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Warning: lots of text! Hang in there!

So I've been wondering about this for a while now, and I'm finally getting around to posting about it.

Age of Sigmar has been out for about a year now, and I'm wondering about how it's doing. How many people regularly play? What is the depth of that play? If Age of Sigmar isn't doing it for you, what are you doing for your fantasy itch?

I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) in 2002 with an Empire Knightly Orders army and a slow burn Tomb Kings army (Tomb Kings were responsible for getting me into wargaming of any type, period). I played religiously for the next 13 years. I loved everything about Fantasy. I spent countless hours pouring over the old world and its lore just because I found it so fascinating. The fiction was phenomenal (in my opinion) and I couldn't get enough. The gameplay was equally fascinating. I even enjoyed weathering the storm that was the 7th edition Demons book.

In fantasy, I always felt like I had a chance at winning, and this chance usually came down to player skill. Thinking again of 7th edition when my Tomb Kings were at the bottom of the power heap, I still had great victories over my friend's demons (though I had more than my fair share of losses too). I still smile when I remember when my block of 6 Ushabti hammered into his Bloodthirster, holding him in place so that my Tomb King in chariot and his honor guard could swing around and finish the beast off, allowing me to roll his flank and begin banishing the demons back to chaos. In 8th edition, I had so many games that swung back and forth for the duration of the game, each player getting close to victory before having it snatched from his grasp. Even while playing in the old 'Ard Boyz tournament, with players bringing the toughest, hardest 2500 point lists they could muster, I never felt like the game was broken or unplayable. My Teclis Magic could pound an enemy to dust while he countered with a large block of magically resistant Chaos chosen. So many moments that came down to a gutsy call or a perfect wheeling maneuver. I still get excited about the prospect of those moments.

When the End Times came about, I was ecstatic. The idea of the mortal races of the world trying desperately to stave off the biggest invasion of chaos since the beginning had me from the word go. The return of Nagash, the binding of the winds of magic into the Incarnates, the fall of Marienburg, it all captured me and had me ready for the next phase.

Which turned out to be Age of Sigmar. When AoS released, I worked for Games Workshop as an on-call manager. I loved that job. With the release of AoS, I was almost required to like the game and tout it's awesomeness. Literally overnight, WHFB was gone and in its place stood this new fledgling game. I tried to enjoy it. The setting was so new and had (and still has) so much potential, but it was barely scratched and the background felt so shallow. Gameplay was so radically different that I was scratching my head about how to play this new game. The first few attempts had none of the excitement of the old world for me, and I almost felt like maybe I was doing something wrong.

When I left GW and moved to Colorado Springs, I stopped with AoS. This basically meant that I also stopped with fantasy gaming altogether. No one seems to play 8th edition anymore, and I haven't seen much fantasy gaming going on anywhere.

So, with all that said, I want an honest assessment of the state of the game. The new Orruks have me interested in the game again, but they're expensive and I don't want to drop money on expensive models that will never get used, no matter how pretty they are. Sell me on AoS. How many people regularly play? How enjoyable is that play? Tell me about the battle plans and share some of your favorite moments. I don't want to hear 'AoS is the best, you should totes just try it!!11!' When people try and sell you on a game without flaws it tends to have more than its fair share. I want the good, the bad and the ugly about this game. Why should I drop $300 on a new army? What's in it for me? For the stores, I'd be really interested to know how AoS is selling, but I know that may be asking for quite a lot.

AoS not the ticket? What is then? I've seen Kings of War being played. What's the player base like? What about the 9th age? 8th edition?

I appreciate you taking the time to read all that; I know it was a LOT to take in. I also appreciate any response you may have!

First off, although unintentionally you may be opening a can of worms with this thread. There has already been a thread on the topic of how AoS is doing worldwide and you'll find all types of testimonies there.
The game is exactly the same, just with more battle plans and more new units released. There will be an official point system in a few months, but the core rules haven't changed at all and will not change with the new comp book. If you didn't like AoS at launch, played atleast once and saw it wasn't for you, there is no one near you that wants to play it or you just want to continue playing the old WHFB game then AoS is not for you. "Kings of War" and "The 9th age" offer the gameplay you would be seeking (many people think it is even better than WHFB).

Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

I am not going to write a story about how much I like AoS, just one question though.... why do you need to drop any money on a AoS army? Why don't you just use the army you played with during 7th edition?

