Age of Sigmar

[Darkson (Simon)]

From a Sad Muppet, who are big GW fans:

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar First Impressions

I wrote this in response to Kev Bacon's flag in the ground, but as there's been some interest at Muppets, I'll post it here.

First things first - it's not fantasy. I went into last night with [Snip] and [Snip] trying to assess AoS on its own merits as a game.

Pros:
- It's fast. and simple. It's the sort of game you can play in an hour or so as a squad skirmish level
- It's clean. 4 pages of rules will do that, but its the first GW ruleset I've seen that's clean enough that rules disputes weren't apparent
- It's the Warhammer setting. I could easily see a warbands style campaign in the vein of the old Necromunda and Mordheim stuff.
- It will scale - because the ruleset is so stripped down, adding more models doesn't necessarily add to the complexity of the game.

Cons:
- There are glaring holes in the ruleset. Missile units in combat shooting out of combat, the cover rules, and the absolute fragility of hero choices unless they are monster mounted or regenerating are an example. However, ignore the Screaming Bell thing and look at the summoning spells. Chaos Sorcerors + Chaos Familiars = always having a sudden death victory condition and spitting out 20+ flamers of tzeentch a turn to assassinate units. No game is perfectly balanced and there will always be cack hard lists and soft lists but even if you're being reasonable - say, 2 wizards - you're taking the supposed balancing mechanic (Sudden Victory) and throwing it out of the window. Which leads to the next con...
- Balance. There is none. Yes, we understand that this has been designed to put your models on the table and throw down, but literally EVERY successful miniature and card game has some sort of army/deck building mechanic that tries to ensure that the two forces are of equal measure. Ryan was insisting that it is down to the players and the Wheaton rule was in effect. Even with that rule, a game system where you expect your players to do 90% of the force balancing is a badly designed system. Keep in mind this "even wounds" thing is something implemented by players, and not by GW themselves
- Some stripped down rulesets give a game an "easy to learn, difficult to master" feel. AoS does not have that. There is precious little tactical depth to the game. The only tactical decisions to make are in the combat phase (which unit to attack first), and some of the hero/unit synergies. That's it. While the game will scale well, it feels like every game will result in a quagmire of combat - because the there is very little benefit to retreating, unless you gamble on winning a diceoff for the next battle round

There's rumours of a campaign book, expanded ruleset with a "points" type system and scenario book all coming. If those things exist, then it could make AoS a game worth playing. But right now, those things don't exist. So what we have is effectively a Beta ruleset, with great models that doesn't have the legs to become a very popular game because it will get repetitive incredibly quickly without extensive player input (campaigns, scenarios etc.). Keep in mind the other systems at this sort of level that are attracting new players - Infinity, Malifaux, Warmahordes - scenarios and campaigns and such are built in to their main rulebook. Which for at least 2 of those systems is also free. The game brings to mind an old White Dwarf I have in my cubboard, with a free game of "Orc Tavern Brawl" - simple, fast and fun game for a lunchtime, but not deep enough to hold my attention if I want to set aside a night of gaming.

I applaud GW taking the right and brave decision to drastically change the primary game attached to their Fantasy setting, to offer free rules, and to produce a potential loss leader to incite people into the game (and at the price, it still isn't a loss leader). I despair at the execution.

Is it worth playing? For a giggle once every couple of months, or someone putting the effort in to create campaign rules, absolutely. Is it a game that will compete with other growing wargames out there or the 40k juggernaught? Not without significant work and investment by GW.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Hitler's not a fan.
http://captiongenerator.com/48463/Hitle ... -of-Sigmar

[Darkson (Simon)]

Er......

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... gmar-Rules

[nobby]

I must say you seem a tad obsessed with it Simon

[Darkson (Simon)]

I think it counts for about 75%+ of posts on my Facebook timeline, hardly anything else gets shown to me now, not even cat videos.

[lunchmoney]

not even cat videos.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sn91t1V4g[/youtube]

edit: Why have you not got youtube BB tags!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sn91t1V4g

[nobby]

I think it counts for about 75%+ of posts on my Facebook timeline, hardly anything else gets shown to me now, not even cat videos.

Mine has died down a bit now. Now its the nerd rage that the rules and army lists for kow2 aren't completely free. God forbid a company should want to make a profit...

[Tom]

Man, these new ghosties are testing my resistances something fierce. I'm absolutely loving the look of 'em.

Dare I ask if anyone else has been tempted to dip into AoS with the new edition?

[Ray]

Models are for the most part really nice, it has a proper points system now, but unfortunately the new edition is keeping the random turn sequencing so I won't be going near it.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Nope, but then I'm not a big battle fan anyway.