Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 agnosto wrote:
One would hope that it was being played at WHW.....

I don't think that's a good indication on how well or poor it's doing in the rest of the world.

figured I'd give an update in my area.

So there are 2 separate local groups who play, both around 6~10 people and both focus on playing at 2 separate FLGS.

the 1 meta at the biggest FLGS has pretty much given up on AoS. They still tried it out last night, but it appears most don't like it, forcing the few who do to still pick up a new game. Demos have been give out to a bunch of people, but ultimately, it looks like players are migrating to LotR, Malifaux, and Wrath of Kings.

the 2nd meta at the 2nd biggest FLGS is still playing both AoS and 8E, from what I gather. They are still trying make AoS "work" and appear somewhat dedicated to.

So essentially, as i think I had stated earlier, it's 50/50 as I thought. So far. But rather than being split 50/50 across the board, it's 50/50 b/c 1 group is 100% done and 1 group is still 100% in.

edit:
I'll say, me personally, I'll probably convert or migrate to another game. Either LotR or WoK, if only b/c that is what'll be played at the FLGS much more closer to me. Or I may just focus more on Infinity. I'm still curious to see how the other group/FLGS develops AoS for themselves. What I really want to do is spread SAGA to both groups (all the SAGA players here don't play WHFB pretty much) and people can just use their WHFB models. I think it's a brilliant idea! But it'll probably be difficult given how hard other games are being spearheaded.

 Dr. Cheesesteak wrote:
figured I'd give an update in my area.

So there are 2 separate local groups who play, both around 6~10 people and both focus on playing at 2 separate FLGS.

the 1 meta at the biggest FLGS has pretty much given up on AoS. They still tried it out last night, but it appears most don't like it, forcing the few who do to still pick up a new game. Demos have been give out to a bunch of people, but ultimately, it looks like players are migrating to LotR, Malifaux, and Wrath of Kings.

the 2nd meta at the 2nd biggest FLGS is still playing both AoS and 8E, from what I gather. They are still trying make AoS "work" and appear somewhat dedicated to.

So essentially, as i think I had stated earlier, it's 50/50 as I thought. So far. But rather than being split 50/50 across the board, it's 50/50 b/c 1 group is 100% done and 1 group is still 100% in.

edit:
I'll say, me personally, I'll probably convert or migrate to another game. Either LotR or WoK, if only b/c that is what'll be played at the FLGS much more closer to me. Or I may just focus more on Infinity. I'm still curious to see how the other group/FLGS develops AoS for themselves. What I really want to do is spread SAGA to both groups (all the SAGA players here don't play WHFB pretty much) and people can just use their WHFB models. I think it's a brilliant idea! But it'll probably be difficult given how hard other games are being spearheaded.

I don't know much about Wrath of Kings, but I love the models. I bought some of the werewolves to use in my Circle army (because I liked the idea of a giant female werewolf) and they're very very well done models.

This question won't really become relevant until after a few weeks or months have passed. Honeymoon period and all that applying here. Although not sure what it says if a large portion of responses are saying its not doing very well already considering its just released and should be at peak interest.

I spoke to my FLGS owner just a few days ago about AOS; The shop normally has a strong following of 40k 10-12 players with some of them that also have fantasy armies 4-6. He told me that only one box has sold and the buyer told him he only planned to convert the figures for his 40k army. The owner wants to do demos to help push the game but he is having a hard time recruiting someone to run them.
I have a difficult time wrapping my head around AOS no point system, the rules are playable but just don't want to throw out everything I own and hope my opponent don't rage quit.

It seems AOS is either doing very well or completely killing fantasy in games stores..no in between.

 MWHistorian wrote:

I don't know much about Wrath of Kings, but I love the models. I bought some of the werewolves to use in my Circle army (because I liked the idea of a giant female werewolf) and they're very very well done models.

yeah I actually have that WoK Goritsi starter set. I got it before anyone at the big FLGS even heard of the game lol. And you're right, they are great models. I ultimately, ironically, gave up on WoK in hype favor of AoS. But, seems we know how that's gone...

It's doing pretty consistent/decently in my area. (East of Seattle).

It's not eclipsing everything else, but it's doing well enough. The new terrain is 7 kinds of awesome!