As mentioned above, you probably are opening a can of worms, there are a number of threads on this forum regarding this topic already, you are just yelling for the trolls to come out.

 CoreCommander wrote:
First off, although unintentionally you may be opening a can of worms with this thread. There has already been a thread on the topic of how AoS is doing worldwide and you'll find all types of testimonies there.
The game is exactly the same, just with more battle plans and more new units released. There will be an official point system in a few months, but the core rules haven't changed at all and will not change with the new comp book. If you didn't like AoS at launch, played atleast once and saw it wasn't for you, there is no one near you that wants to play it or you just want to continue playing the old WHFB game then AoS is not for you. "Kings of War" and "The 9th age" offer the gameplay you would be seeking (many people think it is even better than WHFB).

Fair enough. I guess the main thing for me is that I know that since I last played there have been a lot of developments. New battle plans, war scrolls, armies, etc. To me, at launch, I felt like someone had at least glanced at the LoTR rule book during the development of AoS, which imho is no bad thing. I didn't so much swear off AoS for good, but shelved it with plans to look at it again after people have gotten hold of it and started making sense of it. Even new units can change a game as existing mechanics suddenly become more important. Regimental bases and movement isn't so much the game-breaker for me as is epic moments and depth of strategy. I hope that makes sense.

Re-reading my post I can see how it may come across as 'WHFB was the best! AoS sucks! Sell me on it!', which I assure you wasn't my intent. I want to get deep into the game. What's working, what's not, people's favorite parts and moments, and if the things that keep people coming back. I love GW's fantasy, be it on round or square bases. I want to love Age of Sigmar. If I explore it again and find out it's not for me, it's not going to be because The Old World is gone!

The best advice I can give is try out some of the comp systems and see if any work for you. The field has somewhat narrowed these days in that there are a half-dozen or so comps with widespread use. http://www.scrollbuilder.com/ has the points for SCGT and KDV while the house rules for those are on the respective websites (note that SDK is no longer being supported). These are pretty straightforward as comps come (though SCGT has scenarios worth looking at regardless of what you play). Azyr comp is simplified and very easy to get into, while Project Points Cost is more complicated than the above but also has the most granularity.

If you want to get into AoS and you are not on a tight budget, this would be my tutorial (these are the parts I enjoy about AoS and make it worthwhile for me, to answer your question):

1. Buy the 20 euro compendium featuring the "The Gates of Azyr", "Warstorm", "Ghal Maraz" and "Call of Archaon". Buy "Wardens of the Everqueen", "Legends of The Age of Sigmar: Skaven Pestilence" and 'Fury of Gork".

2. Read them. Decide which of these events and warring factions you liked the most and buy the appropriate campaign book.

3. Start building your army of choice. Either buy the units described in the books or have a look at the store and choose the ones that you like the most. Many units have combo synergies between them and this is one of the strongest assets the game presents to the player.

4. Start building/picking/preparing your table and terrain for the first mission of the chosen book.

5. Play out the story, see how it differs from the books and extrapolate from there.

Re-iterating the above is how I've involved myself in AoS. You should expect wild cinematic abilities from the models, plenty of buffs/debuffs, many different scenarios, a lot of optional rules and ultimately unending variety. In short you should get into AoS for the variety it offers.

If the above process makes you want to dive in then go for it.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

Personally, I think they are appalling and far too busy.

Rules, well.....played it and didn't get tempted for another go. There's others doing better fantasy skirmish.

Locally it is picking up a lot of steam due to the official points being added.

There are several tournaments set up for it this summer.

My area is very competitive though so this does not surprise me.

Retrogamer0001 wrote:Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

The Ironjawz are the first full line that's caught my attention. The Slaughterpriests and Blood Reavers are superb sculpts and the rest of the Bloodbound are decent to good, but not really in the TAKE MY MONEY way that the Ironjawz are. The sad thing for GeeDub? They're asking for too much of my money this time around, as I don't really have a use for that delicious $110 maw-krusha If he were $60-70 like the last round of mega fantasy monsters I'd immediately buy three ... but not at this price, not for this game.

godswildcard wrote:How many people regularly play? How enjoyable is that play? Tell me about the battle plans and share some of your favorite moments. I don't want to hear 'AoS is the best, you should totes just try it!!11!' When people try and sell you on a game without flaws it tends to have more than its fair share. I want the good, the bad and the ugly about this game. Why should I drop $300 on a new army? What's in it for me?

