Orc and Goblin Advanced Orders

Well the new Orc and Goblin book for WFB is up on the GW website I don't normally feel compelled to repost this sort of thing but but these releases are newsworthy in what I see they could dictate about the future of Warhammer and the rumors I've heard about the end of the dragontail chasing, army book cycle. First up is the above book cover. It's cool to see what the style is for the new books considering this is the first official army book release for 8th edition but also notice it is a 112 page hardcover and almost $40. USD. for reference The WoC book is 16 pages longer and a soft cover. The hardcover on this book is indicative to me about the intention that these army books are supposed to be around a good long time. As in maybe its the last rules book you are going to see?. Rumor has that GW is seriously considering stopping being a rules company altogether and only being a miniatures company, while I am sure the income from Army books and supplements is substantial, the margins on creation costs have become thinner and thinner over the years..its just the realities of our current economics and technology.

Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but a hardcover army book combined with the rumors of 8th ed rules updates of all army books and "That's all she wrote" with only special optional rules released with miniatures in future (the way Forge World does) being the future. perhaps all those disclaimers of "we aren't really a rules company, but miniatures company that releases rules by popular demand", have come to fruition.

Then there is this:


The continuous release of these gigantic models is cool from an aesthetic standpoint, personally I am not sure about it from a rules perspective. From the rules I've seem rumored this thing is a monster on the game table, not so sure how or if its game breaking within the big up and downs of 8th ed..but it's clear GW isn't shying away from bigger, more elaborate kits that push the boundaries of not only plastic technology but your wallet. How or if- this has some tie in with the rumors out there, I am not sure...I just find the releases here interesting in the big picture of Games Workshop, what's that is worth is for you to decide.

Images copyright Games Workshop, used without permission.

Talking- WFB 8th Edition.

Post game yesterday, I printed out the current crop of rumors on Warseer and Steve and I went over them as I let the camera roll. Steve's a top tier local player and Tourney Organizer, who most recently ran the "Size Matters" WFB event at Adepticon this year. Steve's hobby blog is Oden's Tales..where you can check out what he's up to. We've both been following the 8th rumors very closely and we have both been privy to people with an inside track. The reality is we don't know anymore then the next guy posting rumors somewhere on the internet. We are just making logical assumptions based on what we know about GW's motivations and intent with 8th Edition. Of course, we are both students of game who play ALOT of Warhammer and like to make our own conclusions. Below is the gist of our conversation saturday, paraphased where necessary to keep it short.


From Warseer, the most reliable rumours

* Army construction is moving back to percentages.
* Strength in Depth/ Stepping up (models may fight in 2 ranks)-
* Crush attack for larger creatures-
* 40mm models moving to 3 model-wide ranks.
* Multiple objective driven scenarios in the rulebook
* All non-english rulebooks are moving to inches.
* Power dice aren’t generated by the number of spellcasters. The pool is decided by 2D6. Magic users add their magic level to the score rolled.

All Wizards have a chance to generate more power dice.
* All missile units fire in two ranks (not just High Elves). Missile units will not gain a rank when shooting from hills.
* Autobreaking from fear or terror is gone.
* Combats are strictly decided in initiative order.

John: I going with 100% that this is all solid, the devil is in the details
Steve: I hope overall alot of this is true, I'm pretty confident, in general it is.


Warhammer 8th Ed Rulebook to be released July 10th
500+ pages (probably 528)

John- 500 pages is as big as GW's hard cover hobby and reference guide, that's one unwieldly book
Steve - I'm not so sure about that, it doesnt make sense financially, at $60 for 528 color pages
John- yeah if it was $120 I could see that, but they arent going to put out a $120 core rulebook, it's not in line with past business model.
Steve- Well, we know they'll be multiple versions
John- No doubt.

