Despite WHFB still being a reasonably popular game with viable sale figures GW seems to have forgotten about it. With Imperial Knights this week and Adeptus Mechanicus next week, and the months of 40k releases before this, it would be easy for new comers into the hobby to assume that GW only has one game. This is annoying for me and other fans/players of WHFB because there are still 3 armies yet to get 8th ed books, and i am pretty sure this drought isn’t because GW is about to drop WHFB or because its unpopular, my concerns about WHFB’s popularity and sales figures have been put to rest, but that doesn’t help to answer the question of why haven’t we seen anything for WHFB in the past few months?
I have a theory about this. With the conclusion of the End Times and destruction of the Warhammer World (this doesn’t really count as spoilers by now) all current army books have been invalidated fluff wise. For example in the Wood Elf Army book Wild Wood Rangers exists to guard the Wild Wood, however the Wild Wood no longer exists (neither do the rangers) so their reason for being in the Wood Elf book is gone. All we can say with certainly about 9th is that it will have a new setting meaning any of the old army books will be incompatible, what if in the new setting there is no Wild Wood, what happens to that unit entry into the Wood Elf army book?
My theory is that the reason why we haven’t heard anything for Fantasy right now is that GW has been pushing out all its planned 40k release prior to 9th edition coming out because when 9th releases it will come with a Get You By army booklet (similar to Ravening Hordes between 5th and 6thy edition) containing just the bare basics for WHFB armies in 9th edition and that GW will then spend the rest of the year giving releasing full 9th ed books for all WHFB races.
At the end of the day I have nothing to back this theory up but to me it solves a lot of the issues that destroying the Warhammer World caused while at the same time explaining why we have had nothing but non stop 40k for the last few months. And its not like GW hasn’t done the “Get You By” thing before with Sisters of Battle, Blood Angels and Warriors of Chaos all having GYB lists before as well as all the fantasy armies in between 5th and 6th edition.
Regardless of the reason I cant wait to see 9th edition now if only to break up the seemingly endless 40k releases. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy 40k but I enjoy WHFB far more and am eager for anything new and WHFB right now. Until next time.
Rex
No need to panic yet mate. Every WHFB edition has been preceded by a period of "no releases" for approximately 3 months or so. Its a reasonable indication that there will be some changes in the next release that will invalidate existing rules/books, therefore will need a quick errata to update them (think 40k 7th, where a FAQ/errata came out the following days after release). No point in releasing a new army book just to have to release a PDF updating the book months later. GW have said they dont like/want to change rules in books via PDF. We have also just come off a rather intense 6 months of WHFB releases, not everyone's cup of tea, but it happened.
ReplyDeleteThere is still no concrete evidence to suggest anything is being wiped out/reset/squated. For all we know 9th edition could be set "in" the end times leading up to the destruction of everything, therefore nothing is invalidated.
I think June/July is when we will see it drop. That's normally been the traditional period for new edition release for both systems
7th ed 40k was released in June so hopefully come June we will have 9th.
DeleteI would prefer 9th to be set in new warhammer land rather than the old warhammer world right before the end. There are more opportunities in a new setting as opposed to almost dead old one. I wouldn't mind the Ravening Hordes style approach as it would almost be a unwritten agreement that every WHFB army would get a new book before 10th edition
Quiet before the storm I’d say.
ReplyDeleteIt is most likely that 9th will be timed for the northern summer. The rumoured July 11th is start of the school break in the UK according to one blogger (though being an Antipodean I can’t say whether that’s right).
This then sets up stores full of people to whom they can then demo the new game/edition.
Ad Mech is the juggernaut of the moment. They are splitting this whole new faction into more than one codex and engineering a lot momentum (Eldar are a tidy up by comparison). Probably they don’t want too much overlap between that and 9th lest people who play both games feel they have done their cash.
Just wait till we hear 40K-onlys complaining that all is Fantasy for months.
Again I am choosing to be optimistic and hoping this is right.
Optimism is the best thing for this whole situation. Hopefully June/July is the release of 9th. One benefit of this non stop 40k release is that it builds hype for 9th
DeleteAlthiugh 9th is not too far away I am still hoping GW might actually finalise acknowledge chaos dwarfs as a real army
ReplyDelete