I can share my experience, as that's what you seem interested in, less so being convinced or given a guide to giving GW more money.

At this point I've played around 10 games of AOS, a number of which are documented over in Battle Reports. My first outing was my 40k Khorne Daemons (from back in 3-4E) vs buddy's 8E Nurgle Warriors, and it was pretty fun. The game was fast and involved mostly big blobs of fighting, bloodthirster's having 14 wounds was trippy (being used to 10 max for huge things), we got a few rules wrong (in particular Battleshock), and we also immediately house ruled a number of Obviously Dumb Things (mystical terrain, sudden death, measuring from models). My clubmate definitely didn't enjoy it as much as me - he likes strategy; I like rolling dice - and thus far I don't think anyone in my club has played the game besides me. Such as it is.

So I rolled out to a couple events put on by the fledgling AOS club at a different LGS, mostly made up of 40k refugees who didn't really play WHFB for one reason or another. I used my Ogres both times and obliterated both events - the first time to convince them to add some kind of comp beyond just capping wounds, the second time because I legitimately like playing my Ogres, who are great in AOS and sucked in 7E (and were too small to play in 8E). But then that club largely fell quiet, with the most active player somewhat ironically being me.

At this point I've returned to the Daemons and added some new stuff on round bases - units of multiple skull cannons (because that was never a thing in 8E), some allied in Bloodbound to take advantage of AOS synergy - but only really play every 1-2 months, and only when I can line somebody up well beforehand. I'm hoping the AOS dudes put on another event, however I'm guessing that won't happen until GW puts out its 'matched play' points + army building rules this summer. In the meantime I've successfully convinced people to use the SCGT comp for army building and house rules as well, as they're good ones to follow IMO without being too crazy.

On the topic of battleplans, I've played almost none of them, as I've been doing simple objective games picked up from WMH or old 40k. Watch Tower is the only I've done so far, during one of those event days, and it was probably the most fun game of AOS I've had - certainly way better than 8E Watch Tower

Highest level, is AOS fun? Sure ... especially if you come to it wanting to push around neat models, roll dice and have things die for a little while. I'd say a good deal of AOS' engagement for me comes from the dice - seriously, I like rolling dice but am playing a lot of Malifaux recently (i.e. no dice ) - and from being generally goofy as heads explode, bloodthirsters trip and fail 3" charges, and everything dies. Is AOS rewarding? Eh, sorta. Games are very fast and can skew hard with early loses - the ease with which heroes can be slaughtered will always bother me, especially as the attraction of Warhammer has always been heroes for me - but both just makes me more attracted to event days over pickups. At an AOS event I can get 3+ games in in a day, which is sweet and makes the struggle to find the game time and then unpack / game / repack more worth it. Problem? Both events and pickups are hard to come by at this point.

Now, is uncomped AOS fun? Probably for many, but I wouldn't know. I can't make an army in a vacuum, and some of those four pages of rules are obviously not things I really want to do ... so why do it? SCGT has been a gods-send, and I'm quite excited for the official points / scenarios to drop. I was more excited when we heard it was based on SCGT, which turned out untrue, but at least it's been vetted by the same crew.

Finally, should you drop $300 on one of the new AOS armies (Stormcasts, Bloodborn, Fyreslayers, Ironjawz)? I don't think so, but to me neither the game play nor the minis really justify it - though I'm a sucker for paying for minis I like, so maybe that's your thing too. Should you revamp an old WHFB army you weren't playing onto round bases, particularly when the new points arrive and you'll have an idea about what makes an army? Sure, if you'd like to. SCGT and other balancing systems have given me enough guidance to pick away at new armies - I really want to do Skaven up on round bases, after playing them from 6E through 8E, though my actual Skaven army is being used for KOW Modeling for AOS is still a good time, particularly with the freedom from ranking, and the game is a fun enough thing to do with your models. If you can find the opponent.

AoS not the ticket? What is then? I've seen Kings of War being played. What's the player base like? What about the 9th age? 8th edition?

Totally Kings I wish I was more gung-ho for Ninth, but I feel like they took 8E, fixed a few things, then made it needlessly complicated in other ways. And I actually played 8E again recently, and while it was fun - it really was! - it was also a weirdly messy experience after playing Kings for a while, shedding models everywhere, and magic was just as frustrating as it always was.

