Today was the first time I was able to play The Old World: even with the delays in US Shipping both myself and my opponent (Matt) already had existing armies. The full ePubs went up for sale today as well, which means they were shot all over the Internet, and we were able to reference them during play with clear text and presentation. Very happy Games Workshop is selling PDFs for the Arcane Journals and so on, that way I don't to pay for them. Never pay for rules dear reader, never pay for rules.
Matt and I decided to play 1000 Point and we did two matches, since they were quick paced, although we used the same lists in both. I'm not going to go into detail on the army lists as this isn't a Battle Report, but here are the basics:
Beastmen
- Lvl 4 Great Bray-Shaman
- Wargor w/ BSB
- 25 Gors w/ Champion, Standard, AHW
- 25 Gors w/ Champion, Standard, AHW
- 15 Ungors w/ Short Bows
- Tuskgor Chariot
- 2x Dragon Ogres w/ GWs
Orcs and Goblins
- Lvl 4 Night Goblin Wizard
- Night Goblin Hero with a Magic Weapon (forget what it did)
- 30 Night Goblins w/ Full Command, Nets, 2 Fanatics, Spears
- 30 Night Goblins w/ Full Command, Nets, 2 Fanatics, Spears
- 10 Squig Herd
- 10 Wolf Riders w/ Full Command and Cav Spears
We played a simple Pitched Battle on a 4x4' Table, using some Terrain that we moved around between games. I'm not going to break down the games but instead highlight what we learned and some opinions I either formed, or feel differently about now. Once I'm playing proper games I'll do Battle Reports and break down everything.
You Absolutely Need the Level 4 Wizard
True to my article on Magic, the Lvl 4 Wizard felt totally necessary and I saw no point in playing with another Wizard. Magic didn't feel OP, which is a relief, but it was very impactful on the game. I used Dark Magic and Matt used Waagh! Magic, both of our Hexes were particularly impactful. My Spell to reduce Strength and Toughness by -1 was brutal on lighter things like the Squigs, allowing me to shoot them to pieces. Likewise, Matt had some nasty Spells and the Foot of Gork/Mork was particularly brutal, thanks to some luck as well.
The only thing I'm changing is that I think the Lvl 4 Wizard needs to have the Lore Familiar. Randomly rolling is too risky as there are quite a few Spells that simply don't matter in the game at hand. For example, in our second match I rolled Word of Pain, Stream of Corruption, Infernal Gateway, and Soul Eater. I swapped Soul Eater for Doombolt but was still left with a Conveyance Spell I didn't want and an Assailment that needs me to get into combat. This means I had two Spells I couldn't really do anything with, not ideal. The same happened to Matt, so our expensive Wizards were a bit less effective.
Marching Column is Semi-Useless
This is something I already felt like was true but Marching Column is not that useful and can actively be a draw-back at times. In my first game, I was able to Charge with a Chariot into one of the Night Goblin Units while they were in a Marching Column. This meant I easily won the Combat, only needing to overcome the Standard and Combat Order. Without the Ranks the Goblins also had poor Leadership, so they broke and were run down!
The reason I don't see Marching Column being useful is just simple math. To move back into Close Order, you have to Reform, which takes your entire movement. So if I have a Movement 4 unit, Turn 1 they March 12". Turn 2 they have to Reform, and can't move, so you move nothing. Turn 3 you can either March normally again, or Charge, or do whatever. Compare that to just Marching Turn 1 (8") and then either making a Normal Move or another March. At worst you get the same amount of movement, at worst you get more and have more options.
Marching Column is more of a situational rule for things coming in from Reserve or if the unit has gotten far away but wins a Combat and Restrains for the free Reform. Also, the math for Marching Columns get better the faster your unit is, which is a bit backwards since it seems intended to help slow units. So maybe if you're using a big unit of Fast Cavalry or similar you can run up a flank, then Reform and start shooting? Not sure, but it's a niche rule at best.
Edit: I was forgetful/ignorant of Marching Column not being a Formation, it's just how a units models are arranged. That means you can Marching Column up 1.5x your normal Movement, then Redress the Ranks and be in Close/Open Order. This makes Marching Column useful as a situational way to deploy a unit, although it's still risky when taking Turn 1 against an army with Fly or Cavalry/Chariots.
Marching Column on Turn 1 for a Movement 4 unit (average) means they move 12" Turn 1, and 6" Turn 2. Simply Marching twice, normally, would move the unit 8" in both Turns, so Marching Column nets you an extra 2", this gets better the faster the unit is by 0.5" per point of Movement. Since units are deployed before Turn Order is decided on I still find Marching Column to be too risky and largely useless.
