As many people already know, the Warhammer franchise started out as a table top war game using miniatures and models. Most of the lore and locations in Warhammer Online are based on the existing lore, laid out in the original game. Now the tables have been turned, and the folks at Games Workshop have built a model of one of the early RvR locations in WAR. As it’s rare for any location in the Warhammer universe to sit at peace for too long, miniature armies of Dwarves and Greenskins soon began to duke it out for control of the Gates of Ekrund.

Warhammer's origins stem from a tabletop miniatures game in which two or more players battle each other by using one of over a dozen different armies available to them. The game is played on model terrain boards with the outcome of their troop’s actions being decided through a cunning use of strategy and the luck of the dice. Note however, that Warhammer is much more than just a game, it’s a hobby. Once a player chooses his army, he has a myriad of troop types to choose from to suit his tactics. Once the makeup of his forces is determined, a player can then begin to collect his miniatures and paint them in the color scheme of his choice. It doesn’t stop there though, as the player can build scenery and terrain on which to make his game playing experience that much richer.

In an effort to bridge the gap between tabletop miniatures games and the realm of online gaming, John Shaffer of Games Workshop, U.S. built a scale model of one of the WAR in-game environments; the lofty and ancient Gates of Ekrund. Using raw materials, like insulation foam, plastic sheeting and foam core, John recreated the imposing structure with help from some in-game screenshots. Two weeks after a meeting with EA Mythic staff, the gates were finished, and it was only right that a heated battle between the Dwarfs and their rivals, the Orcs and Goblins be waged amongst the shadows of Ekrund’s walls.

Read the full battle report here.

Wish this would of been popular around where I lived when I was a kid. I would of played this nonstop.

Maybe you can include the year the tabletop started, so we can stop all this WAR ripping off WOW stupidity.

As GW ripped off the entire concept of War from Tolkien and other fantasy writers who cares?  War is not a copy of anything nor is Wow.  There have been plenty of fantasy writers any of these games could have  borrowed concepts from them, it really does not make any difference whatsoever.

My biggest concern of War is since it was originally a board game, how are they going to meld those rulesets into a MMO without ruining it?  Notice turbine had a very difficult time with D&D for that very same reason and hence DDO did not turn out like many of us expected.   The Mythic people are not known as forward thinkers either..

Originally posted by Ozmodan

As GW ripped off the entire concept of War from Tolkien and other fantasy writers who cares?  War is not a copy of anything nor is Wow.  There have been plenty of fantasy writers any of these games could have  borrowed concepts from them, it really does not make any difference whatsoever.

My biggest concern of War is since it was originally a board game, how are they going to meld those rulesets into a MMO without ruining it?  Notice turbine had a very difficult time with D&D for that very same reason and hence DDO did not turn out like many of us expected.   The Mythic people are not known as forward thinkers either..

You shouldnt have to worry about them having problems melding the rulesets into an MMO. DnD online could have been so much more than the crap it was, i dont think i played more than a couple hours of it a day until i hit lvl 7 or so, when things got interesting. But blizzard didnt have to "meld" to many rules from its RTS into the MMO. Warhammer is just a theme, a setting. Its the world that the MMO will be based in, instead of having predetermined unit stats (like they give you so you can roll up the dice in the TT game) thats what each player represents.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

My biggest concern of War is since it was originally a board game, how are they going to meld those rulesets into a MMO without ruining it?  Notice turbine had a very difficult time with D&D for that very same reason and hence DDO did not turn out like many of us expected.   The Mythic people are not known as forward thinkers either..

Originally posted by kmilner

Originally posted by Ozmodan

My biggest concern of War is since it was originally a board game, how are they going to meld those rulesets into a MMO without ruining it?  Notice turbine had a very difficult time with D&D for that very same reason and hence DDO did not turn out like many of us expected.   The Mythic people are not known as forward thinkers either..

God I hope they won't base it off the rules. The rules for WHFB are pretty crappy and the whole game would be based on a random number generator (with the terrible granularity of a D6, no less).
Let me give you an example of playing a goblin in WAR if they use some form of the rules of WHFB:
goblin walking through the woods
a squirel jumps out
the goblin immediately fails his leadership test, tries to flee, and is ran down by the persuing squirel.
player wakes up in graveyard
You would think this is a joke, but the real comedy is the goblin's stats.

Just because you're not actually rolling dice doesn't take out dice rolls. 

In fact pretty much every RPG in existence has dice rolls involved.  For everything.  You just don't ever see that.

Your example is exactly what happens in any MMO.  Let me use WoW for example.

Your Orc encounters a Boar and you attack, you fail to roll a 4-6 on a D6+1 roll and you miss.

The Boar successfully rolls a 6 and hits you for a Critical Hit.

You pass your dodge test and the Boar misses.

Tell me how this is any different from what you said?  Now all you'd see on your combat log is

<insert name here> misses Boar.

Boar hits you with a Critical Hit for 450 damage.

<insert name here> dodges Boar's attack.

It's the same thing.  Everyone knows that dice rolls are in the code of almost every video game out there.  Catch up. :p