Thanks for reading this wall if you've gotten this far, and thanks for the original post

- Salvage

Sadly AoS pretty much killed off WHFB in our neck of the woods used to have around half a dozen games going on at any one time at the club now its a game here and there.

We tried AoS and all agreed that its pants.

 Boss Salvage wrote:
*snip*

- Salvage

Good post there.

To the OP: whatever you do, be sure to take a look at the Start Collecting boxes. GW has put out a decent number of them and they are actually a pretty good deal.

 godswildcard wrote:

Re-reading my post I can see how it may come across as 'WHFB was the best! AoS sucks! Sell me on it!', which I assure you wasn't my intent.

It's not that so much - your post read as a "I tried it, didn't like it even though I wanted to, I miss WFB' which is fine.
It's more that on here (the internet) you'll get everything from " IT'S THE BEST GAME EVER MADE, THANK YOU GW PLEASE CHARGE MORE!!!" to "IT SUCKS SO BAD, MY MATE SAYS GW WILL GO BUST BY XMAS AND THEY DESERVE IT THEY EXPECT PEOPLE TO PART WITH MONEY, THE NOOBS! HAHAHAHAHAAA!".
AoS isn't even a spiritual successor to WFB, and if you approach it as such you will be disappointed no matter what you do IMO.
Coverage varies massively - it's patchy wherever you go, although from posts on here it seems that it's not doing too badly (it's become more popular over time), but due to the nature of gaming in the US the difficulty may be finding anyone who plays within a reasonable distance of you.
The General's handbook release in summer may well help the situation in the states as it will make PUGs (which as far as I can glean is pretty much the status quo over there) far easier.
In its' present form, AoS is best suited to gaming within a regular group of opponents who all want the same thing out of their games.
And forget trying to pitched battle with it, unless you're using one of the comp systems. It's a game intended to be filled with Bruckheimer moments rather than a knife-edge matching of generalship.
I like it, and I think it's great. But it could be the best game in the world with flawless minis and a Walmart price tag, it doesn't matter if you can't find anyone to play it with.
Look into groups near you, see what's about and go and have a look.

My own interest has been reinvigorated due to the Ironjawz, and I loved reading the Battletome. The models are great, and I'd almost buy them just to build and paint...but price. I think Boss Salvage nailed it in that regard, cost of entry is just too much. We'll see once the new AoS book rolls around, I'm actually really interested in playing again. I think it's a great, multilayered game...with pants on head balance. This is easily solved by talking it over with your opponent or waiting for summer.

 Boss Salvage wrote:

Retrogamer0001 wrote:Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

The Ironjawz are the first full line that's caught my attention. The Slaughterpriests and Blood Reavers are superb sculpts and the rest of the Bloodbound are decent to good, but not really in the TAKE MY MONEY way that the Ironjawz are. The sad thing for GeeDub? They're asking for too much of my money this time around, as I don't really have a use for that delicious $110 maw-krusha If he were $60-70 like the last round of mega fantasy monsters I'd immediately buy three ... but not at this price, not for this game.

Spoiler:

godswildcard wrote:How many people regularly play? How enjoyable is that play? Tell me about the battle plans and share some of your favorite moments. I don't want to hear 'AoS is the best, you should totes just try it!!11!' When people try and sell you on a game without flaws it tends to have more than its fair share. I want the good, the bad and the ugly about this game. Why should I drop $300 on a new army? What's in it for me?

I can share my experience, as that's what you seem interested in, less so being convinced or given a guide to giving GW more money.

At this point I've played around 10 games of AOS, a number of which are documented over in Battle Reports. My first outing was my 40k Khorne Daemons (from back in 3-4E) vs buddy's 8E Nurgle Warriors, and it was pretty fun. The game was fast and involved mostly big blobs of fighting, bloodthirster's having 14 wounds was trippy (being used to 10 max for huge things), we got a few rules wrong (in particular Battleshock), and we also immediately house ruled a number of Obviously Dumb Things (mystical terrain, sudden death, measuring from models). My clubmate definitely didn't enjoy it as much as me - he likes strategy; I like rolling dice - and thus far I don't think anyone in my club has played the game besides me. Such as it is.

