Whole Old World... The Return of Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Warhammer Fantasy Battles, for many Games-Workshop Hobbyists and miniature gamers was "The Game" that others would be compared to. While never reaching the same financial heights of it's off-spring Warhammer 40,000, WFB held a certain level of perstige for being the game that started the Games-Workshop hobby as we know today.

Unfortunately, the game was ultimately discontinued in 2015 due to a variety of factors (perhaps a future article) and was replaced with a new ruleset, miniature line and theme (farther in the timeline).

On November 15, 2019, Warhammer Community announced the return of the Warhammer Fantasy Intellectual Property as a miniature game in this article here https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/.

What I wanted to do with this post is explore the potential outcomes and speculate on the realities of bringing back this property.

Why bring it back?
While Warhammer Fantasy Battles was being sent into retirement, multiple video games were released using the IP, Mordheim, Vermintide and Total War: Warhammer to name the most successful ones. Oddly enough, the IP became arguably more popular in regular culture than the original miniature game. Another side effect of removing the miniature game was the orphaning of the substantial collection of Warhammer Fantasy Battle novels, now relabelled as Warhammer Chronicles. So basically it was more popular than ever and there was minimal material or products for this new audience to consume, not to mention there was no longer any tension left since the world "was ended" during the end times. It makes sense for them to bring back the IP and to revisit the theme as Warhammer: The Old World. As GW grows more, they need to look at ways to constantly be growing each year and this is an easier way to control that growth using a product people already know.

Part of the equation is trying to understand the new role this product will play going forward in the grand scheme for Games-Workshop. Rumours on the net refer to Forge World (owned by GW, but is a separate company) under-going internal restructuring. The timeline for the release of the new Warhammer also seems to line up to the completion of Forge World's Horus Heresy campaign product line. Part of the issue with Old Warhammer was that being a mainline product for the company the expectations to sell are much higher. By becoming a specialist game it will have the chance to cater more to its audience and expectations can be lower.

So let's explore the game studios available options

Bring back the old game with minimal edits
Games Workshop chose this approach with the recent re-release of Blood Bowl, where they made slight rules edits, but kept it primarily the same game people have been playing for 30 years.
The last edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles was arguably the most controversial edition change in Warhammer's history. A lot of the crowd that loved the game say that 8th Edition was the reason the game died. While it can be easy to argue that point, it can be said that the Mass Battle Gaming Format as a whole is more niche when compared to other miniature gaming systems. Needing several units of 40 models or more, combined with the emphasis on buying giant centre piece models made WFB very pricey. While simply making a 9th edition of the game called: Warhammer: The Old World is an option, the potential player base could be divided if they prefer older editions of the game. Also at this point in time there's no way to know what miniatures will be useable in the new game. I think it's fair to say certain miniature ranges will be reinvented and will only be available in The Old World. 

Create a spiritual successor game, using the IP
Several years back Games-Workshop brought back Necromunda, but the game was more of spiritual successor to the previous game. The reception at the time was mixed, but players quickly embraced the new game. I feel that Games-Workshop will take this approach since it offers the most options for both the new and returning player base. Since the departure of Warhammer, there's been many products looking to take its place. Kings of War brought the idea of streamlined regimental movement and abstract basing (making units into dioramas that degrade overtime). A Song of Ice & Fire brought forward the idea of outside game influences and character event card decks to change the board state. The late Runewars: Miniature Game, came with stat cards, custom bases and movement templates. The catch for the Games Workshop game designers will be how can they keep the scale of the game reasonable and approachable for new and old fans.

Here's some of the possible pitfalls
-Modern innovations remove interest for the original target audience, who want the old ruleset.
-What's the entry point, will players bother with low point games?
-Maintaining excitement in a setting that has a defined ending point.

The return of the Old World is exciting and here are some of my gameplay wishlisting

What I would like changed:
-Movement. While the old movement rules weren't broken, they created so many moments of conflict in our local community. Simple is better in my experience.
-Formations. Similar to movement, the formation rules were open to so much abuse and honestly it was rare that a unit ever wanted to reform. Conga Line anyone?
-Attack allocation. Units of characters would cause so much anxiety. You would have to allocate all your attacks individually. Cool rules if a unit had minimal characters, but was open to abuse since you could force a character to be in the second row, making it impossible to attack them.
-Leadership and Morale. What morale? The majority of armies simply ignored it.
-Magic. Not to beat an old horse, but people really disliked the instant win spells...

Final Thoughts
Lots to look forward to and honestly I'm glad that Warhammer Fantasy will be returning in some form in the not too distant future. I am happy that new versions of old kits will be returning, which will lead to so many model conversion opportunities. Time will tell, but welcome back Warhammer.

Adam: Twitter @ATT64