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I haven't been on this forum in a while, but I couldn't think of a better place to ask this question. My LGS never had a huge WFB following (we did the occasional campaign or tournament about once a year) but everyone I know is pretty viamently against Age of Sigmar. I have what would have previously amounted to 5000 points of dwarfs, 3000 points of bretonnians, and 1000 each points of a few other armies.

I've played a few games myself and while I don't think it's for me, I'm wondering how much people are actually playing it elsewhere? The atmosphere around my store is one of disappointment and outright denail. As far as I can tell, my store hasn't sold more than a few starter boxes since it's release this summer.

So my question for the forum is: How much are you playing Age of Sigmar? Are there places where it's being played frequently (as frequently as 40k or warmachine?) What's that like?

EDIT: Not trying to be doom and gloom or put down AoS at all, literally just curious about other's experiences.

My gaming group only got into fantasy at all because the barrier of entry was lowered by AoS. Hence it is the only fantasy game we play.

I'll probably play some 9th Age, but probably not with my usual group (they only have new models or 40k).

In my city AOS is not really played at all in the stores, but the stores are also the home of competitive players playing competitive games.

We run an annual campaign and there will be an AOS campaign running this summer. Most of the games will be played in homes though as opposed to stores.

Come round our offices, it is played all the time

AoS really is Schroedinger's cat in gaming terms, as it exists in a superposition of being both the best and worst game ever simultaneously.

I know the local GW shipped a fair few boxes, and I and a friend think it's the most enjoyable system we've ever played. At our local club (and wider group of friends) the entire WFB portion were turned off. Too simple, crappy, etc.
Skip forward 6 months, it's challenging 40K for most popular game at the club some weeks, it's reeled in a couple of 40K lifers, and the only remaining WFB players (2, I'm aware of) have moved on to 9th age because they've never wanted to try AoS because of competitive considerations.
AoS tends to be played majority vanilla, a few of the ex-WFB tournaments use Clash comp.

But as other people will be *dying* to tell you (on previous experience), it doesn't exist in their hamlet/city/state/hemisphere beyond a box being used as a doorstop in a FLGS.

It is essentially extinct here. There are a handful of us that play, but we play in my basement mostly. Most of the FLGS wont let us take up table space with AoS ( though I can somewhat understand since only our GW actually carries AoS, most of our stores wont carry any GW products), even the GW tends to shoo us off in favor of 40k. Have played over 100 games of it (and counting) so I can say from personal experience, here at least its on life support by a handful of folks and I think there might be other groups, but they are likely playing at their homes as well.

All the game stores where I am have dumped their stock, I haven't heard of anyone playing it.

If someone told me less than a hundred games have been played in my city since release I wouldn't be surprised.

I've only ever seen people at the local GW play, everywhere else it is treated as a joke. Evwnnthen though, it's been a while since I've seen anyone at the GW talk about it.

I'm new to wargames and am strongly considering jumping into AoS. That or Warmachine. I don't think it's gained much steam in my area, but the simplification and smaller army size definitely appeals to me. /anecdote

RoperPG wrote:AoS really is Schroedinger's cat in gaming terms, as it exists in a superposition of being both the best and worst game ever simultaneously.

THIS

AnomanderRake wrote:All the game stores where I am have dumped their stock, I haven't heard of anyone playing it.

People often quote AOS stock levels and inventory movement, but I've found nearly 100% of my interest in the game comes from modeling endeavors that have nothing to do with official AOS mini offerings. I'm certainly spending money on models being round-based for the possibility of playing AOS in the near future ... but little of that has gone to GeeDub.

That said, the thing holding my AOS hobbying back the most is that the probability of actually playing the game locally is pretty low. There was an AOS group formed back when, but the FB page hasn't seen activity in months, and I'm pretty sure most of those guys play X-Wing now. I like random modeling projects of a fantastical variety, however I can't help but feel my efforts are better used with another KOW army or MF crew, simply from a gaming standpoint.

