Warhammer Diskwars - A Retrospective

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I've got the full set, sitting here staring at me, waiting for me to dive back in. I printed off unit lists from BGG so I no longer have to look at the discs themselves, with their tiny printing.

My most recent experience with this game has come with my eight-year-old son, who seemed to intuitively understand the appeal of a bunch of fantasy army dudes killing each other. We played it like three times in 36 hours.

Not sure if I should be worried that he only ever wants to play the Chaos factions.

Great article. It replicates my thoughts about the game almost perfectly. When it was first released, I had the reaction that a lot of regular WHFB players did: "Diskwars?!", figuring it would be too simplistic and not give a clear insight into the widely divergent methods of play available to the different factions. I was totally wrong. Just like you say: it's Warhammer Fantasy without the cumbersome part of buying(!), assembling, painting, and hauling around a 3000 point army.

This was the biggest impact to me of the split between GW and FFG, as I was hoping for so much more follow-up (just like with Battlelore, 2nd Ed...)

And don't worry about your son. I've been a progressive activist for my whole life and I've always gravitated to the dark side in games. Never played Empire or any of the nominal "good guys." My favorite armies were 6th-7th Ed. Chaos Warriors of Slaanesh and my beloved Skaven, still over 10,000 points strong.

Sold my sets on, unplayed.

I wish I'd thought of the angle that this is the last playable game set in the Old World first.

Great read. I generally lack the patience to enjoy miniatures-based wargames, they tend to be too granular and slow-paced for my taste. I've always kept an eye on diskwars as something that might simplify the process enough for me to have fun while still scratching the same itch--this piece makes me even more intrigued.

I played the original Diskwars once, back around 2000, and it was fun. I also saw people playing Doomtown Diskwars sometime after that. A few years later, I found a local game shop dumping Legend of the Five Rings Diskwars at fire sale prices, and picked up a bunch. I don't know why I haven't played it in all these years. Probably because I don't have a proper box of it on display on my gaming shelf. Instead, the discs are all in baggies inside a couple of empty boxes of Blackened Voodoo Lager. So I keep forgetting that I even own the game.

Buying miniatures games fill me with a sort of anxiety because of my nonexistent painting skills and very shaky hands. I 100% see the appeal. And I do love the old world!

You think dice are trashy? Determining whether your arrows hit in L5R Diskwars by dropping a handful of arrow tokens from a foot above the target to determine hits is trashy.