Possibly going to get the pdf erratas for all armies on July 6th-

Steve- My bet is July 6th errata is going to be movement changes Centimeters to Inch conversions only for the EU
John- there may some generic army errata in the new rulebook but GW isn't one to override army books in the core rules, so it what is in there
as army errata is going to be very generic.
Steve- I expect necessary army book errata will be released separately

Detailed Rumors-

ARMY SELECTION

* Army construction is moving back to percentages.
This is looking more like 25% max characters, 25% min core, 25% max special and 25% max rare (anonymous source, but trustworthy ) The 25%

characters includes mounts.

Edit. Just as I thought this part was looking certain, there have been some rumours/ sources saying 25% max characters, 25% min core, 50% max

special and 15% max rare. I will edit one out as it become clear.

John- well know this happening, just not which is exact detail
Steve- I think its latter..
John- I've read about specific things done on behalf of High Elves, 50% special covers all the bases.

* Categories for core/special/rare are remaining.

John- I think Slots stay as anti spam measure.
Steve- I think Slots are going away, percentages make them uneccessary, its fits with Streamlining the game.

* There *may* be something to prevent spamming

Steve- I fear, and I hope it is not true, That they are going to use kill points, to control unit spam.
John- Kill points are definitely currently sitting in the "discredit rumor" pile
Steve- I hope so.
John- That why I think slots stay
Steve- Maybe, I am not so sure.


* There will be a system wide errata to clear up issues for each army.

John- Inevitably, they have to do it...you know all kinds of shit is going to come up.
Steve- Oh it will get done, just don't expect to be timely.
John- LOL!



MAGIC

* Power dice aren’t generated by the number of spellcasters. The pool is decided by 2D6. Magic users add their magic level to the score rolled.

All Wizards have a chance to generate more power dice. - Avian
(edit: This could be 1 PD for lvl 1/2 and 2 PD for lvl 3/4).
Example: 2D6 roll gives you 3 and 6. You have 1 level 2 and 1 level 4. Power dice =9+1+2 = 12

Steve- I've heard/ differently Roll 2d6 and then add a D6 for each wizard as extra PD
John- That's sounds like a ton of power dice, potentially, what about adding your level to die generation roll
Steve- If you look at the Beastmen book, Casting values are way higher than any other book, this is good indicator of where this is going if you adding your level to casting roll, your level two now basically casts the cheap spell at a "7" instead of a "5"..I'm sure you're going to add your level to the casting roll.
John- Damn, that's a good point. some of these caveats are going to apply, and the new magic phase is definitely going to wacky. I've seen no concrete mention of the Magic Phase now being First before the movement phase, this does goes along with supposed supportive nature of the new magic phase and I've heard this before but its not in the current crop of rumors.

* Giving irresistible force a downside
* Double 6 = a miscast
* Making miscasts much more devastating.
* Something rumoured is carrying over power dice, but holding too many could lead to a ‘magic backlash’. Wizard will recieve wounds or hits if he didn't use the excess power-dice (than originally allocated) at end of the turn.
* All the book Lores will have more supportive spells than they have now, and will all be getting a major overhaul. Each lore to get a mega spell.
* Spells can be chosen, not rolled for.

Steve- Not sure about any of that, but the way I think its going to work, there is going to be a downside for holding too many power dice.
John- Makes sense, yeah. not sure about this "Rod of Power" style carry over thou.
Steve - "Spells being chosen, not rolled" is HUGE, I'm not so sure about that.
John- we'll they better come up with better spells if people can choose so there is some variety.
Steve- I think "IF they do it, spell 1-3 will all that will be eligible for level 1's and 2's, The upper spells would only be available to level 3's and 4's..
John- Ok that ties back to 25% character thing too, we are going to see less Characters and alot more support characters. alot of armies will be running one uber character.
Steve- yep.


And the other rumours:

* There's no limit to the number of dice used to cast a spell, by any level of caster.
* If a wizard fails to cast (not counting dispels) twice in a row he miscasts
* Dispel scroll only adding dispel dice (+2 dice to the dispel dice pool once per game). (edit - possibly speculation)
* Dispel attempts to be made by specific wizards (presumable your casting level is beneficial for dispelling spells)
* A higher chance of miscast with multiple casters.
* If a wizard fail to cast a spell he can't cast other spells in the same phase.

