Its almost over. The long wait to see what the new world will look like is just around the corner. This weekends White Dwarf will have some preamble to the upcoming Age of Sigmar release!
4th of July is going to go off with a big bang for WHFB fans
Looks to be an eulogy of sorts... good omen or bad portent...
So over the weekend we have seen the following crop up on a number of forums and blogs, claiming to be sourced from a North America 3rd party retailer/distributor “Good afternoon,
Games Workshop is launching the Age of Sigmar – a completely new system – on July 11th. You can start promoting the Age of Sigmar in your store today!
What is the Age of Sigmar?
The Age of Sigmar is a brand new system that continues the End Times story
This system is a great way for new customers to start collecting fantasy miniatures
Existing customers will be able to use their current miniature collections and add to them with the Age of Sigmar
It is a continuation of the story line, but not going back to the old world. 100% of the models available now will continue to be supported. The audience for this launch is not the dwindling number of Fantasy players, but for EVERYONE including the veterans but with the idea that this isn’t “just” 9th edition which will just loose them more players but a whole new mechanic to draw people in.
They are actually doing trade shows and cons this year to drive interest in the game.
This is a continuation of the story of End Times but NOT the old world. If a model is currently for sale by GW it will be usable in some way.
I don’t have confirmation of the horrible “reality bubbles” rumor, but he (HIS GW REP) is going to ask about it.
I’ll be getting significantly more info the week of the 29th, with the idea of doing a build up event the week of the 4th.” Up until now, I have been very reservist about blogging on the topic of 9th edition. There is just so much wild speculation and nonsense being spread, and more than one nay sayer preaching the ah, err, end of times. I have not wanted the hobby killers to destroy my buzz atm, only recently shaking off ETChammer (its not real Hammer!) and managing to buy, build and paint an entire army for my last (sad to say) 8th edition event. So what does this post all mean? Well at least, what does it mean to me... There are a few key catch phrases that jump to attention, but are still very ambiguous at best to the exact meaning. A completely new system! This is the one that has the biggest shock factor IMO. Most veterans where guessing that 9th would be an 8.5 of sorts, fine tuning 8th edition and ironing out some of the rough edges. Nobody who enjoyed playing the game has much though of a need for any radical over hall. But here we have it an apparent letter indicating exactly that. To the extent, the general fan base is none the wiser. It could mean the addition of a skirmish game to the system, or a complete re-write of the rules. I tend to lean towards additional layers to some degree. We have seen the two game system rule sets being pushed closer and closer together for a few editions now (more 40k getting written closer to the WHFB), and I find it hard to believe that GW would reinvent the wheel for one of its systems, which IMO would only make it more difficult to transition between the two systems. New customers! This is almost admitting they have an issue! The lifeblood of any game system is attracting new blood into the hobby. A generalization I have heard (and repeated) many times on observing the tournament scene (yes I know, a small proportion of the community) is that 40k is a younger crowd, or WHFB is a more mature crowd. Existing customers will be able to use their current miniature collections! Well only a fool would throw away the 10+ years of model development at a whim. As a company that prides itself in reminding us customers that it is a miniatures company, that makes some rules for fun, they where never going to get rid of their range wholesale in one large move. 100% of the models available now!Note, there is no suggestion they will be available indefinitely. I would hazard a guess to say if there is a model you want to own, plan on purchasing it sooner rather than later. Many sources have suggested WHFB will take on a new aesthetic and the old range will be discontinued in die time. The dwindling number of Fantasy players! Well this does not sound at all like GW corporate. Admission of inner workings? More likely the message is from a third party distributor that isnt directly under the umbrella of GW HQ. From this my assumption is the message is not GW authored, rather a distributor who has received a verbal memo distributing information to its client list unofficially. Trade shows and cons this year! This is big. Bigger than the other news IMO. GW have not attended 3rd party shows in a very long time. At the same time they have not held a regular tournament format in a very long time. One hopes one will follow the other. End Times but NOT the old world! Well we all should have figured this out by now. The planet