‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Five Things I’d Fix For 2nd Edition

Let’s talk about a few things we’d like to see fixed when Warhammer: The Old World 2nd Edition rolls around.

Warhammer: The Old World is a great game. It’s first edition has totally been my jam, exceeding my expectations. However pretty much nothing in GW land stays still forever. Sooner or later we are almost certain to get a second edition of the game. Now, we don’t know when this will happen and nothing has been announced. If the game follows a 3 year cycle, like other main games, we could see one as early as January 2027, only about 6 months away. But it could still be another year or two on.

Now while I love the Old World, there certainly are some things that can be improved in the game, and other that can be built on. A second edition is the perfect time to do this. FAQs can make good fixes, but some things need real structural change. So today I want to look at a few of these that we’d love to see whenever a new edition does roll around.

Magic Revamp

One of the first things I’d like them to take a look at in 2nd Edition is magic. Now I don’t mean that they need to fundamentally rework how magic works, though of course they could. What I mean is that I think the whole magic system needs a rebalance. A lot of this has to do with the mid edition changes they made both to casting bonuses and values. This thew out any kind of original balance the system had and made things kind of wonky. Some spells are still too hard to cast for what they do. A lot of bonuses and items are much more powerful then they were supposed to be. It’s a bit of a mess. You have some armies that find it trivial to get off a ton of spells each turn, while others struggle to get any off. The whole Magic system needs a rebalance in a new edition

Better Balance Between Unit Types

Look, I’ll straight up admit I think this is an imposable task. Every edition of Old World/Warhammer Fantasy has struggled with this, going all the way back to 1st Edition. Ideally you want all the unit types, or at least the major ones, infantry, cav, monsters (and chariots?) to have a role in the game, and to be good without one dominating the others. This hasn’t ever really happened, but that doesn’t mean that an Old world 2nd Edition can’t keep working on that. In fact I think the current edition isn’t too bad at making them all viable to a degree. So lets improve!

More Restrictive Movement

Now some of you might ready this one and be all “but Abe, movement is already really restrictive in ToW!” If you are thinking, I’d venture to guess you are likely not playing a lot of highly competitive ToW and are likely dealing with movement a lot more how it’s intended to be. Having watched a lot of the best players in the world play now, I’ve come to see that the game is kind of crazy in what it allows with movement. This isn’t even getting into things like Fly and Skirmish. This is just movement. While it seems to be very restrictive at first, once you start adding things on like, Reserve Move, Drilled, Free Reforms, Quick Turn and Lumbering, and then in many cases letting them proc off each other… it gets to be a lot.

Overall I think that movement needs to be restrictive in what and when you can do things. Most of the “free” things you can should be limited to the movement phase and once a turn. Maybe “free” movement should be counted towards the max you can move a phase. I think this is just an area that can be tightened up a lot of areas that are being abused, GW should remove.

Fly

Look man, Fly is too good. It just is. There, I said it. Most of the meta lists in the game depend on flying units in some capacity to get stuff done. There is a pretty big hierarchy jump between things that can and can’t fly. Spells making you fly also unlock a ton of powerful options and I include them here. Something needs to be done to tone down fly. Make it more restrictive, or make more things good vs it or just a lot rarer.

Skirmishers

This whole section of the rules just needs to be redone. I don’t think I need to harp on this all that much, but the current skirmish rules are just bad. They straddle a line of both being too powerful, and horribly complicated. Probably like 50% of all rules questions I get when judging Old World events have to deal with Skirmishers in some regards. Anyone whose used them has likely felt the same headache.  GW, please… just toss the Skirmishers rules out and start over mate.

Let us know what you’d like them to chance in 2nd Edition, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.