Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar

Yes, basic units are free. But to move on beyond the starter you need to pay. Unless they include a code with the units you buy. My fear is that when I buy a miniature, I'll also have to buy its stats in the app.

Vlad wrote: Yes, basic units are free. But to move on beyond the starter you need to pay. Unless they include a code with the units you buy. My fear is that when I buy a miniature, I'll also have to buy its stats in the app.

When I open the app (just downloaded it), all the units show up as unlocked. It orders them with the locked Battalion Warscrolls on top and then the Unit Warscrolls down below. It does trigger a download to open any of the units I have not yet opened.

I'm on an iPhone if that matters.

Every unit is in the app free. None require any kind of unlocking. You do have to download the scrolls locally, but it's all free. The only thing that costs are the battle plans and battalions, which are available in bundles and also with book purchases. Trust me, I've looked at like every warscroll and haven't paid a dime.

I might have mixed up battalions with units, my bad. I will apologize to GW in person.

Please do so before the drop pods show up on your lawn.

I was thinking that buying the starter set and some paints would earn me GW forgiveness. The drawback is a very real possibility of wife's wrath.

You know they have that $700 Holiday paint bundle that gives you everything in the range, don't you, it's called the Citadel Marriage Apocalypse.

I've never figured out who that is for. If you paint often enough and at skilled enough to need that many, you probably already have most of it. If you are just starting out, you would never look at buying it.

Maybe it's just an insane item that no one will buy like much of FAO Schwartz.

NO NO NO, I know EXACTLY who would buy that. One of my partners at my store, Atlanta Game Factory, would TOTALLY be the person that buys that. "Dollar Bill" (if you read There Will be Games years ago) was moderately wealthy, and when he would get into something he would go STRAIGHT for something like that. In fact, I can just imagine him seeing that and ordering it straight away if he got into miniatures painting at all.

A lot of GW stuff, is, quite frankly, geared at that kind of upper middle class mindset...the sort of folks that spend more money on things like gold-plated TV cables, that pay above MSRP for items at "boutique" shops, and that want to buy what is perceived to be the "BEST" or most complete in one go.

Yup, there's definitely a market for that type, as hard as it is to believe.

My small life pleasure since I got into painting is to come by the store maybe once every two-three weeks. Have a small chat, get some advice, browse some stuff and buy some paints that I'd use that very evening. If I follow this pattern, I'll probably hit the 700$ mark at some point, but in the knowledge that I've enjoyed every 4,25$ along the way
Even if you're filthy rich and can afford to buy everything at once... no place for small joys.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm already past that mark...but I really like going to the GW store now. Its nice they have the whole range and I can actually look. I've been going every couple of weeks with my little list in hand, it's fun.

Michael Barnes wrote: A lot of GW stuff, is, quite frankly, geared at that kind of upper middle class mindset...the sort of folks that spend more money on things like gold-plated TV cables, that pay above MSRP for items at "boutique" shops, and that want to buy what is perceived to be the "BEST" or most complete in one go.

Haha, I have a buddy who's just like that - a real salesman's dream. Always harping on about "this is ranked in the top 5 of whatever..." "this waterfall we went to on our trip has the 8th clearest waters in the world...", stuff like that where we're always rolling our eyes at him. He's regretted many purchases, such as that $5K bike that never sees any use. Despite his big lawyer salary, he's fallen in debt too, but his second wife steers the ship with a firmer hand.

At $4.29 a piece (I know the washes/textures are more), you would need to buy 163 GW paints which is 85% of their lineup. Looking at my paint list, I'm sitting right around 120 GW paints. I'm now at the point where a new project might require I pick up a paint or two if I am doing a color I have not used a lot of in the past. Looking at what I have, my most obvious holes are in bright greens and varieties of brown.

All of my paints (& inks & varnishes & additives & primers & solvents) together at MSRP probably come close to $700, but almost all of my stuff is purchased at least at 20% off. I just cannot imagine dropping $700 at once to pick up everything in one go, especially when most people will not use more than 20% of the set.

I had a friend in college who bought a ferret and all of the other stuff needed to take care of it. I convinced him to buy it with the extremely convincing argument of "Dude, buy a ferret."

I finished the second Age of Sigmar book, Ghal Maraz, which is two novellas by Josh Reynolds and Guy Haley. They are each a continuation of each author's previous novella in the first book, which I think wraps up all the stories in the campaign book "Quest for Ghal Maraz". It's a minor step forward in quality. Reynolds's novella is probably a little worse than his previous one with somehow even more wall-to-wall combat with just a hint of anything else. Haley's is better than his previous one with more world building and information about the Stormcast's reforging causing them to be less human. A lot of it feels like it could eventually be good mythic fantasy fiction, but strict editorial mandate is focused on marketing. I think most Black Library 40k fiction tends to be a little bloated with long combat sequences, but the Age of Sigmar stuff really needs some additional pages to flesh out the world. This novella-only approach that makes the writers focus on combat really weakens their ability to tell a story.

The book still suffers from descriptions that are obviously of the models and (what I assume is) a policy to use the official name for everything. I'm guessing this was released around the time of the Knight Azyros model as its descriptions seemed to stand out a bit as marketing speak. I have not read any of the campaign books past the first, so maybe the next novella collection will hopefully be a bit more refreshing as the stories will be new.

I can't get into AoS lore. Tried reading the rulebook fluff about 3 times already, and my mind just drifts off. I don't relate to anybody and neither find it intriguing. Like the stormcasts are supposed to be intriguing, but I can only think of them as the first prototype for a space marine.
It will probably get better with time, after all old warhammer and 40K had 30 real life years of building their lore.