After months of speculation the Age of Sigmar is finally
upon us, this being the Games Workshop’s latest fantasy battle game, replacing
the long-standing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, now in it's 8th edition.
As I tend to write about models and miniatures I am of
course going to start by looking at the new miniatures, which I got to
see at my local store. There are currently two factions of new
miniatures
both of which will be released with starter set next weekend.
First
up are the Stormcast Eternals, these are an entirely
new faction, representing the forces of order. The models looked very
good and the plastic
looks to be finer and more detailed than the current models within the
fantasy range. However they are not
really to my personal taste, I felt they’re essentially fantasy Space
Marines
and I’ve never been a fan of Space Marines, they're just too bland and
have little depth beyond being big and crushing all that stands in their
way.
Even so Space Marines are the Games Workshop's best sellers, which
probably says a lot about their target demographic, and so I can see
exactly why they've suddenly appeared in the fantasy setting.
Next we have the forces of chaos represented by the Khorne Bloodbound,
one of the original chaos powers from the previous Warhammer. In that respect
they’re nothing particularly new but again there’s a new set of figures, chaos
warriors and marauders. These again are excellent and look finer and are more
detailed sculpts than previous models.
The older chaos warriors and marauders have been around for some time
now. In my
opinion they’re a welcome overhaul these older figures (especially the
marauders) in the range
and when I first saw them I actually contemplated collecting chaos
again! It'll be interesting to see if, going forward, there's an update
for the other chaos powers.
As
for the game itself the onus seems to be on simpler
rules, just pick up whatever figures you have and start playing. As I
have a
bias toward miniatures I think this in itself is a good thing. For a
long time
I felt there has been too much focus on army lists, powerful units and
characters and not enough on collecting the miniatures (or themes) that
you
want to collect. Want a small skirmish battle? That’s fine; want a huge
battle? That's also fine.
Do these change go too
far in the direction of simple? After reading the rules I'm still
undecided. While few could disagree that Warhammer had become somewhat
bloated the omission of things like rank bonus and psychology from older
versions of Warhammer initially seem to suggest it's a bit too simple
but until I play I can't be sure.
On the point of skirmish battles I can't help but feel that they regret
ending Mordheim. As a skirmish game goes, if it was still around, it
could have been used as an entry point to Warhammer and we wouldn't be
where we are now. It's like they've realised the Warhammer of old
required a lot
of time and financial investment before you could even field a force on
the table which was probably putting a lot of people off. Their
solution, merge a skirmish and battle game into one product because the
skirmish game that previously could have fulfilled that transition has
long been gone.
Of course if you’ve spent any time
on the internet this
weekend you will have no doubt seen a lot of complaining! There seems to
be a rather
vocal criticism of the the game as being far too simple and of course
complaining that “power-gaming” army lists are no longer valid.
Personally I get the feeling the more vocal complainers, at least around
the latter point,
are the type of players that try hard to win a game with an army list
rather than on the
table top. These people are one of reasons why I lost interest in the
gaming side of things
some time ago. Despite all the criticism I have to say seeing this game
for the first time this weekend actually had me
contemplating gaming again!
From talking to my local
store staff I get the impression that there’s been an acknowledgement
that they needed make collecting and gaming fun again. If
the Games Workshop want to take the increased fun approach as well then I
really
do think that they should be commended for this approach.
Something
I think a lot of people have missed is that the
Games Workshop realise they’re facing increasing competition from
miniatures
board games. Now it’s not uncommon to pick up a battle themed board game
and so
this seems like a logical step to bring those players into their fantasy
gaming
world. Should they have done that at the expense of their current
Warhammer players? I think they had no choice as there certainly isn't
room for both the Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Age of Sigmar. If the
sales figures that are frequently mentioned for Warhammer, are to be
believed, then from a business perspective it would have become
unsustainable and we'd have eventually been left with no fantasy setting
at all, just Warhammer 40K.
Of course this all comes
at a cost, the destruction of the Old World, a world I've known for the
past 25+ years. The new world concept will need time to grow on me, it
is of course instantly lacking the rich history that the previously
established world accumulated over many years, but I suppose if I don't
like it then I know I can carry on playing the older games as their rules are
readily available. I can even mix and match older and newer figures and
lore as I see fit. And that's it, at the end of the day a hobby like
this will always be what you want to make of it.
If you want to check out the new rules, then they are
available for free here.
