Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 2020

Half year ago, I browsed through my pile of unfinished models for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, glanced at new Age Of Sigmar and came to conclusion that I don’t like it and I’m not interested in playing it. I didn’t like new esthetics, lore, new world order after ridiculous Old World blow up, new model designs (not all are that bad actually), constant rules updates, rebuying of all of the army books / rulesets periodically which change game balance forcing frequent rework of armies before one actually finishes painting them. Games Workshop shouldn’t expect that hobby of their average player is full time job and preparing everything takes 5 minutes. Thing is, WFB is finished game now with all it’s merits and flaws. There is no rush now, you can finish what you are enjoying the most, eliminate rules you don’t like and bring favourite armies on the battlefield. Currently I’m split between trying out third edition and 7th / 8th edition (or rather hybrid of both of them).

I had huge Undead army dating back 4th / “hero hammer” WFB edition and I though that I could revamp it a bit and play once again. With rules of choice and with use of best models I could find or I already have. I could use new and old ranges – most of models were moved and rebranded to AoS. There are tons of models right now from various editions / manufacturers and those which people want to rid off. Plastic models are cheaper and assembly of new army is easier than before. Everyone is telling that AoS needs fewer models to play, so it’s less a chore. Well, maybe, but WFB had rules for skirmish games, you could play it with fewer models if you like and even on round bases. Playing with Game Master – what is lately advertised as a new feature in AoS? It’s nothing new, it was already in WFB 3rd edition. And no one tells that you should start playing with 2000pts armies from the start. First thing I’ve made after starting off after several years hiatus was to select armies, that I would enjoy, prepare army lists for them (500pts is sufficient for a start, but starting from one unit is also good), make check list of all the models I would like to use. Don’t make a mistake by buying or assembling models that you will not use in those small armies – focus on one thing at time and everything will be good. It’s easy to be overwhelmed before first play. I figured out that best thing to do first would be assemblying everything, making bases / base coating. Second pass would be actually painting the models. Cool technique I heard of was to paint whole units first (in not especially your highest standard) and move on to heroes / character as a reward.

So, as it is work in progress I will show from time to time how it is going. In general I started building Night Goblin, Undead, Dark elf and Skaven armies (the last one waits for assembly though). The only concern now is if there will be someone to play with (AoS playerbase is probably much bigger than old WFB). But probably this will be the question after core of my armies will be assembled and briefly playtested.


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