Hello I am a long-time wargamer and a terrain maker. I have been ignoring Warhammer for a couple of years though. I have rulebooks 5/6/7/8 and at one time or another I have played 6/7/8. How I got Started with Warhammer Purchased a 5th Edition Boxed set at a place called Games by James. The first time I fielded any warhammer army it was LM and it included those lizards from the box and others I had scrounged off of ebay. Seems like that first ever (unpainted) army also featured a mercenary unit where I used most of the bowmen from the 5th Edition set as proxies for those shooters that had heavy armor and pavises. (I think my version was Brettagne's Besieger's.) As I recall that first army won 1 game out of its first 6. [BTW, That first LM army took the field when 6th ed. was new...] Questions Did I read that this whole forum will be replaced in 10 days or so? Will the new forum keep the low-res grey on black look? Which I like, btw. I have numerous questions about WH9 and have already viewed some of the wild rumor threads. Is there a moderated thread which quotes only text that Games Workshop has written?
Re: Greetings Welcome to the forums Started WHF about when I did, then stopped about when I did. We always welcome back gamers to the fold. The forum is being replaced but all the threads will be carried over, so nothing is being lost...except I guess the low res grey on black background. It's black text on light tan. I'll miss the black background too, but on the whole the new forum is more use friendly and has more options than the current one. And we moderators shouldn't have to spend as much time shooting down spam robots. There is not a moderated thread which only quotes from text GW has written because GW is being VERY tight-lipped about 9th edition. It is REALLY frustrating. The rumors are so prevalent because people infer terrible or wonderful things from the silence and people of all stripes make interpretations of what 9th edition will likely hold based on the End Times books published.
Re: Greetings Black and Tan in a few days? I guess I can work on a Mark II version of my avatar then. I drew this first one and tinkered with it until it was kinda grey on black to blend in. But a tan version is a thought. How many of these End Times books have there been? Obviously, I have not picked one up. In any sense of that phrase. I remember the 5/6 transition: The Fifth Edition Brettonnian army book was all King Arthur / Lady of the Lake / Defend the Sturdy Loyal Peasants. The Sixth Edition Brettonnian army book was all ruthless kniggets / cruel nobility / gap-toothed, surly, down-trodden peasants. [edited to fix list tags] I guess just obliterating everything is a way of avoiding Yet Another Jarring Retcon by just starting over.
Re: Greetings I saw the test import, and all the avatar are framed by a fancy dark brown frame so the black background will still look good. I don't plan to change my avatar anyway. There are five, Nagash, Glottkin, Khaine, Thanqol, and Archaon. I would not recommend buying any of them unless you really like fluff or a completest. All of them involve special scenarios based on the events in their fluff. Nagash involves primarily with Arkhan the Black (rogue Tomb King wizard) ressurecting his master Nagash. Nagash goes on to vassalize nearly every Tomb King and Vampire Lord. It includes a new Lore available to EVERY army that summons undead troops called Lore of Undeath. I like the lore because I have a small but growing tertiary Vampire Counts army but it's pretty meh if you don't already have a bunch of undead models sitting on your shelf you are aching to use. It also has a lot of very powerful undead special characters, Valten for the Empire. It creates Undead Legions, a new army that basically incorporates all Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings models plus Special and Rare versions of Morghasts, which are mediocre fighting monstrous infantry that buff nearby units. Glottkin was pretty flat fluffwise. It involved a set of three brothers who serve Nurgle known as the Glottkin attacking the Empire, doing a lot of damage, but then being slain. Though Archaon the ever chose is ocming soon. It creates a Legion of Chaos Army which basically combines Beastmen, Daemons, and Warriors of Chaos into one army. It has a few new Chaos characters plus a revamped version of Emperor Karl Franz. Khaine was a good read with a somewhat disappointing ending. Basically Malekith becomes the Phoenix King, becomes slightly less evil than he was before and unites the surviving High, Wood, and Dark Elves under his banner creating an army that does just that. There are also two other armies with less complete combinations representing factions in the civil war that arose before Malekith consolidated his hold. Besides the aforementioned combined grand coalition of the elves, crunchwise they introduce an optional End Times Magic system (not optional if either player plays an ueber-Elf army that makes Slann even more badass than before I have barely read Thanqol and have not read Archaon yet. Crunch wise the only thing Lizardmen get is the optional Red Host. If you army includes a minimum amount of the following units, you get some buffs. Must iy include Tehenhauin, a Skink Chief, a Skink Cohort, a Salamander pack, a unit of Chamo Skinks, two Bastiladons, and a unit of Rippers than any Cohort joined by the Skink Chief gets WS 3 and Arks of Sotek inflict 3d6 hits instead of 2d6 hits, the army Hates Skaven, and you do not have to spend a minimum of 25% on Core.
I am by no means a completionista. Thank you for the synopsis. It does sound like they have decided to reduce the number of factions by combining some. Hmmm. ELVES old high+dark+wood elf CHAOS old beasts+demons+cwarriors+ratmen+cdwarfs UNDEAD counts+khemrians ORDER empire+bretts+dwarfs+tileans+human dow GREENKIND orcs+goblins+ogres Lizardmen don't really logically combine with [m]any of the others.
I had a rethink on the highly speculative subject of how to reduce Warhammer to only a few factions. THE GRAND ALLIANCE of ELVES high+dark+wood elf LEAGUE of CHAOS daemons+chaos warriors+chaos dwarfs THE UNLIVING vc-counts+tomb-kings ALLIANCE of ORDER empire+bretts+dwarfs+tileans+human dogs of war HORDE of RAVAGERS orcs+goblins+ogres CREATURE MEN ratMen+ beastMen +lizardMen Models that are any sort of animal+men are lumped into that sixth category...errr, faction. But it might be a faction with a built-in civil war. You could not field an army with both rats AND lizards.
I believe you SHOULD not field an army like that but I think you COULD. For all their posturing and scheming, Skaven have a society. They also like to live. Skaven would work with Lizardmen before facing certain annihalation at the hands of the Chaos powers. There is also a chance that Skaven were meant to serve the Old Ones Plan. The city of Quetza was abandoned by the Slann for no known reason and then the Skaven took over. It could have been deliberate.
I have been away from Warhammer for a good while... ...as I mentioned. Anyway, I was digging in a stack of books and I found this book, that I did not remember having: Is this the current and latest book? I will be very surprised if it is. I searched online and found about four different covers. I wish there was someplace on the internet that logged each book visually.