‘Warhammer: The Old World’- What Should be Done About The Legends Armies
What should happen with the Legends Armies in Warhammer: The Old World?
When Warhammer: The Old World first came out the various old factions from Warhammer Fantasy were divided. Nine factions were given to the core players, who play at Warhammer World. Seven factions were deemed Legends for the grognards in their basements. But they were all of them deceived. For in the darkness of Nottingham was forged one faction (Cathay) to rule them all… eh, ehem. Anyway, seven of the old factions were made into Legends and given unsupported rules. And this has caused a lot of issues with the game. So lets talk about that and what should be done.
So What Are The Old World: Legends?
Legends are the seven unsupported factions in the game. These are Vampire Counts, Skaven, Ogre Kingdoms, Chaos Deamons, Chaos Dwarves, Lizardmen and Dark Elves. While these factions have free PDF rules they are unsupported and will not get updates according to GW. They also don’t get FAQs. They are not designed for competitive play and not allowed in official GW events. However almost every event outside of Warhammer World does allow them to be used.
How Popular Are The Legends Armies?
This is of course hard to tell. Oldworldrankings shows that since the game has started Legends Armies make up about 20% of the players at events. Of these Vampire Counts are by far the most popular, and the only Legends army to be played more than a core army, beating Beastmen and Wood Elves. I’m discounting Grand Cathay here as it’s far too new. The remaining 6 Legends factions combined are only a little more popular than Warriors of Chaos.
From this data we can see that while Legends are a chuck of the player base they are very much underrepresented and they are significantly less popular than core armies. This is likely at least impart due to them generally being the worst armies in the game (while the popularity of VC is likely in part due to it being one of the best). However armies like Ogre Kingdoms and Chaos Dwarves have never been super popular.
These numbers are of course only from events and don’t say anything about the popularity among casual players. Sadly we just don’t have anyway of getting data about that. If I had to guess I’d say its likely about the same, 20%, and lower among new players, but that is just a feeling. Regardless as the main focus of this discussion is on competitive play, those are the numbers that matter here.
So What Are The Issues With Legends?
Well there are a few issues with Legends armies. First off a lot of people would argue that they are simply not very good armies or balanced. This comes in a couple of forms. On the one hand they are thought to generally be weak. And this is born out by data, as the Legends armies consistently preform poorly and are always found at the bottom of rankings. (Vampire Counts and to an extent Chaos Dwarves are an exception). Others also feel like their books are poorly thought-out and not very thematic, and they do lack options.
The other issue comes with updates. As the game gets errata’s and FAQs and updates it moves away from the original format of the PDFs. Not having any FAQs is already an annoyance, but its only getting worse. Take the recent errata updates that changed casting values for many spells. None of the Legends armies got their treatment sticking them with higher value spells. On the other hand a lot of casting buffs got nerfed, which again didn’t apply to Legends armies.
This isn’t to say any one update buffed or nerfed Legends armies. What I’m saying is that these armies are drifting, and getting out of sync with where the rest of the game is. Say for example, in future we got a large points re-alignment, such as what happens with 40K. This would not apply to the Legends factions, and they would end up either very under or over costed. If we ever get a 2nd edition of Old World these issues will only increase. So what can be done about all of this?
Option 1 – Official Support for Legends
Lets be clear, this IS the best option and the one I think just about everyone wants, myself included. It would be amazing to have them brought fully into the game and given official support. I’ve even written about how GW could do this before. This is the ideal situation and would fix a lot of issues. However I think it’s also the least likely. GW has publicly said it won’t happen. I think a more likely option would be “replacement” armies, like getting Vampire Coast instead of Counts, but even that is kind of a pipe dream. For now, this options isn’t really an option at all.
Option 2- Do Nothing
I suppose that doing nothing is an option. Some events are doing just that, allowing Legends with no real changes. You might be able to get away with this for now, thought many of the armies kind of suck. However I don’t think this is a great long term option as the armies get more and more out of whack. For now however it is an option.
Option 3 – Ban Legends From Events
I know this is a highly unpopular options for many people. However barring full GW support for the factions, I think this is the best long term solution for the game and events. Banning them removes all the issues that go along with them and allows for a more balanced and even competitive space. It also allows for the most consistent event experience with out needing to learn different sets of rules for difference events as some allow Legends and some don’t and some use fan made fixes. It’s easiest on players and the most friendly for new players and best for the long term health of the game.
While some people will argue that can’t do it or that it would split the community, I don’t really think that is true. We know that Legends players make up only about 20% of the competitive group currently. I suspect that most if not all of them also have other, core, armies they could play. Including Legends was likely a needed move when the game first came out to get players into it, now that it’s been out for over a year and half people have had time to build new armies. Yes, it might be a bitter pill to swallow, but it is one that events could survive. (Casual players of course will always remain free to play with and however they want).
Option 4- Fan Patches
The last main option for how to deal with Legends is for fan made rules patches. There are a few of these out there already, with the most popular likely being Square Based’s Renegade Pack. These have been adopted by some events. Currently most of these packs are pretty logical and restrained changes, but they do represent changes and often buffs to the armies. However as time goes on they will likely have to become more extreme. For instance while Square Bases has stayed away from making changes to points right now, that might have to change if there ever was a large points update. Using fan made patches brings up plenty of questions on authority, and if they are any more balanced.
They also have the downside of having to know several different sets of rules for these armies. I’m not a huge fan of having to ask “which set of rules are we using for this game”. It’s not great for new players who can easily miss the differences in stats and how things work.
However I do understand why these are popular. They do represent the best option for getting to play a fair version of a Legends army that is in line with the current rules. Done well they can be good, and I think they are great for casual play. I’d be happier about them in competitive play if they were adopted by everyone, but that’s not the case. Anyway, that is what fan patches are they are a viable option, if not my favorite. I hope to dig into them more in the future so stay tuned for that!
Something Needs To Be Done
I think we can all agree that something needs to be done about Legends. I don’t think the “vanilla” versions of them are great for the game or sustainable, and this is likely by design. They were in effect made as a stop-gap to let you play your favorite army for a bit until you moved on to a core army. And yet people don’t want to let them go. They are growing up to be the biggest issue facing The Old World right now. I think at the end of the day they need to go away, either via- official support or being removed form events or… something. But what we have now isn’t good for the game or it’s growth, and its not great for the Legends players either.
Let us know what you think should be done to “fix” Legends, down in the comments!
