The Two Game Solution

Recent WHFB 9th ed rumours have suggest that we will see 2 versions of 9th ed WHFB, one skirmish game and one massed battles game. To me this is a smart move for GW as it allows people who love both WHFB and massed battles to continue playing Warhammer and using their armies as they behave them now in massed battles, it also allows people who love skirmish games a way to play skirmish warhammer using a office rules set. And with the apparent popularity of skirmish games it will bring new players into WHFB and make GW more money while at the same time keeping WHFB what it always has been and not pissing off people who like WHFB as it is now (and as it has been for the past 8 editions).

There is another benefit to having a WHFB Skirmish game, it allows new players to have a cheaper, smaller scale entry point into Warhammer. If the Skirmish game uses rules from the army books it will also allow players who have a army to try out others before deciding on what army to do next.

If GW goes through with this idea then I will be very happy. My original objections to the idea of 9th ed being a purely skirmish game wasn’t due to me not liking skirmish games, I happen to love Mordheim, it came from the idea that my favourite wargame would no longer receive any official support from its creator, that we would never see the next edition of the Wood Elf army book. In practical terms that’s no big deal as there was nothing stopping, me from counting to play 8th ed WHFB using the books up until Nasgash. But with the solution I won’t have to, it’s the “Why can’t we have both” solution and if GW goes with it and 9th edition WHFB has rules for massed battles and skirmish then that will be another step in the right direction for GW in my books. Until next time. 
Rex