WFB 9th Edition Rumor Roundup

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

I've been playing Warhammer for decades. I'm yet to find a GW game to be 'meh' or worse, I've enjoyed them all.

I honestly have no reason to believe they'd fluff it now.

Let's go back to what Mikhail told us... GW Rep allegedly saying this edition is aimed at recruiting, without alienating existing players.

The long set of rumours about 'Regalia' have numerous holes which I'm not willing to put down to the language barrier. The game described just doesn't make sense, as it doesnt seem to allow for artillery or big honking monsters - and we've had it all but confirmed that no units are being removed from the game.

Now has Mikhail been 100% accurate in the past? Nope, but then no rumour monger has. Hell, 6th Ed Orcs and Goblins put Gobbos up by a point. I said this wasn't right, as I'd had my hands on the play test Army Book at the time, and they'd not gone up a jot. Turns out that changed quite late on. Did that make my info wrong? No, just out of date.

But here Mikhail has a decent track record, and has pointed to his source. The long one? Yeah not so much.

[Houghten]

The Warhammer world is gone. Any chance for them to have me as interested as I am in Star Wars is gone with their willingness to obliterate 30 years of a game's history.

The history isn't obliterated. All of it still happened. The latest event in said history just happens to be the re-creation from scratch of the entire universe. It's not like Storm of Chaos where they just went "yeah, actually, ignore all that."

Hell, 6th Ed Orcs and Goblins put Gobbos up by a point. I said this wasn't right, as I'd had my hands on the play test Army Book at the time, and they'd not gone up a jot. Turns out that changed quite late on. Did that make my info wrong? No, just out of date.

I'm not sure how "out of date" qualifies as "not wrong."

[Mr Mystery]

Source was legit. Page set play test copy of the Codex. When I was giving the info, it was accurate. By the time the final product was out, inaccurate.

In short, it was correct at the time of 'going to press' rather than pulled out of my arse, or the result of Chinese whispers,

[Erik Setzer]

I've been playing Warhammer for decades. I'm yet to find a GW game to be 'meh' or worse, I've enjoyed them all.

Well, Epic 40K was so "meh" - at best - that it heralded the end of what had for a long time been GW's 3rd "top" game.

While I enjoyed GorkaMorka (because I'm an Ork player), it wasn't that popular overall, and even I have to admit some of the background was so bad it seemed like it was written by a child.

Warmaster was also regarded with such lack of enthusiasm that it had possibly the shortest shelf life of any non-boardgame in GW's range.

You might be super-enthusiastic about anything GW produces, but especially by now, you're in the minority. True devotees to any company are really in the minority. You're a useful commodity to the company, because you'll buy whatever they produce and tell everyone it's better than anything anyone else produces. But your enthusiasm and eagerness to declare it all gold doesn't make it actual gold or mean that enough people will like it to keep it running.

[Mr Mystery]

Played Warmahordes - wasn't to my tastes.

I'm mental for X-Wing.

Put off by Armada because the models I saw weren't nice enough for the money being asked.

I also dabble in MTG.

So it's not a Fanboi thing.

And am I in a minority? Who knows. Local gaming circle (which is extensive) is still comprised 100% of GW players who happen to dabble in other games - and that includes our local 'anything goes' club.

Which reminds me. I think I've got a Mechanicus v Mechanicus game on Thursday. Should probs check.

[Erik Setzer]

The history isn't obliterated. All of it still happened. The latest event in said history just happens to be the re-creation from scratch of the entire universe. It's not like Storm of Chaos where they just went "yeah, actually, ignore all that."

It might have "happened," but it's not going to be referenced in the new books, which will likely treat the old world as if it was some completely different setting (and it basically is now). So yes, they're basically going to say "Ignore all that, because it's gone now." They made the old version of the Warhammer setting irrelevant. It's not the current setting, it's almost certainly not going to be referenced. It's gone.

This new game is a new setting, and so far it sounds like the only thing making it seem like Warhammer is the races will look the same at first (and if all those claims of wanting to make things more copyrightable are true, then they'll have to all be morphed into unrecognizable messes).

[Erik Setzer]

Played Warmahordes - wasn't to my tastes.

I'm mental for X-Wing.

Put off by Armada because the models I saw weren't nice enough for the money being asked.

I also dabble in MTG.

So it's not a Fanboi thing.

And am I in a minority? Who knows. Local gaming circle (which is extensive) is still comprised 100% of GW players who happen to dabble in other games - and that includes our local 'anything goes' club.

Which reminds me. I think I've got a Mechanicus v Mechanicus game on Thursday. Should probs check.

