What was your favourite reveal from Warhammer’s showing at Adepticon this year? A lot of you will probably be saying the words “Space” and “Wolves” right now. A lot of you are wrong. The best reveal of the night (or day, if you’re in America), was The Old World’s Cathay.
This isn’t a biased opinion. I’ve barely touched my Tomb Kings army since the game was released. But the new brand Cathay miniatures are stunning. This is an army that has never existed before; there have been art and snippets of lore, but never a single miniature. And now we have some of the finest models The Old World has ever seen.
The lantern flier. The firework cannon. The Dragon Emperor’s daughter who turns into an Actual Dragon. H*ck, even the bog-standard troops look excellent. The Chinese-inspired faction are some of the best miniatures that Games Workshop has produced in years, regardless of system. But this is bad news for Age of Sigmar.
Warhammer: The Old World’s Success
Releasing a whole new range of miniatures shows immense confidence in The Old World. It also shows that players are buying The Old World. Elsewhere in the Adepticon show, Games Workshop announced that it’s bringing back some Beastmen models from 1987. What other company can do that successfully? That’s exactly what GW has been doing for The Old World; bringing back old sets and supplementing most armies with a couple of new sculpts. That is, until Cathay.
The Cathay launch is bigger than any range refresh The Old World has seen before. It’s bigger than the Bretonnia or Tomb Kings re-releases, and way bigger than most Warhammer 40K releases in recent memory. People must be playing – and buying – The Old World. Three new releases in one reveal show is impressive, even if one wasn’t a brand-new army.
But what does this mean for Age of Sigmar?
Age Of Sigmar Had A Disappointing Showing
What did Age of Sigmar get at Games Workshop’s biggest show of the year? A new edition of its annual rulebook. Some Spearheads – that’s boxes of existing miniatures repackaged in new bundles. A few pieces of terrain. I know the Soulblight Gravelords are on the horizon, but this was a meagre offering.
If The Old World’s fantastic showing was a show of confidence from Games Workshop, this was a whimper. I prefer Workshop’s futuristic universe to its fantasy offerings, but Sigmar has been pumping out excellent miniatures over the past 18 months. In general, I’d say that I prefer the designs to those of 40K. So, why aren’t people buying it?
Age of Sigmar fans, there is hope yet. The roadmap shows Idoneth Deepkin, Blades of Khorne, Kharadron Overlords, and Nighthaunt are due for refreshes in the near future. That’s a far more exciting spread of miniatures than 40K’s four flavours of Space Marines, at least. But it’s not a good sign for Workshop’s second-biggest game to have such a poor showing at Adepticon. I’m not saying the game’s dead or anything as inflammatory as that, but when the game this was intended to replace seems to be selling better and getting more exciting things, it doesn’t look ideal.
I’d expect big changes for Age of Sigmar whenever the next edition rolls around, but not necessarily before. I doubt we’ll get square bases or regimented units, but a shift in strategy feels written in the stars.
For Games Workshop, this is a good place to be in, believe it or not. Warhammer 40K is still its golden child, but it now has two thriving specialist games in Horus Heresy and The Old World. If our assumptions are correct, and Age of Sigmar sales are falling to the wayside, then it’s in the perfect position to pivot it in a new direction and try something new. I don’t have any answers for how it would go about this – they’re already releasing beautiful miniatures – but I’m sure the executives who have masterminded the success of the company’s other systems can figure something out.
Until they do, the Cathay release may turn many Sigmarites’ heads towards The Old World. It’s certainly turned mine.
