Embrace uncool Britannia: Warhammer is a barnstorming British success, so why the lack of recognition?

[u/Benjji22212]

https://thecritic.co.uk/embrace-uncool-britannia/

[u/Dewwyy]

This article seems entirely like a weak reheating of this unherd piece from April.

How to weaponise the BBC Britain needs to harness its soft power

In his 2021 essay “After Brexit, We Need an Iron Maiden Britain”, the writer Jeremy Driver posits the unfashionable, but undeniably successful, rock band as a model for a reformed British state: bombastically self-confident, freed from the tiresome restraints of good taste and unashamedly hungry for global success. In pursuit of soft power and prosperity, I would go even further: we need Warhammer Britain. The unfashionable, but wildly popular hobby is an underexploited national champion which a country like South Korea would long ago have swung behind in pursuit of soft power. More profitable than Google, worth more than Marks & Spencer, the Games Workshop company behind it has turned the Warhammer 40k intellectual property into a global phenomenon. It is remarkable, for example, that both sides in the Ukraine war have displayed a tendency to allude to Warhammer’s fictional universe, with Ukraine even fielding two units named after its fantasy factions: that is what soft power means. Warhammer’s lucrative gaming figurines are all made in Britain, with the company about to open its fourth factory, bucking national economic trends. During lockdown, the company didn’t claim any government subsidies despite shuttering its more than 500 shops: it’s so profitable it didn’t need to. Its characters are “ridiculous, over-the-top pastiches, created by people who were bored and angry” in a world where “hope has been extinguished for millennia” — and what could be more British than that?

[u/HisHolyMajesty2]

Venerate the Immortal Emperor.

That aside, one reason is proggies can’t stand the Imperium of Man which is the protagonist faction of the setting.

[u/Gladiator3003 → u/HisHolyMajesty2]

Well their side seems more akin to worshippers of Slaanesh at times…

[u/VioletDaeva → u/Gladiator3003]

More like Skaven in my opinion. Backstabbing one upmanship, tuning on their own with the slightest deviance.

[u/mcdowellag]

Based on the article, and a Kindle sample of one of the Warhammer books, I think that this is property is a valuable source of foreign currency and, a good thing because it gets people reading, but not a source of soft power. I haven't seen anything in Warhammer which even suggests a particular connection with the UK, as opposed to the US.

The American Science Fiction of Heinlein and his contemporaries is soft power, because much of it expounds the ideals of their founding fathers, or portrays attractive civilisations which share many features with the US. Warhammer is set in a dystopia which isn't so much a warning (like 1984 and Brave New World) as a dramatic background for action.

[u/Gladiator3003 → u/mcdowellag]

I think you might be overthinking it a bit when trying to contrast a fully recreational activity of miniature war gaming with one that is useful for both recreation and capable of educational and philosophical purposes such as reading. But, I’ll attempt to dive in and explain a bit. It’s a connection that’s more prevalent in the models than the books as far as I can tell. The Orks of Warhammer 40K borrow a lot of Cockney mannerisms whilst waging war, for example, and there’s a lot of subtle nods to British culture in a lot of the models; there’s this model which bizarrely features our cuisine, as well as a number of other areas that are subtly British within the models.

We’ve also had our own celebrities over the years love it, from the obvious suspect of Henry Cavill to lesser known suspects of Gary Oldman, Brian May and Ed Sheeran for our own homegrown celebrities. To say nothing of the Americans jumping in on it as well and endorsing it.

Plus we as a country love our miniature war gaming compared to a lot of other countries (H. G. Wells wrote the first miniature war gaming system and Peter Cushing enjoyed playing it as well as collecting other models), which is one of the reasons why the plastic crack has done so well here and why we’re beginning to export it abroad more and more.

[u/legodragon2005]

Probably because most people (myself included until I read this article) have never even heard of war hammer.

[u/BadBloodBear → u/legodragon2005]

Games Workshop who owns the IP is worth around 4 billion.

You can find a 134 stores inside the UK alone.

Space Marine 2 has sold over 4 million copies world wide.

The property could be bigger than Lord of the Rings if it continues along.

The current CEO is keeping the production in the UK and is increasing it.

[u/scud121 → u/BadBloodBear]

It's also just hit the FTSE 100 this Monday. It's worth more than EasyJet now, and the Amazon deal could be staggering.

[u/reuben_iv → u/legodragon2005]

article is asking why that is when it’s so successful, suggests we should be championing industries like it more

[u/Briefcased → u/legodragon2005]

I dunno, perhaps it is just the circles I move in - but I feel it is pretty pervasive in British culture. It has been going since the early 80s so I find even oldies generally know about it from their children/grand children.

[u/legodragon2005 → u/Briefcased]

Anecdotally I can't say I have ever really encountered war hammer before and haven't heard anything about it from friends. Maybe I'm just a bit of an old codger haha

[u/Briefcased → u/legodragon2005]

No worries - few items of pop culture achieve 100% penetration.

I’m not very clued up on warhammer (although I hear it’s great), but the more popular Sci-fi sister to it, warhammer 40K is incredible.

The level of world building they’ve put into it is probably unsurpassed.