AOS: Skirmishes (finally)

m.facebook.com/GWWarhammerAgeofSigmar/ph...519007544896/?type=3

Looks like GW has finally learned that skirmishes are where the market is moving toward.

This would have me intrigued.

I am so glad that I no loner am buying ANY board games...every dollar of my funbux goes to GW. I'm kind of tired of them doing the right things and being awesome. It truly is a GW Reformation.

I suspect that this, which they are calling an "expansion", is actually going to be part of the new General's Handbook rather than a full, boxed game deal like SWA. I do not think it is going to be to Mordheim what SWA is to Necromunda, which will probably disappoint some folks. I think it will be a version of the core AOS rules with some modifications to account for small numbers of units. So no coherency, morale rules will be different, different melee rules, changes to some of the magic stuff. The thing is, AOS can play like a skirmish game as is if you only use heroes/monsters and other single model units.

As for terrain, if they are doing a new set I sure wish it would be Silver Tower-themed.

Very excited to see what they do with this...I would actually not be surprised if it were NOT "kill team" oriented and instead more focused on mixed teams of single figures. So you could go out with a Stormcast squad consisting of a Liberator (hammer dude), a Judicator (bow dude), a Retributor with a Starsoul Mace (elite dude), a Castellant (magic dude) and a Lord Celestant (leader dude).

At any rate, Skaven better be supported and I'll probably wind up getting some of the dwarves for this.

I dunno. It looks very much like a kill team type of game.
Going by the pic, vamps have a lord and a gaggle of ghouls. The orcs are using brutes. Sigmarines have liberators (or whatever the hell they are called).

But then again, a version of kill team for fantasy isn't a bad thing.

Yeah, GW is doing _so_ much correct right now...I can't believe I'm gonna say it, but this may be a better time to game the GW minis lines than at any point in the past.

I like the comment someone over at Dakka made about the death of WFB and initial failure of the AoS being necessary to bring us to where we are now. WFB had to be sacrificed so that GW could be remade.

Yeah, it could be a KT thing based on their language too...it mentions playing with smaller groups "while you build up to larger armies" or something like that. Which would be like SWA's thing where you can buy a box and have what you need to play.

I actually think that we may be in what will be looked back upon as a golden age for GW- they have never focused so much on the GAMES as they have lately, as well as making really accessible products.

As for WHFB- it was a loss year over year, buoyed by 40k's consistent success. X-Wing hit GW pretty hard, so they were looking at two flagging product lines. Business sense was to reboot the weaker line and offer something new. It isn't as simple as "killing the old world", nor was it as stupid or negligent as people want to say it is. They did the right thing, regardless of how much you like Karl Franz and Bretonnians.

But yeah, if WHFB's demise led to the GW Reformation...so be it!

Aw shit, is Pete on board the GW hype train now? One of us! One of us!

Wonder if they're just going to put the Hinterlands rules into the new General's Handbook? it's only a dozen pages if you take out the fluff in the PDF, and that's including campaign rules and a few scenarios.

http://www.tga.community/files/file/19-hinterlands-skirmish-campaigns-in-the-mortal-realms-by-sam-james/

I'd say its GWs silver age. There was a point where they had 50 different halfing sculpts. And that's just a single example. Citadels output was tremendous. They used to pound out games too like they were going out of style.

But model qualitywise, its definitely their golden age. Unless you really really like night goblin models that flip you off, type of aesthetic. That bit has definitely changed and is far more sterile now.

For me, it has never been easier to get into and play GW games than now. Back in the nineties, I knew a lot of people who were into GW, and I had a feeling they spent more time talking about all things warhammer than actually playing (or even painting).
The sculpts weren't nearly as good, and in consequence the miniatures did not look as good as they do now. I see some stuff today that's basically a piece of art, I didn't have that feeling before (maybe that's my sensibilities, of course).

But this thing skirmishes is bad news. So what, do I have to buy more terrain now? Because I doubt I can play AoS with megavent and those containers that Barnes loves so much.

Yeah, we'll probably see some kind of awesome terrain for this...but I don't think it will be for a while. 8th edition is going to dominate summer. Maybe in Q3/Q4.

Modular, Shadow War style terrain for AoS should be forth coming.

I hope these rules are included in the GH'17 and not a new box set...

I am thinking this this is in GH2. Nothing about this feels like a big release, more just a new way to play- and the GH concept is that it establishes ways to play. So now it will be "four ways to play" where it was three.

The thing is, the changes to the system itself could be really minimal. There are some obvious elements that will be out the door, such as battleshock, piling in, and so forth.

I would be really, really surprised if you are able to gear up like in SWA. I am thinking more along the lines of the same point costs and probably the same warscrolls.

Plus I think it would be a victory lap for the GH since it is largely credited with turning the game around...and then it would also be a great value add/incentive for owners of GH '16.

I think it's cute that people think that GW would even give Hinterlands the time of day. It's like a little kid thinking that he might send in his He-Man script and have it made.

Regarding your last sentence, I believe you are underestimating how much GW monitors their consumer base.

To illustrate how mistaken you would be, allow me to share a story, nearly 20 years in the making.

Back in '97, I was just getting back into 40k with their new 3rd ed. I bought a second end era sisters of battle starter box and a dark eldar battle force.
The dark eldar were interesting in how you could have a kabal and a wych cult type of army. I liked them so much, that I named my online persona 'Lord Hellfury' after Lady Hellfury insidenthe de codex.
So after playing a bit, I came up with the idea of Haemonculous Covens.
I posted the rules to Portent and various other fan sites at the time, and even made a forum called Comorragh for de players.

Fast forward to 2015, and I walk into FFG event center and they have a codex on the counter named "Haemonculous Covens" which took largely from the ideas I gave way back in '97.

I think the proof can still be found on Matt Wards website (prior to his employment at gw, that should still be able to be found through way back machine) as one site which I submitted it to, for you inevitable skeptics out there.

The sisters of battle yahoo group had rules posted for the heavy support missile tank, the exorcist, during those rogue years if the internet. That also made it into the codex as well, as one more example of the community 'contributing' ideas that were used (although stolen would be a better name for it, since they never credited those whose ideas they used) by gw in formulating their games.

Michael Barnes wrote: I am so glad that I no loner am buying ANY board games...every dollar of my funbux goes to GW.

Must be nice to be able to get the high dollar items from Miniature Market, review them, and sell them for 60% of their cost. Wish I could relate

Cautiously optimistic