Warhammer Fantasy Battle/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Depending on your point of view (Or that of the writer) The Empire is either an enlightened, civilized, and honorable nation, a corrupt wreck that's about to fall apart at any moment, or a brutally powerful dictatorship which holds effective control over the civilized world.
    • Likewise, the Bretonnia can be either the hallmark of feudal chivalry with brave knights and steadfast peasant archers, a bucolic alternative to Empire or a haughty feudal state with snobbish, foolhardy and clueless aristocracy and Dung Ages downtrodden peasants no better than slaves.
  • Author's Saving Throw: With respect to Orcs and Goblins. After Grimgor Ironhide was portrayed as effortlessly beating Archaon the Everchosen into the ground in the official ending story of the Storm of Chaos, Games Workshop had him get involved in the Crown of Destruction campaign, where he was blown to pieces by the very Artifact of Doom he was seeking.
    • To be fair though, Grimgor blind-sided him and Archaon had already wiped the floor with Valten and Luthor and various others right before. So it is at least somewhat plausible.
  • Broken Base: An excellent example of how extreme this trope can get, then 8th edition was released... a year and one army book later and it seems to be getting worse...
  • Canon Discontinuity: Fmir, the sea elves, and Chaos Dwarfs are still getting the occasional mention in fluff, but don't expect any game rules or models.
    • Although the chances for a return of the Chaos Dwarfs look quite good currently. The Warriors of Chaos army includes actual Chaos Dwarf models as the crew of its Hellcannon.
  • Evil Is Cool: The Forces of Chaos and the Skaven have some lovely little toys.
  • Evil Is Sexy: The dark elves, witch elves in particular. And all Slaanesh worshippers/daemons, it's a pleasure god, what do you expect. Although Slaanesh goes quickly from "sexy" to "the Caligula-movie level disturbing" to just plain horrifying.
  • Fan Nickname: Slann Mage-Priests, are, of course, the Hypnotoad.
    • The new Skaven Hellpit Abomination is sometimes known as the A-Bomb.
  • Memetic Mutation: A lot from nicknames such as the Hypnotoad for Slann, Hulking Out for when Teclis drinks his strength potion, to things like Sigmar being the Patron God of Shouting and Hammers. Also expect your opponent to declare casting Lord Kroak's spell as "I'MA CHARGIN MAH LAY-ZER!"
  • Nausea Fuel: Ogre eating habits, Chaos mutations, and pretty much everything about the Skaven, depending on one's tolerance for rats; one of the most disgusting aspects of the Skaven are Clan Moulder's "experiments".
  • Squick: All over the place, from Malekith having his eternally forge-hot armor riveted to his bones to the origins of the Tomb Kings.
  • Tier-Induced Scrappy: Vampire Counts and Daemons of Chaos, especially the latter.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The climax of the Storm of Chaos campaign involved the Empire and their Bretonnian, Kislevite and High Elf allies standing against Chaos, Orcs, Skaven and Undead, all of which were also fighting each other.
    • An old White Dwarf magazine contained an Ultimate Showdown tournament between the best special characters from every army at the time. Because there were, at the time, 15 playable armies, a Bloodthirster was added to make up the numbers, so no-one got a bye in the first round. The Bloodthirster won handily. Dice for the Dice Throne!