Age of Sigmar? I need a Keg

Hello all, Sinscaptain here to talk about the elephant in the room – Age of Sigmar – as well as some general hobby updates and all the regular jazz.

Hold on to your butts, it’s going to be a long ride.

I’d like to open by saying that this article has been difficult to write.  I am, for the most part, a very opinionated person when it comes to my selection of gaming ventures.  I have toned myself down considerably from the flaming rhetoric that this blog used to be, but every once in a while, that still peaks out from behind the cage it is locked away in.

Today may turn into one of those days.

For those of you that live without regular access to the outside world, Warhammer Fantasy has been replaced rather explosively by Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.  Contrary to what rumors were making the rounds for the past 6+ months, there is no 9th edition coming.  We have our Games Workshop fantasy game, and it is Sigmar.

A little background before we delve fully into the new world that is Age of Sigmar.  I have been a fantasy player for about 5 years total.  Now, I realize that this is not as long as some of you old beards, but I have played through all that was 8th edition - highs and lows, triumph and defeat, etc etc.  It was a damn good time.  I managed to sway about 6-7 people to play WHF during that time, and we all had a blast.  Some of my fondest wargaming memories are of my Skaven going ballistic or turning tail and running for the hills.  My preferences have always been for regimental combat, magic, and my ratmen.  

The End Times were an exciting proposition for me, as I might be able to sway even more people into the Fantasy fold.  However, that didn't come to fruition, but I still got the ride of a lifetime reading those books, or listening to Garagehammer talk through them. Sure there were odd rules that started to pop up in the later books, but people were still enjoying the fluff and reading about the war to end all wars in Fantasy.  What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, right.

They could blow up the entire world.  Which they did.

So, what comes next?  Age of Sigmar!  Sigmar, god-king of the Empire holds onto a shard of reality, baddabing he gets rescued by a giant dragon in spaaaaace!!! And then makes a new set of worlds yo.  Then, Chaos starts to sneak back in, and so Sigmar throws up some deuces and locks himself in the Realm of Azyr and parties hard with his bros for a couple centuries.

Fast forward to the Realm of Fire, where cannibal Khorne bros are enslaving ALL of the people making a huge pyramid when WHAMO!  

Yes, weep mere mortals!  The Stormcast Eternals of Sigmar are here with hammers and thunder, deepstriking in on bolts of magical lightning!

So, these bros are pretty cool, honestly.  They have hammers, swords, shields, BIGGER hammers, dual wielding hammers, BIG swords, crossbolters, pixie elfie bows, and giant cat dragon lizard things.  Overall, every badass thing in the book, with a dash of 40k and entirely too few hammers thrown in.

It's hammertime baby.

Oh, and there's some Khorne guys too yo.

Again, these are some cool models.  All of these, models come in the new Age of Sigmar starter box which features the Khorne Goretide against the Stormcast Eternals of Sigmar in the first installment of the Realmgate wars.  $125 grabs you a nice selection of models to get the game going.

"Game you say?  Tell me about it sinscaptain!"

I will dear friend!

Age of Sigmar has 4 pages of rules, which is nice considering Warhammer Fantasy 8th had something more like a gazzillion pages.  Scientifically proven.

So, 4 pages of FREEEEEEEEEEE rules, heres the skinny:

• No more points or army selection rules - there are some unofficial army comp rules making the rounds, but most people either go by model count or wound count to organize battles.
• Initiative rolls at the start of every turn.
• Models can move, shoot, and charge all in the same turn.  They can shoot into and out of combats without consequences.
• Everyone takes battleshock tests at the end of the turn, which are similar to the old rules for undead moral tests.  However many you fail by is how many models you pull out.  So, D6 + Dead models for the turn - Bravery = # extra models that die.  
• Every game, at the moment, is all about killing all of your enemies models.
• Magic is dumbed down to every wizard knowing 2 spells plus 1 unique spell for flavor, and all tests are done on 2D6 trying to beat a number.  Enemy wizards within 18" may attempt to dispell.
• If you choose to play with 1/3 less models then your opponent, you can pick a sudden death objective to try and beat by 6 turns in order to win.

Thats pretty much all of the main points.  Every army has received "War scrolls" for each unit - for FREEEEEEEEEE - to use until they update "all" of the armies to Age of Sigmar.  They have all the info you need, including the static to hit and to wound rolls that you need - that's right: static TH and TW rolls.  A goblin hits Nagash just as well as he hits a skaven slave.  Kinda weird, but speeds up the game nicely.

I've linked the page to all of the rules and war scrolls everytime you see FREEEEEEE.

WHAT DO I THINK?

So, now to the *brief* editorial on what I think this all means.

I am split.  Part of me, the huge fan of Warhammer 8th Edition and regiments, movement trays, ridiculous magic phases, etc etc?  That part of me hates this game.  It is NOT Warhammer Fantasy.  It is some cruel joke by Games Workshop.  It's a dumbed down version of Warhammer 40k take what you want, unbalanced, polarizing, "spread a single line of guys in a line and march em across the table" BS, where everyone wants to be Tau with a bigger gun.  The rumors swirling about Slaanesh being abducted or forced off of his throne makes me livid.  Grrrrr.

The other, more rational and understanding part of me thinks that this game is great.  It does everything that we wanted for Warhammer Fantasy - reduces time constraints, barrier for entry money wise, reduces complexity, moves the story forward, lets everyone get what they want from the game, and overall makes for an enjoyable gaming experience.  This will be absolutely fantastic for getting new players into the game and having a blast with beer n' pretzels.  

We've already gained 3 new fantasy players because of Age of Sigmar, including Matte himself.  Life is good, man.  

Overall, I would give Age of Sigmar a solid 6.5 out of 10 on the wargaming scale.  It's better than your average game, but it doesn't quite feel like a solid replacement for Warhammer 8th.  Of course, I reserve the right to change my opinion as we get more games in and more books/models are released.  But overall, make an informed decision for yourself.  Don't be that asshole who burnt his entire collection.  People like that make us ALL look like Neanderthals.  We don't need to be nerd ragers.  We need to be united in the hobby, even though we have differing views of how the game should have come out.

Basically, it boils down to this:  be adults, make a decision, and don't be an ass about your choice on the internet.  Otherwise, Papa Nurgle will come to get you!

"Neeeeeeeerd rage feeds meeeeeee, hur hur hur"

 So, the title reads that I need a Keg....

I'VE GOT ONE!

Meet my converted Soju Golem for Malifaux.  The regular model didn't much catch my fancy, but I didn't want to shell out for the Nightmare Whiskey Golem, so I gave him a staff and a little bit of character to the face with some eyebrows, and boom.  Done.  Just need to throw some paint on him and Brewie will have an angry robot kegger to throw.

In addition to the Soju Golem, I built Yin for 10T Brewmaster, and for my incoming Yan Lo crew.  Toshiro will be painted up to go with the Yan Lo crew as well.  I also built a Tuco from the male TTB kit, just because I figured that he would be fun to have.  

Well folks, hope that this little article will hold you over until I can get some pictures of my Brewmaster crew up - painted by Matte for me.  They look absolutely fantastic, so I cannot wait to show them off.  I will attempt to get some pictures of the swamp board in progress, as well as any games of Age of Sigmar or Malifaux that are played this week.

So, my minions, go forth and game!  Until next time, this is Sinscaptain signing off.