A new year dawning means it’s time for the next major balance update for Warhammer: The Old World, and with such a packed few months of releases, there’s plenty to talk about. So much so that we’ve enlisted the aid of our favourite Dogs of War, the Warhammer Studio Regiment, to take us through what’s changed. To arms!
It’s been a few months now since the release of both the Matched Play Guide and the 1.5 errata & FAQ for Warhammer: the Old World, and in that time we’ve also seen the release of a whole new faction in the form of the Armies of Grand Cathay, not to mention Arcane Journals The War of Settra’s Fury and The Razing of Westerland. With all those changes and so much new content, we’ve received plenty of questions* so, with a big thank you to everyone who took the time to send us an email, we felt it was time to update the errata and FAQ once more.
Unfortunately, some very good questions that we’re keen to answer arrived a little too late to make it into this update, but rest assured that we do plan to include them in the next update later in the year. If you have any questions not covered here, please send them to us at: OldWorldFAQ@gwplc.com
But what of the changes? In this update, we’ve deliberately avoided making any large revisions to the game or to any of the armies. The last update made some significant changes that players are still adapting their tactics around, and we don’t foresee another errata of that scale for a while, if at all. Instead, our intention with this update was to answer your most pressing questions and to make a number of tweaks to clarify some areas of confusion, both in the core rules and across all of the armies of the Old World.
To this end, we’ve taken a fresh look at the Armies of Grand Cathay, addressing some areas of concern based upon your feedback. This includes amending and clarifying how the Ogre Loader should work when attached to a war machine, tweaking the points values and effects of some magic items, and reducing the power and survivability of Sky Lanterns by lowering their Toughness and demoting the Commander from a champion to one of the crew (meaning the model as a whole is no longer oddly protected from harm whilst its Commander fights a challenge). These changes, amongst others, ensure the Armies of Grand Cathay remain unique and effective, but that they perform more as we’d intended.
Elsewhere, we’ve amended a number of profiles and points values. This includes improving the Leadership of Empire Priests of both Sigmar and Ulric, making them better leaders and making it easier for them to chant prayers, as well as tweaking the profiles or altering the points of a number of models across other factions. We’ll continue to update profiles, either by changing points values, amending characteristics, or by altering special rules, the goal being to improve balance over time, based on the feedback we receive and the evidence of games played.
As always, please continue to send us your questions, and continue playing the game – your experiences do inform its future! In the meantime, download the documents below.
Thanks very much, brave warriors of the Studio! We’ll be back in a few months time with the next update, but in the meantime, form ranks and dive into the World of Legend with renewed vigour.
warhammer: the old world FAQ
download here
*A special thanks to everyone who took the time to tell us about their adventures in the World of Legend. Whilst we’re unable to reply directly to such emails, rest assured that we were delighted to read about your campaigns and events, to see your painted armies on the battlefield, and to read of your exploits.
