Individual army books gave more scope to develop the character of races and armies, with heavier stereotyping and less overlap.
This is one of my two biggest complaints about the move to the individual army books.
A shame, because the Warhammer Armies book 023 uses is in many ways the zenith of Warhammer army design.
I think 3rd edition in general was the zenith of the game. For smooth play-ability, I have usually said I would prefer the 6th or 7th edition rulebooks (without 7th ed. army books.) But I'm starting to rethink that. 6th & 7th were good for those quick 2 or 2.5 hour tournament games, or pick-up games at the local store. But 3rd ed. was like investing 4 hours into a detailed battle that was as rich and rewarding as a good RPG session. Which is probably why WFB3 appealed to my friends and I over the other games we tried at the time. We were RPG people drifting into wargaming, and WFB3 was the best fit.
I agree with Shadespyre that it was inevitable. More from a business/efficiency standpoint. To become the popular giant that it was, Citadel/GW had to streamline & simplify. But I think it was also the nature of the gaming community. As the popularity grew, and as WFB drifted into the competitive/tournament domain rather than the original RPG/narrative domain, it's what the larger market wanted. I remember not that long ago reading plenty of rants about why Bretonnia & DoW were unnecessary because there was already a "human faction" in the game. That's "the meta"
talking. Stats. No regard for fluff. So I guess their death was also inevitable from the standpoint of the growing tournament obsessed, "official miniatures only," metal-fanatics too.
ON to the new...
As you can all see, I am yet another victim of the Death Throes of Photobucket. So for now I have a decent backup plan for new photos, and will be looking for alternative options for new, flexible image hosting. To be honest, this is not unexpected, and I'm surprised Photobucket is even still around. At any rate, I still have a lot of my old photos and entries available on my blog at...
http://www.zerotwentythree.com/SO... on to what I've been doing. Well, if you clicked that link above, you are probably up to date.
But for the LAF rundown...
Travelling for work, but finally painted a little. More half-orcs. I decided to mix a few of the (unaltered) Tre Manor orcs into the unit as larger "brutes." These were originally slated for conversion fodder for the Fomorians, but I think I will be getting Bones versions of them when the KS reward arrives. To be honest, it is a relief to be able to use them as-is. I think Manor's orcs are some of my favorite current minis -- or ever. Tragically they don't quite fit into my own theoretical campaign/gaming plans. But I am finding ways to make them fit. Too well sculpted not to use in some way or another!
So, as far as the new two "half"-orc recruits go, added here to the Black Tree core of the mercenaries...
I think they fit well! Larger than the average trooper, but not really out of scale. More like a believable diversity of troops. I think they're a good fit in stylistic terms as well! I'm hoping to do the same with a few smaller figures.