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I've been considering getting into Age of Sigmar, but I don't know if it's for me. To give a little background on me and miniatures games, the only game I've really played is X-Wing, and that's in casual games, mostly between me and my fiance or brother. I have a set of Warmachine models I'm painting, but I'm honestly intimidated by the competitiveness of the community, and I'm having trouble clicking with the world. I know 40k extensively, but only through novels, video games, and RPGs. There's a Games Workshop store nearby with 30 active Age of Sigmar players. I'm intrigued by the fiction, seeing it as a Silmarillion to the Lord of the Rings of Fantasy. It feels epic, but unfinished, and I hope it starts fleshing out. I jus bought the Gates of Azyr, in an attempt to learn the fiction better. Any thoughts? I can answer other questions if necessary.

If the local community is that large, why not go to the store and ask for a few demo games?

That's a massive community, so it will probably be worth joining in. As said before, ask for a few demos of the game, and if you like it you can get the starter set. I say get the starter set because it is an absolute bargain for GW minis, especially if you get it from a 20% off place. It also comes with 2 armies, so someone else can join in if they want to, or you can have a bit of variety in your armies.

Yeah, that's what I would do.

AoS is supposed to be a fairly simple game, aimed at beginners, so you should find it easy to get into, especially with some people to give you help.

I wouldn't spend a lot of money just to begin with, in case you end up not liking it.

If X-Wing is your only really and you can accept a different style of play, you may find you get into AoS easier than some veterans, due to a different set of expectations.

If X-Wing has led you to strong tournament-style play and you really enjoy that, AoS may not be for you. If, on the other hand, you loved the idea of X-Wings duelling with TIE Fighters, of Luke leading Rogue Squadron to break the Imperial blockade, AoS might be just what you are looking for.

By all means turn up to your store and give the game a go, and see if you like the fiction (Gates of Azyr is not the strongest book, but it is a decent enough introduction) and the general storyline behind AoS. If you get into the background, AoS will probably be a good bet for you. AoS is about the background and the models, rather than the rules alone, if you see what I mean.

The one advantage of Gates of Azyr is that this book ties in quite well with the starter set ... the characters in the book are the characters in the starter set.

You'll love it! But don't go for the starter set in my opinion unless you like both the armies. Instead spend a little bit extra to get 2 start collecting boxes instead :-)

MongooseMatt wrote:
By all means turn up to your store and give the game a go, and see if you like the fiction (Gates of Azyr is not the strongest book, but it is a decent enough introduction) and the general storyline behind AoS. If you get into the background, AoS will probably be a good bet for you. AoS is about the background and the models, rather than the rules alone, if you see what I mean.

What is the strongest book in Black Library's AoS books?

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

MongooseMatt wrote:
By all means turn up to your store and give the game a go, and see if you like the fiction (Gates of Azyr is not the strongest book, but it is a decent enough introduction) and the general storyline behind AoS. If you get into the background, AoS will probably be a good bet for you. AoS is about the background and the models, rather than the rules alone, if you see what I mean.

What is the strongest book in Black Library's AoS books?

If you're an ebooker, this is a good deal, Realmgate Wars Collection.
Just be aware that the BL stuff is effectively first person, as it follows the main protagonists closely. Mooostly Stormcast and whoever they're duffing up; the extended background is only really hinted at.
If you're after a more top-down view of the setting, I'd hesitantly recommend getting the full on realmgate wars books (i.e. the rule books).
The setting for AoS is kinda running in real time, so each book progresses the story a bit more, introduces new big names from other factions, etc. But most importantly, it gives a better picture of what has gone before, as well as including some good scenarios (scenario play appears to be the intended 'default' for AoS).
The first book handles what happened after the end times, up to the end of the end of the Stormcast's initial invasion.

As for whether AoS is for you, can only echo what others have said - you indicate you were put off by the competitive feel of Warmachine, which would suggest that AoS could well be what you're after.
That said, homebrew is rife with it, so really do get down and see what the local community are doing - they could just as easily be bloodthirster-spamming TFGs or focussed on one of the points systems that have been developed by players and pitched battles abound.

