Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

A game like Fantasy should be huge, by its very nature it has a large barrier to entry.

Most of the time the best things in life aren't easy to obtain or master. It doesn't mean they shouldn't be created. They just wont appeal to the masses in a way that a simpler, faster game will. But thats why I want it.

This will be a niche game, no question. It's for die hard fans, and people who want to put time and effort into their gaming, not just throw 20 models on the table and be finished in an hour and a half.

AoS was created because the new blood entering the TT gaming world are all of a younger generation who have grown up with instant gratification. It's maximum output to minimum input. And now they've changed 40K over to match the expectations of the new gamer. Clearly, it's working.

Personally I hate it. But thats why I still play Fantasy.

Out of the 3 core games (LOTR, 40k, WFB), WFB was the lowest seller for a good number of years. This isn't speculation or hearsay, it's a fact. The reason I know is because I was working in the company at the time. Staff knew and there were a few people I talked to (from H/O) who told me about particular figures such as one particular code from LOTR (might have been plastic Uruk Hai) that outsold the whole of WFB combined at that time.
People tend to think of how popular something is in their area or from stuff theyve seen online, but they don't get the whole picture. A lot of people dont like it and will often rail against it, but its sadly what happened, which is why it changed to AoS.
For me WFB was great, it was the first big box I purchased from a GW store and im glad to see the old world is coming back, I greatly prefer the low fantasy setting to the high fantasy of AoS

I'm not saying you are wrong, but LOTR? really?

I have literally never seen a game of LOTR, in any country I have visited. In any tournament, in any game shop.

I have a very hard time believing that stat without some hard numbers.

The idea that you only see people playing games in stores and tournaments means you are missing the people who play at home, collectors, painters and so on. Gamers arent the only people who purchased LOTR. The films were so popular that GW had its biggest sales numbers it had ever had up until that point (I don't know whether it has been surpassed recently). It was, for a time, the biggest seller for GW and this was all because of the success of the films

LotR was more popular by that time, for the mein reason that it was cheaper, even if you played the big War of the Rings game, and had the better rules

How good will a game run without any support from the company
We have seen it with Warhammer.

40k was just lucky to have a good rule set and support by that time and therefore it attracted most of the former Warhammer players
(while LotR died an instant death after GW raised the prices and people did not went on with another GW game)

GW killed Warhammer mid/end 7th Edition, it just took its time to die.

LotRs was even less supported than WHFB was. Shortly after RotK finding games was more difficult than WHFB, despite it's much, much, much lower cost of entry compared to even 40k at the time. Before anybody calls me bias, it was my favourite GW gaming system and it always makes me cringe a bit when AoS kind-of-but-not-really hearkens to it and still misses the mark considerably.

End Times products sold out in minutes, whilst Escape From Goblin-Town's """Limited""" Edition remained for years.

Don't forget LotR got a lot of customers through the doors who were film fans but were never "wargamers" as such. IT was tapping into the movie tie-in market in a way that GW has never done before nor since. From what I'm aware once the films ended the drop-off in that market was also pretty big and fast as well.

GW just isn't geared to movie-chase, yet it can work well. Lego has survived partly because they now do movie tie-ins all the time.
Not to mention all the toy companies that make action figures for every big film there is - serving collectors and children alike.



Also I'd note that right now 40K armies are pretty darn big compared to what they were. Tyranids or Orks running mass infantry (or even guard) can easily get to similar numbers as the Old World fantasy got too. It's not that big numbers can't work, its that there wasn't enough interesting stuff going on before 2K games that hurt the game.

AoS has learned from this a lot, there's Warcry, Skirmish, Underworlds, Meeting Engagements - all before you get to 2K games. Furthermore the armies are actually smaller than 40K ones. GW has clearly priced points higher to keep numbers down; which I expect to remain the case for a few years then we'll steadily see it grow as more of the market have bigger collections and a desire to put more of them on the table.


Heck go back 25 years and Warhammer 40K armies were tiny compared to what they are now

 Arbitrator wrote:
LotRs was even less supported than WHFB was. Shortly after RotK finding games was more difficult than WHFB, despite it's much, much, much lower cost of entry compared to even 40k at the time. Before anybody calls me bias, it was my favourite GW gaming system and it always makes me cringe a bit when AoS kind-of-but-not-really hearkens to it and still misses the mark considerably..

In my local Club, LotR had replaced Warhammer by that time but it died long before EndTime was a thing
Most of the LotR gamers came from the historical games and/or were attracted by the movies (and the collectors magazines), and while most of the Warhammer played 40k, not many of the LotR players did look into any of that.

