Topic: What happened with basic 8th ed?

[Zygmund]

Looking at what people actually play, both locally and on the web forums, I see advanced versions (8.5/9th Age/the new ETC/whatnot), some going back to 3rd-7th eds, and some playing AoS (and some heretics, like me, actually going big on Kings of War).

But I see surprisingly little actual play with the 8th edition rules set as written, with the army books as written. And definitely no ET with the 8th rules.

So, do we admit that the 8th ed is, in general, not much fancied these days, even if many welcomed it as the perfect new shakedown of the classic game when it came out?

Or, perhaps, that people who actually play 8th ed games don't much talk about it?

Or, I live in a hole and am completely in the black? 

I don't mean this to be provocative, us vs. them, and hope you guys don't go there either. I'm just interested.

-Z

[valmir]

I think the end of 8th raised the question of "what next?" for a lot of people. I suspect that most people weren't of the mind that "8th is the greatest, and we're gonna play it forever!". I have no doubt, though, that some people do at home, but a quick survey of tournaments seems to suggest that, in general, the "official" avenues of play have all made some kind of decision as to where to go.

Here in Germany, that is overwhelmingly to Kings of War and 9th Age. Any tournament listed as a "Warhammer Fantasy" tournament is basically using 9th Age. But there are is a surprisingly large number of Kings of War tournaments, now, which was basically unthinkable even a year ago.

So I think the relative invisibility of 8th that you're noticing is a combination of two things:
1. many people, wanting to use a system that receives some kind of support, even if only by volunteers, have changed to another system, even if that system is just a kind of 8.5; and
2. there is perhaps a not-so-large overlap between "people who are super vocal on the internet about playing games" and "people who are playing an old system".

[GamesPoet]

I tried playing 8th early on, and it was kind of blah.  I much prefer 6th or 7th, although 7th had it's fair share of overly nasty armies towards the end.  Haven't played WFB in so long that I'm actually thinking of going back and giving 6th a good go, and see what my view is on it currently.

[The Real Rick Salamone]

Join the Eighth Edition For Life movement, we are still here. Ironically the EEFL tshirt order just landed on my doorstep minutes ago.


EEFL!
EEFL.freeforums.net

[Padre]

My friends and I are still playing 8th, with only the modifications and campaign army lists we used before its death - but that's because we're in an ongoing (slow RL pace) campaign and thus need to continue. If we started a new campaign I suppose that would be a chance to mess about with the rules or look to other versions.

[grimgorgoroth]

Us here in Chile mostly play 8th, because it's what we know best, but we're slowly moving onto 9th Age

[ZeroTwentythree]

The way I see it, WFB editions have been a series of major changes, followed by refinements.

So there was 1st, which was refined through 2nd & 3rd.

Then they made some big changes with 4th, which were refined in 5th. Same with 6th & 7th.

8th was significantly different from 7th, but never got a "refining" edition. There were a number of issues that were *very* widely criticized, and I'm not surprised that most people continuing with WFB are attempting to fix them.

[Fidelis von Sigmaringen]

8th was significantly different from 8th, but never got a "refining" edition.

On the contrary, it was completely overhauled by the 8th...

[ZeroTwentythree]

I have no idea what you are talking about. 

[The Real Rick Salamone]

EEFL!
EEFL.freeforums.net

[Padre]

Ok you got me, Real Rick - I'm gonna have to ask, after all this time, what EEFL stands for. 'Every eel forgets labels'? 'Earn earrings from London'? 'Extra engines feel lost'? I'm struggling here. 'Edward ended fish leasing'? 'Easily engage fool's listening'? 'Enough egregious foolish lunacy'? Am I getting close to the truth? Or is the fact that I've just got back from the pub leading me astray?

[The Real Rick Salamone]

Eighth
Edition
For
Life


EEFL!
EEFL.freeforums.net

[Padre]

Life? What all of it? Present and future I get, but the past as well? I'm not entirely sure that's possible - I remember 1st, 2nd, 3rd ...(skip this bit, it was awful) ... 5th, 6th and 7th too.

[Syn Ace]

We're sticking with 8th for now.

[Gankom]

We play a bit of everything around here but 8th is by far the most played. There's a remarkably large amount of AoS, but its split with 8th. We've looked at the various new version and tried most of them out, but regardless to how good or not good we think some are when we get together we usualy end up playing 8th. Its the version we all know best.

[GamesPoet]

Ok you got me, Real Rick - I'm gonna have to ask, after all this time, what EEFL stands for. 'Every eel forgets labels'? 'Earn earrings from London'? 'Extra engines feel lost'? I'm struggling here. 'Edward ended fish leasing'? 'Easily engage fool's listening'? 'Enough egregious foolish lunacy'? Am I getting close to the truth? Or is the fact that I've just got back from the pub leading me astray?

More! More! More!

Life? What all of it? Present and future I get, but the past as well? I'm not entirely sure that's possible - I remember 1st, 2nd, 3rd ...(skip this bit, it was awful) ... 5th, 6th and 7th too.

Oh man, this just about killed me.  Thankfully my mug of coffee was finished already or could have been all over the screen.   

And don't worry Padre, those mugs are currently empty, no pub running for me at the moment.

[Daymz]

In my club, we play less, but when we do, we play basic 8th, often adding ET. We have not yet dabbled in any inofficial updated versions, nor played any KoW.
Personally I agree that there must be a general will of the hobby going forward, and hence a bit of frustration with basic 8th staying status quo. I think 8th is the best edition yet, but it's still a little rough around the edges. An update to 8th in the form of a 9th edition was what I dreamt of. It's a shame that an official and hence general and inclusive update as such will never come.

[GamesPoet]

It's like someone else pointed out somewhere else on W-E ... anything being done in a cohesive fashion regarding WFB isn't going to be easy to keep going.  GW has taken away it's support for the system and the fluff.  Without that there will be few folks being brought new into the system, and it will eventually fade further than it already is doing.  It is really up to those who choose to use WFB as a pastime to keep it moving forward as they see it, and that means there will be a variety of ways that such will happen, at least for awhile.