9th Ed: Waiting for the Hammer to Fall

A Visit from Nurgle (or the Night before 9th Ed WHFB)

So with mixed emotions we all wait with bated breath for what 9th Ed brings.
The anticipation is almost like Christmas, with the very real fear that we may just end up with coal in our stockings...

A Visit from Nurgle (or The Night before 9th Edition)

- With Apology to Clement Clarke Moore

'Ts been months  before 9th Ed, and all through the web
Not a creature was blogging, not even a pleb;
The rumours had run dry, does anyone still care?
Feels if Fantasy Battles 9th Ed will never be here

The gamers are nestled all snug in their beds;
Elves on round bases dance through their heads;
End Times, speculation and rumours, so sick of this crap,
I’ll  just settle in for a long winter's nap.

The faithful departed to Warmachine: that’s bad
Or Star Wars X-wing, to me that is sad
The End times left us stunned and confused
GW’s marketing policies are oh so obtused

Does all the anticipation still matter,
When my Ogres, Lizards could all just go splatter ?
They squatted the Elves, my Druchii lament
What does combined stats, KFC and the Glottkin portend?

Down to my man cave I flew like a flash,
Tore open the doors and looked at my stash.
The moon on the figures like new-fallen snow,
Gave Lustria’s denizens a sad sorry glow

What else to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a unit of dwarfs drinking Bugman’s sad beer,
My Warhammer world once lively and quick,
Now gone? In Bubbles?  I’m feeling so sick.

More rapid than eagles my feelings came,
I cursed and I shouted called them all names:
"Now, Dashit! Now, Hashit! You Pratts and You Vixens!
Oh, come on, how stupid ! Oh, Donner und Blitzen!
From the top of the porch! From the top of the wall!
Now dash it all! dash it all! dash it away with it all!"

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
I wonder about 9th Ed and look to the sky;
So up to the workbench the modeller withdrew
To his pile of plastic models, of paints and of glue

The stump of a brush I clenched tight in my teeth,
And bent down to Flames of War, now stored underneath;
With Tigers and Panthers, with StuGs  I made merry
Painted Russians and Germans and Brits (and a dairy).

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of a harpy’s hoof ?
As I swung my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney I spotted a green Nurgle hound

Please nerf him, I thought, as hard as my Kroot
And his mates conga-lining behind him to boot;
A bundle of misery he had flung on his back,
Nurgle’s herald was just opening his sack...

The stats - how broken:  poison, challenge, regen, how scary!
Line ‘em up, smell the roses, oh look, oh how merry!
My Daemon army, at least this I know,
May still remain useful come the 9th Ed blow.

Nurgle was chubby and plump, not quite a dour Dark Elf,
But I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had everything to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Of  poisoned blogs and of rumours; then turned (what a jerk),
Pulled the finger, and blew snot out his nose,
And passing wind, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his palanquin, to his nurglings a whistle,
And tangled me quick in bramble and thistle.
As I screamed he exclaimed, ere he drove out of sight—
“There will be no 9th Edition, and F@ck you, Good night!”

WHFB 9th Ed Rumour Bells from BOLS

So here is Xmas, let the bells toll.

The rumour bells, that is: Rumours from BOLS via Steve the Warboss:

9th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles:

The Work on the Rules has already completed

-One Profile for Mounted Units (like End Times units).
-End Times was full designed for the new Edition, the Books will be 100% compatible.
-No new Armybook releases until the New Edition is released.
-Empire in the starter set, the opposing army is undetermined.

-End times will maybe not mentioned in the Rulebook
-The Design Studio seems working on Siege Rules for an Expansion
-The Starter Set will return to "step by step" introduction
-No allied Matrix like 40k, we become something like "factions"
-GW plans the release for May, Starter will come in June

Ps. These are just rumours.

More Navel Gazing: Rumour Drums: Crom and Valten, Chaos Unleashed: Cult of Slaanesh and Theodore Bruckner missing in Action ?

 Speculation about October WHFB releases and a startling discovery at Forgeworld: Theodore Bruckner quietly pulled. 

Distilling the rumours: Likely next up (following Dark Eldar -and aren't they just purty-) is Chaos, with a possibility of the Cult of Pleasure drawing in my favourite army, the Dark Elves. Chuck in DoC and Skaven?

So from and around the net:

Steve the Warboss:

The book includes, for example (what I know);
-New Archaon Profile
-Cult of Slaanesh for Dark Elves with a new Unit and Chaos Demons
-Chaos Mono-List for Nurgle with Warriors and Demons united
-New Nurgle Chaos Champion (Valnir Aesling?)
-There is a picture with Nurgle Demons and a different looking great unclean one (I'm not sure, new model or conversion)
-Some old Chaos Warrior Chars returns (Van Horstmann, Arbaal, and Aekold Helbrass, Harry the Hammer?)

 (Valten and Crom already in the book. New models? )

The statline from the Nagash book. (Thanks Jossy for pointing it out) :

From Nagash Book: Crom Stats, note Valten costing 330 peeking out at left
Could we expect new models with the forthcoming releases ?

<So we can expect Plastic Greater Daemons /Daemon Princes, new characters, Glotkin - akin the Mogahsts ? )>

And previously he said:
"Soon after the Dark Eldar, Endtimes will goes into the next round. It will be a big chaos release with 5-6 week.""There is something we haven't seen yet that will pop out soon enough. A new kind of evil and destruction related to Glotkin.

