GW: Which Armies to Cut?
There is a LOT of talk about the future of Warhammer involving fewer armies. But who gets the “axe”?
A Tough Sell
Retailers and gamers who watch the trends have noticed that Warhammer is in a tough situation. Even the latest GW annual statement made reference to the grand old dame of GW, Warhammer Fantasy being overshadowed by her younger sibling – 40K.
For over 12 months now, the rumormongers have been saying that the giant shakeup of Warhammer was coming, followed by a smaller set of army books to make the game easier to support going forward for GW.
The Beginning of the Cull
The End Times looks to be the start of that shakeup.
Take for example the undead:
Nagash (spoilers) not only unifies both of the Tomb Kings and Vampire counts by force, he kills the Tomb Kings God of the Underworld, and takes his power, making himself the source of their entire system of magic. The Nagash book introduces a new army called the Undead Legions, that combines both current army books.
It doesn’t take a magnifying glass to see the writing on the wall for those two army books. The smart bet says that when its time for an army book update, there will only be one – reuniting a faction that used to share a single book for many editions.
So that’s ONE less armybook for Fantasy.
The Great Merge?
So what are the others?
If the talk of End Times: Khaine and some type of Elven reunification-decimation occurs, you can shave off another one or even two army books.
At the end of only Book 1 of the End Times, both Bretonnia and the Empire are aflame. What’s left of the kingdoms of men and their stalwart neighbors the Dwarfs may be forced together for mere survival after Chaos is done with them.
Chaoswise – combining Daemons, Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen is a no-brainer.
Then you hit the tricky part – the oddball races of the: Lizardmen, Ogres, Orks& Goblins, and Skaven. A case can be made that Skaven are basically a form of Beastmen, and obviously have that strong chaos/warpstone link. But as an army, they are pretty different and unique, so rolling them in with Chaos might not fly. The other three really share nothing with any other race, and it would be hard to see any of them rolled into another combined faction.
It’s a tough nut to swallow, but the rumors keep on coming and one way or the other, it looks like several Warhammer factions are going to not survive the End Times as standalone forces.
~How would you combine the races if you had to cut the army books by half (to 7), or to a third (to 5)?
