Tabletop Review: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Campaign Book

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Campaign Book
Publisher: Games Workshop
Cost: $74 (Physical)/$130 (Limited Edition)/$49.99 (Digital)
Page Count: 264
Release Date: 07/18/2015
Get it Here: Games Workshop

It’s hard to believe that the Age of Sigmar only began a fortnight ago on July 11th. Well, July 4th if you count the preview issue of White Dwarf (#75) and the free Stormcast Eternal miniature it came with. People were surprised that Age of Sigmar had a rules set only four pages in length. That’s a huge change from the 300 or so page rulebooks that used to come out for Warhammer Fantasy, not to mention the 100+ page books for EACH different army in the game. Truly, a lot of trees died for the previous eight incarnations of Warhammer, so this change to very light rules and free downloadable stats for each character created a massive wave of culture shock, not just for Warhammer players, but miniature gamers as a whole across the fandom. Many pointed to the upcoming Rule/Campaign book that we are reviewing today and prophesized that there would be rules more in line with the sheer deluge of mechanics gamers were used to. The game couldn’t be THAT simple (or shallow, depending on who you ask). Surely the big expensive tome of doom would be coming, which everyone was used to, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?

Well, no, it wasn’t. In fact, the big tome for Age of Sigmar is very similar to the Warhammer: The End Times releases, in which they are mostly fluff with only a tiny bit of mechanics thrown in for good measure. Games Workshop is indeed serious about making Age of Sigmar rules light, and I’m actually really okay with that, because it’s a totally different game. I can play Oldhammer AND I can play this. Liking one does not prevent you from liking or playing the other. However, for those wanting a really substantial book of rules, don’t even THINK about purchasing this Age of Sigmar campaign book, as you will be horribly disappointed.

What little rules there are in the book can be summed up into two categories: Scenarios and Warscrolls. The last thirty pages of the book are all Warscrolls. For those unfamiliar with the term, Warscrolls are the new terminology for stat blocks in Age of Sigmar. Most of them are already available online for free, while some of the Warscrolls in the book highlight characters that have not been released yet, like the Judicators (which will be up for preorder by the time this article goes live). If you’re wondering why these Warscrolls are reprinted in the Age of Sigmar campaign book when you can already get them in issues of White Dwarf or download them for free, the answer is simple. With this book, you have all the scrolls in one spot (instead of multiple issues of WD) and it gives people who prefer physical copies of things a very expensive option instead of having PDFs or using the Age of Sigmar app (which is really good and you should download it).

Scenarios are exactly what you would expect from the name. These are rules and layouts for running specific themed battles with your Age of Sigmar armies. With each of the eight scenarios (Battleplans as the official jargon calls them), you get the setup, the different objectives each army is trying to accomplish, special abilities for each general in the scenario, a description of the battlefield and rules for set-up, along with how to achieve victory and any special rules or mechanics that are specific to said scenario. Although each scenario is written in theme with one of the battles that take part in the book’s fluff, every one is designed to be run with ANY armies, not just the ones in the example. This is a great change of pace from The End Times, where you were also given scenarios, but they would only work with specific armies. That meant, for many Warhammer players, the scenarios in The End Times were often unplayable, even if they sounded awesome on paper. With Age of Sigmar, flexibility and narrative are considered just as important as the mechanics, and I love this. I want to tell a story and role-play, not just roll-play. Most miniature games put a lot of time into their paint jobs and even create backstories for their pieces. It’s nice to see that side of the game gets to shine in Age of Sigmar when it was really just window dressing in the most recent editions of Warhammer. I miss the old 5e campaign packs like Circle of Blood.

What is odd is the fact the scenarios are inserted haphazardly throughout the fluff. You’ll be reading some of the fiction and then BAM – a scenario hits. This constant juxtaposition makes it hard to enjoy either side of the book, and it’s going to be a real bitch having to flip through the book to find the scenario you want. Oh sure, the table of contents lists the page numbers for everything, but more than half the book doesn’t actually show their page number, making this a bit worthless. One thing that Age of Sigmar should have copied from The End Times campaign books is how all the scenarios were in one section towards the back instead of littered through the book, inserted into the fluff. In The End Times, the scenarios all referenced the fluff battle they were an homage to. Emulating that approach would have made the Age of Sigmar campaign book a lot easier to read through, and it would have had better flow to boot. Still, the scenarios are all pretty good for what they are. Some do retread the same ground as each other, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it is nice to see that GW is trying to create a lot of varied Battleplans for gamers to use, as this will be the heart and soul of keeping the mechanics of (and playing) Age of Sigmar from getting dull, stale or boring. With eight different worlds, each of which has their own setting rules AND different scenarios to enjoy, you can get a lot of use out of your armies without getting replay déjà vu.

