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So I've spent the last 2 weeks playing new and interesting miniature games. Some I've absolutely loved (Kings of War, Deadzone) some I've hated (The hobbit) and some I'm just blah about (Warmahordes) and it has got me thinking; what does warhammer (esp. fantasy) need to do to catch up with the more modern wargames?

Here's my list:

1. No more hero hammer. The Goal of a block of 40 warriors should not be to deliver a character into combat.
1a. Combined/condensed army books. The current model of dribbling out army books just perpetuates the perception that this game is geared toward flavor of the month brokenness with no real concept of how to battle power creep. When 9th edition drops it needs to drop with 3 books: Rules, Good Armies, Evil armies. And you might even be able to combine all of those into a single book.
2: Simplified rules set. There is no reason that the chapter on movement and line of sight should take up more then 2 pages.
2a: Army consolidation. Too many unpopular armies. 1 human army, 1 elf army, 1 dwarf army, 1 evil humans, 1 evil elves, 1 orcs and goblins
3. Streamlining of the games. Like it or not the war gaming community is getting older. GW has a flagship product (again like it or not) and it has to start appealing to a younger audience if it wants to stay relevant (and around).
4. Smaller armies/standardized game sizes. I.e. "A standard game of Warhammer Fantasy battles is 6 turns and will last 1.5-2.5 hours and pits two armies of 2000 points against each other".

Agree with my list or not (and I'm sure there's plenty out there who won't) you cannot deny the % of GW's revenue that fantasy battle brings in (estimated at < 20%) is not sustainable for such a large range of miniatures.

That would require firing most of the current GW executive and corporate staff. They have been operating under the assumption that our favorite part of the GW Hobby is buying the models from GW (ref. Chapterhouse v GW).

They have been desperately trying to make bigger armies with higher prices for a long time now. If they did go for a smaller model count they would just give you less models per box and charge you more. Considering the Dark Elves and Dwarves both have 10 man sets at the $50 mark it seems like they are already implementing the bad versions of your ideas.

It is too bad, really

They've moved away from the all in 1 army books. That's the way to make money, multiple books for each player.
Simplified rules? If they made them any smaller, it'd be just flip a coin. They have to go into detail since the current and prospective players haven't played real wargames with maneuvering, like ACW or Napoleonics; and either don't or won't follow the rules. Look at all the detail 40k had to have to keep the powergamers and rules lawyers in check.

Reduced magic power. Too many games are won or lost with spells. Goes back to less hero-hammer.

I am pretty happy with the current rules. Took a bit to get used to, but the simplicity has reduced the number of disagreements at the game table.

I'd love to see more complexity with charges, formations and such as with previous editions.

That they go back to sixth edition rules

I should have used a more precise adjective. How about concise instead of simplified. You don't need 140 pages of rules to have a rich game full of intricacies. I agree their not going to do it but 50 dollar box sets with 10 models was my breaking point.

I've posted before about why I still played GW and it basically was that I still thought it was an OK deal. Now though.. I don't. It's very sad. I've loved GW for more then 20 years. Oh well, off to kickstarter

honestly I love the way whfb is now,have not had one issue with the current rules or play style,actually enjoy it more than 40k.
The only thing I think they need to do is actually publish current codexs as the brets one is over 10yrs out of date for crying out loud.