Warhammer: The Old World Will Not Allow You To Join The Sigmar Army At Your Age
During its pre-order period, Warhammer: The Old World flew off the virtual shelves. Fans left heartbroken when their favorite models sold out before their turn to check out, and lines stretched for hours on the Warhammer website. Even more odd given that none of these were new models, this issue keeps coming up with Games Workshop releases.
None of us can say with certainty whether the company’s plans to build a fourth production in Nottingham will resolve these problems or not because supply systems are in some ways even more complicated than Warhammer. However, when they discover that half of their Warhammer Age of Sigmar armies are ineligible for deployment in The Old World, fantasy enthusiasts are in for yet another shock.
Following the release of an early PDF with rules for older units, Games Workshop has been quite transparent about the fact that Dark Elves, Skaven, Vampire Counts, Daemons of Chaos, Ogre Kingdoms, Lizardmen, and Chaos Dwarfs will not be supported in The Old World. The distinction between Age of Sigmar and The Old World is made evidently by the company, however it does so in an intriguing way.
Some of these armies seem quite logical. The copyrightable Flesh-eater Courts, who are presently in the midst of a comprehensive range refresh, have evolved from Vampire Counts. Years ago, Dark Elves turned into the Daughters of Khaine, and the Ogor Mawtribes are very different from the Ogres that afflicted Warhammer Fantasy. Although they aren’t included in Age of Sigmar, Chaos Dwarves are a legendary force in Warhammer Fantasy that many players have stuck with long after the line was canceled, therefore it makes sense to provide a basic rules PDF to satisfy enthusiasts.
It has been claimed that the antisemitic stereotypes that the Chaos Dwarfs, also referred to as Chorfs, perpetuate in their antiquated looks are detrimental.
However, the only notable change to the Lizardmen has been the army’s name, which is now Seraphon. Likewise with Daemons of Chaos. But Skaven is arguably the most noticeable absentee in The Old World. For many years, the ratmen from Age of Sigmar have been a recognizable element of Games Workshop’s fantasy settings, and a tormented swarm of vermin was a common sight on the tabletop in Fantasy.
Does this imply that players of Skaven will soon be in for a treat? I sense a refresh of the line coming soon; if not, then why wouldn’t Games Workshop include them in The Old World, a fantasy setting in which they played a central role? Although I don’t actually know anything about this, it seems like a reasonable conclusion. It appears that Games Workshop has plans for Skaven, however they might not be announced until later, next year, or even later.
It makes perfect sense to keep Age of Sigmar miniatures apart from The Old World miniatures. Apart from the streamlined rules, a common grievance voiced by fantasy players over the new game was that the new models deviated from the traditional idea of, well, fantasy. They’re not included since The Old World’s cosmology does not accommodate the shark-riding, aquatic Aelves of the Idoneth Deepkin (yes, even the word “elf” has been made into a copyrightable moniker). The same is true of the second new Aelf flavor, the Lumineth Realm-lords. But only for The Old World, traditional High Elf miniatures like the Swordsmen of Hoeth have made a comeback.
It is explicitly stated by Games Workshop that these are two different games. Similar things have happened to Warhammer 40,000, where a large number of 30K troops that were originally included in the larger game have now been taken out. Similar like firstborn Space Marines, Contemptor Dreadnoughts were the start, but have since been phased out again to Units of Legend. The Old World and Warhammer 30,000 are comparable, thus I believe we can anticipate that both games will be handled similarly to one another—particularly in relation to their more popular, larger brothers.
This is all good news. Although the lack of official support for your Skaven army in The Old World may gut you just as much as it does me, basic rules for Stormvermin and Screaming Bells are available for use right now. Then, we should anticipate a plethora of new Age of Sigmar models at some time in the future.
A wise economic decision, separating AoS from The Old World establishes the new game system as a specialized interest rather than a new method to play Age of Sigmar or a rollback of all the improvements it brought. To fully separate the two games from one another, it also makes a lot of sense to keep some armies as Age of Sigmar-only forces. But constantly rebasing your miniatures from circles to squares and back again could get a bit tiresome if you want to use the base PDFs for your Skaven or Daemons.
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