28mm, Square Bases & More; Big Warhammer: The Old World Update
July 21, 2021 by brennon
Games Workshop dropped a pretty neat update this week for Warhammer: The Old World. They not only have us a bit more confirmation on the time period that this will be set in but also revealed a few more details too for this Fantasy mass battle wargame.
Warhammer: The Old World // Games Workshop
So, one of the big things about the latest update came in the form of a few questions answered. Warhammer: The Old World will...
- Be on Square Bases and follows a similar Rank & File format
- It will be in 28mm scale allowing you to use your old armies (sorry not sorry to all the idiots who burnt their armies)
- Will feature rules and mechanics from 3rd Edition all the way through to 8th Edition and will be a twist on a familiar format
- Will be some time away still so make sure to dust off those models but keep them in storage
All good news to a lot of people who still have their Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies. I still have some Dwarfs lying around that could come out of retirement.
The Setting - Warring Emperors & A Great Invasion
Warhammer: The Old World is also going to be set several hundred years before The End Times. This is not the time of Karl Franz but instead looks to be the era of The Three Emperors and the rise of Magnus The Pious as the first true Emperor of The Empire.
Warhammer: The Old World Map // Games Workshop
This means that we get to see a period of history within Warhammer lore which has never really been explored in any great depth. We will be able to see whole new forces and characters tome to the tabletop whilst also allowing for freshly reworked factions like Kislev (and Grand Cathay).
This is also good news if you're a fan of Mordheim. This was the time period where The City Of The Damned was still very much a thing. That means we might find Games Workshop revisiting it alongside the mass battle wargame.
Are you going to be checking it out when it relaunches?
"We will be able to see whole new forces and characters tome to the tabletop whilst also allowing for freshly reworked factions like Kislev (and Grand Cathay)..."
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The lack of a launch date is a bit…. odd. But if they keep going they like they are currently then it’ll be sold out day 1 and then out of production….
Feels like this is going to be a bit more of a full product range than previous big, special things. Plus, I would imagine they are hedging their bets so they aren’t locked into a launch date they don’t/can’t hit
I guess not giving a release date when all is uncertain is something I can get behind… then again: they put a lot of emphasis on “user your old stuff” so just sell rulebooks already 😉
They have been stringing the community along for years now. They clearly intend to continue that for years to come. Personally I think they are worried that enough people will leave AoS that neither game system will be as profitable as a single game would be.
A game that isn’t going to have massive changes, that is made up of old rules, will use old miniatures lines shouldn’t take 5+years to create
The cynic in me says they’ll wait until KoW 4th Ed is to be released and then swamp all media’s with it to drown it out…
To be honest, I am more likely to just use old edition rules and then job done, nothing more to pay for.
Look at how they reissued Necromunda… A big expensive box set that (supposedly) had everything you needed to play, then drip feeding additional rules to empty your wallets repeatedly. I’m not falling for that one again.
Could well be the case – shall have to wait and see. In the end, if the rules aren’t to folks liking then it will at least be good to know that we are (well, I hope) getting a return of miniatures from The Old World.
Then – can just use those new miniatures to play 8th 🙂
You misspelt 6th 😉
I think I still have my huge Skaven army in my Mother’s loft!
Might have to have a nosy up there when I am next visiting. Although I suspect the enamel paint / match stick approach I took to painting might not have aged well…. then again it might look better than the nonsense I am churning out these days!!! ha ha
Only waited 30+ years for my half orcs and Hobgoblins to come back.
Bit disappointed that the scale will remain the same but if we are going with that then I want this to be a love letter to us old grognards. I want minimum books, maybe even just the one book, I want the new miniatures to be the design look of old, none of that over the top modern GW design and I’d love, and this is really pushing things, for them to release some of the models in metal (gosh). Also depending on how they do the armies (and the miniatures) there are a lot more high quality fantasy models… Read more »
Great for the oldhammer player’s out their.
Glad I thought better of the “cor the Old World would make a great setting for a miniatures game” snark on the Old World Card Game post.
What do you mean I just made it here? Oh I guess I did.
Seriously I have one or two Empire minis waiting its return.
