Warhammer Fantasy Battle….'returns'??

[piersParticipant 25489xp 7]

Well I shall brush up on the lore while I wait for it.

 

Cant stand KOW so a nice mass battle fantasy game would be handy for me…

 

[coachjose59 2311xp 4]

If its gonna be like the Horus Heresy. That means it’s not ah continuation but a flashback.  Your refighting battles that already happen in that history of the old world.  Just like HH!  They can make books that talk about the detail, but it’s not knew! That being said. It’s still cool to have the option. Maybe we can talk about it I. Two or three years. Since that’s how far away they said it will be!

[limburger 21775xp 0]

@piers Those two books are the only ones that deserve the title ‘Realms of Chaos’ …

//

Rebooting WFB as a ‘historic’ version of AoS sounds like a great idea.
I doubt that anyone who has converted to AoS or a different system is going to want to play it, but that need not be a problem.

In fact it could be the kick in the behind that the setting needed, because it gives them a chance to refresh the setting and ditch the illogical/conflicting background while still keeping the sentiment and overall look&feel.

I doubt they’re going to return to anything that is going to play like WFB ever did.
I’d expect something that I’d label ‘Apocalypse AoS’ using rectangular movement trays instead.
Drop in the lore of ‘the old world’ … and you’re done.
The only thing you’d really need is slightly updated versions of the classic armies, because as nostalgic as the old models were they are not going to sell to the new WFB audience. That might also be the reason why it might take them 2-3 years to do a proper release.

This project may be the only reason why they even bothered to do ‘Cities of Sigmar’ …

btw :

In video games industry lots of games get announced (and cancelled) while they still are a series of pre rendered CGI movies combined with a tech demo. As such I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets cancelled when there’s a change in GW management.

[skiptotheend 4525xp 0]

I don’t understand why anyone would give a monkeys what gw does with any of their IPs, they’ll just trash it for a buck and then bring it back when Kings Of War gets an upsurge. They crapped their pants that everyone was playing skirmish, destroyed their IP and now that rank and flank still has a following they’re bringing it back..

[phaidknott 7027xp 5]

On review it IS interesting how this all might work out…..

Release information that “perhaps” an old favourite might come out, and while things are up in the air gamers might think twice before investing in another fantasy mass battle game (such as Conquest) just in case WFB comes back.

It’s an amazing bit of marketing, your already in competition and you haven’t even released anything yet (even news IF it’s going to be a mass battle game), just an image of a square base.

I imagine, they’ll be keeping this one in the dark for as long as they can 😀

[sdMember 2630xp 1]

Yes, it’s an incredible bit of free marketing and data gathering. The internet has exploded and all it took was a picture of a base. A BASE. Not even a figure or anything substantial. Now GW can sit back and watch all the comments on every online platform, before deciding what they’re actually even going to release. Genius.

[evilstu 15298xp 6]

Just to clarify, WHFB never went away 😉

[horus500 11505xp 3]

GW has been fighting two things about AOS that it’s never been able to resolve until recently, 1st that the players hate the length of time it takes to play a game. Moving so many models take a long time. Many games take just as long as a game of Warhammer used to.

The 2nd is that those same players don’t buy as many models for AoS and they did for WHFB. Have a look at AoS marketing, the pictures have hundreds of models on the table, but no-one plays the game at that scale. The mechanics of the game simply can’t cope.

So what do you do? Ah-Ha! AoS Apocalypse scale. Ranked movement trays (harder to do on round bases but we did it for LotR), whole regiments destroyed in one hit! The players will be forced to buy new movement trays! They’ll have to buy hundreds more models! Screw Mantic, Screw A Song of Ice and Fire! Unlimited sales, UNLIMITED POWER! Muhahahahaha

[limburger 21775xp 1]

GW is 80% of the market.
Everyone else is picking up the crumbs and praying it’s enough to allow them to survive …

ok … maybe not 80%,  but they still have the kind of marketing power and branding that few can match in this industry.

@horus500 who says GW is ‘fighting’ these things at all ?
Things like WarCry / Necromunda / Killteam are means of expanding their potential target audience.
Get their hooks in and then either keep them as customer within that specific range or migrate them to either AoS/40k.
It’s what any sane company would do to ensure profit.

Embracing the ‘old world’ as the AoS equivalent of the Heresy era for 40k falls within that strategy.
So you like AoS … did you know that their was a historic event that you haven’t explored yet ?

