Thursday, August 28, 2014

Thoughts Ahead Of Nagash Release

So the End Times hit this Saturday.  I have pre-ordered the interactive version of the rule book on my iPad - $88 vs. $165 for the physical book.

And I'm excited. In fact I'm probably more excited about this release than any release since 8th Edition hit.

Why? Well this is the first time in almost a decade that GW have advanced the Warhammer Lore. I loved the Storm of Chaos campaign (even though I wasn't playing WHFB at the time) and the 40k Eye of Terror summer was a "golden time" for me as far as GW games go.

While I love the gaming aspect of WHFB I like the imagery and background more. One of the reasons I could never play X-Wing or Lord of the Rings/Hobbit is that regardless of how good the game the background does nothing for me. I found the LotR movies (and books) tedious and overblown and I haven't bothered with The Hobbit movies. Similarly while the original Star Wars movies were good I always found them (and the universe) overrated. The second set were just dire.

However with the Warhammer World I think GW has done a phenomenal job over 2-3 decades to create a fantastic backdrop for their game ( they have done similar for 40k though the current millennium lacks the majesty of the previous nine).

Therefore the opportunity to have the backdrop progress is very appealing for me. My reading - so far - of the "story" is that this is indeed epic. Powers are afoot and responses required. This draws in all theatres with the WW and that is exciting.

Now I appreciate that this is all an effort to sell more models and source material but the critical thing is that there is an "effort". Over recent years "effort" in Fantasy has been a rare commodity. A couple of limited campaign books, one expansion but generally just "treadmill" releases. By that I mean Army Books that from a lore point of view have been uninspiring.  When your biggest fluff advance of the past five years is the discovery of Demigryphs in Empire forests, well you do have problems.

Now don't get me wrong, the models and the rules are the best they have ever been (I've only played three editions). But that for me is only part of the story. This End Times storyline is the missing piece.

In fact I'd be a very happy gamer if GW delayed 9th for another two years (or issued it as v8.5), released the remaining three Army Books and then concentrated on these campaign style additions to add models, units, scenarios etc.

If they wanted to ice my cake they'd then only have to update the FAQs.

2 comments:

  1. No offense but the warhammer fantasy background is pretty mediocre.
    The Nagash books were good, especially the 1st one and i cant comment on the other books as I have not read them.

    But as for the lore?
    No one ever dies. They just drift away and the miraculously come back through unexplained means. Seriously, nagash has been killed like 1000 times already and he still wont die. They couldnt even kill of kislev completely.

    And the battles are all the same...impeding doom then all of a sudden "insert characters name here" comes to the rescue and completely turn the tide of battle.

    Everything is just so simplistic. There are no game of thrones moments, no oh wow wasn't expecting that, everything happens as you expect to happen.

    And some of it makes no sense. Why would vamps ally with empire to defeat chaos.
    And the background written in the new army books is just appalling i cant even read it all.
    Its like its written for 7 year olds and trying to sell them models.
    "a slaugterbrute came and killed these knights, then some character came on his gryphon and hurt the slaughterbrute, then this character came and killed the gryphon"
    or there is
    "a tomb king on this sphinx trappled all over the skaven, but then a skaven assassin came and tried to assassinate the tomb king, but he just failed and only wounded him and so was killed but the mighty tomb king bla bla bla".


    Dont get me wrong, i dont mind the fluff, but it hardly competes with LotR or even the Hobbit.
    Now the Hobbit the game, now that sucks.

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    Replies
    1. As opposed to:

      Old Guy: Take this ring and throw it in a volcano
      Small Guy: Ok

      30000 tedious pages later.

      Small Guy: Job done
      Old Guy: Thanks

      No offence taken but I prefer the simplistic to the tedious and pretentious.

      However you make my point with "nothing ever happens, no one ever dies". If that's the case then surely "Nagash" is a welcome step forward?

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