- Salvage

 jonolikespie wrote:
If someone told me less than a hundred games have been played in my city since release I wouldn't be surprised..

Its pretty easy to play alot of games, but sadly this is me fighting the same other 3 dudes. so not nearly as large as it sounds. only GW has really any interest in it, and even they dont want us taking up 40k table space, the flgs that arent GW wont let us bring it to the table. on a saturday afternoon we get about 8-10 games in (for full disclosure we only use our old battallion boxes as armies with their warscrolls, not huge hundred + model armies)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Clanan wrote:
I'm new to wargames and am strongly considering jumping into AoS. That or Warmachine. I don't think it's gained much steam in my area, but the simplification and smaller army size definitely appeals to me. /anecdote

go with warmachine, much much more popular game, not appreciably more expensive. AoS armies are not necessarily smaller than warhammer armies and you may find yourself in an "arms race" where you end up with just as big or larger armies than regular warhammer. I play both games but found personally warmachine to be the more affordable and more readily playable game.

Was talking to my flgs owner (I know him well due to working there in high school in addition to gaming a lot,) a couple weeks ago. I mentioned the 1 AoS starter on the shelf and how it felt like it had been there a while. (It was started to get kinda dusty on back and such.)

He confirmed that that was the 4th of 4 sets he got in the initial shipment back in the summer, and only a couple guys have special ordered anything fantasy related at all since it came out.

So considering his shop is the only warhams carrier for a good 45 minutes plus around, I'd say things look pretty bleak around here for Sigmar. Either that or there's some people hiding out in a secret bunker playing it with online purchases.

One thing I will say about the "starter" for AoS, unless you play one of the two factions in it, its pretty worthless. the rules are free, your warscrolls are free. so you really dont need it. I can imagine that could have been a hit on sales vs actual people playing it. I traded for the set but would never have actually paid money for it as I dont play either faction in it. I can imagine alot of folks with established armies wouldnt bother buying an unnecessary box set to get basically two armies they wont play.

Clanan wrote:I'm new to wargames and am strongly considering jumping into AoS. That or Warmachine. I don't think it's gained much steam in my area, but the simplification and smaller army size definitely appeals to me. /anecdote

Honestly, choose whatever game people will play with you. Both games have their audiences and if you know what you are getting into, you should be happy with either.

AoS is more about variety (in models and gameplay experiences) and story-like experiences (all the special rules come with stories about why they do what they do - you don't just reroll 1s to hit, you fling magma bolts that stagger the enemy's concentration). AoS is perfect for when you just want to chill and move some models around, not caring really who wins, but also not having to play the same tournament-style mosh pit of death every game.

Warmachine is more combo orientated, where you try to set up the dominoes and knock them down before your opponent can knock his down (I cast this spell, which triggers this ability on this other unit, that when moved, caused this third unit to roll an extra die on a charge). If you love watching a combo pop, brutalizing your opponent in a thunderous display of excessive destruction, WMH is for you.

niv-mizzet wrote:Either that or there's some people hiding out in a secret bunker playing it with online purchases.

That would be me. I just order everything off Amazon or GW's website (sometimes, they give you a burlap sack). I'm just more likely to make an impulse purchase online than when I have to drive across town on a special trip. I could probably start playing there, but the truth is, I have no idea how to transport half the AoS figures I have. The Prosecutors alone laugh at foam transport cases.

niv-mizzet wrote:I could probably start playing there, but the truth is, I have no idea how to transport half the AoS figures I have. The Prosecutors alone laugh at foam transport cases.

eggcrate style foam and a shoebox, havent broken 1 of those golden turds yet

thekingofkings wrote:

niv-mizzet wrote:I could probably start playing there, but the truth is, I have no idea how to transport half the AoS figures I have. The Prosecutors alone laugh at foam transport cases.

eggcrate style foam and a shoebox, havent broken 1 of those golden turds yet

You missed on the quote sir. I didn't say that. :p

sorry bout that, not so adept with the interwebs

Well, I haven't played quite yet, there is a decent following for it at the local store. And I have even taken out of storage my High Elves army for it. Had stripped most of the stuff a while back (thankfully everything was pewter besides the horses), been rebasing it, cleaning all of the models again and searching for any missed mould lines. Shoot, I am more excited to use my High Elves than I have been for any other army for any other game I play. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the other games I play, but I have had the High Elves for 13 years now. They are my favorite models, and I finally have people to play them against again.