WHFB was on had been destroyed, that realm is gone. A new (copy-writable) world will be created, continuing on from the old and including several of the old characters (maybe with new names?) will replace the existing. So the internet is a rage with the death knells of WHFB as we know it. But just to be devils advocate, the rage is coming from the existing crop of fans. Reading in between the lines we have heard a lot about how WHFB is not the money spinner GW wants it to be in its current guise. Maybe its time to look at the state of things and realise that the game we love is not attractive to new players, and it needs to change if it is to survive. Sure I have very little issue with the system, but that's not to say a potential new player does not. GW are taking a swing at trying to make the game a) attractive to a new clientele whilst b) maintaining its profitability. Without fresh blood WHFB will die, so us poor veterans, loyalists and all will need to adapt or die. Sad but true
It will be interesting to see how they achieve this whilst still trying to sell large volumes of product. If it was left to me I would do the following: Reduced pricing! The big attraction for me is large formations and grand scale. This is how I want the game to play. Reduced pricing makes this more affordable in its current state. More players buying large armies will increase their gross income by reducing the margin by a small degree. But the most important thing is the customer base will grow making it viable! Rules! Seriously nobody for a minute can disagree that rules do not sell models. And this is the problem. Most people given the option will want a fair, balanced, unambiguous and tight rule set that is simple to learn but provides a lot of depth. Its not difficult to put the resources into achieving this, and will produce a solid player base willing to invest in more war dollies! At the moment GW produces a new model and makes rules for them that are under-costed/broken to sell the model. This looses them customers in the long run for short term gain. Support! We customers want an engaging, regular and rapid game support. GW nail the customer support for the models part of their product, but neglect the all important rules section. The customer wants a clear answer to rules question in the game and not the complete absent narrative the company produces. Its not hard GW. And it looses you customers! Bloody hell there are people out there that will do it for free for you! Bring back official tournaments/games days/conventions/social media!Why don't you love us anymore GW! Engaging with your customer base is so simple these days. Sell out tournaments for your games only promotes your company. Attending conventions lets you reach potential customers that otherwise would not be engaged. Social media is a thing, and no matter how vial you may think it is, the effort is appreciated far more than total black out. Insular self promotion is not a good way to engage with the changing landscape. If you have managed to make it this far, sorry for the rant. Its over now, you don't need to read anymore. See you all in 9th.
Much is being lamented over Warhammer these past few months. We have not had a single release since the End of Times: Archaon was well received. It concluded the saga of the Warhammer world that we all have grown to know and love, ended. But is it permanent? Many times have Games Workshop run campaigns but never before have they been supported in such a manner. Multiple model releases, without question some of the best models for WHFB they have ever created, and 5 volumes in the end of everything that once was... That's a big investment to kill off a system.
Now if you where to believe the internet, its all over. Fantasy is dead. But is it really? I'm personally 2 weeks out from heading to a sold out 90 person tournament in Melbourne, Australia. You know, the place that has the most expensive GW products in the world. The world over tournaments are still filling up, and no doubt many epic battles are still being fought in garages across the globe. But I digress. There have been many rumours about the future of Warhammer. We have had many hints such as the former CEO stating that WHFB is not where he wants it to be (sales wise) yet these systems tend to wax and wane. There was even talk from some more reputable rumour mongers that shelving the whole lot was discussed. This all sounds very plausible, as any company worth its salt will look at all options, however unpalatable to them. One just has to look at the economics of it all. Its a well established fact that it cost a fair sum of money to create a mould for cast plastic models. Any manufacturer will need to recoup the cost in design, tooling, materials, marketing, logistics etc etc. However we have seen GW investing heavily in a whole range of models that are not only exclusive to WHFB (as opposed to cross over into other systems like Daemons), but also rather exclusive to a new faction of limited release army. So are they really limited release?
