Druchii.net

so i was looking for the right place to post this, this seemed about right.

anyone know if theres any truth to the rumors of 9th edition, and what it is said to bring about to fantasy?

There are many reasons to be sceptical:
- It would make tremendous changes to a game to the point it almost feels like a replacement of a game, instead of an improvement.
- Before ET, everyone and their neighbour's dog were convinced, almost willing to risk their lives on it, that the 9th edition would only be a polished version of 8th edition. This belief is gone almost entirely now. It just shows how fickle, random and completely fanatical rumour mongerers can be.
- Before ET, many people claimed foresight on what 9th ed would bring, pointing at the latest rulebooks and stating "clearly this is designed with 9th edition in mind". At no point was any proof of this delivered. There is no fact indicating this new rumour mill is any different. .
- Half the rumours are a reiteration of rumours posted over a year ago. The rumours posted then are reworded slightly or changed a little in focus to match the latest "new" rumours. As if suddenly that makes it credible. These rumours were dismissed then and I see no reason to give them more credit now.

That is not to say that none of the rumours may prove true. However, half of them are absurd. The other half, the half usually employed to pretend some creditbiility, are built entirely on the changes brought by ET. ET introduces a few merged races. Suddenly rumours spawned that races will be compressed, tied in with older rumours to create an image that somehow this was around for longer then ET. Convenient timing and trickery,

Some of it may be true. I do think GW is changing its business model... for the better of the company and the game. It "may" compress some armies, because that would make it easier to do.

Excellent points by Daeron.

It's the balanced objective view to take.

We won't know till the dawn of the new edition.

I'm not convinced by them. The ET books seem to suggest a compression of armies and even "Undead for all!" but I don't think they'd bring out these books with such a strong focus on Warhammer in its current state and then entirely overhaul the core rules and the way the game is played.

But having said that, maybe what we're hearing is something similar to ET: Glottkin - different ways of playing Warhammer as it moves to a stronger narrative game with scenarios set in locations other than just a normal battlefield (Glottkin could be seen as WH:Cityfight, after all ).

But maybe everyone is wrong!

Well, we can't just pretend that ET never happened. It has. Why does that matter? Because many of the existing factions have been completely transformed. The completion of the separated Elven story arc, for example, completely changes the dynamics of the longstanding elven triad of High Elves, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves. Similarly, the Slaan are set to go on a mass exodus, and Tomb Kings were conquered by Nagash and co. This does change stuff.

A number of possibilities for 9th edition exist, therefore:

1. GW Retcons the entire End Times, ala Storm of Chaos. This gives us back the original fluff and enables the game to stay pretty much where it was in terms of factions and world dynamics. This retains pre-end time factions entirely intact, but pulls the rug out from the under the feet of the new characters created for End Times (e.g. Glotkin), causing lots of pain to those folks who purchased these absurdly expensive models. It ameliorates the feelings of those people who disliked the End Times fluff, but upsets those people who really hoped that the story lines would finally advance.

2. GW continues the story arcs within the existing Warhammer World. So, for example, rather than having the three Elven factions of the past, they push forward with two competing factions (supporters of the new order and rebels against the new order). This removes those characters who used to exist in the main fluff, but were killed in the End Times (thus causing lots of pain to players who had previously purchased and painted these models). It also creates quite a large challenge of how to integrate new alliances in such a way that doesn't cause the challenge of "but wait, my black guard are painted in black and grey, while my high elves are painted in blue and white - they look terrible being combined together in the same army force!" It ameliorates those people who liked the End Times fluff, but upsets those people who miss the older world dynamics.

3. GW does something entirely whacky and moves the game 200 years or so forward, into a story arc where all of the remaining inhabitants of the world have teleported into a new world, in which the various factions live within bubbles in a warp of chaos that periodically bump into one another, allowing for conflict. This removes those models who existed in the old fluff but were killed during End Times, as well as potentially a host of other models, causing pain to everyone who previously purchased now obsolete models. It also upsets those people who like their game to have a real world fluff dynamic, but causes cheer to those people who quibbled at the notion that static factions could end up fighting one another (e.g. those people who got upset at the idea that Tomb Kings could end up fighting Wood Elves).

4. GW decides to just start beating us with large pointy sticks instead, removing the middle man of its gaming products, so that it can cause us all pain much more efficiently.

So, no, we cannot rely on any of the rumours about 9th edition. But we do know that something is going to be different, because End Times did happen. It may be that they retcon ET, they may continue the story arc organically, they may overhaul the story arc, or they may just beat us with pointy sticks until we cry. One of those has, logically, to happen.

And if it involves pointy sticks ...they'll be charging us for the pleasure

Haha Sadly, T.D., they'll be charging us for the pleasure no matter which one of the four they end up doing (in fact, the pointy stick option might be the least painful and costly!)

Red... wrote:4. GW decides to just start beating us with large pointy sticks instead, removing the middle man of its gaming products, so that it can cause us all pain much more efficiently.

I'm down, I've got plenty of bokkens sitting round at home, I'll go Miyamoto Musashi on a GW red shirt neck beard all day.

I will indeed even pay to do so.

In any case, I believe ET was a great commercial move of GW, encouraging people to buy units from 3 armies instead of 1.
So whatever 9th edition will bring, I bet they won't rollback that scenario.

It has now been fairly well confirmed by those reliable mongers in the know that round bases are pretty much a given, but with the unit bases from LoTR. This would then mean square bases would still work in a ranked formation.

What it may do is bring down the amount of models needed to field a unit of the same size, perhaps we are seeing a reduction in the number of models needed to complete a full unit of a particular dimension. If this is a whole reboot perhaps a set sized unit will have a profile rather than individual models, seems more than likely that monsters and riders will be combined, why not units. Pure speculation of course, but would potentially significantly speed up game play and would fit in with the introduction of formations from the latest ET book.

I am not entirely sure I would be unhappy if I got to spread the models out a little more. Certainly would make ranking easier and looks quite nice in my opinion.

Interesting. When you mean formations from the latest ET book, do you mean Khaine, Thanquol or a future ET book?
Certainly, if it would add formations to the game, I might like this, though the rebasing would be a nightmare.

Daeron wrote:Interesting. When you mean formations from the latest ET book, do you mean Khaine, Thanquol or a future ET book?
Certainly, if it would add formations to the game, I might like this, though the rebasing would be a nightmare.

I think I added the formations into the Next End Times book thread. They are in Thanquol. Basically you get some special rules if you take a set of specific units and can ignore the core percentage restrictions.

different ways of playing Warhammer as it moves to a stronger narrative game with scenarios set in locations other than just a normal battlefield

I was thinking about this when they talked about round bases. They put the models on round bases so maybe that's so they can use them for different styles of games easier. There is no reason round based models can't still rank up. Now having to make or buy a bunch of new movement trays is a hassle but not horrible.

Also people are thinking" Holy crap they're getting rid of XXX and XXX, I love them. Well hold onto them and don't freak out just yet. There might be a solid chance they bring them back after a period or they or others create addons to use them anyway.