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| Warband/Army combat game |
So GW has killed off the Old World and ended Warhammer Fantasy Battles as a game, to be fair they did so in pretty spectacular fashion but at the same time people felt they were gouged for the £200 needed to buy the book under which this happened.
Instead we now have Age of Sigmar. I’ve not played it yet, I’ve read the rules (insert OMG only 4 page rant here if that’s your thing), and I do want to play it. Checking out my local club reaction there has been a mix of “it’s not as good as 8th”, “it’s a fun game but not for tournaments”, “it needs army selection rules” and countless other variants of that. It seems that the majority are heading down the route of “lets apply some of the packs of restrictions which are floating around on t’internet” already.
Broadly I don’t mind comp but I think people need to get out of the mindset of this is unbalanced until they have properly played out all the options of the book and actually we have a few armies updated to match the new rules (not just the get you by warscrolls which are likely to have issues due to volume having to be turned out in one go). I can’t help but feel any comp will still be harking back towards 8th ed WFB in part regardless of how it would play out under the AoS system.
But I didn’t come here to talk about AoS, I came here to talk about other games. Plenty of people are taking the major changes as an opportunity to look elsewhere, when previously they were sticking with what they knew and loved, and it happens that we’re in an age of vast numbers of new games having hit the market in the recent past and a lot of these games seem to have really tight rules.
I'm a big fan of many games and can heartily recommend trying out other games.
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| Mantic mass battle game |
Kings of War – Starting off for those harking back to 8thed and wanting a ‘massed battle’ game there is the 2nd edition of Kings of War from mantic. Clearly these guys knew what was coming in some regards, they’ve picked up pretty much exactly where GW left off their original game has moved more towards what WFB was with more in depth magic items, character fit out etc. Rules have only just dropped and I’ve not played yet but seems like the obvious place for people to jump over to.
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| Steampunk warband combat game |
Warmachine & Hordes – It’s probably the most established game outside of GW. Designed from the ground up to be a competitive experience the rules are very tightly written and work well. It is probably starting to suffer a bit from bloat due to its age. At outset the factions were all clearly themed down a particular route but over time they’ve all got more strings to their bow until now they can mostly do similar things to each other (not 100% true but broadly). Depending on viewpoint it does suffer a little from supposedly being a game of large smashy robots & mosters but actually best played with vast screeds of infantry.
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| Warband+ combat game |
Wrath of Kings – A new kid on the block which actually felt like it was dead on release but is now getting some support. Similar to AoS and WM&H it’s a higher model count round base game with a relatively cool set of models and what looks like a reasonably solid ruleset.
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| Pew pew mother trucker |
40k – Yup GW still makes other games it’s not just AoS all the time. Obviously you’ve gotta like guns & pew pew for this to appeal but it’s cool models and solid enough ruleset. Obviously as a GW game people will point at it being massively unbalanced and the ability to min-max army build and break it.
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| Dark age (?) warband combat game |
Saga – Historical (dark ages?) warband game. Armies all have basically the same statline and 3 choices of troops but a cool ‘battleboard’ system for layering special rules on top which gives the factions their own unique feel.
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| Wild west steampunk gothic horror skirmish game |
Malifaux – I think people are calling Wyrd the 3rdbiggest games company (suspect battlefront may disagree but that’s historical WW2 stuff rather than a made up setting so maybe gets ignored for ranking of these things). Malifaux is a small model count skirmish game in terms of what you have on the table, but the force selection rules means you’ll soon enough end up having most of a faction in your case every time you play. Scenario driven, skirmish game with good depth to what models do and a relatively unique card based mechanic.
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| medieval combat/football skirmish game |
Guildball – A new kid on the block but one that has really caught on quickly (in the UK for sure) it’s a skirmish combat game with an objective built in (scoring goals). It’s loosely based on medieval football and the rules are very tight, the designers were hardcore WMH players so brought that tightness of rules to this set. From my playing so far it has great depth too.
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| Anime Objective skirmish game |
Relic Knights – Anime styled skirmish game, attempts to get the feel of anime combat with power ups, counters and move hit move game style. Again objectives built in to core design but suffers a bit from the balance on them not being great. Uses a card deck mechanic rather than dice too all based around collecting certain colours which are tied to your faction to power up moves. UK tournament scene is starting to grow.
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| Futuristic skirmish pew pew game |
Infinity – Futuristic setting and a complex ruleset where models activation often triggers overwatch style actions from the opponents so a very interactive turn sequence. Not one I know a lot about because of the complexity of the rules but seems to have really taken off of recent since the latest edition dropped this year.
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| Fantasy/realworld crossover warband game |
Darklands - Mierce Miniatures is due to release the 2nd edition shortly, I don't know anyone that played 1st ed but they've done a great job of advertising this one and with the many kickstarters to get their models out there it seems to have gained some traction.
This is the list I’ve pulled together off the top of my head without any digging around. I don’t play all of them but have tried most at some point (never played infinity, Saga or wrath of kings but tried all the others). There are doubtlessly games I’ve missed off the list (Bushido & Dropzone Commander immediately spring to mind) which have a following but haven’t ever quite hit the big time that could be great games.
So for those of you disappointed by the AoS release and looking for a new fix hopefully this helps get your juices going to get into your next game/project.