Overall, AoS is completely dependent on you and your opponent to have a good time - if you both want different things out of a game, then one of you likely won't have a good one.
Thankfully though, it's a very easy/cheap system to dip your toe into before you commit to anything.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

What is the strongest book in Black Library's AoS books?

For the main storyline, Warstorm, which follows directly on from Gates of Azyr.

However, I would say the Legends of the Age of Sigmar: Pestilens book is probably the best story, but it may not be the best starting place.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:
I've been considering getting into Age of Sigmar, but I don't know if it's for me. To give a little background on me and miniatures games, the only game I've really played is X-Wing, and that's in casual games, mostly between me and my fiance or brother. I have a set of Warmachine models I'm painting, but I'm honestly intimidated by the competitiveness of the community, and I'm having trouble clicking with the world. I know 40k extensively, but only through novels, video games, and RPGs. There's a Games Workshop store nearby with 30 active Age of Sigmar players. I'm intrigued by the fiction, seeing it as a Silmarillion to the Lord of the Rings of Fantasy. It feels epic, but unfinished, and I hope it starts fleshing out. I jus bought the Gates of Azyr, in an attempt to learn the fiction better. Any thoughts? I can answer other questions if necessary.

With regard to warmachine, the one thing I'll say is that the lore is excellent. If you want a good grounding in it, look towards the rpg material first and foremost, especially the old d20 stuff if you can find it. The lore is a real hidden gem.

Regarding the competitiveness of the community - being competitive isn't wrong, and approaching the game in that manner isn't necessarily a bad thing. To be honest though, in my experience, the 'fear' of the competitiveness is far worse than the reality - warmachine is a very 'empowering' game. It's actually quite fun, and I'd recommend you to jump in. But funnily enough, I'd also suggest having a casual, laid back setting as well.

Aos isn't for me, though with a community of thirty people, it's worth looking into. Ultimately, you can talk all you want, but the driving force behind what you will probably play is based on what the local scene plays-there is little point in investing in a game without a player base, and at least Aos here has a player base.

Aos is ultimately 'whatever you make of it'. It has no structure, little organisation, and 'how' it is played is entirely in the hands of its players - deliberately so, as there is little in the way of 'top down' dictates or directions in 'how' to play. fundamentally, it requires a co-operating approach that focuses on game-building with your opponent, and matching up (or eyeballing) what seems fair (or interesting) in terms of matching up what is fighting against what in your games. It very much requires a focus on story, and narrative and is a very casual approach to wargames where 'aiming to win' is a secondary concern to watching the game unfold.

Aos is whatever you, and your opponent are willing to make of it. If you can co-operate, show some initiative and creative effort, you will get a lot out of the game. If you want to exploit the rules, or favour a more competitive or 'hard-core', almost 'e-sport' approach to wargames, and want to push the game to its breaking point, then it will break. And it's quite easy to break if you push it hard enough. And it's probably the wrong game to play if that's what you want.

Bear in mind, Aos isn't something 'new'. This approach above works with every game, if that's what you want out of it. And if you can find like minded opponents. In your case though, there is an Aos community thst plays Aos. If how they play is fundamentally compatible with how you want to play, then it's worth getting involved

 Bottle wrote:
You'll love it! But don't go for the starter set in my opinion unless you like both the armies. Instead spend a little bit extra to get 2 start collecting boxes instead :-)

Even if you only like one of the armies, the starter set is an amazing deal - variety of figures, some exclusive to the starter set. You can get the starter for $90 off Amazon, just $10 more than a single Start Collecting box, and you can sell/trade the half you don't want. If you don't like either, then yeah, I'd skip the starter. If you like both, then the starter is the best value that money can buy. Plus, it comes with glistening golden gods (glistening golden paint sold separately).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Deadnight wrote:

Regarding the competitiveness of the community - being competitive isn't wrong, and approaching the game in that manner isn't necessarily a bad thing. To be honest though, in my experience, the 'fear' of the competitiveness is far worse than the reality - warmachine is a very 'empowering' game. It's actually quite fun, and I'd recommend you to jump in. But funnily enough, I'd also suggest having a casual, laid back setting as well.

