Warhammer World - Washington DC [2027]

[grailkeeper]

Do you think they'll have a factory there as a way of avoiding tariffs? 

[Corswain]

Very cool news for our US friends.

 It's a very different proposition for them to make the trip than it is for UK fans to visit Nottingham, though. I'm very curious to see what they might do to try and draw the crowds.

[dalmer]

Glen Burnie, Maryland is my call.

 

45ish minutes from Washington DC and I wanna say one of the first Games Workshop stores that got opened in the states way back when.

[Fubl]

As a dmv resident.  I will list out a couple possibilities.   One of the malls trying to get an event /experience end cap.    Springfield now has lego experience  , arundal has live,  and such one possibility is tysons  galleria since a good chunk has moved more to the other entity.   Tysons at least has metro access and is right between national and dulles.    Amazon gets their ownership stake and sticks it into the plan of hq2 that they are not building all of.     My dark horse is pinstripes north bethesda, if not having production facilities could easily be converted as pinstripes is currently going through bankruptcy and down sizing  the building is already the corresct colors and it does sit on the metro.   
 

i just dont see a new construction do to the cost in the area and available land useage.    So it would most likely be part of something else.   Converting something would be easier.   Other things would be supporting metro infastructure which gets dicey since metro doesnt cover alot of the area we are talking with trains.

Edited January 10 by Fubl

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I wouldn’t expect a factory to bypass tariffs.

they’ve already been challenged in court, and even if they last his whole term chances are next president will end them, and I doubt tariffs will cost the same as building and running a whole new factory in that time period making a new US factory financially silly of it’s just to avoid tariffs.

[Marshal Rohr]

1 hour ago, dalmer said:

Glen Burnie, Maryland is my call.

 

45ish minutes from Washington DC and I wanna say one of the first Games Workshop stores that got opened in the states way back when.

This would be literally the worst thing they could given how much worse the Greater Baltimore area has become since they left the first time. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Slightly off topic but why’d they close the battle bunkers in the US?

[Grotsmasha]

53 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I wouldn’t expect a factory to bypass tariffs.

they’ve already been challenged in court, and even if they last his whole term chances are next president will end them, and I doubt tariffs will cost the same as building and running a whole new factory in that time period making a new US factory financially silly of it’s just to avoid tariffs.

 

I'd imagine is much more than tariffs. With volume of GW products that the US consume, the long term savings in time and shipping costs will more than make up for the investment 

[Wispy]

3 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Do you think they'll have a factory there as a way of avoiding tariffs? 

 

i forget where i heard/read it (might have been here?) but they (the US gov) were actually to get some factory set up her with some big Government incentives but GW requires so much specialized equipment with 5+ years of setup that it didn't make sense to current administration who only wanted quick wins. 

 

[ggergnayr]

14 hours ago, Subtleknife said:

As long as it doesn't detract from the 'real' WHW and GW doesn't forget where they came from. I really don't want Warhammer to become overly 'Americanised'. Nothing against America, from my experience they are a lovely people, just it is nice to have a bit of choice.

After we Americanize Warhammer we‘ll give them all guns, no wait they already have those…we‘ll give them all extra guns! Spare bolter pistols for everyone! 

[Magos Takatus]

2 hours ago, ggergnayr said:

After we Americanize Warhammer we‘ll give them all guns, no wait they already have those…we‘ll give them all extra guns! Spare bolter pistols for everyone! 

Now come on, the Primaris tanks already exist. You already won. 

 

No, I expect after that happens we will find out that Commissar Cain's Tanna stash will get vented into space and he will be quite cross. 

[Evil Eye]

To be honest, with the downward direction of recent British media (the sad decline of the BBC etc) I actually think American influence would get Warhammer closer to its roots these days. Given GW apparently canned a reissue of the Liber Chaotica because it "didn't align with the company's current values" semi recently I can't see attempts to appeal to the Land of the Free making things any worse, anyway.

[Mogger351]

54 minutes ago, Evil Eye said:

To be honest, with the downward direction of recent British media (the sad decline of the BBC etc) I actually think American influence would get Warhammer closer to its roots these days. Given GW apparently canned a reissue of the Liber Chaotica because it "didn't align with the company's current values" semi recently I can't see attempts to appeal to the Land of the Free making things any worse, anyway.

