A World of Chaos. A Time of Heroes. An Age of War. A Summary of Warhammer 8th.

My Empire General, "Mad" Marius Lietdorf, is back in the saddle

Well I recieved my Rulebook many weeks ago now on the 8th of July and have had chance to let it all sink in. After the hype and the flood of opinions what do I make of the new edition. And given my earlier article on the release questioning the timing of the rulebook it deserves an answer.

As I pointed out a few months ago, it seemed that five years was a bit soon for a new release of the core rulebook, something that every warhammer gamer would need to buy to continue in the hobby realistically. It is one of the few things in Games Workshops repertoire that can command such a high amount of sales. That they wanted, or needed, to use this ace card for the second time in five years, and the third time in ten years, was as I pointed out in April, a bit suspect. I won't repeat the fiscal and sentimental investigation I made then here, you should read that post yourself below.

The new rules have been met in most places with very positive reviews. I myself find I strongly agree with the thorough review given by BadDice Podcast and recommend everyone listen to it. In terms of pure game mechanics it should be celebrated forbeing clear in its language and tidying up many of the legal loopholes that cheesed us off. Good, simple, clear english in the rules with full colour diagrams. I found that even I was exploiting a legal loophole now that friendly units can never be closer than 1" inch to each other and have had to budge my Outriders and Detachments judicously apart. Quite right too.

But more than the game mechanics has been the book itself. Heaving like an Ogre's gut with extra material on the hobby, on cool miniatures, on the background, on giant pictures, on heroic last stands, on Thunderbarge's, on creating your own scenarios, on Ostland under siege, on web vidoe commentaries by the designers. This has been a great meal fully garnished. And I have relished it all. For this Games Workshop does deserve fulsome praise, you have filled my month with childlike wonder and magic again.

But what does all this mean to the company?

A look at the share price is as revealing and appealling as Keeley Hazell's birthday suit. I have to credit the Financial Times for all this data, and encourage you all to look for yourselfs. This three month snap shot graph of the company's share pirice shows an almost vertical spike at the start of July and consistent growth since then. Indeed they are approaching close to the highest price the company has hit in five years. I would also like to say that the flat part of the graph that can be seen in May is still a massive 77p up on what Games Workshop was trading at last year. It is all a success story. As the core product should be. You cannot repeat this every year, so Games Workshop has to be making hay during this magnificent harvest summer for them.

A really significant pointI want to make is how Games Workshop has been performing compared to the rest of the FTSE100. I should explain that the FTSE 100 is the average price of the 100 best companies in the UK. This year that avergae has fallen 7%, and had two rough years before that. Now Games Workshop had a tough 2008 and a stable 2009 but 2010 is starting to look very good. In comparison to the FTSE 100 GamesWorkshop's share performance has risen superbly and continues to pull away. Note this is only one way to measure a company. A way to measure a company by people who are not devoted fans of its product like you and I are. A happy return to health.

Wallets are going to be bitten on hard during 2011 and 2012 in th UK and Games Workshop has to work harder to attract each pound coin. Price increases have already been announced by Games Workshop in an effort to cover costs. I will warn you it cannot repeat playing this trump card of a core rulebook release. It will be interesting to see what July 2011 is like.