Competitiveness is EXTREMELY intimidating to new players, especially for a game like Warmachine where you've got to play two dozen games (at least) before you feel like you can win a game on purpose. Once you get over the bump, the insecurity dwindles somewhat, but don't underestimate how intimidating a highly competitive atmosphere can be to a new player.

AoS isn't for anybody it's not a game it's a way to fleece people of their money.

Let's keep it constructively on-topic, please.

 Sqorgar wrote:

Competitiveness is EXTREMELY intimidating to new players, especially for a game like Warmachine where you've got to play two dozen games (at least) before you feel like you can win a game on purpose. Once you get over the bump, the insecurity dwindles somewhat, but don't underestimate how intimidating a highly competitive atmosphere can be to a new player.

No.

Oh, and Drop the arrogance and the claim that you speak for the community. You defining whole swathes of the playerbase (first it's using 'tournament players' as a derogatory term. Then it's your insulting and hollow claims of how 'warmachine players' and their 'pawn like' views of miniature, lack of care to painting, converting or using terrain - despite plenty evidence to the contrary), and now you claim to speak for 'new players'. It's getting tiring. Please stop.

Competitiveness might be intimidating for some - sure. For others, it's less 'intimidating', and more attractive. It's no different to sports - shockingly, Some people like that kind of thing. Competitive is not something to be afraid of. I turned up my nose to it for most of my youth, and when, as an adult I got involved in some fiercely competitive sports, with some fiercely competitive people, I realised it was actually quite fun, and quite empowering, and I actually enjoyed pushing myself beyond what I thought I was capable of. Don't think for one second that 'new players' Are a single entity that needs to be mollycoddled. Don't try to define 'them' as a single entity or try to speak for 'them'. Speak for you, by all means,. But the works is bigger than that. Remember as well, competitive and friendly/welcoming are far from mutually exclusive and privateer press have a lot of formats (escalation leagues, ans the recent abc format) which are designed specifically to introduce new people to the game and play smaller games.*** And in my experience, Not everyone that plays is 'all the competitive, all the time'. Quite a few are actually very laid back.

For quite a number of people, that two dozen games to play through is a feature, not a bug. And it's got nothing to do with 'insecurity' - that's just another sad little jab of yours that is quite telling of your uncomprehending attitude towards people who play wargames a little differently to you. some people, shockingly, actually like a competitive approach- it's not a surprise that the game has been successful after all. That steep learning curve is something to enjoy. The idea that you 'earn' your wins, and earn your wings, rather than get it handed to you, is essentially is seen as a huge plus by a lot of people - don't do as you usually do, and dismiss it so readily, just because it's not something you are into or is something you appreciate. But I'm sure you'll do your usual mental gymnastics, apply your usual perception biases and kindle your usual self righteous zeal of the newly, truly converted and try and bury your head in the sand and ignore reality.

*** and to get this on-topic again, to the op - if you are interested in warmachine as well (like I said, give Aos a whirl-the community is there, and if they are a fun bunch, there is no reason not to get involved, but since you have the WMH models as well... You might as well do something with them and see if there is something in it for you there as well. These are wargames. It's not like cheating on your spouse - it's actually ok to have 'a bit on the side!' speak to your local pressganger - see if he will run an escalation league or if anyone is interested in privateer press' new abc format (it's specifically designed for smaller games, and for those fairly new to the hobby; it's at a smaller scale, with a limited roster of casters and some unit restrictions) it could be worth looking into, and shouldn't require too much of an investment on your part. It's in the most recent no quarter and I actually quite liked the look of it, to be perfectly frank.

hobojebus wrote:
AoS isn't for anybody it's not a game it's a way to fleece people of their money.

