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What do you do when you don't play a regular roster of opponents?
For me, I work a lot (sometimes 14 days in a row) and I have family obligations and other hobbies. This means I usually only get to the game store once a month on good months, and when between jobs I might get there five times a week! I also play in a solo GW store, so only the occasional weekend day is possible and no evenings.
I thought I would share how I've made AoS work with pick-up games, which can be difficult sometimes, and get other players thoughts on what they do or have tried.


DO
First up, I try and either play RAW or if my opponent has a comp he likes, use that if it's easy enough to learn or use. (can I make the models I brought using his comp in 20 minutes?)
Next, I try and keep the total model count under 100, with 50-60 being ideal. I find that keeps the game around a few hours.
I usually bring three armies, with different strengths and weaknesses. My three current rosters are (from weakest to strongest) Clan Eshin, Clan Moulder, and Clan Morr.

My Eshin list is Gutter runners, Night runners, and assassins using a formation that makes the night runners move, run, and shoot every turn. I usually run Deathmaster Snitch with this army.
My moulder list is Rat Swarms, Giant Rats, packmasters, and Rat Ogres.
My Morr list is Queek Headtaker, Stormvermin, Clanrats, Slaves, and then whatever I need to match my opponent. (I bring Plague Censor Bearers, Plague Monks, Warp lightning cannons, Warpfire throwers, Rattling guns, Jezails, and Poison Wind Globadiers.)
It's not too difficult to transport all of this at once, that also allows me to mix-n-match as needed. I also have the ability to teach someone to play or get in a rat vs. rat game if someone is there, wants to play, but has no models.

After that, I try and use a 40K level of terrain, and objectives. I've had a lot of luck just using 40K missions, they are super easy to adapt to AoS and if my opponent also plays 40K then its really easy to play. If they don't play 40k then I just use the scenarios from the AoS resource books. I haven't really played them in order, but they scale nicely so they can be tailored to the size of game and time that we have.

I find I can ignore most of that if my opponent has a background for his forces, we just talk about what our armies are doing background-wise and come up with a scenario from that. I also have several "hooks" on why my rats might be fighting any given army. No matter what, I like to have a clearly defined set of goals that will cause a major or minor victory for each army.
Terrain can be tricky if it has lots of rules, so I only use those rules if my opponent wants too, or if I have more time then usual.

Lastly, I make sure I have all my needed supplies. I tried just using a tablet for Warscrolls, but after my first game I printed out scrolls for every unit I typically bring along with the rules. Next break I have I plan on just printing out ALL of the warscrolls and making a 3-ring binder in plastic sheets, so my opponent and I always have the needed info handy. Along with this is a few tape measures, and two blocks of 36 dice and a rolling box.

I made reminder counters for all my special abilities. A lot of characters and war machines have persistent bonuses, and having chits to help with that makes the game run smoother.

I'm sure I have more, but that's the gist of it. I bring something to paint in case no one is there and the shopkeep is busy or doesn't want a game.

DONT

I don't bring giant models to pick up games. They are fiddly and sometimes too strong, but mostly it's a transport issue. I leave the screaming bells, abominations, and Verminlords at home along with giant blocks of troops. I find having 10-15 model units looks and plays good, giant swarms of 25-50 models gets unwieldy.

I watch out for unit and model synergy. between hero's, generals, spells, and formations, it's quite possible to get a unit to hit on 1+ or save on 1+. This makes for very difficult to kill or stop units which can really drag down the game. Alternatively, I'll ask my opponent to bring back the "1s always fail" rule.

I try to match deployment with deployment. If they are throwing down hero after hero, I find if I just do the same it stays playable. It gets tricky with model count and sudden death when you decided to stop deploying, but I really haven't had an experience where my opponent was really trying to throw down mean stuff just to win. All that goes out the window with a good scenario, and of course those are discussed ahead of time. The match deployment is more for the 40K missions.

I watch out for an imbalanced game. Ogres are the absolute worst nightmare for my Skaven to play, they are just brutal. pound for pound they can really bring the pain, so having smaller units and fewer units saves the day. even wounds don't really help and it takes a few times to find a good balance. All 40mm based models are in the same boat, it's just ogres without gnoblars don't seem like a lot when fielded. All that being said I don't press the point, usually a equal model game lets the ogres know how strong they are, and they can modify the list next time we play. (usually in the next fifteen minutes as I'm tabled in turn 2)

IDEAS

In another thread I had the thought of my opponent choosing my army then we deploy, or maybe just switching sides for deployment. That way you choose what you're facing, not what you're using.
I also had the idea to kind of "force" equal deployment by cribbing the 40k terrain rule, after whoever decided to stop deploying first the other player can only deploy one additional warscroll. (or 2, or 3.) The idea is just to have a limit once someone has stopped deploying.
Ive thought of breaking out the 4th edition 40k book, and the 5th edition WHFB book for more scenarios. I think thats when they did force organization charts for the first time in 40k, and there were a TON of attack/defense missions with different FOC as indicated. A lot of those would be easy to craft into AoS missions.
Speaking of 40K force organization charts, I bet they would work easily for AoS scenario frameworks.

OK, that's all I got for now. This is how I get pick-up games to be fun and timely, pitfalls to avoid being TFG, and some ideas I want to try as soon as I'm not working 80 hours a week.
What do y'all do to make pick-up games fun? what do you avoid or are dealbreakers? what ideas have you been thinking of trying?

Lots of great ideas here pox! I can't add anything so comprehensive, but I play AoS as a pick up game and play in many guises. The GW School League rules are great in my opinion! So I like playing with those. It does mean you have to run certain kinds of armies that favour elite troops, so it's not the be all and end all of AoS but it is still really fun.

Unfortunately the wound cap is there as a super quick limitation not matter how inferior it is. Lots of players default to it just for ease of use.

I would really like to try the 40k mission ideas. I might propose a "cleanse" next time I play :-)

 Bottle wrote:
Lots of great ideas here pox! I can't add anything so comprehensive, but I play AoS as a pick up game and play in many guises. The GW School League rules are great in my opinion! So I like playing with those. It does mean you have to run certain kinds of armies that favour elite troops, so it's not the be all and end all of AoS but it is still really fun.

Unfortunately the wound cap is there as a super quick limitation not matter how inferior it is. Lots of players default to it just for ease of use.

I would really like to try the 40k mission ideas. I might propose a "cleanse" next time I play :-)

I haven't really tried the school league. sometime soon when work slows down I'll look at comps and have a few on hand for pick-up games.

I cannot stress enough how great 40K missions translate to AoS. Even basic "take and hold" that has 6 markers out on the board makes for really fun games. each marker uncontested at the end of the game gives 3 points. then you get one point for first blood, one for killing the general, and one for each unit in the enemy's deployment zone at the end of the day.

I find that instantly cures the "scrum in the middle," and suddenly makes fast moving troops viable. In addition the objectives have to be chosen to take based on enemies deployment, and the ability to defend it. I count "infantry" as scoring troops, and have even incoperated the "go to ground" rules. (increases cover save by one, unit can only move three inches next round and cannot charge.)