Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

I have had the pleasure of buying two fifth edition boxes. Bought them both for only $20 American on ebay two years ago. Painted them all up.

I've always wondered why they haven't used undead for a starter army. It sounds cliche but a brettonian/vampire counts box set would be fun.

That being said, it would be a good time to show off the new beasts of chaos. Wood elves/Beasts of Chaos would make sense.

Chaos, as the reigning and ranking bad guy would seem an obvious choice against all of its bitter enemies: Empire, Brettonia, High Elves, every living thing, etc.

I say fix the army books before bring out a new edition. Let the old one stand for awhile. Its obvious that the new models and the new army books are both selling well and maintaining the hobby. People will be less inclined to play if they have to consistently read through hundreds of pages of new rules every 11 months.

why is no one lisening they almost have to have greenskins in the box

You're right, but that dosnt mean that we cant dream about them releasing our favorate armies with the next starter instead, . . . . .



Odds are that the next starter will be:

Bretonnia, Dwarfs, Empire, High Elves or Wood Elves

vs.

Orcs & Goblins

*Crosses things and starts chanting*

Beasts and Dwarves. Beast and Dwarves. Beast and Dwarves. Beast and Dwarves.

guard you can take wood elves out of that list it wont be them

Part of the philosophy of the sets is to have armies that will appeal to the casual gamer rather than the die-hard...sure, I would purchase 4 starter boxes is they rolled out something like High Elf versus Dark Elf or Lizardmen versus Vampire Counts as it would allow me to quickly and (relatively) inexpensively put together the core of 4 armies I would like to build much larger.

However, the cold hard truth is that while I might buy 3,4, or more of them...it would not make up for the 6-8* sets purchased by Johnny Casual gamer who then figures out that hey, these Brets looked COOL on the box, but I REALLY want to play the Tomb Kings...

In short, they are GENERALLY best served by having a "good guy human force" against an easily identifiable "bad guy"** that allows them to reenact the ancient "good versus evil" story.

Of course, we all know that once you crack open the box and figure out the Brets get crushed by...well...everybody and the Lizardmen are a fun starter but the High Elf "Always Strikes First" rule seems like the auto-game-winner (that later play proves it is not), you then change armies or start building a second.

Of course, we are just coming off a starter in Battle for Skull Pass which puts the lie to this as it had Dwarfs as the "good" race, though its proximity to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy could account for the marketing. I would be interested to know how sales of the starter bo compared to sales of the Empire and/or Bret starters.

And yes, for the record, I would love to see any Elf faction, Empire, Lizardmen, Tomb Kings, Skaven, or even Ogres in the next starter. Of them all, I unfrotunately find Empire the most likely.



* All numbers are like the old statistics joke; 87.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot. These statistics fall well within the 87.3%
** Who is actually good and bad notwithstanding, as seen in the lengthy Warhammer good and bad races" thread that had some excellent point. A brightly colored picture on the box front of brightly armored humans fighting off hordes of green is an easy "good versus evil" marker from a visual standpoint.

I've always been surprised that Chaos hasn't made a starter set yet. It's always been a good seller for GW and with the minis to points ratio gives them less to have to put in the box for the cost. If they did WoC I would certainly be purchasing a few. WoC vs. Empire is meant to be one of the themes of the Warhammer world so what better way to get that across than to have them battling out in the starter set. They can link it all together as a series of skirmishes from the Storm of chaos...
As for 8th edition as a whole, not sure there's a desperate need for it but I guess after the big year they've just had for 40k GW might feel that's the only way to match it with Fantasy. I'd rather they worked on some supplements to add something more to Fantasy and fixed the older army books but such is life

I think for the 8th ed box set we are going to see Beastmen and Brets. There has been alot of chatter about plastic minotaurs in the works, and plastic beastmen in general. We already have plastic chaos hounds for the WoC book. Brets being as popular as they are and overdue for an update I see being the next choice. While I agree its to soon for a new edition. I can see plently of reasons for doing it. Mostly if they make a hard backed book of Legendary Battles, for special formations and historic show downs. And Special Characters from back in the day. Chaos Daemons taking Nkari searching Avelorn for the EverQueen. High Elves and Dark Elves taking Aenarion. The Empire with Sigmar as there general. The Return of Nagash etc.