The evidence so far really paints a different picture. We see large monetary investment in the system. This in itself tells us that WHFB is not going anywhere. GW is at the end of the day a profit driven company, responsible to (and only to) its share holders to generate a return on investment. There is no obligation from them to do what a vocal minority want, nor is there any such thing as a social contract. This is business, not lala land. We also see a massive advancement in the story. This is uncharted territory from GW. Never before have the so radically "advanced" the story. This in itself signals a move to redevelop the brand "WHFB". And more recently, we have seen a move to round bases confirmed, although we can only guess as to the extent of the change. In the wider market place, none of this unusual. Companies redevelop their range of products all the time. Interestingly we also see GW re-branding, or reinvesting in its image. Let us not forget that WHFB circa 95, 05, and now 15 are all very different beasts.
So what to expect? Its very difficult to say. But know this, every single major system over-hall for both WHFB and 40k has been preceded by an (approximately) up to 3 month period of nothing. We have entered into the calm before the storm. All edition changes have traditionally had this period where no new releases or information is coming from that what we love and loath. In addition for the past 10 years new editions are launched in the region of June/July (5th, 6th & 7th edition 40k, 6th, 7th & 8th edition WHFB). So what do I think the future will hold?
An updated rule set that will incorporate the option to play smaller and larger scale battles. Smaller may be a skirmish/warband based game with simplified rules.
The introduction of round bases will quickly see the tournament scene adopting them as the standard.
New faction and/or allies matrix to introduce more flexibility in how you choose your army.
An evolved rule set based on 8th WHFB/7th 40k. It will be slightly simpler and a little bit tighter, but not much.
We all knew it was coming (unless you have been living under a rock that is), but this seems to be the first piece of concrete evidence indicating it as reality. Allies are here.
Now to be fair, WHFB 8th edition has always had the allowance to field allied contingents, however they have always been regarded as one of those 'back of the book' options that nobody chose to play. But with the advent of battlescrolls, itself a large shift in the structure of WHFB, it is spelt out. Could this be the end of the percentage based army selection? Will 9th usher in a new area structured closer to 40k. It is not hard to jump to conclusions based on the above limited information, but indeed Battlescrolls and battlesheets draw a lot of similarities to primary and secondary/allied detachments. Specific battlescrolls easily representing the equivalent of a special formation in 40k. At first glance, I can see a lot of advantages to this format, indeed putting further restrictions on overpowered units and even balancing them out by the requirement to field certain inefficient choices to take a formation. but then again, no doubt GW would throw in the 'unbound' battlescroll, or take whatever you like, ok I guess for friendly games (bring all your models!). Only Tzeentch knows, the next 6 months will be a rough ride for some...
By now most people would have read the rumours about four campaign books starting with Nagash, along with other morsels of information on potential upcoming releases for WHFB. But lets take a moment to reflect on the past year or so of rumours that we have heard. So I mooted a few days ago that I thought there would be another book in the series continuing on from Nagash, but based around Daemons. This made sense, as Nagash is being painted as the anti hero come to save the world from Chaos, of course only to bend it to his will instead! With my surmising that there would be more books, I suggested that the Plastic Greater Daemon models could be released with this next book based on Chaos. Unsurprisingly, a few rumour mongers started talking about this the following day. Now we have had several claims of knowledge of Greater Daemons, and some insisting they had seen them (or pictures) however wishful they might have been. Nothing concrete as of yet, but seeing them released soon would not surprise me. But lets look at the larger scale of things. This year we have had rumours of advancing the timeline: check, mass kill off of characters: check, multiple armies in on book: check, and the return of some old favorites: check. All sub themes in the new Nagash book! Way to many correlations to be coincidence? To be fair, there was a lot of scare mongering from the hysterical that 9th edition would wipe the slate clean, and all army books would be obsolete as 9th edition would herald in new army volumes encompassing multiple races. There is some truth there, but as it turns out, the order and scope of what was rumoured was, as it often is, put out of context. Things starting to fall into place...
