Lords Of War Games & Hobbies Hit With Cease And Desist For Their Parody T-Shirts Referencing Warhammer 40K

Games Workshop has once again demonstrated its hostility toward its own fanbase by targeting Lords of War Games & Hobbies, a popular YouTube channel run by hobby store owners Chris and Jay, with a cease and desist order. This latest attack on content creators follows the company's established pattern of using legal intimidation to silence fans and small businesses that dare to engage with their intellectual property.

The cease and desist specifically targets what appears to be merchandise sales through the creators' Etsy store in a grouping of several content creators who have come under attack, with Games Workshop claiming trademark infringement over items that promote the Warhammer hobby. As Chris and Jay mocked in their video response, "So, Jay, I'm going to need you to cease and desist all operations of I see you have this little, what is this little Etsy store, where you think you think you could just make little Eldar t-shirts and sell them?"

When Jay protested that he was simply "promoting the hobby," they then mocked Games Workshop again: "It's against the law, dude. It's against the law, J. That's what's wrong with it."

This attack on Lords of War Games & Hobbies represents yet another example of Games Workshop's scorched-earth approach to intellectual property enforcement. The company has been notoriously aggressive about attacking their critics and fans through legal intimidation, treating anyone who engages with their universe as a potential threat rather than a valuable community member.

As previously reported, Games Workshop has targeted numerous content creators and small businesses with similar legal actions. The MechWarrior YouTuber NoGutsNoGalaxy was recently sued by the company over use of the term "Warhammer," despite the word having no connection to Games Workshop's specific intellectual property. The company has also gone after Fandom Pulse twice – once for YouTube commentary about the Space Marine 2 game and again over a space marine-themed graphic novel, despite having no legitimate trademark claims in either case.

This pattern reveals Games Workshop's strategy of harassment first and legal justification later. As also noted in previous coverage, "Both of these were resolved fairly easily as Games Workshop has no basis, but it's clear that their pattern is to harass with lawfare first and ask questions later to try to maintain a death grip on their genre."

The Lords of War Games & Hobbies situation appears to follow this same playbook. Rather than working with content creators who are actively promoting their products and building community engagement, Games Workshop chooses to attack them through legal intimidation. This approach treats passionate fans as enemies rather than assets.

What makes this frustrating is that channels like Lords of War Games & Hobbies provide exactly the kind of grassroots promotion that Games Workshop should be encouraging. Chris and Jay operate an actual game store and create content that introduces new players to the hobby while supporting existing fans. Their enthusiasm for the games and genuine community engagement represent the kind of organic marketing that money can't buy.

Instead of recognizing this value, Games Workshop has chosen to treat them as threats to be eliminated. This hostile approach toward their own community has become a defining characteristic of the company's relationship with fans, driving away the very people who should be their strongest advocates.

It’s been a pattern in Warhammer 40,000 for hobbyists to get hit with this kind of treatment, despite the company increasingly asking more and more to fund the new purchases of armies and the like. Even the channel Archcast was hit for having Warhammer in his original name, something he bowed to and changed his name to combat.

Until fans push back against Games Workshop for this kind of behavior en masse, it’s unlikely to ever stop.

What do you think of Games Workshop threatening Lords Of War Games & Hobbies with a lawsuit? Leave a comment and let us know.

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