WFB- on 8th Edition..

Rumors are flying of late regarding the release of an 8th Edition for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Ques from the Skaven book, various insiders at the usual haunts all seem to point to or back up some things I have posted previously. The rules amendment, I've talked about here. Is apparently a whole new edition. with a new starter set (Empire and Orcs) with new models (new Empire Knights and Boar Boyz) followed new books for both armies, also the Summer Campaign that's been talked about seems to be on track as well.

There has been zero official talk about "what" rules will be changed with exception of "changes to Cavalry" , there are rumors about scoring changes floating about including ending "pitched battles" as the standard format and moving toward objective based games ala 40k.

General opinion in my area is mixed because most folks I play with think the current the rules are good, its the army books that have gone astray. That being the case it's easier and less confusing to to fix the rules to meet some of the inbalance of the books than it is to release FAQ's for all the books not to mention a new edition meets GW's current sales cycle.

Some of the changes talked about here that we'd like to see all boil around the principle of getting Warhammer back to be about fighting with armies and not about overspecialized units or characters, we all want to see armies on the table and not see people be able tweak the army books to come up with 35 models army's at 2000 or worse 2250 points. I'd like to see caps on allowed shooting and power dice per army,and get away from power gaming individual phases and pushing thing toward more balanced armies. Psychology also needs some kind of overhaul, getting rid of immune to psychology as a blanket effect and fine tuning the effects of panic, fear and terror would be a good start. Hopefully GW will push to continue to make WFB and 40K different games and not the same game with two different themes which is fear some people semm to have, from the looks of things we'll have alot of things Warhammer to talk about this summer..

From what we know the 2010 WFB schedule looks like so far...with no exact times known

Beast of Chaos- Book/ Models
Tomb Kings- Book/ Models

8th Edition-Book
WFB starter set- New Models

Summer Campaign

Orcs and Goblins- New Army Book
Empire- New Army Book

This leaves Bretonians, Ogres, Wood Elves and Dwarfs in line for new 8th Ed books for 2011, Speculate away,

2010- the year of Warhammer Fantasy.

This thread over at Warseer adding fuel to what I've been hearing and reading from some folks at GW as well as various places on the web. 2010 is gearing to be a year for WFB, like 2009 was for 40K, We got Skaven in this November followed by Beast of Chaos and Tomb Kings the first half of next year with third unnamed release in the 4th quarter.

The bigger news however is aa huge organized summer campaign in the works, based on the Empire versus Von Carstein (my friend Bill and I are going to love that) and an actual WFB rules amendment (lets call it 7.1 Ed) with changes in some rules, specifically cavalry (whether this changed rules or added is unknown) and a bunch of second, third and even 4th wave release of cavalry models for various armies..Rumor has it that my wish of new fancy Empire Knights in line with GW's great new plastics is finally coming, although I currently have 17 Knights completely done. I'll definitely be adding a whole lot more...hell with I have extra...I could run an all mounted Empire Army..(thou I don't how well that would do, but it would sure look cool)

Further analysis from ultimate insider and rumorlord "Harry" say yes he's hearing these things too...but certain things are not necessarily tied together (meaning the rules, the campaign and new models aren't all tied together but are planned releases, order and relevance still unknown). However it shakes out, next year is going to be great for us WFB players. Also pure speculation but with the success of Space Hulk and year of WFB releases in the works can a new updated Warhammer Quest also be in the works?..think about it.

GW Rumor Roundup

Updated 1/13

There are a tons of rumors flying around about GW releases for 2008, most of this stuff is complied from Bell of Lost Souls and Warseer but some of it is courtesy of what I hear hanging around at the store.

Feb- LotR- Harad Army Book...new Harad Miniatures- Previews are out., The Corsairs of Umbar are awesome...I am grabbing these based on how much I like the models.

March - WFB- Vampire Counts- Full previews are pretty available everywhere.- I'm sold my next WFB army.

April- Plastic Orc Stompa- This has been complete for sometime but they've had trouble fitting the whole thing on 7 sprues which is current box size maximum. the technology created for the Baneblade has opened the door for larger plastic kits, and had enable them to get more stuff on a sprue. So I hear it's done and on 7 sprues waiting for release. Not sure "when" this is actually coming out. April is my speculation. But considering its been done for a awhile now. They probably want it out sooner than later, so "by April" seems ripe.

May- Both Demon books for 40K/WFB...I guess the 40K one will be compatible with the new 5th edition before its even released, seems odd to me but I've read and am told this is happening in May

June- 5th Edition of Warhammer 40,000/ New starter Set Space Marines and Orks a new SM codex. unknown??- however fits the profile of the redone DA, BA and BT codexes talk of redoing the SM codex was in the air at Adepticon 2007, so a new 40K edition and a new SM codex go hand in hand. They dont need to do any new models so it's pretty much a given.

June/ July - WFB- Dark Elves...New Book, New Plastics but not core troops...Little else is known, June is speculation but trying to fill in the gaps considering alternating releases.

July/ Aug- Imperial Guard- New book and some new models like non Forgeworld Death Korp and some other cool stuff., Time slot is speculation on my part. But I hear/read the new guard is coming and way overdue.

I am also told there is big Mordor release for LotR with new models and a new army book, so consider, WFB/ Dark Elves, 40K/ Imperial Guard, and LotR /Mordor the most likely summer releases.

September/ Oct - Planetstrike. New game book for 40K, Large plastic kits and terrain pretty much confirmed. Plastic Valkyrie, Thunderhawk Gunship, Defense Laser, I assume a bunch of other accompanying terrain and buildings, everyone is saying of course plastic drop pods..but I hear they are NOT a done deal (technical issues) While Apocalypse wasn't my cup of tea, as the scale is too big and even team games the turns are just too damn long. Planetstrike sounds very cool, smaller battles with defined missions using flyers sounds great, combined with a new edition of 40K means I will definitely be dusting off my Marines!

That all I can think of right now, I hope there is some new Fantasy Terrain in there somewhere.