Growing slowly in my area.

Im averaging 2 play sessions per month at either the clubhouse or FLGS beyond my weekly games with my kids on the home table

Well, I went quite good at the beginning. But then the interest went down quickly due to balancing issues and lack of proper missions. Now we see a few players bringing their old WHFB armies to the table. The interest has vanished. One guy propagates the SDK system and some will make playtests soon. Not very good news for a new system.

There was a lot of noise when the game first came out, and I did see games being played at stores. Interest quickly died, however, and we're seeing more games of KoW being played in the last couple months than Fantasy had in the past few year.

 infinite_array wrote:
There was a lot of noise when the game first came out, and I did see games being played at stores. Interest quickly died, however, and we're seeing more games of KoW being played in the last couple months than Fantasy had in the past few year.

Its a pity that nobody here plays KoW. Here we see players migrating into WHM, Infinity, Bolt Action, and Xwing. AoS plays a minor role and 40k is getting reduced to larger games (no more tourneys).

 wuestenfux wrote:
40k is getting reduced to larger games (no more tourneys).

As an aside, the most fun I ever had playing 40k was when APOC hit. Massive carnage and simplified-but-generally-unimportant win conditions are 40k at its best

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
40k is getting reduced to larger games (no more tourneys).

As an aside, the most fun I ever had playing 40k was when APOC hit. Massive carnage and simplified-but-generally-unimportant win conditions are 40k at its best

- Salvage

We organize an apoc battle each month, 5000 pts per player from one codex, ally detachment allowed.
Moreover, he have 2v2 games from time to time, with 3000 pts per player, maelstrom mission.
In all cases, 30k armies are welcome. I usually run 30k WE led by Angron.

Our Partner level store keeps just enough AoS/Fantasy in stock to maintain his agreement.

Fantasy sales have plummeted, but I've been trying to bring it back. Weve got about 8 people who play now, up from 2.

Clanan wrote:
I'm new to wargames and am strongly considering jumping into AoS. That or Warmachine. I don't think it's gained much steam in my area, but the simplification and smaller army size definitely appeals to me. /anecdote

I own both - 5 warmahordes armies and just the starter and bretonnians for AOS. I only bought the AOS starter because the models looked incredible and the starter is a really good deal. I think at that point GW shot themselves in the foot. Everything else they've come out with for the SIgmarines is ridiculously expensive. If the prices were more reasonable (like $35-$40 for 5 plastic guys rather than almost $60) they would have had a lot more interest. For this reason more than anything else, I'd avoid AOS and go with Warmahordes. You'd hate to buy into a game that doesn't have anyone else to play against and that GW may end up discontinuing in the not too distant future. Warmahordes is a fun game with a solid base of players which is played in most game stores. Also, and this goes to the heart of why GW is disliked, GW is a mini company, not a game company (despite their name) and Privateerpress is a game company.

Tournament for Cheltenham announced on Wednesday with an initial cap of 20 people.
2 days later it's now on 30 people cap already filled and with 5 people on the reserve list.
Think that's a pretty healthy showing!

I think I saw it been played once when it first came out at a GW store since, nothing. Its all 40k in store and 40k/magic the gathering/X wing everywhere else.

When it first came out there a good number of people interested in player (10-12). We did a couple 'tournaments' which went well but interest petered out after a few months. A few still play it occasionally but most people have moved onto Bolt Action and Xwing.

I recently switched to MTG for my social play needs but I took a look in the "looking for opponent" thread for my local shop and there are people playing Warmahordes, Infinity, X-wing, 9th Age and freakin' Epic 40.000. Nobody is asking for a game of AoS.