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I'll be honest, fellas. With the latest round of 'last chance to buy', this project might not have legs... :(

Yep. They killed most of Empire, High Elves, Wood Elves and Dwarfs and didn't tell anyone about it beforehand.
Curiously though some of the lines are still on sale. It may well be that they are already stopped any production and were simply updating which items have finally run low or out.

What can you collect then.

Complete ranges:
Lizardmen
Vampire Counts
Warriors of Chaos
Daemons of Chaos
Ogre Kingdoms

If selective you can collect:
Orcs & Goblins
Beasts of Chaos
Skaven

For everything else look elsewhere.

https://www.the-ninth-age.com/community/lexicon/index.php?lexicon/462-the-9th-age-miniature-library/

Even so, you still have options. I got damn near an entire Dwarf army on the trade forum here for a really decent price. And if the Dark Elf guy would ever respond, I'd have a full Dark Elf army as well.

 posermcbogus wrote:
I'll be honest, fellas. With the latest round of 'last chance to buy', this project might not have legs... :(

GW have been streamlining the fantasy line for a while now. A lot of focus is going into the 40K and small skirmish games (and even more so when you consider the cross over factions). It should not come as a surprise that old lines are going as they streamline this.

However except for some rare armies (Tomb Kings, Brets) the prices used are still reasonable and there are other options. The other advantage is the both 40k and AoS are going through some serious 'churn' in the frequency of the rereleases of factions to keep them refreshed. Although it might take longer to pick up the models you want at least you will have a 'stable' game in WFB

Well I posted about 6th because it's a solid edition that I have good memories of, and the core rulebook plus the Ravening Hordes army lists come to about £10 total. If you do want the army books, they're cheaply available on eBay - a couple of £ each.

I ollected the entire run of 40k 3rd edition books for about £70.

The Lexicanum website shows the covers for all the army books for each edition, it really helps when you're hinting them down.

For Warhammer Fantasy, I own 3rd, 6th and 8th editions, plus Warhammer Ancient Battles (bsed on 5th ed), and 6th just hits the spot for me (and the guy I game with). The main rulebook also has siege rules and a skirmish version of the game.

Round vs square - we do both, as I use a lot of my LotR forces to pad out my armies. It works - for units in the range 4-6 minis wide, there's nothing that gets a hit it shouldn't, and nothing missing out. The round 40mm cavalry bases are a problem, and I base cavalry for WFB, but the 40mm round and square bases are interchangeable for monsters. Generally speaking, we play relaxed games rather than counting the millimetres.

No international conspiracy against AoS here...

 posermcbogus wrote:
I'll be honest, fellas. With the latest round of 'last chance to buy', this project might not have legs... :(

It will mostly be the Warhammer-specific special stuff that you feel the loss of. Other companies do dwarfs, metal and plastic. Bridge Minis in the UK sell the old Black Hat "Conquistadwarves" range (plus trad fantasy, pirate fantasy and Highland dwarves too), and you'll find cannon and handgunners and the like in there. North Star's Oathmark range has basic dwarves and elves, Avatars of War and Mantic have a range of stuff.

Wargames Foundry even do an Elf ballista with a swan/dolphin/duck (?) headpiece, in fact an amazing range of fantasy full stop. Scotia Grendel have the old Harlequin LotR figures, Ral Partha do more realistic orcs in their huge fantasy range. It's things like the Skycutter and lion chariot you can't easily replace.

The LotR minis are conspicuously differently sized from things like WFB orks, but offer a good range of core infantry and cavalry. Depends on your taste.

Lovely as the missing Empire models are, there are plenty of Renaissance armies that fit the bill, and some interestingly attired generals and characters.

I stick with 6th as it is the most fun i've had in a bigger game. Aos reminds me of the we have to go back neanderthal meme. Played 4th to 8th and some aos, aos just felt like 40k skinned over. I like seeing large blocks of troops on the table charging into others lol

Sourcing models has been super easy for me with the local craigslist type posts. I'm done collecting armies as i have them all now, from dogs of war to tomb kings. None of the base armies (3,000 to 5,000 points) have cost me over $500 cad, (325 usd roughly) some need work, a few of them were perfectly painted when i got them

I took the fantasy plunge a few months ago and got into Age of Sigmar. I've really enjoyed it! If you have no WFB baggage, it might be worth giving AOS a shot.

Heck, I'm even reading AOS Black Library books now....

 Orlanth wrote:
Yep. They killed most of Empire, High Elves, Wood Elves and Dwarfs and didn't tell anyone about it beforehand.
Curiously though some of the lines are still on sale. It may well be that they are already stopped any production and were simply updating which items have finally run low or out.

It's not like there aren't a ton of alternative manufacturers for those lines.

I've seen Bretonnian and Empire armies without a single GW mini on them (one new guy on our 9th age group, new to wargaming so no past collection to draw from)

And then of course there's the grey area of recasts of minis no longer in production. Still illegal, but more palatable than recasts of current models.

The point is that there are alternatives if you look, and GW's decision to purge all of their older Fantasy kits rather than sell them for generic and/or Legacy gaming purposes showcases GW's short sightedness. Bonus points if they outsource the production as to make it cheaper to produce and thus cheaper to sell.

If you like the AoS style...go AoS. If you like the Old World style, go with a different game. Mantic's game or any of the Osprey games, maybe Oathmark, etc. Also, do you like rank and file and regiment games...or crazy sky-dwarfs and flying shark riders? I think you're just setting yourself up for disappointment if you like the Old World or regimental "semi-historical" games...and just force yourself into AoS.

Two totally different creatures. LOTR is another option if you like a more classical Tolkein-esque fantasy world.