John- I've heard all this too, either here or from other places.
Steve- I think some of these are crap, however the 2nd one would limit VC magic spam
so it's possible.
John- probably, I think the Dispel Scroll being additional dice is for sure..makes sense
with the proposed system.

COMBAT

Fighting in 2 ranks

* Units fight in 2 ranks all the time, with their full quota of attacks, and with any special rules they have.
* Spears may be +1 rank as normal.
* Spearelves may fight with an additional rank as normal (citzen levy).
* Cavalry still only fight in 1 rank.
* This is the same regardless of which side they are attacked on.


Stepping up. – Harry/ Avian / other people

* Casualties are strictly removed from the back.

Steve- This in its simplicity is the way its going to work IMO.
John- Less complicated than this 2nd Rank, gets one attack stuff.
Steve- This is streamlined, your going to have alot more wounds coming at you, Static Combat res is going to less of an impact, due to more wounds.
John- With always hitting at initative..I now have no reason (for my Empire) to ever charge Chaos Warriors. Extra hand weapon, frenzy, thats 40 attacks base!
(we then talk about a mythical combat of my block of empire swordsmen with two character charging initative Chaos Warriors)
Steve- Well lets do the math, 40 attacks hitting on 3's, wounding on 2's....you'll take probably 20 wounds, but your getting full armor saves not that Strength 4 has no negative modifier...you will on avg take 10 kills from that assault, you've got characters and you full allotment attacks back and the Warriors only have a 4+ armor save...your character will kill probably 3, you 8 troops should get 2 or 3 as well. it will come down who has the better static res.
John- just like now- yep
Steve- That's why this random move added to charge is a big deal, you'll need to plan and set things up better. It's going to make for a better game
less relying on the math, more on the tactics
John- yep. I do like the fact Chaos Warriors now become the bad mofo's they are supposed to be. I just don't want to face them!. (laughs)


Horde Rule -

* Fight in 3 ranks if 10+ wide (4 with spears). - Avian.
OR Some benefit to fighting in large units, may automatically become stubborn beyond a certain unit size. – Harry - (edit) seemingly confirmed from another source).

Another edit: Seems this Horde rule may work like this:
If the unit is 10+ wide and 5 ranks deep (50+ models) the front 2 ranks may all fight, regardless of whether they are in base contact.
* Now it would explain how people have got up to 5 ranks in combat (2 front, Spears = 3, Citizen levy = 4, Horde = 5). At this stage just another rumour, but a little closer perhaps to the truth.

Steve- I'm not sure about this myself, while there might some kind of horder rule for cheap troops, I am not buying 50 attacks from spears...I think alot of these rumors got started with the video.
John- all the huge blocks 10 wide marching down the field.
Steve- 10 wide is stupid unwieldy
John- especially with up to 10 pieces of terrain on the board as rumor.
Steve- right -I think the video is all about making a nice demonstration and not so much about the new rules.
John- Not sure, alot of people would disagree.
Steve- we'll see.


Rank bonuses

* Unchanged apparently.

John- Well, this goes in line with what you are saying about combat and the horde rule, no +7 combat res for extra files 10 wide.
Steve- I'm telling you combat res is going to be secondary to wounds, you'll have static res and pysch effects supporting wounds.


One Save to ruin them all!

* Models will only ever get one save (be it ward, mundane or magical armour). No word yet on whether regeneration is included. From Alessio himself!

John- This is great IMO, I am sick of the triple save redunancy and unkilleable guys on dragons, this comes from Alessio, its probably good.
Steve- Well- I'm not sure about Alessio, because sometimes these studio guys will say something casually, someone will take it as gospel and then they will go back and playtest it a bit and then change it., but I think its great idea anyway.
John- No more flying around on your dragon taking on the whole army.
Steve- yup and you'll be facing full strike backs always now..with only 1 save...Heros on dragons will be forced into a more supportive roll or going after small units..they wont be breaking big blocks alone. You're going to have to set up you charges alot more carefully now.

