Think of the Children (or the N00bs)

A problem is popping up in Fantasy, now that we are 2 months in to the new edition.  That being the enthusiasm that was drawing new players to the hobby is driving those new players away.  Let me explain:  New players, for those of you who might not know, usually don't know how to play the game.  If they did, they wouldn't be new players.  The vets of this game, on the other hand, are getting a little carried away with the new 'relaxing' of army composition.  And creating some decidedly terrible lists, just because they can.  I don't mean terrible in the 'why would you show up with that?' sense, I mean terrible in the 'Mwa ha ha ha!  I can take 3 grudge throwers, 3 cannons, 6 bolt throwers, 2 organ guns and have great weapons on all my units!'.

Now, before you neck feathers get all poofy, let me clarify something.  There is nothing wrong with playing something like the above... as long as the other guy knows what's going on.  But springing something like that against a guy playing his first or second game?  Seriously?  What's wrong with you?

8th Edition FAQs are up and running

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?pIndex=1&aId=3000006&start=2

DISCUSS!

T-Minus... uh... not very long now!

Wow, we have the absolute worst titles around here, don't we?

8th Edition is nary a day away now.  Plenty of us have been playing the new rules, adapting and changing our army lists.  Mass speculation abounds about what does and doesn't work.  Hordes were talked about amighty on forums, yet I personally am finding them to not be as dangerous and crazy as thought originally.  Shooting is good, but not gamebreaking.  The new magic phase is astonishingly great.

What are you seeing and experiencing thus far in your 8th edition adventures?  Let's hear your thoughts, your trials and your tribulations in this brand new game!

Gettting back into Warhammer Fantasy

I'm sure most of you know that 8th edition is right around the corner. I'm also sure most of you have heard a lot of the rumors swirling around about the upcoming MAJOR revamp to the system. Several Games Workshop stores are holding a 'playtest' of the 8th edition rules tomorrow (Playtest is a real misnomer; that assumes you have input to the process. Truth is the system is done, and printed. This is just a demo. I don't know why they called it a 'playtest') and even more light will be shed on the upcoming changes to the rules.

Fantasy comes closer! Another rumor roundup!

Rules Changes

It has been said that army construction is moving back to percentages.

There have been not been strong rumours yet to support a specific % for each slot. However most people seem to believe it will be limited to 25& for Special and Rare choices, with armies always having to take 25% min core.

It is currently disputed wether the Slot System will be dropped. *new rumors from "credible" sources have the slots being dropped.  So yes, cannon and hydra spam could happen*

Categories for core/special/rare are remaining.

8th Edition Fantasy Cover revealed!

Yes, that is a twin tailed comet. Look for 8th Edition Fantasy to be released in July!

I must admit, I am actually getting caught up in the hub-bub a bit. The rumors I really hated seem not to be true. Time will tell, but in the meanwhile time to get my Empire going! How about you? Are you excited? Hating it? Sad? Don't care?

The insanity continues! These right here make me want to run an ork and goblin army. These things are beyond insane!

8th Edition Fantasy Rumors

These from from Warseer. All the credit goes to Grimstonefire. Some really interesting stuff. I will admit it was doom and gloom for me for quite a while, but this is making things better. NO SUSTAINED COMBAT was a big kicker.

Another thing I have heard is there is not two ranks fighting, but rather wounds are removed from the rear and therefore, the second rank fights to replace those wounds... think of the first rank dying and the second rank pushing up into the place of their fallen comrades...

Now, on with the show...

Note: This is only a summary of rumours that have been discussed in recent months. Rumours are subject to change. They are only 100% correct when they are facts.

I have tried to take out all the ones that have been quickly discredited, and a lot of this comes from reliable sources(who have been contradictory). Just so I am clear, none of what follows are rumours from me, they are all from other people.

Take with as much salt as is necessary, and don't blame me if any of it is wrong (I had to wade through around 200 pages of **** in french, german and english, and if I see people moaning about 25% again... *shudders* )

Note as well that none of the names of rules below are official, I just put something fun there for reference when I was collating.

Updating this: Much as I'd like to have the time and motivation to read all rumour discussions, PLEASE PM ME here with info,only if there is a significant rumour discussion from someone you guys really trust. I know there are snippets coming out in the general discussion here, and on many other forums. So rather than have to trawl across the web every few days, if you guys want this updated you will need to pm me with the info. I will try and keep ontop of things.

