Warhammer Fantasy: 8th Edition

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Update: We discuss the changes to the rules in our latest podcast.

It’s upon us: the 8th edition of Warhammer Fantasy. With a new rulebook twice as thick as the old one, the new edition sports a lot of small rules changes which add up to a lot. I’ll be going through most of the important new changes to the game, and highlighting how theses affected the games of 8th Edition I’ve played so far.

The first big change in 8th edition Warhammer is the move from army slots to percentages. For example, instead of having to have 2+ Core units in <2000 pts, you now have to spend at least 25% of your army points on Core units, regardless of the size of the battle. Both Lords and Heroes have a cap of 25%, Special 50%, and Rare 25%. Because of this system, you can now take Lords in any battle, as long as they don’t exceed the percentage cap. There are a few more technicalities, particularly regarding duplicate units, but that’s the gist of it.

What this means is an army has to be far more balanced than in the past. You can’t just take really cheap Core units and load up on powerful Specials and Rares, nor can you have huge Heroes and Lords take up most of your army. When remaking my Wood Elf army list for 8th Edition, I found that I had to go light on magic items to squeeze the heroes I wanted into the list. Overall, you will find armies have slightly less focus on heroes, which is great. There are also tons more common magic items in the main rulebook, which irons out some of the differences between armies’ options.

Units in 8th edition are generally more manoeuvrable than before, with easier reforming; having a musician makes it very easy to reform. The various details of the different manoeuvres have been straightened out and simplified, so there’s less chance of nonsense. Forests and other difficult terrain no longer slow down units, although cavalry, chariots, and similar units have to make dangerous terrain tests. March blocking is also less cheesy: a successful Leadership test allows you to march even if you’re close to an enemy unit. Skirmishers, on the other hand, get the short end of the stick: they now have to form into ranks with 1/2 and inch between them, and they don’t have 360 degrees line of sight any more.

Skirmishers in Warhammer Fantasy now use a spaced formation when not in combat, and don't have 360° vision, although they can reform freely.

The big change is charging, though: charging is now 2d6″ + Movement, so, for a standard 4″ movement human, 2d6 + 4″. Cavalry and other fast creatures roll 3d6 and take the 2 highest. This mirrors are standard theme of the new edition: less reliable and more realistic. This means that players need to be able to think better on the fly, because their plan really may not hold in the face of battle.

Like charging, magic is a bit more random. You roll 2d6: that’s the number of Power Dice you get, and the enemy gets the highest die result in Dispel Dice. There are a few more technicalities, but basically, it means that magic is a lot more balance: low-magic armies get enough dice to get their spells off sometimes, and high-magic armies no longer dominate the game with ridiculous numbers of Power Dice.

The 8 standard Lores of Magic in the Warhammer rulebook are now worth taking again: they have been seriously revised, and are now extremely powerful. Each Lore has a base effect: for example, casting a Life spell heals a wound on the caster or a nearby model. Many spells can now be enhanced, using a higher casting number for increased power or range. Overall, you will start seeing more people forgoing their army-specific Lores and using the standard ones.

Finally, casting with Irresistible Force and Miscasting are now one and the same: the only way to Miscast is by getting Irresistible Force. So, your spell goes off… and then you cry. The Miscast table is now unbelievably dangerous, which helps balance any army which focuses on spamming spells. I played a game where, first turn, the main enemy Wizard Miscast and got drained all his Wizard levels. Before I could properly celebrate, in my first turn, my Wizard Miscast, exploding and killing himself and a nearby Wardancer. Oops.

There are three big changes for shooting: shooting in two ranges, pre-measuring, and true line of sight (TLoS),

The first is simple: the second rank can always shoot, which mirrors some of the close combat changes (see below). In larger units, the 3rd and later ranks can shoot with half their models (although only for short/normal/long bows, not crossbows or anything fancier). All this makes basic ranged units much more effective without being in a silly line formation or hoping for a hill; my Wood Elf Glade Guards found this very useful, as it allowed them to be more manoeuvrable with the same firepower (Wood Elves can move-and-shoot with no penalty).

The second is a sharp departure from previous editions: pre-measuring. It also comes into play for movement and charging, but basically you can measure anything, any time. You don’t have to guess anymore, and, for artillery, that’s quite literal: you just choose where you want the shot to go, then roll the artillery dice. This removes an aspect of the game that, to be honest, was a little weird, and now the best archery and artillery commander is the best strategist, not the one who happens to not suck at guessing distances.

