‘Warhammer: The Old World’- The Game’s Five Biggest Rules Issues

Take a look at some of the biggest issues Warhammer: The Old World is having with its rules. GW, we need a fix for these fast!

To be honest this isn’t really an article I want to write. I really love the Old World. I’m glad a version of Warhammer Fantasy is back, and I love playing. On top of that I think the being positive about the game is much better for it then endlessly nitpicking. But love of a game does make you want it to be better and to do that we have to examine some of the issue the game is facing.

Now let me be up front, I am still having a ton of fun with Old World. I still think it’s one of GW’s best games, it scratches my old Warhammer Fantasy itches pretty well. But it’s not perfect. Nine months in and we’ve done a lot of stress testing and some issues are clear, to the community at least. Some of this might be working as intended. GW has been putting out regular FAQs, but they don’t always help as much as they should.

So today let’s look at some of the big picture issues plaguing the game. I’m looking at stuff larger than X one unit is broken or X special rule is overpowered. However I might do articles on both those things in the future! No, these are bigger picture issues that are fundamentally taking the game in a direction I don’t think most players want. In addtion, today I’m just going to look at what the issues are. Talking about any fixes will be a more in-depth issue. Let’s dig in.

5. Spam, Spam, Spam

It’s a tale as old as time, a GW game is dealing with spam issues. Spam put simply is when an army take a ton of copies of the same thing, normally a very good or very efficient unit. It can be filling out core with twelve 5-model skirmishing units. Maybe it’s taking 8 units of single Dragon Ogre champions instead of large units. It could be taking 16 Gyrocopters. Spam pops up all over the place and is a real issue, both in spamming MSU (multiple/many small units) or just only taking the best options.

I think the only times GW has a really good handle on Spam was in a few games that have/had really strict army building options. Old World however has pretty loose ones. A lot of groups and events have adopted a version of the Rule of Three to fight spam. Now I’m not a fan of it, as I think it’s poorly applied, but some thing should be done to tone this down.

4. Magic Spam

One of the worst, and also hardest to combat, forms of spam is magic spam. It’s gotten bad enough that’s earned its own spot on this list. An example of how bad this can be can be seen in my article on the five best armies in the game. Three of those, and arguable four, work by spamming magic. These types of list all focus on throwing out just a ton of spells, and often in ways the enemy can’t stop. Some of them get their power from getting casters that aren’t heroes, such as Wood Elves and Daemons. This lets them cheat in how much magic they can bring. Other armies, such as TK (and also Daemons), simply get a crazy amount of buffs to casting. This lets them bring a normal amount of magic but get a lot more of it off.

The second version, is arguably the harder one to address and the bigger issue. While some rules that limit spamming units can hold you back from taking too many non-character casters, they tend to not affect the crazy buff armies. However both of these are an issue.

And look, you can say that this is just working as intended. If you take a lot of magic it should be good and an important part of the game. But many people think the game hasn’t hit the right balance there. One of the biggest issues is that magic heavy armies tend to not allow for a whole ton of interaction in the game. It’s not really a game if your army is destroyed by a bunch of pillars of fire going through your army, while you just watch. Players don’t have a ton of fun with these games.

3. Dragons (And Other Ridden Mounts)

This is one of those issues that people have called out since the game first came out. Ridden monsters, and Dragons in particular are really good. Most likely they are too good. While combining the mount and rider into one profile that shares a lot of rules, wounds and saves, made thing simpler (mostly) it also made them a whole ton better. In particular they are incredibly hard to kill. What you end up with is fast mobile models, that almost can’t be killed and that no normal unit can stand up it, or even hurt.

Now there is counter play when fighting dragons. GW has even offered some advice (woefully lacking in my opinion, none of the ridden dragons people actually take can be killed by two cannon hits). The truth is that most counter play revolves around avoiding dragons. Competitive players simple try to not fight the dragon and “manage it”, rarely do they attempt a kill. The biggest issue here is that any game that has a dragon in one or more lists ends up revolving around the dragon. Can it be dealt with or avoided is the central question in determining victory. When a dragon is around, Warhammer: The Old World stops being a game of armies, and becomes one focused around one model and how you can play around it. That’s not great for the game.

2. Ranked Infantry Isn’t Good

Next up we have something that a lot of the prior points play a factor in. Infantry, in particular ranked up infantry, just isn’t good. To the point of almost not being worth taking. Indeed you could argue that most ranked up units of any type fall into this. The fact is that at a high level the game is dominated by large monsters, MSU, magic and skirmishers.  For examples of this look at my NOVA list which had no ranked up infantry at all and only two ranked up units. You could also look at the list that won the Tokyo event which features not a single ranked up unit of any kind.

With only a few exceptions infantry are simply too slow and lack good mobility. They also tend to be less durable and having a lower damage output then almost anything in the game. In the past this was balanced out somewhat by having a high static combat res, however ToW has nerfed this. All of this has led to units that just don’t have a real place on the table. When I see ranked up infantry in a game I tend to just see free points. Every other unit class simply has massive advantages over them. What’s very sad about this is that we end up with very little actual rank and flank in games. Indeed a lot of armies end up looking more like AoS, or 40K armies than ToW armies.

What’s extra sad is that infantry based armies and games are a lot of fun! Playing two armies of mostly infantry vs each other is a ton of fun, maybe some of the most fun you’ll have with ToW and really shows off the system. However as it is, playing this type of army is just punished by the game’s current meta. Play it vs anything but another similar army and you will quickly see the issues. As it stands the only time you really see infantry in top tier lists is when it has some trick. Think Stubborn, Unbreakable, or Undead.

1. Skirmishers

I think if you ask most players what the biggest issue with the game is right now they will tell you that it’s skirmishers. There are two issues here that combine to make it a huge deal. The first is simply that Skirmish is both too good and too common. It’s a super powerful rule that takes a lot of thought and strategy out of the game. Many of the best units in the game are the best because they have skirmish, take Pegasus Knights. It’s also just really common. In the past of Warhammer Fantasy,  skirmishers where kind of rare. But in ToW they can be found everywhere, and spammed. Remember how I said armies look more like AoS then ToW armies? That’s because of how good, and common, skirmishers are. 360 LoS/charge, and super mobility kind has you playing a different game.

The second issue with Skirmishers is that the skirmish rules are… not the best. In short they are complicated, obtuse and don’t really work. There are a ton of unanswered questions about how they work (what happens when you multi-charge skirmishers, do they have flanks in combat, how does all the movement really work?). At NOVA every question we had to call a judge for in 5 games revolved around skirmishers. Every day I see a line of people online asking questions about how they work.

No one plays them right, and indeed its basically impossible to do so because the rules are too complex and again… just kind of don’t work. The game just completely breaks down around skirmishers and causes a huge number of headaches. This isn’t a simple issue that some comp or a mission can fix either. The rules themselves problly need a good hard look, or a few pages laying out how they work.

Let us know what issues you have with the game, and how you’d fix them, 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.