This month saw the release of the new Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook, only its 8th edition in 25 years of Warhammer, so a big deal for gamers. If WAR was your introduction to the Warhammer world and you’re tempted to learn a bit more about the background and lore of Warhammer, the latest book is well worth purchasing.
Whilst perusing the book one thing I spotted of interest for WAR games is a proper confirmation by Gamesworkshop of which races are aligned to Order and Destuction. With Mythic being locked pretty tightly into following the official lore and needing agreement for changes from Gamesworkshop, this new section in the rulebook (which Mythic will be well aware of) sets the boundaries for new races that may one day make an appearance in WAR. Whilst each of these races can fight each other, I suspect this official grouping into Order and Destruction pretty much rules out a third faction in any form.
This is the official breakdown as detailed in the new WHFB book:
Order
High Elves
Dwarfs
Empire
Wood Elves
Bretonnia
Lizardmen
Destruction
Warriors of Chaos
Orcs & Goblins
Dark Elves
Beastmen
Skaven
Vampire Counts
Daemons of Chaos
Non-aligned forces
Ogre Kingdoms
Tomb Kings
What else is interesting with these groupings is that there are 6 Order and 6 Destruction races that could feasibly be made playable (Daemons of Chaos are quite simply not an option for many reasons). As such this could, in theory at least, mean Mythic have the option of 3 expansions that add a new playable race to each side from the yellow highlighted races above. Lots of possibilities there, should Mythic be in a position to take advantage of them.
And perhaps Ogre Kingdoms for a future Land of the Dead style zone? I hadn’t considered that as an option myself before, but there’s no reason why not.
Anyways, whatever may or may not happen in the future, this official grouping solves a few forum debates about alignments.
Well, looky there...Skaven as Destruction?
ReplyDeleteKills the "3rd Faction" debates at least.
Feel bad for those people.
Seriously, this just makes me want to punch a kitten in the face until it goes retarded and then post it to the GW HQ.
ReplyDeleteThis should be fun as people start to clamor for a Skaven v Wood elves expansion, even though it makes no sense at all.
Wood Elves v Beastmen
Bretonnia v Vampire Counts
Skaven v Lizardmen
^^ The classic matchups. Duh.
Well the lore can be used to justify fights between any of those factions.
ReplyDeleteAssuming the next expansion is Skaven and if we stick with pre-established conflicts, the Skaven have launched at Bretonnia (Red Plague...) and the Lizardmen before. Remember all recent Mythic videos have had Bretonnia in big letters down the middle of the screen?
Should we get expansions, and should it amazingly stretch to 3, I think we'll get:
Skaven vs Bretonnia
Beastmen vs Wood Elves
Vampire Counts vs Lizardmen
The last one is the only one that is a little odd, but then its easily explained. One of the Von Carsteins hears of a uber magic relic of doom in Lustria, which would be impossible for him to take with just his own army, so a deal with the other Destruction races is hatched. Lizardmen call for help aaaaaaand job done.
pff, that means no 3rd faction... Damn. I was hoping for it really.
ReplyDeleteAlso no one thinks besides me that a Sauren/Saurus/whatever that big dumb lizard is called is walking in the streets of Altdorf, using the Aouction House, etc...?
(Arch)
Yeah the 8th ed has solidified the order versus desto thing.
ReplyDeleteI think I found some evidence in the 8th ed book that the new order faction will be both WE AND Bretonnia.
On page 428 there are specific rules (scenario)for a battle for WE and Brets to fight the skaven. The scenario has special rules in the game where the armies have to recover warpstone meteorites that land on the battlefield. (get your rvr PQs here ;)
Interesting thing is :) the background story is that the meteorites come from the Morrslieb Moon when its orbit takes it closer to the warhammer world. This is interesting because one of the bloggers (http://onemanwaaagh.mmofansites.com) has found new atmospheric effects in the wartest.exe...
VPP
VPP you tease :D
ReplyDeleteVampires and Lizardmen are not that hard to mix, for there is a place in Lustria called Vampire Coast (I am not kidding). Once upon a time there was a vampire on a boat doing his thing (kind of like what Gary Oldman did in that Francis Ford Coppola movie) but he killed the only guy who could navigate the ship. Eventually the ship landed in Lustria (IIRC it was headed from Bretonnia to Barak Varr or something) and the vampire had gone mad from starvation (he suffers from a bad case of multiple personality disorder). The vampire was a necrarch, but can't remember the name.
ReplyDeleteHe founded a colony of zombies over there and now sails around as the leader of a band of zombie pirates (again, I am not kidding, there were rules for this posse in the White Dwarf in either 2008 or 2009). So yeah, Vampire Counts v Lizardmen confirmed ? ;-)
Nice post as usual Bootae.
ReplyDeleteWell, this give me something else to put on my list of sketches to do.
Yep, the Third Faction debate can now be laid to rest. Shame ... it was fun while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteI like your proposed breakdowns for adding in those new races. There's a lot of possibilities there. If they are truly going there in WAR, then they need to add in the missing capitals, return forts, and work on a truly viable mechanic to assist the underpopulated realm. Against All Odds is nice but not a solid long term solution.
Bootae,
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine Kill Frenzy are excited with the possibilities that Against All Odds offers.
Mildly intrigued I'd say, perhaps cautiously optimistic ;) It should work nicely, with us normally avoiding our zerg. Certainly our regular roamers are going to laughing.
ReplyDeleteCautiously optimistic... you're having a laugh !!!
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised ;) I think the general consensus is it "sounds" perfect for a guild like us, but we'll have to see how it plays out on live, how it changes the game, gets abused, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe real debate is how it calculates being outnumbered, like in a certain vicinity of the player, or total numbers in the lake etc. That would seriously impact how it plays out in practice, and opens opportunties for getting abused
ReplyDeleteTrackback:
ReplyDeletehttp://ao-lai.blog.de/2010/07/28/warhammer-online-9055988/