Summary
Warhammer The Old Worldseems to have stumbled at the first hurdle. After an excellent opening salvo of Tomb Kings and Bretonnians returning to the battlefield after years of absence, The Old World has been left to fend for itself. And it’s not fending particularly well.
The Old World is intended to be a specialist game, and that means it was never expected to have as much cultural significance asWarhammer 40K, but it’s fallen out of the wargaming conversation immediately. The Horus Heresy, which has had a slew ofnew Solar Auxiliakits in recent months, is positioned as a similarly niche game, and it’s all anyone seems to be talking about, even in circles like mine which don’t care for Heresy-era shenanigans. The Old World, in comparison, is nowhere to be seen.
The Old World needed similar support. Sure, we’ve had some incredibly expensive Orc rereleases, but we’re still waiting for most of the armies to get any kind of support. Was there a Dwarf release? I can’t even remember.
That’s a part of the problem.Games Workshopseems to have forgotten to shout about its newest system. It may write a little blog post for each new arrival, but that’s it. It feels like the company is embarrassed that it hasn’t got anything new to show, and that the rereleases of old models are arriving too slowly to form any sort of momentum.
The Old World really needed a packed first year to get off the ground. It needed lots of new models, promoted very loudly. The two returning factions were a big deal, but other than putting everything back onto square bases, what have Old World fans had to sink their teeth into?
Here’s whereTotal Warcomes in. InWarhammer Fantasy’sabsence, Total War has been flying the Old World’s flag in the video game sphere. As well as focusing on the tabletop races, it has added Kislev and Cathay races from the lore, and recruited a slew of unique characters to bring its tactical battles to life.
Games Workshop initially announced that it was using Total War concept art to bringCathayandKislevto the tabletop, but it seems to haveshelved those plans. That’s a shame because they would have made the perfect second wave of Old World kits.
Even though Games Workshop seems to have turned its back on those two races,Total War: Warhammer 3knows a thing or two about exciting centrepieces. As part of its extensive DLC catalogue (seriously, there’s about £250 worth of the stuff), it’s included everything from Great Drills of the Chaos Dwarfs to the Ice Dragons of Norsca.
The latest piece of DLC, Thrones of Decay, adds a bunch of new stuff to the game – as it should for a total of £22.47. The biggest updates add to the Empire, Dwarfs, and Nurgle, with each getting new characters, new units, and new campaigns to undertake. It took me a good while to get to grips with everything on offer, and after initially being sceptical about the price, the time I spent with the new DLC alone was more than worth the cost of entry.
While the narrative campaigns are a brilliant tool for breathing new life into a predominately single-player video game, it doesn’t quite work on the tabletop. People just don’t like to play Warhammer campaigns – at least not in any tabletop gaming circle I’ve been a part of. What they do like are big new models to build and paint.
Total War smashes it here, too. In the latest update alone, the Dwarfs get the zeppelin-like Thunderbarge, new characters like Garagrim Ironfist, and Slayer Pirates. That’s massive vehicles, cool characters, and pirates. What more could you ask for?
On the Chaotic side of things, we finally get to see Toad Dragons, a gruesome hybrid of amphibian and drake corrupted by Nurgle. They’re joined by Plague Ogres and plenty of characters, but my heart is drawn to the Empire.
For the humans of Total War: Warhammer 3, we can now build the impressive Marienburg Landship and Steam Tank. If there’s anything that would persuade my Mechanicus-loving ass away from the 41st Millennium, it would be a Landship. I’ve always loved this model, and while others pined after Carmine Dragons on Warhammer Forge, I spent my nights thinking about boats with wheels.
Creative Assemblyknows something Games Workshop has forgotten: new releases need big, new models to get players excited. And, while the Thunderbarge has never had an official model from Games Workshop, Toad Dragons and Landships are relics of Warhammer past. These are the exact sort of models that players wanted to return with The Old World, when instead we’re getting some overpriced Orcs. I would empty my bank account for a Landship, and so would a lot of Empire players.
Games Workshop needs to look to its video game counterpart to see how to push The Old World. It needs consistent updates, plenty of newstuff(even if that’s old classics making a return), and big showstoppers to mark the new releases. As it stands, The Old World has none of that, so until Workshop resurrects Warhammer Forge, or at least folds the Landship into the generic Warhammer website, I’ll keep using it on the virtual battlefield instead.
Next:Creative Assembly Deserves To Make A Lord Of The Rings Total War Game