In my area (Tulsa), we had a pretty large & diverse group playing Fantasy, about eight regulars, another four or five who'd turn up every couple of months, and few we'd see maybe twice a year- but 8th edition killed it. The game was dead, dead, dead and the stock was being consistently moved to the discount table, where it would sit for months. Several people started to base their fantasy armies for the Impetus rules.

In 2014 Fantasy started to pick up again. One or two of the older players and some new guys started playing 8th fairly often. This new group was much smaller, about five or six total. But a few months ago they all disappeared.

AoS is having a slow start. The people who have played the most are older players, those who have armies but didn't like 8th. I know I am having fun discovering how my old units act now. A few boxes have sold, and not just to 40K players, either, so maybe in a couple more weeks we'll start to see Sigmarine armies out to play. The people playing now tend to want to field painted armies.

There has been talk of Kings of War, but no one has done more than talk, so far.

Update: the 8th ed guys are back, and they are all playing Kings of War. I have been invited to join them next Sunday with my square-based models.

 MWHistorian wrote:

I don't know much about Wrath of Kings, but I love the models. I bought some of the werewolves to use in my Circle army (because I liked the idea of a giant female werewolf) and they're very very well done models.

Gasps.

Judt googled wrath of kings, and oh, my god. Those werewolves are stunning.

How can I get them? The female skirmisher and scourge hound especially.

I'm in Kent, WA and Age of Sigmar has been doing great here. Every day I've been in my store there is at least one game going, and the new Stormcasts are selling really well. Don't know about anyone else, but it is going great here.

Deadnight wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:

I don't know much about Wrath of Kings, but I love the models. I bought some of the werewolves to use in my Circle army (because I liked the idea of a giant female werewolf) and they're very very well done models.

Gasps.

Judt googled wrath of kings, and oh, my god. Those werewolves are stunning.

How can I get them? The female skirmisher and scourge hound especially.

https://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/wrath-of-kings/goritsi-starter-box.html

cheers
jah

So basically Rackham Confrontation Wolven.

 Moopy wrote:
So basically Rackham Confrontation Wolven.

Not just basically. The very same sculptors.

CMON's Confrontation re-boot has also been lingering in the pipeline for a few years now. Not sure if they've given up on it.

http://confrontationphoenix.com/

The Sad thing is that no matter how I look at it, Warhammer Fantasy 9th edition could easily have succeeded if games workshop actually put forth the effort to make it as successful as Warhammer 40k. I understand why they went this route from a business standpoint, however the issue I have with this is that if Games Workshop put some of the effort they have done to get Warhammer 40k and Horus Heresy popular, through ads, marketing, etc., then Warhammer Fantasy could have survived or even had made a comeback. The fact to me is that no matter how I look at it, I just feel that Games Workshop got lazy and decided to try something new instead of trying to fix what they had, and I honestly feel that this is going to backfire on them. Sure sales are doing good right now, however that's because this is the new thing and in my experience it always sells good when something new comes out.

Just played a game of 8th edition today and from looking at it, there were only a few things Games Workshop had to do in order to make 9th edition a success. Like 40K, all they had to do was tone down some of the rules, make better battle forces to allow players quicker access to play, and as mentioned above, actually put forth some effort to promote Warhammer Fantasy instead of doing the bare minimum, which they have been doing for the past couple of editions when it came to Warhammer Fantasy. Obviously there were other factors that played into this decision to change the game, however I still firmly believe that the vast majority reason was due to games workshops Incompetence. not buying any excuses that Games Workshop couldn't have done anything to bring back fantasy, when evidence shows that when 40k was slacking, they put forth the effort to correct it and look what happened.

As for how Age of Sigmar is doing, still have a huge stack of boxes and not many people are playing it. A lot of the older Warhammer fantasy players are basically telling new players not to play it as they see it as a bad game. Anyone else been noticing a lot of the old guard telling new players not to play Warhammer Age of Sigmar? Not surprising as from what I have seen, feedback has been overwhelming negative at my store. And one guy made it interesting point in the sense that since they are just changing the names of the races and such, why didn't Games Workshop just make a completely different game instead of killing off this one. Kind of has a valid point now that I think about it.

 jah-joshua wrote:

Deadnight wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:

I don't know much about Wrath of Kings, but I love the models. I bought some of the werewolves to use in my Circle army (because I liked the idea of a giant female werewolf) and they're very very well done models.

