WFB 9th Edition Rumor Roundup

[Kirsten]

I can't see anything being dropped, why bother updating army books otherwise? a big shake up could be cool though, I wouldn't necessarily be against a background upheaval, or a change in model style for various armies. a change is as good as a rest.

[Bigred]

I've been doing some heavy rumormongering and data collection and wanted everyone to go back and carefully read this snippet from Harry from way back in January 2014. Now keep in mind all the stuff we have recently had released (End Times) when you read this.

Color me VERY intriuged...

via[URL="http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?386475-No-9th-Edition-in-2014&p=7037336&viewfull=1#post7037336"] Harry[/URL] 1-15-2014

The only reason we are expecting a new edition of Warhammer fantasy Battle is because that is what we have had every few years.

BUT I remember having a conversation with Jervis and Gav .... so this is gong back a few years ... where they stated that they wanted to get Warhammer to the point that it did not need updating/re-writing and they wanted to get all the army books completed in such a way that they were robust enough to survive changes to the rules so they did not need to keep re-writing them. The reason for doing this was to allow them to look at more interesting things to develop aspects of Warhammer they did not have time to do. We discussed the obvious things like Skirmish, Siege, but also fighting on boats, in tunnels/underground, exploring new areas of the map, etc.

Alright this was a few editions and many years ago but what if? What if they feel they have reached that point with 8th. Where a new edition isn't going to change very much. Where every army has a book. What if they decide NOT to do a new edition but stick with Warhammer 8th as it is ... consider this the finished product for a while. .... What would they explore next?

We already have "Storm of Magic" for 'Big magic, Big Monster' games.

Maybe they would look next at Skirmish? (Autumn Leaves seems convinced).

So no new BRB ... as rumoured. But a new starter set ... as rumoured.
Not needing full army books but where all the armies could be combined in less books ... as rumoured. Would certainly be the way to present warband options.

Mmmm.

I was still left with some of the other stuff I had heard about the timeline advancing and multiple books. (Will it be two, three or four books?)
A recent conversation prompted a new line of thought ....
and started to make a different kind of sense to me.

What if this was nothing to to with the next edition .... but a "what would they explore next?"
What if they decided to explore different area of the world or different periods of history? Source books for playing warhammer in different times and places.
Same game ... same rules set just changing the setting a bit ... bit like the Lustria stuff.

An excuse to explore some new special rules, introduce some new characters, new monsters, exploring some undiscovered corner of the world or some undescribed period of history ... currently little more than a dot on the map or a story in an army book. A chance to undertake some new modelling projects, sculpt some new minis.
One book might be 500 years ahead, one 500 years the past (or exploring some key point in recent history). One might be based in an area of the world which has not been detailed yet. (Like the Lustrian stuff).

This started to make some sort of sense to me ... but it was late at night.

What if? What if you a games Developer for Warhammer fantasy? What if you were told you didn't need to write an new edition or rewrite an army book? Where would you go next? What aspect of Warhammer would you like to explore?

Pretty sure I would start with skirmish as I love small games but after that ....

[Mr Mystery]

Sounds pretty damned accurate for me - hasn't mentioned or invented anything specific, but seems to be coming to pass for the most part.

[Erik Setzer]

Sounds pretty damned accurate for me - hasn't mentioned or invented anything specific, but seems to be coming to pass for the most part.

Most of it is just throwing out every different idea for where WFB could go. That one out of about fifteen ideas in there is close to what actually is happening shouldn't be surprising. It's the old "Throw enough at a wall and something will stick" idea, combined with the whole idea of Nostradamus' prophecies: You can make any prophecy fit your current situation.

There is no skirmish, no exploring multiple points in history, stuff like that. The *only* part of that series of comments that is "accurate" is this:

"I was still left with some of the other stuff I had heard about the timeline advancing and multiple books. (Will it be two, three or four books?)"

Of course, his other comments suggest he has no idea what direction those books would have taken.

Further, he talks about them wanting to reach a point where they wouldn't have to redo the army books, then goes right into talking about combining army lists into a handful of books... which is replacing the army books, so that's a contradiction within the same post. He also says they don't want to do a completely new edition, except 9th edition is already looking like it'll be different enough we'll need new books. And he keeps going back to Skirmish, which so far we haven't seen (and I'm not so sure 9th will go in that direction after they just released a VERY large character model worth 1000 points, three large character models worth 650 points, and some large monster infantry worth 80-90 points each... all of which wouldn't fit in so well with a skirmish game, but would fit in better with larger games).

Maybe he's said some other stuff that's accurate, but I wouldn't go cheering on that post from 1/15, because it's just throwing a lot out there, in the hopes that whatever happens, he covered that base with one of many ideas. Sadly for him, he kept running back to the same idea (Skirmish) and it's not close to happening. (Ditto the idea of skipping through time with books. Advancing the timeline, yes. But everyone knew they wanted to do that, and had with 40K already.)

[Mr Mystery]

But he's made it clear from the beginning it's hazy info - incomplete, and by no means set.

[Path Walker]

But he's made it clear from the beginning it's hazy info - incomplete, and by no means set.

Yeah, he's pretyt clear that he's wondering if the discussions about the future of WFB he had with JJ and Gav are going to pan out, rather than specifically talking about products that will be coming.

[Erik Setzer]

But he's made it clear from the beginning it's hazy info - incomplete, and by no means set.

Yeah, it's conjecture... and that means it's okay for it to not be accurate at all. It's just that it gets kind of crazy when people try to find some way to say that conjecture was spot-on when he's throwing out so much stuff that clearly *something* could fit into what we have. And it feels like the direction has changed, which isn't a surprise, as he's falling back on a discussion from "years ago" with Jervis and Gav (and Gav left GW around 2008).

I feel like if it was anyone else just throwing out random "What if?" scenarios, it wouldn't be tacked on as an actual rumor, because it's not. It's just a guy thinking out loud... and that's cool, it's always nice to imagine what the future might hold for us all. But regarding such things as actual rumors is how we've ended up with some of the more far-fetched stuff (that isn't happening) being regarded as actual talk of what's around the corner. We already have a gamer base that's frantic to get anything they can about WFB, this kind of stuff could get people expecting things that aren't even being suggested as actual "this is going to happen" stuff. (Apologies if that sentence seems a bit odd, I think you can get what I'm saying and my mind just went a bit "numb" mid-sentence. Side effect of prior concussions and thinking too much.)

[Wildeybeast]

I think he's entirely correct in that he had a conversation with Jervis a few years back that involved them speculating about fun possibilities. It may appear that many years on, they have started to see some of there dreams fulfilled. Harry clearly didn't have any ideas what was going to happen, and is just pointing out something that was said many moons ago may be actually happening, which is fair enough.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

Compare to Hastings recent missive - comes out of nowhere, claiming a rather cryptic post from the past was spot on all along....

[Erik Setzer]

Yup.

Compare to Hastings recent missive - comes out of nowhere, claiming a rather cryptic post from the past was spot on all along....

Yeah, that one felt like kind of a... questionable move (that's the nice way of putting it).

I don't mind speculation, just hope people remember that's what it is. I've gotten my hopes up and dashed with the random rumor-flinging as it is, I'm trying not to get too cynical. (Okay, more cynical than age and exposure to the news, the Internet, and the internal workings of politics have already left me. :-P)