A love letter to the Old World

[Voltigeur]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I wanted to share this with you. It's part of a script for an upcoming Podcast but I thought it might resonate with a few of the folks here.

It's a love letter of sorts, a heartfelt ode to the setting that got me interested in miniature gaming in the first place. Now that Age of Sigmar is revealed and there was no last minute stay of execution I feel like it's the right time to share this. Here is my lover letter to the Old World.

I was nine years old when I met you. I remember distinctly when my best friend showed me the first miniature I had ever seen. A plastic Saurus warrior, how cool it looked. It alone was enough to peak my curiosity but then he told me about the Old World. A magical planet filled with wonder and horror. Similar enough to ours that I could picture it clearly, but distinct enough to fill my overactive imagination with endless adventures and stories, I was hooked.

Nine year old me was a skinny kid, an introvert through and through and not particularly popular. I had missed the first couple months at school that year as my legs stopped working properly and when I came back I needed a walker for months while my legs healed. The picture I'm trying to paint for you here is a kid that needed an escape. The old world provided it for me and I threw myself into its lore with the enthusiasm that only a child can muster. I learned as much as I could all the while saving up for the Warhammer fifth edition starter set. I had a little free magazine that Games Workshop had put out describing their various products and games. I would look over all ten or so pages of that magazine for hours on end. Heart all aflutter imagining the great times I would have once I could get my hand on some of these magical models.

I was visiting my grandparents in the country when I finally got my eager hands on the starter. I remember setting everything up on the kitchen table, my grandparents helping me put the models together. The first game I played was against my grandfather, I made him play as the Brettonians so that I could use the Lizardmen. That first game I'm sure was played with little understanding of the rules on my part, but I loved every second of it. Later on my grandparents helped me paint up my models. I have so many great memories of enlisting my grandparents to help with my new obsession. My grandmother went so far as to make a scale appropriate castle out of mdf board and pebbles so that I would have some place for my mini's to fight over. I don't know what happened to that castle but I still have a smaller tower that she made me out the same materials. I still think of her everytime I use it.

By age ten I had models for almost every army in the game, though I didn't have enough to field more than a few hundred points of any one. I simply could not stick with anyone army because I loved them all so much. I could however tell you any minutia of lore whether you wanted to know it or not. I was a terrible student in school but an honors student of the old world. The Black library books did more to turn me onto reading than any of my teachers. I was far too busy following the adventures of Gotrek and Felix, and by extension Thanquol to worry about nonsense like Mathematics.

Now that I think back on it, I played very little when I was young. Most of my time was spent reading and re-reading my army books and trying to figure out what army I was for sure going to stick with for reals... this week.

Nothing to my mind can come close to the excitement I felt in those early years. I quickly got into almost every game that Games Workshop produced, 40k followed first, then Bloodbowl, Battlefleet gothic, Warmaster, Mordheim. They were all cool but they never gave me that thrill that the Old World of Warhammer fantasy did.

Though we may wish against it with all the fiber of our being, time continues to pass. As the years went by, Fifth edition gave way to sixth and Sixth to Seventh and Finally Eighth. I felt like I was growing up with the game. The Old World became a darker place but still held my brain lovingly hostage. Over the years my interest waxed and waned as I gained or lost people to play the game with. At the height of my Warhammer madness and disposable income, when I played regularly once a week, I had Nine Fantasy armies. I even went to some local tournaments and got as far a second place once.

I had been playing this game for nearly twenty years when the end times started. At first I was excited, I enjoyed the old summer campaigns that Games Workshop used to run and I thought this would be in the same vein. The return of Nagash reminded me of the heady days of 5th edition, when he last walked the Old World. I was all set to love this new expansion to the game. Glotkin came out and raised the stakes, but nothing had been lost that couldn't be rebuilt. Then Khaine came and punched me stomach. Ulthuan sunk beneath the waves. That couldn't happen, or at least I thought it couldn't, but I had been ignorant to Games Workshops intentions. The End Times, right there in the name. It was obvious to anyone not blinded by faith that the setting would continue forever. They meant to end it all. I couldn't read past Khaine, I didn't want to see the Old World die.

Of course a fictional setting doesn't really die, not until it's forgotten completely. So here is my promise to the Old World that has given me so much joy over the years. I will continue to play in this beautiful setting as long as I can find people to play with, whether it's fifth edition, eight ed. or even modified Kings of War. I will keep all of my fantasy models. I will introduce my children to the Old World and Warhammer when they're old enough and try to instill the same wonder in them that I felt as a child. Finally I promise to remember the stories that make up the rich history of this world, from the shores of the Vampire Coast to the treacherous tundra of Troll Country.

After all of these years and adventures we shared, I want to say thank you Old World. Thank you for giving me a place to escape to, a place to kill time in, and a place to stoke the fires of my imagination. Many said you were too generic, too Tolkien, but they didn’t know you like I do. They saw Elf, and Dwarf and didn’t dig any deeper, had they done so they would have learned of your wonderful characters and cultures. They would have come to know your geography; fleshed out so well that this one world felt, at least to me, bigger than the whole 40k galaxy.

So Thank you Old World, and you too Games Workshop. Though it’s been a long time since we’ve had a good relationship I’m still grateful that you created this world and gave tools to play in it for so long.

I write this not as a goodbye, as I have no intention of leaving. I simply want to say, I love you Old World.

Here’s to another twenty years.

xoxox

Nathan

[Vlad78]

I have a huge framed map of the old world on my wall.

I'm not going to replace it with ludicrous azyrland.

[Gingerpanda]

The way some people have reacted (elsewhere) you'd have thought GW was kicking in doors and taking back everyone's copies of 8th edition, making a big piles and burning them all.

[odinsgrandson]

The way some people have reacted (elsewhere) you'd have thought GW was kicking in doors and taking back everyone's copies of 8th edition, making a big piles and burning them all.

The community would have to decide as a whole to stick with the old rules set. Since the old rules aren't going to continue to be available for purchase, the old game isn't going to see any new influx of players.

With Role-Playing groups, it is a little easier to stick with an old, unsupported game (even if you can't get new players). But there will soon come a time when you won't be able to get pick up games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle anywhere.

[Alaric]

The community would have to decide as a whole to stick with the old rules set.

Thanks for the morning laugh...the community agree on something....hahahahahahahahahaha

[Jewelfox]

That was beautiful :')

No, seriously. It's amazing to see how much a part of your life the Old World has been, and for how long.

I hope you are able to keep it alive for as along as you want to live there.

[Voltigeur]

That was beautiful :')

No, seriously. It's amazing to see how much a part of your life the Old World has been, and for how long.

I hope you are able to keep it alive for as along as you want to live there.

Thank you I intend to do just that.

It really is more than just a game to me, It's been such a big part of my life for so long. I hear people online telling others to just get over it and move on, but when it's something you grew up with and is tied to so many good memories it can feel like losing one of your best friends. People really do have emotional connections with these games for a myriad of reasons. I'm lucky in that I'll still have a few friends who are willing to play 8th with me, but my heart goes out to those who are forced to move on.