As a good friend of mine recently said, Age of Sigmar is the New Coke, but putting aside the possible conspiracy theories. There is a lot of big questions that need answering; to quickly recap, if you don't know what Age of Sigmar is, you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks. It is in simplest terms Age of Sigmar is a complete re-boot of Warhammer Fantasy.
Up until today, we have had strong Fantasy player denial, but now with the breaking news that all Fantasy models are being repackaged with round bases only, the horror for the fanatics is setting in. Justifiably, the diehard Fantasy community should freak out.
A 30-year-old game is about to be gutted. We could play the blame game, and write a PhD thesis on the subject, but it is just safe to say both Games Workshop and fantasy players are to blame here.
As a Warhammer 40k player I am intrigued by Age of Sigmar; I see a new game with a minimal entry barriers and models I can easily convert for 40k if the game itself stinks. If it takes off, is enjoyable I win as well, but that is also the danger. Age of Sigmar can be a hit, but just not too big of a hit.
Why?
Well it could dramatically change 40k, and this is where I can see the diehard Fantasy players point of view. Sure, there is problems with both systems, but if GW invested in being more open, as in community play-testing for example, goodwill and fixing both systems could happen, but with lawyers involved we can't have nice things.
GW could do the same thing its doing to Fantasy and do it to 40k, and if we want to talk about conspiracies you can already see the signs, from unbound to dataslates and the strange "mistakes" in the Dark Angel codex points to something fishy going on with 40k.
The strength with Age of Sigmar so far is the confirmed four page rule set with complexity coming from the unit entries not a cumbersome rule book; little Johnny can now go into any GW store learning the game in about 30 minutes. It also means, experienced wargamers can try a new game on a pretty even playing field. When it comes to 40k like my Fantasy diehard equivalent, I love the stupid 200 pages of rules and the codices on top of it! It is part of the charm of 40k and what makes it unique; the layers of past editions, keeps 40k a mirror image of its fictional universe in relation to game design. It is also history, and if they were to blow it up like Fantasy something primordial would be lost forever. If anything unlike Fantasy the 40k fluff is seems safe, it is just the rules which could be destroyed.
Age of Sigmar certainly does have echos of D&D 4th edition. If you remember, the min-maxing of 3.5 lead the D&D designers to change the game dramatically, creating a strange JRPG video game experience for the tabletop.
The backlash was immediate, leading players back to 3.5, but worse it opened up a hole for a competitor, which Pathfinder drove right through to legitimacy. Similarly, you can imagine the folks at Mantic are dancing for joy at what GW is about to do to Fantasy, and just wait for some of those copyrights to expire as well. GW underestimates nostalgia at it's own peril!
Could it ever get to that point with 40k, where the playership actually entertains the idea of an alternative rule set with nostalgia as the backbone? I am not sure, because the combinations of fluff, models, and rules is what makes all of us keep coming back to 40k. If only one of those legs were knocked off does it all come crashing down? The rules can't matter that much? Aren't though the rules a reflection of the fluff to a certain extent, and the models still a greater extension? Couldn't I get over the uniqueness of my special butterfly armies? I love a lot going on with 7th edition, but it is the whole unbound and disregard of large sections of the fluff is what constantly annoys me.
If Age of Sigmar is nothing more than just letting little Johnny play with whatever combination of blasphemy he wants, then I weep at the possible storm coming to Warhammer 40k and you should too.
Warning
Meat for Meta is rated editorial nonsense. These articles are meant to complain about some group, somewhere, that is playing the game for all the wrong reasons or simply to just make fun of 40k nerd rage.