I backed the wrong horse...
Games Workshop (and the podcasters) have announced The General's Compendium and with it, the death knell of the rise of Kings of War and 9th. Don't get me wrong, if the loss of ranked battles was your biggest grievance with AoS then no amount of book releases will fix it for you.
I'm done with being negative. I've made my apologies and eaten my humble pie and the best way of defeating depression is to be positive about things so I'm going to (gush) list some positives.
Disclaimer: I'm still playing Warmachine (my excitement for the upcoming MKIII in another post) and 40k (my filth will be covered in another post). I haven't bought any AoS yet, but my ninth age WoC will now be painted as an AoS army (round bases here I come)
So, in no particular order:
1) What's the point?
It does makes sense though to start with what was my biggest unforgiveable. The lack of points in AoS was a criminally stupid omission. To remove the ability for opponents to find quick pick up games was mind-boggling.
I've just come back from the 40,000 school league and trust me when I say that kids can argue when there is points never mind trusting them to figure out for themselves what makes a fun balanced army.
The kids in my after school club had no desire to play because, and I quote "no points means its for littler kids". As such no AoS was played in our club. Now I understand that there are pockets around the UK that have HUGE followings for AoS - Cheltenham Warchiefs come to mind, but it was a minority.
Games Workshop have not only realised this, but have actually contacted legit TO's to help them create fun, challenging scenarios for the upcoming book release!
2) GW are not just listening, they're talking too!
So not only are they enlisting the help of notable tournament organisers and players to help them polish a system, they're seemingly opening up to their public again. Facebook presences going beyond merely "here's an advert", but competitions to vote on the next themed tables at Warhammer World (to be discussed later!), teaser's done properly, brilliant painting guides and actual presences at tournaments! The future is here. The future is now
I'll cover actual models later but after years of receiving "the whine" about GW prices, I really do feel that GW (their current CEO) deserves serious praise for the recent change in philosophy on pricing.
There's been an explosion across both 40k and AoS of £50 boxes that not only present you with a useable army but at an actual discount that has made my position (of running an after school club) so much easier. You can get a school league army for £50. BOOM! New customer in the hobby! They're branching out into non GW toy store again which is genius with Airfix style kits
Once you're in the hobby and have a suitable start, then they make their serious profit on what I like to think of as "the Luxury Range". You can buy the Orruk starter set for "50 but you want those lovely Orruk Brutes? £30 for 5, a Megaboss? £28...
And i'm totally fine with that because the hobby is accessible to all!
4) The actual models
So changing from ranked to skirmish never actually bother me - by the time it happened I was playing Warmachine anyway! However what is has allowed is freedom of creativity for the sculptors/model designers. The pose are just so much more dynamic and seriously lovely. Not all have been hobby gold but I'll just put a few picture of my favourites as they speak better than I could:
Archaon: the nicest model I think they've ever produced
And then there's this guy who I can't quite tell if he's just smacked off his tits at a rave or if he's legitimately trying to land a plane in fog:
5) Scenery
Freed from rank and file, the table designers at Warhammer World are producing some of there most brilliantly themed tables to play on. There's currently a Khornate spikey fortress and a "Life" realm type board with rolling hills that are inspiration enough!
[end gush]
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