WFB 9th Edition Rumor Roundup

[grimmas]

Obviously multiple formats can work... as they did it in the past, with Warhammer Skirmish and Warbands. Both were nice, but, like when they chopped Kill Team and Combat Patrol out of 40K to try to sell separate (from an already $85 set of rules), they nixed those options and never put them into the core book or updated them for use with later editions. Basically, their own greed and being out of touch with the customer base caused that issue, and now they're finally rectifying it. But it's weird to see so many people who think it's a new or novel concept. The aforementioned Skirmish and Warbands were, at earliest, 6th edition, so people have to be pretty new to the game to not know of their existence. Are there really that few of the "old guard" left? And if most of the customer base, which is shrinking too fast, is under 10 years of time with the games, that's not exactly a promising long term situation.

Anyway... My biggest issue with those rules is the different bases for different play styles thing. You have to be seriously out of touch with players and have very little to no players on staff to think that'd work. I get that some suit-wearing guy might say, "Oh, those games like Warmachine and Malifaux use round bases, so our small game version of Warhammer should use round bases, even though the game normally uses square bases." But anyone who really thinks about it will know people will go with square bases, because no one's going to stop them using those at skirmish level (especially given how many of us already have those set up), and it makes it easier to use the same models in larger games. And if someone at GW is thinking "Hey, they'll buy more models because they'll have to base them different!", they're an idiot, because that makes it more difficult for someone to step from the small scale up to the big scale. You want the skirmish level to be a way to draw people in cheap and hook them before they get gently prodded to the larger scale games. If you're making it impossible for them to use their armies in the larger scale games, you're making it less likely they'll bother to get a larger army.

Basically, I can't see different bases working for different scales, because it would make absolutely no sense, unless someone was having a complete mental lapse. I wouldn't even call that "greed," I'd just call it sheer stupidity and a sign the people making the decisions don't know anything about the products they're trying to sell.

I don't think we are going to see different types of bases, all will probably be that all new sets come with round bases. It's just going to be highly likely that it simply won't matter for the large scale game as its more than likely that units will be mounted on movement trays as they are now (correct movement trays are currently mandatory in the Warriors Code). From what we've heard it's shaping up that the 2 styles of play will look like LoTR and WoTR so round bases may be necessary for the skirmish (beginner?) game but either will be fine for the large scale game because the models will be on movement trays. This would allow the use of existing armies but I can't see them supplying both types. I'd be happy with this because the WoTR movement trays for round bases are much easier use.

[Houghten]

And how exactly do you take models on 25mm round bases and make them fit on the correct tray for 20mm square bases?

[Mr Mystery]

Erm....you don't? I guess.

Still needing to desalinate most of these rumours.

The one about the guy 'thinking of becoming a stockist'.....yeah. I'm not convinced (though I am known to be very cynical about rumours in general).

[Erik Setzer]

It all just feels so poorly thought-out. At best, if they release new stuff on round bases, it means all of us with existing armies then have to track down some square/rectangular bases, or some of our army doesn't look right with the rest. Smaller models on smaller bases right now don't really match well with the same models being on larger bases.

We don't have solid info, so can't say anything for certain. But right now, it feels like someone at GW who isn't a gamer and knows nothing of their customer bases mandated a change that is going to piss off a lot of people. But hey, at least Warhammer will finally be on the round bases of games like Warmachine and Malifaux, so it's worth it to make it a mess to update existing armies, right?

I'll probably just look for non-round bases for any of my existing armies when I expand them. I might be able to shift my Ogres to round bases, since I haven't started painting them, and they don't touch the base that much. But my Orcs, Empire, Elves, Skaven? Nope. Additions to those armies will be on square bases, even if I have to find a 3rd-party seller, and if someone doesn't want to play against that, they're free to find someone else to play against. I don't want my armies looking awful with a mix of bases.

[Dennis Harrison]

The base thing doesn't bother me too bad. I have daemons on squares which I probably should port over anyway, but I have a dwarf army and a high elf army mounted on standard sized square bases. But my plan isn't buying new bases as much as it is taking advantage of the tools I have available. My idea is popping over to a local spot with a laser cutter. You've seen all that laser cut terrain floating around, so I am just going to grab some thin stuff and burn out the correct sized bases. There is a little over hanging going square to round, so I'll be using my trusty clippers pop off a few corners. Thin wood or plastic is fairly cheap and the laser cutter can cut the exact disc every time. An alternate solution is find the right sized round washers and glue them together. I think having a slim metal washer under the models would be brilliant in terms of magnetic movement trays and add a little weight to some of these plastic models that feel very flimsy to pick up. Just make sure you have the correct outside diameter and you are good to go.

[grimmas]

And how exactly do you take models on 25mm round bases and make them fit on the correct tray for 20mm square bases?

Probably not going to happen the issue would probably be the other way round because if all infantry is going to be on 25mm round bases you'll need to put the 20mm squares on the round base trays to have correct spacing and they'd fit . That said one could quite easily add spacers to existing trays and leave a larger hole for adding a round based character.

It may or may not happen I just don't see any problem that can't be dealt with pretty easily.

Erik you may be right and it will look off but I think everything will look fairly square when using movement trays, it never seemed to matter with WoTR large monsters.

Edit:
Or just use plain flat movement trays people already do to deal with adding different based sized character models to units already
And making less types of bases will reduce GWs costs (less production runs) and I reckon they'll be fair keen on that.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

If I ever see or hear the term "squatted" again it'll be too soon.

I wonder, incidentally, how long they've been considering moving to round bases. A bunch of newer models aren't well suited for ranking up (Witch Elves come to mind) and will look much better in round-base units.

[Erik Setzer]

If I ever see or hear the term "squatted" again it'll be too soon.

I wonder, incidentally, how long they've been considering moving to round bases. A bunch of newer models aren't well suited for ranking up (Witch Elves come to mind) and will look much better in round-base units.

It's not a new phenomenon. I have the older plastic Clanrats, and I'm about to cut some freaking tails off in order to make them rank up better. The tails stick out behind them, their arms and heads also stick out a bit.

Reminds me of another issue with some of my existing armies, especially ones with larger units (i.e. Clanrats, Skeletons, Zombies): I have quite a few models set up on the old four-wide bases, which means they can't be used outside of a ranked up unit. Meh.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

No, it's always been a problem, certainly.

[Bigred]

On the other hand, the designers sometimes pull off insane interlocking poses that look dynamic individually yet somehow rank up.

I'm talking Dark Elves Corsairs here. I'm thinking the CAD sculptors voodoo sacrificed quite a few chickens to make that all work out.