40mm models

* 40mm models moving to 3 model-wide ranks. Ogre sized models are officially being put into their own size category (finally).

Crush them!

* Additional stomp/crush attacks for big infantry (ogres, trolls, etc) to represent them trampling lesser races underfoot. Bigger bonus for large creatures like giants. These are not impact hits. (edit: these could be overrun hits)


Steve- This has got to happen given some of the other rules in order to make heavy infantry like this work it over big blocks, the extra damaging attacks make them more threatening first turn, they need to be worth it.

Armour Save Modifiers

* Fewer armour save modifiers

Striking in Initiative order

* Combat will always strictly be resolved in initiative order (confirmed). Chargers do not get a bonus apparently

John- these are for sure...Strength mods start at -1 for Strength 5 and go up..this really changes the game...Great Weapons
are alot better now..although they will always strike last..even with ASF is the rumor.
Steve- That's going to piss off alot of HE players.
John - It's been said HE get alot of exclusions...

Chariots

* S7 autokill is gone. (edit: possibly not speculation)

Steve- probably..give the modifiers S7 is now -3...


MOVEMENT

Standard Movement

* Measure the distance for the furthest moving model, and perform whatever manoeuvres you wish within that lax limitation (i.e. they all move

like fast cav currently do, minus the reform). Command models will have some role to play in giving free manoeuvre as you move (Musician bonus similar to Ancient Battles?).

John- Lax Limitation?
Steve- Like War of the Ring
John- I'll have to check my WAB book for the musicians move bonus..
Steve- you'll probably get to reroll your charge die.

John- I think the biggest changes to the game are the new movement rules
Steve- following suit of the other games you can premeasure everything
John- Thats why this random charge thing is cool

(Steve and I had a discussion about how to make premeasured Artillery work, I think I figured it out, he agrees to a point but its total speculation not backed up by rumor, so I save it for another time)

Charging.

* An added 'bonus' of getting an 'extra' +D6 or +D3 inches of movement to your Movement range (presumably the D6 or D3 decided by the

category of warrior; infantry/cavalry/ogre sized).
Edit; rumoured to be:

Movement equal to or less than 6 (and not flying):
-> Basic M value + D6

Movement equal to or more than 7 (and not flying):
-> Basic M value + 2D6

John- I think we can pretty much count on this.
Steve- yeah, I'm sure too.

Heavy cavalry

* - Heavy cavalry, defined as any cavalry with a 2+ or better save, cannot march. They can double their move when charging as normal, but they

are not allowed to make a March move.
- "Medium and Fast cavalry remain the same".

Steve- I think this is BS, because it includes the standard double march, as normal, when we know your rolling for your charge move. This is an old rumor, that's still around for some reason.


SHOOTING

Armour Save Modifiers

* As it happens to be the same rumour; fewer armour save modifiers.

Fire in 2 ranks as standard.

* Missile units fire in two ranks (not just High Elves). - Harry & someone else. Missile units will not gain a rank when shooting from hills.


PSYCHOLOGY and SPECIAL RULES

Fear and Terror

* This may be

Fear +1 to Combat resolution
Terror +2 to Combat resolution
* Autobreaking from fear or terror is gone.
* Leadership tests against fear is rumoured to be going
* Fear and Terror incorporate immune to panic (with possibly a change to crumbling for undead).

John- not sure about the last two, but pysch adding to CR as modifier is for sure
Steve- psychology's going to mean alot less
John- well it levels the playing field on the "immune to pysch" armies
Steve- panic being covered by Fear and Terror only makes sense
John- Hopefully Panic still exists in some function.
Steve- not so sure.


Killing Blow

* Killing blow only against models in a similar size category or lower (large creature>ogre sized> infantry/cavalry sized)

(edit: apparently this is close, but not quite right)

Steve- this opens up a big can of worms, when it comes to mounts..does you mount count as your size when you have KB, if only the rider has it..this is going to be weird.
John- we need more info on how this works, I agree can of worms without a good tight rule.