< Expansion of DoC  >

October should be the month of Chaos, the starter kit is there somewhere, < Brets and Chaos?>

I don't know when, the way they told me I thought it would be on September 20th.  If you recall earlier in the year we had rumors of several Chaos kits that had been kept on ice for some time. These include the 4 plastic Major Daemons, as well as a "giant Nurgle kit".

The Nagash End Times window was only 3 weeks and I think it is unlikely to see a solid 6 weeks devoted to WFB, plus that is a LOT of chaos product to fill for WFB only at once.

But - if you broke that into two 3-week windows, one being WFB/Archaon/End Times related and one being "generic Chaos" (AKA 40k/WFB related) and you dumped generic dual-system use models like major daemons in there, a lot of these rumors start to make a kind of sense.

Chaos book. 2 big boxes. 1 medium-sized box, and a Special Character
< Medium box being Archaon's Heralds? , which will get redone and now lead the armies of Chaos.
Archaon's Heralds: Van Horstmann, Arbaal, Valnir & Dachala now lead the Chaos Mono Armies.>

Questions posed on Fluff and Magic: 
Unholy cards?
Will Malus become a daemon prince?
Will the Cult of Slaanesh (Cult of Pleasure) return?

<Avatars of War have just brought out a new Slaanesh Model. It does sometimes seem that competitors seem to have an inside track. Maybe they just read the same blogs. Maybe they have moles in Nottingham. (Raging Heroes, Avatars, etc)>

Will the anointed druchii come back to obliterate Naggaroth?
Will the Nagarythe prophecy become true?
Will the old chaos champions return?
Is the Caledor dragons prophecy finally here?"

<A Malekith-on-a Monster Combo kit ? >

And the Next Wave? Likely the Axis or Alignment of Good. I would expect to see these with a new box-set for starters released for Xmas. New Brettonians, Empire Characters.

I have been working on my Empire Army of late, having set aside my Undead for a while. I have two Theodore Bruckners in my collection (By happy fluke my wife double-ordered a few years ago)

Wanted to look up his stats, and what? He's disappeared off the FW site! This makes you wonder about what is in store for the Order side of WHFB.

I may quietly predict a Lord Level Combo-Character riding a Demigriff, likely Valten; ? Or Karl Franz invigorated? (Don't think the latter)

The Nagash Book includes rules for Valten and a Chaos Warrior Champion (not Archaon).
Leaks from a Spanish site says Crom the Conqueror is in the Book.

via an anonymous source on Faeit 212
Nagash army will be first of many alliance armies - there will be other in 9th ed - so there won't be free choice alliances, but ready army lists mixing two armies.

Never the same again: Nagash leading the Charge for Herohammer, Chaos, Skaven, Men and Dwarves to follow?

Changed Forever: Nagash leading charge into The End Times: Four books (and kit releases) coming

Prophetic words ? or just publicity?

Interesting days ahead. So the rumour drums are drumming. 

So if there's a smoke signal, is there a fire?

It appears that GW has finally woken to the fact that they are not making enough of their fluff, and definitely not enough sales out of the Lord and Hero level characters. They've taken a page out of 40K (not that I know enough about it to pass comment any longer, as GW lost me with the release of the last 40K rules update and nerf of my armies.) Have they changed everything? Forever? Can we believe the poster above?

Rumour has it  we'll be getting 4 WHFB books in the End Times. Undead/Tombkings/ Nagash  this Saturday. VC and Tomb Kings rolled into one, allowing you to field more Lords points and greater freedom of choice w magic. Monstrous Cav/Flyers. Every Wizard and necromancer being able to raise the dead (?) or only those on the Dark side (?).

November's rumour is a Chaos-focused book. This fits with the rumour of plastic Greater Daemon kits.I also wont be surprised if we see an Archaon along the lines of Nagash, swiftly followed by kits of other notable fluff lord and hero level models at $200 a piece.

December - nothing as yet, but hey, who wouldn't want Nagash or Archaon in their stocking by then?

January is rumoured to be Skaven focussed. The fourth book will be in March. Scant details as yet, but "races not covered prior"  Most likely Empire, (Lots of juicy lord level characters there! Can we expect to see Sigmar and Valten or a redefinition of the Knightly Orders? Please GW, go this way, not more monstrous cavalry or infantry!)

Brets, Dwarfs and Greenskins may well feature. It would of course be hard not to bring some Uberhero on the "good" side into the fray. Aenarion, maybe? I think Sigmar (or Valten) more likely. Or will be see a pure magic wielder ? I think not, he'll have to be a cannon. What do the stunty lovers suggest? I'm not that well versed in Dwarven lore. Likewise with the Brets. The Lady on a monstrous base ? She's too much of a target at present.Slann? Lord Croak or Mazdamundi beefed up? Not cannon enough.Malekith (sorry, Dark Side) My money's on Sigmar Heldenhammer.

Summer (in the UK and US) 2015 will likely see 9th Edition. Are we to see a change in force composition? Not sure if this is what is indicated by the direction GW is taking with the End Times  Lord/Herohammer. And yes, big expensive kits are more lucrative than $50 a packet rank-and-file.

More questions. What will this mean for the (Non-GW supported)  tournament circuit? Will it too become Herohammer? Speculation? We'll know by next week this time.

Exciting times ahead?  I'm still torn about it all. As much as I love the fluff, do I want to embark on this path?
Still adding the $$ in my head, and it seems to be getting worse by the moment.

Not sure whether it is my Dutch or Scots ancestral blood, but something is cringing at the thought of it all.