So while Warhammer and 40k came and go but the people were the same, LotR came with new people and took them away when it died.

 Yodhrin wrote:

 ekwatts wrote:
This isn't Mordheim by a different name. This is Warhammer. And likely to be some kind of "historical" type game where battles from either a range of historical eras of Warhammer are detailed, or one era in particular, in the same way that the last version of Epic concentrated on the War for Armageddon.

However, that makes some kind of Mordheim revival slightly more likely.

As for GW apologising over AoS... haha, keep trying chaps. GW aren't going to apologise for moving to AoS, ever. Warhammer is being brought back as a specialist games-style niche format, not as a main line (to begin with, at the very least). And regardless of how successful it is, as with Blood Bowl, Necromunda, etc, it will still never overtake AoS as a main line. That's literally the entire problem GW had with Fantasy Battles. It isn't something that has magically cured with being off the market for a few years. The interest isn't there. Bringing it back as an arms-length niche line is a shrewd move, however.

The "interest" was fine for decades, until GW got greedy and careless. The idea that WHFB couldn't recover to it's former heights with the right support and approach or that AoS couldn't suffer the same fall given the same management bungling is just nonsense. I'm not arguing GW will do either, but this tired meme that WHFB was just suddenly unwanted and unprofitable for Reasons needs to go away.

When WFB was at its height of popularity and play, you picked up a regiment that had a completely viable and playable regiment. You didn't need to, as in 8th, nab 5 boxes of $40 Goldswords to have one unit that was game relevant. Until GW gets that back in their head they will be dancing with fire. Sure, I understand that niche pricing will still pop 20 count regiments near $40-50, but it still makes a 1,000 point game attainable to a new player within a reasonable time and a reasonable price. At last editiong, it was upwards of $500 to get a small playable army. Swarm? You're screwed.

I can’t gelp feel that as the Heresy money train comes to an end over the next five years that GW sees this replacing it but I very much doubt it will unless they invest in plastics to bridge the price gap.

The Old World lost any relevance to AoS fluff when it was destroyed , whereas the Heresy forms a kind of shadow hovering over the present day in 40k , a lost golden age with fragments left in the 41st millennium.

It’s cool that they are looking at it and I’d be excited to see the parts of the old world that never received much attention getting Heresy like detail, and I can see how the fluff could be slowly steered in AoS to link it.

 Just Tony wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:

 ekwatts wrote:
This isn't Mordheim by a different name. This is Warhammer. And likely to be some kind of "historical" type game where battles from either a range of historical eras of Warhammer are detailed, or one era in particular, in the same way that the last version of Epic concentrated on the War for Armageddon.

However, that makes some kind of Mordheim revival slightly more likely.

As for GW apologising over AoS... haha, keep trying chaps. GW aren't going to apologise for moving to AoS, ever. Warhammer is being brought back as a specialist games-style niche format, not as a main line (to begin with, at the very least). And regardless of how successful it is, as with Blood Bowl, Necromunda, etc, it will still never overtake AoS as a main line. That's literally the entire problem GW had with Fantasy Battles. It isn't something that has magically cured with being off the market for a few years. The interest isn't there. Bringing it back as an arms-length niche line is a shrewd move, however.

The "interest" was fine for decades, until GW got greedy and careless. The idea that WHFB couldn't recover to it's former heights with the right support and approach or that AoS couldn't suffer the same fall given the same management bungling is just nonsense. I'm not arguing GW will do either, but this tired meme that WHFB was just suddenly unwanted and unprofitable for Reasons needs to go away.

When WFB was at its height of popularity and play, you picked up a regiment that had a completely viable and playable regiment. You didn't need to, as in 8th, nab 5 boxes of $40 Goldswords to have one unit that was game relevant. Until GW gets that back in their head they will be dancing with fire. Sure, I understand that niche pricing will still pop 20 count regiments near $40-50, but it still makes a 1,000 point game attainable to a new player within a reasonable time and a reasonable price. At last editiong, it was upwards of $500 to get a small playable army. Swarm? You're screwed.

This.

Also, Kallus, no offense or anything, but if "redshirt who totes knows a guy at head office" is considered so laughable as a source for rumours about upcoming product that it's been a running joke for the last twenty years, I'm not going to rank it any higher because they're claiming to know about the finances side of things. From all the information we have before GW started clamping down on what was included in their financial reports and from proven, reliable rumour-mongers of old, WHFB wasn't fully into a death-spiral until the late oughts, and even at the time people were quite readily pointing out both the problems and the obvious solutions to them.