Fluff-wise, the Age of Sigmar book is uneven. I feel the writing in The End Times, both the novels and rulebooks, were the best Games Workshop has been in many years. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for this campaign book. It’s a bit bi-polar with a lot of highs and lows. I hated that there was no real explanation of what the new universe was like before The Age of Sigmar, which is essentially The End Times all over again. The book barely touches on the formation of the new universe and was it was like before the great alliance of gods broke and Chaos took over. We really should have gotten to see more of that, such as how the Incarnate were transformed between 8th Edition’s end and the start of the Age of Sigmar timeline. We got only a tiny bit with some passing allusions as to what happened. Apparently only the Incarnates and Sigmar survived the universe crossing over, at least those that are named outright. Arkhan the Black is show in the first two ages that are VERY briefly covered in this book, but once The Age of Sigmar has begun, he is gone… even though Mannfred and Neferata are still mortarchs for Nagash. If you read The Gates of Azyr novel ad looked closely at the artwork and some subtle wording in this campaign book, you KNOW what happened to Arkhan. If you haven’t read either, here’s your spoiler: Arkhan the Black appears to now be Sigmar’s head Relicor and righthand man, Ionus Cryptborn. That’s a shocker with a lot of story potential.

Where the book is purposely EXTREMELY vague towards the first two ages of 9th edition, it is extremely verbose on the third age, which the game is named after – The Age of Sigmar. The whole book only covered the very beginnings of this age, including the creation of the Stormcast Eternals and three campaigns designed to help free some of worlds from the forces of Chaos, as well as garner Sigmar new (old) allies in this attempt to stave another reality from being destroyed. All of the campaigns are told in the exact same manner though, which gets old FAST. Stormcast Eternals surprise the forces of Chaos by showing up announced. Stormcast Eternals make headway. Chaos gets reinforcements and pushes the Stormcast Eternals back. Stormcast Eternals get a second wind but Chaos is limitless so they start to falter. UNEXPECTED REINFORCEMENTS for the good guys show up, allowing things to break even. Good guys win, but only because their commander makes a heroic sacrifice. This is the exact same story told three times. The only thing that changes is the branch of Stormcast Eternals that is the focus (ala Space Marines) and which Chaos God’s forces they do battle with. The writing was only decent at best to begin with, but the use of the exact same story with different characters and locations inserted was really obvious and made this on par with the terrible fiction/fluff Games Workshop is usually known for. While The End Times writing was fantastic by comparison to what GW has put out for the last decade or so, this was exactly the wrong thing to have in your giant sized expensive hardcover book. With no rules or mechanics, all you had to sell people on was the fluff, and when the fluff is actually really bad and obviously cut and paste Mad Libs style, you’ve basically proved the naysayers who won’t touch the actual GAME of Age of Sigmar right, in that Games Workshop has jettisoned decades of continuity for two dimensional threadbare crap. I was actually really disappointed in the fluff of this book, because it was mostly sub-par written filler and basically went about selling Age of Sigmar in the worst way possible. Right now you have people who won’t touch an enjoyable game simply because it is new and different, and THIS was the big fluff push? Ouch. This was a huge blunder, and I’m someone that has enjoyed AoS so far. Now I’m very hesitant about picking up any of the other giant tomes like this that will no doubt be coming out in the future.

