Wednesday 7 January 2015

WHFB coming to an End!

Weee I can make a shock jock headline too...

But in all seriousness. Darnok, via his network of rumour informing "birdy's" has made a rather brash thread over at Warseer about the impending doom of Warhammer Fantasy as we know it. And its all the rage to talk about it atm.

All I can say is about time, and don't you dear touch my game!

You can have a read of the impeding doom to our game here

The End of times has been lauded as a much needed refresher to what some have said is a stagnant system. My thoughts are somewhat different, feeling that 8th edition is one of the best renditions of WHFB that has been released to date. I am not alone here.

I for one am not drinking the cool aid. Well, lets be honest, I have sipped it a little.

For the last few editions of Warhammer, the usual suspects have called a complete destruction of the game and refresh. From complete new rules sets to scraping of army books and a combined bestiary, its all been floated. Whether it was wish listing or trolling only they will know, but this time there appears to be some truth to the hype.

Over the past few months GW has released the End of Times series on the unsuspecting masses, and it has been well received to say the least. In a large shift from historical release cycles, Warhammer has entered into an all encompassing timeline shift injecting a lot of refreshing advances to the scope of the game. A Game of Thrones style axe has been taken to the character setting and a slew of new ones introduced, and a large investment has been made in expanding the model range...

So it dosn't make sense where Darnok's birdys talk of a huge model consolidation? Or does it...

As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Just as 6 months ago talk was of all army books being made invalid, and 4 or 5 combined beastary books being made. Reality, EoT campaign set introducing new ways of running combined armies and nothing being invalidated. GW is a business, and business does not throw out everything to start again when it has millions invested in the current system.

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Predictions:

9th edition is coming. With 9th edition there will be changes. As far as the rules set goes, there will be nothing drastic. It will be a revised 8th edition rule set, with some new things introduced and tightened up, just like 40k 7th edition was to 6th. That formula has been proven to work, and GW are not going to throw the book out with that.

As far as the armies go, there will be change, but nothing so jaw dropping drastic as to alienate the fanbase, well not entirely. We will see a consolidation of books, just like has been eluded to with end of times. This however, will not be to reduce the scope and scale of the game like some "trolls" have been calling, but more a way to increase and add variation to the stage. Introducing: Warhammer allies. Combined books (such as "Undead" and "Elves) will allow players to field either pure armies or allied forces. That has been obvious for a while (40k ally matrix would not entirely work in WHFB).

The timeline will be advanced, as a way to introduce new units, scenarios, characters and expand the range. Games Workshop is a business and they want to sell models. The caviet is, if your favorite unit is not in plastic, its either getting updated or its gone. This has been true for years now (think the great metal exodus, or failcastgate).

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I for one am looking forward to 9th. The introduction of an allied matrix to allow me to field a greater variety of models will be welcomed by me. New models, new rules, new characters, new stories/fluff...

My only wish is that the new ruleset will be very tight and balanced... now that is just wishlisting...

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