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Well, I can't say that I'm not sore about the fate of WHFB as I would be completely lying, especially as WHFB was what introduced me to the world of tabletop wargaming and I'm certainly no fan of AoS' current balancing system or rather the lack of, in fact almost a few weeks after the release of AoS I had decided I absolutely hated it as in my local club it had brought out the absolute worst in people with tfgs emerging from every corner. (I won't go into more detail as it will take too long to type out). I know AoS has been designed to be easy to pick up and play but a few weeks ago I had the displeasure of watching one of the kids just starting out get absolutely demolished by someone with a larger collection, I'm not saying the guy was desperate to beat the kid as he is one of the nicer players in the club but his army was just big enough to make it near impossible for the kid to win, which when you are starting out is one of the most off putting things that can happen to you especially if you don't have the funds to buy more models regularly, this only cemented my dislike for AoS further, that and the severely overpriced pay2win models when compared to the 40k sets. (£35 will get me a box of 10 fyreslayer berserkers with little to no spares while £30 will get me 15 space wolves with more spares than you can shake a rune priest's staff at) that's not to say 40k isn't lacking in pay2win models but AoS seems to have bigger percentage of them (archaon, skarbrand etc).

however, and this is a big however,

when I found out about the points system and narrative systems being introduced my interest was rekindled and after finding out about the global campaign that is affected by the participants the rekindled embers of my interest burst into flame and with that I began to plan my army.

The two factions that interested me the most were the scourge privateers, elves that are essentially the english navy of the 1500s (read pirates) and the fyreslayers because the models are so fantastic (I wanted to buy some when they came out despite my hatred for AoS at the time). From this I came up with the Idea of having a primary force of privateers aided by a force of fyreslayers, hired for their monster hunting prowess as well as the menagerie that the privateers have collected.
The core of the army will be the warscroll battalion for the scourge privateers with various auxiliaries in the form of fyreslayer units and monsters from various factions (currently thinking about converting the new maw-krusha to have a dwarf slayer standing on top instead of the orc.)

I'm still not 100% sure I like the simplicity of the rules and WHFB will always be my favourite wargame but I'm willing to return to age of sigmar if only for the opportunity to carve my own corner of the mortal realms in the global campaign and have my deeds become legend of the realms, I will probably be starting a hobby blog on this at some point in the future.

Thoughts?

Nice to have you back but I I hate to say this, but everything you say you hate about AoS can be applied to Fantasy and almost any other game out there as well. So you must really hated Fantasy and 40K if those are the reasons why you hate AoS. Fantasy and 40K as well as other games were/are pay to win as well, as you say.

As for the narrative system, not sure how you can say that interests you now, it's not being introduced, since it here from day one. Only thing that has changed now is an introduction to a point system. As for the point system, you will just hate it. I mean if you hated that people just pay to win and curb stomp newbies, this will not change. Again, it's not AoS that does this, but the people themselves. It's only going to get worse, not better once points are involved.

So trying to get back to AoS because of the point system, you will not like it. I say don't bother until you can come to grips on why you hated AoS in the first place and really only admit to yourself that you are over it. Time does heal all wounds. Nothing wrong in hating AoS for replacing the world you loved and spent so much time/money/effort/emotion into.

But to say you hate AoS because of Power Gaming, and Buy to Win especially when you compare it to 40K when 40K is a lot worse in the people who play it, I believe your opinion is only valid to you, and not the games fault. Once you come to grips with this, with an open mind, then I say give AoS to try.

But your post I feel the HATE in it for you still. It's still a thorn in your side. The new changes will not please you at all, and you will still find fault with it.

Haha, well, I can't really comment on the pay-to-win thing since that just comes down to, where there's a will(wallet) there's a way.

Anyway, great to hear about your renewed interest! The upcoming points and campaign have certainly increased many people's interests these days.

Also great to hear about the force your working on, the Fyreslayers don't get enough love (imo) for how cool their looks and background is and I really liked the privateer background when I read about it as well. Really nice tie-in with how they function with the rest of Order.

Here's wishing you the best of luck with your AoS ventures!

[Edit]: Oh, forgot to say I feel really sorry for that kid that tried AoS the first time. I would've put down alot of terrain and turned the whole fight into a Mordheim-esque skirmish. More for less.