So we currently are in the mist of rumours that summarize as the following: We are getting four books that each focus on multiple races that will advance the Warhammer timeline in a lead up to 9th edition. Sounds far more plausible yes? Now we don't need to look into our crystal balls to surmise that these campaign books will introduce us to new rules and concepts which might well be the norm in 9th edition. I personally am looking forward to the characters and monsters profiles being merged that we see in Nagash. We have had the prelude for this in the form of Monsterous Cavalry throughout 8th. I welcome any rules that will encourage/make viable fielding characters mounted on chariots and monsters in this cannon infested landscape. Is the proliferation of cannons in the current edition Games Workshops way of balancing the field when combined profiles are introduced (the complete opposite of what they did with fliers in 40k). Buts lets think back even further. Rick Priestly was rumoured to have quit over his want to advance the Warhammer timeline into an apocalypse error with his Warhammer Forge narrative series that stated with Tamurkhan - Throne of Chaos. We see several themes crossing over with the latest set of rumours. Rick was reported to want to "advance the timeline", kill off several special characters and produce a set of four (or eight) books detailing the end of times. Nurgle was to attack the empire in Tamurkham, Tzeentch was invading Lustria, Slannesh was getting stuck into Ulthuan, and Khornes hounds where at the gates of Naggaroth. Sounds all to familiar dosn't it. Was Rick really wanting to do all this, or was he against it? Was the rest of the series of the Warhammer Forge books canceled due to poor sales, or was the plot to expansive to be covered by Warhammer Forge, and the idea was transfered to the Games Workshop team? We never got a concrete answer out of Forge World, and the "lack of sales" theory is bogus. More likely (as has been suggested), the sales are fine, but just very small volumes compared to the money tree that is 30K! So we know Rick left, but never exactly why. There is always some truth in any rumour, so reading in between the lines I think it is more likely Rick may have left because his idea was taken off him, rather than turned down. I mean why would they produce the first timeline altering book and then decide not to change the timeline...
So, in conclusion, I think we will see the roughly following: Book 1: Nagash reunites the undead, fights Chaos in Kislev/Empire. Book 2: Details the Chaos forces, re-introducing combined Realm of Chaos armies Book 3: The invasion of Lustria! and Skavens part in the whole conflict. maybe some Brets here too. Book 4: Details the Elven forces fight, Dark Elves being invaded in the north and High Elves of Ulthuan.
A new development from Games Workshop this month is the release of a supplement codex for the new Eldar release
The above is a video of the supplement codex, which as you can see offers a lot of insight into what it offers. Not only is it larger than the standard codex (at 122 pages) but it also includes additional rules, wargear (magic items to you fantasy types), force organisation as well as over 60 pages of additional fluff for the Iyanden Craftworld. One must say the artwork is glorious!
This almost feels like a throwback to the old days of back of the book army lists, or White Dwarf specials. Its got me interested in what GW will do next.
Now besides the usual loud minority which are crying rip off (again) because they think they need to buy two books instead of one, it has not dawned on them yet that they don't 'have to' purchase it. Its an optional supplement, but I digress...
What can we expect from Games Workshop next, as I believe this supplement will be popular enough to warrant further. Will we see Space Marine supplement codex's for Chapters that have always been but fluff and a special character or two? Imperial Fists, Salamanders, Word Bearers, Thousand Sons? Will this be the treatment that Black Templar get, or will we infact see a supplement codex covering Imperial Fists, Black Templar and Crimson Fists? Speed freaks for Orks, or further Craftworlds represented? The possibilities are enormous! Following from that will we see Blood Angels and Space Wolfs getting the same treatment instead of the usual stand alone treatment? I mean it makes sense, as they are just marines with some extra special rules and modified force organisation.
Could this be the death of the standaong Space Puppies Codex?
Now the above is brainstorming on what we may see for 40k. But what about fantasy? The rumour on the ground is we will see Lizardmen next off the block (possibly in 2 months). Will they get a supplement codex? The Southlands come to mind, being separated from the main temples in the new world and having a distinctly different army composition made up of almost entirely skinks. Will GW revisit previous books? Supplement books for Nuln or Altdorf, or even a Kislev adaption? High Elves from the New World? Dark Elves that are based entirely from a Black Ark... Then theres the Skaven clans. Granted there are not as many obvious possibilities here but with the rumoured 9th edition getting a ravening hordes style list included the ability to have supplement books is increased. The Warhammer World is very rich in history and has great depth in narrative.
All I can say is watch this space, as although as mentioned the options in 40k are obvious, WHFB is not so, however GW have surprised us before...
