Demonworld is a tabletop wargame originally created by Hobby Products, a German gaming company. The game went out of production for several years but has recently been purchased and re-released by Ral Partha Europe, as announced on 8 June 2011.
The game is a fantasy wargame making use of 15mm metal miniatures. The races included in the game world, each of which has a line of miniatures to represent it, includes an assortment of standard fantasy races: humans (who are represented by two factions, the feudal Empire and the barbarian Thain), elves, dwarves, dark elves, orcs, and goblins, as well a faction unique to the game, the Icelords of Isthak (made up of ice witches, ice demons, and boar-like beastmen). Each race has its own troops, war machines, heroes, wizards, and "behemoths" -- large creatures such as humanoid giants, giant spiders with war howdahs on their backs (goblins), dragon riders (humans, elves), and so on.
The game was originally introduced in 1999 by Hobby Products GmbH, but went out of print after several years mostly due to large problems with Hobby Products' restocking policy, despite the popularity of the miniatures. The line was eventually acquired by Ral Partha Europe, which has re-released the entire miniatures line, along with some new miniatures (lizardmen). As of 2014, Fasa Games Inc. has a third edition of the miniatures game in production, as well as a table-top RPG which will expand the setting to a much more personal, character-based experience.
Demonworld is a wargame designed to be played as a tabletop wargame using "armies" of 15mm scale miniatures. The miniatures used in the game, which were all originally sculpted by a single sculptor, Werner Klocke, are actually slightly larger than 15mm for a typical human—around 18mm tall—and therefore resemble a "heroic 15mm" scale similar to the "heroic 25mm" scale used for other noted fantasy wargames.
In the original game, miniatures are organized into units, with several miniatures typically mounted on a single hexagonal base. Either four or five ordinary infantry figures are mounted on a single base; two ordinary cavalry miniatures; one large cavalry miniature, hero or wizard, or other special figure in some cases. Many "behemoth" miniatures, which represent huge war beasts or monsters, are mounted singly on several bases joined together to form a single larger base.
"Armies" are chosen by the players based on a points value system. The army list books published for the game include data cards with points values and statistics for the miniatures used in the game, as well as simple formulas which show what proportion of troops should be included in the "armies". This is designed to create more verisimilitude as well as better balanced "armies" with a fair number of ordinary troops, rather than "armies" made up entirely of extremely powerful special troops.