Time is a factor for every company in this industry.
It’s why everyone is trying to keep their games in the skirmish – small warband size ranges.
It’s the same reason why KoW allows diorama style basing … as it reduces the time-factor when building the army.

I’d even argue that pure historical systems are a bigger threat to GW than anything in the fantasy/scifi ranges, because if you’r e going to have to change the fluff of your army you might as well use the real world history for inspiration.

[horus500 11505xp 4]

@limburger I see these things from the retailers point of view as well as the gamers. Before WHFB there was what? Before 40K? Killing WHFB created the opportunity for KOW and others that AoS didn’t kill. The return of WHFB could though. Easily. I saw what happened from the retailers side when WHFB died and it wasn’t pretty. All the systems that came after have risen and fallen in the space of a WHFB edition.

It was obvious to everyone in the retail side of the industry that AoS was a collosal cluster-fudge. Before 2nd edition we couldn’t give AoS away at half price, and anyone buying it was using it for KoW.

Then there was the success of KoW. In many conventions there were hundreds of KoW players and elsewhere, places that had previously had hundreds of WHFB players, were trying to decide whether or not to cancel AoS events due to lack of interest. Hobbiests loved the Old World and where possible they wanted it to continue, so it appeared in KoW.

The other thing that many people without the retailers perspective wouldn’t realise is how much impact licencing had. When Warhammer Total War came out there was a pamphlet in the box saying sometime like “You’ve played the game, look at the models” and it was the picture of an Empire vehicle. What freaked more than a few retailers out was how many people who had no idea about the mini games came in and asked, only to be disappointed to find out the game and the setting it was in was dead.

Go back 10 years and GW dominated the historical rules scene for ancients, dark ages, medieval, Wild West and WWI too. If they had produced historicals in 28mm I doubt companies like Warlord would exist. If they hadn’t given up rank and flank fantasy combat I doubt Mantic would still exist. They created gaps and Ex-GW staff (and others) filled them. Like the late Roman Empire in retreat they let the barbarians in. The Evil Empire started to collapse.

The reality is that Bad old GW is only 5 years dead. No social media, telling customers they were idiots, refusing to resurrect old favourites. There was nothing wrong with AoS, no need for a points system. No-one wants to use the old minis! Oh and anyone that thinks we are losing money is a fool! But they did lose money. Old favourites did get revived. Social media was embraced and AoS 2nd Ed tore the initiative out of the other companies hands and left it with GW once again. As they reclaim fantasy football, skirmish games, Epic scale warfare and LotR, I fully expect them to re-conquer Rank and Flanks warfare and possibly even things like fleet warfare (BFG, Mo’W). They will continue to delve into cards, RPGs, board games, computer games, movies and more. The only real questions for me is when, are they quality products and whether a resurgent GW is  the in the industry’s best interests.

 

 

[sathrin 2073xp 0]

When the announcement hit, my first thought wasn’t going back to The Old World but creating something to be played in The Age of Myth.

The Age of Myth happens before the AoS but still takes place within the Mortal Realms. Before Chaos rocks up but in a world that’s still very primal and untamed, could have a more historical gaming feel, or a different flavour of high fantasy entirely.

That being said I love the old world setting, and more content is always nice to look at.

 

Although, I think what excited me most was the last lines of the article: There are some HUGE (some might say giant) plans for the Mortal Realms… More news soon. For now, we have to keep it hysh-hysh.

Hysh! We’ll see what Tyrion has been up to! As a High Elf player, I’m pumped for that.

[phaidknott 7027xp 0]

Nevermind me, trying to make sense at 5am is never a good idea 🙁

[redbenParticipant 9415xp 2]

Mantic and Warlord exist due to the LotR crash. It sent out longtime management staff who founded their own companies. Both those companies were founded years before either WH was closed down or WFB was brought to an end.

[soldaanParticipant 299xp 0]

Lol what stupid. I don’t think me and my mates are going to play. We play a lot of 9th age, they’re doing a great job and there are a lot of events being organized for it. For now I’ll stick to that.

Cheers

[torros 23820xp 0]

Go back 10 years and GW dominated the historical rules scene for ancients, dark ages, medieval, Wild West and WWI

I would find that hard to believe given the domination of The DBx series and Field of Glory at that time in  ancients, dark ages, medieval

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