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| Copyright of GW. I can assure you, I want no claim to this wretched image! |
Well everyone else is going on and on about GW's latest debacle, so why not throw in my 2 cents as well. As you have probably already guessed, I'm not impressed. Not in the slightest. I downloaded my 4-page rule PDF, as well as the warscroll PDFs for my Empire and Skaven, even the one for the terrain, and...uh yeah. Nothing I read made me think 'Wow! I want to try this out! Now let me dig out my WHFB minis to see what kind of army I can build!'
Dormant as my WHFB collection is, I think it'll stay right where it is (along with 8th ed rulebook), and wait till someone wants to play a good ol' game of actual Warhammer! Hell, I might even build and paint a few Skaven out of spite for AoS.
I really feel for people like Necron Bob. He's a hardcore WHFB tournament player, and had traveled the country to various tournaments, and has many friends in that community. I asked him what his thoughts on AoS were and he replied with this:
"I've been talking to folks from all over the county. At first there was tempered optimism, followed by nervous skepticism. Now that those sad battle scrolls released there's a lot of bitterness and rage. It's totally not my game. I've made a lot of great friends and have loved travelling about the country. That's all going to fragment now. Very sad. Some are going to Warmachine. Some to Kings of War. There's talk of a community organized 8.5. Fewer are holding out hope that GW is going to come through with point values and/or a mass battle system. I don't think they will. For the life of me, I can't see how they thought this was a good idea..."
Yeah, I think AoS is going to tank. Horribly. I'm sad to say it, but I think GW deserves it too. Not only that, but if this is their long term plan for 40k...well, then they'd best start liquidating their corporate assets now, just saying.
Thus far, the only good thing I've seen come from this release is Inso's Adeptus Custodes conversion built from his free AoS mini (with the purchase of a White Dwarf magazine) which can be seen here.
I was really excited by the prospect of GW going "Free" with regards to data sheets and rules, but the more I hear about this the sadder I get. I always said that WHFB was more fun to play than 40k, I just enjoyed 40k more because I enjoyed the hobby aspect of it more. But this is truly a sad day if indeed WHFB, as we've known it, is dead to rights.
ReplyDeleteI think WHFB will still be played as 'Oldhammer' (as the term has been coined), but like so many great games of GW's past, it likely won't be supported anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it'll tank at all. It's unfortunate, but it looks like the most vocal of the anti sigmar players are also the minority. Fantasy was barely making up 13% of the entire GW sales volume in the past year (that includes all the end times stuff, which was some of the best selling fantasy in years), so they had to do something ridiculously drastic, or just drop the line entirely.
ReplyDeleteMost of the larger tournaments will still run fantasy and endtime events along side sigmar events (once all the rules get figured out), it really just hurts the smaller ones which can't afford to diversify, and will most likely go with whatever is most popular.
I'm guessing this exact same thing is going to hit 40k sooner then we think, as I'm almost certain this is being setup to be a cross gaming system.
God I hope not! Though Neverness and I were pondering going back to 5th ed 40k earlier today, so what they do with 40k might be a moot point.
ReplyDelete5th ed was horrible. At least these days you hardly ever play the same army twice. I remember the tail end of 5th...it was 90% grey knights on psycannon razorback parking lots.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest looking into events like classic for 7th. It uses restrictions such as (only book CAD, single army, no formations, no datasheets), which really dials it down.
After discussing it a bunch on twitter, I think most of the community is leaning towards a definite 40k/fantasy merger at some point. The fluffs are lining up now, and it wouldn't be hard to package 40k boxes with AOS data cards.
That being said, as the overreaction to AOS ceases, everyone seems pretty excited about it. Lots of stuff coming out in terms of balance, tourney rulesets. All sorts of great stuff. Really putting their support behind it, and engaging directly with the community. Even on twitter!
Honestly its to each their own. We're a pair of fluff bunnies, not net listers. So psycannon razor spam and the like are a non-issue. If we wanted a totally unbalanced leaf-blower/alpha strike style of play, there's no need to look to an older edition, 7th ed is loaded with it (even here in our rural gaming group).
ReplyDeleteAlso I just flat don't like AoS. My warboss gets a reroll if I'm wearing a hood or I win a staring contest first, lol-wut? Just plain stupid, and an insult to the WHFB fanbase if you ask me.
Locally the response has been luke warm to AoS at best ("I'm looking forward to playing it at home with my son" (he's about 6 or so) being the most positive (aside from a GW fanboi who's screaming ITS AWESOME! even though he's never once actually come to our store to play anything!).
Perhaps the wider world will embrace it, but don't expect all of us to do so. I've been moving away from GW for the most part for awhile, with my Grymn (an all proxied army) being the only thing I'm building for 40k, and I'm just fine with sticking with 'Oldhammer' (8th ed) as it is.
Actually the AoS has stirred our local FB group up enough that we're talking of dredging up Gorka Morka instead!
ReplyDeleteThe initial rules were meant to be quick, easy to follow, and light hearted. They didn't want to release everything at once, so it's coming in stages. The next stage is this weekend. (and so on and so on).
ReplyDeleteYou'll notice the rules in the starter set don't have the silliness that the other ones do.
5th edition was awesome! So there was a bad codex or two? Hell, I would take on 5th ed Grey Knights any day over some of the current insanity out there! The faster, better and more sensible Close Combat Phase, the rules for casualties, vehicles, etc. I thought it was quicker, very well paced system. I thought 6th was good, and 7th has been fun, but both those editions suffer from pacing, extreme imbalance, and more "rock/paper/sissors" list construction than the former. But whatever, I am looking forward to doing some Gorkamorka instead!!!
ReplyDeletelol, okay following this post, I will go back and add in the 'Rant' tag.
ReplyDelete(in the joker's voice via Heath Ledger) And...here...we..go...
Light-hearted & silly to some, a rude thumbing of the nose at their old players, and to the legacy of the game which built GW to others.
But from here on out (barring this reply) I'm done discussing AoS online.
I've already been called a hater, elitist (whatever the fuck that means), old, in either the 'minority opinion' or in the 'crying minority of WHFB players'. Those statements in particular I find to be a completely amusing assumption given that the game itself was released a mere 3 days ago. There's no guarantee that this forthcoming book will be anything more than rewritten fluff & scenarios.
I wanted (key words there) an update to WHFB, a 9th edition. I didn't get that, instead I got something I didn't want, and on reading thru the FREE PDFs that no one will shut up about (ignoring the fact that few would be willing to pay for them outright) I didn't see anything I liked. So sue me for having my own opinion and not just drinking the cool-aid of GW's latest offering like its the BEST THING EVER!!!
I'm tired of defending my opinion on FB, my own blog, and amongst all of the other nerd-raging-trolls (from both sides of the argument) on BoLS (and other places). I DON'T FUCKING LIKE IT! End of story.
Oh, and if this is the way 40k is going, up to and including a merger with AoS then it'll be 'Oldhammer' for me and many others (again, in the minority) for both game systems.
I finally read up on some of these "silly special rules". My first thought was the card game Elixir, and perhaps some goof-ball game designer thought that rules like that would be fun. How utterly out of touch with the player base was that decision? Jeesh...
ReplyDeleteRather than find, copy and paste it myself, I'll post this comment (from ihop's cynical review of the game) which basically does it for me:
ReplyDelete"I read on BoLS that a GW designer said they only gave the silly rules to the old factions on purpose, to embarrass people into not bringing their old models out in public, and encourage all public play to be with the new factions."
The original quote mentioned above is making the rounds and came from a GW employee at FW's open day who's sole purpose for the whole day was answering questions about AoS.