Battle for Skull Pass and a gnome's variety of summery Warhammer rumors

Twenty-four years in the making. Yes, twenty-four, as in 24. That's for how long Warhammer has been evolving, despite minor setbacks and the occasional fan-base dissatisfaction. Quite impressive right? Right. On to the rumors then. And to a bit of news too.

Part One (where Warhammer gets naughty battling for skull pass and other silly places)

Let's start with the well known stuff first. Khorne, I'm sure, would appreciate it. He's a really simple god you know. Anyway. The 9th of September 2006 will be the date when the 7th edition of Warhammer will be unleashed upon a mostly suspecting gaming world. Buying options will include the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set, the (thankfully red) Rulebook, a hideously overpriced and rather impressive Collector's Edition Rulebook and the quite smart Gamers Edition rulebook. These will be accompanied by a Battle for Skull Pass paint set (including 6 paints, 1 brush and 10 Night Goblins with spears and shields) and some new accordingly themed dice. Finding out more on the official stuff shouldn't be too difficult. Just visit the Games Workshop Online Store. Lots of expensive little toy soldiers (and paraphernalia) to pre-order there...

Yes, that's definitely a Collector's edition.


And this one has to be Skull Pass boxed set.

Ah, yes, but what about the rumors (I hear the WHFB masses ask)? Well, there's a simple answer you know. Simply clicking here will reveal everything on the forthcoming rules. Just don't expect something spectacular, as WHFB 7th ed. is basically a touching up and slight tweaking of the 6th edition rules. Mind you, that most of the rumored changes seem pretty wise. As for the four lazy sods out there, who just can't be bothered to click on stuff, let me highlight the more interesting changes:

- Snaking formation is no more.

- Power dice generated by wizards can only be used by the wizards that generated them and only the dice in the pool remain available to all wizards. Miscasts are nastier and the lores have been changed.

- No more lapping around and a quite a few tweaks in combat sequence and fleeing.

- New Insane courage rule : rolling snake eyes on a break test means the test is automatically passed, regardless of modifiers. This can even override auto-break from Fear-causing enemies.

- Troops engaged in close combat do not take Psychology tests.

- Unbreakable swarms behave more or less like the undead, when it comes to loosing combat.

- Hand weapon and shield +1 armour applies only when fighting to the front.

- Tons of rule clarifications and special case rules like fighting in buildings.

Part Two (where the Orcs meet the Goblins and mess quite a few of things up)

The Orcs and Goblins will be the first army to get a nice 7th edition armybook. Unfortunately, they will also get a rather disappointing army deal boxed set thingy, that will most probably look like this (via):


New miniatures will include quite a few and admittedly brilliant characters (see them here), a Gorbad Ironclaw miniature (here), hand weapon wielding Night Goblins (the sprues are here), and all those beautiful little minis I posted the other day. Apparently one should also have a look at some special edition Goblin fanatics (here) and a few German White Dwarf scans (here).

New rules should include slight changes in the Greenskin magic system, the lifting of the 0-1 limit for Big Uns, the addition of Forest Goblin Spider Riders, a toning down of the all gobbo army of doom, tweaks for the Choppa (+1 S on the charge, even if two of them are used), Animosity tweaks, simplified fanatic and squig rules and an upgrade of Snotling swarms.

Want more? Then, by all means, do have a look here.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: UK White Dwarf 320, White Dwarf issue #1 PDF, Adrian Smith's Art


Related Tags: Warhammer, WHFB, Games Workshop, Battle for Skull Pass, rumors, rumours, Orcs, Goblins, new rules, Fantasy, Wargames, Miniatures, Pictures, Preview, Greenskins