If you have been following this blog and or our old Youtube channel, you would know that I have been a fan of Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I was defiantly in the camp of very disappointed players, when GW decided to kill the game with the End Times. This caused me to continually look for replacements, while the 9th Age came into being. That game gave me a feel for fantasy to give a bit of a fill in over the last eight years. I always knew that if GW ever brought back Fantasy Battles, I would probably just on the bandwagon. I figured that would be the case of most old fantasy players, as any GW game would be supported by retailers and hobby shops. I think that has defiantly been the case.
So, the new version of the game came out and is basically an homage to multiple older version of the game, with some Warhammer Historicals added in. It has an all new magic system, but most everything else has been seen before in other GW offers. I was somewhat surprised that more of the mechanics from Age of Sigmar were not added in to give a more “modern” feel. It is clear the intention is to give a system that is recognizable to older players that left the game after the End Times.
With the release of the game at the beginning of the year, we see more and more older players coming out that we have not seen in quite some time. So, the grognards are back. Well, no game can survive on an old player base, you need an infusion of older players to keep things going. So the question is how do you get them into the game. Also, how do you get older players up to speed on the new game that is very different in the details to the older game.
Let’s be honest, The Old World is a very crunchy game. It is not for the faint of heart of the occasional player. While the individual mechanics follow the older GW model, there are a lot of little details that a player can get tripped up on. This is not helped by the fact that the rule book has a terrible index and is not particularly well organized.
With that said, the game brings back the ranked up units that many people have been waiting for. The game still looks great on the table and gives you all the challenge of maneuvering your troops on the tabletop to build your combat and shooting advantages. Even the new magic system rewards the maneuver of your mages on the tabletop!
Basically, it is a lot for a new player or one coming out of retirement. Our group’s solution, has been running group games. This has been two on two or even three on three. This help players in sharing the rules with each other and learning together. It also helps players to identify mistakes in understanding, as there are other players there to help. I am somewhat biased in this, as I prefer group games anyway. This is mostly because of the camaraderie.
We have done this in a few ways. One is for one player to organize a 2k sized army (I believe 1500 – 2000 is the sweet spot for these rules. You then do the set up and split the army equally along the paling area.
The other option is to have players organize armies of 500 and 1000 points. You then group them together on each side to play a 1500 or 2000 point game. This has the advantage of allowing players to better learn their own army as they learn the game. The downside is that it cuts out some larger point units or model, as they cannot fit within the points. However, this is a fine trade off, as one is learning.
So far, we have had dozens of games using this format and it has worked fine. So if you want to get into playing the Old World with a group, I would recommend you give this a try. In time, you may want to go to the standard one on one or tournament play. The important thing is to help players overcome the high entry barrier early and get them playing.
- Manteuffel