End Times is near! Rumors about 9th

Today I do something which I normally don't do: I jump on the rumor train and give my opinion to the gossip factory which is working overtime at the moment. With myself getting deeper into the Warhammer Fantasy universe again and having played the games in the 90ies I am deeply rooted in the background of the game(s) and had to see how complete games were shot down from GW over the years (Necromunda, Mortheim etc. pp.) so I am pricking my ears on the newest rumors. And I have to admit that the newest rumors from Faeit and Warseer really worry me.

Disclaimer: This article will contain spoilers and rumors! If you aren't interested in them, please don't read the full length article.
It also contains some personal views and heavy exaggeration on the current rumors and how I will deal with that. But rumors are just rumors. Maybe everything will come completely different and we all are happily playing 9th edition in the summer.

Warning: Big wall of text incoming!

Changing of Fluff in End times

These are no rumors anymore. The books are already out and thus we know the stuff already. Since I am mostly in the Dark Elves fluff, I read most of them:
We know that the Elves are now united under Malekith and that the High Elves were for centuries the "bad guys" because they ignored their king. Tyrion went to the dark side and Khaine is just a bloodlusty god of murder. In the end Ulthuan shares the same fate as Atlantic and is drowned, Naggaroth is given up and sized by the daemons and all Elves find shelter in the woods.

The human empire is on the brink of extinction, Karl Franz ascends to some godlike avatar (All hail the Emperor anyone?!) and the old king of the Bretons returns. Nonetheless most of the human cities fall to chaos. Nagash has returned and united all of the Undead (yes Tomb Kings are no more) and wants to create a realm of order (or what he understands as order: All dead and he as ultimate ruler).

Archeron is still only on its move but his coming will clearly be the climax of the whole story.

The newest book now contains Skaven (and most likely dwarves and maybe lizardmen?). I am not into that part yet. But I would think that Clan Pestilence raises yet another raid in Lustria, the dwarves get their load of Skaven siege and the Empire also gets its share.

So the setup for a very post-apocalyptic setting is already there. 

Rumors Rumors!

So lets get to the current rumors. I will not discuss the complete list, because I think some of them sound too strange (and hope dies last). But some of them sound pretty logical, so I will focus on them a bit.

If you want a complete overview of the rumors I can only recommend to have a look at Faeits blog or Warseer.

Rounded bases

Sounds not so far away right? If you consider that there is a Mordheim computer game out and that the rumors say that GW will enable smaller point games and the trend to big monsters and characters... The rumors for a skirmisher game are also present since some time. So that would perfectly fit together. And GW has other games (40K, LotR) with round bases. So production costs will be decreased and some models could be used for both games (like it was earlier with the deamons already).
Also that would position GW into direct competition with Privateer Press or Wyrd Games (and all the other Skirmisher producers). Sounds like something GW would do, no?

Do I like that? Hell no! I have hundreds of miniatures and the idea of a skirmisher doesn't really find my liking. On the other hand: If they will do something like a combined ruleset of Mordheim and WHFB I could like it, because that would make it easier to enter the hobby and grow your army step by step. And you could use moving trays for your units. A bit like in WotR I think. Most frustrating thing here is that many units will be useless in the future.

Merged army books

Another thing which I think is very likely. With the End Times story, Elves are already merged (shame on you GW) , Undead are pretty much one faction now (like it was already in earlier editions), Chaos is again undivided with beastmen getting marks of the chaos gods and such (as it was in 4th edition if I remember correctly) and for humans it is also very likely to have one combined book if you have a look at the current End Times fluff. But what about all the other armies? Since not all books are our yet it is pretty difficult to predict.I don't hope that GW will cancel some armies. Dwarves recently got an army book, Lizards are a damn cool army which really is something different and Orcs & Goblins are one of the most chaotic and interesting armies besides Skaven in the system and Ogres are just Ogres.
For me it sounds a bit as some of the old mercenary rules will return (so again back to old editions) and Ogres and Lizardman will have small themed armies, Dwarves will either join empires or also be mercenaries and O&G will get its load in the (last?) End Times book.

I think that also sounds pretty reasonable. Less army books to print, less core units to select from, themed armies through boxes or campaign rules. Looks again like something GW would do to increase sales. I would not be completely fond of that change. But that heavily depends on how GW does this stuff. For me it really sounds like back to the roots with a bit more salt (meaning sales) in it...

Warhammer 10K or Warhammer Fantasy is only 40K thousands of years before

That End Times will be the end of the Warhammer World we know is pretty much clear now. Rumors say that the world will turn into a "bubbled" or "sharded" world. That would make it easier to introduce campaigns and would also reduce complexity of the background, because with bubbles everything is possible. Sounds like a poor writers excuse to spend less time for stories and such, right?

I am not sold on this one. The background of WHFB was one of the things which kept me returning after years to the game. But this change could make the game exchangeable. It would also make it on par with Warhammer 40K and the tendencies for an godlike emperor and stuff are already there. That is clearly one of the biggest bummers for me because that would make the game interchangeable. If I want to play a game without an incredible background I can play lots of free systems.
But again it sounds a something GW would to to increase the margins of their products. If you don't have to regard all the background you can throw out books and campaigns much easier. Even with rented authors who don't have the background of the universe because "its just another shard".


There are more rumors out there, but those three points are the ones I really thought about. As stated these are only rumors maybe we hype the stuff too much at the moment and hopefully things will come differently. As someone who is in the background (and all the changes which were not always good) of the game since 3rd edition I can only hope for that. Change is not always bad and if those rumored changes are done with an eye for the gamers it could be pretty exciting. But as I experienced the policy of GW the last years I heavily doubt that. For me personally this could be the last nail in the coffin. I am already looking deeper into Kings of War as it looks much more balanced and fun. So let's see what surprises await us this summer.

What do you think about them?


So long,
Paradox0n


P.S: If you read this text here: Thanks a lot for digging through this huge wall of text! :)