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My biggest worry with the new WFB is the switch of emphasis to massive infantry units, and I wonder if they have pushed it too far. This, and simultaneously increasing the price (reducing the number of models per box) along with it. If I now want a solid block of 40 orcs, I will have to pay almost $100 dollars for a single unit which is obscene. Also, attempting to change the standard in terms of gaming sizes to 2500pts plus (when was the last time you saw a skirmish game battle rep in WD?) compounds the problem.

If they are trying to get newcomers into the hobby its a funny way to go about it, a single viable unit for an army is now far, far beyond the pocket money limit of most youngsters coming into the hobby, and is moving it firmly into electronic goods territory (which, sadly, most children are more likely to go to if its a case of 'either/or'). I have a working wage and it's something I have to think twice about when starting a new army, let alone the prospect of painting up so many miniatures which is daunting to say the least and is another reason potential gamers might go elsewhere.

The 'sell more kits' emphasis on design of new rules, first found even going back to the sacking of the specialist ranges but also in Apocalypse and nerfing of previously powerful units in new codex/army book releases, may have gone a step too far in this new release I fear.

Guys, if this thread were in WHFB General Discussion, you'd be getting a completely different take.

Alpharius wrote:An emphasis on EVEN LARGER units (I know, big surprise here! ) and the changes to the magic system have left many 'veterans' cold to the new edition.

A shame really, as the last edition was a lot of fun and had a lot of 'support' from the players.

8th edition hasn't really taken off around here, from what I hear!

While I have seen the coldness from a few people who needed to make large purchases to keep up (the same with any edition change, really) most people really like the 8th edition rules from what I've seen.

Those who don't have mostly fallen into two categories:
1. Hardcore tournament gamers who don't like the randomness that 8th edition introduced (random amount of magic dice, random charge distances, etc)
2. Casual gamers who don't have enough models to make the large units needed to be competitive in 8th edition.

For those of us in-between, i.e. not into the imbalance of 7th edition, but with enough motivation/resources to build up decent 8th edition armies, 8th edition has been really popular.

The only unpopular move was GW not releasing any armybooks- and now they're doing 2 in just a few months (O&G & TK). It seems like they might've moved TK up to address this concern, and the losing of the momentum from the 8th ed ruleset.

7th edition was horribly unbalanced towards the end. Monsters and cav were everything, blocks were a Huge liability. 8th turned things on their head, and most people are real happy about it who are actually playing fantasy around here.

I would say that most people commenting here are 40k players. Certainly none of the regulars from the WHFB section have chimed in... so the perspective isn't very representative of actual fantasy players, imho.

Sorry to rant, but as a lover of fantasy and especially of 8th edition, I had to try to give the other side here

WHFB is pulling back a bit at my local store.

We have around 8-10 WHFB gamers. Small chance of a pickup game on any week day. They have a league going, a few more kids are getting into the WHFB side of GW. Slow rise.

We have around 50~ 40k gamers on the other hand

I think most stores have more 40k gamers than fantasy (quantity over quality OK, bad joke...), especially as younger gamers are more likely to get into 40k.

However, the issue is more whether or not the number of fantasy players is increasing... it is definitely lagging due to the lack of army book releases- hopefully the next few months will rectify that!