- ^ Featherstone, 2010 p122
- ^ Featherstone 2010 p132
- ^ a b Priestley & Lambshead, 2016
- ^ a b c Gomez 2015
- Featherstone, Donald (2010). Battle Notes for Wargamers. David & Charles Ltd. ISBN 9781446731833.
- Gomez, Javier (2015). Painting Wargaming Figures. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 9781848848221.
- Priestley, Rick; Lambshead, John (2016). Tabletop Wargames: A Designers' and Writers' Handbook. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 9781783831487.