So what could Games Workshop have done better? Well, tell different stories with each campaign for one thing. Have the battles go differently. Tell more of a story than just mindless violence. Don’t use the same exact grimdark clichés to end each story. Even reusing it twice in the SAME BOOK is a sign of bad writing. They should have focused a lot more on the beginnings and middle ages of the world instead of jumping just to The End Times for the vast majority of the book. Even then, what is there about those earlier times makes little to no sense because what is written contradicts what we know of a lot of the characters that survived The End Times. The bottom line is that this Age of Sigmar campaign book is not very well done. Pretty much everything except the outstanding art could have, and should have, been done differently. Newcomers to Warhammer will see this as an expensive mess with bad writing and little depth. Longtime fans of Warhammer Fantasy are going to be rightfully nervous about the story quality in Age of Sigmar going forward, because it looks like it is just going to be battle descriptions in various post-apocalyptic settings. That’s going to get old fast. Remember the BEST Warhammer novels, be they 40K or Fantasy, revolve around character dynamics and relationships, not constant descriptions of battles. I’m not sure, fluff-wise, what stories can really be told with Age of Sigmar because between the fiction being put out and this campaign book, it’s all the same stuff being told in all the same ways. I’m willing to grant GW the benefit of the doubt, because everyone is getting their bearings and this is a new system set in a new universe with all new dynamics, so things will be rough at first. The problem is that GW needs to get their fluff together and make it fantastic YESTERDAY because of all the people bound and determined to turn Age of Sigmar into Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition.

I do want to end this review on a somewhat positive note, so let’s talk about the art quickly. It’s fantastic. The art in Age of Sigmar is the best I’ve seen in any miniatures book in a very long time – perhaps ever. The quality is Shadows of Esteren good, and considering that series has won our “Best Art” award from DHGF three years in a row, that is extremely high praise indeed. As a coffee table book full of pretty pictures, Age of Sigmar excels. Unfortunately, that’s not why it exists. Still, amazing art.

I can honestly say the Age of Sigmar campaign book is an easy miss. Aside from the scenarios, there’s nothing gamers will want or need out of this very expensive hardcover tome. The fluff starts out interesting, but there is no depth to it and it gets repetitive very quickly. It’s a fraction of the size of The End Times books with a higher price tag. This is the first real stumble for Age of Sigmar so far and, unfortunately, it is a major one. GW will be best served cleaning up their fiction and perhaps releasing scenarios in packs rather than inserted into a book like this. More people will probably buy the scenarios that way, and that will give time for the fiction to hopefully grow up and be able to be sold on its own. Again, this is a disappointing release, and one no one needs to purchase. Just get the Age of Sigmar Starter Set and then maybe the first novel in electronic form. No one needs this, and most who actually spend money on the Age of Sigmar campaign book are definitely going to be disappointed by its contents. The actual game is quite fun when you give it a chance though.


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10 responses to “Tabletop Review: Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Campaign Book”

  1. skargit Crookfang Avatar
    skargit Crookfang

    Sorry mate. I’m a 20 year vet of whfb and have played around 15 games of AoS. Its not for me… nor is it for much of the community. My local flgs are royal ticked at gws chicanery and lies with regards to this edition.
    Warhammer.org warseer dakka da warpath. .. you name it… the amount of rage quit from . whfb players is tremendous. Also, on natfka, one of the guys that called aos over one year (hastings) has said codex from 40k are gone before long
    Rumours persist of 40k getting a similar treatment. While its still the more profitable system… those profits have dipped over the last 2 years.

    Gw has stated they want to be a model company. . Not a rules company.

    In all, many long term players are leaving. .. and not just from whfb

    1. Alexander Lucard Avatar
      Alexander Lucard

      I can’t say I’ve seen or heard anyone actually rage quitting IRL. Just a lot of people saying it online, with a good portion of those obviously trolling rather than having serious issues with the game. In all the local game stores here in the DC area, AoS has created a huge uptick in interest in Warhammer and it’s more popular than fantasy has been in a long time. Considering DC was the US home of Warhammer for thirty years, that’s pretty telling. Even at the GW stores, it used to be 75-80% 40K and now it’s 50/50 or even 60/40 in favor of AoS.
      I’m sure there are people who hate AoS, like the crazy guy that burned his army. There are, however, lots of people who really enjoy it. I’m mean I’m a 25 year vet who still has an all metal Lizardmen army (except for the Forge World Dread Saurian) and I enjoy AoS. I also enjoy still playing 5/6e Warhammer. A new edition doesn’t mean previous versions no longer exist. Edition Wars to the extreme people are taking this changeover are both silly and stupid. The only way to know for sure if people are actually leaving the game in droves ala D&D 4e or if it’s the usual vocal minority on the internet is with sales figures. I strongly doubt there will be much of a change either way though. Shadowrun has lasted five editions, Cthulhu is on its seventh edition, and so on. Warhammer will survive this. You’ll survive this.