There are some really solid other rules sets out there depending on how "deep" you want to get. You can use something like Dragon Rampant from Osprey ($17 rulebook) to essentially use any fantasy miniatures you want. There are finally some really solid third-party plastic fantasy lines out there now. All the Frostgrave boxes, the Oathmark boxes, the Fireforge upcoming GoT styled boxes. You can do Reaper Bones for cheaper monsters/creatures (seriously, a dragon is like $20). So loads of options depending on what you "want" out of the game.

If you go non-GW, you can genuinely build an "army" for under $200. With AoS you'll be spending a gak ton more money - but if it's the game or aesthetic you like, go for it.

So basically your most realistic options are "What is being played other than AOS at my local digs?" or "Can I use social media to find players for an older system or for a game that's not played heavily in my area?", each leading to different conclusions.

Go to your local shops, or check out any local gaming social media groups, that'll at least give you a barometer. If you really want to shoot for something that's obsolete or simply not played that often, you can post a flyer at your local stores as well.

jouso wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
Yep. They killed most of Empire, High Elves, Wood Elves and Dwarfs and didn't tell anyone about it beforehand.
Curiously though some of the lines are still on sale. It may well be that they are already stopped any production and were simply updating which items have finally run low or out.

It's not like there aren't a ton of alternative manufacturers for those lines.

I've seen Bretonnian and Empire armies without a single GW mini on them (one new guy on our 9th age group, new to wargaming so no past collection to draw from)

And then of course there's the grey area of recasts of minis no longer in production. Still illegal, but more palatable than recasts of current models.

Hence the link I posted earlier:

https://www.the-ninth-age.com/community/lexicon/index.php?lexicon/462-the-9th-age-miniature-library/

Nobody should be put off by the 9th Age tag even if they like or dosl;ike 9th Age. Being frank here 9th Age still 'borrows' mush of its identity from WHFB and while it is looking at official new settings and imagery when someone wants an army the default range is eithwer GW stock or something very similar. This link lists a lot if not all those manufacturers in one spot, and you will be surprised as to what you will find.
Now 9th Age is getting les and nd less like WHFB but you should still be able to 'translate' the unit name categories into what you are looking for. Think of them as lists of miniature by description rather than name and you will find what you are looking for quickly.

The more GW abandons Warhammer, the more third party manufacturers take it up. Many of the sculpts are thin derivatives of e-sculpts taken from Total War Warhammer.

AOS is to my mind an unserious game, there is no lore to speak of. Events happen but they never have real consequence and there is no notable gameworld to invest in.

So very much like WFB, where Vampires, Orcs, Chaos and whatnot invade Empire so much, and slay so many people, that Imperial military should be filled with enthusiastic 6yo kids, but due to writer fiat, it somehow keeps from disappearing.
Of course, taking the lore seriously isn't helped by events like Storm of Chaos, where GW decided to rewrite the entire campaign, cause Order kicked Chaos's butt so hard it was more like water sprinkler of chaos.


Then again, this thread has people claiming AoS is a skirmish game, to which I have to say no one told my fishelf army, cause it's got 60 models in it right now at not even 2k points....which I feel stretches the definiton of "skirmish" to breaking point. I guess as a ex-WFB and now AoS player I'm just blinded to it's flaws by the fact that my models now get to attack the enemy instead of being very, very expensive wound counter for the 5-wide rank that actually attacks anyone.

That being said, if you do miss on the experience, I'd suggest something like KOW too, it will have playerbase in the forseeable future and you won't be reduced to scouring ebay for increasingly scalper-priced models.

I think the whole "its a skirmish game" is more that its mechanics are closer to skirmish style free movement than the Old World which was based on rank and file movement blocks.

Otherwise whilst AoS has smaller armies than 40K on average (you can see this sort of in how Demons between the two games cost more in AoS). But I think that's partly because its a "newer" game and thus GW is keeping the point costs a little higher; with a view to likely lowering them or raising the games limit from 2K as time passes and people amass bigger collections and want larger more varied games, but without shifting gear into a full "apoc" style rules set.



And yes pretty much every war game has pretty static lore, anyone who wants to see races rise and fall is really looking for the wrong thing when looking at tabletop miniatures games. Even games like Warmachine, which have a fair shift in the lore, still maintains the general status of all of its factions in that they are around and alive and mostly hold the same core settlements and will do so until they are dropped as models or the game ends.

Where we have seen "lore advance" in terms of lost factions and models and such people generally hate it. Or at least those who actually play the game and play those factions hate it. Just speak to those who lost forces with Infinity or any one of the Tomb Kings, Bretonnia, Wood Elf (half lost) or High elf armies.

Cronch wrote:


That being said, if you do miss on the experience, I'd suggest something like KOW too, it will have playerbase in the forseeable future and you won't be reduced to scouring ebay for increasingly scalper-priced models.

I wouldn't play with 80% of mantic models if they gave them to me for free.

Conquest is new, its rank and flank, and its a hybrid of whfb and warmaster with unique twists of its own.

It is the first game since whfb 6th edition went away that I have been really excited about.

jouso wrote:

Cronch wrote:


That being said, if you do miss on the experience, I'd suggest something like KOW too, it will have playerbase in the forseeable future and you won't be reduced to scouring ebay for increasingly scalper-priced models.

I wouldn't play with 80% of mantic models if they gave them to me for free.

I certainly agree to that, but some of their ranges are really good (Undead) and they have gotten better. However, what is nice about KOW is you can use just about any manufacturer, even in tournies, but then it becomes how many people and places play KOW rules. I for one just play at home with my boys and we went KOW a number of years ago and never looked back. I personally like the ranked armies of old-school fantasy, the balanced armies and non over-bloated rules.

OP - What army are you really looking to play?