Visionaries - Bryan Ansell

Bryan Ansell is a British role-playing and war game designer. In 1985, he became Managing Director of Games Workshop, and bought Games Workshop from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.
​

This Picture Will Never Not Be a Thing of Beauty

 Bryan Ansell began his career by founding, and  designing for Asgard Miniatures (originally Bryan Ansell Miniatures Limited), as well as running the fanzine "Trollcrusher".
​
Games Workshop formed a partnership with Ansell in 1979 to found a new company called Citadel Miniatures to produce and manufacture 25mm scale historical and fantasy miniatures and games to be sold by Games Workshop., which led to  Ansell designing the now legendary first edition of  Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 1983, alongside Rick Priestley and Richard Halliwell. In 1985, Ansell was appointed the Managing Director of Games Workshop. Along with Rick Priestley, Alan and Michael Perry, Richard Halliwell, John Blanche, Jervis Johnson, and Alan Merrett, Ansell was responsible for the Warhammer (later Warhammer Fantasy Battle) boom of the mid-to-late 1980s.   By 1982-83 Games Workshop was depending on sales of Citadel miniatures and games to survive. Around this time Bryan bought out all of Steve Jackson's and Ian Livingstone's shares in Games Workshop and absorbed Games Workshop into Citadel. All the Games Workshop operations (including White Dwarf) were moved from London to the Newark / Nottingham area to become part of Citadel with very few of the original Games Workshop staff staying on. Steve and Ian went off to live in Spain for a while. The company expanded rapidly and in 1991 Bryan Ansell sold his shares to Tom Kirby to concentrate on building houses and having children, but retained the entire Games Workshop collection of painted miniatures and artwork as well as rights and moulds for many of the ranges of miniatures which he now sells through his company Wargames Foundry.

Read More