Always Strike First

* Models with great weapons will always strike last, regardless of ASF. There is supposedly a change to the ASF rule to compensate HE a bit, not sure what yet.

(covered)


OTHER RULEBOOK CONTENTS

* Multiple objective driven scenarios in the rulebook (no kill points). See GW grand tournament and doubles scenarios.

* 15 or so missions in the new rulebook. 9 or 10 of the missions required Core units to capture objectives. Units must have banners to capture

objectives. Several missions had multiple objectives

* Victory Conditions
Interestingly something I picked up from a post was that ‘victory conditions’ have been referred to in the last 3 books, not victory points.

* A section in the rulebook dealing with specific issues that may arise during battles


Terrain

* Difficult terrain may be merged with very difficult and encompass more things (presumably more than just affecting movement).
* D6+4 cumpulsory terrain.
* Terrain will not affect the movement phase so much but will affect fleeing units, like in the War of the Ring game.
* Bonuses and hazards for terrain (such as rolling the dice to see how many people don’t make it out of the wood...).


John- I'm glad that terrain is become an important part of the game again
Steve- The 7th ed terrain rules as listed are ridiculous...you can pass at one piece.
John- as long the changes suit the movement rules in a fun way, more terrain always rules.
Steve- We've been using Adepticon style terrain placement for so long, people forget how the current terrain rules are
John- Yeah, I am all up for more.

Steve- I'm really looking forward to 8th Edition
John- Me too..although the 25% character things is scaring me with my new Lizardmen, but I'll figure it out...Looks great for the Empire thou.
Steve- looks great for alot of Armies!

It's official!

(like the new cover!)

Well, no more rumor on 8th edition of WFB, coming this July. I'll save exploring the variety of rumors versus stuff I heard at Adepticon for a later date.


From GW's newsletter in case you dont get it.

The Warhammer world is a place riven by relentless warfare and the corrupting power of dark magic. It’s a place where vile creatures and titanic monsters roam the lands, where vast armies of evil warriors unleash slaughter upon their victims and only the unceasing valour of the forces of Order prevent the whole world slipping away into chaos and death.

Amidst this tapestry of conflict and carnage are races fair and foul, warriors chivalrous and brutal. These are the combatants who fight for dominance of the world. From the blasted north come warmongering tribes of Chaos Warriors, armour-clad barbarians who have thrown their lot in with the Dark Gods of Chaos. In the Badlands gather the greenskinned marauders known as the Orcs and Goblins, vicious, brutal creatures whose insatiable lust for war grows almost as quickly as their vast numbers. Beneath the cities of the civilised realms nestle the repulsive ratmen, subhuman creatures whose machinations spread disease and distrust – these are the Skaven and they wish only to destroy and dominate all others. Even the forests of the Old World are not safe, for the trees themselves are things of malign presence and the Beastmen dwell within, the children of Chaos – braying beasts who crave slaughter and the chance to enact their savagery on the civilised races.

The Warhammer world is a place where you must bury your dead deeply, for Necromancers and Vampires raise the legions of undeath in their war against the living. Far away in the south the legendary kings of a long-dead kingdom now awaken, leaving their vast tomb cities to wage war upon all under the sun, their skeletal legions a chilling parody of their once glittering majesty.

All these examples of horror are enough to cause weaker hearts to quail, but there are those who resist the darkness, kingdoms and realms that fight for survival. The Empire, greatest of all the nations of Men musters regiments of brave soldiers. Armed with faith in Sigmar, their warrior god, and with tempered steel and black powder weapons they defend their lands. South and east of the Empire lies Bretonnia, a land of chivalry and noble tradition. There, bold knights harken the call of their mighty king and ride out to crusade against the monsters of the Old World. Dwarfs, in their mountain strongholds, are as unyielding as the stone around them as they battle above and below the ground. Loyal allies, but terrible enemies, the Dwarfs are brave-hearted and steadfast as they protect their once-great realm.

