Just back from Warhammer World, where they are holding the release party for WFB.

The following information has come DIRECTLY from Gav Thorpe, Alessio Cavatore and Jervis Johnson, and was given at a seminar held this morning, and over a coffee first thing this morning!

Rulebook - as most of you will have now noticed, the rulebook does not include rules for sieges or skirmishes. This is because of plans to release COD type expansions - the first of which will be SIEGE, followed by NAVAL BATTLES and also, a skirmish level expansion book. There will be new models for each race to tie in with the expansions, with FW assisting with large scale models (ships?)

Black Orks are to get new plastic minis next year - Q1 or 2. They were not ready for the main release.

All races will receive a Plastic lord kit similar to the Ork Warboss as the army books are released.

Next books to be worked on are:

Empire
Vampire Counts
Dark Elves
Tomb Kings
Chaos.

Gav would 'like' to see the Chaos book being one large volume, as most players spoken to by the dev. team tend to pick and choose from the two volumes.

All army books will have at least 30% more background.

The Warhammer timeline is now FIXED. There will be no more Storm of Chaos type events where the timeline will advance - this is warhammer as it will be for the foreseeable future (at least 5 years).

The tone of the game is to stay 'dark gothic'. There will be no 'cartooning' of the armies - in Gavs words, 'Orks fighty, Gobbos tricksy' - the new rules reflect the double 'ardness of Orks.

Dogs of War are to get their own army book / expansion 'sometime in the next five years'. To assist this, army will have the DOW option removed as the books are released.

There is to be an archive section added to the GW website for characters who 'fail the cut' in the new army books along with any esoteric bits n bobs they cant find a home for.

There will be a comprehensive Q&A uploaded Next Saturday to cover the new rules.

No Army should be considered 'nerfed' within the new rules - as far as Alessio could tell, there are only two magic items and one rule affected by the clarifications. (brettonian dispel, beastman ranking and one I cant remember!)

The Gamers Edition offer is to become a direct sales 'stocked' item ongoing, and they are looking at a similiar offer for 40K.

Rather than remaking all old metal models into plastic, Gav wants to look at new or re-released options - ie. Spider Riders (no - forest gobbos are not coming back with specific rules!)

And on 40K....

The Dev Team consider the Eldar Codex to be 'the best codex we have ever released'! There will be a limited amount of army boxes available at UK GD (the figure bandied around is only 100!).

White Dwarf is to run a HUGE amount of Eldar fluff and articles.

On White Dwarf..... considering the hostile reception of the past 6 months worth of issues - sales have gone UP! ABC's show the title up by 5% month on month!

Dark Eldar - they have started work on concepts (only concepts - no dates or confirmation of what they are of....)!

I knew going over (even with a hangover) was worth it!

PS - Gav was very cagey about why the three other races are mentioned - his comments were:

Chaos Dwarves - 'we wanted people to know they are still part of the canon - and not done away with!'

Dragons - 'I didn't have anywhere else to put this information and I love dragons!'

Cathay (with a big grin) ' Warhammer is a bigger place than just the Old World - who knows when we'll get round to them (he did then tell me Q4 2008 is the slated release.....)?'