Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar

So...I read some reactions to the upcoming Skirmish. Seems folks are excited because they can buy small units of factions without having to go all in on armies.

Hmmm....isn't that how AoS was originally released? I mean, I guess I thought one of the big boons of AoS was that you could field any size force and use pretty much any models.

I'm guessing a lot of current players skipped the AoS release and only came in when points were introduced in the GHB? Then they fell back on their old WFB/40K ways and only considered armies at the 1-2K range? I dunno. I guess that's one of my other beefs with the way matched play is set up. They're pricing (most) battleline units as large groups of models as 10 is usually the minimum. That seems to fly against the 'play what you have' ethos. Turn those requirements down to 5 or so at a minimum. Otherwise, match play is generally always going to require decent sized number of figs.

Wouldn't skirmish mode just made this Shadow War: Sigmar?

So I guess the game they are showing tomorrow is going to be between Flesheater Courts and...a mixed army that looks like mostly old Free Peoples stuff. INTERESTING! Talk about playing to the audience...

And it is "set in Shadespire"...which I think is a mistake, since it may confuse folks...that is a dumb idea, IMO. Especially with a new product line launching. That is a Wii/Wii U sort of goof.

I'm really eager to see the rules...the book is $10, so it can't be much more than a couple of pages, maybe some fluff, and probably some army lists. Judging by what was shown as that Free Peoples team, it is more like Mordheim where you have individual pieces rather than set groups. They have a Gryph Hound in there with them for example.

I am REALLY fighting the urge to buy some Death stuff today. If I didn't just spend all the funbux on Cthulhu Wars...

I have to get my Battle of Sigmar set done so we can play with that. If my wife likes it, I would gladly buy into Death. Those and the lizard peeps are awesome.

Yeah, brand confusion with Shadespire for sure. I didn't realize Shadespire was a location/setting and just thought it was the name of its own game.

Lizardmen...ha, yeah...I keep forgetting I have an ENTIRE 2000 POINT ARMY of them to put together and paint! My son asks me regularly "did you build the dinosaur guys yet?"

They are pretty awesome though...the big dino stuff is so cool. I got the Thunderbeast Host so it has like one of each of the big dinos and the flyers too.

Anybody picking up the warscroll cards? Seem like a great idea, but it looks like my Tzeentch just missed the cut on them.

Outside of the cards, what are y'all doing to keep the warscrolls on hand? Print outs? Just flipping through the books all game?

I have the Stormcast set. They come with a nice set of tokens too. But they aren't really that great- there is no picture of the unit on them and most of the cards aren't even half full with text so it seems like they weren't very well thought out.

We usually just have Azyr up and check the warscrolls there on the phone. Or in the books.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is Azyr?

It's GW's AOS app. It has a list builder, all the warscrolls, etc. Dollar a month.

Now that is cool. This is a farcry from the GW of the Herohammer days.

Well, I had a moment of weakness and picked up a Start Collecting Malignants box. How was I supposed to pass that up for $60 shipped? I'm not made of stone. So that is now a THING, I am doing all ghosts and skeletons, I think. Cairn Wraith, Tomb Banshee, Wight King, Hexwraiths, Spirit Hosts, and of course piles of skeletons. Probably do the Mortis Engine over the Coven Throne just to keep on theme...as cool as that is with the vampire ladies on it. I'll probably just go to 1000 points on them, mostly want to use them in Skirmish I think.

The Shadespire stuff actually sounds pretty cool fluff-wise. This city in the Death Realm winds up honking off Nagash because they do something about keeping souls from him. So he blights the whole town and surrounds it with some kind of death-desert. It's kind of a "forgotten" place in the lore, which may mean they intend to fold in some Old World stuff...like Freeguilds. And treasures. But yep, this is already confusing with Skirmish introducing it and Shadespire actually being a different game.

Apparently anything can be used in it, which is exactly what I wanted to see- it's more expansive than SWA, but it is also simpler and not so campaign-focused. 5-20 models per side, you can probably work out what the 5 model teams and 20 model teams are. I think you can only take 1 hero though.

I started looking up AoS skirmish today... mere curiosity, because there's no way I'm buying it. Just looking it up to reaffirm myself in the decision NOT to buy it. Anyway, I don't understand. There's a thing called Warhammer Underworld, which is like a skirmish game on a board, and then there's another skirmish game which name escapes me. I remembered this was covered on this thread, so don't provide me with an explanation (unless you're feeling particularly generous), just tell me: where do you get your daily scoop on AoS?

And anyway, I don't think I'll be buying that, just for the record (but of course I will).

Oh yes, Warhammer denial..."I don't think I'll get into that"/"I'm not really into that faction" slowly turns into "Oh, I can use some of the models I already have, I won't have to buy anything" , then into "Well, I will need to get XXXX", and then you are looking at the GW web page, then looking at warscrolls or faction profiles, and then before you know it you are adding stuff to a cart.

There is really no reason NOT to get into skirmish. The rulebook is like ten bucks and it really is (they mean it this time) a game you play with what you already have. Which is why I pre-emptively bought that Malignants Start Collecting.

The release is pretty small, really. The four $65 faction boxes, eh. Pretty sure the Stormcast and Khorne ones are repacks of starter sprues with an Exalted Deathbringer and a Knight Questor thrown in. Orruks, meh. Flesh Eater Courts, meh. It looks to me like you'd be better off with the Start Collecting on those. Then there's the ten dollar book, boom. I bet it'll be about like the Getting Started magazine. Beyond that, the only other things are a new graveyard mat (4x4, I really want it but it's not really essential) and one terrain set- Sigmarite Mausoleum, which is reportedly just two Garden of Morr sets (which is a really cool graveyard thing). That's it. no $150 box or anything like that.

Now, Shadespire, which is a Warhammer Underworlds game, is more of a board game. Closer to Gorechosen. That's the one with the card play and all of that. AOS Skirmish is basically a mod of the actual AOS rules made to work on a warband level.

I think the other one you are thinking of is Hinterlands, which is a fan-made thing

No, I was thinking about the warband-mode for AOS, the one for 10$. But I can't find any info about that on the web!

warhammer denial is a very accurate term.

But seriously, not really interested in the Underworlds game... yet.