Sorry for using the acronym, I thought that was the thing to do……

As for backwards compatibility, I’m sure GW want to sell new models and hatehatehate the thought of the gamers they threw under the bus with The Bland Times and the A$$ of Sickmar using their already existing armies, but then again, this would be the perfect opportunity to dig out those old molds – assuming they weren’t self-destructive enough to toss them – and re-introduce the Mail Order Trolls and their massive archive. What good does it do them if Oldhammerers have to hunt for that 1986 Chaos Champion they wanted but couldn’t afford as a kids on Fleabay, paying exhorbitantly astronomic sums, if they could just as easily sell this same figure themselves on a special order basis, for a somewhat reasonable price ?

Yes, that used to be possible until about the early 00s: You could order models and individual parts no longer in production from them, all metal, cast on demand. That would be something that might even get me to buy ‘new’ GW stuff again, which I haven’t done in nearly 20 years.

I think Empire being the ‘poster boys’ is basically just laziness. I realize that it’s hard to get out of your own head and try to think like an Elf, Dwarf, Skaven or whatever, and much easier to just cartoon the so-called ‘Holy Roman Empire’, but I, for one, would LOVE a boxed set of pre-split Elves and Dwarfs and fluff in which there are still LOTS of Dragons – they’re not all asleep on Ulthuan, waiting to go extinct – and no Empire, maybe even no humans at all.

Thinking back to previous editions, the in my opinion best boxed sets were the first one  – 4th edition – with High  Elves and Goblins (I’d be perfectly happy if they just re-issued that one with no changes, including all the original figures) and number 5 – 8th edition –  the Island of Blood, which may have been the best overall value one, because you got 2 1000-point armies, High Elves and Skaven, complete with Generals, Rat Ogres, wizards ‘n’ stuff.