Goblins Are Not as Scary as Expected, Fanatics Are
I was very worried that Goblins were going to take the game over simply because of how cheap they are, how good Anvils are, and their high Leadership thanks to Horde and Warband. In practice I don't think there's as much risk of that, even with Netters they just die in droves. Against a very similar opponent Night Goblins can get the job done, but even Empire State Troops and so on will still hit them on a 3+ and probably have better Armor Saves. In a 2000 Point list the units will have more staying power than my games at 1000 but they'll die just as much and are reliant on Spells going off.
Night Goblin Fanatics on the other hand are insanely hard to handle. I'm hoping it's a typo that they can be released in ANY Start of Turn sub-phase, since if you do then you will release them in the opponent's Turn and the Night Goblins are simply un-Chargeable. Are you going to take 3d5 S5, AP 3 Hits to resolve a Charge? No.
There is also absolutely no way to kill or otherwise effect the Fanatics once they're out. Scattering onto them is pure luck and not an option all armies even have, so the only other thing is them moving doubles or hitting Terrain, which is also luck. I find that to be extremely unhealthy for the game because numerous types of armies are completely invalidated by Fanatics: Cavalry, Monstrous Infantry/Cavalry, Chariots, etc. just can't really do anything against them. This means you can make an all Night Goblin Army, with a ton of Fanatics, and just take Short Bows. Your opponent can deal with endless Volley Fire, or come in and take a ton of damage from Fanatics before getting to see if they can then punch through and win. That's a problem anyway you slice it.
I think the Developers intended the limitation on Night Goblins, being tied to Chiefs/Shamans, to keep this in check. However you can easily just take a cheap as hell Night Goblin Bigboss (hilariously enough there is no such thing as a Night Goblin Chieftain, FAQ when?) which makes the unit even better and lifts the restriction. Competitive play is going to absolutely require further restrictions than the game's rules provide, which I was of the opinion of from the get go.
Rule of Three is a Must
I'm not only speaking for competitive play but casual as well: The Rule of 3 from other Games Workshop titles needs to be brought to The Old World. Anyone who plays GW titles knows that they are not balanced, never have been and never will be, and spam is a big part of that. As is, competitive play will boil down to identifying the best unit for its cost and taking as much of it as humanly possible. Do you want to see 1000 Points of Gyrocopters on the table?
If it were up to me I'd go significantly past a Rule of Three and have a Rule of 1 for Rare, Rule of 2 for Special and Characters, and then a Rule of 3 for Core, but I am not the king of this game. Fortunately, most people are likely to play with opponents they know and who can work out these kind of restrictions, using any or not, for themselves. It really threatens competitive play and the game is DOA in that respect without the community stepping in.
While I try not to complain, as much as I can, this is a huge oversight on GW's part. The Rule of 3 is already core to both Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar, why was it not ported into The Old World? I don't expect to ever see a "General's Handbook" equivalent for TOW, or at least not for a long time, so I hope the community steps up.
The Rules are Tight but Strange
Compared to 6th Edition and 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy, which is what I'm familiar with, TOW has a very tight rule set. Things are explained clearly with pictures for the most part, rules aren't put into weird sections, and reminders are common. That said, there is a lot of weirdness that is either intentional and needs to be stated as such, or something was forgotten.
My main example is an enemy unit being wiped out in Combat. As far as the rules read, you can either still make a Pursuit Move as if they'd fled, or you have to try and restrain. In the past it was common that in this situation you only got to Reform, and didn't have to test to do so, with Pursuit only being possible if the enemy fled. Now I'm not saying this is ambiguous, it's not and the rules are clear, but it doesn't make sense or feel right. The game itself is an abstraction but why am I thundering forth if I killed everyone, why do I need to test Leadership when there's nothing left? At worst, just give the player the choice between the two without rolling.
Again, my complaint isn't that the rules are bad or unclear but just that they don't "feel" right. That could just be me being used to older versions of the game, or it could be legitimate clunkiness in areas. Another example would be Marching Column, why not allow the player to either move at triple speed OR make a Leadership Test to move double but Reform at the end? Then Marching Column would be a useful, main-line rule. As it is, it's under-baked and extremely niche.
Any other these "problems" could be solved with an FAQ or Errata but I don't think they will be. None of these break or ruin the game for me, far from it, it will just agitate my Rules OCD. If you're a new player, you will probably never notice or care, and that's for the best.