My original assessment stands - WHFB was a casualty of GW's mismanagement. There was nothing inevitable about its decline, and no other impediment to its salvation.

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
I can’t gelp feel that as the Heresy money train comes to an end over the next five years that GW sees this replacing it but I very much doubt it will unless they invest in plastics to bridge the price gap.

The Old World lost any relevance to AoS fluff when it was destroyed , whereas the Heresy forms a kind of shadow hovering over the present day in 40k , a lost golden age with fragments left in the 41st millennium.

It’s cool that they are looking at it and I’d be excited to see the parts of the old world that never received much attention getting Heresy like detail, and I can see how the fluff could be slowly steered in AoS to link it.

Any attempt to retcon the fluff to better "steer into AoS" will sink this no question. People who switched to AoS are largely happy with AoS, even if they stuck with the WHF fluff. People who didn't switch to AoS won't want the setting they do like futzed with for the sake of a game and IP they don't care for. If GW are smart, they'll gloss over everything to do with End Times and any links to AoS as much as they possibly can outside of the marketing bumph on WHC - a returning WHF fan who opens up a TOW book should be able to read it cover to cover without once being reminded of the whole 2014-15 clusterhump, that's how it'll recapture that audience, and it's that audience it needs, not the tiny fraction of AoS fans it might be able to peel off with a more explicit link.

LoTR was a bubble, and as every bubble was the BIG HIT on the 2000. GW spent all of that money in new production machines. But after the movies ended, the hype died and the LoTR bubble exploded. And we all know how all of that ended, with the darkest times of GW.

The death of WHFB was only to blame on GW. We can discuss about the changes in the gamer culture and if what GW would have done to make WHFB profitable would have been similar to what ended up with AoS. In my opinion, had GW take their head of their arses just like they are doing now, with videos, fanbase comunication and engagement (I know 2004 was not 2018, the internet wasn't as availible and the culture wasnt the same but they could have done much more that what they did) and things like discount boxes, start collecting!'s (even if right now they are raising the prices of those boxes, damm you gw), etc, etc... WHFB didn't had anything that made it inherently unnapealing.
I mean look at 40k. It is not that much younger and is still kicking it. But because GW "reinvented" it. With 7th, 40k wasn't much better than WHFB in 8th, with X-wing stealing a ton of players, etc...

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
I'm not saying you are wrong, but LOTR? really?

I have literally never seen a game of LOTR, in any country I have visited. In any tournament, in any game shop.

I have a very hard time believing that stat without some hard numbers.

LotR was the only of the 3 main games sold in mass retailers like Barnes & Noble and other book stores. Gamers weren't the only ones buying and most players were playing at home/clubs.

 Inquisitor Kallus wrote:
Out of the 3 core games (LOTR, 40k, WFB), WFB was the lowest seller for a good number of years. This isn't speculation or hearsay, it's a fact. The reason I know is because I was working in the company at the time. Staff knew and there were a few people I talked to (from H/O) who told me about particular figures such as one particular code from LOTR (might have been plastic Uruk Hai) that outsold the whole of WFB combined at that time.
People tend to think of how popular something is in their area or from stuff theyve seen online, but they don't get the whole picture. A lot of people dont like it and will often rail against it, but its sadly what happened, which is why it changed to AoS.
For me WFB was great, it was the first big box I purchased from a GW store and im glad to see the old world is coming back, I greatly prefer the low fantasy setting to the high fantasy of AoS

Ooof, this also links to what Josh Reynolds said several months ago, apparently AOS books are outselling whfb ones by miles(soul wars has reached horus heresy numbers in terms of sales), per his own words, sometimes internet perception doesn't line up with the cold hard numbers despite some people swearing up and down the lore is trash online. At the end of the day people vote with their wallets.

 EnTyme wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:
If anything, the overwhelming success of TW:W and the fact developers only want to do Old World games puts paid to the myth that the interest in WHFB wasn't there.

We've seen a handful of mobile games set in the Mortal Realms, and the Warhammer: Underworlds game just hit early access, so clearly some developers are interested in the Mortal Realms. The Age of Sigmar license is separate from the WHFB license, and GW seems to be more strict on selling the license for the former.