In far-off lands the Elves fight out their bitter blood feud against one another – a mighty civilisation that spanned the continents but is now riven with strife and betrayal. Perhaps the greatest warriors in all the world, their numbers are now few and too many of those that remain are lost each day in the unending war between Ulthuan and Naggaroth.

This is a world where victory and death rest upon a knife-edge and the fate of the world, be it damnation or salvation, will soon be decided.

Warhammer, the Game of Fantasy Battles will be released in July. The preparation for this date has been a time of great excitement here in the Studio as we have lavished detail, care and attention onto the rulebook and the fantastic Citadel miniatures range that it accompanies.

Now is the time to gather your regiments, paint your armies and prepare for a battle like never before. If you have a Warhammer army, dust it off and finish up those last few models. If you’ve always been tempted to collect a force there really has never been a better time to start! Warhammer is coming and it’s going to be great.

WFB- 8th Edition- Rumor round-up

Hey folks. I just wanted to take few minutes to reconcile a bunch of new rumors on WFB upcoming 8th rules and 2010 releases..this is really shaping up to be the GW's year of Warhammer Fantasy Battles..here locally WFB is a growing game, with more new players showing up all the time, if you havent played WFB in years or have an interest, now is a great time to get in. All of this info is recycled from other sites and I wanted to comment on some of it, given recent discussions I've had with folks and to point out some contradictions with past information that's been leaked. As far as I can tell all this is recycled from threads on Warseer but props to BoLS and specifically Col. Festus for a bunch of this.

8th Ed Rules:

-on Army Building

Army construction is moving back to percentages. (you may have 25% of your points spent on heroes, 25%-50% on core… etc.)

This makes sense to me some people say it didnt work in previous editions but right now we have people blowing huge amounts of points on just characters. This change will limit the number of characters for armies like DoC and VC where overpowered characters get spammed and support characters get ignored. If your playing a 2250 game you've only got 562 points to spend on Heroes, you can take a Greater Daemon or two or three heralds, not a GD and 3 Heralds..or a Level 4 vampire Lord with a Necromancer or Wight King, not a Level 4 Vamp and 3 Level 2 Vampires. While it kind of screws with my next army as well (yes I have decided I am doing Lizardmen (more on that soon) so if you want to Slann..all your getting is the Slann not the Slann and two Engines!!...personally I like this but I can see already this is going to push the standard tourament games up to 2500-3K, it just makes sense...keep the game standard a 2K with these rules would be coolby me...I just dont see the "give me more" masses swallowing 500 pts of characters in 2K game as the norm.


On Combat


1. Infantry now fights in two ranks by default

keep in mind you strike back in 2 ranks as well obvious suggestions of things like "wow so my 5 wide Chaos Warriors with extra hand weapons will be getting a base 30 attacks" That being before champions, frenzy, and or characters, sound absolutely devastating, I am sure some other caveats will apply but in a way it makes sense and makes things like Chaos Warriors (who in the meta game barely show up on the battlefield in current WoC armies) become crazy useful again and actually be what they are supposed to be, the baddest Mofos; in the land and not just some guys who occasionally show up in a Army that is based around them. Point # 1 fits nicely with point 2.-

2. Speeding up of combat in general. A possibility of introducing a type of combat familiar to Flames of War players, something in which there are no multi-turn combats

Instead combat is fought over and over again until one side is dead or breaks, all in the same round of combat.

For example a 6x5 block of Saurus Spearmen fight a 3x6 block of Swordmasters of Hoeth. The Elves attack and kill the front rank of the Lizardmen. The 6 back rank spearmen attack, get luckly and kill the front rank of the Swordmasters, now the next rank of the Elves attacks, and so forth until one side breaks or is wiped out.

Not sure how I feel about this, but Fighting in two ranks and this system will certainly speed things up..I think just infantry changes alone will do that...have to sit on this for a bit it might be cool.

