The View from the Turret

Warhammer 1944?!

Posted on 29Nov09 Updated on 29Nov09

The gents over at the D6 Generation podcast have one whopper of a rumor. In their Episode 44: Year in Review & Carnage 2009 they report that they heard Games Workshop might be working on a World War Two era game. The only details they had were that it would be an in-house project and that the scale might be 20mm.

If this is true it would certainly be a huge departure for Games Workshop. While Warhammer Historical has been around a long time it was not a direct part of GW. More importantly it has never had any model support from GW. The idea of Games Workshop producing historical WW2 figures seems rather far fetched. Moreover, 20mm would seem an odd choice considering the vast number of historical 20mm choices currently in the market including large numbers of highly detailed scale kits from the major model manufacturers. On the other hand, 20mm is the best skirmish scale (or ‘army scale’ in GW terms) for WW2 (and was considered the ‘one true scale’ by many battalion-scale WW2 gamers for years). One could even imagine, with GW’s size, that deals could be made with other manufacturers — what if they got Dragon to do a line of branded ‘GW armor’ kits?!

The genesis of this rumor comes from a Wargames Illustrated report about the recent Warhammer World convention where Forge World demoed a set of WW2 rules. Warhammer Historical is now part of Forge World and apparently a staff member wrote the rules. So it is most likely the release will be just a set of rules and not a set of miniatures or any new line from Games Workshop directly.

Of course this is all just a rumor, but it is certainly something for which to keep an eye, and ear, out for over the coming year.

Note, our favorite 25mm scale World War Two figures and vehicles are from West Wind’s Berlin or Bust (BoB) line. Their World War II Separate Head System (SHS) is also very good but is 28mm and does not mix with BoB. The Secrets of the Third Reich line is 28mm and mixes with the SHS just fine (as do the Incursion miniatures). The Bolt Action line is also a good 28mm option.

[Updated: 29NOV09]