Gasps.

Judt googled wrath of kings, and oh, my god. Those werewolves are stunning.

How can I get them? The female skirmisher and scourge hound especially.

https://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/wrath-of-kings/goritsi-starter-box.html

cheers
jah

Cheers man!

http://wrathofkings.com/ks/factions/house-of-goritsi/
And the female skirmisher third from the left?

Edit: figured it out.theres six skirmishers in the starter not just the dude on the box cover.

My buddy manages at hobby town, they started selling fantasy stuff for the first time in a long time. I bought the starter set, but I'm probably going to play high elves primarily. (I've collected several heroes, and a few units over the years because they're pretty, and my knights immortal figures from mageknight work beautifully!)

As a store worker in charge of piloting AoS this is kinda what I found as a community.

We have been selling fantasy stuff, not just AoS, but older stuff that has collected dust for years even when we had the End Times stuff out.

We have sold half of our AoS starter stock. Most of the customers have either bought them for the models, or looking for something lighter to get into.

People that actually have played the game with at least the starter kit have enjoyed it.

The only real rules we have had to add/change is removing the initiative roll after each turn, the shooting range why in melee, and giving a look out sir! to hero units.

We currently have at least 3 dedicated players, and 3-5 on and off guys.

It seems to be doing fairly well at my local GW store. plenty of people crowding around a table.... Not multiple games mind you, but no 40K games happening either.

So from that, lots of people interested and some game activity. I know the initial launch got a few bulk orders from customers.... but I'm not sure its selling that well. Especially when the collectors edition is still available on the GW Australia store, which for a GW product - seems unusual.

I asked the local manager and he said that the launch is going well.
I mentioned about the online backlash, to which he responded that old players just need tome to adjust.... He's not a bad guy so I let that slide.
I did think that was a fairly arrogant mindset, considering AoS is a new game that has essentially eliminated and replaced the old game that so many people loved.


Anyway, that's my two cents

Well, unfortunately, a friend of mine just started getting into AoS, and kind of prefers the system now. And a couple of people at my store have been playing only that the past few weeks.

I've played a few games myself, and it's an okay game, but doesn't even come close to replacing 40k for me.

I also checked with my local store, and apparently the sales are doing okay. Not extremely good, or bad, just okay. Heck, at the end of the day, my girlfriend wanted to pick up Empire models for a new army.

All of that being said, I'm very happy with the overall "balance" of the armies. One thing I don't miss from 8th edition was how terrible Tomb Kings were. Now, they seem to be pretty insane, but as are most things.

I was chatting with my local store owner (independent) and asks him how AoS was doing.

He has one customer, a 25+ year veteran of WHFB who wants to drop an orbital bombardment onto GWHQ. But he says he has sold more Fantasy in one month than almost the last year put together, so he's ecstatic. He went from minimum stocking levels (read: Qty 1) to ordering 4-5 of new releases and selling out before the next week. The terrain was literally gone within the hour.

They've also sold a lot of the 264 page book, which he was surprised at - the first week, he had only ordered 2, and they were spoken for before they arrived, then he ordered 5 and they sold within the week. The AoS section is literally bare, save a couple of starter boxes and some of single character clampacks.

I haven't seen anyone play it at any store I've gone to, but I tend to visit around lunch hours on business days, so not busy times anyhow.

@krodarklor - I'm totally with you: The rules and game is ok, but it doesn't come CLOSE to competing with 40k for my attention. Unfortunately (Fortunately?) my wife loves the game, so I must paint her like, 50 Sigmarites >.< On the bright side, she's going to be playing with her Magic friends, so I will blissfully stay in my 40k realm

 Talys wrote:
I was chatting with my local store owner (independent) and asks him how AoS was doing.

He has one customer, a 25+ year veteran of WHFB who wants to drop an orbital bombardment onto GWHQ. But he says he has sold more Fantasy in one month than almost the last year put together, so he's ecstatic. He went from minimum stocking levels (read: Qty 1) to ordering 4-5 of new releases and selling out before the next week. The terrain was literally gone within the hour.

To be fair, you'll often get this with big releases in the very beginning quite often, and you'll always get people that will buy the new stuff "just because". The question will be, does it sustain itself past any initial "new factor"?