      1. A Legalist Avatar
        A Legalist

        Well Alexander in my area. I have seen a whopping 8 box sets bought for LV area. Its definitely not the success it was meant to be. It too fast and lose. The rules are childish and beginner level. It is also so open to breakage. GW need to get of their ass and write some rules that take more than a 12 year old to read and understand.

        1. Alexander Lucard Avatar
          Alexander Lucard

          I think you’re completely missing the point of Age of Sigmar. It’s not meant to be Warhammer, Ninth Edition. It’s purposely fast and loose. It’s a pick up game designed for people, especially new, casual and younger gamers to get them into the wargaming and model painting hobbies. It’s not meant to be a game where you cart around a 5,0000 point goblin army and have to purchase a $75 dollar rulebook and multiple $50 army books on a regular basis. What Games Workshop has done is completely alien to their usual business practices and their longtime fans, so OF COURSE there is culture shock.

          When World of Darkness canned their whole line and started over, there was rage and fury. Just like this. The new game appealed to a very different audience. Just like this. It brought in new gamers totally unrelated to the old audience. Just like this. White Wolf survived. Just like GW will.

          You have to remember as much as I LOVED WFB, it wasn’t selling very well. It was expensive to even get into, you needed a ton of models to play it and it wasn’t supported very well. How long has it been since my Bretonnians got an update? Ugh. Games Workshop needed to take a big chance. The rules are fast and loose so you can go in a store and learn to play the game without being intimidating by a massive tome and all the supplements. The rules are easy to learn so those 12 year olds can start playing the game. The game supports all the old models (except Chaos Dwarves and Kislev) so if someone rage quits, those models still have value if they put them on Ebay.

          You sound upset that Games Workshop wants to bring in new gamers and have an entry level option for them. That makes no sense to me. Anything that is welcoming to new players should be applauded. Games Workshop can still make “Advanced” rules for the Age of Sigmar. It’s only been out a month and people are acting like it is Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition all over again. The problem is, D&D 4e didn’t gain its horrible reputation until a year or two out of the gate. When it first came out, it broke sales records and people gushed over it. Yes, there were still edition wars, but sales figures don’t lie. Then when the dust settled, people realized it wasn’t very good for a lot of reasons.
          If you’re a tournament only player then you are screwed over by AoS, because that’s not the target audience. Not even close. However, you can still have tournaments with older editions or even play those with friends. Hell, even during the End Times, I was still playing 5e/6e for Warhammer, because that’s my preferred version of the game. I didn’t have a whiny shit fit when 7e and 8e came out even though it drastically changed some of my armies for the worse (Lizardmen for example) .

          The problem is that AoS isn’t a handholding games for rules lawyers like 1-8e was. It’s mean to be a game where the rules expect the people playing it not to be dicks to each other and bring a 5,000 army to play someone’s new Stormcast Eternals starter set. It’s a game where the narrative and having fun is more important than winning (See, the exact opposite of a Warmachines/Hordes tournament.)

          Every game is open to rules breakage. Look how easy it is to do that with old versions of WFB, 40K or something like Pathfinder. If I bring an army of primarily Terminators into a fight against Eldar, I’m going to lose. If I bring an 8e Vampire Counts army against someone who is playing a Beastman army, you can pretty much guarantee a win there. AoS at least is designed to be a game where people talk to each other, design a narrative together and decide the size of armies and scope of the battle. It’s a far more social game and one where gamers are supposed to be more co-operative in nature than competitive. In a lot of ways, it’s more like a tabletop RPG than a wargame. Unfortunately Games Workshop expected too much from a lot of wargamers in this respect and also did a lousy job of communicating what AoS would be and who the target audience was. Had they done that, there’d be a lot less complaining and bitching from people who didn’t get WFB, 9e.
          The thing is, AoS is definitely the most newcomer friendly and inviting wargame out there right now. It’s meant to be. The old guard of WFB faithful weren’t buying what was needed to keep that rendition alive. I know I wasn’t. There hadn’t been anything new for any of my armies for years and I had exactly what I wanted. Brets, Tomb Kings and Lizzies. AoS gives us new rules, lets us use our old figures in new ways, discover new strategies, create scenarios and campaigns. If you strongly prefer the older versions of WFB, you can still play them, you can still buy figures for them and you can still have tournaments with them. You can play even older editions. Nothing is stopping you. Hell, you can play Kings of War if need be (I have Abyssal Dwarves coming for that!).

