Last year I put together a post saying that the new Warhammer: The Old World project should approach things differently from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. After a blog post this week on the Warhammer Community website, it turns out I was (more or less!) right.
It looks like we are going to be heading back in time before the time of Karl Franz. Instead of facing down the "two minutes to midnight" that was The End Times, we're instead exploring the time of The Three Emperors, Magnus The Pious and The Great War Of Chaos.
Same Scale, Different Time
Let's deal with the time period first. The article pointed to the fact that The Old World is going to take place "several hundred years" before the events of The End Times and the reign of Emperor Karl Franz.
The End Times began, at least from a little bit of research, in 2519. Looking back (as we try and work out the timeline), Magnus The Pious was crowned Emperor of The Empire in 2304. So, some 200 years previous.
Before that, The Empire was in turmoil and this is the time period where I reckon that The Old World is going to be set. The Age Of Three Emperors began in 1547 and marked a period of turmoil where no one person was able to claim the throne.
Many of the regions of The Empire decided that they were the rightful claimants to the throne and so there were great rifts between the people of Middenheim, Marienburg, Reikland and the like. This period began 972 years before The End Times and therefore means that it fits nicely into that "several hundred years" timeline.
So, whilst The Old World is going to look similar it does mean that things are going to be a little bit different. The Empire won't be the bastion of humanity that it becomes after Magnus The Pious for a start. It also means that we're not going to be seeing the formation of the Colleges Of Magic as we know them, formed by Teclis in the wake of The Great War Of Chaos.
This also means that we might be looking at an Empire which doesn't have the same degree of technological innovation as we've seen during the time of Karl Franz. Games Workshop did say that you could "use your old armies" but it will be interesting to see to what degree they stick to the existing lore. Lore, as we know with Warhammer, is incredibly fluid.
Approaching The Time Period
The way I see this going is that Forge World will probably end up helming this project. They will produce the new Warhammer: The Old World book and it will begin during that Age Of Three Emperors. Then, much like with The Horus Heresy, we'll see successive books released that chart the progress of that period culminating in a final offering that focuses in on The Great War Of Chaos.
This also brings into question what else we're going to see explored for this period. Are we going to be seeing them fully flesh out Kislev, Cathay, Araby, Tilea and the like? We've already seen them really focus on the Bretonnians in their artwork and previews too as an example.
This seems like a really good chance to look at all of the fringe offerings The Old World has to offer. They've even talked about Hobgoblins, Centaurs and the like up in The Chaos Wastes. All very interesting for fans of the Chaos Dwarfs.
This is also the prime time to explore Mordheim once more. The City Of The Damned was alive and "well" during this period of time before it was razed by Magnus The Pious during his crusade. So, it marks a perfect chance to revisit a beloved skirmish game and bring it back into the fold.
The Details
Beyond my little bit of wish-listing, we also got some more solid news on the nuts and bolts of The Old World. It is going to be in 28mm, it will be on square bases and it will take place as a mass battle Fantasy wargame.
The team behind the game are still working very hard on it and it will still be a few years off I reckon. It is going to be taking cues from the 3rd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles all the way through to 8th. So, they have a lot to play around with.
"We want people to use their old armies if they wish". All sounds very good for those who didn't rebase their armies for Warhammer Age Of Sigmar. But, considering the time period I've mentioned, surely things are going to be coming miniature-wise from Games Workshop (or Forge World)? I can see them totally revisiting some of the existing Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies.
It will be very interesting to see how this is all approached. Is it going to be as big as 8th Edition? Will the size of armies be more like 3rd? Are we going to see a mass range in plastic? Will it all be resin and confined to Forge World? Will they re-release the old metal miniatures once more? There are still a lot of questions to answer when it comes to reviving The Old World. You can't make a set of rules without miniatures to play the game.
As someone who loves The Old World and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, this is all great news to me. We shall have to see how it plays out. It's just a shame that it's not coming out in that Warmaster scale...
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