Games Workshop, via their Warhammer Community site, revealed the Grand Army rules and some stats for Warhammer: The Old World, an upcoming miniature wargame which returns to the setting, flavor, and rules of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
Unlike Warhammer 40,000, and the many wargames inspired by it, Warhammer: The Old World builds on the bones of historical wargaming: most soldiers move in ranked units, and one of your goals as a player is to prevent being flanked or ambushed. Another change of pace is that ranged weapons are rarer, but decimating.
The way the game is balanced is via army lists and points. The list tells you which units can possibly be included in your army. The points are tagged to each unit, and scaled to their efficacy in battle. Each game has a predetermined number of points, which players must stay under.
Rules Overview
To start with, games of Warhammer: The Old World do not have recommended points values. The minimum required to play is a General and three Units. However, Games Workshop is already highlighting 2,000 points as a “substantial two-to-three-hour game,” which would involve more than one hundred models for each player. More on this in analysis.
Each faction’s core list is called a Grand Army (this includes the legacy factions who will not receive new models). The Grand Army is intended to be “a balanced list of options.” These Grand Armies allow the full range of models and units for a faction.
The highest tier of units are limited, but lower ranks can be taken with abandon (limited only by the point total of a given game). At least 25% of a game’s points must consist of Core units.
Grand Armies allow a selection of allies from other factions. Bretonnia, for example, can take units from one of the following: an alternate Bretonnia list, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Empire, High Elves, and Wood Elves. The Dwarfs and Wood Elves are both marked as suspicious.
As in previous editions, many characters can take a choice of weapons or other items from a list. For example, “A morning star adds +1 Strength and -1AP in the first round of combat, and a great weapon doubles those bonuses but makes you Strike Last. A lance adds similar bonuses, though only on the charge, while a shield improves your armour save by +1.”
The overview’s author briefly discussed what to expect beyond Grand Armies:
The Grand Army is not the only way to select a force, however. Each faction will gradually gain access to Armies of Infamy, which provide often wildly different ways to muster a force. As a Bretonnian Lord, you might wish to enter exile – especially as it means you can then take forbidden Border Princes Bombards into battle, while those who really just enjoy Knights and more Knights may prefer an Errantry Crusade.
Warhammer Community
Analysis
This overview introduces my first real worry about this edition. But first, let’s discuss the good.
The allies system sounds like it will allow for some particularly unusual, flavorful armies. Players will be able to kitbash and create backstory to their hearts’ content to make, for example, a unified army out of the Bretonnians and the Wood Elves.
My greatest worry is the army size. While I appreciate that there is no army size, allowing for a much more focused game along the lines of Warcry or Kill Team without needing to buy an extra game, we can already see a focus on massive 100-model armies. Many of the point values we see in the preview seem balanced toward a game running at least 2,000 points, if not more.
Not only is this expensive, it’s the kind of expensive that contributed to the game’s death the first time. While many of the problems with late edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles already seems to be eased or erased with these rules previews, I worry about such strident demands straight out of the gate.
Lastly, Games Workshop no longer credits model designers, painters, and some writers by name. This is unacceptable. As the creative force that keeps the company running, the creators responsible deserve full, clear, and public credit.
Source: Warhammer Community
Featured Image: Warhammer Community
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