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hi

I am a big fan of skirmish gaming , warbands and adventuring parties.

Does AoS lend itself to a 'narrative' style of play , where there are objectives and I can have a small adventurers party come into contact with a wandering band of Orcs or a skulking party of Skaven ?

Can the two 'sides' be chosen from mixed army lists , so say I chose a Elf wizard for one model , dwarf troll slayer as next and finally human cleric.

I understand there is no 'points' but have also heard of the custom systems people are putting out. Is there a widely accepted version , maybe something ala HOR kill team rules?

thanks

James

Great questions and the answer to all these happen to be YES.

AoS not only lends itself to a narrative style of play, but based on the official books, it's like the new norm...though not quite in the Heroquest way. That said, not only is that possible, but actually quite fun as AoS is very Herohammery. With what you're describing, you'd be using the Hero units from different "Warscrolls" (i.e. codices) to represent your adventurers party. You MAY still get a few units of normal troops to represent the adventurers' retinues or followers or townsfolk they're defending.

You can absolutely mix army lists as AoS has no limitations like the Allied Matrix. The advantage of choosing from one faction is that Heroes usually have some sort of extra buff they can give to troops from their own kind. At the same time, there are universal special spells for any faction's Wizards that can buff anyone, so there is no real disadvantage or even opportunity cost.

As for some common "house rules" that have become a standard, this is a huge thing as my FLGS found the AoS RAW to be a real problem. Not only was there a lack of a points system, but issues with shooting in and out of melee, etc. However, one of our FLGS comrades started promoting this 1-page Errata:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Age-of-Sigmar-Errata-and-Scenarios.pdf

This Errata is rumoured to have come from an actual GW retail store manager, who wrote this because he's the guy in contact with players. My FLGS circle found this 1-page PDF completely addresses their issues with AoS RAW. The "points system" is in the last paragraph.

---

Now, your idea of a Heroquest-style game is slightly different as you'll be very Hero-heavy, but IMHO this seems closer to the spirit of AoS. However, I think the idea is that the players can each pick like, say, 10 Wounds of whatever they want (Hero and maybe a group of followers), while the Gamemaster controlling the monsters would stick to those army building guidelines to be fair. Keep in mind, this Errata isn't just for the balance system, it's to clear up a few RAW loopholes or just weird oversight in AoS RAW.

I just posted the same idea on warseer:

I tried AOS as a simple dungeon crawler type game. Since I mostly game with my young nephews, the simplicity in AOS is actually a bonus. They start with a LVL 1, 3 wound character, hitting and wounding on 5, 5+ armor, with stats increasing as they level up...thinking one level for every 20 wounds caused. So I act as sort of a DM, telling a story (that has nothing to do with current AOS fluff) and giving an objective...last game was check out the shrine at the other end of the table.

Encounters are determined by D6 at the start of each turn. First turn is an encounter on a 6. Second on a 5. 3rd on a 4 and so on until an encounter is triggered. Then its either d6 small, d3 medium or one large foe. I place them 18 inches away in cover using the scatter die to determine the location. Once the fight is over, they get their loot then I roll the D6 for any more encounters. So far they have mostly been fighting goblins at this point, but am looking forward to introducing more baddies from the hoard of unpainted figs I have. They visit towns, buy and find healing potions to use in the Hero phase to keep things going,plus magic items etc.

One house rule I may try is no moving and shooting. Not crazy about the move, shoot and charge in one turn mechanic. But other than that, it really has a video game l feel with movement triggering encounters and item drops. Really enjoying it. Thoughts?

Imo lack of structure =/= narrative play.

AoS doesn't have much in the way of actually talking about how t structure narrative play from what I have seen, it is more 'here is x battle from fluff, it has y units on 1 size and z units on the other'.

What it does have is the ability to field whatever you want.

If you are just playing with close friends who want to participate in the same narrative with you then it will work just as well as any other game out there (since you can place whatever models you want on the table with friends anyway) but if you are looking to play within the rules and are after a game that has in game objectives built in and an official campaign system then AoS really doesn't offer anything any other games don't.

You might want to take a look at the GW School League rules for smaller games as it limits the game size to 30 models each.

With these rules, my army theme is very much a classic adventuring party. I have as follows:

2x Empire Generals. One is my BSB and one is my leader.
2x Empire Battle Wizards. These are based on the Warhammer Quest iPad game, so one is Bright one is Grey.
1x Necromancer. He is a Death Wizard gone awry, and will summon undead onto the battlefield.
1x Aelven Priest. I use Alarielle the Radiant's warscroll (and model) and she fills the classic "healer" of the group as she can heal D6 wounds to another model.
1x Aelven Ranger. I use Handmaiden to the Everqueen's warscroll (and model) she fills the archer role.

So, 7 characters coming together like a classic adventuring party. I then add 10 Empire Swordsmen, 5 Empire Outriders, 1 Empire Cannon and 1 Dwarf Cannon to fill out the army.

It's super fun to play in games. :-)

@Spud, awesome dungeon scenario!

I recently made a custom AoS campaign map at the Round Table site for escalation battles. Your scenario has inspired me to create a AoS dungeon map!

Thanks for sharing your great concept!

I think you would be better off with an action oriented RPG like Savage Worlds. AoS doesn't have the detail needed to run parties of adventurers in a continuing narrative.

It is essentially a mass skirmish game that works best with 20 to 40 troops and two or three hero/monster type units.

