New speculation on 2011/12 Fantasy release schedule

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**Kroothawk**

A new discussion started on Warseer on the upcoming release schedule. Some proposed schedules make no sense, but discussing these some new info came up, mostly on upcoming Fantasy releases.

King Thurgun wrote:Got a few tidbits from a GW fellow and a couple of hobby store regulars from my local place, all speculation, but I thought I'd add what I'd heard to the mix.

The Rumors were:
-Storm of Magic in late July/early August (pretty much confirmed).
-Ogres in October (sounds right, with them premiering at GD UK)
-Necrons in November (also later than I thought, but I'm noticing an alliteration theme here...)
-Sisters in January 2012

And the most speculative bit of news I'd heard, the GW fellow said his money on the army premiering after ogres was Empire. His reasoning was that very few of the old Empire heroes got a Finecast job, so those had a good chance of coming out in resin soon. Also that in the long history of GW army releases, when Orcs and Goblins come out, Empire usually makes an appearance within the year.

That's all folks. I'm sure much of this has made its way on here already but so it goes.

Storm of Magic officially confirmed, Ogres confirmed by 75hastings69, Necrons a safe bet, sisters make no sense with WD Codex in August, Empire far fetched.

eldargal wrote:That goes against what I've heard (from reliable sources) that the releases are s follows:

WFB:
Storm of Magic
Ogre Kingdoms
Bretonnians/Wood Elves (which one comes first isn't clear)
EDIT: Dwarves here, oops.
Lizardmen.

40k:
Sisters (in August/September, WD codex this is confirmed)
Necrons
Tau
6th Edition
(...)
Empire is a long way off, but the little I've heard sounds promising. More diversity of knightly orders and warrior priests, return of halflings, new knight kit etc. All very amorphous rumours since it is so far away.

Gabacho Mk.II wrote:From what I heard, the following is 'supposed to be 100%' correct:

Ogres ----- October/November
Bretonnians ------ March
High Elves ------ July

BramGaunt wrote:High Elves are supposed to be Fantasy's Space Marines. Give or take a few months, I can see it happen. Also, look at how many new and old HE players there are. It would be ac 'easy kill' to release a new HE book.

Harry wrote:There is some Empire stuff that is not that far off.
(...)
I can't remember where I heard it but I heard something about some Empire wizards.
I was imagining some more sets of four single pose guys like the Chaos, DE and Necroamncer.

I have heard there are quite a few more to come ... and if they are all of the quality of the first four ...

BRING IT ON!

As for the Army books release order ...
I heard (over a year ago) not to expect them to continue to work their way through the books one by one as they had through the last edition.

Everyone assumes Wood Elves and Bretonnians MUST be in the mix somewhere but I am not sure they are anytime soon.

I am expecting more small waves of things for random armies.

I get a sense that the guys in the studio are being given a bit more freedom to sculpt what they REALLY want to rather than all the creative juices be constrained by a release schedule. Obviously there must be some constraints but I don't think they are just going to be working their way through a couple of army book projects at any one time ... not anymore.

I could be wrong ... but thats what I think.
(...)
I am sure there is a schedule involved.

What I am saying is I wouldn't be looking at the order the army books were done in the last edition to establish what the schedule is.

I think they will be looking at the armies and deciding which needs their attention next/the most rather than looking which one is the oldest.

I think they will be doing stuff for armies because they think it needs doing not waiting years until that army is up to be redone.

As a result I think you will see more stuff being released for more armies without waiting for a full scale army releases.

I am not saying they won't do Wood Elves ... I am just saying they will be doing stuff for other armies too.
(...)
I think most of the army books ARE in good shape. (If, like me, you are not bothered about balance. )

So I imagine if they do not need to revisit an army for any special reason they are going to redo the books, giving them the full colour/hardback treatment, starting with the biggest sellers first.

I am not saying this is the way it is ... I am just thinking out loud.

So basically, Harry suggests that studio staff has more freedom to tackle those projects they want, as most army books are in relatively good shape. This results in more small waves and releases for Fantasy instead of just working systematically through all army books. If you look at the new direction of the White Dwarf, it actually supports such a new release/production direction. Maybe the new Vampire monster model with official WD rules is a first implemetation of this.

**kenshin620**

Hmm the freedom does sound interesting if it can get us quality minis. Empire and HE are ok but I REALLY hope WE/Brets are nearby

But of course I'll be disappointed with prices

**Grot 6**

Fantasy?

Whats that?

Thought GW squatted that game system.

**Platuan4th**

Grot 6 wrote:Fantasy?

Whats that?

Thought GW squatted that game system.

Only because, like the Specialist Games, it was too good to be allowed to live.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

WHFB 8th ed is currently 11 months old.

There have been 2 army books released since then, it will be 15 months after the new edition was released that Ogres arrived.