You can be into other stuff and still be a "fanboi" (and I'm sorry, but you should be slapped for that spelling, even if it's "ironic"). I was at one point a "fanboy" of Star Wars but still into other sci-fi. Loved Babylon 5, but I'd still get every Star Wars comic and novel I could.

You use anecdotal evidence from your location? Okay, fair enough, I'll do the same. Locally, the GW store is starting to bleed customers because the company's attitudes are so atrocious that the manager's own great attitude can't override that, and the style the games are going in has caused the people playing there to become WAAC players. That's led to people leaving the store to go find somewhere else where they can play other games.

X-Wing, Armada, Bolt Action, and Warmachine are all gaining even more players, and already had solid followings. (Also Flames of War, I believe.) In many cases, people are ditching GW almost entirely because the models are getting prohibitively expensive (especially as you need so many of them), WFB's just been killed to be replaced by who-knows-what, 40K is becoming increasingly broken (and especially if you include the BS web bundle formations, the latest of which was basically "give us a bunch of money and we'll let you ignore all the rules meant to balance things"), and the company's attitude toward FGLS's is toxic because they know people who play at an FLGS and buy from one will be exposed to competing products, and if you can't be arsed to use competitive business practices, it's better to pretend there's no competition.

There's a guy locally who pushed people hard to get into WFB. Sung its praises, talked it up over 40K, said how it was basically the best game out there. Rumors about AoS have him ready to quit entirely.

So, yeah. A lot of people aren't going to just say "Hey, GW is putting out something new, it's going to be awesome and the best thing ever and I'm going to give them my money ASAP!" Especially as they earned the cynicism.

Oh, and with Armada, you clearly saw bad ships. I've got the main set, I've bought some of the Rebel ships to expand, I've seen others (because people are snatching up fleets to play... heck, the guy who just won a 40K tourney at a convention last weekend was in a store yesterday to pick up some Armada stuff, and the GW store's Facebook chat devolved briefly to Armada chat before the manager asked them to stop), and the ships are pretty nice. Given that they're pre-assembled, prepainted (to a solid degree), and contain all the rules and counters needed to expand your fleet properly, the price is definitely not a problem. Especially when a Rhino or Drop Pod costs the same as a VSD, and then you have to assemble and paint it, and buy another book to have the rules.

[Path Walker]

It might have "happened," but it's not going to be referenced in the new books, which will likely treat the old world as if it was some completely different setting (and it basically is now). So yes, they're basically going to say "Ignore all that, because it's gone now." They made the old version of the Warhammer setting irrelevant. It's not the current setting, it's almost certainly not going to be referenced. It's gone.

This new game is a new setting, and so far it sounds like the only thing making it seem like Warhammer is the races will look the same at first (and if all those claims of wanting to make things more copyrightable are true, then they'll have to all be morphed into unrecognizable messes).

According to what? The game is called Age of Sigmar and you're saying it will have no links to the Old World? The only fluff people actually know is that its built on the memory of the survivors of the End Times, its going to be the Warhammer world.

You're a moron, this is a well established fact but that is the most moronic thing you've said in this thread so far.

[Path Walker]

And, to add to the anecdotal eveidence fest - Armada has failed to be taken up locally, the (NS)FLGS hasn't sold a single starter set, ships aren't selling at all and X Wing is tailing off too, shops bought in loads of stock expecting to sell out fast again only to be stuck with a load of ships now.

STAW died, as did D&DAW, Armada looks to be going that way in the UK too from what I've heard from others.

Your opinions on GWs buiness model are increasingly looking like bitter ravings Erik, with no basis in fact, complaining about "pay to win" mechanics while ignoring those of X Wing and Armada for example

[odinsgrandson]

And am I in a minority? Who knows. Local gaming circle (which is extensive) is still comprised 100% of GW players who happen to dabble in other games - and that includes our local 'anything goes' club.

I find that interesting. I guess local metas can look very different.

I used to see other miniatures games only played by people who also play 40k- so we were all GW players who dabbled in other games. Then later, the miniatures gamers didn't necessarily play 40k, but they all had gotten started with 40k (and many had attitude about GW- but that was true when we only played GW games).

But now, I know a lot of people who play miniatures games regularly, have huge armies painted up, and haven't ever played GW's games, and one or two that have huge Warmahordes forces and dabble in GW's games (like a box set or two). And a bigger issue is that I haven't seen a younger crowd get into GW games around here at all (I got my first Eldar when I was ten).

I'm sure that this colors the way that I read tabletop news and GW's financial reports. I see what is going on locally, and ascribe those reasons to what is going on all over. But the world is always more complex than one picture of it.


As for my part, I still think that Blood Bowl is the best thing that GW ever made by a good margin, but you'd hear that from any Blood Bowl player.