Game System - Warhammer: The Old World

[Seneschal]

Love that Dire Flail! We ride again!

 

[Unas the slayer]

Settra does not serve.

 

[Sception]

EXCITE.

 

[The Sun King]

Yeah I am really excited because those two factions are what I will be playing when they relaunch The Old World

 

[Sception]

I already have/play tomb kings, and while I won't play brettonia, I have often daydreamed about building an AoS flesh eater courts army using Brettonian models to represent the faction as they see themselves, and have only been put off due to how hard to find and expensive those models are these days.

 

[Unas the slayer]

I already have/play tomb kings, and while I won't play brettonia, I have often daydreamed about building an AoS flesh eater courts army using Brettonian models to represent the faction as they see themselves, and have only been put off due to how hard to find and expensive those models are these days.

Great idea. Really solid, fluff-wise.

I won't pick bretonnia, but i'd love to play again tomb kings

 

[Oppenheimer]

My husband collected Bretonnia and I collected Tomb Kings back in 8e so a box set of the two of them would be perfect for us. That said, I don't really want to go back to rank and flank.

 

[Sception]

I actually miss rank & flank, and haven't found a game in that style that I've enjoyed since whfb died. I wouldn't want to give up aos, but I'm very excited for the old world co-existing with it. There's just something to the positioning and direction of it. Plus larger battles just play quicker when a bunch of guys can move and maneuver and function as a single coherent blocktangle instead of a cloud of individual dudes.

 

[Oppenheimer]

Fair enough. I just prefer city street battle kind of scenarios with lots of terrain and models that can go up and down stairs and between trees in a forest etc. All stuff you can't do with movement trays.

 

[Sception]

Quite fair. Like I said, I wouldn't want to give up AoS to get WHFB back, I'm just happy to have them both.

Though I do think there are other GW games that handle cluttered, urban, skirmishy, up-the-ladders-and-down-the-stairs type gameplay better. In particular Mordheim and Middle Earth. And Kill Team over on the 40k end. I've heard good things about War Cry as well, though I haven't been able to try that one yet for myself. Plus there's several good non-GW games with that feel to them, including Frostgrave, Malifaux, Infinity, etc. I used to like Warmahoards, but that's pretty much collapsed completely at this point.

There have been a few rank & flank games since fantasy died, but not as many, and the ones I've tried (Kings of War, 9th age, Runewars) haven't really been to my taste.

 

[Oppenheimer]

Yes, I wish Warcry was a thing when I first started out or that I'd known about Mordheim first. I might have just not gone with huge armies in the end. Would have saved me a lot of money!

 

[Gederas]

So, we've gotten a hard confirmation on bases, as well as another interesting tidbit:

Basing

As you can see, our painted models are on square bases – but these are slightly bigger than they were back in the days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The majority of models in Warhammer: The Old World will indeed sit on bigger bases – there are a few reasons for this

Over the decades, our models have become larger and more dynamic, which means that many units have become difficult to arrange into ranks and files. Players must be able to line their models up without complex planning about which spear has to go where in order to use them in-game. On top of that, we didn’t like that the back ranks were hidden and hard to see.

So now, all 20mm bases have been replaced with 25mm bases. Most (but not all) 25mm and 25×50 bases have been replaced with new-sized bases.

Also this:

Q: Are the models getting bigger?

A: No, the new models will be in the same scale as the returning range from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The base size change has come about because some of those ‘90s and ‘00s models became difficult to rank up, and we’re taking the opportunity to fix the problem. It will mean that newer models joining the range can be more dynamically posed, but proportions remain the same.

Q: Will we be able to buy bases?

A: Yes. All models in the Warhammer: The Old World range – including returning models – will be supplied with the correctly sized bases. We’ll also be selling bases and movement trays.

INCLUDING RETURNING MODELS

That lines up with the rumour that some ranges are being brought back. Since they showed the plastic Bretonnians as well as new CAD images for Bretonnians and Tomb Kings, I'm going to make a prediction:

Warhammer Fantasy Plastics: Back
Warhammer Fantasy Resin and Metal: Updated to plastic

 

[Unas the slayer]

INCLUDING RETURNING MODELS

That lines up with the rumour that some ranges are being brought back. Since they showed the plastic Bretonnians as well as new CAD images for Bretonnians and Tomb Kings, I'm going to make a prediction:

Warhammer Fantasy Plastics: Back
Warhammer Fantasy Resin and Metal: Updated to plastic

Yeah, that would be welcome.

 

[The Sun King]

Sounds great to me!

