2010 is the year of the New Edition

[Herald of Nurgle]

Chaos Dwarves vs. Ogres or die, plx?

On a more serious note, I can see the point of having Chaos vs. Brets/Empire, but something tells me Empire is more likely. Empire provides a player with a variety of stuff instead of just the Knight Rush, making it a far better set. I can also see perhaps some sort of gimmicky 'Second Wave' Chaos unit - such as Forsaken, or FB Spawn - released much as Nobz were for Black Reach. That would be awesome - the rising alongside the fallen.

On the other hand, why not Beasts of Chaos vs. Wood Elves or something? Both not included in a starter set before, narrative enemies much like Dwarves/Goblins, and at least ONE of them is likely to have an army book before new edition hits if the WD spoiler is to be trusted. Both ranges could use the sales growth as well, right?

[Brass Scorpion]

Remember, it's a starter set and the idea is to keep it simple, both the model assembly and playing the game to start with.

As for anyone who just bought a rule book, you'll still get a good 9 months of use out of it at least, maybe more, even if they do a new rules revision next year.

Finally, regarding the suggestion speculating Daemons for the starter set, no, that's not going to happen, not ever, for the obvious reasons. Starter sets are marketed a lot to moms and dads and their kids, the models in the set can't be too scary, especially to the parents of kids totally new to the ideas behind fantasy gaming. That army is never going to be a starter army.

[wittdooley]

Finally, regarding the suggestion speculating Daemons for the starter set, no, that's not going to happen, not ever, for the obvious reasons. Starter sets are marketed a lot to moms and dads and their kids, the models in the set can't be too scary, especially to the parents of kids totally new to the ideas behind fantasy gaming. That army is never going to be a starter army.

And this is entirely why I could potentially see another starter box involving the Orcs & Gobbos.

[Brass Scorpion]

GW has never done the same armies twice in a row for Fantasy starter sets. Unlike 40K where Marines are the iconic "flagship" army of the game and are included in every boxed version of 40K, there is no single army with that status for Fantasy and no two consecutive Fantasy starter sets have ever had a consecutively repeated army in them. First was Elves and Goblins, then Bretonnians and Lizardmen, then Empire and Orcs, then Goblins and Dwarves. It's certainly not impossible, but I think to freshen up the next starter set you're going to see two totally different armies than what is in Skull Pass, and that means no Goblins till at least the next rotation after that. Frankly, I 'm surprised that Orcs and Goblins were in consecutive sets the one time they did it since the two are so closely related. Given how many of those large $175 US Orc and Goblin boxed armies they got stuck with right after the current version of WHFB was released, I would think they'd avoid "greenskins" entirely for a while to give the game a fresher face on the next release.

[Ejacobs]

I haven't played WFB since 1996, but I'm considering getting back into it. Nice simple starter armies with rules I can share with my kids, and wife if she'll listen, would be great!

My vote is for Empire vs Chaos. It is really very much in line with WAR and they are the iconic good guys vs bad guys for the setting. I know folks have their faves, but the Empire is the center of the world, and Chaos is its primary threat... though skaven might be a nice change, though I doubt that will happen since they are just releasing them now. Will they add skaven to the starter for 8th edition?

E

[wittdooley]

My vote is for Empire vs Chaos. It is really very much in line with WAR and they are the iconic good guys vs bad guys for the setting. I know folks have their faves, but the Empire is the center of the world, and Chaos is its primary threat...

E

See, this is what I'd lean heavily towards too, only I'd be a bit concerned that it didn't portray the fantasy aspect enough. It's not a huge deal to me, and I think this starter would be HUGELY successful, but I can't help but think they'd want to play up the fantasy aspect more.

Brass-- I hear where you're coming with the O&G. Makes perfect sense. I only suggest them because they seem the 'friendliest' of all the "bad" fantasy-themed armies.

[Brass Scorpion]

I hear where you're coming with the O&G. Makes perfect sense. I only suggest them because they seem the 'friendliest' of all the "bad" fantasy-themed armies.

You certainly have a point and that's probably why they have made so many appearances in starter sets. Even people with no familiarity with myths, legends or fantasy games have probably heard of orcs and goblins or at least can grasp the idea quickly when seeing the models.

Anyway, this is all just fun speculation, but given the fact that one does not see a lot of Goblin or Dwarf armies out there right now is a good sign that whatever they do for the next WHFB starter set it really needs to be different than what's in the Skull Pass set now.

[Lord Azaghul]

Anyway, this is all just fun speculation, but given the fact that one does not see a lot of Goblin or Dwarf armies out there right now is a good sign that whatever they do for the next WHFB starter set it really needs to be different than what's in the Skull Pass set now.

SInce I love and play both armies I have to defend them briefly:

I don't think you see either army alot right now is more because they aren't very competative.
O&G is so self handicapping - especially in 7th ed. And Dwarves can't kill any thing in CC, and the newer books have really nerfed shooting, while increasing offensive magic, making dwarves less and less viable.

That being said, I think it would be, as more often then not, one human race and one non-human race.

[Yhcrana]

I am in the process of starting up my own gaming store and I therefore am privy to information that the general public cannot get.

For example I have the list for the top 200 selling gw products.

For warhammer fantasy the armies that sell the most products are empire, orcs & goblins, high elves and vampire counts.

So it makes sense for gw to capitalise on these popular armies and promote them in starter sets.

I wouldn't be suprised if high elves make a return and they are versus orc & goblins. It still has the good vs. evil factor but is not too scary that parents won't buy it for their children. Also lotr movies have promoted elves and orcs a long way and there is more money in fantasy that lotr, so if that's what the child wants then gw can persuade them to go along the fantasy lines rather than lotr miniatures.

Promoting the top selling armies is what gw does, just look at space marines. My regional gw manager told me that space marines make up 40% of 40k sales and 40k is about 50% of total sales. Thus space marines make up for 20% of the total gw sales. No wonder they are promoted relentlessly and have new books and models coming out regularly, it is good business.

[Rhellion]

If I had to guess, I would say the new armies in the box would be Empire and Vampire Counts.