No, Bingo, I actually found that quite interesting, and I do agree with many things you said.
The most likely result of this edition that I can see is unfortunately the exact thing that happened between 6th and 7th - GW will 'listen to feedback' about the way the army lists have developed over the course of 7th and decide to go back to the grass roots of the game. The result for ourselves (and most likely Orcs & Goblins too) is that we'll have only a slight modification to what we've got rather than the kind of lavish attention more recent books have been given. Of course, there is always the possibility that for later books they will again embark on a course of sprucing them up only to repeat the phase once more.
There is a chance that's not what's going to happen, but at the beginning of 6th we saw GW wanting to do the exact same thing, and then rapidly lurching from book to book making some with a relatively high innate strength level only to stagger to another and make it less so. This time we've got a few lists that undoubtedly have been slightly exaggerated in their capabilities and I think it'll only be a matter of time before someone comes in to write a new book in what they consider to be a more 'balanced' way and to end up with an albatross of an army.
Whether or not we do stay with a book that's broadly the same as we have now or not may be a good or a bad thing. I think the army could have most of the kinks removed by very, very few small changes rather than wholesale alterations.
With this I mostly agree. The way Empire has been treated for the past, what, 6 years, and even beyond that, has shown that GW doesn't have much intentions to make Empire that diffirent in the end. Many things have stayed the same for ages, such as the state troops and captains, not to forget handguns and crossbowmen. They have seen from little to no change since 5th edition, and I think the biggest change, quite obviously, was the step from 5th ed to 6th. That happened to all of the armies, though, which is totally great.
The thing is, that in my view Empire has been pretty much the same stylewise for the past decade. I've now read the 5th edition armybook, and it's been very clear what the Empire was supposed to do back then: take a few monsters, a horrendous amount of cannons and mortars and some knights to keep the regiment minimium in order, hope for few misfires and blast things. I mean, once again, what's not in the picture? What's the thing that the Empire has been, in the fluff at least, known for, and what should be the basis of Imperial armies? Infatry. Fighting melee infantry. You might've seen an occasional handgunner in armies back then, but I can't see anyone taking halberdiers even then. But then again, I didn't play 5th, and those of you who did might know better.
The book of 7th did actually make some improvements to the Empire army, though, and it's good to see that with every new book every army seems to have changed, even a bit, to some direction. But all in all, some things have ultimately sayed the same: cannons, missile troops and state regiments. You'd really think that those are going to have a revamp? Cannons don't even need it, nor do the missile troops (save for the light armour), but even if I'd humbly beg for better halberdiers and spearmen, I doubt that will happen.
They'd take S4 anyday, after all.
Anyway enough about that. Based on the current book and the trends of recent ones so far I can see a few things that may happen. GW seem to be at least trying to give each army choices and abilities that resemble those they have in the background, putting more character into the army list (re-roll panic for WoC, ASF for High Elves, that kind of thing).
Which is very good, even though the ASF was a 'bit' over the top in my opinion. For my taste, that just didn't fly. But the Empire has the detachment rule, which was highly improved from the 5th edition one, thank Sigmar for that. I just don't quite understand the function for the rule in the 5th... I mean, WTF?
Generals I could imagine will get something to make them more appealing - it may be something as simple as a slight price reduction but I doubt it. I also doubt reducing the Griffon Banner price would happen either as that was something specifically moved away from. Perhaps something like keeping him as is, but if you pay a small upgrade fee you can take a unit of Greatswords as either core, or just as bodyguard without taking up a special slot.
I'm wishing the General would be changed, and actually I could see that happening. They must've by now noticed how overpowered the other choices are compared to the General. I don't think however, as you said, that they're going to just reduce the pointscost. They're going to improve him in some way. Just an image popped to my mind, that they might just as well take the approach of simplyfying things and hero/lord choices by merging Grand Masters and Generals. It's just a hunch, I don't have anything to claim that would actually happen. That way they'd also solve the problem which I'll present at the end of the post.
Core units I can't see really changing hugely as by and large they seem to work as GW wants them to. I could quite easily imagine Free Company getting a boost - perhaps a limited shooting ability as they are supposed to be carrying a variety of weapons including firearms. Nothing too powerful, maybe a random number of S3 hits. I think Huntsmen will go down in minimum size again as that was probably more a mistake than anything. State troops I don't really see changing. If any do it'll be the halberdiers I imagine. Knights probably won't change either - they may review the White Wolf changes as they were both unnecessary and poorly thought out - but besides that I think they'll keep them free of too many special rules such as order upgrades.
I don't actually think that the free companiers are going anywhere. They intentionally robbed them of the option for light armour (then again, who cares...
), and they're just as good as halberdiers right now as detachments. They haven't seen much frowning upon in my opinion, and aren't that bad a choice as a whole. In addition the style they've taken Empire towards leans on priests, cannons and discipline instaed of the rural folk and mercinaries. The huntsmen argument I on the other hand understand, and agree with. They're bound to fix the GW knights, however... Someone somewhere over there must've seen they mistake they made earlier. They just plain suck, as we all very well know. They must also. It's a wish, but more than that it's something I must believe true to keep even a small amount of trust towards GW's balancing and rules writing politics, no matter how overly optimistic I might be when saying that.