Underworlds isn't being made for the AOS lore though, it's being made for the Underworlds game system. The WHFB lore gets designers developing all sorts of games, no one seems to want to go near AOS for an original game.

ges in the gamer culture and if what GW would have done to make WHFB profitable would have been similar to what ended up with AoS. In my opinion, had GW take their head of their arses just like they are doing now, with videos, fanbase comunication and engagement (I know 2004 was not 2018, the internet wasn't as availible and the culture wasnt the same but they could have done much more that what they did) and things like discount boxes, start collecting!'s (even if right now they are raising the prices of those boxes, damm you gw), etc, etc... WHFB didn't had anything that made it inherently unnapealing.

Indeed, what a lot of people forget is that WHFB's worst period (right up until being killed) coincided with GW being at it's absolute lowest ebb in terms of fan perception, engagement and second worst period for financial performance after the LOTR bust. It was the era of Kirby saying people only bought miniatures (AOS 1ed, smacks of this thinking), GW suing anyone who moved, months went without any major releases and the output was much lower than today, the only rumours were leaks posted in fan sites and the idea of the Warhammer Community site and an active Youtube/Social Media presence talking to the fans, not down at them, wasn't even in the company's thoughts. GW's marketing and engagement was actively awful and people were readily speculating as to when the company would go bust or be bought by a company like Hasbro. There's a reason why Kirby went and Rountree changed things so much, hell read Kirby's last accounts preface and compare it to Rountrees to see how much things have changed.

Given the current GW's marketing and community engagement and some actual attention paid to it, WHFB would have done much better. Not saying it would have done AOS well but AOS' market isn't a 1:1 with the old Fantasy market anyway.

Honestly in the pre-internet era I don't think GW did all that much or enough to really market the Black Library books. So its no shock to me that AoS is doing better, I think the market is FAR more aware of it than they ever were in the past. That said I hope BL keeps releasing the combined chronicle editions of the books for Old World, even if just in digital form.

Whislt I've not bought as many of them as I want I am very slowly gathering them up. I've really enjoyed going through all the Gotrek and Felix adventures (I'm mostly now waiting to see if BL will publish a 5th with the endtimes books gathered together)

Was 2014 pre-internet? BL published Fantasy books right until the end of end times, well into internet age.

Cronch wrote:
Was 2014 pre-internet? BL published Fantasy books right until the end of end times, well into internet age.

According to Gav Thorpe and Josh Reynolds whfb books tended not to earn back their money in comparison to 40k. The only books that did were times of legend sigmar and one other legends book, I can't recall the name. That revelation kinda shocked me to be honest.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Londinium wrote:

 EnTyme wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:
If anything, the overwhelming success of TW:W and the fact developers only want to do Old World games puts paid to the myth that the interest in WHFB wasn't there.

We've seen a handful of mobile games set in the Mortal Realms, and the Warhammer: Underworlds game just hit early access, so clearly some developers are interested in the Mortal Realms. The Age of Sigmar license is separate from the WHFB license, and GW seems to be more strict on selling the license for the former.

Underworlds isn't being made for the AOS lore though, it's being made for the Underworlds game system. The WHFB lore gets designers developing all sorts of games, no one seems to want to go near AOS for an original game.

ges in the gamer culture and if what GW would have done to make WHFB profitable would have been similar to what ended up with AoS. In my opinion, had GW take their head of their arses just like they are doing now, with videos, fanbase comunication and engagement (I know 2004 was not 2018, the internet wasn't as availible and the culture wasnt the same but they could have done much more that what they did) and things like discount boxes, start collecting!'s (even if right now they are raising the prices of those boxes, damm you gw), etc, etc... WHFB didn't had anything that made it inherently unnapealing.

Indeed, what a lot of people forget is that WHFB's worst period (right up until being killed) coincided with GW being at it's absolute lowest ebb in terms of fan perception, engagement and second worst period for financial performance after the LOTR bust. It was the era of Kirby saying people only bought miniatures (AOS 1ed, smacks of this thinking), GW suing anyone who moved, months went without any major releases and the output was much lower than today, the only rumours were leaks posted in fan sites and the idea of the Warhammer Community site and an active Youtube/Social Media presence talking to the fans, not down at them, wasn't even in the company's thoughts. GW's marketing and engagement was actively awful and people were readily speculating as to when the company would go bust or be bought by a company like Hasbro. There's a reason why Kirby went and Rountree changed things so much, hell read Kirby's last accounts preface and compare it to Rountrees to see how much things have changed.

