Druchii.net

Haagrum wrote:Naggaroth attacked by a "huge Khornate army"

Dalamar wrote:
Pretty much that. All the rules I'm interested in are on the deck of cards. It's $8. I can pay that.

The rest of the "rules" I will need to see first. No interest whatsoever in the cannon bait characters.

Taijushue wrote:I never understood the spell cards being in such demand, isn't it easier to make your own for the cost of Ink and Paper? Or do GW tournaments not allow them because they aren't GW products?

Dalamar wrote:You can have cheap looking cards printed out yourself, or you can have cool shiny cards.

I like cool shiny cards, I don't have the capabilities for quality printing.

Have some more "rumours" in regard to the end times campaign coming, as usual take them as you will.

Along with Nagash and the vampire releases I mentioned earlier there will also be new release models for tomb kings, skaven, chaos and dark elves.

Thanquol and bone ripper will be getting there own new models along with a new plastic vermin lord. There will also be new fantasy terrain.

There will be a new Nagash model.

Gidean wrote:Well the High Elf lover in me is pissed that Tyrion had to lose his little girl to bring this bastard back.

Gidean wrote:Well the High Elf lover in me is pissed that Tyrion had to lose his little girl to bring this bastard back.

Dalamar wrote:Just keep in mind the 50% lords/heroes is currently for end times games only and there is no indication that it will transfer to 9th edition.

Dalamar wrote:Owner of my LFGS placed an order for me no problem. Just waiting for delivery... which I'm not even following when that haopens. This coming Saturday?

T.D. wrote:If they turn it into a skirimish game I will publish my own alternative ruleset

I think what happens is a bit like the old game of telephone where one person tells one person something and that person tells the next person and so on. After the chain is repeated enough half the original message is lost or distorted in translation. There were some credible sources of information quite a while ago that suggested that GW was concerned about the entry point into WHFB and interested in creating more of a warbands/skirmish game as an intro to the game for independent retailers, as well as GW game stores. There were reportedly strategy discussions about the state of WHFB and direction of the game in the next edition (information about that leaked out maybe 1.5 years ago). GW stores and indy retaielrs in the US have long had difficulty (and complained to GW reps about) selling WHFB out of the box to new gamers and most of the new blood is coming from more experienced gamers deciding to try WHFB in order to play bigger and more complex games.

Given that, my understanding is that this may be reflected in the planning for 9th edition, consistent with the sources I have heard from (who are in the business but are admittedly more second-hand and less direct from the horses mouth but have proven to be reliable in the past because they need to track and follow changes in the industry and anticipate competition). I, too, highly doubt GW would be stupid enough to basically punt its WHFB franchise but it might make sense to cut inventory count and army book count to make the game easier to get into and maintain. IF that is the case, 9th edition may be seen, along with End of Times theme, as a reboot and refresher of the franchise to try to bring in new players to the game.

GW does not have a good history of radical changes in the game with an existing player base. GW made the mistake of trying to shift LOTR (scalable skirmish game) to WOTR in a single large rule book without playtesting the rules and testing for balance (I'll never forgive Matt Ward for that rule book.). The combination of the imbalance between army factions (Mordor able to largely table the other armies) created by poorly written and inadequately tested rules for the WOTR game (combined with GW's unwillingness to errata and fix broken rules) and effect of trying to force people to buy a lot more models (as wells as movement trays) to play a rank and file game based on a skirmish game did not work and killed the player base in many areas. The Hobbit effort to reboot the dying LOTR franchise has not worked (largely by GW's own admission publicly now in its annual report and elsewhere).

Maybe they are saying that the future lies in reversing the process to some extent to making WHFB a game that can be played at a smaller scale and played in a shorter period of time to compete with Warmachine/Hordes but they would be foolish to not include the large scale game rules of the big tournament for older guys like us (I have to dedicate time to play and balance it with family and work but have the income to play the big game.) That would argue for two sets of rules: one for smaller games where skirmisher options and warband options are present; and one for larger rank and file games.

The survey by ICv2 is nothing new. That survey is US and Canada-based where warmachine and hordes have made the most in-roads into the WH franchise. The PP game provides for faster games, smaller scale games, and more scalable game models with a perceived better player support and feedback structure than GW. Similarly, we see that with the rapid rise of the Star Wars X-Wing game system. It is entirely likely that GW is making the decision to shift to sellng a combination of big models and smaller/more expensive boxes consistent with the 40K and PP business model but I would surely miss those big blocks of infantry and cav ranked up and rolling a big handfull of dice all at once. Missing from that survey is an mention of Flames of War, which is actually quite popular but with a smaller and older player base, in some of my favorite gaming stores. That is an example of a niche game that seems to be stable and profitable even if it never quite gets in the top five of sales of minature war games surveys.