9th ed rumors?

[Calisson]

Latest rumours I read was that WE are imminent. Brets not likely to be dropped.

9th ed could come this summer, or later, who knows? Not much leaks, but trends are analysed.
All comments are that the 8th game as it is is well playable and needs not much fix, so a new edition would be mostly building up onto 8th ed.
Expect description of Magic spells to change, of course, especially the 6th spells of each Lore, toned down.
A couple of obscure rules should be dropped in order to ease the game.
The major change will likely to be alliances, allowing to mix several armies.

[Daeron]

I don't know about "trend" studies. I don't recall seeing one edition that had such a complete overhaul of so many armies. They might want to release a couple of new armies first, as those might boost miniature sales more directly. Releasing a new BRB will need to change a few mechanics to rebalance units in order to yield more miniature sales.

I don't expect the 6th spell of lores to be toned down considerably. Believe it or not, they actually balance the game. Impossible to beat units and item combination can be trumped by a 6th spell and I think almost every army has access to at least one or two such spells.

8th edition tried to group and streamline special rules, including things like troop type. I expect that to be more refined. I hope to see some rules simplified and streamlined. I can see terrain change a bit and scenarios becoming more important.
If they tone down the complexity of the rules, they might open up the game to more "gameplay" like teamplay, scenarios and specific situations.

[Saintofm]

Wasn't Tomb Kings one of the least used armies at one point, yet still one of the first to get the 8th edd overhall?

By the logic of dumping the Brets or the Woodies because of how long they havn't had an update or a popular use surly Tomb kongs should have been the first to get the ax.

[Rork]

Given the corporate culture that seems to exist at GW, it wouldn't surprise me if WE and Bretts were written off as 'acceptable losses' - small player bases that haven't really been doing much for GW's bottom line in a very long time. Equally, they could receive a huge revamp come 9th and be core boxed set armies.

Given the trend of big monsters (and similar) becoming more common in WH (Yawn), I could see Beastmen getting a reprieve and revamp given how many they have.

And if they push allies a little more (like 40k does, I believe), there's a few extra sales right there.

Cynicism, eh?