Specials I'm less sure about, they are a hugely competitive section of the army but I'm not sure GW will want to get rid of any choices. Cannon and mortar have been there for an age, greatswords don't fit anywhere else, pistoliers and outriders are both sharing a plastic kit so they won't go anywhere either, and there isn't really one of them that I think GW will see justify much of a tweak. Pistoliers fit the role they were intended for now, harrassers rather than unit breakers.
Rares I don't see changing much either. Flagellants are (if more easily killed) not without their uses, and the Helblasters and Rocket launchers also share a kit so are unlikely to go anywhere. I can see the Helblaster having a less dangerous misfire chart overall to take the sting out of it being less effective (again, I think it was probably an oversight based on a lack of understanding of how it had changed). Steam Tanks will probably go back somewhat towards the 6th edition rules in terms of making them more conducive to selling the rumoured new plastic box sets.
These are all very good points. The Flagellants might see a tweak towards something more 6thish or 5thish, since the circle has gained on the 5th edition with every passing book. They did just change them, I'm aware of that, but only a few good things stay. The detachment thing was a huge improvement from 5th to 6th, I see it clearly now as I've read the 5th ed book. I mean... god. And the steam tank thing might be very well true. I could see the helblasters altered in some way to the 8th, however. We'll have to see what kinds of things they end up doing with salamanders and other things like that with the lizardmen book in the spring, but most likely the blaster will be made better again, either with static Bs4, a less dangerous misfire chart or autohits made possible again. The latter is the least propable, however, and the first two are most likely to be introduced, possibly even as a pair.
Magic items I think will undergo a hefty overhaul, not to take out the useless ones and replace them with better alternatives but simply to try to enforce the idea that the 8th edition army isn't just a modification to an army that'll have been the same for many years. I can see that there's an opening for a selection of different magic plate armours (much as chaos has predominantly chaos armour variations).
I can't actually see this coming. They didn't revamp them from 5th to 6th that much, as far as I know, and they did little to the 7th ed book. The elves and other more abstract creatures and armybooks are easier to tweak, since they in a way represent the open approach and movement of the development in the Warhammer world, as a contrast to the Empire, which is more or less the conservative party of the general idea of Warhammer world. I'm not saying the elves are the ones chancing the world, it's the men that do new stuff, but from our point of view: the Empire is we see ourselves in as. Too bad I just can't come up with the precise word for this right now.. Anyways, I'd compare the Empire to the Space Marnies of 40k. When did they actually get anything new? I mean, really new? They can play with the orcs and tyranids all they want, honestly, and those players are never disatisfied to extents they'd stop playing those armies. The marines are the front page guys people like, and if they'd get changed in playing style, or anything much to great extents, people would be scared. Something has to stay the same to make sure people feel safe and comfortable with the game and the world, and that should be something that's on the surface all the time - one of those familiar armies. And I'm not talking about chaos now, people expect them to change.
And, on top of that, the elves and dwarfs have a history of millenia of years with magical energies and items, and they actually know how to make them. The men don't.
All in all, I just can't see them revamping the magic items that much. They might introduce a few, they might take out a few, they might change come, they might alter the points values a bit... But all in all not much is going to change. Especially in the magic weapon department. They'll do something to the skavenslayer helmet, though.
They'd be pretty dumb not to.
Battle standard bearers I think will be altered to allow the same equipment options as recent army books, which is perfectly sensible.
That's taken for granted.
Engineers I don't think are long for this world. Unless GW want to do a complete re-vamp of them I can quite easily see them either being nothing more than part of a steam tank, or removed as a hero and placed into war machines as an upgrade with a few basic weapon options.
I don't know if I see this one coming either without saying. I'm quite sure they'll do something to them, even though I'm not sure what. There was a lot of hype about engineers in the 7th ed book, and they ended up (again) useless. They are a mighty fine idea, but how they put them they're just not worth the trouble, as all know. They did however put a lot of time and trouble to working with them, or at least branchising them, so I don't think the 7th is the last we've seen of the engineers. If nothing more they'll be represented in the steam tank, and I'd say we'll see them in a form or another in the hero department even in the future. If they'll get a fix, I don't know, but we'll see them.
Anyways, I'd like to say something aloud that none other did: They'll fix the griffon. I'm sure about that. Just see what they did with the Manticore for example, and that one was supposed to be the evil rival of the Griffon. They'll either reduce it in points, give it as an option to a Grand Master and/or the wizard lord, give it plate mail (hardly), raise it's strength, give it hatred or something or a variation of these. Just compare. And they've raised the amount of monsters recently a lot. Manticores, elven dragon variants, hydras, giants, stegadons in the coming lizard list... I mean, come on, 8 stegs in 2000 points? I know they might be serious, and that's what frightens me so. They'll fix the griffon, no doubt about that.