Personally, I haven't seen people touch fantasy in years, and AoS did seem to generate some new interest, bringing their stuff out for the first time since like 2012 and checking out the new system, but beyond the initial "lets try this out", it doesn't appear that it's really caught on. There's the initial burst of interest, and then it flickers out. I think most of the kits sold at my FLGS were for use as 40k proxies


Dunno if that's the case everywhere, but it does seem to be not totally uncommon.

My closest FLGS friends are getting into it. A long time friend is getting me into it and there's a possoble recruit or two still out there.
So that's at least 7 players with a more diverse army playgroup than we expected.

Got my wife to play it, I also started at the same time. Her daemonettes army was already pretty significant from 40k and I have a bunch of fantasy models from gw and other companies. Turns out I have pretty decent high elf, dark elf, and vampire counts armies literally lying around the house

 Vaktathi wrote:

 Talys wrote:
I was chatting with my local store owner (independent) and asks him how AoS was doing.

He has one customer, a 25+ year veteran of WHFB who wants to drop an orbital bombardment onto GWHQ. But he says he has sold more Fantasy in one month than almost the last year put together, so he's ecstatic. He went from minimum stocking levels (read: Qty 1) to ordering 4-5 of new releases and selling out before the next week. The terrain was literally gone within the hour.

To be fair, you'll often get this with big releases in the very beginning quite often, and you'll always get people that will buy the new stuff "just because". The question will be, does it sustain itself past any initial "new factor"?

Personally, I haven't seen people touch fantasy in years, and AoS did seem to generate some new interest, bringing their stuff out for the first time since like 2012 and checking out the new system, but beyond the initial "lets try this out", it doesn't appear that it's really caught on. There's the initial burst of interest, and then it flickers out. I think most of the kits sold at my FLGS were for use as 40k proxies


Dunno if that's the case everywhere, but it does seem to be not totally uncommon.

Yeah, I agree. The real test is down the road, whether people are excited or not when there's a new release.

 Talys wrote:

@krodarklor - I'm totally with you: The rules and game is ok, but it doesn't come CLOSE to competing with 40k for my attention. Unfortunately (Fortunately?) my wife loves the game, so I must paint her like, 50 Sigmarites >.< On the bright side, she's going to be playing with her Magic friends, so I will blissfully stay in my 40k realm

Well, my girlfriend might seriously get into Empire after selling her Lizards, but I dunno. I don't mind playing it with her, mainly because summoning is fun. I just don't want her, or my other friends, to forsake 40k altogether. Doesn't help that my girlfriend likes CSM, and they suck right now....

 Talys wrote:
I was chatting with my local store owner (independent) and asks him how AoS was doing.

They've also sold a lot of the 264 page book, which he was surprised at - the first week, he had only ordered 2, and they were spoken for before they arrived, then he ordered 5 and they sold within the week. The AoS section is literally bare, save a couple of starter boxes and some of single character clampacks.

We have the same situation. We usually stock up on the new stuff about 1-3 of each item then drop down to a minimum as people finish their collections. But man, that book, we been selling it like hot cakes. I'm not even shy about being honest with customers what is in the book, I even show them our store copy so they can clearly see everything in it. Yet, they they still like it. We even had a guy just pre-order the huge tree-people battle pack today as well.

My goal now is try to grab some 40k players to at least dabble in the game, I'm not looking to call our league a fantasy/40k league, but it would be nice to be able to play both games. Since as of right now, I'm pretty thick into AoS promoting it for the store and all.

In this region the veteran gamers (like me) tried the game and will not play it, because the lack of depth.

But there seems to be interest in AoS by younger players and partners of gamers. And there are people that do not like big sets of rules (one of the reasons why X-Wing or Star Wars Armada sells; i literally learned both in about 10 minutes each).

Yesterday I advised a friend to try it with his sons (around 10 years old) instead of WHFB because of the simple rules. The WHFB rules are a bit much even for him. He did not know AoS was easier AND free to download at the moment.
AoS can be played by the sons with or without him and is an easy way to have fun with miniatures.

I do expect that this will work out actually and it might save WHFB. And if i was GW, i would not provide advanced rules too soon.

Otherwise these new players would quickly be driven away by the "competitive gamers" that too often do not play for fun and often even take the fun out of it.