3. Infantry in 40mm+ bases will now gain rank bonuses for ranks that are at least three models wide

makes sense considering the overall speculation of 8th Ed that ranked infantry will count for more and be more powerful, and conveniently help sell more models


4. The rules for Spears are not being changed (makes sense given point 1, spears are still useful)


5. The return of "lapping-around" in combat.- I recently asked how this worked in 6th ed on my local forum..where everyone basically said it didnt work which is why it got canned, how it going to come back and work this time we will have to see.


Artillery

Template changes are pretty much confirmed (no more partials) changes to using the pesky artillery dice are speculated but nothing more than from random commenters


Cavalry

All Cavalry will now cause impact hits making them much more deadly (they need to be with the fight in two ranks thing) again this makes sense given the overall theme of speeding up combat.


On Magic


The magic system is being made more risk/reward oriented

Suggested mechanic is you roll 2d6 to generate PD at start of the game you opponent gets your highest number of one die as dispel dice...so if I rolled a "5" and "6" and generated 11PD, my opponent would start with 6 Dispel Dice, this of course would need to be able to be augement by items/ powers

Dispel scrolls will now just add X "#" of Dispel Dice to your pool

again makes sense with above system.

Expect many changes to the magic phase, including giving irresistable force a downside, while making miscasts harder to have but much more devastating.

On Psychology

Changes to fear and terror -Basically if you cause fear you subtract one to the enemys final CR score, terror by two. Autobreak is gone, as well as having to take leadership checks to fight them (Although I have heard that you may still need a leadership check, but a failed one simply results in needed 6's to hit instead of failing your charge).

So you have a full command, 3 ranks, and you kill two skeletons you would have Banner, 3 for rank bonus, and 2 kills, -1 for fighitng a fear causing opponent. End result 5 instead of 6.


On the Game

No more pitched battles, games will be scenario and mission based with emphasis on having scoring units on the battlefield (ie. core troops)

Overall I must say, in context of all it together speculation aside I'm liking it looking to be a more balanced and faster game, fixing many of the current loopholes that create many of the WAAC abuses out there.



On Releases for 2010

The next two books are Tomb Kings and Ogres no doubt...the order given the rumors should be TK in may/june...Ogres Oct/Nov (so Ogres would be 1st book post 8th ed)
after Ogres signs are pointing to a new Orc and Goblin book.

Given rumors of this summer national WFB campaign...8th ed is either going to come out before or after. Here is the current purposed releases.

The 8th Ed Starter set is now High Elves and Skaven

I dont know whats up with that because I was told at Games Day last year that someone had seen prototypes in Baltimore of the 8th Ed Starter and it was Empire and Orcs with the below new Empire Knights and Orc Boar Boyz in the set..when this changedI dont know, but apparently its been changed...or my source was just speculating on what he saw (totally possible)

* Plastic Griffon
* New Plastic High Elf Spearmen
* Plastic Silver Helms
* Plastic Weapon's team of some sort for Skaven
* Ogre Kingdoms new plastic Rhinox kit
* Tomb Kings new mini
* New Orc Boys are coming (molds spotted being cut)
* New plastic Dark Riders
* New plastic Knights of the Inner Circle
* New plastic Black Knights
* New Orc Boar Boys

Comment away guys, yeah its ALL RUMOR but when combined the big picture is starting to come together.

Khemri Rumors

This is backed up by a couple things:
1) 8th ed changes alluded in rules,
2) fits with the White Dwarf blurb last issue
3) Its the only thing making noise as the another fantasy release before 8th ed.
4) Orcs vs Empire all but confirmed for 8th ed starter set (No TK)
Orc book fall, Empire book January, matching 7th ed releases schedule.
I usually don't bother recycling this stuff, but I know a couple people this TK news
will make happy!

Tomb Kings May 2010.

Courtesy of user, Hennesy on Warseer

Undead rule:
- Will stay the same in principle but you may take a stand&shoot reaction now.
That one was expected since the banshee may stand&shoot as well.

