Eighth Edition tweaks in the light of the Old World

I'd certainly implement the TOW approach of chargers getting a bonus to their Initiative - charging just didn't yield enough of a bonus to 8th for models that didn't have Impact Hits - and replace the cheesy rules for Always Strikes First with the TOW rules of Strike First simply increasing Initiative to 10 and Strike Last reducing Initiative to 1.

The High Ground CR bonus being implemented in any round of combat rather than purely for units that charge downhill (a relic of 7th and earlier) was also better and more realistic of how historical battles were often won by armies that owned the high ground and lost if an army charged downhill and threw the advantage away (Hastings and Austerlitz are two significant examples).

Additionally Chariots should be able to March as they do in TOW - denying them that in 7th and 8th was just outright dumb.

I'd also be liable to suggest the Fear and Terror rules from TOW are more impactful than those in 8th, while not as game-breaking as those in 6th and 7th.

The chargers get an initiative bonus I think could of been a positive for cavalry charges.

I'm not sure how I feel on the "fall back in good order, flee, and give ground". Maybe some of that rule could of been added to 8th, not sure.

I definitely don't like magic being every phase, though I kind of like the 2 dice roll every spell. Not saying its better than 8th, just different but enjoyable.

I find the games I have played with TOW have been fun but the rules kind of unintuitive.

Yes the cavalry nerf in 8th was too much - step-up already gave surviving infantry a chance to hit back without losing the ASF charging bonus. Allowing chariots to march seems sensible too

What about the changes to cannons?

ToW makes them weaker at long range but stronger up close with grapeshot.

There are plenty of great things about the TOW but few would work as 'tweaks' to 8th. Potentially the use of unit strength for the purposes of breaking steadfast and disrupting etc. Needing 10 knights to disrupt in the flank or a monster not breaking steadfast of a 5 man infantry block always seemed wrong. I also like how monster and chariot mounts add to the wounds of the character, just like monstrous cav mounts. I think cannons should still be d6 wounds to avoid the game descending into hero-hammer but there needs to be some incentive to use the big lord on dragon.

The 2 dice for every spell is actually quite amusing and vindicating for me.

In Chillhammer (modified 8th that I gamesmaster) games I introduced a simplified magic system to save playing time with less experienced players where every spell was a 2 dice roll 😉 😀 with no power dice pool at all. So to see GW effectively copying my magic system for TOW is pretty sweet. Of course they didn't actually copy me to but find out they developed a very similar system to the one I did was excellent.

I certainly don't think the FBIGO etc works well in 8th, which is a much better mass battle game than TOW. With step up, hordes, differing regiment sizes and way more combat casualties etc it just wouldn't work at all with 8th. It works well within the TOW framework however but isn't a tweak than can be easily applied to 8th.

I think the Initiative bonus for changing can work well within the realm of 8th with its ASF etc. For example with the charge Initiative bonus a unit of Blood Knights strike before Swordmasters and a unit of say Gor charging Elven spearmen would rid them of rerolls for 1 turn. It's an interesting concept for sure.