GW News: BIG N' SMALL WAAAGH! COMIN'

That is possible. They did specifically mention those armies though, while also stating "more armies" in 2025. But I'm not sure how much we can realistically glean from the napkin crayon doodle.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing some Wood Elves, they look like a neat army.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com...ow-troll-scavengers-from-the-white-mountains/

 

OK models, but should have been additional Angmar models (given that I think Snow Trolls were a unit for Angmar in a Middle Earth video game that made routes to expand the universe) rather than yet another thing for one of the big four Lord of the Rings factions.

 

Hmm... The troll looks good, but overall not digging the orcs. Though they do seem like actual characters. Bulk and Skull, orc edition.

Did I just age myself with that reference?

 

Yeah... Granted, what EA did with the Battle for Middle-Earth games is kind of held separate from what GW does for MESBG:

1. A big one for me is that, when Rise of the Witch-King came out for BFME2, there really wasn't any official concept art for what the forces of Arnor should look like within the context of the Peter Jackson movies, so they defaulted to the next best thing - Numenoreans from the Last Alliance. As a result, I more readily associate Arnor with Numenorean wargear than I do with the official GW models (though the latter do make for good officers that stand out from the rest, if not a good way to represent Cardolan specifically - I'm much more partial to Arthedain myself).
2. Hill trolls, snow trolls, and [hill] troll stone throwers were kind of the de facto troll units for Angmar in RotWK, though of course these also filled specific niches in an RTS game (hill trolls were "elite spearmen" with pole-hammers, snow trolls were "cavalry", and of course stone throwers were the faction siege unit). As of yet, it's only been recently with the Rise of Angmar book that Angmar can now field hill trolls as game models, not just the bog-standard cave trolls and Burhdhur.
3. RotWK also included human units in the Angmar unit roster - Black Numenoreans and Dark Rangers, especially - that not even the new Carn Dum pseudo-faction (it's a legendary legion) for MESBG has good fascimiles for.

 

Preview coming on Friday:



Old World first in the billing for once, though with the theme 'Rise and Slaughter of Humanity' you can bet it'll be Empire crap for next year . But at least it'll be an Old World preview, and my Empire-playing friend will be most interested in the release.

 

Oh good, I have been waiting for the Empire Arcane Journal. Not overly fussed about any models that get (re)released, as my Empire army is near-exclusively third-party to fit the look I am going for, but maybe a character or two might stir some interest... I'd be most curious to hear if GeeDubs are planning to create a new mould for the landship, as I know a friend of mine would happily buy the entire stock of such if he were able.

And yet again I find myself re-iterating my confusion as to why the Arcane Journals weren't all released at once, considering how many people came to the Old World with their old armies. The actual model ranges, I get the rationale for drip-feeding, even if I still think it's stupid (because, as I shall repeat for the umpteenth time, WE DO NOT BUY EVERY MODEL FOR EVERY FACTION!!!!!!!) but why can't we at least be given our faction books all at once!

*devolves into ineligible rage-filled rambling*

 

Cuz every company wants perpetual hype & marketing (and consequently, perpetual sales)

 

I see it differently. Upon TOW's launch, they should have released all the old models for all the featured factions. Then release an Arcane Journal with a new model or two every couple of months.

That way the game is fully playable day one and GW can maintain the perpetual marketing hype as @Canas outlined above.

 

Only a few more armies to go. Any guesses on what GW will do with TOW once all the Arcane Journals have been released? Start the cycle anew? Release a new army? Visit one of the legacy factions?

 

The Wishful Thinking Answer: The Legacy Factions get shifted to actual faction status.
The Ideal answer: Kislev and Cathay, two factions that were prominent in the early advertising and were outright stated to get explored in TOW before GeeDubs turned around and said "nah".
The Likely Answer: Narrative campaigns.

 

I'd guess that GW might be hesitant to tackle Kislev under today's geo-political climate because of the faction's partially Russian influence/theme.

 

I hate real-world writes the plot. Never mind that Kislev is general Slovakian not just Russia, and a pre-Lennin form of it at that, but no, can't use Russian influences because of real world politics. *blows raspberries*

Never mind that immediately after 9/11, we had a massive influx of films and videogames where Middle-Eastern influences were clearly the villains. Or is this because Kislev isn't an inherently antagonistic faction, any more than Bretonnia or the Border Princes are?

*Reigns in rant*

What about Grand Cathay, though? Has anything changed in the last three years that would disqualify their inclusion?

 

It has a mix of influences, Russain, Polish, etc.

Who knows the mind of GW. Personally (aside from being boring) I'd see no issue with Kislev being released, much less Cathay.

Do we really need another human army though? TOW already has Empire and Bretonnia (and to some degree WoC).

 

As if the average person is going to make a distinction between the various slavic groups. Especially in the UK/USA.

Maybe the overreliance on stereotypes?

The only other reason I can think of is that they didn't perform very well in marketing focus groups or something.

 

I certainly hope it will be a mixture of addressing the 'Legacy' factions (surely they can see people want them to gain full support too? In all non-GW TOW tournaments the 'Legacy' factions are allowed alongside the 'Big 9', which says something about how much people want them back) and adding in new ones, but we'll have to see.

 

Sure, they are probably aware that different groups exist, but they're not going to distinguish the various cultural differences. Especially since those differences aren't based on the football clubs they are actually familiar with

Most people are probably going to default to "Kislev is Russia", unable to recognize there are other Slavic influences in there.