D&D 4th ed gets a lot of flack or being 'too wargamey' an RPG, that might be worth looking at if you want to go to the trouble to modify something.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I think you would be better off with an action oriented RPG like Savage Worlds. AoS doesn't have the detail needed to run parties of adventurers in a continuing narrative.

It is essentially a mass skirmish game that works best with 20 to 40 troops and two or three hero/monster type units.

Sam , is that you?

I dont want to 'act' it in I want to have my party pile into a party of orcs/undead/skaven etc on a tabletop but I want objectives that I can engage in , not just bashing monsters.

and savage world is a pants system IMO , not to my taste.

How do you suppose I should be able to know in advance what games you do or don't like?

I've heard good things about the Privateer Press Iron Kingdoms RPG systems?

I'll second that, Iron kingdoms is a wonderful system.

I'm sure with just a little tinkering you could get a great system tailored to what you want from the AoS rules.

You have all the rules for miniatures in the Warscrolls, all the scenario objectives in the battleplans (which are micro purchases from the app).

You could create a quick encounters table by using a D66 chart populated with random warscrolls.

You could even create a simple a.i to govern the encounter model moves/attacks and play against yourself or a group of friends with a hero each against the system.

Lastly a simple experience mechanism wouldn't be hard to set up. An escalating number of models to slay to level up each time that increases one random stat or gives the player a point to increase a stat as they wish.

You could also add a D66 wounding table too. Mordheim would be a great sourcebook for all the narrative side of it, actually.

Another option would be Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish, which is a small skirmish game with a 1st Edition D&D or early GW vibe. You can play as adventurers or monsters, with tons of options for equipment and spells. There are intro scenarios, regular scenarios, and even a short included campaign (with a bigger campaign book coming out later).



Another another option (and one that my gaming group has been playing for the past few weeks, until a WM/H Journeyman League started) is Frostgrave. It's another small skirmish game - 10-12 miniatures maximum - with fantastic scenarios, and great campaign system (that might need some houseruling to taste) and profiles that are generic enough to fit a range of models while still feeling different and useful in their own ways in-game.

 Bottle wrote:
I'm sure with just a little tinkering you could get a great system tailored to what you want from the AoS rules.

Okay, now you have me thinking about pulling the old Warhammer Quest out. Convert Move inches into squares, a simple Time of War sheet handles corridor generation, and Battleplans give you adventures. The magic system may actually work out better than the original Warhammer Quest (the Wizard could be a little unbalanced - either too awesome or no use whatsoever). And we already have the stats for just about every creature that has ever appeared in Warhammer...

Character progression could be an issue, but if you presume you won't be playing the same character for 6-12 months of real time, then a simple table boosting stats and granting the odd magic item could work well - something like the Rewards table here: https://ttgamingdiary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/time-of-war-slaves-to-darkness.pdf

* Trying hard to resist not to dive into this wholeheartedly! *

MongooseMatt wrote:

 Bottle wrote:
I'm sure with just a little tinkering you could get a great system tailored to what you want from the AoS rules.

Okay, now you have me thinking about pulling the old Warhammer Quest out. Convert Move inches into squares, a simple Time of War sheet handles corridor generation, and Battleplans give you adventures. The magic system may actually work out better than the original Warhammer Quest (the Wizard could be a little unbalanced - either too awesome or no use whatsoever). And we already have the stats for just about every creature that has ever appeared in Warhammer...

Character progression could be an issue, but if you presume you won't be playing the same character for 6-12 months of real time, then a simple table boosting stats and granting the odd magic item could work well - something like the Rewards table here: https://ttgamingdiary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/time-of-war-slaves-to-darkness.pdf

* Trying hard to resist not to dive into this wholeheartedly! *

That sounds great! And I have been diving into this wholeheartedly already :-P I threw together some rules for Experience, leveling, injuries and treasure. Dreaming up some random encounter tables now and trying to put together an AI system to govern Non-Player warscrolls. Will post some ideas in the Proposed Rules area.

spud wrote:
I just posted the same idea on warseer:

I tried AOS as a simple dungeon crawler type game. Since I mostly game with my young nephews, the simplicity in AOS is actually a bonus. They start with a LVL 1, 3 wound character, hitting and wounding on 5, 5+ armor, with stats increasing as they level up...thinking one level for every 20 wounds caused. So I act as sort of a DM, telling a story (that has nothing to do with current AOS fluff) and giving an objective...last game was check out the shrine at the other end of the table.

Encounters are determined by D6 at the start of each turn. First turn is an encounter on a 6. Second on a 5. 3rd on a 4 and so on until an encounter is triggered. Then its either d6 small, d3 medium or one large foe. I place them 18 inches away in cover using the scatter die to determine the location. Once the fight is over, they get their loot then I roll the D6 for any more encounters. So far they have mostly been fighting goblins at this point, but am looking forward to introducing more baddies from the hoard of unpainted figs I have. They visit towns, buy and find healing potions to use in the Hero phase to keep things going,plus magic items etc.

One house rule I may try is no moving and shooting. Not crazy about the move, shoot and charge in one turn mechanic. But other than that, it really has a video game l feel with movement triggering encounters and item drops. Really enjoying it. Thoughts?

That sounds great. I might have to use this with my kids. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words! I have played a few games now with the kids and it really works...I am enjoying finding a use for all those old minis I have.