So I rolled out to a couple events put on by the fledgling AOS club at a different LGS, mostly made up of 40k refugees who didn't really play WHFB for one reason or another. I used my Ogres both times and obliterated both events - the first time to convince them to add some kind of comp beyond just capping wounds, the second time because I legitimately like playing my Ogres, who are great in AOS and sucked in 7E (and were too small to play in 8E). But then that club largely fell quiet, with the most active player somewhat ironically being me.

At this point I've returned to the Daemons and added some new stuff on round bases - units of multiple skull cannons (because that was never a thing in 8E), some allied in Bloodbound to take advantage of AOS synergy - but only really play every 1-2 months, and only when I can line somebody up well beforehand. I'm hoping the AOS dudes put on another event, however I'm guessing that won't happen until GW puts out its 'matched play' points + army building rules this summer. In the meantime I've successfully convinced people to use the SCGT comp for army building and house rules as well, as they're good ones to follow IMO without being too crazy.

On the topic of battleplans, I've played almost none of them, as I've been doing simple objective games picked up from WMH or old 40k. Watch Tower is the only I've done so far, during one of those event days, and it was probably the most fun game of AOS I've had - certainly way better than 8E Watch Tower

Highest level, is AOS fun? Sure ... especially if you come to it wanting to push around neat models, roll dice and have things die for a little while. I'd say a good deal of AOS' engagement for me comes from the dice - seriously, I like rolling dice but am playing a lot of Malifaux recently (i.e. no dice ) - and from being generally goofy as heads explode, bloodthirsters trip and fail 3" charges, and everything dies. Is AOS rewarding? Eh, sorta. Games are very fast and can skew hard with early loses - the ease with which heroes can be slaughtered will always bother me, especially as the attraction of Warhammer has always been heroes for me - but both just makes me more attracted to event days over pickups. At an AOS event I can get 3+ games in in a day, which is sweet and makes the struggle to find the game time and then unpack / game / repack more worth it. Problem? Both events and pickups are hard to come by at this point.

Now, is uncomped AOS fun? Probably for many, but I wouldn't know. I can't make an army in a vacuum, and some of those four pages of rules are obviously not things I really want to do ... so why do it? SCGT has been a gods-send, and I'm quite excited for the official points / scenarios to drop. I was more excited when we heard it was based on SCGT, which turned out untrue, but at least it's been vetted by the same crew.

Finally, should you drop $300 on one of the new AOS armies (Stormcasts, Bloodborn, Fyreslayers, Ironjawz)? I don't think so, but to me neither the game play nor the minis really justify it - though I'm a sucker for paying for minis I like, so maybe that's your thing too. Should you revamp an old WHFB army you weren't playing onto round bases, particularly when the new points arrive and you'll have an idea about what makes an army? Sure, if you'd like to. SCGT and other balancing systems have given me enough guidance to pick away at new armies - I really want to do Skaven up on round bases, after playing them from 6E through 8E, though my actual Skaven army is being used for KOW Modeling for AOS is still a good time, particularly with the freedom from ranking, and the game is a fun enough thing to do with your models. If you can find the opponent.

AoS not the ticket? What is then? I've seen Kings of War being played. What's the player base like? What about the 9th age? 8th edition?

Totally Kings I wish I was more gung-ho for Ninth, but I feel like they took 8E, fixed a few things, then made it needlessly complicated in other ways. And I actually played 8E again recently, and while it was fun - it really was! - it was also a weirdly messy experience after playing Kings for a while, shedding models everywhere, and magic was just as frustrating as it always was.

Thanks for reading this wall if you've gotten this far, and thanks for the original post

- Salvage

You've given a good roundup of reasons for and against the game, based on your personal experience. I think it should be very helpful for people.

RoperPG wrote:Look into groups near you, see what's about and go and have a look.

Ben Curry has just started up a site intended to gather together the fractured AOS online groups, including all the localized FB ones: The Grand Alliance. I don't know anything else, but if you want to find games near you I have a suspicion that's a good part of the intent.

godswildcard wrote:AoS not the ticket? What is then? I've seen Kings of War being played. What's the player base like? What about the 9th age? 8th edition?