 

[Gederas]

The thing I hope is that GW just outright comes out with a "base size guide" for ToW like they have for AoS. Will make some purchases much easier for me

 

[Irisado]

The base change justification cuts no ice with me. What that really means is 'we need a way to get players to spend money on updated old models that they probably already have, so what can we do? Yes, that's it, we'll change the size of the bases and charge double the price '!' Forgive my cynicism, but that is how I see it. GW has form in this area. They did more or less the same thing when they brought out Epic 40,000 (all the Epic Space Marine era bases were square and Epic 40,000 bases were rectangular strips).

Apart from that, I am intrigued by what I am reading. There is potentially quite a lot of good news here. I may yet play another game of Fantasy if I can ever find an opponent again.

 

[Unas the slayer]

The base change justification cuts no ice with me. What that really means is 'we need a way to get players to spend money on updated old models that they probably already have, so what can we do? Yes, that's it, we'll change the size of the bases and charge double the price '!' Forgive my cynicism, but that is how I see it. GW has form in this area. They did more or less the same thing when they brought out Epic 40,000 (all the Epic Space Marine era bases were square and Epic 40,000 bases were rectangular strips).

Apart from that, I am intrigued by what I am reading. There is potentially quite a lot of good news here. I may yet play another game of Fantasy if I can ever find an opponent again.

I cannot say you're wrong, but many old models were problematic to put in tight formation.
If i can keep my old bases and use a tray for frienfly games i will be more than happy

 

[Sception]

Disagree on the base change. Scale had been creeping up in old world since 5th edition. Several otherwise fantastic 8th ed kits were difficult to rank and looked painfully squished on 20mm squares. The plastic witch elves were among the worst of the lot, but even among the undead I had to specifically number which model went where to rank up ghouls, grave guard, & tomb guard on 20x20s, and had to trim the cloth barding & the outside of the riders feet plus repose some of the steeds heads to get my black knights to rank up on 25x50s. And the heroes were even worse. Vlad, Konrad, Krell, Big Wing vamp lord, plastic Tomb King, even the plastic necromancies & wight king - none of these models were ever appropriate fits for 20mm square bases. fitting them into units was a nightmare, and getting base to base with enemy units was impossible.

Just accepting the scale creep and increasing base sizes to something that actually fits the models will be better for the game.

plus, larger squares standard will let some models serve double duty with AoS, just plop your 25mm round base new zombies or skeleton warriors on a square unit tray & you’re good to go.

if you already have stuff on old bases you don’t even really need to spend much time or effort to rebase, 3rd parties will make cheap as chips adapters for that.

 

[Sception]

New Resin Tomb King for the Old World

old world will feature rules, returning oldhammer plastic & resin ranges for all 8th edition old hammer factions before pivoting to the new game’s core focus during the Three Emperor’s period a century or two after the Vampire wars (boo) & a Few centuries before the End Times.

Updated Old World factions will feature a mix of old and new plastic & resin kits. The first factions to get the update treatment will be Brettonians & Tomb Kings. For Tomb Kings the first confirmed new kit is the king above, while the first confirmed old kit to be coming back/sticking around is the necrosphinx/war sphinx.

artwork was shown for ushabti, carrion, skeleton warriors, maybe some other stuff I missed, but no confirmation on whether those would be seeing new or old models. I expect old for the ushabti & carrion based on the art, less sure about basic skittles.

Sadly no release date info, prob still at least a full year away.

 

[Unas the slayer]

All i know, is that i will spend good money on Khemri.

 

[Unas the slayer]

Disappointing ToW news.

 

[Sception]

Disappointing, but not surprising. ToW is being introduced as a side game, it's not going to see support on the same level that fantasy did as one of the two main games.

If anything, I'm confused why high elves are one of the supported factions - they're as 'distant' and 'insular' as lizardmen or dark elves or ogre kingdoms were at that point in the lore.

 

[Gederas]

Disappointing, but not surprising. ToW is being introduced as a side game, it's not going to see support on the same level that fantasy did as one of the two main games.

If anything, I'm confused why high elves are one of the supported factions - they're as 'distant' and 'insular' as lizardmen or dark elves or ogre kingdoms were at that point in the lore.

Yeah that's what got me confused too. Then I realized:

All of the "supported" factions are ones that were outright squatted or squatted/disseminated amongst other armies and are outright unplayable in AoS

Edit: That being said, isn't the Red Duke active at this time?

 

[Seneschal]

Terrible. GW could generate so much revenue if they could bring back old fans and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Oh, well. I'll give the game a shot but I can myself sticking to Kings of War in the long run.

 

[Gederas]

Terrible. GW could generate so much revenue if they could bring back old fans and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Oh, well. I'll give the game a shot but I can myself sticking to Kings of War in the long run.

I mean my plan is to just use the AoS Gravelords I have on movement trays, so I hear you.

(I also now have the start of a KoW Undead force that I'll be doing on multibases)