[Above] Vintage photo of Tim Murray's first Bretonnian army from the 4th Edition timeframe. Where I do not have full armies to present in the Showcase, I have "guest spots" filled in by the collections of my friends and fellow gamers.
The current state of Warhammer Fantasy (7th Edition) at the hands of the latest Games Developers at Games Workshop has really put a chink in my impression of the game and the fundamentals of this Showcase.
First, some history: Warhammer 4th Edition is referred to as "Hero Hammer" by veteran players because it wasn't really a game of battling armies, but a game of super heroic characters who annihilated all of the regular troops on the table; much as you would think a battle involving the Greek Gods would go. You simply used your troops as cannon fodder to block the enemy from attacking your Super Characters.
5th Edition brought forward the "My Book is Better than Your Book" era. In this edition, Games Workshop made each new army book more beardy and unbalanced than the one before. This way, you were motivated to go out and buy the NEXT army that came out, as each subsequent force was more powerful than the last.
Attempting to play good-natured games during these editions was difficult, as there were plenty of opportunites for abuse. Games Workshop's original founders constantly pleaded with gamers to play "in the spirit of the game" and talked about how it was all supposed to be good natured fun, not cut throat competition. I don't know if those Britons just didn't get the America psyche or what, but for whatever reason, I lost my taste for Warhammer Fantasy and this is when I began collecting and playing Warhammer Ancients. As this was a historical game, there were no super units, super characters or insanely powerful magical spells or items to ruin the game. However, I was also able to maintain some sense of parity between the armies by using a campaign system that regulated what you could put in your army. I avoided "pick up games" and tournaments like the plague!
As the game progressed, however, Games Workshop worked toward balance. They reached the pinnacle of their games development with the 6th Edition. All armies had parity and the army composition rules made it logical to have more Core unit choices on the table than Special or Rare Units. There were enough restrictions and the points cost for Special or Rare units was prohibitive enough that Core units were still an attractive choice. It had become, as the founder's intended, a balanced game of fighting armies.
With the 7th Edition Army Books they have decided to go back to an unbalanced game in the name of selling models. I first suspected this with the broken Daemons of Chaos book (see the Chaos Daemons tabs for details) and this became more evident with each new book as players came forward with unbalanced forces. Empire Great Swords used to be an elite force from Carrobourg with a 0-1 unit restriction and costed 12 points per model. They are now unrestricted and cost only 10 points per model As a result, I have a 1-9 record playing against an Empire player who fields 2 units of 25 Great Swords and has only 240 points (out of 2,250) invested in Core Units. (That's about 10%). In the bad old days, these were (at least) regulated by a requirement for a minimum of 25% in Core or Common Units.
The clincher is the latest Lizardman book. The Stegadon, which was a Rare unit choice, has been moved into a Special Unit slot, ANOTHER more powerful Stegadon is in the Rare slot and ANY character can also choose a Stegadon as a character mount (not just Lord characters). This means that a 2,250 point army can be made up of 8 Stegadons and a mere 3 units of 10 skinks (150 points) to cover the Core Unit requirements (only 7% of the total army composition). This was the last straw.
This means I will be reverting to my old ways, which excludes pick-up games and tournaments. Since I have no stable gaming group with which to play campaigns, I will be spending more time fighting themed battles from my own web campaigns and playing solitaire games. Not the best scenario to be facing if you are as invested into the hobby as I am, but for me, it is an all-encompassing hobby- not just a game. So, I can find enjoyment by working on my models, scenery and playing out select scenarios. In due time, perhaps, Games Workshop will learn from their mistakes and readjust future army books to appeal to long-term customers.
Above, my Dark Elf 2,250-point army using the new "competitive" methodology. It is dominated by 2 hard Special units (Executioners & Black Guard) and the Core units are minimized with 2 units of Dark Riders and a unit of Spearmen.
With this latest change regarding Warhammer Fantasy Games Development, I have reformatted the Showcase from its original form 7 years ago. Instead of having a suggested 2,250-point "well balanced" army to show potential collectors, I am simply using the Showcase to highlight my collection. It is formatted in the standard Army Book layout with Characters, Core Units and so on.
The practice of demonstrating a 2,250-point army, how to collect a force and what units are best to have will be moved to a new "Army Builder" tab in the future. (At that time, I will also remove the rant and place it elsewhere on the web site, thus leaving this section exclusively available to the modeling purists). Enjoy!