Warhammer: The Old World – Can We Talk About The Warhammer Day Preview
Warhammer Day was this past weekend and Games Workshop promised big things for The Old World. Did they deliver? Let’s chat.
Hopefully you got to tune in and watch the big reveals for yourself. If not, that’s okay — we had you covered. There were a lot of cool reveals and also some unfortunate announcements. Personally, after the show, I was feeling a little disappointed. There were some cool reveals but also more than a few red flags for me. Let’s start with the good stuff.
The Good – Bretonnia Is Back
Bretonnia is taking front and center with the return of the Old World. Or at least first. They were announced as one of the two armies in the launch box and will be getting a “full range” when the game comes out in early 2024. Oh, that’s right — GW did announce a launch time frame, so that was big news for sure.
They showed off some of the new plastic kits coming along with the game as well. There was a Royal Pegasus kit that is going to do triple duty as three different build options. There’s also a new unit of knights on foot, too.
For fans of Bretonnia, this is great! I’m also liking these new kits. I think GW did a bang-up job with these which is why the rest of these reveals is…disappointing.
The Meh – Returning Kits
It’s unsurprising that GW is bringing back some of the old kits. I’m wondering if they just have a stockpile of them or what. Either way, the old kits are getting repackaged and will also get new bases to match. For example, check out the men-at-arms and peasant bowmen:
Those bases are larger than their previous incarnation. GW had announced that the bases were going up in size so that’s not a huge deal. However, looking at these models on the new bases, I can’t help but notice how…small they are. I mean, compare them to the new foot Knights. The Knights fill the space a lot more than these old kits. While part of me is glad to see them return, I still can’t un-see the differences. The new Knights on foot are new models and are separated by almost 20 years in tech improvements. And it shows.
I know there’s a lot of folks out there that might be nostalgic for these old kits. That’s fine. I get it. However, I was hoping to see more new and improved kits. So I’m just feeling pretty ‘Meh’ about these returning kits as the only ones I’m really looking forward to seeing again are the more recent (still like… 10 years ago) old kits (like the Necrosphinx).
The Bad – Here Comes The Resin and Metal
Games Workshop is also bringing back some of the old metal kits as resin from Forge World. The Field Trebuchet in particular was called out as one of these reprised kits. Additionally, there are the new resin heroes from the line coming, too.
So as far as resin stuff goes…Forge World is fine. However, that probably means you’re not going to see these kits in your FLGS. That’s really going to be disappointing as you’ll have to order these direct from GW/Forge World to get your hands on them. That ultimately means there’s a delay in getting your hands on the models and building your armies for the Old World. If I can’t walk into the store and buy all the models I need to play a functioning army that’s a red flag for me.
And it’s not just resin.
I took a screenshot of the WarCom site instead of the usual quote to prove this isn’t made up:
” a selection of returning metal heroes and specialist units that will be available to order direct from games-workshop.com. “
*BARF* I’m actually shocked that GW is busting out the metal once again. That’s another red flag for me. I’m gonna laugh if they are lead as we’ll literally have come full circle. They won’t be because of health and safety concerns. But man, oh man, it would be a funny moment if they were.
Regardless, working with metal miniatures kinda sucks. You can deform the metal in ways you can’t do with plastic but plastic is a lot easier to work with imo. I don’t want models that weigh a ton and can shatter if they fall over on the tabletop. I don’t want to have to pin everything to ensure they don’t break. And I hate how the model paint jobs can chip easier than plastics. If you like metal minis — great. More power to you. In fact, you can have my imaginary allotment of metal minis. I don’t want them. /rant
Of course that means if you’ve still got your old Bretonnians, congratulations! You’ll be able to bust them out in the Old World with some minor updates (likely bases). For the rest of us this means having to deal with metal miniatures or waiting for extended time to get our hands on direct/made-to-order minis from GW.
The Old World – So What (Now?)
Games Workshop has been working on the Old World for a few of years now. When it was first announced as a Horus Heresy-style “historical” version of Warhammer Fantasy, I kinda of understood that. Then they released map updates and talked about the setting. I got excited about the possibilities. And now, after the model reveals and announcements, I’m feeling deflated. I was hoping we’d see a big relaunch with a ton of new kits and updates. But instead we’re getting a couple new kits, a bunch of older kits, resin miniatures I’ll never order, and metal ones I refuse use.
I don’t know what the launch strategy is for this game now. I’m also not entirely sure who this game is being made for: The old guard that felt betrayed when GW killed Warhammer Fantasy and moved on to other games OR the new(er) batch of AoS players who are getting really cool plastic kits with round bases and don’t need/want to rebase their stuff. And if this is for the folks that still play older/different versions of Warhammer Fantasy, they probably still have their old armies and are doing their own thing anyhow. The Old World was always going to be a tough sell and now I’m genuinely worried about the launch of this game. I hope GW proves me wrong on this one. But for now…
The hype-train just got derailed for me with this preview. I’m sure you’ll let me know why I’m wrong in the comments.
