Age of Reckoning and The end times

[Valayare]

Having been a HE player in WHFB for the last 25 years (including a stint working for GW) and a massive fan of Bill King and Andy Chambers (who wrote the original background story), I was completely gutted to read the nonsensical cooperate trash that is the ET and in particular, ET: Khaine. The whole ET series is a money making board room contrivance to sell more product. What's been done in ET: Khaine goes against and rewrites the script and heart of the old hobby just to sell more product. They rewrote the personality of the characters just to fit there crazy new plot. Sad times.

I know a lot of people in the hobby including some who still work for GW and the ET sits well with few of them. I've heard those new to the hobby (I.e. a year or so invested) who like it, but they are mainly 40K players who like the big LoW style things like Nagash and Glottkin.

Sad to say in the current management era GW is all about the shareholders and selling product no matter the cost. The decisions being made internally now a days are largely to the detriment of the heart and soul of the hobby and its veterans. I'm really sad to see it come to this.

Anyway, let's see what 9th brings; maybe they'll retcon it all again! Lol.

[Scedion]

I dislike the unity between the armies now the world of warhammer is meant to be everyone wants to kill everyone else pretty much and thats why people like it, its a merciless, gritty and brutal world to be in

[Scion]

It is my suspicion that as far as the armies are concerned the range of army books will remain. The End Times material allows for coalition armies and alternative stat tables for special characters to cover a special period in the history of the Warhammer world. The 9th edition army books, I expect, will be very much the same as the old ones. I don't know why some feel as though everything must occur during the End Times (last years of the Age of Strife); player scenarios and the contents of army books cover over two millennia of Warhammer history.

On the whole, I personally enjoyed the lore books. I don't feel as though the new narrative defies the established lore, every character seems to be themselves and a lot of loose ends were finally tied.

I dislike the unity between the armies now the world of warhammer is meant to be everyone wants to kill everyone else pretty much and thats why people like it, its a merciless, gritty and brutal world to be in

If you read the releases that is essentially what occurs. These are alliances born out of carnage, the Khaine instalment especially is more "merciless, gritty and brutal" than anything released before it.

The whole point of the End Times was to defy the commonly held belief that the Warhammer world would always remain in a state of limbo, almost like a comicbook. The fact is, somebody had to lose, the status of total war couldn't remain indefinitely. The End Times offers us this sense of finality.

[Valayare]

I don't feel as though the new narrative defies the established lore, every character seems to be themselves and a lot of loose ends were finally tied.

Sorry bud, but this is wrong. The original story and character personalities and traits HAVE BEEN rewritten (poorly!). If you start by reading e.g. 4th ed. army books and novels that started around that time, it's obvious. Also, no loose ends were tied up, some poorly contrived conclusions were forced in to make their story fit.

ET is a board room decision to sell more product. Simple as that. The story has been hacked to make it fit. As a 25 year vet. I find it terrible.

[chielvdv]

The whole point of the End Times was to defy the commonly held belief that the Warhammer world would always remain in a state of limbo, almost like a comicbook. The fact is, somebody had to lose, the status of total war couldn't remain indefinitely. The End Times offers us this sense of finality.

The problem is that when the lore says a race is wiped out, the tabletop equivalent will be gone too. So that would mean that 9th or 10th edition will have less armies and what if for example the Empire or Bretonnia got wiped out? All those players that spent hundreds of hours and cash in that army just gets screwed.

So the current state of constant war has to remain, the problem with Warhammer Fantasy is that it is just 1 world and all the races on it are in a clash with each other, if you look at the Warcraft lore for example, The burning legion is a threat from another world and requires the combined strength of "all" the races to defeat. If you destroy a race in Warhammer it's gone and so is the tabletop equivalent. They can't do that.

[Scion]

The problem is that when the lore says a race is wiped out, the tabletop equivalent will be gone too. So that would mean that 9th or 10th edition will have less armies and what if for example the Empire or Bretonnia got wiped out? All those players that spent hundreds of hours and cash in that army just gets screwed.

Why? How can you possibly know any of this? As far as things have progressed thus far nobody has been wiped out per se, rather, the existing armies are being condensed. Even if an army were to be completely annihilated in the End Times, then it would be annihilated in the End Times, and thus that army's legacy and history (and miniatures) will remain. GW, and neither the player, is, or has ever been, confined to any, one, single age of the Warhammer World. The only difference between past releases and those which are forthcoming is that we now know how (almost) everything will turn out. To give an example, in 6th edition, the selection of scenarios in the army book were taken from periods centuries apart. Eldreth's Last Stand (i.y. 1575 - War of the Beard), The Battle of Swartzhaffen (i.y. 2050 - Vlad's invasion of the Empire), The Fall of Chaqua (c. 001 - Skaven and Lizardmen), The Battle of the Burned Banner (i.y. 1214 - High Elves and Orks). I don't know how hard you guys try to create a narrative in your games but it would be strenuous task trying to justify Wood Elven activity in Lustria/Southlands or a Bretonnian quest against the Dwarfs during an End Times Chaos incursion.

I joined the hobby in 2004, my first two army books were Skaven and Dark Elves. I still possess the 6th edition rule book from that era. Even there in the records of the "Hieronymous of Nuln" the Elves are treated as a single people of many kindreds, each equally bound to their "glorious, blood-red, and ultimately dying" sun.

Spoiler:

10 and a half years later Malekith's "victory" and confirmed legitimacy is like a dream realised to me. Reading the ET, I couldn't help but feel as though the carnage could have been avoided somehow. With Nagash's Ascension and the Storm of Chaos, my only wish is that they had spent their blood more prudently instead of sending three fourths of their people and heroes to perish in yet another pointless, myopic brother's war.