Note as well that unlike the other thread this is only for rumour discussion for the 8th edition rulebook itself. Not what armies are getting which releases (save that for the other thread).


These are all listed in no particular order.

ARMY SELECTION

Army construction is moving back to percentages.
There have been not been strong rumours yet to support any specific % for all categories, however, 25% min core, 25% max special and 25% max rare seem to be undisputed.

Slot system may or may not being dropped

categories for core/special/rare are remaining.
There have been no rumours yet of a system wide errata to specify which things are limited as a result.


MAGIC

NOTE: The magic rumours nobody seems to agree on, so rather than try and find what exactly the truth is I will just put here most of the theories

Power dice aren’t generated by the number of spellcasters. The pool is decided by 2D6. Magic users add their magic level to the score rolled.

All Wizards have a chance to generate more power dice.

Giving irresistible force a downside

If a wizard fails to cast (not counting dispels) twice in a row he miscasts

Making miscasts harder to have but much more devastating.

Dispel scroll only adding dispel dice (+2 dice to the dispel dice pool once per game).

Something rumoured is carrying over power dice, but holding too many could lead to a ‘magic backlash’.

All the book Lores will have more supportive spells than they have now.

If a wizard fail to cast a spell he can't cast other spells in the same phase.


COMBAT

NOTE: Trying to nail down what the truth is here is very hard. Once it is explained properly by someone who knows categorically what it is I will update this

Some of this is only my understanding of what has been discussed.

What is 100% clear is that models in the second rank will have some role to play in most combats.

Strength in depth/ stepping up.
Infantry units will fight with a second rank, as long as it is 5 models minimum (or 3 for ogre sized). Models in the second rank will be able to fight back even if the chargers have wiped out the front rank. However, if the chargers wipe the front 2 ranks no more models may fight back that turn.

If armed with spears they gain an additional rank to fight with (+1 rank as now). No word on the impact for High Elves.

Cavalry still only fight in 1 rank. Flank & Rear attacks, the charged unit fights as normal.

Horde
Fight in 3 ranks if 10+ wide (4 with spears).

One Save to ruin them all!
Models will only ever get one save (be it ward, mundane or magical armour). No word yet on whether regeneration is included. From Alessio himself.

40mm models
40mm models moving to 3 model-wide ranks. Ogres sized models are officially being put into their own size category (finally).

Crush them!
Additional stomp/crush attacks for big infantry (ogres, trolls, etc) to represent them trampling lesser races underfoot. Bigger bonus for large creatures like giants.

Armour may be more useful, as there are fewer other modifiers


MOVEMENT

Measure the distance for the furthest moving model, and perform whatever manoeuvres you wish within that lax limitation. Command models will have some role to play in giving free manoeuvre as you move (Musician bonus similar to Ancient Battles?).

Charging.
An added 'bonus' of getting an 'extra' +D6 or +D3 inches of movement to your move range (presumably the D6 or D3 decided by the category of warrior; infantry/cavalry/ogre sized).

Heavy cavalry no longer able to march
- Heavy cavalry, defined as any cavalry with a 2+ or better save, cannot march. They can double their move when charging as normal, but they are not allowed to make a March move.
- "Medium and Fast cavalry remain the same".

Chariots
S7 autokill is gone.


SHOOTING

As it happens to be the same rumour; armour may be more useful, as there are fewer other modifiers


PSYCHOLOGY

Fear and Terror
When in combat, units or monsters with these rules gain 1 or 2 or 3 points of Static Combat modifier. This is added to the number of wounds caused by the Fear/Terror model/unit, as well as ranks, banners, etc. These bonuses may be cumulative between fear/terror causing things attacking a unit.

Autobreaking from fear or terror is gone.


OTHER RULEBOOK CONTENTS
Multiple objective driven scenarios in the rulebook (no kill points)
See GW grand tournament and doubles scenarios.

15 or so missions in the new rulebook. 9 or 10 of the missions required Core units to capture objectives. Units must have banners to capture objectives. Several missions had multiple objectives

Victory Conditions
Interestingly something I picked up from a post was that ‘victory conditions’ have been referred to in the last 3 books, not victory points.

Terrain
Difficult terrain may be merged with very difficult and encompass more things (presumably more than just affecting movement).

Discredited rumours
Fight-until-someone-breaks
Lapping around
Weapons using the flame template or large or small blast templates automatically hit any model in contact rather than cause partial hits.