Age of Sigmar

Back in January, I self-righteously claimed that by the end of 2016 one of either Age of Sigmar or The Ninth Age would be dead.

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

3) Price points and pricing model

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

The new Orruks: (I WILL buy all of them...)

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]

Warhammer 40,000: Righteous Fury

So last weekend I attended a tournament at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre in Mansfield. Dave Ellis now runs their tournaments and my colleague heartily recommended them.

It's an 1850 one day, three game tournament and I took the following list thinking I was taking the FILTH.

Eldar "Biel-Tan" 1850

Farseer Skyrunner w/ Singing Spear

5x Wind Riders w/ Scatter Lasers
10x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch (Twin Linked Avenger Shuriken Catapult)

Crimson Hunter Exarch

3x War Walkers w/ Bright Lance and Scatter Laser each
3x Vaul Support Battery (D-Weapons of course...)

Aegis Defence Line

Aspect Host
10x Fire Dragons w/ Exarch (Firepike)
+ Wave Serpent w/ Bright Lance and Holo-Fields

10x Swooping Hawks w/ Exarch (Sunrifle)

9x Dark  Reapers w/ Exarch (all have the super str shots)

Rationale:
This can be a scary list as it even shocks elder players. I think its fairly nique as far as Eldar armies go (hey no wraithknight so must be good right?). The Dark Reapers rightfully scare people as being able to crap out 19 s5 AP3 shots from 48" away ruins your unit. Hell they ruin your Wraithknight with 10 s8 ap3 shots (unless it's invisible as I was about to find out...)

I'm often asked about why the Fire Dragons are in a unit of 10 and the simple answer is redundancy. 5 will probably get a tank killed...10 will. As it turns out they will also one round a Wraithknight when Dark Reapers fail their job!

After a heads up that some very good players were coming I still felt comfortable.

Oh god. I walk into the room and there's not one but TWO titans....Zeus' Beard....TITANS! A guy with a Pale Court list with FOUR Wraithknights.

Game 1: vs Eldar

I guess I should count myself lucky then that my round one draw was only against three Wraithknights.

We rolled for Night fighting and it was in play *

* Lets just take a little rage induced break here...I don't like night fighting being randomly rolled for at tournaments as it removes a level of consistency that I feel should be applied to everyone. so no rolling - its' either IN effect for everyone or it's not...

The game was actually really fun!

Turn 1 I did absolutely NOTHING - as in EVERY single shot in my army failed to hit or to wound. Yes. That bad. Now the stupid night fighting had a lot to answer for there but not as much as the RETARDED rule that a 12" Wraithknight model can step a mm into a piece of terrain designated as a ruin (with night fighting in play) and claim a 3++ cover save. /sigh

Fortunately he also had a fairly poor first turn. Aside from his three knights his army was largely a windrider host and an aspect shrine of 3x 5/6 Warp Spiders. Fun.

The pendulum swung my way around turn 3 when, after the Dark Reapers had failed for three straight turns to wound a wraithknight (at all) and had subsequently died for their inadequacy, the Fire Dragons ran from the chunk of metal formerly known as a Wave Serpent and proceeded to melt the fuck out of a Wraithknight. Inspired by this act of courage, the D Weapons not only hit another wraighknight but 6'd his ass off the table too!. The Dire Avengers tore into a unit of Warp Spiders and I actually thought: wow...I might have this one!

...then I realised he still had his reserves (a warlock skyrunner, a unit of windriders and a warp spider unit)...who promptly came on a dry humped me to a (rather fun) loss.

Still...

Game 2: vs Space Marines

So I know this guy and like him and think, "yeah, marines - I can take them even though he's good".

He had a space wolf detachment from the new Wulfen book that essentially allows a Wolf Lord Thunderwolf star to charge me turn one. To put that into perpective, we were deploying on the SHORT TABLE EDGE.

To add to that, he also had a lovely Space Marine Formation exclusive to Warhammer World that allows two drop pods of Devastators to fall turn one and fire with the relentless rule, but also two Assault Marine squads to deep strike on the same turn 1 and CHARGE on that same turn one.

He went first.

He won.

Stuff happened in between but to be honest it was never in doubt and I really don't like formations that do that. To lose half your army before you've moved it is really not fun and whilst I had cover from the aegis defence line that didn't stop his assault marines from trashing me (eve though one scattered off)

Game 3: vs Dark Eldar

So yeah by now i'm firmly on the bottom table playing for a Kit-Kat (wooden spoon) and hoping my ASDA lunch imparted Death Farts aren't silently killing off the competition.

The guys army consists of all transports and heavy support skimmer things. He has FOUR fliers and a giant ForgeWorld Tantalus which I'm pretty sure should've had Princess Leia in a gold bikini on it...

We both pillow fight for the first two turns. I blow some shit up (a lot slowly than I expected!) but he's rolling his 3++ cover saves like a pro. By the time his planes arrive I've seriously messed up his ground forces including the big thing (Tantalus), the Archaon and all his crew.

His planes then go fucking Syria on me...and it's an even fight again.

45mins on the clock, we start turn 5.

