Warhammer: Rage of Sigmar

So apparently Warhammer has a new edition out. *Sigh*, guess I’ll have a look. What minor tweaks have been made for edition 9 then? What have they broken, how are they going to sell new models? Hmm… Age of Sigmar, hey? What’s all that abou… Holy SHIT!

So that old warhorse of miniatures war games, Games Workshop has decided to completely revolutionise their fantasy war game, Warhammer. This is the biggest change in the games 30-year history. And it has rather upset a few people…

Indeed, the nerd rage is greater than it’s ever been, and in some ways it’s easy to see why. The rich history of the Warhammer World, a history that has been ingrained in players’ minds for 30 years, has been ripped apart. Literally. The planet is in pieces. As for the game itself, well! Where shall we begin?

How about special in game bonuses for the player with the curliest moustache? Very inclusive. Or how you can auto-win the game by having fewer models than your opponent just by taking a couple of Tomb Swarms. Oh yes. Fewer models. You see you don’t pay points anymore, just turn up with whatever you want and play. Thank goodness there aren’t any people that might abuse this system… oh wait.

But wait! It can’t all be bad!

And it isn’t. Of course it isn’t. In many ways, this is a great move for Games Workshop a company that, while producing by far the best miniatures in the market, had managed to virtually price themselves out of that market. Warhammer Fantasy was a dying system, and it needed something to breath new life into it. So let us now look at some of the real positives.

In the past, if you wanted to get into the game, you were looking at one hell of an investment. A 300 page rulebook, a £20 army book, and then £100-200 worth of miniatures. Just to play a minimal sized game! Now, all you need is a box of models each, and you can immediately get playing. The rules are free. The rules are only 4 pages long! That’s fantastic! Finally, you are in a position where you can go from buying your first box to having played your first game in half an hour. This is great for getting people into the hobby.

The rules are FREE! I mean, Games Workshop couldn’t get away with charging actual money for a 4-page document, but this is still such a good step for the company and for players. Not only that, the online format means they will be updating the rules directly, creating a living rule set. Which is great! They can correct the two ‘r’s in characteristic on page 3 for a start. While the army lists are currently just stand-ins until new model lines are released, I hope GW follows this trend into the future.

This approach continues into the games background. Rather than a static universe as Warhammer used to be, the story will be continually progressing over the coming years. That’s exciting! And it’s something that GW should have done years ago.

There are more detailed changes that I quite like (cover, dispelling), but I won’t get into them here. Suffice it to say, I see a lot of good in the rules, a lot to be hopeful about… but is it enough?

 

So lets discuss some things 

One of the best Games Workshop releases in my time playing their games was the original Apocalypse rule set for Warhammer 40k. It gave guidelines for players to use their entire collections in massive, all day games. It was a case of bring everything you have, give a couple of bonuses to the smaller collection, then play a game. It was ludicrous and unbalanced and it didn’t matter because it was fun.

Age of Sigmar is bringing that approach to Warhammer Fantasy. For people with large collections, this could be a great opportunity to get it all out on the table. Along with the streamlined rules, people should be able to have a blast with these games. So far then, I would say Age of Sigmar is great for anyone new who is joining the hobby, and anyone with a big collection who just wants to get it to the table and have a blast! But what about “normal” sized games?

A large number of GW games that get played are “pick up and play”. Players will journey to a club not knowing whom they are going to play in advance, but thanks to the points system they knew they were going to play a roughly (very roughly sometimes) balanced game. Now, it’s up to the players to agree on what constitutes a “balanced” game, and that’s just not possible to do! I think we all agree that a goblin is not the same as a Chaos Warrior. But how much worse is the goblin? That was the point of having a point system!

What’s the solution? One option would be a focus on scenario play. In which, even the forces involved would be listed so that players would know it’s a fair game. Except no-one is going to enjoy having to go and buy fixed lists of models so that they can play one specific mission. GW have not made any steps to do that so far.

So we are left with turning up with whatever you want and throwing them on the table. This, without a doubt, will lead to unbalanced games. But unbalanced games have always been a feature of GW games. The newest army list tended to walk over the older armies. Instead, if someone wants to continue to play the game, they need to accept that the creation of army lists isn’t the place to be competitive; it’s just too easy now!

But that still doesn’t resolve how the hell we are supposed to create a fair battle! And what is fair, anyway? It is about the most subjective thing in wargaming. The game is only going to work for players who just want to rock up, throw some dice and have a laugh, not caring whether they win or lose.

The fact is if GW weren’t such lazy rules writers, they could just produce a balanced game in the first place, rather than leaving it up to the players. But that’s never been their style. They are too excited by making (and selling…) bigger and better and sillier models to switch focus on producing a sensible game. If you want to enjoy a competitive game though, Mantic, Warmachine and others already offer far better options. And you can even use (the majority) of your Warhammer armies in Mantic’s Kings of War game!

In conclusion

This has been my perspective on Age of Sigmar. There are plenty of things I haven’t gone into (round bases!?), but this post is long enough and covers the points that are most important to me.

I’ve always been more of a casual gamer, more interested in painting than in playing competitively. List building was always one of the least enjoyable parts of the hobby for me, and I wasn’t very good at it! As such I view the new rule set with hope and, overall, positivity. I’ve been out of the GW hobby for a little while now, and this new game actually makes me want to play a few a games. And I can actually afford to now! So long as I can find some people with the right attitude to play with, and I’m lucky to be in a good position to do that, I think I might have some fun dabbling in it.

That is me, however. Players who loved optimising their lists and playing competitively are justifiably angry. Many of the ridiculous rules I mentioned at the top of the article read like GW giving us all the finger. Personally I’m just going to ignore the ridiculous bits and try and make it my own game. I know that won’t work for everyone. But before you set fire to your models, once the anger and frustration have died down a bit, why not get some friends together, throw all your models down on the table and have a blast. Who knows? You might even have some fun!