WFB 8th Edtion, Apocalypse Now?
The coming of the 8th edition of Wahammer Fantasy Battles this summer, marks a major change in the gaming scene, one that will either make of break WFB, turning it into one of the greatest game franchises ever or a husk of a game.
While local conditions may vary for players overall reports from across the U.S. agree that the popularity of WFB is down, and the game is being played less right now. This has not yet really effected the big events, Lonewolf, Adepticon, and the like are still going strong, though the death of both the Big Waaagh and the Necronomicon should be a warning. Mostly however this recent trend has affected local play at FLGS and the smaller local tournaments. A number of factors have caused this trend, Fantasy has always been less popular in the U.S. then 40k, many players are fed up with the current meta-game, and some players have even grown tired of the 7th edition. Looming over all of this like a giant wargaming spectre is 8th Edition. 8th edition will decided the fate of Warhammer for years to come, possibly forever, making or breaking the venerable juggernaut.
8th edition is what everyone is waiting for, it is holding the Warhammer playerbase in stasis, unable to change or adapt until we have cracked the shinny goodness of a brand new rule book. But 8th edition represents something that all wargamers, all humans fear, change. And what a change it represents. If you believe half the rumors out there 8th is going to be the biggest change to a GW system in over a decade, since at least the change from 2nd to 3rd edition 40k and from 5th to 6th edition WFB. The fundamental shifts to the rules (the turn structure is going to change?!) means that it might well be the greatest change to ever happen to a GW game.
In many ways the arrival of 8th mean that we will be playing a totally new game. All the tactics, tricks and exploited loopholes that have been tired and true staples of the game for the past decade will have to be rethought and reevaluated. The lessons learned by an entire generation of players that have grown up playing 6th and 7th edition will have to be unlearn and relearned. Overall I don’t think most players really understand how much the coming edition will change the game, just how widespread the effects of it will be. This is no small change, no slight rules adjustment, no minor tweaks this is shaping up to be a major rules revision, these are the end times (methphorically speaking).
All this is ultimately good, maybe even totally awesome. We need change, the game has stagnated and just about everyone would agree some change is needed to get the blood pumping again. Game Workshop now has a chance to make the best edition, the best game, they have ever made. They already have an audience, a large player base, they have 25+ years of experience making WFB, they know this game, and if they have listened they know what the players want. More then that they are finally allowing major change, some of them much needed, to take place – they are allowing a real difference to be made.
On top of this they have a hidden advantage, War of the Rings. For those players who never bothered to read the WoTR rules, 8th Fantasy seems like it is taking a lot of great ideas from that game. Many sources say Jeremy Vetock’s WotR ruleset was a broad testbed, with many ideas meant for the next edition of Fantasy. If true, this means that some of the major changes coming to 8th edition from WoTR have the advantage of widespread play-testing for over a year now. This is a huge advantage and something that many players feel has been lacking from some GW products over the years.
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On the other hand GW has a lot to lose with this edition. The player base has a angry mob feel to it, and many have been driven to taking a break from the game. In many locales WFB is a nearly dead game. On top of that GW has some real competition for the first time in… ever. Warmachine is growing in popularity in the first year it’s widely acclaimed 2nd Edition. An edition change for Warhammer is the perfect time for Warmachine to gain marketshare with a quality product. GW has also lost some goodwill from it’s players, price hikes have hurt, slow or iffy FAQs have hurt, and Daemons have made everyone mad. A lot of old veteran Design Studio rules writers have also left since the last Fantasy edition meaning a lot of star talent and solid institutional memory goes with them. Now this could be a good thing, it could allow for some fresh ideas, but it is yet another layer of uncertainty.
All this means that WFB is at a major crossroads. Either it can be a great game and usher in a new golden age of Warhammer, or it could well cripple Fantasy reducing it an secondary tier status game forever in the backseat to 40k. Or I could be blowing smoke, it could be mediocre and just continue to putter along unchanged, or see some slight rise or dip in popularity. Ultimately though I think one thing is pretty: the coming months are bringing major change, and that nothing will ever be the same.
Everthing I’ve been seeing points to 8th edition being totally amazing and making the game much better, I for one egarly await it’s coming. What about you guys though, are you liking what you are seeing and hearing so far? And how do you think it will realistically effect both how and how often you play the game. Iamaddj out.
