WFB 9th Edition Rumor Roundup

[Punch Kick Punch Kick]

I, for one, fully agree with Eric.

Also, as a personal note, my group has rarely come up with narrative stories for battles. We play way too often ot try to justify every single fight. Most times, if we cared to, it was as simple as "We saw one another and said "**** those guys!"" Hell, Dwarves are super easy to justify cause they literally have an army rule for how much of a reason the army has to be there to fight the enemy.

And this is coming from a group that is hugely role-play and narrative oriented.

[WyattAyars]

I have been playing 40K but I think I will wait to start fantasy until after the change

[Erik Setzer]

There's a mix of people in the group I play with. Some just want to line up and go at it (and bring the nastiest army they can think of), some want to play scenarios and make up a reason for why something's happening. I remember one game, my opponent and I rearranged the table to put the four hill corners together to create a big hill that the Imperial Guard (actually "separatists") set up on, and I assaulted them with a Space Marine army designed for a quick hard strike to "punish" them. It was appropriately called the Massacre at [Something] Hill... poor Guardsmen ended up with a Knight stomping through the middle of platoons squishing everyone. We even come up with reasons for why the terrain is what it is (like when we play 40K on a Warhammer-themed board, or fighting over a farm in WFB).

[grimmas]

That's a fair point Erik. Though I'd say that the beauty of 40K is that it's background and setting perfectly explains why any 2 factors would be fighting and the whole narrative is there already, where as in WFB an extra narrative needs to be explained just to justify the battle.

I won't argue against the IP/Copyright issue I think you're on to something. But any IP doesn need to be good and lend itself to creating the game situations rather than just being unique. For example if you think back to 1st Ed the Slann were pushed as the fantasy "baddy" race and featured in the beginner game, however they were soon replaced by Orcs fairly quickly because that's what people like. So although I do agree with your point I think GW needs to be a bit careful to avoid shooting themselves in the foot on that one

[silashand]

So, yeah, blow up the Warhammer world and redo the races to be easier to copyright so there's less competition for people's money (rather than do a better job with pricing and all).

Pricing (and 8th edition IMO) is what drove people away from Warhammer. A complete rewrite so they can try and lock people into their overpriced miniatures is enough to make almost every remaining player I know dump GW altogether. I know I personally, and for the first time in 20+ years, have completely lost interest in GW's offerings based on the projected/rumoured changes. Sure, maybe 9th edition won't be bad in and of itself, but I seriously doubt it will be anything at all like the game I actually chose to play all those years ago. I will likely look over the rules once they come out, but frankly my interest is pretty much gone now. Between their prices and their idiocy GW have finally driven me out of the hobby.

On a positive note I did find out that I like Black Powder and was able to pick up a decent 100 Days British army for about $150 .

[HappyDad]

Pricing (and 8th edition IMO) is what drove people away from Warhammer.

This is absolutely the point which I don't think we are taking on board. We have been saying for years that GW would eventually price themselves out of the market place. It happened to me - price rise after price rise I stuck with it. For years I waited for new plastic dark elf warriors and witch elves to replace mine (amongst other models I looked forward to as well). Finally they arrived, with some quite nice new Executioners and Black Guard too, but at a price point that was just too far for me. Finally, and with horror, I realised that no matter what came out - I was priced out of the hobby. I just would not enjoy buying them when they cost that much. Since that point, I have only bought a few pots of paint from GW.

I imagine I am not alone here.

So now we hear Warhammer sales have crashed to the point that GW are calling it off.

I think the biggest reason for this is not because of the draw of WM/WH, X-Wing, or because people were bored with the Warhammer world and wanted the background to 'move on'. They just finally did it - they pushed themselves out of the market.

All those doomsayers were right.

[silashand]

I would have loved one of the new Bloodthirsters. But at $116 it was a non-starter before they even released the model no matter how nice it may have turned out. Maybe some addict will still buy them, but it won't be me...

[Mr Mystery]

Had a chat with my local manager, and seems that there's no leave for GW Staff for the April/May weekend.

Of course, couldn't/wouldn't say more, but I sugget we have wallets at the ready.

[Erik Setzer]

Had a chat with my local manager, and seems that there's no leave for GW Staff for the April/May weekend.

Of course, couldn't/wouldn't say more, but I sugget we have wallets at the ready.

Probably "couldn't" is accurate. Our local manager seems to be stuck relying on rumor websites most of the time to have an idea of what's coming up (or spotting new SKUs in the system). Which seems like a really poor way of handling things for GW.

If that's the time the new WFB drops, it'd be, well... kind of stupid. I know a few people who've already dropped some solid cash on the new cases they just released, and multiple folks wanting to build an AdMech army which will soak a good bit of money out of them. And then hot on the heels of that, a new edition of Warhammer? At that point they'll probably skip it and stick with 8th for a while, because they can't afford it after spending money on the cases and AdMech. And even just the hint of that release time frame makes me want to leave the cases alone for now, cements my decision not to jump on the AdMech bandwagon at this time (the walkers kind of killed my interest already, until I see a more reasonable armored unit), and has me feeling like I only want to pick up maybe an extra box or two for my Khorne army and otherwise not spend any money on GW stuff lest I'm stuck unable to get a key purchase.

At some point this secrecy is going to seriously backfire...

[Mr Mystery]

Meh.

I get paid monthly, so no big issue for me.

Though The Beast does need it's welding and links and exhaust doing so it can get back on the road....might be a month or two before I can hobby!