Warhammer: The Old World – More Setting Info And Rules News
Games Workshop shares a bit more info about the setting of Warhammer: The Old World and hints at the ruleset for the game.
It’s a been a bit since we last heard about Warhammer: The Old World. We’ve been impressed with the amount of art that’s been shared and the map that’s been worked on thus far. But we’ve also been wondering about the game itself and which ruleset it would be using. Would it be an updated 8th edition? Perhaps a revamp of an older 6th edition? Would they reach back to the earliest days and make it a Warhammer Fantasy Battles throwback edition? Turns out…none of those. Here’s what GW is saying about the Old World.
Rob Alderman, Warhammer Studio: We’ve hinted at the unprecedented amount of work that has gone into this new game and its setting. In candlelit secrecy behind the great oaken portcullis doors of the Warhammer Studio, the Old World team has dedicated countless hours to research and playtesting. Our goal was to create a game that captures the best elements of all the editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but at the same time providing new and exciting rules, and fresh challenges to overcome.
If we’re reading into that correctly (and we’re pretty sure we are) then Warhammer: The Old World is going to be a new system/edition of Warhammer: Fantasy Battles. I’m very curious to see what the game designers are looking to keep and what else they are looking to incorporate into the game. Taking all the “best elements of all the editions” of Warhammer Fantasy and remixing them with “new and exciting rules” sounds…promising.
We know they are looking to bring back some of the rank-and-file style gameplay as well as square bases. I’m wondering if they are looking to add some Age of Sigmar elements like the changes to the stat lines just to streamline things a bit. We’ll have to see what they come up with.
The Old World Setting
GW also dropped some info on the setting of Warhammer: The Old World. While the game does take place in the same setting of The-World-That-Was it doesn’t take place at the same time. We’re not at the cusp of the End Times again. Besides, that story has already been told in great detail. No, this time around we’re going back in time a bit.
Rob: This led us to events well known to fans of the Old World, the Great War Against Chaos and the Siege of Praag, two centuries before the End Times. More precisely, we decided to look into the decades prior to this legendary world-changing event. In those years before the Chaos Lord Asavar Kull led his armies south against the nations of Men and Dwarfs, the Empire of Man was not the unified nation that bravely faced the armies of Archaon that players of Warhammer Fantasy Battle will remember. Instead, it was deeply divided and ravaged by war following long centuries without the unifying presence of a single Emperor.
While the canvas isn’t completely empty, the designers have found a spot that’s got a lot of implied history. Plus it’s a 200 year chunk of time to play around in. The “Empire” isn’t yet a thing and the city-states are really out for themselves. The other nations are also having their own issues and we still have rampaging Orcs and Goblins, scheming Skaven, and the looming threat of Chaos to the North.
GW also didn’t go into any details about the Undead, Elves, Dwarves, or Lizardmen during this era. And you can bet those factions were up to “things” 200 years before the End Times.
Rob: While we know that the Empire would ultimately unify under the leadership of the great Magnus the Pious and turn back the armies of Chaos, at what cost will this unity come? There are many stories to tell of the years before the Great War against Chaos, and the desperate ruination of the End Times. Truly, Warhammer: the Old World promises to reveal much about the world that was, in ways sure to captivate fans of the Old World old and young…
The setting of the Old World does sound like a fertile place to generate new stories. It’s got a big narrative event looming and that helps tie it into the former storyline. At the same time those events are far enough out that they won’t smother this setting either.
We can’t wait to see how this works out with the rules and the rest of the setting. Warhammer: The Old World is coming…
