Unboxing & First impressions: Nagash Book I-II

Believe it or not this is actually the first unboxing Iv'e done for Warhammer Fantasy. And why not start with the new Nagash books which actually comes in a nice little box (or slipcase to be more precise). I also got a little notebook (as you can see above).

The two books feels great and have really nice covers. 

The two books sits in a high quality and thick slipcase (pic on the left is upside down, sorry) and you see that the other side is having a 'one' for the whole tome so as we can expect the rest of the books in the End Times series/campaign will follow this design. Which is awesome.

Don't want to smell that breath but Nagash sure looks menacing on the front cover of book I.

 So book one consist of the new fluff pretty much, it explains the current situation for each of the armies in Warhammer and then explains all the battles going between this armies. Iv'e yet to read it but the layout is really nice and I like the fact that they show you the different armies, what heroes they have and some of their regiments and how these look. There's a lot of beautiful artwork both old and new, pictures of nicely painted models clashing in epic battles and even maps showing how the battles progress.

296 pages of awesome, can't wait to read it. It will take some time to go through this though.

There's a lot of pictures of armies clashing, with terrain and backgrounds to make it look even more cool.

There's a lot of nice artwork.

Love these parts where they explain the armies.

The last page sets the tone for the next book. 

Book II has the painted model of Nagash on the front cover, really nice as well. 

This book is the gaming part, it's a 96-page volume that contains new scenarios and rules based on the events in Warhammer: Nagash Book 1. Here's the layout is more like an army book. You get the new rules for Nagash, Vlad von Carstein, Valten, Crom the Conquer, the new Morghast's and the four Mortarch's (Mannfred, Arkhan, Neferata and Krell). An interesting thing here is that that the mounted Mortarch's have a combined profile with their mounts. Maybe something we will see more of in the future?

New terrain special rules, and awesome pictures on how these looks. 

A lot of rules regarding the new armies that follow Nagash, the Undead Legions, combined Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings pretty much but with some new rules as well. 

The Morghasts.

Each  of the important battles has their own scenarios.

First Impressions
I love these books so far, so many nice pictures and stuff to read that I don't know where to start almost. Really nice quality on everything and the design and layout is spot on. It feels like very well made books that have been taking a lot of time to make, and it really shows. Can't wait to read them through more and I might do more of an review when I feel I have looked it trough enough.

Nagash and the 'End Times for Warhammer Fantasy?'

There will be some major big changes in Warhammer Fantasy according to rumors and even GW themselves as told in the latest White Dwarf. Well Nagash is back and the End Times is a here, and what could this mean?

First off, we have heard the rumours and seen the pictures and when White Dwarf hit this weekend we also got chance to pre order all the new Nagash stuff and get some more info about what's to come for WH Fantasy.

The new stuff is of course the model of Nagash, a limited ed of the two Nagash books and the standard books. There's also the limited Battle Magic: Lore of Undeath, which disappeared really quick (why have these in so limited numbers is beyond me). I wanted these as they work with every army with wizards and I was going to do a pre order on the GW site on Saturday morning but they where already gone. So no money from me and the Nagash books I will probably buy cheaper somewhere else like Wayland Games instead.

So what do I think about all this? I like the model, won't be buying it (yet at least) but according to rumors we will get some other heroes and villains soon (Valten, Crom and Archaon) which I will most probably buy.

The books looks very neat as well and I will be getting those for sure, but what about all of this? What does the End Times mean for WH Fantasy. Well first of all, GW loves to exaggerate these kind of things, so the End Times can just be the name of a big campaign which the Nagash book is the first. However, since 8th Ed hit we have all seen that the Storm of Chaos was removed from the timeline, so we know GW has had something big planned for quite some time. And this time we won't just have the Storm of Chaos when Archaon marches on to war, we now also have Nagash who wants to stop just that. Nagash have even resurrected Vlad von Carstein to help him out in his endeavors to make the whole Warhammer World into his realm of undead.

We can of course only speculate on what all of this will mean to Warhammer Fantasy, but I really like that it looks like GW is moving the timeline forward and new stuff will happen in the fluff. This makes it easier to introduce new things for the armies in WH Fantasy in the future. In the end even something cataclysmic might happen that will change all the armies and how they work.

This could be the thing that has been rumored in the past (all the army books becomes invalidated like the move from 5th to 6th). This will make 8th Ed the last edition of the "Old Warhammer" and 9th the first of the new edition ones. You can still play with your army with the 8th ed rules and all the old army books or go over to the new ones where your armies functions totally different from before.

All this is of course only me rambling and thinking about what the End Times could mean for Warhammer Fantasy, and maybe this is just another supplement that bring us some new models and nothing more. But we do know WH Fantasy is struggling with sales and the armies is getting bigger and bigger with more and more options which actually makes the game less accessible for new players.

I don't know what GW will do with all of this but I hope whatever they do, that they keep the spirit of the game and world as I do and always have loved Warhammer Fantasy.

What do you think about the Nagash coming back? And further more what do you think The End Times means for Warhammer Fantasy? Tell me in the comments below.