Given the current GW's marketing and community engagement and some actual attention paid to it, WHFB would have done much better. Not saying it would have done AOS well but AOS' market isn't a 1:1 with the old Fantasy market anyway.

https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/37406/focus-home-interactive-reveals-12-new-partnerships-at-what-s-next-2019


"Gasket Games are a cross-platform game development company based in Vancouver and comprised of former team members from Relic Entertainment (Dawn of War, Company of Heroes) and Blackbird Interactive (Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak). They will leverage their passion, talent, and more than fifteen years of experience making strategy games in the development of a brand-new Games Workshop title in a rich universe."

Cronch wrote:
Was 2014 pre-internet? BL published Fantasy books right until the end of end times, well into internet age.

I was thinking back into the 90s and early 2000s. So the internet was around, but very much a back-seat compared to the highstreet and such at that stage. Growing power but not the behemoth it is now. Though also things like the earlier inferno and other works.

I'm just going on how I never really recall there being much noise about the fiction back then compared to what there is now. Though even now the fiction is clearly a slower to grow market block than the models.

Must say I'm surprised that the BL books for fantasy do so poorly though, I do wonder if part of it is that GW/Bl tends to price fairly high compared to the market which might turn some away. Plus I think fantasy lacks a big hero epic saga book. They lack a GRRM or Erikson scale story. BL is much more sword and magic adventuring style writing. Even when they write about wars and such much of it has that pulp fiction adventuring edge in how they follow characters and such. I'm not saying that's bad, actually right now I'm in a spot where I'm after that more than epic so its great for me.

I am not surprised. Back when I had full spectrum comparison between 40k and whfb playerbases locally, I saw the 40k players buy books, comics (when they existed), and really get into it, merch-wise. Fantasy players rarely bought the BL books (Gotrek being the notable exception), and pretty much did all they could to spend less on armies- much larger % was 2nd hand or swaps between locals than 40k players which tended to just start new armies in addition to old ones.

Obviously I am not saying my local situation was representative of the whole world, but it does line up with the little tidbits we get from people like Josh. Fantasy players, on the whole, always struck me as much more cost-adverse.

Londinium wrote:


Underworlds isn't being made for the AOS lore though, it's being made for the Underworlds game system. The WHFB lore gets designers developing all sorts of games, no one seems to want to go near AOS for an original game.

You are aware that Underworlds is set in the Mortal Realms, right?

 EnTyme wrote:

Londinium wrote:


Underworlds isn't being made for the AOS lore though, it's being made for the Underworlds game system. The WHFB lore gets designers developing all sorts of games, no one seems to want to go near AOS for an original game.

You are aware that Underworlds is set in the Mortal Realms, right?

Indeed Shadespire is a major location in the Realms

 EnTyme wrote:

Londinium wrote:


Underworlds isn't being made for the AOS lore though, it's being made for the Underworlds game system. The WHFB lore gets designers developing all sorts of games, no one seems to want to go near AOS for an original game.

You are aware that Underworlds is set in the Mortal Realms, right?

I think it's fairly obvious that he meant that you don't play it for the narrative but for gameplay experience, not unlike League of Legends for instance.

In addition, I must say that I don't find warping of another's words and then assuming such a condescending attitude especially polight, with all due respect.

Edit: bad quotation.

I'm pretty sure nothing on this page is News or Rumors.

shinros wrote:

 Inquisitor Kallus wrote:
Out of the 3 core games (LOTR, 40k, WFB), WFB was the lowest seller for a good number of years. This isn't speculation or hearsay, it's a fact. The reason I know is because I was working in the company at the time. Staff knew and there were a few people I talked to (from H/O) who told me about particular figures such as one particular code from LOTR (might have been plastic Uruk Hai) that outsold the whole of WFB combined at that time.
People tend to think of how popular something is in their area or from stuff theyve seen online, but they don't get the whole picture. A lot of people dont like it and will often rail against it, but its sadly what happened, which is why it changed to AoS.
For me WFB was great, it was the first big box I purchased from a GW store and im glad to see the old world is coming back, I greatly prefer the low fantasy setting to the high fantasy of AoS

Ooof, this also links to what Josh Reynolds said several months ago, apparently AOS books are outselling whfb ones by miles(soul wars has reached horus heresy numbers in terms of sales), per his own words, sometimes internet perception doesn't line up with the cold hard numbers despite some people swearing up and down the lore is trash online. At the end of the day people vote with their wallets.

