The good news: Business Wire reports that the Guild Beta cycle for Warhammer Online has begun:

Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts studio , today announced that the Guild Beta for Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR) has begun. Over 10,000 guilds applied and those selected will have the chance to experience the game's most expansive beta phase yet.

An historic 750,000 applicants have signed up for the opportunity to enter WAR's closed beta, and the selected guilds will join tens of thousands of new participants as the game enters the final phase of its closed beta test. Guild members, many with long histories playing a multitude of massively multiplayer online games, will test WAR's recently added Guild and Heraldry features, as well as Public Quests™, new dungeons, Scenarios, user interface updates and more as the MMORPG advances towards its launch later this year.

"WAR's Guild Beta is here and some of the world's most experienced MMO players will now get a chance to play one of the most anticipated MMOs of all time," said Mark Jacobs, vice president and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "We look forward to seeing them beat, bash and burn their way through the world that we have created for their enjoyment. It's going to be a lot of fun and it's going to be glorious!"

The bad news: in an interview with Mark Jacobs over at MMORPG.com, the Mythic VP revealed that four of the current classes had been scrapped, and of the six faction capitals only two - the Inevitable City of Chaos and the Human capital of Altdorf - would be in at launch, with the other four (Dark Elf, High Elf, Dwarf, Greenskin) to be added shortly thereafter.

The four cut classes are:

* The Choppa (Greenskin)
* The Hammerer (Dwarf)
* The Blackguard (Dark Elf)
* The Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire)

(Via Massively)