How 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Affects Your Armies

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Update: This is the topic of our latest podcast.

Following up on our summary of 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy, today we’re going into how the new rules are affecting each of the armies in the game. With changes to the rules across the board, from movement, to magic, to shooting, to close combat and more, some armies have definitely improved, and some weakened.

It has been said that Empire has always been second best at everything, and it’s still true. Lucky for them, everything they were second best at is now better. They have solid blocks of strong infantry both for holding in close combat and to deliver devastating shooting, plus powerful artillery which benefit from increased accuracy (no guessing) and template partials being hits. Best of all, a limiting factor of their magic in the past was that the Lores of Magic in the rulebook sucked by comparison to many race-specific Lores. Now, the ability to take any of those Lores is immensely useful. Finally, steam tanks are now unbelievably scary.

The Dwarves benefit from the new rules similarly to Empire: very solid infantry with excellent artillery support. The weakening of strong magic armies is good for those who have none, and the Dwarven bonuses to dispelling are great. The inability to take any of the new common magic items in the rulebook is a bit of a hit, though: most Runes are more expensive than their common item equivalent, although you still have the advantage of combining Runes.

With infantry now allowed to fight in more ranks, and a 10-frontage (“Horde”) allowing even more, large units of cheap infantry like Orcs and Goblins are now even better. Battle-standard bearers now allow rerolling of any Leadership test, which means your low Leadership troops will hold better, and the percentage system means you can basically put cheap heroes everywhere. They also have access to cheap War Machines (which are now better), and trolls and giants give them Monsters. Finally, it’s even easier for them to cast their Waaagh! magic.

Basically the same reasons as Orcs & Goblins. Large blocks of infantry with cheap heroes, combined with cheap artillery a solid dosing of Rat Ogres, which are now very powerful. Coupled with easy-to-cast dangerous magic, the Skaven have probably never had it better.

Monstrous Infantry are now a lot better, so that’s obviously a plus for Ogres, and Gnoblars benefit from the improvements for large units of infantry. The magic has sort of benefitted Ogres and sort of not: they’ll usually get more Power Dice now, but you used to be able to quickly cast lots of Gut Magic using just a single d6 for each spell. Now, if you use a single die and roll a 1 or 2, you’ll not only lose the spell but lose concentration and your Butcher is done casting for the turn.

They have solid blocks of infantry in Chaos Warriors (whose stats are unbelievable), very solid Chaos Knights, the very cheap yet surprisingly powerful Marauders which can be formed into a Horde if desired, and dangerous magic. All of these benefit from the new changes. Their solid Core options work well with the new percentage system. The Hellcannon benefits from all the new artillery changes, and it was already a pretty powerful War Machine.

High Elves get Always Strikes First across the army, and it overrides Great Weapons. Combined with the new rules for Always Strikes First, allowing rerolls to hit for equal or higher Initiative, this alone is amazing. They also have solid infantry and cavalry with good armour, and the ability to take large numbers of bolt throwers. In addition, their magic has got even better, since the ability to access all the basic Lores now means a lot more. Throw a few Life spells at the frail Elven infantry to make them a bit tougher, and suddenly you’re looking at WS6 S6 T7 Swordmasters which always strike first. The High Elves are shaping up to be one of the most powerful armies of 8th Edition.

Overall, Lizardmen aren’t too poorly off. They still have very solid infantry, and good magic to back them up. A properly buffed unit of Temple Guard is pretty hard to kill. However, the changes to the magic system and the percentage method of army construction means that, overall, they’re going to have less magic and less cheese. You can no longer have a single Slann take up half the points of an army. With basically no artillery and very few ways of taking out War Machines they will likely suffer on that front. Finally, their lousy Initiative is slightly more relevant: now, Lizardmen will basically never go first in combat.

They’re still squishy, but they lack some of the special abilities that have driven High Elves to the top. The can no longer spend so many points on good Special and Rare units, and their Dark Riders and Shades suffer from the weakened Cavalry and Skirmisher rules. On the bright side, their magic is still fairly strong, and they have access to powerful monsters like Hydras, which are definitely worth taking now. Finally, Repeater Crossbowmen are a touch better since they can now fire in two ranks.

Individually, Beastmen models and units are better. The improvements to Monstrous Infantry help. They are especially devastating which buffed up with magic, particularly (surprise!) the Lore of Beasts. However, then have a serious numbers issue, and they are also generally pretty bad for their points. They look a lot scarier than they actually are. Finally, Beastmen are very vulnerable to the improved artillery.

The poor Brettonians are suffering. Heavy cavalry are simply not what they used to be. You hit a big infantry unit with your lance of knights… and they don’t flee. With the Steadfast rule and other infantry-friendly changes, the Brettonian knights simply have more trouble doing exactly the same thing. Plus, heavy cavalry have always been vulnerable to War Machines, which are now even better. The Brettonians have little hope against an Empire gunline with Wizards casting Lore of Metal spells. They do get decent cheap archers, plus Trebuchets, but that’s not exactly the point: their best knights are crying in the corner.

Three big things have hurt the Vampire Counts. Firstly, the percentage system means they now have to field lousy Core troops instead of focusing on the good stuff. Secondly, the nerf to powerful magic has hit hard. Finally, Fear has been nerfed, a lot, particularly because there is no-longer an auto-Break condition for defeated by Fear-causing enemy. All said and done, they’re still not too badly off, and units like the Black Coach are still devastating. Vampires will appreciate the new importance of Initiative.

Similar to the Vampire Counts, the Tomb Kings have suffered from lousy Core troops and the nerf to Fear. Their chariots are also a bit worse since it is now much harder to Break whatever you charge into. Luckily, the Tomb Kings can make up for all this a bit with solid Monsters like Tomb Scorpions and Ushabti, and their magic (combined with a solid errata) has actually improved. Finally, the chariots can be slightly mollified by the fact that they are not instagibbed by S7 attacks anymore.

Once again, another army hurt by the Fear nerf, but there is far worse news for the Daemons. Daemons of Chaos were very powerful in 7th Edition, with dangerous heroes leading small numbers of very powerful deamons, backed up by scary magic with huge numbers of power dice. All this is gone. They are now forced to have a much more balanced army, and their magic, whilst still good, is far from what it used to be. Overall, pretty good for anyone who’s ever played against Daemons.

Finally, my army, the Wood Elves. Lets make something very clear: Wood Elves were never a particularly powerful army. And yet here we are. Just about everything you’ll read on the internet agrees: Wood Elves are probably the worst off with the new edition.

The nerf to Skirmishers has severely hurt their manoeuvrability, and the changes to the way cavalry work, and the way ranks are cancelled, means that Glade Riders and Wild Riders have dropped from Pretty Darn Good to Almost Useless. Waywatchers have been nerfed in the errata (they now deploy like normal Scouts), and the Fear changes hurt Dryads in particular, being unable to auto-Break smaller numbers of foes. There are a few gems of hope: Treekin are now amazing (from pretty lame), and Treemen are still strong. Warhawks and Eagles benefit greatly from Stomp. The new Lore of Life is amazing for buffing both frail Wardancers and Eternal Guard, and making Treekin just about unkillable.

More details on the Wood Elves here…

The balance of power has definitely shifted a bit, and probably for the good of the game. The game favours those who can field more balanced armies. It’s really yet to be seen, though, how things will shift later in the edition: many armies (such as my own) are still running 6th Edition army books, so an update is warranted. If you haven’t already, check out the official errata, because many armies have had significant modifications to fit them to the new rules.

Similar Posts:

• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Fire
• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Metal
• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Beasts
• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Life
• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Heavens