Warhammer - Age of Sigmar

Sure.

Won't push you, but grab some other BB minded buddies and make it a road trip.

VonTush wrote: I'm guessing you're not in the Kansas City area?

Wish I was. It's been so long since my IG saw the light of day. I even have a bunch of the old Baneblade and Shadowsword variants...

Yeah, I didn't know what to say when GW truly announces this. I love and owns Space Marines, not sure what to think about Sigmarites.

Some photos of new minis. Like most of the new GW stuff they are so detailed it actually turns me off. They seem like they'd be a nightmare to paint, specifically if you want them done well and in a decent amount of time...


These guys wouldn't take as long. Though they seem to be a bit too heavily armored for bowmen I would think.


I will give GW props though. I understand profits aren't what they were, but still GW has not gone the KS route for this.

In related news, Mantic has continued to position themselves as the anti-GW. For their square base, rank-and-file Kings of War army game they are going to release an optional supplement book that has rules for all the armies that are not in their fluff/range, but you may happen to have at a home and want to put to use. Armies such as lizard or ratmen...

manticblog.com/2015/07/01/want-a-good-re...tch-to-kings-of-war/

Have any of you guys played Kings of War? It's so bland and uninteresting that I can't fathom longtime GW fans really getting into it. It guts out many of the special rules we see in all of the interesting Warhammer units and homogenizes everything into a stat line with one very slight special ability.

Even mages just make ranged attacks or a very minor buff. No drama or excitement.

I have not played Kings of War.

Is this opinion formed from actual gameplay or solely rules reading? Just curious.

Regardless, I think it's a nice nod to provide another option for WFB players to do with their armies.

GW's painters never cease to amaze me. I couldn't hope to do something like that on my best day. Truly fantastic stuff.

I've often wondered if GW, and other miniature companies for that matter use a bit of computer aid to really make the minis pop. Just enough to smooth out the brush strokes and make the color transitions that much smoother.

I played about 5 battles on their rules before their first big KoW kickstarter and somewhere between 6-10 after their first KS delivered with that big hardback.

A friend loves it and owns several armies so I've played mostly to appease him.

It just completely lacks color. There's like stock Orcs, then Orcs with slightly better stats. This is pretty much the entire game. A unit may one or two special rules which are usually traits shared across multiple armies, things like Steadfast or Brutal (I'm making up these adjectives as it's been over a year since I've played).

Each race has 1 special rule which doesn't do a whole lot as well.

The magic items are taken from a generic list of about 30-40 that every single army shares. There isn't even a spell list or anything either.

It's all about speed and playing a large battle in about 40 minutes (which it does do well). You don't remove models but rather apply lasting damage that encompasses casualties as well as morale. When you fail your check you're wiped out and remove the entire unit.

I also really hate that the game is completely about playing chicken in melee, as there's a large incentive to being the attacker, so you move up just out of the enemy's range and wait for him to move first so you can get the charge in. I suppose Warhammer can suffer from this as well but the movement rates seemed to be more varied and effects more widespread (including magic) that made it so you didn't want to dick around too much in Warhammer.

Flanking and attacking the rear are certainly incentivized but most battles feature huge chunks of troops which drains some of the creativity out of maneuvering.

Missile weapons are also very weak which probably works pretty well but I always felt like they were a waste of points. I tried experimenting with an almost entirely ranged force in one game which didn't do too bad, relying a lot on luck.

It's not horrible but it strips out everything I loved about Warhammer (unique units that function very differently with tons of flavor) in favor of getting a game done in a reasonable time.

Their Dwarf's King Hold dungeon crawler was similar - very bland and uninspiring. Doesn't come close to competing with any competitor. Don't have much hope for their reboot of this either.

Mr. White wrote: I have not played Kings of War.

Is this opinion formed from actual gameplay or solely rules reading? Just curious.

Regardless, I think it's a nice nod to provide another option for WFB players to do with their armies.

Mr. White wrote: Some photos of new minis. Like most of the new GW stuff they are so detailed it actually turns me off. They seem like they'd be a nightmare to paint, specifically if you want them done well and in a decent amount of time...

Actually, they're easier to paint than most miniatures. GW understands this very well, making exaggerated details, or drybrushable-stuff...

Kings of War is fine... but with that level of abstraction, I go straight for Hordes of the Things.

It's not horrible but it strips out everything I loved about Warhammer (unique units that function very differently with tons of flavor)

The odd thing is I just don't grok Warhammer. I like it at first. But later, everything just blends in. The multitude of stats and special abilities just don't yield the expected diversity. Totally doesn't worth it. Just a complexified game core (thanks to free movement & LoS) with bunch of badly thought special rules.

I think this was an interesting post by a former GW game designer who worked on Mordheim and other games:
www.facebook.com/DesignbyTuomasPirinen/posts/1620250038223421

As for my opinions I came into GW through 40k, so outside of Blood Bowl and Mordheim I don't have much connection to the Old World fantasy setting. I'm kind of mixed on the Old World setting as a whole, sometimes it feels boring and generic and other times really interesting. The human Empire seems kind of boring, but it's really cool it's based on Germany/Holy Roman Empire rather than medieval England. Troll slayers are awesome, but the rest of the dwarf stuff is pretty standard. Skaven are really good addition to the fantasy pantheon. I like GW's Dark Elves way better than D&D's Forgotten Realms version. I was never sure how Lizardmen fit in, and couldn't they have come up with a more interesting name for them? They didn't call Skaven just ratmen ...

In the course of the last year though I've really gotten into reading Oldhammer blogs and exploring the side of GW I had just missed out on by a couple of years. I really enjoy the models, the artwork and the conversions and new Oldhammer style minis different companies are producing now. In that sense, I'm sad the Old World is disappearing. But the Oldhammer community has been thriving for years and this isn't going to kill it.

Age of Sigmar doesn't really interest me, if there's no campaign system in a skirmish game like Necromunda/Mordheim/Gorkamorka then I'm just not interested. The detail of the new minis is impressive, but I'm disappointed that they couldn't come up with something other than fantasy Space Marines.

VonTush wrote: I've often wondered if GW, and other miniature companies for that matter use a bit of computer aid to really make the minis pop. Just enough to smooth out the brush strokes and make the color transitions that much smoother.

I suspect their people are really that good.

It is like they made Mordheim into a large scale wargame, but took out the cool bits about characters losing limbs between matches. Oddball out of game content aside, some of the changes they made has made me contemplate bringing my guys back out of retirement (6000 points Skaven, 4000 points Orcs and Goblins, 2000 points Dwarf, 2000 points Chaos Dwarf). The truncated game time is very appealing, as is the scroll system. Back in my heavy herohammer days, I scanned my book, cut out the sections for my units, and compiled them onto one or two pages, then printed them out (with any additional rulings). So game time was alot faster. This version pretty much does that for me.

I am hesitant to jump in though since every play report I have seen so far pretty much says the same thing. Without army building rules, cavalry destroy EVERYTHING by turn 2. The guys at miniwargaming on youtube came up with a neat points system based on attacks+wounds*bravery, but even with that, the game seems to be over in two or three turns.

Mantic released their Kings of War rules free today for all of your mass fantasy battle needs.

www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html?utm_...32097ba58a-201352594