And here is what you have to deal with if you say you like Age of Sigmar. You will always have a douche who will say you are wrong in what you like. Hopefully this will not bother you, and having a group of 30 people who like AoS should get you excited to be part of the universe. It being good or bad all depends on the person.

My question to you that I haven't seen answered but could have missed it, is what do you want out of it? What do you want out of Age of Sigmar? Just to make sure you do know you have to make the minis yourself. You have to cut them off a sprue, glue them together and paint them. They are not pre made like they are in X-wing. Painting and modelling is a great part of the hobby and there is some lovely minis for AoS.

Also X-wing starts as a cheap game to get into. AoS can get really expensive depending on what you want. How much is too much to spend for? Some minis can go for $200 (Canadian) or I should say One mini can go for $200. If you like the Stormcasts with wings, 3 of them will cost $75. For me that is a ludicrous price for 3 minis. Then again the Get Started Boxes are a great deal. For the Seraphon (Lizard guy), you pay $100 for the Get Started box. If you wanted that giant dinosaur alone is $100. So you are basically paying $100 for the dinosaur but getting the rest of the minis for free, in that box set. Others are just as good or not as good, but still giving out good deals instead of buying the separately.

So what army interests you? As Bottle said, maybe instead of buying the Starter Box set buy a Start Collecting box set instead if Chaos or Stormcasts don't interest you. If either of those intrest you then definently start with the starter boxset. I think this would be a good set if you and your finance like them. This way you will see if you like modelling and painting AoS minis and would like to expand on it.

Also the rules are free. Download them off the GW site. Also ALL the rules for the minis are free on the GW site as well. Do you have an iPad on android? There is an AoS app where you get the rules, and ALL THE STATS for most of the minis for free. Some of the formations are behind a pay to buy feature, but for say about 90% everything is free. So I say download the App, look at everything there, read the rules and see if it interests you and your finance and then go to the GW store and get a few demo games and see if you like the people there.

It's not so much that *all* warmachine players are frothing psychopaths. In my experience I've never played against anyone who was anything other than sportsmanly - but our club's WMH players all tended to rank well in regional events, and they never played anything other than fine tuned lists.
I've always preferred learning games 'the hard way', and tried to take the view that as long as you learnt something about your force, even a crushing defeat was a positive.
The reason I have up on WMH is that I never seemed to learn anything about how good/bad my force was - I just had repeated lessons in how terrifyingly effective my opponent's lists were.

Get down your local club, watch a few games of AoS.
As an aside, one of the things that I've recently realised is that there aren't really any hard counters with the game due to how to-hit, to-wound and battleshock work. Yup, a warboss on a wyvern is a better match-up against a Bloodthirster but goblins will do the job in sufficient numbers.

If you're not a fan of competitive games then Warmachine can work, but takes effort. AoS is probably more what you're after. I will just chip in though that the setting is amazing, but the game books are not the way to get into it. I have basically 0 interest in Warmachine until a friend dragged me into an RPG game for it and handed me the books for that which are overflowing with fluff and are downright amazing to just sit and digest.

 jonolikespie wrote:
If you're not a fan of competitive games then Warmachine can work, but takes effort. AoS is probably more what you're after. I will just chip in though that the setting is amazing, but the game books are not the way to get into it. I have basically 0 interest in Warmachine until a friend dragged me into an RPG game for it and handed me the books for that which are overflowing with fluff and are downright amazing to just sit and digest.

Never looked at the RPG, but have read a lot of the fiction and loved it.

It is interesting to me that there seems to be a far greater acceptable detachment with players between the settings for WMH and the Iron Kingdoms RPG despite being the same universe.
Whereas one criticism of AoS is that it doesn't have the level of detail that WFB had in the setting, despite a lot of that development being done for far smaller-scale settings like Mordheim/WFRP/the novels rather than the battle game itself.
But that's a whole other discussion!

In the end it's always about the fun... I play it and I have a LOT of fun doing so.