I think going with the 28mm scale so people could use their old armies was the right move… BUT I have to admit that the thought of a smaller scale game that people were speculating on really captured my imagination for a while there. I saw fleets of dragons moving across the table, squads of giants batting them out of the air… there was a lot of potential for some crazy stuff. Still, I do get why they went the 28mm route and it sounds like the game should deliver what a lot of people want. Maybe a small-scale one… Read more »
“you can use your old armies” … LOL nope … well maybe the orks, elves and dwarves can. Kislev never had a big army either, did they ? Then again I only know 3rd edition. Empire as we know it doesn’t exist according to that map, which means all the old human factions are going to get a re-design. And I kind of doubt they get to keep crazy tech like Steampowered tanks … Also consider how much the real world changed over a few hundred years. I know it is ‘fantasy’ and all, but some grounding in reality would… Read more »
I agree with the notion that WFB needed a proper remake.
We can all like or dislike certain aspects of the rules, systems and editions. But every edition built upon another and the ruleset felt, to me, very bloated and difficult to use. It was alright when I was a teenager, but now Id like a ruleset without so many “rule speed bumps”. Without being as simple(not simplistic) as Kings of War. I like the core rules and playing KoW, but the army lists feel to similar.
Yep … like 40k 8th edition and Age of Sigmar.
Good simple rules, easy to grasp … until the codexes and new models/factions got released.
I’d argue that something as simple as changing the default D6 to a D10 could have prevented a lot of the needlessly complexity that was added.
I like what i’ve seen of The Old World so far, and i like where they are going with the choice of era and their willingness to reconstruct The Old World and to recentre the focus somewhat. I’m not sure what i think of the scale. In part it depends what “the same as it ever was” means. Does it mean a true to scale 28mm miniatures range or does it mean an ever increasing, ’28mm’ (sic.) ‘heroic’ scale that’s more in line with the rest of the current Games Workshop miniature ranges? I’m potentially interested in the former. I’d… Read more »
Bam ?
Well it’s nice to hear about this one considering how long it has been since they announced this. It helps to sure us that they didn’t drop project and are still on it.
Looking forward to this but looks like we are going to have to wait for another age before they are ready to go. I’ll probably dodge most of the new models and roll out my Warmaster Kislevites for this. Should be fun 🙂
I’m looking forward to the models. Hopefully get a few re-releases so I can finish my high elves (for KoW of course)! Only thing that’s got me worried is the cost. Almost $100 AUD for 5 AoS elves, how will I afford a unit!
Square bases yes… but they did not absolutely specifically confirm that the new bases will be the same size. Just that you can use old armies… 😉
As a person who through sheer coincidence bought the Island of Blood set a month or so before AoS came out and has since procrastinated over how to base the models this brings an answer.
I wonder if we will see all the black powder weapons disappear
Finally I have a reason to open the 5th edition starter set I picked up in ’96.
Do you think that the Realm of Chaos expansion set will be compatible?
@brennon Admittedly I have played only one 40k game since GW blew up the Old World and have been away from the hobby until a few years ago but does it seem odd that a company that has produced so many lovely rulebooks with pretty awful rulesets to support their miniature sales drives is talking about producing a use your old miniatures ruleset? I mean this is the same company that prompted some of their more deranged clients to field 7 hive tyrants in version 8 40K. Even now I am thinking about getting the Kill Team Octarius set to… Read more »
someone burned a Dark Elf army and put it on youtube, some people are morons though.
I have to agree with you, the games you’ve mentioned are all more attractive than WFB. Focusing on armies rather than expensive heroes and gotcha mechanics.
Lol…yes indeed. GW mechanics…spend an hour putting out terrain and deploying Ultramarines…roll poorly an d go second (which is my special skill)…spend the next 30 minutes learning all about the joys of alpha strike…load up and go home…but no way do I wreck my armies…had to drag my WoC, tyrannids and Ultramarines a thousand miles to a place that never even heard of 40K but strangely resembles the frozen Chaos wastes at times…even had to give the tyrannids mufflers (the big sissies) but no way am I ever getting rid of them. Fun with OnePageRules, Star Breach and am developing… Read more »
Ooooo, will this provide me with the motivation to finally finish my Dogs of War army?
I’m finishing mine, but only to use them as League of Rhodria
And that will be in Kings of War then? Or are you moving your League into the new Old World (not to be confused with the old New World)? The Border Princes gave a perfect excuse to make up any Dogs of War army. I wonder whether/hope it will be possible to do something similar in the upcoming world. Otherwise, I will have to use the forces of the Fair Republic of Mosiezze elsewhere…
for KoW yes, funnily enough, my own DoW are also based on Border Princes, a lot of full and demi plate going on
Having fully converted to Kings of War with even my classic Warhammer dwarfs being multi-based now, I just want to see some nice character models I can use in KoW. It would be good for me too if they re-release some of their older plastic regiment boxed sets.