          Rules-lite isn’t a bad thing. When it comes to bringing in new gamers, this was definitely the right tack to take. You can always add deeper, more detailed rules to a new game. if you start off with a several hundred page tome and all sorts of minute crazy rules to have to memorize, that kills the influx of new players. We won’t know for at least a year if this will be D&D 3.0 or 5.0 where Age of Sigmar revitalizes Games Workshop or if it’s 4.0 where people really do leave the game in droves.

          1. A Legalist Avatar
            A Legalist

            Oh I know AOS is not WHFB 9, that for dam sure. And I love how people taut that oh it was a game that you needed to many figures to play and oh it was too expensive to get into. Yes all true…now. GW is totally to blame. They raised the prices of their models by 300% there models are stupid expensive now even though they have gone to a less expensive process to produce miniatures (IE spincast plastic). They never support game and surprised it failed. They could have keep the prices low or lower them now. IT would have brought more people in. The only reason older players are not buying is simple. Its too expensive too. No ones army is ever complete totally. Their units I would love to have (Dragons for one), But GW priced them too much so they become a non-priority. Oh I can hear you guys now. “But other model company models are just as expensive.” No that GW fault also. They set the standard and other jump on the bandwagon. I know for one their are at least two miniature companies who figure are not stupid expensive. Old Glory which does 25mm (which the scale GW is at) for 36 USD for 30 models (historical). If they can do that so can GW.

            Using White Wolf as an example is poor one. They came out with New World of Darkness. Old world of Darkness players raged and didn’t but the new garbage setting. White Wolf like GW stop supporting their games and low and behold sold the rights to make games to Oxyn path. White Wolf did what GW wants to do. Make one product (Video games for White Wolf. Models for GW) and not produce a game rules for it.

            And I am not upset that GW wants to bring in new people. But they should have made this as a entry game, not replace WHFB. I am a veteran gamer. I can play a more complex game than a 12 year old. Why should I be forced to play rules written specifically for them. Also I am a bit upset with the PCing that going on (aka the removing of Slaanesh and the PGing of the models). I am sorry I am an adult and the gamer community is mostly adult, and I don’t care what the Soccer Mom mafia says about nudity on models. Its my army, live with it.

            Yes any game system can be broke. Thats true. But AOS breakage is super easy. Because the rules are based on model numbers and not the model itself, there already a discrepancy between armies. I can take 20 Elf spearmen vs 20 Sigmarines and its 20 wounds vs 40 wounds and that not doing any broke combos like 20 dragons vs 20 spearmen. Their a lack of rules dealing with special situations and the summoning rules are just super broke. I can summon Demon prince who can summon another and another and on and on.

            Oh yes they add rule for game. But GW not making any moves to do such a thing. Right now their focus is produce more models for their Spa…Ground Marines faction. No I got a bad feeling this going to be like D&D 4.0 Which may be good cause it cause it created a good new system (which what Mantic is trying to do) and may force GW to redo their system into something both WHFB and AOS player can play (like 5.0 is trying with D&D)

          2. Alexander Lucard Avatar
            Alexander Lucard

            See though? Even if AoS turns out to be a spectacular failure, it could lead to lots of things that are good. What matters is that support, interest and profit from WFB was at an all time low. GW had to do something and they decided to create something completely different. Sure that’s going to tick some people off, but it’s also going to get a lot of press and generate a lot of interest in addition to bringing in a lot of new people. Will it be enough to offset the people that leave GW’s fandom because of the changeover? Maybe, maybe not. It’s too soon for anyone to call the game a success or a failure. That’s all I’m saying. AoS could still become something you like, it’s failure could lead to something you like or you might just convert all your GW armies into something for Kings of War or Warseer. There’s no need for doom and gloom…yet. We still don’t know what’s actually coming for Age of Sigmar. All of us, from the brand new player to guys like you and me who have been playing for 20+ years and having entire editions memorized. We’re all on the ground level together waiting to see what happens and what rules come next. If any. We’re only a month in after all.

