Originally Posted by
HigoChumbo
For what I've read, End Times is just their "bridge of lore" to justify the jump from their more standard old editions to the completelly new thing they are making (aka "9th edition"), and to have an excuse to kill half of the characters (=current miniatures) in the game and get rid of their inconvenient map design, so that new edition, if I got it right, is not actually set in the End Times events but after it.
I would not rule out that "before End Times" ended up meaning "immediatly before End Times", and that they used its cataclysmic events as some kind of climatic Grand Finale for the campaigns, or even as its major story theme. Althought the fact (or rumour?) that the "campaign map" does not even exist anymore after End Times and that therefore it would not be possible to adapt it to TW (at least in the current form of Total War) and I have to admit could be an argument against all this.
As for the new army collections, well its rumored that there are only 6 armies in total with 3 subarmies each, and The Empire and Dwarves (which are different factions in TW:WH) would in theory be part of the same faction in the new edition. The rumours speak of the following unified factions:
1) Chaos : Demons + Beasts + Mortals
2) Elves (Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves)
3) Empire (Humans, Dwarves & Ogres)
4) Undead (Vampire counts & Tomb Kings)
5) Orcs and Goblins (majorly unchanged)
6) Skavens (majorly unchanged)
I honestly hope we get some decent (in-game) info at or before E3. It would be weird to have released the cinematic teaser and not say a word of the game for so long.