Age of Sigmar Rumor Roundup

[Kirsten]

the point here is the difference between what is good for some, and good for the game.

this Age of Sigmar is not what I want from Fantasy, I wont be pre-ordering on Saturday, and will wait until September ish to see how the game has gone before I get anything. I will try it at some point though, once I have other purchases out of the way.

But whilst I am not keen, it might well be what Fantasy needs. lots of people here have said that fantasy was dying off and nobody played it in their area, so they obviously need to do something drastic to get more people playing. it isn't the change I wanted, and I am disappointed, but I hope it does well for them and people enjoy it.

[Path Walker]

Tonight I'll be rebasing my Blight Kings

[Spider-pope]

I agree with Mr m...for once !
The game needs a chance. I also think it will start basic but develop as new figures come out and their rules impact on the game lay and tactics.

For me it's the massive change of direction with the figure design and the 40k ing of the warhammer world that is a ball breaker.

Well the Warhammer world isn't being 40k-ised, because they blew it up. There's nothing to make 40kish. Model design, i like the Sigmarines and i can see why they would move away from the more generic designs, thanks to the IP leeches.

But after reading the rules i do have some concerns. Especially when it comes to scaling up the game, moving dozens of miniatures one by one will be a pain in the backside. I'm also dubious about the warscrolls. From what i've seen of them, there are no options to customise your army. A Lord-Protector or whatever will always have the same gear, no matter who's army. No choice in how your units are equipped is not a design element i like.

[Mr Mystery]

But those are War Scrolls from the boxed game - which won't have many options, as they rarely (if ever) do.

Which could also be said of the points values.

We just don't know at the mo.

[miteyheroes]

The lack of points costs I find a bit odd. Only model counts as a balancing force means that Goblin armies will suffer badly against all-Bloodthirster hoards. But hey, looking forward to trying the game.

[eldargal]

mildly critical is fine, I am mildly critical of this release. I am also going to wait and see what happens in the next few months. A lot of the comments here are not mildly critical, they are hysterical screeching.

Exactly. I don't like the Sigmarites, I'm concerned about how the lack of points values will work and I'm quite concerned that the background will be ridiculously macho Indefinite End times, but you don't see my faliling about squealing the world is coming to an end because we don't actually know anything much at all.

[Erik Setzer]

Hell if it does bomb GW will just try something else, its not like they are going to drop the millions and millions of pounds they have invested into WFB.

Well, they did exactly that with Epic, which, again, was one of their core three games for a long time, until Epic 40K came along.

If AoS bombs, then they'll likely let it go. Maybe they'll aim for something small, something Mordheim-sized, with a relatively small scope. But there comes a point for a business where you're just throwing away too much money chasing something that isn't there. If AoS bombs, they're likely to see more people go to competitors, and at that point, they'll have to invest a lot in game development at least, if not more new figures, in order to create another new system, which will need to be so amazing it can draw people back from the competitors. The investors will look and see WFB falling into obscurity, then AoS also failing, and will almost certainly put a stop to any more money going into seeking money that isn't there to get.

The phrase that describes it best is "throwing good money after bad." At some point you accept that the investment you've made won't pan out for you in a productive way and you have to move on.

Not saying I hope that happens or trying to be a doom-sayer, just pointing out that your concept is flawed from a business sense.

- - - Updated - - -

And you're not the only one expressing new interest.

Various gaming friends who either haven't played Warhammer, or haven't played it in years are expressing new found interest.

Anecdotal. I know people who dislike the game because it's not Warhammer. Doesn't mean anything more than you knowing excited people. Just peoples people have a wide variety of opinions, and trying to guess based on local opinion doesn't do anything. After all, some folks kept pointing out how strong WFB was doing in their area, and, well, here we are with the game that's replacing it.

[Mr Mystery]

Nobody said it was anything but anecdotal.

The matter at hand here is that there are some decrying the end of days from a few pictures.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody on BoLS has actually played the game yet. Nor has anyone seen stuff beyond the pics published in this thread.

The Warscrolls we've seen are those from the boxed game - and you don't generally see the full shebang of army selection in such sets, least not from GW. There's a comment above about them lacking upgrades. Well yes, the ones we've seen do lack upgrades. But there's also a bullet point marker thingy comment box saying 'this is where you'll find the unit options' - suggesting that at least some units will still have upgrades available.

In short? People are going off half-cocked, based on incomplete information. It's not a case of 'how very date you not like this', so much as 'whoa, hold on there Pedro, there's more to be known before you can draw a conclusion'

[Erik Setzer]

Exactly. I don't like the Sigmarites, I'm concerned about how the lack of points values will work and I'm quite concerned that the background will be ridiculously macho Indefinite End times, but you don't see my faliling about squealing the world is coming to an end because we don't actually know anything much at all.

Well, those of us who just voice our concerns without "flailing about squealing" are still being thrown into a category to be casually dismissed and insulted, which is rather a shame.

Also a shame is that people kept doing "Four pages aren't all the rules, we just don't know yet, there's more coming, there must be!" to dismiss criticism of the simplified rules, until there was no way to keep saying that GW saying "that's it" was somehow less reliable that Internet Rumormonger #78 saying "There's going to be three rulebooks!" And now the same thing is going with points, where people are trying to refuse the lack of existence of points in any way they can, rather than accept it and address that criticism. Hey, if you're okay with no points, fine, say that and defend the point. (Clearly, you aren't, but I'm speaking in broad terms here.) Instead, people said, "Wait until we see warscrolls!" Now we have some, and they're from WD, not intended as part of the starter set, but still those people have switched to, "But that's the starter set, it never has points," which reminds me of them saying, "It's the starter set, it always has quick-start rules, there's no way those four pages are all the rules." I feel like I'm less pessimistic about the game than the people who are insulting and mocking others for being "pessimistic," because their denial feels like someone in shock and not wanting to admit to what's inevitable.

We actually know a lot. All we don't know is exactly what the rules for existing armies will be.

But what happens when they come out and still have no points, the warscrolls say "You can include as many models as you like in this unit," and there's warscrolls for Goblins who are weaken than Ogres, leaving the lone "balancing" mechanism in place to be a horribly abusive concept? What will the argument turn to then? What about after people have played for a month with it?

I have a theory on how it's intended to pan out... but that's a theory on the future, and it's not really that great (some would take an optimistic view of it, others pessimistic, with reason). Having labeled it as just a theory and not something I'm sure will happen or saying will happen, I'll put this out there: It's possible the game was intended to be relatively balanced with completely new forces, with no thought given to balancing it with existing forces, or even balancing those forces against each other. So while we'd get rules to use our current armies right now, in order to get "proper" enjoyment from the game, we'd need the new armies for the game, which won't be available for about a year (I mean, having a selection of them to choose from). At that point, it's either buy a new army, or accept that WFB armies aren't particularly suited to AoS because they were made for a different game. Again, just a theory, but it feels like a strong possibility given the rules and that this is a complete reboot.

[Arkhan Land]

the age of mordhammer