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Being a summary of the most widely recognized formal period classification of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) and Age of Sigmar (AoS), used for both forums and Facebook groups:

- Editions 1-3 of WHFB are Oldhammer (1983-1992), roughly the era of Bryan Ansell.

- Editions 4-8 of WHFB are Middlehammer (1992-2015), the era of Tom Kirby.

- All editions of AoS are Newhammer (2015-), the era of Kevin Rountree.

In my view the end of Herohammer, 6th Edition, also heralded the end of Oldhammer. So what you call Middlehammer started at about 2000.

Not sure it matters too much though.

Trying to define 'Oldhammer' is funny. Firstly, its entirely subjective, so there's no right or wrong answer. And secondly, as the years pass, people's definitions change too. I don't remember anyone using the term 'middlehammer' before AoS arrived, for example. But time carried on and people felt a need to differentiate from Oldhammer.

I've always used Classichammer to describe what the OP is trying to refer to as Middlehammer, and it lands more around 6th and 7th as 4th/5th are completely different animals. 8th is also its own thing and should be kept separate.

I have never seen that 4th and 5th were not Oldhammer

usually the line is 6th, as we saw a very big design shift in rules and models (as the game went away from RPG/Hero focused into the unit focused game)

up until 5th is Oldhammer
6th and 7th Middlehammer
and 8th Newhammer, though I have never heard that term used for AoS

Words, just words.

1/2 Ed Fantasy Roleplay with a lot of models

3rd Ed Warhammer Fantasy in the making, concept of the Realm of Chaos is fleshed out.

4/5th Ed Warhammer Fantasy with Focus on Characters and definiton of the Old World more or less as it was until End Times

6th/7th Warhammer Fantasy Battles with focus on tactics

8th/End Times Warhammer go big or go home edition

 kodos wrote:
I have never seen that 4th and 5th were not Oldhammer

usually the line is 6th, as we saw a very big design shift in rules and models (as the game went away from RPG/Hero focused into the unit focused game)

up until 5th is Oldhammer
6th and 7th Middlehammer
and 8th Newhammer, though I have never heard that term used for AoS

Then you've never dealt with the Oldhammer crowd. 3rd Ed. is EXPRESSLY their drawing line. 4th and 5th are essentially the same with a few addendums much like 6th and 7th were.

I have several Oldhammer groups around, and some that are very strict on the metal vs plastic stuff (so late 5th models are already troublesome)
but never coming across people that draw the line with 3rd, not even encountered people who actually play it (collectors who pay huge amounts of money for old metals and rules, but not actually playing the game)

El Torro wrote:
In my view the end of Herohammer, 6th Edition, also heralded the end of Oldhammer. So what you call Middlehammer started at about 2000.

Not sure it matters too much though.

Totally correct...that was our brief in the studio and we followed it to the core. Destroy the light of the Old World. Tuomas heralded the End of Times with Mordheim.

 SpaceMcQuirk wrote:

El Torro wrote:
In my view the end of Herohammer, 6th Edition, also heralded the end of Oldhammer. So what you call Middlehammer started at about 2000.

Not sure it matters too much though.

Totally correct...that was our brief in the studio and we followed it to the core. Destroy the light of the Old World. Tuomas heralded the End of Times with Mordheim.

Legend time here oof
Just wanted to say I liked your chariot race rules in White Dwarf.

 SpaceMcQuirk wrote:

El Torro wrote:
In my view the end of Herohammer, 6th Edition, also heralded the end of Oldhammer. So what you call Middlehammer started at about 2000.

Not sure it matters too much though.

Totally correct...that was our brief in the studio and we followed it to the core. Destroy the light of the Old World. Tuomas heralded the End of Times with Mordheim.

Such an interesting dichotomy as Tuomas was also advocating for Camelot Bretonnians instead of the GrimDerp version we got in 6th...

Even Oldhammer folks have a hard time maintaining a consensus on the term:

http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28162

TinyLegions wrote:
Even Oldhammer folks have a hard time maintaining a consensus on the term:

http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28162

It's a time-honored british tradition to have even weirder offshots from the weirdest hobbies, and subsequently naming them in a confusing way. Brace for Auldhammer, Truehammer or Warhammyr

Tsagualsa wrote:

TinyLegions wrote:
Even Oldhammer folks have a hard time maintaining a consensus on the term:

http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28162

It's a time-honored british tradition to have even weirder offshots from the weirdest hobbies, and subsequently naming them in a confusing way. Brace for Auldhammer, Truehammer or Warhammyr

Not impenetrable enough. Has to be something like "Roghammer," and the reason why will hearken back to some Cockney rhyming slang circa 1790 that got picked up by Oxford dons via obscure Anglo-Catholic poetry from the 1880s.

And everyone will mysteriously know it's meaning and lineage simultaneously.