That is a hot take all round.

[techsoldaten]

Glen Burnie MD is lacking in many ways. There's not an appropriate venue for handling a large event, transportation is solely by car, and there are not nearly enough hotels for this to work. There's nothing old school or OG about it, the first GW stores in the DMV were in College Park and Laurel.

The NOVA Open takes place at a hotel in Crystal City, VA which would be more than sufficient to handle Warhammer World. But the place that might be the best option is the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor, MD. Ample space in the convention halls, it's on the water, room rates are reasonable for the area, plenty of nearby restaurants, there's even a casino with all kinds of other attractions. If they want to keep it a little more intimate, there's a convention center in Rockville that would be appropriate (but people would have to do a lot of walking.) There's also a ton of other hotels which would be happy to host the event, there's always something going on in DC.

The Convention Center in DC is probably too expensive for this event and, while Baltimore is an option, the convention center there is oversized for the size of Warhammer World. It would be hard to cover 10% of the space.

There are a lot of FLGSs in the DMV along with competitive players who don't necessarily participate in tournaments but might show up for this. Amongst the local community, there's a weariness of the drama the comes with competitive environments. Most of the people I know just want to play the game, see friends and enjoy the lore. Maybe this could be what reactivates some of the old timers and rekindles an interest amongst the youth in competitive play.

Regarding the talk about Americanizing Warhammer - made me chuckle, the game always seemed to be lampooning the US military's focus on high technology. The setting has become more serious in a lot of ways, but it's never completely broken from those roots.

With regards to the talk of factories - I know about the one in Tennessee but think it's more of a distribution center. From what I understand, the impact of tariffs is a marginal cost for GW and probably not sufficient to move manufacturing over here. If they do, it would probably be because of the cost of energy and access to inputs. Polystyrene is a lot less expensive in the US than it is in Europe and there are many, many other material options available.

I would be surprised if a production factory was actually set up in the US. The USMCA means printing the sprues in Mexico and boxing them in the US would count as Made in America.

[Mostwanted]

I wonder what they are going to do with an exhibition area like the Nottingham WHW has (assuming they are going to have one). Obviously the Eavy Metal studio are Nottingham based, so i can't see the US WHW having the studio models based there as it will take away from Nottingham. I also highly doubt they will paint double the models to have them in both locations as this would instantly double their workload and from what i hear, their schedule is tight as is.

 

I could see large dioramas being done and painted by the army painters, but not a lot else. Maybe some of the old smaller dioramas that people like Mike McVey used to do, being switched out between the two locations, but the possibility of these being damaged in transit could be seen as too much of a risk.

[calgar101]

4 minutes ago, Mostwanted said:

I wonder what they are going to do with an exhibition area like the Nottingham WHW has (assuming they are going to have one). Obviously the Eavy Metal studio are Nottingham based, so i can't see the US WHW having the studio models based there as it will take away from Nottingham. I also highly doubt they will paint double the models to have them in both locations as this would instantly double their workload and from what i hear, their schedule is tight as is.

 

I could see large dioramas being done and painted by the army painters, but not a lot else. Maybe some of the old smaller dioramas that people like Mike McVey used to do, being switched out between the two locations, but the possibility of these being damaged in transit could be seen as too much of a risk.

Could have dioramas made by staff from US stores possibly? Or if they have any unused ones in storage at WW Nottingham, they may ship them over?

I don't see them having two of the same however and doing copies in both locations. 

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I live in the WV panhandle and my job is in the government contracting Mecca called Fairfax County.  I can get to anywhere in the greater DC metro area in 90 minutes or less.

 

I've seen the old battle bunker spot in Glenn Burnie mentioned some here and elsewhere, and I don't think that's going to be the location.  The coastal stretches of Maryland are too crowded in both population and traffic to make access easy.  Try driving on the Balitmore-Washington Parkway and you'll be pulling your hair out.  Baltimore itself hasn't been the murder capital of the country in a few years (I think...St Louis holds the crown right now?), but it's still up there.  Not exactly conducive to attracting hobby tourists.

