Wizards of the Coast has announced that it will be discontinuing support for its Chainmail miniature game.  Instead it will create and sell miniatures tied to its D&D RPG beginning in 2003; the new rules will be backward-compatible with Chainmail.  The Chainmail Core Rulebook will be released as a download, and the Set 5 miniatures boosters are canceled.  Still planned for release in 2002 are the Kilsek faction box, the City of the Spider Queen box set, and Dragons I and II, Monsters II and III, and Heroes II and III box sets. 

 

WotC's attempt at a stand-alone miniature game was a failed effort to crack the category that's been dominated for many years by Games Workshop, and has recently been turbocharged by WizKids.  Chainmail was closer to Games Workshop than WizKids, with metal figures that required painting and a more conventional miniature rules system than WizKids'.  Chainmail's abandonment is a continuation of serial unsuccessful attempts to crack the miniatures market by the owners of the D&D brand begun while TSR was an independent company.