Age of Sigmar

[Darkson (Simon)]

As much as I like BoLS, I am not a fan at all of their YouTube 'reviews'. That said.... AoS run through here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqunT2T6a94

[snip]
and the bizarre way that the models are cut for the sprues (shoulders and head one piece, front of body one piece, head and back one piece on another model....), it seems like GW are really no longer encouraging conversions. This would be a massive change, as GW always made a big deal about extra parts, poseable kits, variety and options, customisation, etc. But with AoS it seems that the models only go together one way, are not cross compatible with other minis, and actually need to be restricted to the stock poses for the rules to work.

Personally, this might be the biggest change that AoS brings to the table.... and the one that I like the least.

Haven't watched the video myself, as I've no interest in AoS and I'm trying to stop buying any more figures until I've done something with some of the ones I have, but if that's correct it would be a big downer on the minimal reason lots have had for buying them.

[Tom]

Eh, it's a starter kit, they're always much more fixed pose as a result of the easy snap construction. People are looking for doom to foretell now.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Actually, this guy is normally very supportive of GW, even though he mainly plays Specialist Games and runs the Specialist Games forum.

[Ray]

It's a starter kit thing. the normal kits will be the standard multi part affair when they get released (although I wouldn't hold your breath on that one, 40k cultists have still yet to get non starter box models).

[Tom]

http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/gw ... tions.html

"GW had a guy camped out at the Forge World open day whos entire job was to answer questions and talk to people about Age of Sigmar. His entire job is to go to shows and talk to people about the new game. For the first time I think ever they're taking Age of Sigmar to Gencon, Comic Con, all the major wargames conventions in Europe etc. They're throwing a considerable amount of money at putting this in front of new audiences who have never played fantasy before. He was also brutally honest and didn't dodge any questions and answered everything he could. I'll start with the negative stuff first.

This is it. There categorically will not be a '9th' edition of fantasy. Age of Sigmar is the only thing fantasy related GW will do for the considerable future.

He acknowledges that the 'funny' rules are rather silly and don't make for a great intro to the system for new people. His response was that the armies in the box set don't have the silly rules. They're there as kind of a celebration and final send off of the old warhammer armies, and he said you might notice the new armies don't have the stupid noises or imaginary friends. This is deliberate, its designed that you'll only generally play the old stuff with your mates since it's a bit embarassing to play in a public place.

The new races will look different to the old ones. Ooruks will not look the same as the orcs we currently have. As such, when they get round to releasing Ooruks, the old models will cease production. He did say that you can still use your old models as ooruks, but you won't be able to buy normal orc boys again.
There will never be points values.

On to the slightly positive stuff then.
They are going to fully support all modes of play, and will be releasing rules to balance armies against each other. There will be narrative campaigns where your forces are picked for you for specific missions, and there will be a system for tournament players to balance lists that isn't based on model count. He did not know the specifics of this, but said it is definitely coming.
The rules will always be free. He said that they are very very aware that fantasy had a massive buy in for someone to get started, as such the game was designed with the ability to play it with one box of models. There will be army books, but every rule in them will be available, for free, online. The books will just have extra background info and scenarios.

GW really are trying harder than they ever have before to make this work. If you're at one of the shows go and talk to them. They want to talk to you about this, but especially they want your feedback on it. As he said, this is totally uncharted territory for them and they are totally open to rules revisions as they go.

So there is a balance system of some kind theoretically coming, and the silly pantomime rules are a badly misjudged last hoorah to the old armies rather than the tone going forward.

Oh well, time will tell. Especially if we can read about it all free online. I'll be interested to see where they go with the new figures. I suspect more controversial massive changes for the aesthetic of all the old races.

[Ray]

No ongoing support for the old armies kind of removes a large amount of people's main reason for playing this though, and therefore their reason to keep buying gw fantasy models. If you need a new army to stay competitive and play without the silly rules then you might as well be buying a new army for whatever game you like the look of, be that AOS or something else (or just play kings of war and sidestep the problem).

[Tom]

It's become pretty clear that the best GW want from the old guard of Warhammer players is not to annoy them too much (and they've failed pretty badly there). These warscrolls for old units were a token gesture.

The old Warhammer crowd just weren't making them money. The cost of entry had become massive so there were no new players coming in, and even if people actively played the game the chances were they already had an army thanks, or were buying the bulk of their figures elsewhere as generic tolkeiny orcs/goblins/elves are widely available on the net and probably cheaper than from GW.

This is a whole new game in an attempt to get a whole new hopefully more profitable crowd, and frankly bottom line, as a business why should they care about the opinions of the people who weren't buying their products anyway?

For better or worse, rather than compete in an increasingly crowded market space they've decided to try and stamp their own unique brand on something new.

Only time will tell how that works out for them.

[nobby]

With regards to the stupid rules. Don't like them, don't use them. There is nothing in any game to stop anyone house ruling something.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Removing the old lines will give them a short-term cash boost I guess - there are a couple of boxsets of orcs etc that I had always intended to get for the purpose of building Blood Bowl teams, but I hadn't done so as I never had a rush - now I'll have to throw some money their way before they disappear, and as I won't be following the new races coming for AoS I'll have to get them sooner rather than later.

[Ray]

Or just ebay them later. I doubt there is a shortage of any of the kits floating about.