Age of Sigmar came out this past weekend. This release has torn the Fantasy community asunder with some people crying loud laments heralding the end of Fantasy and others praising the streamlined rules and board-game style mentality to choosing troops. While I am reserving judgement as a whole, I'd like to go over my initial thoughts on the game to include what I like, what I don't like, and what Age of Sigmar means to me.
I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles back in 1998 when I worked at a comic/game store and ran all the tabletop events at the store. I always wanted to play prior to that but never knew anyone interested in the Fantasy game over 40k. As a huge history buff I loved the idea of what was essentially a historical game with fantastical creatures and magic.
I first picked up Skaven as I loved the weird blend of magic and technology and never looked back. While I've often left WFB for brief sojourns into other games, I've always come back. I've played a total of eight factions over the years and I still have miniatures for three of them. I have over 10,000 points worth of Skaven, the bulk of which are actual rank-and-file troops such as clanrats, stormvermin, and slaves. So my investment into Fantasy isn't small but also not so huge as to color-blind me in favor of GW.
Age of Sigmar's release saw the rules posted for free along with war scrolls detailing how to use existing models. The GW website was revamped and all of the new factions names were present. The White Dwarf gave us a brief glimpse of the new fluff as well as the new faction, the Stormborn. The switch-over was seamless. Had someone not heard of GW prior to Age of Sigmar, they could have visited the website and never known that Games Workshop once had a game called Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Nonetheless, this release has proven more divisive to the community than any other single release in GW's history.
The rules consist of a four page PDF. Most of this details combat but a sizable portion also details setting up a game and victory conditions. The warscrolls give instructions on how to build units and hold the unit stats and special rules. While the stats are overly simplistic the special rules give quite a bit of character to each unit. The fluff we've seen is only loosely tied back to the Old World. The new faction and faction names are briefly described but, other than Chaos and the Stormborn, are largely left out of the available fluff.
Now that I've set up my reasons for playing Fantasy, what my stakes are in this game, and what GW pushed out the door when they released Age of Sigmar, let's delve into what I like and dislike about this release.
Unlike what many other websites, blogs, and forum posters would have a reader believe, Age of Sigmar isn't all bad. It holds several new concepts that I really enjoy and feel would make a great addition to a Fantasy tabletop game. The concept of Warscrolls being included with the unit is great. I know this isn't groundbreaking as Warmachine has done this for over a decade and Malifaux includes the cards with their kits as well, but this really frees GW up to focus on miniatures while still supplying rules without the overhead of gamebooks. They can concentrate on the fun stuff like scenarios and campaigns instead of updating army books.
I also love the hero phase of the game and the command abilities. Giving all heroes, not just wizards, a way to interact with the army beyond just preventing them from running away is brilliant. Now players have hard decisions to make over which heroes possess a greater degree of synergy with the other units in the army.
For a company like GW that has always stated, "We are a miniatures company first and foremost" they sure do crank out a ton of rulebooks every year (more-so than any other game/miniature company). The addition of free rules is a great start in the right direction of proving that GW is more concerned with miniatures than they are with rules. Sure, the rules are light, but it is a start.
Age of Sigmar plays fast. It's pretty easy to get a decent number of models, throw them on the table and play a game and be done in half the amount of time it would take to play the exact same forces in previous editions of WFB. There are fewer rules to look up and combat is easy to resolve. There is no internal math necessary beyond counting up how many successes for hit, wound, save. The most complex math that takes place and applying the rend value to the save of a unit/model.
Age of Sigmar is also incredibly easy to teach others how to play. Given the simplicity of the rules, I managed to teach two new players at the store near me after I played my first 3 games. The potential for this game to spread simply due to the ease of understanding the rules is tremendous. Of course, that's all provided the players don't see the gaping holes in those simple rules.
So I listed several key positive points above. I'm going to swap over to the dark side and explain my very real and personal complaints about Age of Sigmar. These are the reasons I mull over whether or not I will continue to support the game.
I hate that Games Workshop tossed aside the old IP in an obvious attempt to create intellectual property that is more easily defensible in court. This is a slap in the face to all of the old players who loved the original setting for WFB. Was it generic? Yup. But it had it's own charm and the fact that it was rooted in real world lore lended the world a certain amount of charm and allowed players to connect more deeply with specific factions.
I detest that GW feels the need to throw a hyper-popular macho faction reminiscent of Space marines into a Fantasy setting. If I wanted Space Marines, I'd play 40k. The aesthetic of the storm born is so close to that of Space marines that they've been dubbed "Sigmarines" and all the internet conspiracy theorists are questioning whether Sigmar is in fact Sanguinius (he's not). I thought Games Workshop was going to come up with original factions? How are Space Marines original?
I loved that the humor of the previous setting was in the setting and only hinted at in the rules of the actual game. Sure, Skaven weapon teams could misfire and run around on fire before exploding, but in game terms, it wasn't any more or less tragic than a cannon exploding. Games Workshop's incredibly lame attempt at humor for Age of Sigmar hurts the game. It is added so forcefully that it makes me cringe. If I wanted this level of humor in my game, I'd play Cards Against Humanity. This poor attempt at humor is even more ridiculous when you read recent commentary about how they did this to the old models intentionally so players would avoid playing them and pick up the new models when they are released.
Lastly, I really don't like that the core game doesn't include any balancing factor to help players decide what is a fair game. I don't think it needs points necessarily, but it needs some way of comparing effectiveness of troops. Otherwise the pre-game bogs down into a ridiculous escalation or negotiation and by the time you get to the actual game, a player is quite conceivably frustrated. This also makes it incredibly difficult to play pick up games. One of the fun things for me since I travel frequently was to take my models on the road and hit up game stores when I was on extended trips. That just became much more difficult.
My final statement about Age of Sigmar is that it quite simply isn't Warhammer Fantasy. Don't try to judge AoS based on Warhammer Fantasy because the games are so completely different that it would be tantamount to comparing Oranges to Cadillacs. Both games have their own merits and flaws.
For me, Age of Sigmar just doesn't scratch the itch that Fantasy did. I loved the ranked combat and semi-historical feel. I loved the fantastical yet recognizable factions. I enjoyed addition of magic to the game and the customization that came with magic items.
So will I keep playing Age of Sigmar? I think it is too early to tell. The rules have only been out for a matter of days and GW hasn't fully released their intentions for the game beyond the definite replacement of Warhammer Fantasy Battles with something altogether new. For now, I'm taking a wait and see approach. However, unless they bring back ranked combat, compelling magic, customization, and make army building somewhat sensible I doubt I'll keep up with Age of Sigmar.
Regardless of my decision, I'm certain that this won't be the last time I talk about Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, or Skaven.