Worries About Game Length Will Turn Out to be Overblown
I've seen a lot of discussion online, particularly by influencers who got early access to the rules, about how the game takes a long time to play even after you know the rules well. In every instance I can verify, this is because the players are treating The Old World as if it's just like 6th or 8th Edition Fantasy. It's not. When this game is played that way, Combats drag on endlessly because it's very rare to actually Flee. As I've talked about in an article, Mixed Arms are going to be the key and once people understand and adopt that then the speed of play will pick up.
I imagine that players will very quickly figure this out, especially if it's used against them. TOW is not a game of Hammers, it's a game of Anvils, and I adore that. I expect most armies will spend twice as many points on boring blocks of Infantry compared to Cavalry, Monsters, and so on. There are always exceptions, if you have Monsters that are tough to bring down and put out a ton of Attacks plus Thunderstomps then they can get the job done, to provide an example.
In my mind, I'm going to try and pair an Anvil with a cheap Hammer. I'll be very interested to see how this evolves as the game matures: with smaller/cheaper Hammers you run the risk of them dying before they can do their job. On the other hand, with expensive Hammers you have smaller or fewer Anvils and the two might get separated. I'm going to try and operate with cheap Hammers and then my more expensive units need to be able to stand on their own in either role.
Pre-Measuring is Amazing
This is something people are very passionate about, including me, and I fall on the "always allow pre-measuring no matter what" side of the argument. First of all, pre-measuring leads to much more tactical play and you really feel it as someone who comes from 6th Edition most recently. Yes, eye-balling a distance is undeniably a skill but it's a boring skill that only serves to raise the skill floor. When both players know where everything is you can eliminate arguments by agreeing on a measurement before-hand and everyone is on the same footing. Personally, I've never seen a good argument for forcing everyone to play by eye-balling the table and I think that's reflected in the fact that the mechanic has been widely abandoned in modernity.
I felt like I was able to use Movement, the best Phase of the game, to my advantage much more than I could when playing 6th Edition. For example, I set a unit of Gors 9" away from a unit of Night Goblins. This meant that they needed a 5+ to Charge me while I needed a 4+ to Charge and had a re-roll thanks to Warband. Clearly, this is my advantage BUT the Night Goblins weren't hopeless. In 6th Edition, if I was good at eye-balling distances, I'd simply make it impossible for the Night Goblins to Charge and that's always felt too powerful to me. Wargames are at their peak when you're making decisions to tilt the odds in your favor, at least to me, at Pre-Measuring makes that so much more possible.
Anyone serious about growing The Old World should make peace with this, at worst, because players in 2024 do not want to feel like they're back in the 90's with respect to the rule set. There are plenty of boutique games to play if that's your thing, or you can house rule between friends, but the main product needs to be as welcoming as it can be.
Wrap Up
Reading the rules it was clear to me that The Old World would be the best version of the game that has existed, and I'm including fan-made versions too. It's more than I could have expected given GW's track record, every complaint I have is minor except for the Rule of Three. Everything from 8th was dropped except the necessary bits to allow for pre-measuring, which is a great choice as someone who played both. Much of the grumbling is from people who have old rules in their head and won't let go of them, but time will heal that.
I'd be very surprised if TOW doesn't become a massive hit, especially with how mediocre Age of Sigmar and 40K have felt over the last year or two. GW has become too involved in the competitive side of the game without understanding it or letting prominent TO's and community figures take control. That has poisoned the well for many casual players, who don't want those competitive elements injected into their play experience. I hope they don't repeat the same mistakes for this product, and I also hope we don't see stupid Campaign Books with rules you NEED to have, although they continue to crank those out. If you're looking to get into The Old World on the more casual side, I see absolutely no red flags.
To anyone learning the game, start small. We referenced the Rulebook quite a lot and I've spent a ton of my time watching Battle Reports and reading the blurry screen grabs so I was more prepared than most. At 2000 Points there's going to be so many synergies, little rules to recall, and a lot happening on the table that it would be a maelstrom in your mind. I'm glad all the Battalion Boxes shown thus far are centered around that point level and focus on basic, Core units for the most part. On the other hand 500 might be a bit too small, 750-1000 feels ideal if I was going to give someone a demo.
What I want to see now is how the game evolves as people have access to it. Will the solid launch continue on? Will people be willing to jump to a new title with an old history? How will events look, and we still don't even have the Legacy Armies! The picture is slowing becoming clear, but there's a long journey ahead. I'm excited for it.
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