So I would expect the base rulebook to be simplified so they could add rulesets in from other expansions, and variant lists. Cults of the Cytharai, High Elf Dragon Prince Army, (All on Dragons), return of Malal...probably not. Brettonian Crusader Army in Araby. It would also being back Dog of War units, and open the way for GW to playtest new armies. Armies of the Border Princes... The Moot Civil Defense Force...

The reason I can see them doing this is because how successful Apocalypse and Planet Strike have been for 40k. Why not do it for Fantasy. If a guy has to buy 3 Necron Monoliths for a special formation, why not make one up for a guy buying 3 Treemen, or 3 Shaggoths. It's a win for GW marketing, and the grumble of switching to a new edition early would be quickly forgotten as we all scramble to buy new expansions.

@Troop and @ Civilian,

Well spoken, both of you, and I completely agree!

Considering the latest bunch of BL books involving Brettonia, beasts of chaos would be perfect. Since the release of their specific army book people have been asking for updated models. I can see that working here.

I know for a time the Fantasy guys were doing legendary battles that added points to armies. The brettonian was a pegasus hero and 18 pegasus knights for $150 or something like that. And idea along those lines would be more than beneficial.

Although Chaos are the "bad guys" if you didn't know the game world you'd see a box of puny humans in poncy, puffed out trousers up against guys in spiky armour and wonder what the hell is going on. You throw the same Humans against something that is obviously inhuman and you know who the good and bad guys are. Plus, most people are aware of normal fantasy fare even if they've never seen Warhammer before. Men against Orcs takes place across some of the most famour pieces of fantasy literature.

Good humans Vs evil humans and Daemons is more Conan than anything else, and if you've never read any stories about Conan, go read the Robert E. Howard stuff now, it's awesome and well worth it. Just make sure to get the stuff that is purely his writing, nothing edited by his contemporaries.

a lot of gibberish in the last couple of posts but army books were mentioned. the thing is every 6 years they are ment to update each army book but they have gone out of rythm so this year you will see a lot of new army books.

Elazar, if they drop Chaos in a starter box, I might buy 10 of the things! Starter boxes are far and away the most economical way to build core choices and they usually throw in a fun rare or special, so maybe we would (finally) get a Chaos Warshrine or something equally stupendous. I would be on that like stink on a dead man.

So is this a fair place to discuss changes we would like to see? Mine would be the "no fighting back" phase. It completely de-velues some troops.

For example, a core Saurus Warrior has a decent stat line...nothing that scares anybody, but they look like they will hold their own. Then they get charged by...say...Chaos Knights, a death-dealing instrument of carnage and mayhem. The Knights and their horses do what they do and 12 Saurus (including the Champ who died in a horrific way in a challenge, including an overkill point) die.

No matter what happens, they are going to run barring insane courage.

But they still have 15 guys left who could have been slain as well if the Knights rolled well.

They should be allowed to take their hacks. Sure, as often as not, they still will not wound a Knight, but every so often they will take one out.

Suddenly, all those points were not just wasted. The differecne between running without doing anything other than standing there and running after at least getting a chance is huge.


It adds to the power of infantry. It makes them worth taking if they at least get a chance to fight back if there are survivors instead of "Well, I wiped out your front row, so you get to do nothing with that unit".

Hust one guys opinion to lessen the importance of the charge slightly at the cost of improving infantry slightly.

Well Darth, that rule is to simulate the time iit takes for the other men to run up to the front. The game may seem like lots of time, but it simulates battle that are going on simutaniously. Do you understand it now?

I think there needs to be a mid point between the two. I can understand where Games Workshop are coming from when they don't allow attacks back if the front rank is killed, but you can assume someone would strike instantly if their mate in front of them gets struck down by a Chaos Knight. I think maybe something along the lines of, "for every 2 wounds/kills, then 1 model may not attack back. That way it at least means that the charging unit has to kill double the front rank to ensure no attacks back, but means that only the very best can do it. And if only the best can do it, it makes logical sense that if an elite unit charges and butchers so many, you don't really WANT to fight back.



[Chant]*Beastmen and Dwarves. Beastmen and Dwarves. Beastmen and Dwarves.*[/Chant]