25mins on the clock - this war of attrition is brutal and we're down to a few models a piece. We roll for a turn 6...and get it (at this point a quick adding up meant it was a well played and very fun draw)

Turn 6 happens and (quite rightfully) fucks my opponent right off! So the Crimson Hunter Exarch who somehow has managed to stay alive despite facing FOUR fliers (he was concentrating on the ground targets) feels lucky and shoots his heavy flier clean out of the sky. The two remaining war walkers run to an objective and, inspired by the crimson hunter, manage to snap shot with their Scatter lasers and bring down another flier (on one hull point).

The icing was the two remaining Dire Avengers running to another objective and, not wanting to be outdone by the cocky shit in his plane or that rich fuck in his war walker, turn round and snap shop another plane from the sky...

For my opponent, having played a very good game with Dark Eldar no less, against Eldar...I did kinda feel bad as it was obviously a total swing and he now didn't really have anything left for a last turn.

Final Thoughts
I was so woefully unprepared for the meta at the Sanctuary (along with the cold...for fucks sake I actually went OUTSIDE to warm up...). Next month (actually only 2-3 weeks away) I will try something a little more deviously sinister! Mwa ha ha!

It was a fun day overall and Dave runs a good ship but I didn't like the second mission which utilised a cut down maelstrom deck which removed all the repeats for "capture objective x" which meant I was stuck getting my ass drop podded off whilst trying to "destroy 3 units in assault, destroy 3 with shooting and hold every fucking objective that coincidentally had FUCKING drop pods on them...)

Seriously though. Great tournament! Already signed up to the next. Great people. Great TO and absolutely recommend you come down and sign up!

Time

Time is a healer they say.

I haven't been feeling "the hobby" since GW ended the 8th edition fantasy world but don't worry this isn't about to go negative -far from it. I guess "not feeling the hobby" is a bad phrase. I don't feel the same about the hobby; which is good considering the hobby I knew isn't here any more.

It taken a long time to realise it too.

I wanted to empty my hobby thoughts out and see if anyone else related to them.

Shrinks reckon there are 5 stages of grief and I actually reckon I've felt them all in my hobby evolution.

Denial and Isolation

I'll start at the end. The end of 8th edition as it were. I've only ever been a tournament gamer for 8th edition and loved the scene. My first tournament was a two day tournament called "Call to War" run by Will Goodwin at the old Maelstrom. I felt immediately accepted onto "the scene" and was even interview in a video by the Bad Dice Podcast. It felt great.

Fast forward several years to the Sheffield Slaughter 2015. Khaine had just been released and the tournament scene was swarmed with Nagash, Malekith and Karl Franz. Despite never really writing the filth lists to ever stand a real chance of winning a tournament I’d started trying to win a best in race award by using to weak armies: Dwarfs, Beastmen, Daemons using pure Khorne etc…In my latest quest to achieve the award, I'd built a horrible dwarf list which it turns out was both incredibly unfun for both me and my opponent. The scene and I were sick. It was terminal.

I was really starting to hate fantasy, hate the tournaments (which in hindsight were down to my wanting to be competitive with Hamstrung lists and the End Times) and I told myself it was GW’s fault.

I eagerly waited for the rumoured savior: “9^th edition”

Anger

I’ve taken them down now but if you saw the first Age of Sigmar game I battle reported, you will laugh, but you’ll also probably understand why AoS was apparently the worst thing ever. My very first game and it was against a truck load of horrible characters with my nice High Elf army. I’ve never recorded a video with more expletives.

I’ve also never had more hits.

There’s a definite correlation!

Bargaining

The need to regain control apparently.

I spent hours researching and trying to support all the comp systems that had sprung up. I desperately needed this game to work, I’d investing thousands into it and I was left with this alien feel. It was so utterly different.

I played games with the Dragon Slayers and they were fun. We were using the MoComp system but ultimately I was forcing myself onto it

Depression

Sounds terribly emo doesn’t it. Depression and wargaming. I mean come on. But looking back I was depressed and it was a collection of things in my life which caused it. But I saw the social scene id enjoyed (nationally) being torn apart and (locally) disintegrated and diluted.

I did what I still think was a good move.

I sold up.

All six armies. Gone. £3k in pocket I bought into other systems to sate my appetite and it was good

Acceptance

So I now find myself in a happy hobby place a year on.

I bought into Warmachine and collect Cygnar. I have this outlet to get my “serious” competitive fix. The scene isn’t the hideous “knife at throat” competitive seriousness it was made out to be on the fantasy scene and I’m really enjoying it.

I suck.

I also bought into Warhammer 40,000 and bought the Eldar Biel-Tan themed army I’d always wanted. I found I could play for fun again at my local club (Steel City Wargaming) and it turns out I really needed to rediscover this side of the hobby.

It accidentally turned out that I’d picked the army that is currently top of the heap and since my other army gathering dust in the basement was Necrons (the other twats of 40k), I quickly invested in an Imperial Guard army. They suck pretty bad – which means I have hugely enjoyable games.

I’ve also visited Warhammer World numerous times and their exhibition centre not only cost me that Imperial Guard army but a second Eldar army – this time Iyanden themed.

I’m playing in 40k tournaments now but not with any serious lust for victory – being a new Dad just means that if I DO actually get permission to play wargames for a day, I’m going to get a tournament in a get 3-4 games in one day whilst I can.

As for Ninth age/AoS, I’m happy and in a good place. The Slayers still have me wanting some round base fantasy and I started a slow grow for ninth but I think that’s a post for another time…

So you will see blog posts from me on Warmachine,40k, Fantasy...