I meant to add that the answer to 'What Warhammer do I play now?' may be fairly driven by where you live, if you're looking for gaming outside of houses with your mates. AOS is by all accounts doing quite well in the UK (SCGT, The Grand Alliance and all that #ONLYTHEFAITHFUL business is from there), and conversely KOW is not. Flipside, AOS appears to be struggling in the US while KOW is rapidly expanding ... though possibly mostly on the East Coast? I'm not really sure about other regions and KOW, though Lone Wolf down in Texas just had a superb turnout for an early KOW 2.0 GT. As for The 9th Age, it seems particular strong in the US Midwest, along with parts of Europe (where it's from). And 8E? There are certainly people still playing it with friends and family in their basements - me about a month ago too - but I think the last batch of tournaments that game will see are well done at this point.

It will be interesting to see if AOS matched play can convince people to play it up here in the NE. For the last decade or so we've had a really thriving competitive Warhams scene that I've been proud to be a part of. What's left of the GT's are somewhat awkward events where smaller groups of people play different game systems near each other, while drinking and celebrating in the shared experience of playing games. Which while cool is not really the same thing as a multi-day WHFB event with 80+ people in the mix (And I'm not being too nostalgic here, that was like 1 year ago!)

- Salvage

Not wanting to be anti-AoS as such, but there are other games in the world, that can be played casually and/or competitively.

Perhaps it's time to give up GW altogether and do something more worthwhile.

I like how everyone is complaining about cost of entry when I got in for 65 usd getting a start collecting green skins on eBay as for gameplay I honestly have yet to play my first game but all you need is one other person and a campaign idea. My friend and I only play with fully painted and based models, boards, and terrain as I have just got my box I'm still getting it together. This is a narrative game so if your looking for tournament play look for a different game...

Manchester a big city with a population in the local area of 2.55 million gets 16 people on a busy night according to staff, I think that speaks volumes.

My local stores a wasteland, my local groups sworn off gw completely.

I'd say aos has been awesome for everyone except GW, I'm sure ffg is really grateful to aos as is mantic.

Yep manc gets about 12- 16 on a week night another diffrent(mostly) 6-8 on saturday and a diffrent 6-8 on a sunday now, where as pre aos it was lucky to get 6 on a weekday none on a saturday and maybe 6 on sunday( which was beginners). So id say its a massive improvment.

The responses that have been given have been great! Seriously, thanks for taking the time. It's good to have such a wide range of information to pull from, and I appreciate the contributions so far.

@rothrich The Start Collecting boxes are great, in fact I already have tons for Fantasy. What myself and the others were talking about is the cost of getting started with the new Ironjawz. I'm looking forward to that Start Collecting box!

Well I haven't actually played Age of Sigmar.....I've stuck to 8th edition and playing at my house or friends houses.
BUT I can tell you that at my FLGS in my home town they still have people playing 8th and such because the owner really likes it. Not sure how he feels about Age of Sigmar.

But the only reason I'm posting here is I recently moved to a medium/large city 250k is the population. Went to the FLGS here that seems to be the only one that sells GW products.... Walked in and I just asked "Oh hey where's the Fantasy stuff" the girl working there kindly said that it was over in the corner and it was all 25% off. So I walked over to check it out hoping to score some deals! Well....let me tell you there was a pretty small selection (still found something I wanted though and I bought it)

I asked the girl working there if there are any people who play Fantasy around here? She said since AoS has come out most of the player base has vanished. 5 or 6 players still come in every once in a while to play but hard to find games consistently and there are no events.

In a town of 250 000 people only 5 or 6 fantasy players still go to the store? Woe that is some sad news for this guy. Just starting an Empire army after years of playing and collecting Skaven.

I just can't wrap my head around Age of Sigmar, I'd rather play Fantasy...more strategy, more models (hey I'm a skaven player I like models) and I just find the blocked infantry to be fun. Maybe for a quick game here and there its good? The rules don't make me want to play it though...and it seems that way to a lot of people.

Lots of players fell in love with WHFB because of what it was either the setting, the rules, the armies, the play style, block infantry etc because it is different than 40k ruleset or LOTR but GW just took it all away. They put all their eggs in the AoS sigmar basket and it seems like it probably isn't paying off for GW or the community from my experiences anyways.

Yea, I get it, not a lot of old time Fantasy players are down with Age of Sigmar. But what I wonder is where all these nay sayers are coming from when I got into Fantasy a year after 6th started (2001), back when Dakka Dakka was a store that I played at regularly and not just a website. I struggled to find games after my few initial ones, was told that most of the Fantasy players played in private groups after Dakka Dakka shut down, and ended up switching to 40k, Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Mordheim and BF:G. All of those were place holders for the elusive game called Warhammer Fantasy.

