The Importance of the Orc & Goblin Book

A couple of weeks ago I said that I thought that GW had done the right thing waiting to release the first 8th Edition Army Book. They were able to use the intervening time to attempt to iron out the crinks and creases (glaring holes if you are on the other side of “The Sundering”) in the existing books and new BRB.

Well I think I’m just about over that! With the announcement of the Orc & Goblin release and the information that found its way to the net in the last 24 hours, I can honestly say that this new book is overdue. One of the best things about a new release is it changes the meta-game, forcing other armies to adapt. Here it becomes a breath of fresh air.

My fervent wish is that the O&G book places the army among the top tier of armies – in both a comped and uncomped environment – which causes other armies to react. It has been over 16 months since an army book did this – Skaven – though admittedly only Beastmen has been released since then.

GW needs to follow this up with two further new books in the next six months – Tomb Kings and Brets would be nice – so the landscape is significantly changed. This is a balancing act though. Nobody wants the 2007/08 situation where there was a sea change in power with the release of VCs-Daemons-Dark Elves. These three books rendered most other builds redundant. Rather what is required is for new books to collapse the power tier structure with all armies being at a similar level. Yep, I know a Nirvana, Utopia etc…a bit like responsible socialism or caring capitalism.

So here’s hoping that O&G are strong….but not too strong. And that there is no default build. If GW have achieved that then I’ll be a happy punter.