            You can play more complex games that Age of Sigmar. You have lots of options. You’re not the target for the game, which is fine. I’m definitely not the target for Pathfinder but I’m not going to be upset that lots of people like it and play it. I just play something else.

            We still don’t know if more rules will be coming for AoS. I’m old enough to remember when WFB didn’t have magic in its core rules and when it was introduced tons of people prophesized it was overpowered and would destroy the game. It didn’t. It merely changed it. Hell, I remember when my Tomb Kings army didn’t even exist and people were super angry about dividing the Undead into two very different armies. The game kept going. So too will old versions of WFB. People will still play it. Gaming cons will still have tournament with those rules. Meanwhile Age of Sigmar players will be doing their own thing as well.

            From the things you say, it sounds like you’re primarily a tournament player and that’s the exact type of person GW is NOT targeting. I can’t say I blame them. GW hasn’t supported tournaments officially for a while and when they did, it tended to go spectacularly bad (Storm of Magic, anyone)? You are probably going to want something more like Kings of War or Warmachine (if you prefer skirmish to large scale). Age of Sigmar is something else entirely. It’s a game for people who want to have fun and tell a story rather than trying/needing to win. Neither approach is right or wrong. it’s just something VERY different from the old WFB tournament scene. I like both for different reasons. They have their good and bad points. One isn’t right and one isn’t wrong. With AoS, it’s so different from WFB that people do both games a disservice by trying to compare and contrast the two. It’s like compare Mario Bros to Gears of War. Both are video games but have different audience and play totally different.

            I think the big difference is that WFB 1-8e was super rigid. It had a lot more structure, rules and handholding. Age of Sigmar is instead more open and more discussion based. It’s a narrative first game where WFB was mechanics first. It’s the rollplay vs, roleplay thing that comes up with tabletop RPGs. With WFB, the rules are EXTREMELY defined but leave a lot of options for house ruling and decisions amongst the players rather than a weighty tome. So you say “Let’s have a max of fifty wounds” or “Let’s only have three heroes per side.” It’s a VERY different mindset from previous versions of Warhammer where you could only take X number of units from each category type and the unit had to include a specific numerical range of figures. WFB was more defined but also a lot more anal retentive and stymied creativity with your armies. Meanwhile AoS gives you loads of freedom, but that freedom can be easily manipulated or broken if you’re playing with a bunch of dicks. Some asshole is going to show up with several hundred orcs and just beat the crap out of a kid who has only the Goretide from the Starter set. That’s more a fault of the player being a dick that a fault of the game though.

            At the end of the day though, remember you aren’t forced to play AoS. You can still play older versions of WFB or any other wargame you want. Getting angry about a new game doesn’t make the old editions cease to exist or any less fun. I absolutely love Chill first and second edition. Third edition came out this year and it was pretty terrible. So I’ll just play the previous two editions of its clone Cryptworld. So will most people. Tons of people still play D&D 1e or even basic. TSR doesn’t even exist any more and its old Marvel Super Heroes RPG still has a decent sized audience. Stuff hasn’t been put out for that game in nearly twenty years. It’s okay to be hurt or upset that a new version of a game or a company’s direction isn’t what you want it to be. However staying angry and letting that negative consume you isn’t worth it. These are just games after all, you know?

            I will say though that if you find GW’s models too expensive don’t go looking at Knight Models’ Batman skirmish game. It’s like $20 USD a figure! I love the game though and the sculpts are fantastic.

          3. A Legalist Avatar
            A Legalist

            This is only creating press because of the rage. Honestly GW doesn’t support its games. 40K get a little support, but it thrives in spite of GW policy of little support. Yes they need to make a change, but it not the change they needed to make. The reason WHFB dies is simple. No one wanted to buy into it. GW has priced themselves into oblivion. Now you say well 40K is doing well. That because it appeals more to young millennial crowd and Sci-Fi fans. You have to like fantasy to play WHFB and most D&Ders don’t play tabletop. So we are small sect to begin with. But GW is experience a decline overall and it all because of the prices. Sorry you can’t tell me that going from metal to plastic justifies a doubling to tripling of prices. Thats total BS and I worked for government, so bs a bser.

