Assorted AoS Observances

[grimmas]

Sounds like a good thing to me. The way some systems channel people to a certain size of game has often been critised. It's good to hear AoS is being played in a variety of ways.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

We played 50 wounds, five player triumph and treachery today, it was so fun

[Auticus]

That AOS is being played in a variety of ways *is* one of the common complaints about it that I read on forums.

[grimmas]

Really? All I've seen is insesant whining about there being no points. Everyone seems pretty happy about all the scenarios and that the game can be played with pretty much however many miniatures they agree on.

[Auticus]

Pick up gamers and tourney gamers want a standardized ruleset that is the same from store to store. There is constant complaints about this topic.

[Caitsidhe]

Pick up gamers and tourney gamers want a standardized ruleset that is the same from store to store. There is constant complaints about this topic.

I can attest that is why it is dead in the water in all the areas I have seen. I can't speak for the U.K. but in the U.S. the community is driven by pick up games and tournaments at a LGS. The lack of points and a mutually agreed upon set of standards has driven a stake through the heart of it. It has been months since I've seen anyone playing the game anywhere, even in passing.

[grimmas]

Pick up gamers and tourney gamers want a standardized ruleset that is the same from store to store. There is constant complaints about this topic.

That's about points though isn't it. No one has complained that it works for small games or big ones. Also it was the biggest whine that WFB needed to be played at such high points to be "balanced" it still is with 40K. There already is a game system that needs to be played the same way every bleed time and it a soulless bore and you are quite vocal about not liking it.

[Auticus]

Its not just about points. Its about rules interpretations. Each comp pack does things a little differently. They want a universal rule set with universal faq and universal way of doing things. They want a universal way of handling summon, a universal way of choosing forces, a universal comp system, a universal way of resolving common arguments, etc. As it is, each group plays things how they want, which appeals to some, but pick up gamers and tournament players detest that.

Here in the US it would appear that tournament gamers and pick up gamers are the vast majority so its a hard sell here to play because the game is played in a variety of ways. They want to know its being played the same way in their city, and in your city, and in every city so that there is the feeling of a standardized way of playing it.

We saw this in previous editions as well. It was very difficult to get people off of the internet / tournament meta because people bought their armies to play a standard way with a standard set of scenarios, and playing things outside of that was not received well in a lot of places. I know where I am from it was received harshly when you tried to deviate from what was seen as "standard". That Age of Sigmar is suffering because there is no standard does not surprise me.

[Erik Setzer]

That AOS is being played in a variety of ways *is* one of the common complaints about it that I read on forums.

I think the issue for those people isn't so much that there's a variety of ways, but that they're pretty much all community efforts, which means there's a lot of "unofficial" rules and the community at large has been taught "house rules are bad."

I love house rules, but I can see where there might be a problem with, say, the points issue. People answer "Well you can use X comp, Y comp, or Z comp." But that shows the issue: If you want some kind of balancing mechanic, there's multiple to choose from, and the kind your local players use might not be the same as the guys elsewhere.

All of this uncertainty with no guidance (or really even much in the way of discussion of AoS as a game, rather than just a means to show off some figures) from the core company means that I might get used to a certain way of playing locally, with various house rules and preferred size of game, and then going to another community they might have other rules and preferred size of game, which makes it a little more difficult to jump right in.

I certainly wouldn't discourage people making up their own ideas for campaigns, scenarios, etc., but some centralized rules that everyone uses would be good. In theory, the community would make its own, but it seems the community is so segmented that it's not really possible, at least at the moment. You'd think the Internet would help with that, but it actually doesn't.

The only real answer is for GW to provide the guidance, but they don't want to. So you end up having to accept that AoS is going to be a different game from one community to the next.


On a completely different topic, I'm throwing some more Dwarfs together because they're easy to assemble in between converting some Deffskullz Lootas, and I think it'd be fun to throw a unit of 30 Thunderers out there, especially as they can fire *and* fight in combat. I think a shooty army still has a chance of doing some good. Still, it's interesting that the ranges have been clipped in AoS to promote armies getting closer before any shooting can occur. So even in a shooty army, I'll have to have at least one good melee-focused unit on hand to step in and protect the line, because you're not going to get off many shots (maybe two rounds?) before the enemy's charging into your lines.

- - - Updated - - -

We played 50 wounds, five player triumph and treachery today, it was so fun

Any particular changes to the cards or anything? I need to sit down with my copy and see about doing AoS style rules. Already converted it for 40K, I really enjoy T&T (but sadly I'm one of only maybe two or three people who have a set locally).

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

We used playing cards. Red numbers can buff a dice roll, black debuffs, red face cards heal d3 wounds, black face cards cause d3 mortal wounds, red aces are an auto charge, black aces are a failed charge, joker means the target unit does nothing in it's turn. Total all cards in your end at the end as per blackjack.