RoperPG wrote:

 jonolikespie wrote:
If you're not a fan of competitive games then Warmachine can work, but takes effort. AoS is probably more what you're after. I will just chip in though that the setting is amazing, but the game books are not the way to get into it. I have basically 0 interest in Warmachine until a friend dragged me into an RPG game for it and handed me the books for that which are overflowing with fluff and are downright amazing to just sit and digest.

Never looked at the RPG, but have read a lot of the fiction and loved it.

It is interesting to me that there seems to be a far greater acceptable detachment with players between the settings for WMH and the Iron Kingdoms RPG despite being the same universe.
Whereas one criticism of AoS is that it doesn't have the level of detail that WFB had in the setting, despite a lot of that development being done for far smaller-scale settings like Mordheim/WFRP/the novels rather than the battle game itself.
But that's a whole other discussion!

Part of what really sold me on the IK fluff was just how detailed it was. My GM sat down and pointed a finger at the map, deciding we'd start in that city. He popped open a book to see what PP had written about that city and was given an overwhelming info about their patron saint, the current state of affairs, how the alchemist's guild had just moved their headquarters there, etc etc.

Hey everyone, sorry I didn't check this thread. I was doing stuff last night. I set up a demo game with one of my local AoS players this Friday. I'll see what I think then. I have to admit, I'm a bit more nervous about liking it than disliking it; so many people, some even being people whose opinions I respect, have been calling Age of Sigmar the doom of Games Workshop, saying it is selling and performing so atrociously that only a complete jettisoning of the product line could save them. All the other threads are about how AoS has no presence at their FLGS. I'm a bit worried about loving it and it just dies on me.

Don't ever forget that the internet and people in general largely default to hyberpole when discussing things that they have an interest in... for good or bad.

However the January report was clear things have not improved for them after the release of AoS they continued to get worse.

And we all know GW has no problem discontinuing games that don't perform.

So concern about the future of AoS is perfectly valid.

Well I wouldn't worry about AoS going out to soon, Hiro. GW certainly have alot of future plans for it and building the game and lore up so if AoS does begin to see an end it'll probably happen 2-3 years down the road.

If that's a big concern for you then just buy and use models you'd also like to play with in other games like FrostGrave and Dragon's Rampart. That way your models will always have a place on the battlefield.

Here's wishing you luck on your Friday game and that AoS is your cup of tea!

I don't play aos myself but don't worry not here to berate it

Give it a try and see if you like it. Price seems high but the getting started army boxes are great deals.

In the end try and take the game in some degree of humour and fun. If this is your first way into warhammer then you won't have the biased I and many other will have towards the game.

The trick I think to aos is thinking of cool scenario's and building up a story where it be for your army your game or both. I think that will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game and do beleive that's what a game of aos hinges on.

There is also some community based points systems as well if you want to try and balance it more.

One last thing I can say is don't be scared to adapt the rules to make it more fun (as long as all players know of course :p )

How any game does is dependent on the local gaming groups.

AoS is doing great in my area (doing better than 40k). In other areas, it might not be doing as well. If you have 30 active players, it is doing great in your area too.

Don't worry, have fun.

We treat the starter box as a complete game with two armies.
Also recommend watching Realms of Conflict's play through video that uses scenario from that boxed rulebook and just those two starter forces---which are plenty big if you don't wanna expand or 1/2 can be traded off for the 1/2 you want.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8geGRMr7gag

Even if AoS does end up being canned, GW will give it two years before yielding the axe.

If you want to start it, you can start now and buy all the Sigmarines and Chaos you'll ever need.

The legacy armies can be filled in from historical or rival fantasy ranges, if GW have discontinued them.

FyreSlayers options are rather thin, but more may be released in the next year.

Also make sure to download all the rules and war scroolls. That way, if GW can the game, you can carry on laying with the figures and rules already in your hands.

Plus, most fantasy figures can be adapted to various other rulesets if you need to. There's plenty of alternatives on the market.

How likely is the canning? Surely they'd give people the points system they seem to be throwing a huff about before that, and, I mean, it's not doing GREAT, but isn't it improving? More people playing it and such?