            Of I have no intention of playing AOS. I got other games I like and I am playing them. I am however looking new games for my fantasy armies as unlike Death Holy Death, I have no intention of burning them. I will find them a home just not with GW’s games.

            Oh for the record. I am not a tournament player. I never played a WHFB tournament ever and only played a whopping 2 for 40K. They quite frankly make me sick and I don’t like how they make me have to become a competitive A-hole to win. Also I have desire to play Warmachine. ITs too much of either kill the warcaster or my warcaster is end all and be all of my army. I am actually a historical wargamer. I love games with formations, combine arms and tactics. I have looked at Bolt action and Flames of War. Though Flames of War drives me insane for it historical inaccuracies and blatant Anglo-phile fetish in the rules (Sorry British troops and equipment is not superior to American, its equal). I do play Black powder and Space 1889 and enjoy them. My gripe with AOS rules is simple the lack of depth of the rules and I miss the crunchiness.

            You say oh you can make your own house rules for AOS. Thats fine for your friends. What about outside that? Remember house rules are not legal/canon. A person should rightfully have a reason to bitch and refuse to play a game if you try to impose your group’s house rule. The actuals have no house rules. This bring up another thing. People may hate tournaments and conventions, but they help keep the hobby alive. So in it current form it useless for conventions or tournaments. So until they fix it, no tournaments and conventions for AOS. Which Equal the game dying out.

            Also I very much disagree on the whole AOS is story game than WHFB. WHFB had 30+ years of fluff an history. A beautiful rich game world that GW basically threw into the toilet. AOS is recycled 40K garbage with slight fantasy twist. Its a cop out.

            You say. “Oh you can still play 8 or 7 edition.” Thats great if I want to play with me and just a couple friends with the same armies over and over again. No new models are coming. GW said they are ending the old model line eventually. The new fig will not work with WHFB. Also with not support going to be very hard getting new players into the game. RPG are different because they only need one set of the rules to play the game. Tabletop you need models, models that become stupid expensive to get when the game goes out of existence.

            Oh don’t get upset what GW does. I wouldn’t care if their actions didn’t inspire other companies to do stupid or horrible business practices. Like allot companies who games I enjoy (CGL-Battletech, Iron wind, FFG, Wizkids, Warlord) do things because GW got away it (No communicating with fan base, producing whatever they wanted even if the fanbase hated it, terrible customer service, and direct orders only for their stuff). So GW crap actions only inspire other companies to do bad habits. As a gamer I need voice my displeasure, less I resort to over means to get point across.

            Oh and yes many game companies have stupid expensive models. These are companies I don’t support and honestly go out of my way to turn potential customers away from them. For those companies I hope they die out or get bought by someone who not here to gouge people for playing their game.

  2. […] but I’m very hesitant to purchase any of the book releases for Age of Sigmar after the first Campaign Book was extremely overpriced and underwhelming. There is also a very expensive limited edition version […]

  3. […] up is a look at the new Age of Sigmar campaign book – Quest for Ghal Maraz. I was not happy with the first campaign book as the stories weren’t very good and it was just very dull and repetitive. So I have no plans […]

  4. Dimitri Avatar
    Dimitri

    Hello,

    I used to play 40k over a decade ago. I know the main GW games like fantasy, lotr and 40k. Given I am new to AoS ( don’t have an army yet), I think AoS will thrive in terrain/skirmish style battles. Imagine open play field, but you have to move through terrain to get closer to your opponent. That is where AoS is going to be interesting, similar to 40k… Maybe I am wrong, but that, along with the entirely new rule set, I am actually rather excited. I was getting back in the hobby for whfb… I really was looking forward to playing it. But now I am excited about AoS. It is still GW, it is still Warhammer, and it is still hobbyist/gamer fun. Yes it is very different, and I even want to have a Fantasy army, but AoS is also really cool. It’ll take a bit of time to get used to for people who played fantasy. For sure. But it will also be good for what it is and create new memories.

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