Sadly, the Fantasy crowd has been non-existant in all of the places I have lived in my adult life (New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, edit: and Colorado) or have been so self inclusive that the idea of a new player seemed to be a foreign concept.

For the first time since I got into Warhammer, all of the stores in my area are having unprecedented sales of Fantasy models and AoS groups are popping up all over the place. I know plenty more than have just been waiting for a points system.

I get that Age of Sigmar will not be for everybody, but for the first time since 6th edition, I have begun rebasing and repainting my High Elves with absolute excitement. As Fantasy players, we brought Age of Sigmar on ourselves (GW definitely didn't help), and the death of Fantasy is partly our fault. Our own groups (not all of them, just a very rough generalization) became toxic and unwelcoming to new players. Besides the amazing people at Dakka who helped me learn to play with 750 point games and went out of their way to give advice on how to grow my army and learn, never did I get that anywhere else.

Shoot, and even after about ten years of pretending that the customer almost doesn't exist, they have begun to listen in earnest and ask third party groups for help.

Before poo-pooing Age of Sigmar, I ask all of you Fantasy veterans, where the hell have you been the last fifteen years of my life in wargaming?

(Hah, I know I will get burnt to a crisp because of this post, but it is how I feel)

We used to have Fantasy Tournaments right here in Western Mass where we'd sell out. We'd have 18 pairings in every tournament, people turned away just because we couldn't find enough tables/not enough room. It was sad to see that decline. Last tournament there were 4 of us total, and after round 2 it was finished.

I'm hoping for a resurgence, whether it's the new Age of Sigmar book or even Kings of War.

 Dez wrote:
We used to have Fantasy Tournaments right here in Western Mass where we'd sell out. We'd have 18 pairings in every tournament, people turned away just because we couldn't find enough tables/not enough room. It was sad to see that decline. Last tournament there were 4 of us total, and after round 2 it was finished.

I'm hoping for a resurgence, whether it's the new Age of Sigmar book or even Kings of War.

Me too brother, I just want to be able to field my dream army of High Elves I never got to finish before I stopped buying stuff due to lack of people to play and enjoy the game with. Got tons of 40k in, but none of my friends until recently had any interest in playing a ranked up block infantry game. At this point, block units or not, give me a solid balancing mechanism and opponents to use my High Elves against. That's all I have wanted.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

Right.

The rules are meh as we all know. The game was largely dead in our area. But now in our group we've started an AoS league with six players.

Hmm, I may as well chime in and bump up my post count. In the city I used to live in it never took off. It was dead on arrival. People hated it so much that most didn't even give it a chance and those that did (only 3 guys, I think) seemingly abandoned it after a couple of games. The rules and the setting got bashed into the ground as soon as the game was released. It is still the laughing stock of the gaming groups on their respective FB group pages. Those that used to play fantasy have continued on with the 9th age and no new guys have picked up AoS. Can't get much worse than that.

All I can say is that at the GW in Glendale, CA it's doing great. People play all the time and when I came in Sunday there were regulars playing huge battles and at one point, the tables had no 40k just AOS. There are nurgle, dwarf, orruk, Khorne, Stormcast, dark elf and elf/sylvaneth armies that play weekly. Anecdotal I know but it has caught on here beyond just bringing me back to the hobby after ten years. I was a 40k player though so I can't speak to former fantasy players.

Don't play it, it's obvious from your post that you are made for oldhammer/ 9th age/ Kings of War. You can try ofc as it's free but I don't think you'll find what you're looking for.

Also it will be dead in 2, 3 years time. The GW sales were slightly down the year the starter was released despite the 30k box release, it must have sold badly in comparision with whfb starters. Hastings reported that it's doing bad and GW providing points might be a sign of bad sales as well.

Where I live, "let's play AoS" is a running joke. I proposed a game when we were too drunk to play anything more serious and that particular group preffered some bs about racing turtles, despite the fact that evedyone had models at hand.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Say what you will, the models are absolutely gorgeous.

I say the models are mostly awful. Christmas tree Archaon, fatty sigmarines in gold lycra, Dracoths looking like LEGO juniors horses, power armoured drake and everything so warcraftish. I liked maybe 2 or 3 models and one is coming with Silver Tower.