Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar

these are great deals when you look at the dollar/mini count/pts value ratio...but why would an AoS player want this?

do these races look like this in AoS? they aren't getting redesigned, but look just like their old world counterparts? I guess if the Old World is gone at least give the armies some new looks?

does this set at least have round bases for the minis or still squares?

seems like a clearance item.

Are these old sculpts or new sculpts with old world look?

look to me like the exact same models released about 8yrs ago.

I just checked it on the GW store again, and it shows as sold out already. (!!!!!!)

Yeah, these seem to be disappearing...I thought the preorder was on the 17th though.

I asked Dan Crane if he can get any, I will definitely pick one up if he can. Because I really need to start a fifth AND sixth AoS army. Before I get all my Sylvaneth in. And with tons of Seraphon to build and paint. And a Start Collecting box of Stormcast Eternals. And another starter set's worth of Khorne Bloodbound.

Intervention please!

It's a rerelease of the Isle of Blood for AoS.

I think it's a thing like how Battle for Vedros repurposed Assault on Black Reach by using warehousedproduct already on hand but off the market. This set is fully AoS-ized with all of the rules, fluff and so forth rejiggered and round bases in the box.

It may not be around for long.

It shows up as available again. GW is playing some subtle psychological games with me. I think I need to get it. I like Skaven a lot - they're original (as opposed to orks, dwarf and elfs), and yet they fit in so well you don't even realize they're not a rip-off. And their sculpts are awesome. And I empathize with them on some profound emotional level.

Dan is going to be carrying Spire of Dawn. Preorder should be available by tomorrow.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I finally played AoS for the first time. I managed to scramble about 900 points Pitched Battle with my Blood-Khorne starter team, plus the Chieftain and Deathrunner from Silver Tower against a Nurgle warband (daemonettes, slaves to darkness dudes dressed like John Snow and three heroes I don't remember). I lost pretty badly, but it was a bloody good time.

My recommendation is to definitely print out the units stats and not to rely on the app unless you've got an Ipad. It's just too much hassle to use and the text is barely readable, so you need to zoom in, but then it is hard to turn the pages. My opponent had his stats printed out and it worked so much better.

There's definitely a lot of luck, this being dice and all, but most of my fiascos came from tactical fuck-ups rather than bad luck. Like sending Bloodreavers down a narrow passage where they got slaughtered like Persians at Thermopylae, or pitching the Chieftain against a single enemy hero instead of targeting those daemonettes, or wasting the Deathrunner's doppleganger on a stupid shot. Like the kind of newbie mistakes a newbie makes.

Barnes compared it to Magic, and it actually made my brain tingle in a similar way to that of Magic after I first played it. You start thinking your synergies and your opponent synergies, and how to enhance the former and disrupt the latter, and what your warband should be focused on, and how maybe you can get a different warband with a different focus... and down the rabbit hole. And it's all kind of simple on the first glance and transparent - I don't think I had ever an easier time getting into a miniatures game.
It's also awesome to actually enjoy the game after having invested so much time (and money) on those dudes.

I also liked the comparatively lower unit count and the fact that heroes feel like real badasses, it makes encounters feel personal and appropriately dramatic. Sort of reminded me of Warcraft 3, too. I obviously can't even begin to assess whether it is balanced or not, or whether there's enough long-term appeal for a hardcore gamer (which I am not, since I couldn't get into the old warhammer or the current 40K for that matter). Anyway, very much waiting forward to play it again.

Yeah, it's really easy to dig right into it. I think they did a brilliant job of making the game instantly gratifying by keeping the core rule set super simple. I mean, I play this with my 6 year old son. But the unit rules are where it suddenly opens up when you start finding synergies and ways to increase the damage/resilience/effectiveness/whatever of your units. The starter actually does an excellent job of showing players this. The Stormcast Eternal side is quite straightforward without a lot of funny business so it plays well for beginners. But the Bloodbound side actively relies on synergy and codependency. A newcomer plays those Reavers and thinks "wow these guys suck" but only before they figure out how to use the Bloodsecrator and the MLOK to give those little bastards three attacks EACH.

I think it is definitely the best miniatures war game I've ever played...it has a very rare mix of accessibility and depth.

How do you play with your son, just ignoring all the abilities? If so, how will he learn to respect and fear the Bloodsecrator? (Or is that not on your top list of fatherly priorities?)

I've been thinking more about AoS today, and what I find it most similar to is to the new Xcom. I am a big fan of the original UFO and was zero excited about Firaxis' remake. No action points, no weapon dropping/picking up, unlimited ammo, capped squad size (ridiculous!), etc. I remember booting it up almost reluctantly, like from everything I knew, it was too simple to enjoy. And, then, well, it is great. It makes you agonize over your options so much, you don't miss the stuff that you thought you couldn't do without. That's how I felt about AoS.

Well, first of all, it's a BATTLEsecrator. You use them with BATTLE Reavers and BATTLE Warriors. That are all part of the Khorne BATTLEbound army.

He understands the abilities and he can read some of them, he mostly needs help with strategy (for example, you don't put a guy up on a hill because it looks cool, you put him up there because he has a command ability and you can make the most of his bubble). We've been playing games well above six year old rated for a while so he gets it. He of course needs a lot of guidance and it's not like you can play with a six year old expecting real competition or tournament-level play.

He's been bugging me to get the Seraphon army all put together, he wants to play with them...I haven't even told him that we are going to have Aelves and Skaven coming soon.

It's up. $62.40. WOTTABOGGIN!

http://www.vendio.com/stores/Docs_Games_Store/item/age-of-sigmar-warhammer-fantas/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-spire-/lid=46422090

We don´t have an issue with Blood (maybe mistakenly, but only time and psychiatrists will tell). The only no-no is for blood to be actually spilled or depicted (or those severed heads for bloodreaver boss, very unfortunately).
My son enjoyed Vedros a lot, and learnt some abilities (like the rocket launcher needing to stay stationary). But nothing in terms of strategy or tactics - looking cool and doing cool stuff was more important for him. Which is absolutely fine. Then we played with a friend of his, who is not used to boardgames, and I noticed my son was kind of wanting more structure/rules to frame their conflict. Because as Kramer (and possibly Khorne) used to say: "without rules, there is only chaos".