Army book release schedule

[Avian]

This invariably gets asked about and the old thread on the subject is woefully out of date, so I thought it best with an update.

First a little on editions, new and old
We are now into a period where the rulebook itselves changes very little from edition to edition, and so all army books remain valid when a new rulebook comes out. It is not like how some armies at the tail end of 5th edition were invalidated after half a year. Invalidating all or most of the army books would mean a great loss of profit for GW and for that reason alone it would not happen.

A vocal minority of players would like to see all army books being invalidated at the start of an edition, the idea being to start from scratch and rebalance the books better. Not only would this not happen due to economic reasons, but experience from 6th edition has shown that this isn't any kind of guarantee of getting balanced army books anyway!


Order of army books that were released during 6th edition
Empire (oct 2000)
Orcs & Goblins (nov 2000)
Dwarfs (jan 2001)
Vampire Counts (apr 2001)
Dark Elves (jun 2001)
High Elves (jan 2002)
Skaven (mar 2002)
Hordes of Chaos (jun 2002)
Tomb Kings (jan 2003)
Lizardmen (may 2003)
Beasts of Chaos (aug 2003)
Bretonnia (feb 2004)
Ogre Kingdoms (jan 2005)
Wood Elves (aug 2005)
Dwarfs* (mar 2006)
*redo
Note that the last couple of books were written when the 7th edition rules were almost completely done and so they work much better under 7th edition than most other 6th edition armies. For that reason they are not very likely to get an update at all in 7th edition and will more likely be redone in early 8th edition.


7th edition
The seventh edition of the rulebook was published in september 2006 and like the change from 4th to 5th edition, going from 6th to 7th changed relatively little. All army books remained useable, though naturally some things became more or less useful than they were.


Army books released so far during 7th edition
Orcs & Goblins (oct 2006)
Empire (jan 2007)
High Elves (nov 2007)
Vampire Counts (mar 2008)
Daemons of Chaos (may 2008)
Dark Elves (aug 2008)
Warriors of Chaos (nov 2008)
Lizardmen (feb 2009)
Skaven (nov 2009)


Upcoming known army books (in order)
Beasts of Chaos (feb 2010)


Army books just behind the horizon (order not known)
Tomb Kings (first half 2010?)
Ogre Kingdoms (second half 2010?)
Bretonnia (2011?)
Note that releases more than a year away are always subject to change (though this does not happen very often), so we can only know things that are reasonably close for certain anyway.


8th edition
At the moment it looks like 8th edition will hit us medio 2010 (there was some temporary mumbling about 2011, but the initial estimate of 2010 seems to have been correct), with a release schedule probably similar to what Warhammer 40K had in 2008 - a new rulebook in July(ish) and a new starter set in September(ish). Most army books will have been released by that time, the starter set will be four years old (common lifespan for an edition of the core games is 4 years) and GW will likely want to put out a new, fresh one to attract new customers and tempt the veterans with deals that are "just too good not to get, even if I don't play either of the two armies". It is important to understand that new editions are primarily made to keep the excitement about the game high and NOT primarily about balancing anything. So expect rule tweaks to make the game more immersive and intuitve first and foremost.

The starter set appears to be Orcs & Goblins versus Empire (no big surprise there). The O&G side will contain new plastic Boar Boyz and the Empire set new plastic Knights.

Wild suggestions that will certainly crop up are:
- all existing army books will be invalidated (rubbish)
- Warhammer might switch to a D10 system instead of D6 (rubbish)
- the turn order might change from I Go, You Go to some kind of integrated system (rubbish)
- the game background might change dramatically, with the Empire being conquered by Chaos or something similar (rubbish)
These things always turn up when a new edition is underway and should be regarded with a healty dose of skepticism.


Army books or projects far off or uncertain
Dwarfs (early 8th edition?)
Wood Elves (early 8th edition?)
Chaos Dwarfs (GW "will develop them when we will have the time to, and resources")
Dogs of War (no plans to develop them)


New army books for entirely new or forgotten armies
Though Fishmen, Hobgoblins, Araby, Nippon, Cathay and Ind are more and more frequently mentioned in the army books (the Warriors of Chaos book mentions them all), the chance of any of them getting an army book any time soon is low.

[Shoggoth]

ok then...let me speak about italian GT rumors...as i've collected an huge amount of them to share with people around the world...this seems the right place

ok,i spoke with Alessio and Jes Goodwin so let's go!

Chaos Dwarfs: jes said "squat are gone,i've killed them all,personally.Chaos dwarfs?No,they 'll be not squatted..instead in the future you'll see them,in style with hellcannon's crew ones.No more big hats,we will develop them when we will have the time to,and resources"

Dogs of war,Alessio:"sorry but there 're no plans to develop them.We want to make every army particular without criss-crossing between armies.Just like chaos who has been divided in 3, for a reason.DoW were a criss cross army we want no more.Maybe IF we develop an "apocalipse" for whfb we could be reintroduce them..but not anytime soon and not as a stand alone army"

Khermi and beastmen and bretonnia,Alessio:"beasts of chaos will retourn in not so a distant future.The other two armies will wait more instead,they are fine just now,don't need a redone soon"

Lizardmen:will be nasty.Full of new models,more dinosaurs (a more fat stegadon model in the near future).Out in march,no spearhead box but something else.Stegadon will have 3 ways of use: as now, with the Warmachine of gods and with a crew of giant blowpipe skinks (swarm of dards rule..multiple poisoned St3 shooting weapon).No other informations could be said about,sorry

skavenut in 2009 summer.So after them it's time for beasts of chaos,i think.

Ogres: not in the schedule,not a priority for GW to redo my army .When and IF they redo them,probably rhinox riders will be a new type of unit,100% official

Then,i think, the MOST important FACT....they're thinking about a new edition for WHFB,not in a so distant future.
They know how the fifth edition of 40k has been very liked by people,so they want to do the same with WHFB,which instead it's a bit "stuck in marble" cause of rulebook.
they cannot by now expand whfb lin a way like for 40k...so the new edition will be more fun and enjoyable.
In what way?no more only pitched battles,but scenarios like those used in the UK HEAT...with more emphasis on troops, targets to be conquered, table quarters and the like...so a whfb a little bit more like 40k 5th ed.
With also a magic phase in which misscast will be behind the corner...look out at 1 when casting a spell...even with one die...
Those are some ideas they have about to change the rulebook....and if this will be succesfull lik in 40k area...welll, we will se "siege sourcebook"..."apocalypse for whfb" and the like...i'm crossin fingers!
When this will happen? No one told us.....we could guess about it....i'm thinking about 2010...far from now...but not THAT far..but,who kows?Maybe before...

and the LotR thing: in february 2009 we will see "War of the Rings battle game" or "WotR"..something like "apocalypse for Lotr game"...with some miniatures in plastics for ents,new trolls and the like....great battles on middle earth
Just to remind people that LoTR it's NOT dead...and instead will be,with WotC, revamped before "the hobbit" will be on the cinemas...in late 2009

No more things to be said,hope this will help