I play WHFB since 3rd edition, AoS is not for me, but i understand who it is for and i completely understand that this is a different group as the group that grew too small and did not spent enough on the game to keep it alive.

I my opinion wargaming should be about having fun and creativity, and AoS has that covered.
I also like a game with depth and where skill is a deciding element. AoS is not that.
40k is about 60% in the good direction IMO, Epic is close to perfect.

But for fun you can play anything.
And if you want to paint miniatures, which i do, the game is only part of the hobby.

ORicK wrote:
In this region the veteran gamers (like me) tried the game and will not play it, because the lack of depth.

But there seems to be interest in AoS by younger players and partners of gamers. And there are people that do not like big sets of rules (one of the reasons why X-Wing or Star Wars Armada sells; i literally learned both in about 10 minutes each).

Yesterday I advised a friend to try it with his sons (around 10 years old) instead of WHFB because of the simple rules. The WHFB rules are a bit much even for him. He did not know AoS was easier AND free to download at the moment.
AoS can be played by the sons with or without him and is an easy way to have fun with miniatures.

I do expect that this will work out actually and it might save WHFB. And if i was GW, i would not provide advanced rules too soon.

Otherwise these new players would quickly be driven away by the "competitive gamers" that too often do not play for fun and often even take the fun out of it.

I play WHFB since 3rd edition, AoS is not for me, but i understand who it is for and i completely understand that this is a different group as the group that grew too small and did not spent enough on the game to keep it alive.

I my opinion wargaming should be about having fun and creativity, and AoS has that covered.
I also like a game with depth and where skill is a deciding element. AoS is not that.
40k is about 60% in the good direction IMO, Epic is close to perfect.

But for fun you can play anything.
And if you want to paint miniatures, which i do, the game is only part of the hobby.

That's part of the reason I will not play it either, as this game has no depth whatsoever and to me, it also is very bland. There is very little now that makes units standout as many have lost what made them so great in the first place. Good example is my Empire Army with Reiksguard Knights. What I loved about them was not only the Stubborn Leadership, but the fact that like all Empire Knights, they had the great 1+ save which made them very survivable and allowed me to win a ton of games with them as many people where forced to deal with my Halberd Hordes. Now, they hit on a basic roll like many units, wound on the same roll as a lot of basic units, and now come with a normal, average 4+ save even though they are in Full Plate Armor..................................... Good example to what I am very unhappy with about the game, as there is no more flavor (so to speak) for every army and everything is just bland, as I could play a different army but have the same outcome as many units are so similar to each other in so many ways.

AOS is still struggling to get going, and rght now a lot of Veteran Players are now and still persuading younger players not to play it as they say it is a childish, simple game for little kids. Don't agree with it but that's what is happening a lot it seems and so far AOS is still struggling at my store right now. And I still have the gut feeling that this is going to backfire on GW as they alienated a lot of the old, faithful Warhammer Players and I still feel that if they actually put some of the effort that they did into 40k all this time, then they could have kept Fantasy the way it was. But instead they got lazy and tried to reboot the game in a stupid way in my opinion, which is especially odd timing considering that Warhammer Total War is coming out soon and still follows the Timeline from the Old Warhammer Game.

Hard to say. At the club-zero interest that I have seen. In the surrounding area, I have no idea. There are a couple of FLGS but I havent been in since the AoS release.
Since the club WarHamsters are running a charity 8th ed Warhams tournament in October, I'm going to say its probably doing poorly.

The reason that old WFB units have lost their 'zing' is that in WFB a 1+ save with faster movement and good attacks was something you paid points for.
AoS, from the Stormcast and Khornate 'new' units we've seen, there is a perpetual rock-paper-scissors approach - yes, some units are objectively better in certain circumstances, but you don't get the massive gaps between them that a points-based selection allowed for.

The existing army warscrolls are an attempt to shoe-horn stuff designed for an old system into a new one. You put down your reiksguard knights and are dismayed that they aren't as effective in AoS as they were in WFB. Whilst probably overlooking the fact that units you used to view as incidental or cannon-fodder actually became more effective.

If people don't like AoS, they don't like it. But in our area, there are a group of us who love it even at this early stage, and a group who aren't that great at not sneering when watching a game.

Fantasy wasn't the tactical paragon people are trying to make out it was, and AoS isn't the shallow kid's game it's being made out to be either.