‘Warhammer: The Old World’ Is The Best Game GW Has Made In A Decade

THE OLD WORLD IS BACK! GW poured their all into it, and it was worth the wait. REALLY!

Four years after it was announced, we finally have Warhammer: The Old World in our hands. The game will ship in a couple of weeks, but Games Workshop was kind enough to send us a copy to review. And so, for the TLDR, this game is good. Really good. It’s both a major throwback to older GW games and a departure from their current philosophy. If you were an old Warhammer Fantasy player, especially through 6th and 7th edition, this game is for you. But let’s go ahead and dig in a bit more as to why this game rocks.

A Familiar Game

Players of old editions of Warhammer Fantasy are going to be very comfortable with The Old World. While it’s billed as a whole new game, it is, rules-wise, much more like a new edition of the old Warhammer Fantasy game. In fact, I’d say it’s more a successor to the 7th Edition than the 8th Edition was. So, if you already know the rules of old WFB, you will pick up these ones pretty quickly. It’s not that there are no changes – there are plenty. It’s more that things generally work the same as they did before. If you think you know how something works, it honestly likely works about the same way. There is, however, a lot more granularity added into things. So returning players will still want to be careful when reading the rules, as things have changed.

But, An Updated WHFB Game

As I’ve mentioned before, the Old World draws a lot of other great GW games. This is an updated game, and while it has a lot of nostalgic feel to it, it’s still something new and different. There is a reason to play this over an older edition of WFB. It’s arguably a deeper game WFB was, or at least was in its last several editions. A lot of depth and granularity has been added to the game. One example of this is how units have been split into a lot more types, There are now four types of cavalry instead of just one. Each of these has slightly different rules and works a bit differently. It really lets them tailor broad categories of units to have distinct feels.

This increased granularity, and options, have also been used in units. Units have a lot more options than they had before. In fact, a lot of units now have the option to upgrade themselves by buying rules from the new USRs. So you might upgrade a unit to be a veteran or drilled unit. You might have a unit gain skirmish or fight in a more open order. Couple that with magic items and weapon options, and you can really make each unit you own unique. Multiply units of the same type can act very differently on the table, this opens up just a lot of options.

A Game Worth Playing

If you like rank and flank, or rank and file, games, The Old World is worth playing. This is a pretty in-depth and tactical game. It is not one that’s just about rolling the most dice and killing the most things. It’s a game of maneuver and tactics. Ultimately the Old World creates a series of constraints, how you can build an army, how you can move a unit, how you can fight. It’s up to the players then to figure out how to work within those constraints and outwit each other.  It can take time to master the game system, but it will also be really rewarding once you’ve mastered it. So if you like that kind of game. Or any kind of big-ranked-up battle game, this is worth playing.

How is Warhammer: The Old World At Launch?

Warhammer: The Old World is launching with a much smaller lineup than Warhammer Fantasy ended with. Only nine of the factions are represented, and only two have models out right now. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room to expand. A number of old factions have been placed into the legacy category and have only very limited support right now. Its possible that these could get moved to core factions down the road. However, there is also room to add brand new armies into the game. Both Cathay and Kislev have been teased, and have sections of lore in the rule book. Either of these armies could see a release in the future. We might even see brand new factions, or some from Warhammer Total War get added.

At the end of the day, if the Old World does well, there is a lot of room for expansion. Right now there’s no reason this game shouldn’t do well. It’s got great bones, and the team at GW has built on them well. This is a game that was clearly made with love and attention and draws from the best elements of decades of GW rank and file rulesets, from WFB, to Warhammer Ancient Battles and beyond. In a lot of ways it stands as a contrast to other GW games that often don’t get this much love, or time, given to them. So give it a try, support it, and let us see how this game can develop. It was worth the wait.

Warhammer: The Old World Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Let us know if you plan on giving the game a try, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.