WARHAMMER REVIEW: MEASURING THE CHANGES

As I mentioned previously, reading the huge tome that is the Warhammer 8th Edition Rulebook will take some time. As of today, I have yet to fully read every line as I intended and has only finished the rules section and part ways into the background and histories of the Old World. Unable to hold myself, I did flipped to some of the later pages, namely the magic lores and linked games section.

Games Workshop totally did a tremendous job with this Ruleset. As far as I'm concerned, it's clear, with little ambiguity in the wording, fully intended for an engaging and fun game. There were several typo mistakes but very minor in the larger scheme of things. Some of the rules will require further reading and mayhaps, full understanding through gaming.

Anyways, before I touch on all the aspect of the rules, let me start off with one of the changes that I find totally changed the way the game plays. Pre-measuring is allowed! No longer will generals wrinkle their brows trying to guess range, whether for that crucial war machine or desperate charge. Now, the distance between units is no longer a mystery and tactics and strategies can be formulated based on that knowledge.

Honestly, I'm of two minds when it comes to this. On the one hand, knowing how far the enemy is is undeniably a good thing, however, I find it a bit off when it comes to warmachines, especially when we consider their rather chancy odds of hitting anything. Well, it's just a small beef but one I can live with.

Unit strengths are no longer a consideration. The emphasis now is on model counts. Which is a good and bad thing. Good in that it will provide a very rich display on the tabletop by the number of combatants, and bad in that players will now have to fork out more to have that many models. If you can afford them, then, it's not a bad thing really but will really limit those with smaller spare cash.

The way army lists are being built now also has a significant impact. The emphasis on core choices really gives flavor to the exact nature of warfare in the Old World, where the common troops were, common, and the specialized and rare, less likely so. The cap for lords and heroes makes the appearance of "uber" characters less likely in smaller games and will really add flavor in larger games.

So, we'll probably see a surge of horde armies and infantry led attacks in the foreseeable future. The way armies are ranked and gaining bonus in combat has changed too, but we'll cover that later. For now, the rules looks to be quite solid with emphasis on the right things for a better and fun play. Next time, we'll look at that most crucial of phases, Movement.

Till then, keep on gaming!