Age of Sigmar...

Have a read of this fantasy players... seems interesting, although taken with a pinch of salt for now...

http://natfka.blogspot.no/2015/06/uncovering-the-age-of-sigmar.html?m=1

So Fantasy players what do you think of this? is it time to get out or a needed change?

I guess seeing the rules is a must but just wanted to know peoples thoughts

I think the models are beautiful. I can also see why they are described as the Space Marines of the fantasy range. If they tempt a lot of 40k marine players into giving it a go and thus increasing the player base, that is good.

However, there is chatter that these are quite bulky models, and that any new figures produced will literally dwarf the older miniatures, to the extent that I would be embarrassed to field my old Empire troopers because they'll look like some sort of children's crusade. So it's possible I may find myself in the same boat as someone who has never played fantasy - needing to start a fresh army. On the other hand, the whole point of this exercise is to provide a lower cost of entry, so it may be worthwhile.

I guess in summary I don't know, and am just going to wait and see. Though don't judge it on when Age of Sigmar drops, I hear that is just a skirmish level, designed to whet the appetite, and that full fantasy rules will follow later.

Encouraging news on the Age of Sigmar. Copied and pasted from Belloflostsouls, Bit's in bold my personal highlights...

Ok, first some basics on the set:

Price: $125

Rules : Included in box + Free Download

Backwards Compatability: 100%, rules for EVERY EXISTING WFB mini will be provided.

Box contents:
•47 plastic miniatures – 18 Stormcast Eternals and 29 Warriors of Khorne.
•A 96-page Warhammer Age of Sigmar background book – exclusive to the box set.
•A 4 page rules sheet.
•12 dice, 2 range rules and 2 transfer sheets.

Now the New rules items:


Via Dr. Caligari 6-29-2015

White Dwarf
– WD 74 WILL include a free Stormcast Eternal.
– WD 74 will include all four pages of AoS rules in it.

Rules
– There are no point values in Age of Sigmar.
– All units will be represented by warscrolls.
– If your side is severely outnumbered, there are several “Sudden Death” objective you can pick from that success will result in your victory.
– Warscrolls have all the rules for the models with them.
– New models will come with warscrolls in their boxes.
– Army books are gone.
– Bases will not matter.
– Measurement is based on closest point of the models. (So yes, a sword that thrusts well past your base is where you’ll be measuring from.)

My thoughts:

GW is actually trying to compete in the current 2015 wargaming marketplace. This is a watershed moment for them.

They are competing on the merits for the first time in a very long time.

– The pricepoint is competitive.
– The rules are free.
– The minis are top of industry quality.
– They are not invalidating any existing minis.
– They are certainly picking and choosing rules mechanics from their competitors for this product reboot.
– They are being fairly transparent to retailers.

This all points to a GW realization that THIS is the make or break moment for WFB, so they are trying to do it right.

Color this gamer impressed. That said, there is a WHOLE LOT of Warmachine in those rules mechanics…

Sounds interesting although I still want to see it before I believe it. As a Daemon player in 40k I suppose I would be laughing at this change as no need to rebase all my round ones. The core game cant just have 4 pages of rules surely though. There is dumbing down and then there is dumbing down plus this will mean more cost long run in rules supplements for things like scenarios and scenery rules

Maybe it will mean more booklets of rules and scenarios, but if they kept them free to download who'd give a fuck?

Have to say every time I read a rumour on the rules, I feel like theyve come right out of the warmachine book.

im still not sure on how I feel about the idea of the game. On one side a low model count and pretty much using what ever you want sounds cool, but then on the flip side I liked the large blocks of infantry and indivdual races.

Definitely make or break and I'll probably end up buying it just because it's new and the minis do look good.

I bet the WD will sell out before I can pick up one though as won't be home till Sunday.

I'm hoping to make it down early enough to grab a copy, and HOPING I can be cheeky and buy two... one for myself and one for the club. I shall keep you informed.

sounds rather good, but this is an extra game for warhammer isn't it? rather than new warhammer rules?

this sounds like an intro to warhammer and I think they may expand on it to bring it back up to current levels. as this seems aimed at smaller forces it would make sense they need a larger core of rules for larger games.

I've read the "End times" books and there is no longer an old world. It's left with a new beginning, but without saying what that is.

I'm guessing the background for this will carry on from where the books left off. So this will be the new warhammer. I can't see them going back to the old way of infantry blocks. This will probably end up like Lord of the rings.

Right guys, spoke to Lee at GW, he can sort me out with a few copies. I know Rich H wants one, I want one, and I'm getting one for the club... Rich F, Rob, you want one each too? Anyone who confirms here by noon Friday I shall add to the list and sort it out with Lee. After noon on Friday, it's every man for himself I'm afraid...

If you could grab me a copy please that would be great. I'm intending to pop down the club Tuesday to show my face so can grab it and pass over some penny's.

I won't be gaming as got a feeling I'm on a late shift, but want to get back into it before my new job starts.