Did we need "Storm Of Magic"... no.

Could Ogres have been pushed forward to July (and TKs and O&G pushed forward as well)... Yes
Should High Elves have had a new army book when they released 4 plastic kits... yes.

The WHFB release schedule is just pathetic and mirrored by 40k which has had 3 armies in 13-14 months.

GW are meant to sell minis by providing rules to encourage purchase of said models.

No new army lists, sales stagnate.

Sad panda ensues...

**Kroothawk**

Two more tidbits:

eldargal wrote:
Spiney Norman wrote:Lizardmen??? Are you sure, thats a bit out of left field IMHO, aside from the fact that they're a minority army and their AB is only 3 yrs old, they're probably one of the few armies in WFB that doesn't need anything doing to them either in terms of rules or new models (and I say this as an avid LM player).

I'm sure in the sense that I've heard it from two sources within GW (who are unaaware of each other). But, they are very far out and things can change. They were both much more certain about Ok,WE/Bret and Dwarves.

Neither of them mentioned High Elves, I'd like to know if BramGaunt has heard any specific or if he is just hypothesising?

Harry wrote:I think things have been changing for a while, I think the wave releases without army books and the SoM releases are evidence of that.

As for Bretonnians ... they may be the next full army book release after OK ... what I am saying is I expect to see all kinds of other stuff in between army book projects.

And answering to this post:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:WHFB 8th ed is currently 11 months old.

There have been 2 army books released since then, it will be 15 months after the new edition was released that Ogres arrived.

Did we need "Storm Of Magic"... no.

Could Ogres have been pushed forward to July (and TKs and O&G pushed forward as well)... Yes
Should High Elves have had a new army book when they released 4 plastic kits... yes.

The WHFB release schedule is just pathetic and mirrored by 40k which has had 3 armies in 13-14 months.

GW are meant to sell minis by providing rules to encourage purchase of said models.

No new army lists, sales stagnate.

Sad panda ensues...

I take that as a confirmation of the original rumour.
Instead of army books, we had second waves of Skaven, High Elves, then in the next months Vampires, Beastmen, Chaos, Dark Elves, and monsters in general.

BTW: Sad Panda you said?
http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/mainwebsite_html/gallery/v_7973_SadPanda2.html

**Kirasu**

Agreed, GW's release schedule is what has basically killed off our fantasy group here. No new players at all, just like 4-6 of us who play occasionally

**johnscott10**

Hmm wish there were more dates of when stuff was actually being done.

As knowing my luck id get my Tau finally finished just to have to change them again. :/

Given that the HE look to be hopefully bumped up in July I may have to hold off on them for now.

**agnosto**

I hope that release schedule is off because I don't want Tau to come out right before a new rules edition that makes them even worse....again.

**johnscott10**

agnosto wrote:I hope that release schedule is off because I don't want Tau to come out right before a new rules edition that makes them even worse....again.

Yea that is somewhat concerning aswell, coz not only may we have to change our lists once, but by te time 6th Ed comes out we may need to do it yet again.

**DaNewBoy**

Since I am a Noob still... could someone give a comprehensive summery on the codex releases and 40k rule edition releases?

I though the current edition was a recent release...

**RiTides**

So, after reading your second post Kroothawk, it looks like the anticipated army book release is still (supposedly) on track, but there will be more releases in between army books.

Ogres need some love... and brets/WE really need new books. That just needs to happen, almost no matter what...

And Gonads point about no new books- heartily agreed, what are GW thinking

. New models are great and all, but fantasy is out of whack and books neeeeeeeed updating... if they'd go PP's route and just update it all at once, we'd be set. But since they won't, they need to work their way through the books...

Still, more frequent releases for multiple armies is nice.

**Kid_Kyoto**

DaNewBoy wrote:Since I am a Noob still... could someone give a comprehensive summery on the codex releases and 40k rule edition releases?

I though the current edition was a recent release...

Future releases are under close wraps but as for the past...

This is off the top of my head so please correct any lapses

3rd edition (1998-2004)
Necrons
Witch Hunters - SoB

4th edition (2004-2008)
Tau
Dark Angels
Black Templars
Eldar
Orks (??)
Chaos Space Marines
Daemons

5th edition (2008-present)
Space Marines
Grey Knights
Blood Angels
Tyranids
Imperial Guard
Dark Eldar
Space Wolfs

**Kroothawk**

DaNewBoy wrote:Since I am a Noob still... could someone give a comprehensive summery on the codex releases and 40k rule edition releases?

40k: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_%28Warhammer_40,000%29
Warhammer Fantasy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armies_of_Warhammer

johnscott10 wrote:As knowing my luck id get my Tau finally finished just to have to change them again. :/

I currently expect Tau first half 2012.