Games Workshop just dropped a surprise announcement of a brand new book for Warhammer: The Old World. Take a look at ‘The Razing of Westerland”.
Back in May of this year, when Grand Cathay was first announced I took at look the rest of the books we might get this year. Now at that time I thought we would be lucky to get two more books after Grand Cathay. In fact we’ve gotten three, Jade Fleet, Settra and the Matched Play Guide. Now we’ve gotten a 4th book announced, the Chaos focused Razing of Westerland. (As a fun note, two of the books I thought we might get were a book about Settra in The Border Princes and a book about Chaos in the North and, uh, we are getting both of those.) But what is this new book, and what can we expect from it? Lets take a look.
What Is The Razing of Westerland?
The new book is called Arcane Journal: The Razing of Westerland. It’s said to be covering the war in Westerland, the north-west of the fractured Empire. This invasion is led by Frydaal the Chainmaker. Now we have seen a bit of this storyline, as it’s also covered from the Cathay/Empire side Dawn of the Storm Dragon. In fact that book covered Miao Ying’s counterattack against Frydaal. This kind of makes me wonder if this book doesn’t take place before Storm Dragon, and maybe it was supposed to come out first, but the release order got moved around? If not I guess it means Miao Ying’s counterattack went… poorly. Either way this appears to be our third campaign style Arcane Journal, focusing on expanding the lore and storyline.
Lots Of Ruinous Rules
Unlike the Settra book, Westerland seems to be more focused in its new rules. It looks like Chaos, in particular Warriors Of Chaos, players are going to get a lot from this book. They are also getting new models, in the form of Marauders and Marauders cavalry. I have to admit I’m a little torn on these models myself. Don’t get me wrong they look great. But I am a little worried they are going to be more mono-pose and not as convertible as the older models. It’s hard to tell with the infantry, but the cavalry certainly seem this way, and that’s a bit of a shame as the current line is very flexible. But the new minis do look really cool!
They are also getting new stat blocks in the book. It’s not clear if these are replacing the old ones in the current list, which would be a first, or if they are going to be whole new unit. It does kind of look like they are 30mm bases and the current unit is on 25mms. It would be pretty annoying if they did replace the old ones and make everyone rebase again.
We will also get new spells and magic items. And new Chaotic Traits. These aren’t Marks, or Gift, or Items or Gaze of the God upgrades. I’m not sure Chaos needs a 4th/5th way to upgrade things, but well here we are. The book also will have rules for the Four Cults of Chaos, which could be really cool. I’m not sure what this will be, maybe some kind of Army of Infamy, or bonus if all your stuff has the same mark? Or are these some other kind of new rules. We will have to see.
Path To Glory Rules Return!
Lastly they’ve said the new book will have new Path to Glory rules. These are aimed at growing a 500 pt army into a larger force. Path to Glory has always been a cool idea, and is often a fan favorite. We will have to see what this version is like. Sometimes its very Chaos focused and super thematic, but only good for a single faction. Other times its basically rules for running an escalation league. These are really useful for growing an army and community, so I would love to see that.
What’s After This?
It’s probably safe to say that this is the last book we are going to get in 2025. Assuming we even get it this year. It’s been announced early enough that it could come out this year. A late November/early December release is possible. It’s also possible they are going to come in the January ToW slot that saw the game released last year and Empire this year. I’d say best money is one that, but the speed of ToW releases has surprised me.
If it came out this year it would be the 9th book this year, which is crazy speed! Heck 8 books this year is pretty great. We are eating pretty good over here in ToW land with almost monthly releases. I’m not sure what comes after this, but I’m guessing it going to be more of these expansion books, which I’m all in favor of.
Let us know if you are excited for the new book, down in the comments!
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Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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