Lynve wrote:
As for switching to Kings of War - I'd be tempted to play some games, but my gaming environment is quite conservative about the games we play so that might prove tricky. Is it that much better though? How about the balance between armies? Is magic in there just as fickle as in WFB?
The good thing about trying KoW is that its free, you can use whatever miniatures you have and all Warhammer armies have a counterpart in KoW with most if not all units represented. The basic rules are free, you can find them
here and were designed by Alessio Cavatore (one of the main rules guys at GW back in the day). I've heard that KoW was the direction he and others wanted to take Warhammer, but weren't allowed due to GW business model of selling more miniatures rather than making a balanced game.
As for the balance, it is excellent. With the exception of a few armies, all are more or less on an equal footing. Elves are good, Varangur are very good, but there's no army that's similar to Daemons for example in that they're just broken. It is also still fully supported and there is an annual balance fix for ALL armies, which prevents a lot of the power-creep seen in Warhammer. Magic is simpler than in Warhammer and unlikely to be a game changer, being more utility-based than WMD-style. You won't find a Purple Sun wiping out half an army in one turn kind of spells.
I wouldn't even consider going back to Warhammer anymore honestly, but YMMV. I recommend giving it a read and a try.