Almost nine years ago, the sky fell in.
Or you would be forgiven for thinking so if you’d listened to certain corners of the internet. Admittedly, doom-mongering is a daily occurrence on the internet, but in this case, I’m talking about when Games Workshop blew up its long-standing “Old World” setting for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The world literally ended.
In its place came the lighter, more fluid Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. People grumbled and humphed for a bit, and threatened never to buy Games Workshop products again. Gradually, pretty much all of us went about our lives and quietly started playing. It’s been going very nicely; the rise and rise of Games Workshop in the last decade has been well-documented. (Though it’s worth noting that making YouTube videos about how GW sucks and is going to fail any moment can be a pretty lucrative business).
About two years ago, the company announced Warhammer: The Old World—essentially, the recreation of everything that they destroyed, and a return to rank and flank gaming. There was much excitement from all corners of Games Workhshop’s fandom.
Now, finally, it’s here. Preorders opened on the 6th of January, but, life being what it is, I didn’t manage to get this piece finished before that day. It sold out in a matter of hours, possibly minutes. The nostalgia was strong in this one. (Since writing this paragraph, I’ve seen from Games Workshop that additional sets will be available at their brick-and-mortar Warhammer stores, but I have no more details than that.) The official release day is January 20th.
Warhammer: The Old World is a premium product (albeit with old miniatures) that carries a premium price tag. If this release highlights anything it’s how expensive this hobby has become and how much inflation there has been since you last played Warhammer Fantasy Battle. If you want to relive your youth, it’s going to cost you.
The contents of the Bretonnain starter set for Warhammer: The Old World. A similar box with the Khemri (undead) army is also available (unless it’s sold out).
Where to start with that question? If you’re a GeekDad reader who follows Warhammer news, you already know at least as much about it as I do, and if you’re not, you probably don’t care that much.
As a broad overview, this game is a reworking of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a classic wargame with units of fantasy races battling it out, arranged in neat squares and rectangles on the battlefield. It is old-school tabletop. Setting-wise we are going further back in the history of the Old World than when Warhammer Fantasy Battle was set. The original Old World setting was dominated by Sigmar’s Empire. This edition takes the story back to before that. Emperor Karl Franz is but a glint in his great-great-grandparent’s eye. (Number of greats not accurate.)
Because of this reframing of the setting, only certain races from the original incarnation of the universe are available. This is split out into (essentially) goodies and baddies and the rules for the available armies will be available via two books: “The Ravening Hordes,” i.e. the bad guys, and “Forces of Fantasy” i.e., the good guys.
Forces of Fantasy features “Dwarfen Mountain Holds, “The Empire of Man,” “Kingdom of Bretonnia,” “The Wood Elf Realms,” and “The High Elf Realms.” Ravening Hordes contains Orcs and Goblins, warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and “Tomb Kings of Khemri” (i.e. undead). (Tomb Kings arrived after my Warhammer playing days.) The most notable omissions here are probably Skaven and Lizardmen, but Games Workshop was very clear that, at least initially, not everything from the old Old World was going to be included.
Other notable omissions from the early concept announcements from the game are armies from Norsca and Nippon. It’s not clear whether this new content will ever see the light of day.
The thing with rank and flank games is that you need a large number of models to play it. The rising cost, and extra paint time, particularly for horde armies, I imagine is one of the reasons Warhammer Fantasy Battle faded out. It’s hard to pivot to a new army in games with big armies because of the time and money required to do so.
This is why, for the first time I can remember, there isn’t a dual army starter box for a flagship release. Instead, there are two boxes, one stuffed full of Bretonnian knights and one with the undead hordes of Khemri.
I like this change, though I doubt we’ll see this as a new delivery method going forward for Warhammer‘s more mainstream releases. If you want to avoid a massively inflated stater box cost, putting a single army in it is the way to go. An affordable box that contains two armies is struggling more and more to deliver a complete game experience. Doubly so for a rank and flank game that inherently needs more models than the looser Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 rulesets.
Additionally, as an individual, I’ve always felt it unlikely that you’ll want to play both armies out of the box. You’ll probably end up favoring one army and find yourself wanting to buy more models for one army, whilst also wanting to sell off the half you don’t use. Wouldn’t it be better to buy a box that contains more of what you want?
You could split a box with a friend or sibling, but that relies on one of you each wanting the factions that are in the box or somebody settling for something they didn’t quite want. It also means you only get one rulebook between you. This is probably OK if you live in the same house, but perhaps less so if you’re friends sharing.
On balance, then, I like this way of doing things. You get more of the faction that you want for your money. It does mean you’ll each have to shell out in the region of $250 to play a game, however.
There is always an argument about Games Workshop and price. If you’re still reading this far down, you’ll know this is not a cheap hobby.