So AOS looks fairly interesting

however, has anybody else had chance to have a look?

as there are no points how do you make games even?
I take it 1 unit = 1 warscroll?
also it looks like if I have an army of order I can pick units from any of the order armies? so I can have a mercenary army from empire / dwarf and bretts, if I like ?

I don't see anything saying you even have to pick scrolls from the same order... so far it seems if you want to take Empire soldiers with allied ogres, you can. Just pick up the scrolls.

1 unit is 1 scroll, balance is on model count... if one side has a third more models than the other. the poorer side gets to pick a sudden death victory condition (normal victory conditions being wipe each other out or simply kill more of a proportion of the enemies models than he kills of yours.) Yes, this does mean 10 ogres facing 15 night goblins get to pick a victory condition. On the other hand, 1 ogre facing 2000 night goblins gets to pick one victory condition. They really are leaving it up to us to sort out game balance at the moment - I guess they got sick of us slating them for things being undercosted and have said "Fuck it you whinging bastards, here's the rules, you cost it yourselves"

It looks a little too simple for my tastes, though Rich H has heard that this is merely an appetiser, something larger is coming. As an introduction, this will work great. Beautiful models, a good value kit, plenty of established armies to choose from, and a very simple easy to pick up game system. There's also some silliness to do with special characters that I like - Marius Leidorf, the mad elector count, get's better if you pretend to ride a horse. Bugman is better if you have a drink in your hand (good one for our club) and there's another character where respective beard lengths apparently comes into play. It sounds silly and a bit of fun, and will hopefully draw in a big player base. I'm just hoping they then give us more depth, even if it's an optional expansion, to keep the old guys like us happy...

I think this may be quite fun, and I guess you can always jump back to old rules for something more structured or more familiar.

I am thinking of a big mix and match army like dogs of war or mercenary army, wanted to do it for ages, just didn't know how to do it rules wise until now

Yeah no mix and match and as the army and unit rules are more complicated now I would suggest focus. We played a game and while the core stuff is easy to learn it needs some common sense tweaks. Units and characters are very rock, paper, scissors.

Few things, Ogres and any multi wound unit are hard to shift as bravery (morale) is based on models lost. Means monsters and characters never fail bravery from wounds.

Movement is good, your looking at turn 1 charges easy, apart from the 3" no move rule. Can be abused to the nines and is hugely restrictive unless we house rule it you can at least turn around to face the buggers stopping you moving. Example. Neils ogres were after my Slaan, so I flew a Skink Priest behind them 3" away, they couldn't move and were out of charge range, with their move they easily could have got him. As the rules don't clarify what you can "see" there is nothing to say you can or can't charge the guys behind you but it's very clear you can't turn around as that involves a "part" of the model moving a distance so becomes movement.

You can shoot in combat or in to combat. I think it's silly you can shoot someone else while in combat with someone else so I think again a house rule of shoot the fuckers trying to eat/stab/rape you should be made but I like the fact you can shoot someone when your clearly not good at hitting them, work to your strengths after all.

Combat can get messy but it's extremely funny at times especially when your enemy charges your squishys and you pile in your elites as the dumbass moves 3" away from them hehe. The balance can be one sided at times, my Carno Lord dies 3 times in one game (Lizardmen are Daemons now and can summon ANYTHING but Slaans including special characters mwahaha). Pick your targets and for defo pick a good order to do your fights in as you don't have to resolve one fight at a time. Don't over commit and be careful of forcing yourself to do a combat you don't want first to keep someone alive as you opponent can really punish you for this.

Magic too can be a huge fuster cluck if you don't have a least 3-4 casts/dispels. Neil had one mage able to dispel and I was chucking 6 casts a turn at him (Slann are amazing but also a necessity or my army sucks), needless to say this was how I stayed in the game.

We enjoyed it. We played 4x4 no scenery with about 4k armies in old rules. 6x4 is a defo better.

Rich can you explain why units from different armies makes it complicated? looking at the rules things look / seem much simpler now ??

I have always wanted a mercenary army / dogs of war army,

Perhaps RIch meant from a simplicity of operation point of view... thus far I haven't seen anything that says that the forces even have to be from the same rather vague faction (factions which already lump elves men and dwarves together, or whatever they are now called, along with lizardmen and blood ang... I mean stormcast eternals) So I don't see too much of an issue with rob using a unit of ogres (golgfags mercenary ones) a couple of cannons (don't think we'll ever get rules for the galloping guns again but you can give it a go) dig out an old Halfling hot pot for lumpin crook and call it a mortar etc...

sounds good it does not even need to align to the old dogs of war list, just like the idea of a mercenary army clubbed together in the lands after end times! or something along those lines

Each unit has very different rules to the unit stood next to it. Most units combo especially characters and units. Spells and abilities only effect same army units. While you could probably do a mixed army and it would look good it would play shit. You NEED those combos and buffs to stand any chance vs an army that has them. I would suggest you play a few games with your stuff and see what I mesn before committing to anything wild.

I wrote down a few ideas for how the story of Sigmar goes from here...

http://needmoretanks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/age-of-40k-is-gw-going-for.html