Games Workshop Explore The Warhammer Old World & Kislev!
March 24, 2020 by brennon
Games Workshop are still keeping a lid on exactly what shape the Warhammer Old World will be in when they return to it in the future but the latest preview gave us a peek a lesser-known army that is getting a revamp, Kislev.
Ruled over (before the world blew up) by Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the warriors of Kislev are the ones who held the bastion against the forces of Chaos and Norsca that constantly hammer on the doors of the Old World and The Empire. Whilst human men and women, if you were to ask a Kislevite they would in no uncertain terms describe themselves as hardier and more tested than the men of the South.
Their inspiration draws from a lot of Cossack and Eastern European influences as you'll no doubt see in the designs here. This is some of the concept art by Mark Bedford as he worked on the Ice Guard, a new unit which will join the ranks of Kislev when the new (old?) game releases.
Able to draw on the powers of the Ice Witch, Tzarina Katarin Bokha herself, the Ice Guard are able to wreath the tips of their arrows and blades of their weapons in chilling ice which makes them even more deadly on the tabletop no doubt!
It certainly seems like we're going to be seeing some changes alongside some old favourites when it comes to The Old World and whatever form Warhammer Fantasy Battles takes. I for one think that they are going to take a smaller-scale approach to the game and keep it mass battle but tweak the scale to 15mm or maybe even smaller and look to the scale of 10/12mm in Warmaster.
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This means that the game stays distinct from Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar and also means that they avoid the ire of a lot of folks who have rebased their miniatures! Also, I think that Games Workshop and Forge World have proved they can do this smaller scale well (Adeptus Titanicus etc) so why not embrace it and do something new?
What direction do you think they'll take?
"Also, I think that Games Workshop and Forge World have proved they can do this smaller scale well (Adeptus Titanicus etc) so why not embrace it and do something new?"
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It’s a new unit, but as their army only had half a dozen units it’s no shock. The last time Kislev got an army book was 6th edition and that was wafer thin. That said the Middlehammer and 6th edition Facebook pages exploded last night.
Does seem a good idea to touch on an element of The Old World which wasn’t as well invested in the first time around. Certain to draw a lot of attention to whatever game they end up making!
Ah the Old World. What a great setting. About time someone made a miniatures game for it!
I see what you did there 😉
Yeah I know, the salt is strong with this one 🙂
I really like the look of these! I am curious to see how the Old World turns out if they spend as much time and effort fleshing out every faction like Kislev.
Kislev were a good army in Warmaster from memory
I did despair when GW destroyed the Old World.
I hadn’t played in it for decades, but had fond memories of the battle game (2nd Edition with Ravening Hordes) and the RPG.
And I despaired even more when I saw the stormcast marines.
Unless the two player starter box has two good armies (and past experience has taught that start box has one good and one lame) I’ll not be buying.
Nice concept the remain me of the Harad troops a bit.
Workshop are on an extended raid through their own back catalogue and are cherry picking all of their best ideas that didn’t get fully explored. Kislev is a great setting and I’m planning on going large on this when we see it. There is obviously some money to be made here, Blackstone Fortress is doing the same thing for the 40K back catalogue and is clearly doing very well. Nostalgia is a powerful pull but the longevity of this project will be dependent on the game system they put behind it. Blackstone Fortress is a good game and that keeps… Read more »
I definitely think it’s a good thing that GW is exploring a lot of their older ideas. While the things we have nowadays are nice, there’s literally a whole universe of things to explore outside of your basic space marines, Chaos forces, and assorted standard aliens. I came into 40K in the Assault on Black Reach generation, so I missed out on a lot of GW’s goofy experimental stuff; it’s nice to see it all coming back for a new generation and with a new spin on their sculpts.
Won’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Just can’t trust these guys anymore.
What exactly happened to sour you on GW this much?
About 100.000 models for Fantasy and 40K, and 1.000.000 euros in End Times etc.
Like the design though A human army that has a magical unit and ice weapons seems very AoS not the bleak ‘normal ‘old world of 3rd-6th editions. Hoping for some more grit and dirt on the next reveal.
The original Kislevs were more like the old Hunnic steppe tribes
I don’t think it’s too different from what we already had in WHFB. Like with the Empire- you had “normal” troops like knights, pikemen, cannon crews, handgunners, etc., but then you had fantastic units like steam tanks and battle wizards. The only thing that separates AoS from WHFB outside of the aesthetic change is that the “magic” aspect is more heavily prevalent; in the Old World it was still there, it was just relegated to specialist mage units.
I’m always surprised when people think that Old World wasn’t magical when you see ideas and models produced for it, like ManOWar’s grabby-claw orc ships or flying castles… It’s as if people latch on to the flanderized vision of the setting they have in their head.
With you on that one, a bit worried on how much the current AoS aesthetic is going to carry over onto any Old World models. Sure you got magical weapons in Warhammer, but they were normally limited to the Hero models (rather than the rank and file). Still you can always cut away any AoS “silliness” with a pair of clippers. On another note an all female “elite” unit? I do hope we don’t end up with too many of them (OK so I’m not “woke”), because even tho it’s the fantasy “Old World” it still had it’s root in… Read more »
Maybe a tad too early to moan, but while I like the characters, how about giving them a weapon that, you know, actually works like a composite bow used by steppe nomads. In here they’re going too close to ‘three string’ territory…
As much as I would like to see more “traditional” medieval fantasy setting, with low to mid levels of magic. I don’t see that happening at all, too easy to use other companies miniatures as proxies or even past edition miniatures. Make no mistake, GW is only doing this to sell miniatures. End of story. So the more extravagant, or in this case magic themed, are going to be the normal. Much easier to copy right/Trademark that kind of thing. Also, for note. While I am sure you will be able to use old miniatures in the game, I have… Read more »
I’d settle for a re-release of the Bretonnians. They’re getting pretty dear on eBay.
A bit torn on this one. Having run an entire Kislev campaign in Warhammer Roleplay, they have a very special place in my heart, thematically and aesthetically. It doesn’t surprise me that the first unit we see are an entire squad of ice-wielding amazon battle mages. Meh I suppose the rest of the army will be people riding bears, definitely some kind of bear shape-shifter, an ice golem, and probably some Hussars riding falcons. I doubt the days of average folks trying to survive in this world will come back. It will probably only be trademark-friendly AoS-lite armies, but I… Read more »
I’m tempted to think that Games Workshop is returning to the Old World of earlier versions of the Warhammer Fantasy setting, but it would appear that even if that’s what they are attempting to do that they can’t help being high fantasy AOS/later edition WFB about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this version of the Old World is a realm (or made into a realm) of the Age Of Sigmar setting; a remnant of the ‘World That Was’ (or whatever they are calling it) that has survivied.