 

But NOVA?  Fairfax County is primed for this.  It's one of the wealthiest areas in the country, and that stretch from the DC line down the I-95 corridor to Richmond is rich in wargamers.  This entire area, you have to remember, is where 90% of the major battles of the US Civil War happened.  Gettysburg is slightly farther afield, but I can get to Antietam in about 25 minutes from my house.  Manassas (aka Bull Run), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville -- you can't throw a rock without hitting a road sign directing you to one battlefield or another.  I don't know if it's causation or correlation, but there's loads of gaming that happens around here.  When I lived in Daytona Beach, FL I had to drive 45 minutes into Orlando to find a game store.  Here, I'm literally spoiled for choice.  Martinsburg, Fredricksburg, Alexandria, Ashburn, Richmond, Hagerstown (two there), College Park, Winchester (there's a GW store there), and even down to Harrisonburg, VA.  That's just off the top of my head, and not even mentioning any place in Pennsylvania!  And the idea that there's no crossover between historical gamers and 40K players doesn't hold true, at least around here.  My point is, NOVA is a good choice for attracting business.  It's wealthy, it's heavily populated enough, the DC metro lines run out to places like Fall's Church and Reston, and the saturation point of potential customers (i.e., gamers) will definitely be hit.

 

 

[phandaal]

4 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

To be honest, with the downward direction of recent British media (the sad decline of the BBC etc) I actually think American influence would get Warhammer closer to its roots these days. Given GW apparently canned a reissue of the Liber Chaotica because it "didn't align with the company's current values" semi recently I can't see attempts to appeal to the Land of the Free making things any worse, anyway.

 

Edit: actually, my whole response is way off topic for this thread. 

 

 

Edited January 10 by phandaal
Hey, guys. Oh, Big Gulps, huh? All right. Well, see you later!

[Dark Shepherd]

2 hours ago, Mostwanted said:

I wonder what they are going to do with an exhibition area like the Nottingham WHW has (assuming they are going to have one). Obviously the Eavy Metal studio are Nottingham based, so i can't see the US WHW having the studio models based there as it will take away from Nottingham. I also highly doubt they will paint double the models to have them in both locations as this would instantly double their workload and from what i hear, their schedule is tight as is.

 

I could see large dioramas being done and painted by the army painters, but not a lot else. Maybe some of the old smaller dioramas that people like Mike McVey used to do, being switched out between the two locations, but the possibility of these being damaged in transit could be seen as too much of a risk.

Theres probably a lot of people whod love to enter a competition to have their diorama displayed there or similar painting showcases

[dalmer]

To those that have given more details after my "Glen Burnie" post... thank you so much!  I'm in Washington state, have no clue about the area and was kind of just goofing on what silly nostalgia I could recall from my early White Dwarf memories.

 

Sounds like y'all have a great understanding of the area, especially all the details provided in the NOVA postings.  Very well done!

 

I'm attending the GAMA expo in Kentucky this March... and have already been told it's moving to Baltimore for 2027.  Sounds like that's not a good move from what I've been reading. 

 

Anyhow, thanks for the information and have a great day!

[Felix Antipodes]

16 hours ago, calgar101 said:

Could have dioramas made by staff from US stores possibly? Or if they have any unused ones in storage at WW Nottingham, they may ship them over?

I don't see them having two of the same however and doing copies in both locations. 

 

I would be very surprised if they tried to recreate the dioramas in the UK WHW in the US version.  The smart business move would be to create a site similar but not quite identical so that the punters (i.e. us) have two potential visiting sites rather than a case of seen one, seen them both situation.

No doubt GW will have thought through all these scenarios.

[Malakithe]

I live in the US and definitely dont want to visit DC for any reason lol 

[MoriyaSchism]

20 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

Given GW apparently canned a reissue of the Liber Chaotica because it "didn't align with the company's current values" semi recently I can't see attempts to appeal to the Land of the Free making things any worse, anyway.

I didn't know that. That's quite disappointing.

[Joe]

8 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

I didn't know that. That's quite disappointing.

 

I'm pretty certain that whole thing started out as 4chan meme-ry. It's rubbish, basically.

 

Always worth double-checking where / who is saying something, as the number of bad faith participants in the broader Warhammer community is pretty bad these days.

[Marshal Rohr]

8 hours ago, Malakithe said:

I live in the US and definitely dont want to visit DC for any reason lol 

There’s no way they can afford to put it in DC. The literal military-industrial complex puts their offices outside DC.