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Is it me, or are armies for fantasy (AND 40K) just getting blander and more homogenous?

I can't really speak for other books, but the Ogre book really expanded on the old fluff and added more awsome sauce. there were a couple of minor changes that were a little odd but tolerable.

The fantasy books never get bland and we have been seeing a expansion of fluff and flavour in the newer books

I don't know about the other books, but my current High Elves and Dwarves books certainly have a lot less fluff in them than the older editions.

The armies themselves, are very different. In the old days, it was mostly just different stats/equipment. Now there's tons of unique rules for every unit.

Grey Templar wrote:I can't really speak for other books, but the Ogre book really expanded on the old fluff and added more awsome sauce. there were a couple of minor changes that were a little odd but tolerable.

Yeah the new ogre book is really good for the most part. The old book wasn't that bad but the new book is far better.

It's just me then I guess....:/

You are right about 40k though. But then again 40k was never as cool as WHFB

Jeep wrote:I don't know about the other books, but my current High Elves and Dwarves books certainly have a lot less fluff in them than the older editions.

The armies themselves, are very different. In the old days, it was mostly just different stats/equipment. Now there's tons of unique rules for every unit.

I think this is probably true, but only because in the old books, they didn't have as many units or unique rules, so they could use more of the page space to add fluff to them. The new books so far have definitely expanded on the fluff more though, so it's possible we'll see more and more back story in the new books for each army.

To me, it seems that they add on an expand the flavour, but try to limit flavourful items and abilities, streamlining it as much as possible... But still expanding upon the different unit choices.

Well, there's game balance and fluff. And a bit of crossover. The crazy items just didn't work because Army Books have to hang around for years and they may reference rules or concepts that no longer apply. Of course, they could FAQ that stuff, but they don't.

Ogres are awesome. TK I think expanded a lot as well. O&G are fairly the same, IMHO.


40K is just a cash cow. It's a totally different concept and marketing strategy. They will make a new Space Marine book for all 409238498235689 chapters if people keep buying them.

Yep, it's just you.

Yeah I don't mind the fluff in this Lizardmen codex. I didn't read the old one but I can see by common consensus that your alone in this one, lol.

The Cornerfag~ wrote:To me, it seems that they add on an expand the flavour, but try to limit flavourful items and abilities, streamlining it as much as possible... But still expanding upon the different unit choices.

This is really what I was getting at.

I asked this while thinking about the thread about Dwarfs and speulating about their new book, whenever that might be. The thoughts expressed on thier are remakablbly similar; runes will be slimmed down, artillary nerfed,some sort of tank/animated construct/"big monster" will be produced......I think the trend is to give each army everything.

Lets look at Ogres. The old book had them as a fott slogging bunch a monsterous infantry with some ok but wacky shooting and a deent war machine. Now they have access to cavalry, better shooting and an even better warmacihine..Now look at the Vampire Counts models leaked; they will have monsterous infantry too, and they already have big monsters. Contast this with older VC's where troop qualiity was poor, but magic was a lot better and they used raising as a path to victory.

In both examples I would argue that the older incarnations were more distinct and had more personality than the new ones. I am not saying that they were better as armies, because having more options always makes an army better, I am just saying that some of the personality has gone.The best analogy I can think of is a car company selling a dozen models under differnt names, but their mechanics are all the same.

Obviously, this is to balance the game. I just wonder if by doing so we get so many shades of grey. Could it have been done differently? I don't know.

But on the vampires thing I remember a time when vamps could choose a very different path than raising for victory. And depending on your bloodline magic might not matter at ALL!

Ogres had calv in their last book also, it was just through FW.

And as for the dwarf rune system they really need to be slimmed down as when I see Crown Of Command on a army list I know what it does, but when I see Rune Of Grungi I have not the foggyest.

Ok, so I couuld cough up some money for FW Rhinox Cav-that wasn't very common..And the Vamps having multiple paths, bloodlines and the like only adds to their personality in the first book-something that had been sucked out in the 7th book with the removal of bloodlines.

While I admit it must be frustrating, the rune system is a brilliant, flavourful, flexible sysytem that defines stunties......I'm sure, however, the less poular runes will be pruned, and the more powerful ones diluted.

The WE book seems to have very little on the fluff side, whereas my friend's Skaven and High Elf books are stuffed to the brim, haha xD

I think the fluff in the books is getting better in some respects, however just read the old undead army book from the early 90's and that can give you nightmares