The Old World? Maybe. Cathay, Dwarfs and a suspiciously strong Kislev vibe
We had one of those very classic hobby conversations: are we actually going to play Warhammer: The Old World, and if yes… with what armies?
The short answer is: maybe yes, but with a lot of grumbling first.
First reactions: enthusiasm, but selective
The discussion started with a simple question from Staś: does this mean we’re going to play TOW battles?
And honestly, that immediately led to the most important topic in any new system: who already has miniatures, and what are we even collecting?
Dubry asked exactly that, and the answers were wonderfully on-brand.
End3r declared total tactical neutrality: at the moment he has nothing and isn’t really planning anything… unless there’s an army with cheap printable models online. In that case, negotiations may reopen. His first instinct was, naturally, to assume there probably aren’t any dwarfs anyway.
Which, of course, turned out to be false almost immediately.
TOW miniatures: not exactly universal praise
A big part of the chat revolved around the look of The Old World range in general. The mood was, let’s say, mixed.
Dubry summed it up pretty cleanly: Cathay has fantastic models, but TOW as a whole looks pretty mediocre next to Age of Sigmar. Michał was not exactly more diplomatic and agreed that TOW really doesn’t win many beauty contests overall — although Cathay and Tomb Kings definitely got some praise for still looking very good.
So if we do end up building armies for this system, it’s already clear that we’ll be doing a lot of cherry-picking based on what still looks great today.
Dwarfs are back on the table
The important part for End3r: dwarfs do in fact exist. Not only regular Dwarfs, but also Chaos Dwarfs got mentioned, which immediately improves the situation for anyone whose first instinct in fantasy is “what if shorter, angrier, and covered in metal?”
Later in the conversation, Staś dropped the only reasonable response after seeing some of the dwarf range:
God, these dwarfs are beautiful.
And honestly? Fair.
There was also a very relatable side-thread where End3r defended his own miniatures by pointing out that maybe they only look worse because they’re unpainted. A deeply hobbyist argument, and one we fully support.
What armies are actually appearing?
We did get some concrete declarations.
- Staś has Orcs already, so that’s one proper Old World force on the table.
- Dubry is planning to go into Empire, with a strong Kislev emphasis.
- Cathay clearly has admirers.
- Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs are now very much in the conversation.
- Tomb Kings also got a nod for still holding up visually.
So while the system itself inspired some skepticism, the army-building side already looks much more promising than the first few messages suggested.
The real winner: character and vibe
The moment that probably sold the atmosphere of the whole discussion best was Dubry sharing a model described as “Zagłoba on Wojtek” — and yes, it was immediately recognized as an absolute masterpiece.
That one image alone says a lot about where our heads are at with army-building for fantasy: even if we complain about ranges, editions, and aesthetics, we are still completely vulnerable to a model with enough personality.
So… are we playing The Old World?
At this point, the answer seems to be:
we’re circling it.
Not everyone is fully convinced by the model range, and comparisons to Age of Sigmar are definitely not flattering for TOW. But at the same time, specific factions are landing hard:
- Cathay looks great,
- Dwarfs are winning hearts,
- Empire/Kislev has momentum,
- and Orcs are already present.
Which is usually how these things begin anyway. First we complain, then we browse miniatures, then somebody finds a perfect model, and suddenly we’re planning armies.
A completely normal hobby pipeline.