As I was digging into just last week, the new US tariffs stand to have a devastating impact on the tabletop gaming industry specifically—so it feels particularly appropriate that the UK's Channel 4 News has found a way to explain the situation using Warhammer models.
The TikTok video (below) helps to illustrate, via placing Space Marines and Death Guard miniatures on a map, how the new tariffs could affect UK businesses. It's a great visualisation of how even a business like Games Workshop—which produces its products in the UK and has a large domestic customer base—is likely to still end up suffering both at home and abroad.
@c4news ♬ original sound - Channel 4 News
Is it deliberate that UK sales are represented by the bold and courageous servants of the Emperor, and US sales by the grotesque, demon-worshipping servants of Nurgle? I couldn't comment—but either way the example helps get the point across.
The basic principle is that almost no matter what you're manufacturing or where, chances are you're selling a big chunk of it to the US right now. Any tariff on imports there is going to hit you across your business, not just there—and affect prices in all territories. Even the relatively low 10% tariff on the UK is likely to hit companies hard, and they'll pass the costs on to customers as much as they can.
Apply that same basic reality to places that have been hit with much higher tariffs—such as the EU (20%) and Japan (24%)—and the effect will be much stronger.
What I want to know, though, is who's the crafty crew member who managed to get the Kill Team Starter Set on expenses for this video? And did they manage to sneakily take it home afterwards? I hope they're enjoying a bit of hyper-violent skirmish combat in the grim darkness of the far future right now—it's a lot more fun than tracking the truly grimdark details of the oncoming trade war.