The third, true line of sight, is a bit odd. First introduced ?last edition of Warhammer 40k, it basically means that a model can shoot at anything it can see. You put your eye at its level, and if you can see the target, it can shoot it. Generally, this means you can shoot through forests, although cover is still granted. You can also shoot “through” intervening friendly and enemy units, although they grant hard cover. Having played with it, it definitely speeds up the shooting phase and makes things easier: you don’t have to waste time measuring 2″ into every forest, for example. The only time it becomes really problematic is when you have weirdly modelled terrain or bases: if, for example, you modelled a great eagle on a rock instead of a flying stand (either for aesthetics or because you got sick of the damn stand breaking), then by the rules the rock will block line of sight.

The changes in close combat start right at the beginning: charges no longer strike first. They get +1 Combat Resolution, but then everyone fights in Initiative order. This is a bit of a pain for anyone with low Initiative, particularly if they relied on charging, but a refreshing change for anyone with Elves or anything else with high Initiative… and a lot of units with high Initiative have paper armour, so being able to strike first against chargers is handy.

As alluded to above, the second rank of combatants can attack as well as the front. Spears grant an extra rank as normal (if you haven’t moved), and now if you have a frontage if 10 models or more (a “horde”) you get an extra rank too. This is particularly good for cheap units like goblin, and makes such huge units a bit more effective.

Previously, when the first attackers slew a row of enemies, they couldn’t fight back. To represent both sides pushing forwards, the enemy can now strike back as normal. This is, honestly, a lot more realistic, and makes large blocks of weak infantry more resilient to glass-cannon units like fast cavalry and many skirmishers. My Wardancers got caught out by this when charging Chaos Marauders: using previous rules, only the enemy command group would strike back, whereas this new rule plus the extra rank fighting caused me a fair number of casualties (…okay, 3. But that’s a lot when you only have 7 guys to start with).

On the subject of being resilient, many Bretonnian cavalry-lovers are lamenting this: a unit is automatically Stubborn if they have more ranks (after casualties) than their enemy. This “Steadfast” rule makes blocks of infantry much stronger, as they are far less likely to get run down by heavy cavalry… and it also works wonders against *sigh* most light cavalry and skirmishers, such as my previously mentioned Wardancers.

Finally, all monsters, monstrous infantry, and the like, get a new attack called Stomp (or Thunderstomp on the big monsters). Stomp causes 1 (1d6 for Thunderstomp) automatic hit at the end of the combat phase. This is a lifesaver for monsters, which were getting pretty lame. My Glade Guard have famously taken down Tomb Scorpions and Pegasus Knights in melee: it’s a lot less likely now. Monsters are basically now as powerful as they should be. Big monstrous units like Trolls, Ogres, and Treekin are now actually worth their points, and things like Giants, Dragons, and Treemen are even better off. The end of the Warhammer rulebook details the unit types for all the current models, so you’ll know if a model gets these attacks before they get around to publishing a new army book for your army.

Battle standard bearers have moved from being almost useless to almost mandatory: they now allow the reroll of any Leadership test, not just Break tests. Combined with the new Steadfast rule, large blocks of infantry are now extremely hard to destroy quickly.

A new rule of forests and rivers is to roll a random effect for them the first time a unit enters them. For example, a forest could be full of mushroom spores causing Stupidity, or it could actively try to kill units within it. These extra effects help make these pieces of terrain a little bit more dangerous, since the loss of the movement penalty has made them a lot easier to walk through.

Finally, the Strength/Toughness table has been revised a bit: a unit can always wound on a 6, no matter the numbers. So, a hail of arrows can take out a dragon, demon, or giant… eventually, with a bit of luck. This helps balance out the extra strength of monsters, and also helps archers and physically weak races cope with large numbers of monsters. It also help with the new warmachine rules (which I didn’t mention): warmachines now have a (high) Toughness which is used for incoming shooting, and the crew act as its “wounds”, rather than messing about with randomizing hits.

Naturally, there are tons of other little changes, spreading across all parts of the game. A lot of minor rules and exceptions have been straightened out and simplified. When playing your first few games of 8th edition, I would advise looking up any non-trivial rule, just to check that it hasn’t changed: I got caught by a couple of things during my games.

From my games of it so far, I really like 8th Edition Warhammer. The new rules help make things a little bit more balanced, a little bit more uncertain (meaning better tactics are needed, and less “mathhammer”/”theoryhammer”), and help units excel at what they should. Archers are better at shooting, close combat units are better at that, big blocks of infantry are better at holding against charges, and so on.

The move to percentages for army composition and the new rules favouring large blocks of infantry also help move the game away from “herohammer”, which was starting to make a bit of a resurgence in 7th edition. The rules also make having a large number of Wizards less useful, so magic is far more balanced.

If your army is sitting in a box somewhere, now is the time to dig it out and dust it off. I reckon 8th Edition Warhammer is simply more fun than previous editions, with just enough relatively minor tweaks to come together into a much better experience for everyone.

For how the rules affect you, check out our post on How 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Affects Your Armies.

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