Okay really excited about this one!
I do owe an apology to Old Stonebeard for being so harsh on the earlier editions of WFB.
So during Covid I took a look at my 40k collection and decided to keep my collection based around the starter sets, and its been a great way for me to check out the different systems, and get enough flavor from the start armies (and some times whatever additional units the scenario books might suggest). One of the things I found interesting was seeing how the game evolved and with that, I considered doing the same with WFB, although initially I wasn't a fan of the earlier stuff. Part of the reason was the cartoon look of the whole thing.
Then it occurred to me that Man O' War and Warhammer Quest are two games I really love and things rarely get more cartoony than that. So after getting the WFB 1st and 2nd editions, I started looking into getting the 4th and 5th edition starters. I have to admit from a distance I wasn't a huge fan of what I saw. I wasn't crazy about the troop options and I wasn't sure on how I could expand on the armies if I wanted to buy more minis, without having to buy more Army books, which I didn't want.
But I looked into the 4th edition starter I saw that it revolved around the scenario Battle for Maugthrond Pass, and if it had the rules for the card units, then maybe I could hunt down the actual models for them too. A lot of them are going for pretty pricey prices these days too.
Well, some things set in motion that happened super quickly, and lets take a look at what I got!
The first batch arrived in an old Mail Order box!!! Pretty awesome or what?
And included all that you see here:
Everything unassembled and unpainted. I really couldn't believe it. And the reason I chose this set was how complete it all felt. It came with the Bretonnian King and the Slaan Priest which were two models I wouldn't really ever considered getting, but seeing it was all part of this, I realized I had two generals for the opposing armies. It also came with their respective army books, so I had the official rules on how to use both since the starter really came up lite on just the rules for the models IN THE STARTER. It also came with some additional blisters of various knights and some Lizardmen stuff. It was a great, great deal. And I was really happy to start out with pretty much all I wanted to get.
The next set came up for sale pretty quickly after, and I was even happier to get it than the one above.
Still in awe of the condition. The seller really did an expert job packing it. A few models were off the sprues but they are all complete.
Now as soon as the dust settled on this,
I ran out to ebay and scored Grom in his chariot, the High Elf War Griffon, High Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower from that era, the Orc Shaman on the War Wyvern, and the Orc Stone Thrower. Yes, that cheesy Stone Thrower from this era. They all should be here any day now.
And I love it all.
The 4th edition does come with a starter army book like Ravening Hordes, so that's cool if I ever want to expand on things, but to be honest I am really not planning on it. I just wanted to have two self-contained games for these starters, and was able to do it pretty quickly. I guess I could always have the High Elves battle the Lizardmen too if I wanted.
Now, my first impressions: well, the 5th edition books are amazing. Full color. And things explained a lot better than in later editions. I wonder if the presentation and print has anything to do with that. I am sure it does. Like the 40k 6th edition rulebook is really a work of art, but its a hard book to read and digest. And the 5th edition Bretonnian army book was very interesting reading too. Written by Nigel Stillman who I thought was excellent back in the day. The whole heraldry thing was easily explained and inspire me to pick up a blister pack of the old school Bretonnian Knights or the Realm transfers. Still amazes me the 5th ed rulebooks go from full color to mostly black and white in 6th.
I've only started on the 4th edition material recently and don't have much to say yet, other than it is cool to see Grom, the High Elf Griffon and so one used in the diagrams. Just makes me feel like its all a complete game.
I have zero interest on expanding either one of these as far as armies go. I lucked out on these and I really don't want to hunt down a bunch of different units trying to make something compatible with these. I do think the later models are superior and would rather spend my time on those.
For many of you, you got to see this game evolve but its sort of been the opposite for me, starting with the more recent and working my way back. I can see how 4th edition must have been really popular. GW was putting a lot of fun stuff out in those days, and you can feel it in these sets. I do think going Grimdark was the way to go, but these do have a lot of character, even if a lot of it is cheesy. So I am impressed though, and really glad I got these.
