Warhammer: The Old World will be out next year

Knights of Bretonnia riding horses and pegasi

(Image credit: Sega)

First announced in 2019, the return of Warhammer's original tabletop setting has now been confirmed for next year. Games Workshop made the announcement as part of Warhammer Day 2023: "We can confirm today that Warhammer: The Old World will be one of the first releases for 2024."

First announced all the way back in 2019, Warhammer: The Old World will be a new tabletop wargame set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting rather than the Age of Sigmar. If you're familiar with Warhammer from the Total War or Vermintide videogames, this is the version of the setting you'll know—a map resembling Renaissance Europe and its surrounds, with the forces of Chaos creeping in at the edge.

The first army to be fully revealed is the Kingdom of Bretonnia, with its peasants and knights—including miniatures of knights of the realm on foot for the first time. Some will be modeled in resin, like the handmaiden of the lady depicted floating serenely into battle, while others will be available in plastic, like the units of peasant bowmen.

"These regiments and other future regiments are returning in boxes that contain enough plastic miniatures to make a full regiment," Games Workshop noted, "not just a rank or two. With the Peasant Bowmen box, you’ll be able to build a unit of 32 archers, complete with a command group and Defensive Stakes. So dreams of creating massive armies of ranked-up troops will be well within your grasp."

Warhammer: The Old World will be set during the Age of Three Emperors, a time before the Great War Against Chaos seen in games like Mordheim. So don't worry, it'll be centuries before the End Times play out again. Initially, The Old World will focus on the Border Princes and the nations around them, meaning the core supported factions will be the Empire of Man, Orc & Goblin Tribes, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen Brayherds, Wood Elf Realms, Tomb Kings of Khemri, and High Elf Realms. Other factions like the skaven and vampire counts will have rules available as free pdfs for those who still have their old armies.

Making another surprising comeback, Games Workshop is reprinting the original version of Warhammer 40,000.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.