Would that be Josh "hahaha, I am Khali, I loved blowing up WHF because of all your fanboy tears, totally a mature and rational adult" Reynolds? An impeccably reliable source, almost "redshirt who knows a guy at HQ" tier

Seriously though, even he must know how disingenuous a comparison that is, it's not comparing like with like at all. WHF fiction went through three phases; the phase where there basically wasn't any, the phase where there was a modest amount, and the phase where there was still a modest amount but WHFB was dying on its arse. Comparing to the first is obvious farce, comparing to the last is exactly as indicative as comparing well-supported, heavily-marketed, post-GHB AoS with 8th WHFB after years of neglect and mismanagement, ie it isn't, and comparing against the middle phase doesn't account for the fact that GW now is several times the size of GW then and operates under entirely different policies including a much more rapid pace of releases, fiction included.

I'd wager the proportion of players buying the tie-in fiction isn't all that higher than during the middle phase, that's just a larger number of people in absolute terms because of the company's growth in its overall playerbase over the years and the increased pace allows for more opportunities for players interested in a particular faction to see something they want to buy. The way people keep trying to spin that as being indicative of some inherent and insurmountable deficit in popularity or sales potential for WHF is just flat out dishonest, because there's no reason to believe that had GW not run the IP into the ground, blown it up, and replaced it wholesale, it wouldn't be in exactly the same position AoS is.

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:
I'm pretty sure nothing on this page is News or Rumors.

Yeah, I would agree. Can we please try and stick to the topic?

 ingtaer wrote:

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:
I'm pretty sure nothing on this page is News or Rumors.

Yeah, I would agree. Can we please try and stick to the topic?

Might as well close the topic until GW deigns to drop another post then, in 3 months or so.

Also, the mental gymnastics of whfb fans to justify the sales disparity, including ad hominem of any and all sources is peak cringe

Smellingsalts wrote:
GW need to do a mea culpa for all of the fans they pissed off by blowing up the old world. An alternate timeline where that didn't happen would be a good place to start

Blowing up the Old World wasn't the problem. Blowing up the game was.

It's perfectly fine for the game to exist in a time before the end of the world. Although, honestly, given how much it invigorated the player base in general, it should have been a no brainer for them to continue the game set during the End Times.

Back to the preview, it seems there are at least three things to take from or discuss about it.
Firstly, the time period. Based on the earlier posts (I don't know much about Imperial history), names on the map imply something set further in the past than the original setting, but it's not clear when exactly, as the names don't match known characters who were alive at the same time. Something a few hundred years prior to the original setting is interesting as it impact different factions very differently. There have been some more "historical" special characters in the books before, and this new time window may coincide with one of the historical greenskins for example. The Empire would feature wholly new characters, while Elves may not be impacted at all. While major aesthetics are expected to basically remain unchanged, there may be slight differences in the available technology (did Imperial engineers invent the robot-horse yet? Skaven surely shouldn't logically have access to all their weird inventions yet, as it implies they stagnated for hundreds of years afterwards?). Last point may well be brushed over; after all, the Skaven for example haven't come up with many new things in AoS either.

Secondly, the focus of the map. The Empire is at the heart, and may be the focus of the first "thing" to be released, whatever it ends up being. It makes sense to pick them (the lack of relatable, ordinary humans is a main criticism of AoS, a criticism mainly expressed by veterans from WHFB missing this aspect), and their surrounding lands feature.. most other races, for later expansions. Missing, of course, are the High Elves and Dark Elves. Both could make contact with the other races in coastal areas however. The Lizardmen have less reason to show up, but may be present in Albion (based on the time period?). Tomb Kings would have the least presence, which is interesting seeing how they are one of the few fully squatted armies, but also the one featured multiple times in those memes GW showed. Guess they have been known to wander north occasionally, but those with better knowledge of them might have a better idea of how they could logically be included (if any time soon, in a way related to the current map).

Thirdly, something I haven't seen mentioned yet: new things on the map. I noticed there is an island west of Albion, which I haven't seen anywhere before. To the south is of course the deliciously named "Isle of Wights", but I can't find any prior islands to the west anywhere. Compared to the rest of the map, it has a very finely detailed coastline; quite different in style. Perhaps some way to give one of the factions not featured on the current map a more local presence? Perhaps the High Elves, as both Dark Elves and Lizardmen have settled in Albion, although again, possibly not yet in the time period covered here.
Can anyone see any additional changes?

New map:

Old maps:

The island to the west of Albion - isn't that new - Warhammer Ireland?

I can't quite read the names in Norsica so not sure how new they are?