I have to echo Davor here - it's great that you're looking to give the game a second go, but the points system isn't going to fix your misgivings.
The mentioned example of 5 Hearthguard costing 200pts and a 'big' game being 2k pts smacks to me of "Hey, look, you can still play 2000 point games, just like WFB!"
A single infantry model costing 40 points lends itself to a level of granularity that is just total overkill for a game with such simple mechanics.
AoS is a good game. But it is not a spiritual successor to Fantasy.
If you're going to give it a go, do so. But go all-in. Battleplans, time of War, no comp, mysterious terrain, just discussion with opponent before the game.

If after half a dozen games you're not feeling it, then even with points it might not be your thing. KoW is pretty simple in comparison to WFB, so if you're after a WFB replacement 9th age is your best bet to my understanding.

Sounds like an awesome idea for the army, the idea of bringing in various Dwarf-tamed (or at least Dwarf-beaten-into-placidity) monsters from across the Realms is really cool and makes the most of both the fluff and rules potential of AoS.

The 'pay to win' and all that is really a 'problem' with the players rather than the game; AoS more than anything relies on cooperation between players before the game starts to get a fair match up going, and this will continue to be the case even once points are implemented, I imagine. Basically, don't be a dick, don't play against people who are and you'll be fine! Just make sure you agree on the forces and victory conditions beforehand and you should have a good time, and remember, a 'fair' game doesn't need to have equal forces! You could have your pirates and dwarves fight to hold a position while waiting for their ships to arrive against a much larger force, or set up a scenario where the menagerie breaks free and the guys have to kill or recapture as many as possible in a set time frame! The sky is the limit!

The thing to bear in mind is that as AoS scales so well, you absolutely do not need to keep adding more and more models if you don't want to; get a 30-40 model force, and leave it at that if you want, and play against similarly sized forces, or grow the army but don't use it all at once! Just because you [i]can[/i technically keep deplying models during the set up, doesn't mean you have to if it's going to hurt the game!

Go for it, have fun, and if the game isn't for you then you've lost nothing on the rules and have a nice army to put into other games!

@OP you're already getting plenty of advice but I suggest if you are interested in Fyreslayers you join the Fyreslayers (Age of Sigmar) Group on FB and have a look at hobby posts, fluff, and tactics from games played mixed in with some theoryhammer. If you have 10 minutes to spare it might help you decide one way or another, as despite fewer choices in a monoFyreslayers army, there's still a lot of diversity in look, feel and play.

Dude, great to have you back!

Firstly, your themed force sounds awesome. You seriously need to get your hands on Long Drong's Slayer Pirates to tie the two forces together:



They probably cost a million pounds on eBay now though...

Anyway, I am going to disagree with some of the replies and say the General's handbook will do a lot to answer you problems with the game so far. Having a points system will go some of the way to prevent nice guys from curb-stomping other people because they have misjudged the two forces and will be a good ready reckoner for PUGs.

The narrative game-mode is going to be awesome. It's not just the current campaign books, but is five campaign systems (so there should be neat levelling, expanding, experience systems etc).

Yeah, it's gonna be great! Now's literally the best time yet to get into AoS as you can muster your army now ready for the summer.

Seconded on the slayer pirates, if possible! Even a few would be great to mix in among a basic corsair unit.

If you are concerned about balance issues/tfg's then I would highly suggest Project Points Cost (see my sig). It has very tight balance and the same level of granularity that WHFB had. I think it will fix your issues because I was in the exact same situation you were when AoS launched, but it has since become my favorite game (more so than WHFB even) because of PPC.

Also, despite what some people will imply there is no 'wrong' way to enjoy AoS.

Wow, thanks for all the positive response folks, I must admit I'm rather looking forward to building up this force, I've already got 20 corsairs from my dark elf army and I'm planning on adding a unit of hearthguard (the ones with the musket-axes) and a fleet master whom I will be converting from the officio prefectus commissar model as I'm not so keen on the current one and Lokhir fellheart is rather expensive on eBay now he's oop.
Thanks for the suggestion on the pirate slayers as well bottle, I looked at them on eBay and will probably get some at some point as they aren't too expensive.