Magic:
- Will also stay the same with some minor changes:
-- Incantation of summoning reanimates D6 / 2D6 wounds
-- Tomb princes have 6” range like tomb kings
-- Tomb kings and princes have the option to generate dispel dice and energy dice (dispel spells in play only)
Pft... the adjustment in effectiveness of the incantations is ok, it should be level with the vampire one this way. Princes range is good. Dispell dice for Kings and Princes? Great, I only hope it won't be overpriced.

Undead construct rule:
- Will stay the same

“It came from below…” rule:
- Will stay the same

The curse:
- Will stay the same

Casket of souls
- Will have three different incantations to choose:
-- One incantation healing D3 wounds of all friendly units and characters on the field
-- One incantation similar to the current one
-- One incantation moving D3 units
- Will grant a ward save to it’s crew and attached priests
That sounds great!

Tomb prince:
- Magic changes, see above
- Strength 5
- If a tomb prince is the general you may take one unit of chariots as a core unit
- May be given the battle standard
Looking at the Scar Veteran S and T5 for heros was to be expected. Battle standard for the prince is great.

Battle standard bearer:
- New name (unknown to me)
- May be given the battle standard but may be used without as well
- May ride on a skeleton horse or in a chariot
- No magic
- Killing blow
- WS5, S4, T4, A3
A simple fighting hero without magic and an avarage profile. Ok, especially for friendly games with limited magic but I think the Prince will stay the better choice.

Skeleton warriors:
- Wear light armour without further costs
Decrease of one point would have been better but better than nothing.

Skeleton light horsemen:
- May be given light armour
- May be given Spears and Shields
That shoud give us some interesting taktical options.

Skeleton heavy horsemen:
- Are out!
I won't bemoan the loss of them.

Tomb Guard:
- 9(!) points/model
All right, Grave Guard cost 10 (?) points/model. And they have heavy armour and can make march movements... 9 points is ok I think.

Ushabti:
- 4+ armour save (including undead construct)
- 5+ ward save
- M6
- 55 points/model
That should make Ushabti usable. Not more but usable.

Carrions:
- S4
- Cheaper
Stronger and cheaper? Great!

Tomb scorpion:
- more expensive (about 100 points)
- 5 wounds (!)
Wow, the most extrem change I think. Scorpions with unit size 5 will be nasty!

Bone Giant:
- equipment options (similar to Warhammer chronicles)
The options have been a baublery in the past, they will stay a baublery in the future.

Screaming Skull Catapult:
- Every model touched is hit, not only on 4+.
The way it is in the Skaven book. Maybe a hint of what to come in the 8th edition rule book?

WFB -8th Starter Set Rumor -NEW

This may be elsewhere I don't know but it bears mentioning. A little bird told me way back earlier in 2009 that the next starter set for WFB 8th Ed was already set to be Empire and Orcs, This has been reinforced by word of the new plastic kits (Knights, Boar Boyz) for both armies and the timing of word of national summer campaign and a new edition. HOWEVER, page 10 in the new White Dwarf..has an interesting sidebar mentioning the Empire and Tomb Kings, it's quite odd..and seems like a hint to me. We know Beasts of Chaos are Now Due in March.....I had thought it was sooner. Meaning it's a reality that the follow up Tomb Kings book will be June. keeping in mind a summer campaign, Does this mean an Empire vs Tomb Kings starter?, possibly..it's odd because starter sets are usually gateway armies..which Khemri is not...but hell the last set was just goblins..which was a gateway to O&G anyway. Anyway this is a real possibility...new plastic cavalry kits coming regardless, I am putting my money on a Empire/TK 8th ed starter Cavalry vs Chariots in the box coming along with 8th ed...in September .As for new Empire and Orc books, I assume they will follow suit...maybe or maybe not before some the other 6th ed book still in use. To sum up this little WD sidebar throws a curveball at speculation for 2010...after BoC and TK..the last book of the year is really up for grabs...