Ye Olde Inn

So, it seems with the publication of Age of Sigmar, Greed Workshop has discontiued Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet my tabletop gaming friends again (we meet every montay, but due to my little fellow and the new house, I could not partake in the last few months). Many of them are Warhammer fans from the start, and Age of Sigmar was discussed heavily, with the unison result that it is awful. And they are not traditionalists. They have their nostalgic moments, but until now, followed Warhammer through all of it's editions and found something good in every one. But not in this.

It seems the circle has come to an end and the Age of Warhammer is over now.

I know less than nothing about Warhammer Fantasy. But I did notice the new minis use round bases which makes more sense for non-grid based tabletop gaming.

I continue to be disappointed that the new figures rarely support dual use in other games. The "Stormcast Eternals" and forces of chaos are basically useless. Every part is just too unique to WarHammer.

I've been into Warhammer Fantasy for the last 2-3 years and I really liked the game, despite its obvious flaws.

The newly released rules are pretty awful. The generic sense is that the game got oversimplified and lacks strategic thinking.

The bases are kind of optional, meaning that you don't form up unit by their bases, the models don't have a facing, and you don't measure distances from the base of the model. So you don't even need a base, if the model can stand up by itself.

The worst thing though about the new rules is the absence of any kind of point/value system.
For those who don't know, different units used to cost points to include in you army, and you had a certain number of points to spend on the units. So a monster could cost 200 points while a single orc costed 6 points. You would divide about 2,000 points on different units so the strength of your army would be pretty much the same with another army at 2,000 points, and that meant equal and tight games. That's all gone. Now you can field whatever you want with absolutely no limit of any kind. You have to rely on your opponent not being a cheat and coming to battle with 50 heavy cavalry and 10 monsters.

Finally, to finish things off, there is a small (percentage-wise) number of "fun" rules that are absolutely laughable.
This is a rule of a character in the game who's supposed to have a moustache: "You can re-roll any failed hit rolls when attacking with the Runefang so long as you have a bigger and more impressive moustache than your opponent."
That's not even childish, it's plain stupid.

This comes from a beastman unit: "You can add 1 to all hit rolls made for a Wargor if, before rolling the dice, you let loose a primal warcry. Your warcry must use no actual words, but angry grunts and raging snorts are encouraged."

So basically, in my eyes and in many others I know, this has never been released. We can still play the 8th edition of Warhammer.

tasoe wrote:So basically, in my eyes and in many others I know, this has never been released. We can still play the 8th edition of Warhammer.

You can, as long as you already own the rules, but if you have a look on the Greed Workshop website, it has been discontinued. Where Warhammer FAntasy Battle used to be, there's only Age of Sigmar.

tasoe wrote:The bases are kind of optional, meaning that you don't form up unit by their bases, the models don't have a facing, and you don't measure distances from the base of the model. So you don't even need a base, if the model can stand up by itself.

And that's another flaw, rule-wise.
Distances are measured from the figure, not from the base. But contact between two models is still base-to-base. There's no standard base size or form. So, you can put your model (wich should have a ranged weapon) on a 12 inch base, and no other model can ever reach it.

I actually performed several reality checks to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Up until now I thought AoS was a sub-game like Necromunda or Mordheim.
But it is actually the "new" Warhammer Fantasy? Jesus F Christ! Why would they even do that?
Warhammer had flaws, sure, but it was never broken as such.
I'm not under the impression that it has become unpopular? Or has it? Has competing games like Warmahordes eaten too much of the fantasy strategy battle market?

And those piss ugly miniatures!!!


What am I even looking at here?

Big Bene wrote:...But contact between two models is still base-to-base. There's no standard base size or form. So, you can put your model (wich should have a ranged weapon) on a 12 inch base, and no other model can ever reach it.

I'm not sure, but I don't think that's technically correct. First of all, the concepts of "contact" and "base-to-base" are forgotten. The only mention to bases in the rules is this: "A model’s base isn’t considered part of the model – it’s just there to help the model stand up – so don’t include it when measuring distances."
Even melee weapons now have a range of 1" or 2" so you can reach an opponent even if your bases don't touch so "contact" in never mentioned. In the example of the large base, there seems to be nothing that forbids you from walking your models on that opponent's large base.
One kind of monkey business I would imagine is getting a large base 100mm by 150mm and cramming a million models on it, as dense as possible. So in combat, from a given small area of your base you would generate a ton of attacks. It would be tricky having to remove them as casualties came, but still it would give you a great advantage.

Goblin-king, the latest figures have been an even worse disappointment. I can't bear myself to look directly at them for more than 2 seconds. They lack any sort of fantasy charm, which for me was the prime attraction for the GW fantasy figures. The new ones seem to have come right out of the 40k enviroment, which causes vomit anyway.

Generally, this release has people looking at alternatives. They may have lost me and my gaming group, but GW never earned a direct dollar from me anyway. I only buy used figures from ebay or ads, and I will continue. But I can see lots of people not buying their new crap and moving over to other tabletop games, at least for a couple of years when they will come back to their senses (unlikely).

really? i think some of them look great! id swap the heads on these guys

but i think they'd make great knights and paladins.

i loved the more recent dwarves too.

Tott wrote:really? i think some of them look great! id swap the heads on these guys.

Yep, new heads and new weapons, and shave the markings off of the shields . My point is that I didn't have to do any of this with my Warriors of Chaos. They had lots of heads, none without helmets but MANY styles. And they had MANY weapon choices. The Sigmar guys I looked at all had Lions on their belts/chests. These do look more generic and useful, thank you. I don't have spare heads and paladin swords lying around, so I will pass.

Bear in mind that those models represent some super-sized superhumans, so they appear to be about 7-8 feet tall next to a 28mm model.