Warhammer: The Old World is a specialist game. It’s not designed for people new to the hobby. It’s not for dabblers. It’s for people who are ready to commit. That said, if you have some legacy models moldering in the attic, with a copy of the rules and the relevant army list book, you can jump straight in. There’s no need to buy anything else.
If you’re looking to replace those models you regretfully had to sell because they were taking up too much space or you needed to free up some cash, then it is going to cost you to get back on this bandwagon.
Arguments about price irritate me slightly. Nobody is forcing anybody to buy products here! Plastic crack is not actually crack. If the price is too hot, don’t stick your hand in the fire. From the speed at which preorders blew out, it’s arguable that Games Workshop could have cranked up the prices even further.
Very few of the models in the starter box are new models (a centerpiece model each, I believe), and perhaps that’s frustrating. For such a high premium you might wish for some new sculpts. Again, the only way to cause change is not to buy. Games Workshop would then, perhaps, have a rethink or more likely drop the idea altogether. I’ve only seen the Bretonnian models, which admittedly are newer than the skeletons for the Khemri box, but they hold up pretty well. I’ve painted a few of them so far and they totally hit those nostalgic feels. The new Baron on Pegasus model looks amazing, though I must confess I haven’t assembled it yet!
I feel very much with this box you know what you’re getting in terms of models and rules, and if you want to pay the asking price then that’s up to you. Whether it’s good value for money, well, that’s going to depend on how often you bring it to the gaming or painting table.
Yes and no, leaning heavily on “no.” Some new models are heading our way. These will include a new centerpiece for each army and some Bretonnian knights on foot, but Games Workshop has made no secret that a lot of models will be made using old molds and will be available in metal and resin. This is a real turn-off for me. I’m a lazy modeler and love the full plastic ranges of the main Warhammer titles. They make preparing and painting the models so much easier.
One of the biggest bones of contention I have with Games Workshop games is the number of rulebooks you need. In this case, it will potentially be three. The main rulebook, the index book that includes the faction of your choice, and possibly the “arcane journal” of the army that you want to play.
You can get away with only your starter box, initially. The assembly instructions come with a simple army list at the back of them. The Bretonnian one even includes a couple of specific rules for their army, most notably the mighty cavalry wedge, which used to be the mainstay of the Bretonnian armies of old. This is a great addition that makes the box a little more starter-friendly and allows you to crack straight on with your new toys!
The Ravening Hordes and Forces of Fantasy books each have more than enough rules and extra units for you to bring fully fleshed-out Warhammer: The Old World armies to the table. The Arcane Journals allow you to push things even further for either the Bretonnian or Khemri forces. These books have additional lore, artwork, some themed rules and deployment maps, as well as some additional special characters.
The Ravening Hordes and Forces of Fantasy books will set you back another $50 each and the Arcane Journals (which are far from essential) are $27.
All the books are, as you would expect from Games Workshop, beautifully constructed. The rulebook is once again a hefty tome that you could use to take out a burglar, should they come for your expensive miniatures collection. Whilst I love the rulebooks as objects, once again, it’s not terribly convenient for playing. An awful lot of pages are devoted to things other than rules. It would be great to have the lore and pictures split into one volume and the rules something smaller and handier for traveling to games.
Having said that, there are a lot of rules here. A better approach would be to include a full online version of the rules that is easy to navigate and reference a specific rule when you need it.
Games Workshop will also be releasing several other bits and pieces to help support the game. Some movement trays, spell and rule cards, and even some shiny sleeves to put your new rule cards in.
You will inevitably be thumbing through the core rulebook. There are a lot of core rules alone and myriad special rules to find and hope to remember. Whilst, as you would hope, there have been some attempts at streamlining the rules, this is a return to rank and flank gaming and a return to a ruleset that everybody agreed was a bit clunky. Having played in Oz (the Mortal Realms) for a while, we now find ourselves back in Kansas.
Games Workshop loves to innovate on miniature design, but, I would argue, rules, not so much. If what you want is what you used to have (and that is absolutely the intention of this release), then you will be very very happy.
This has been a strange “review” to write. A single army does not make a game, so I haven’t been able to play it. I’ve perused the rules but not enough to confidently say whether they’re great or indifferent (though I have my suspicions). Besides, it’s only when you play in anger that you realize where rules fall down. One thing I am sure of is that a full game of Warhammer: The Old World is still likely to take most of a day, and I probably don’t have the time to commit to that, no matter how much I’d like to dig my old Bretonnian models out of storage. (This also makes me wonder just exactly what I’m storing them for?!)
Games Workshop sits at the pinnacle of the tabletop gaming market. Its models are almost universally regarded as the best in the business; their fan base is strong and fiercely loyal. This means they can make pretty much any decision they want on pricing and rules, and people will still buy their products. The Warhammer: The Old World release screams all of this. Beautiful and expensive with clunky rules. It’s what we know and love.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
This post was last modified on January 19, 2024 1:21 pm
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