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 chaosmarauder wrote:
I think an interesting comparison is to Tolkien's writing of Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit.

AOS seems to be lacking the Hobbits, or something like the hobbits point of view.

Its like they wrote the story just about the Elves (Stormcasts) fighting Mordor (Khorne) and just forgot about the little people which we, as the readers, relate to.

In 40k many novels start from the view of an insignificant person and their view of the Space Marines. How awed they are by them etc. AOS needs some of this.

Actually in the very first novel there's a tribe of ordinary humans. Some of the story is told from their point of view. There is one story that features an "ordinary" human mage as one of the secondary characters (the first in the Hammers of Sigmar I think). I can't think of anything else at the moment...

 chaosmarauder wrote:

In 40k many novels start from the view of an insignificant person and their view of the Space Marines. How awed they are by them etc. AOS needs some of this.

That'll be Gates of Azyr then - although to be fair that specific moment isn't until about half way.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 streetsamurai wrote:
I completely disagree that these considerations are not as important for a mass battle game than for a skirmish game. FOr me, the battles feels meaningless when such iinformation is absent. But, at this point, I think that we all have made our arguments clear enough, and we have irreconcilliable differences on the matter.

Peace

Fair enough!
Just to be very clear though, I like detailed settings. I possibly don't view them as crucially as you do as I get the impression you're more naturally an RPGer than a mass gamer.

To use a very clunky analogy, it's like 'the West' vs. Daesh. Daesh are the bad guys, and want to eradicate the West/remake it in their image.
That's pretty much enough premise to fight a battle game with, it's a pretty basic concept and has a universal appeal as such.
It's when/if you start asking questions beyond that that you need an understanding of Western culture, a history of fundamentalist Islam, what kit a soldier needs for an urban sweep, what that boy on the run in Aleppo is called, etc. etc. It's whether you stick to headlines, or the editorials, or read articles.
I'm expecting there to be more substance to AoS over time, although I'm expecting more 40k than Old World - with the Old World being so finite it could be described in minute detail, whereas in AoS or 40K only portions of it (I.e. Necromunda, Terra, Cadia) can be.
I'm just happy to stick to headlines for now.

The more of the fluff I read, the more I hated it, so I stopped torturing myself and dropped the whole line.

RoperPG wrote:
I'm expecting there to be more substance to AoS over time, although I'm expecting more 40k than Old World - with the Old World being so finite it could be described in minute detail, whereas in AoS or 40K only portions of it (I.e. Necromunda, Terra, Cadia) can be.

Well said -- and even then, AoS seems to be much more about who is doing what than, say, what it is like in the place they are doing it.

The Old World novels were also a trade-off. Some books focused exclusively on main characters (Teclis, Gotrek, etc.), others showed the little people.

 mazik765 wrote:
So I've been getting closer and closer to succumbing to my love of Skaven and taking the plunge, now that it seems easier than ever to get them going. My main question is that I am a little unclear as to what the battletomes are for, and what they provide to the game.

AoS was pitched to me as this: a easy to pick up game with free rules online to lower the barrier to entry. And it looks like the rules for all the models are available for free online. But then I see these 'battletomes' for Khorne Bloodbound, Stormcast Eternal and Lizardmen. And no there's a clan pestilens one coming? So if all the rules are available online, then why should I buy these? Are they just for people who want a physical copy + fluff?

Sorry if this question is incredibly obvious, but thanks for the help in advance!

I have purchased all Battletomes to date and don't regret it at all,they are very well done.This coming from someone whos been a gamer for over 40 years.

That said you certainly don't "need" to have the battletome`s but if you are really interested in a certain faction such as Skaven,I would certainly consider picking that one up.It will have backround to bring you up to speed as to were they are currently in mortal realms along with painting ideas,some battleplans(scenarios) that work for any faction but are more themed for Skaven and all the warscrolls for your army,,well in the case of the Pestilens one,it will have the warscrolls for that army subfaction and the Battalions as well.

As has been mentioned you can certainly pass on the book and just use the app or DL the scrolls from the website,,or even just buy the Battalions and battleplans for a few bucks from the app.

And finally,,,forums are probably not the best place to discuss AoS..I would search on Facebook and look to join one of the great communities in that system.Even Reddit has some great pages on AoS.That way you don't have to wade through all the sadfest that most AoS forum topics become.

 Haechi wrote:

 mazik765 wrote:
Are they just for people who want a physical copy + fluff?

Yes.

The Seraphon's battletome was so full of gakky fluff, horribly written stories, and terrible illustrations I'm never buying one again =]

Crap... That sucks... That's the one I was thinking of getting.

I liked the seraphon book a lot. Best take a look for yourself.

Wow this thread escalated quickly 0.0

Minijack wrote:

 mazik765 wrote:
So I've been getting closer and closer to succumbing to my love of Skaven and taking the plunge, now that it seems easier than ever to get them going. My main question is that I am a little unclear as to what the battletomes are for, and what they provide to the game.

AoS was pitched to me as this: a easy to pick up game with free rules online to lower the barrier to entry. And it looks like the rules for all the models are available for free online. But then I see these 'battletomes' for Khorne Bloodbound, Stormcast Eternal and Lizardmen. And no there's a clan pestilens one coming? So if all the rules are available online, then why should I buy these? Are they just for people who want a physical copy + fluff?

Sorry if this question is incredibly obvious, but thanks for the help in advance!

I have purchased all Battletomes to date and don't regret it at all,they are very well done.This coming from someone whos been a gamer for over 40 years.

That said you certainly don't "need" to have the battletome`s but if you are really interested in a certain faction such as Skaven,I would certainly consider picking that one up.It will have backround to bring you up to speed as to were they are currently in mortal realms along with painting ideas,some battleplans(scenarios) that work for any faction but are more themed for Skaven and all the warscrolls for your army,,well in the case of the Pestilens one,it will have the warscrolls for that army subfaction and the Battalions as well.

As has been mentioned you can certainly pass on the book and just use the app or DL the scrolls from the website,,or even just buy the Battalions and battleplans for a few bucks from the app.

And finally,,,forums are probably not the best place to discuss AoS..I would search on Facebook and look to join one of the great communities in that system.Even Reddit has some great pages on AoS.That way you don't have to wade through all the sadfest that most AoS forum topics become.

Thanks for the tip! I will defintately keep an eye open for future Skaven battletomes! Unfortunately I never cared much personally for Pestilens, but I would mot certainly be tempted to a Skryre or Verminus battletome if it comes in the future

As a brief aside: is there anywhere that I can find a brief-ish summary of the current state of the world?

 mazik765 wrote:


As a brief aside: is there anywhere that I can find a brief-ish summary of the current state of the world?

This seems nice enough http://ageofsigmar.wikia.com/. I could brief you in 4 sentences while keeping 99% of the content within:

With their stalwart heroes at the front, the stormcast eternals are opening portals to Azyr all across the realms paving the way for their brethren to join them in the unending war. While the discovery and retrieval of Ghal Maraz from the Realm of Metal has been a great victory, the Realm of Life has been all but lost to Nurgle even though its goddess was found by the Hallowed knights. Yet hope remains as all await the rebirth of Alarielle and another soul, previously lost to chaos is swayed to the light of Sigmar. Somewhere else mighty champions of the dark gods are compelled into the service of the Archaon as he gathers his most trusted leutenants for the coming war...

Nice and brief eh . Pity it was more interesting for me to write this than the actual reading itself...