Warhammer - Age of Sigmar

So, GW killed off the 30+ year Warhammer world earlier this year. I was actually surprised that no one around here brought it up. I've had a lot of fun gaming The Old World over the decades with rpgs, minis games, boardgames, etc.

Well, GW has revealed the new game, and yeah, it looks to have a more 40K style aesthetic (fantasy space marines, round bases, no ranking up in blocks, etc.) with a more casual style play (rulebook is only 4 pages). The Bell of Lost Souls site has a ton of articles on it.

Here's the link to the game.
www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Age-Sigmar-Box-ENG

Interesting run-down of the new game.
1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar

I guess this leaves Mantic's Kings of War as the premier mass battle fantasy game?

I prefer this skirmish style with round bases and no formations. Other small-time publishers have already gone this route with great success.

I think this release, although derivative, feels fresh. It feels more fun and less dust-filled and archaic. I also really like the metagame abilities I've seen such as pretending to gallop on an imaginary horse.

I think this is possibly what they need to revitalize Warhammer.

I really thought the End Times thing was just fluff and an excuse to release big, powerful and expensive figures (Nagash is almost $200 to himself!). Apparently not.

4 pages of rules, I wonder if longtime players will find it too light. I downloaded the free stuff over the weekend to browse the army compendiums and see for myself. I don't know, I don't feel the urge to unbox my models. Certainly not to buy more anymore of their stuff. A single ogre-sized figure is almost $50 by now, used to be $15-20 back when I was still interested. Their marketing wants to make us believe that the 47 FIGURES OMG!!!"!"!" in the new box is something incredible. There used to be many more.

Space marine-looking Empire soldiers seems odd to me. The new background with the portals doesn't really inspire me either.

Yeah, I'm not a super fan of the 'Sigmarines' either. I mean...we already have 40k... How much closer to SM chapters can they get?


I believe that, besides lagging sales, the main reason for the reboot was copyright.

GW found them in the spot of using terms such as 'Empire', 'Elves', 'Orcs' for their armies and non of these are protected under copyright. Their competition has the copyrightable 'Cygnar', 'Khador', 'Cryx', etc.

So, here in the reboot we have now have 'Sigmarite', 'Aelfs', and 'Orruks' with what look to be more unique looks.

It appears there's a lot of brand protecting going on.

EDIT: Regardless, it looks like GW is going all in. They've replaced that Space Marine statue that's been outside their headquarters forever...

Mr. White wrote: So, GW killed off the 30+ year Warhammer world earlier this year. I was actually surprised that no one around here brought it up. I've had a lot of fun gaming The Old World over the decades with rpgs, minis games, boardgames, etc.

Holy shit, wow, really? I can't believe I didn't know this either!

OMFG those Empire space marines are the WORST WORST WORST. The whole attraction of fantasy was the crazy ass fantasy Europe/Holy Roman Empire element!

I have no feeling about the move to a skirmish/simpler game. That's not necessarily a terrible idea, depends on execution.

I last played Warhammer Fantasy proper in about '04, but have still followed along.

There was a big storyline where a bunch of characters died, Skaven overran several continents (and blew up the moon), and Chaos finally won (as they were destined to do and GW wanted to have happened back during the 'Storm of Chaos').

This was all sold through various hardback books, new large models and units. A big blowout.

Spend the afternoon reading this:

1d4chan.org/wiki/The_End_Times

I'm with you though, I'm not a fan of this new setting either. I'll miss The Old World. Sure it copped lots of other elements, but those elements made it easy to get into.

Warhammer Fantasy has had a smaller player base than 40K for a long time. Maybe they're trying to tap into that 40K player well.

It's about cost, pure and simple. Most people just can't afford to buy new Fantasy armies considering the number of figures that used to be required, especially for things like Skaven (I have over 800 points, which is several hundred figures.) As mentioned, with the trend toward large monsters, the cost got even worse. $150 for a single model is a tough sell. They basically used the LotR system as a test (it was also skirmish-based with round bases.) But GW has always been driving themselves into oblivion, since most of their upper management still believes that they're a "model company with wargaming rules", rather than a game company. That's why they had so many balance issues over the years that players quickly addressed by not buying particular models. Anyone remember the dearth of Terminators when 3rd Ed. 40K was first released because of the proliferation of AP 2 plasma weapons? GW's response for over a year was "Learn to use them better!" Then their sales tanked and they finally added the invulnerable save. They just don't understand that people play the games for the games and not just the models.

The other sure indicator that Nottingham still doesn't get it is the army books. Those things should be loss leaders; sold at a fraction of their current cost in order to entice people into the game. Instead, they turned the old paperbacks into hardcovers, stuffed with art, that force you to parse through multiple pages to get the full rules for one unit, and which cost $60US. For one army book. It's insane. And it's also why every book for the past decade has ended up on 4chan. Now they've apparently gone full retard and basically abandoned rules altogether. Good luck with that.

I've said it before, but snag Chaos in the Old World while you can. That IP is now null and void.
The new (and harder to copy/proxy) IP is here to stay and CitOW might fade away along with the old Old World.

I have a lot of love and respect for the Warhammer & Warhammer 40k brands and want them to succeed, but GW as an organization has such an appalling track record of what I'd characterize as straight-up anti-consumer behavior. So I can't really root for GW in any context, not when Mantic - which isn't a drooling, brain dead husk of a publisher - is out there seemingly hellbent on righting every wrong GW's ever committed.

Wow, so they are doing away with all the Space Marine/Old World themed stuff going forward ? That ain't gonna be a popular decision.

40K is still 40K, this is just fantasy because it has been dying a slow death.

My only issue with it going the skirmish route is that I have or have played a ton of skirmish games already. I imagine it would be nice to have some true rank-and-file army games out there, but perhaps the public has spoken and the answer is 'no'. I don't think that's the case though, so am assuming it's the cost of all those minis and not the concept that killed WFB.

But...Like I said, I haven't played WFB in over a decade, so what I think or want for Warhammer is irrelevant.

Every time I scroll down this page past that picture of the page with the Space Marine knights with palette swaps I throw up in my mouth a little.