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I know everyone is split on AoS, but one thing I vastly enjoy over Fantasy: battle reports, specifically Mini War Gaming's. I find their AoS bat reps much more fun and free flow to watch than Fantasy. I thought Fantasy got too bogged down with marching, movement arcs, etc.

Alright then. That's nice, I guess?

I find it funny we've gone from AoS-bashing, to Fantasy-bashing now most of the former have moved on.

 Arbitrator wrote:
Alright then. That's nice, I guess?

I find it funny we've gone from AoS-bashing, to Fantasy-bashing now most of the former have moved on.

I'm not bashing Fantasy, I'm just stating my preference for watching bat reps. This coming from a guy who loves the lore of WHF, but never played a game of Fantasy or AoS.

Aos is a game built very much like LOTR was in that its mechanics are simple but the subtle complexities make the game strategic. The rules are streamlined but also built on by the warscrolls adding things to the game all over the place but are only in effect with specific units. 8th's base rules were exceptionally more complex which made everything more complex. They are just very different games with similar lore.

 jreilly89 wrote:
I know everyone is split on AoS, but one thing I vastly enjoy over Fantasy: battle reports, specifically Mini War Gaming's. I find their AoS bat reps much more fun and free flow to watch than Fantasy. I thought Fantasy got too bogged down with marching, movement arcs, etc.

I see where you're coming from with this. From my own personal experience, while Fantasy has some epic memories, AoS feels more cinematic to me and seems to flow better when recapping a battle for a post or the podcast. Party it's the scenery and battlefield but I think also (I've loved this since day 1 of AoS) that there's so much more strategy combined with better potential for lethal combat, that is lowliest troops having a better chance of wounding a powerful foe. For one such as myself that has the worst, most unholy dice rolling it makes the game more enjoyable and exciting. So the more recent batreps are more enjoyable imo.

I agree, WHFB battles seem very slow to me now by comparison. The overall feel and flow of AoS is more enjoyable to me.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I agree, WHFB battles seem very slow to me now by comparison. The overall feel and flow of AoS is more enjoyable to me.

fantasy was very slow, more like a game of chess with aos being checkers

 namiel wrote:
Aos is a game built very much like LOTR was in that its mechanics are simple but the subtle complexities make the game strategic. The rules are streamlined but also built on by the warscrolls adding things to the game all over the place but are only in effect with specific units. 8th's base rules were exceptionally more complex which made everything more complex. They are just very different games with similar lore.

I wish they had taken alot more from LOTR though, I think AoS really fell short of what it should have been,.

I don't want to bash old fantasy, I mean visually its impressive to see and I still like the idea of regiments. That being said I've seen enough WHFB battle reports where its just a puzzle game of moving and blocking with your regiments and no combat takes place until turn 5. Or the opposite where things get stuck in combat right away and are forever there until the game is over. Games could be over in 20 minutes or 2 hours. I wasn't a fan of that level of uncertainty over how unbalanced games were.

 namiel wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I agree, WHFB battles seem very slow to me now by comparison. The overall feel and flow of AoS is more enjoyable to me.

fantasy was very slow, more like a game of chess with aos being checkers

Checkers with winged space marine dudes chucking lightning bolt hammers o' doom!
And that's a good thing

 Arbitrator wrote:
Alright then. That's nice, I guess?

I find it funny we've gone from AoS-bashing, to Fantasy-bashing now most of the former have moved on.

I did get the impression the OP fantasy bashing.

I prefer watching WHFB reports over any skirmish game.

Skirmish games look a bit messy IMO, WHFB's blocks and restricted movement allow me to understand the flow of battle better then predict what could happen next which I enjoy.

 Don Savik wrote:
I don't want to bash old fantasy, I mean visually its impressive to see and I still like the idea of regiments. That being said I've seen enough WHFB battle reports where its just a puzzle game of moving and blocking with your regiments and no combat takes place until turn 5. Or the opposite where things get stuck in combat right away and are forever there until the game is over. Games could be over in 20 minutes or 2 hours. I wasn't a fan of that level of uncertainty over how unbalanced games were.

Thats the beauty of the game. Setting up blocks inorder to exucute your plan on your opponent. Of course your gaming friend can counter it with his.

herjan1987 wrote:

 Don Savik wrote:
I don't want to bash old fantasy, I mean visually its impressive to see and I still like the idea of regiments. That being said I've seen enough WHFB battle reports where its just a puzzle game of moving and blocking with your regiments and no combat takes place until turn 5. Or the opposite where things get stuck in combat right away and are forever there until the game is over. Games could be over in 20 minutes or 2 hours. I wasn't a fan of that level of uncertainty over how unbalanced games were.

Thats the beauty of the game. Setting up blocks inorder to exucute your plan on your opponent. Of course your gaming friend can counter it with his.

Yeah, it is all about the threat and counter threat and creating Checkmate situations. I love that.

 StygianBeach wrote:

herjan1987 wrote:

 Don Savik wrote:
I don't want to bash old fantasy, I mean visually its impressive to see and I still like the idea of regiments. That being said I've seen enough WHFB battle reports where its just a puzzle game of moving and blocking with your regiments and no combat takes place until turn 5. Or the opposite where things get stuck in combat right away and are forever there until the game is over. Games could be over in 20 minutes or 2 hours. I wasn't a fan of that level of uncertainty over how unbalanced games were.

Thats the beauty of the game. Setting up blocks inorder to exucute your plan on your opponent. Of course your gaming friend can counter it with his.

Yeah, it is all about the threat and counter threat and creating Checkmate situations. I love that.

I find the WHFB Strenght-Thoughness and Weapon-Ballistics skill profiles to be good spicing material to this chess play. You got a basic idea where you want to push or pull back inorder minimize your exposure and maximize your threat. Of course all spiced up with the flavor of the Nuffle.

 Don Savik wrote:
I don't want to bash old fantasy, I mean visually its impressive to see and I still like the idea of regiments. That being said I've seen enough WHFB battle reports where its just a puzzle game of moving and blocking with your regiments and no combat takes place until turn 5. Or the opposite where things get stuck in combat right away and are forever there until the game is over. Games could be over in 20 minutes or 2 hours. I wasn't a fan of that level of uncertainty over how unbalanced games were.

@Don S - sorry, but real quick something's nagging at me. Where is your avatar pic from? I'd like to see that art. thanks!

Yea lol I guess old fantasy was just never my style of game. To each their own.

 VeteranNoob wrote:


@Don S - sorry, but real quick something's nagging at me. Where is your avatar pic from? I'd like to see that art. thanks!

Just a cool pic I found off google image search if you can make out that blogspot page in the bottom left of it idk

 Arbitrator wrote:
Alright then. That's nice, I guess?

I find it funny we've gone from AoS-bashing, to Fantasy-bashing now most of the former have moved on.

Who is bashing? I see no bashing going on at all.

Davor wrote:

Who is bashing? I see no bashing going on at all.

Don't feed the troll bro

 StygianBeach wrote:
I prefer watching WHFB reports over any skirmish game.

I prefer reading (and writing) WHFB reports, and deeply miss that vibrant community of batreppers that was effectively snuffed out. Some of us stumble on or do KOW (which FWIW I really dislike reading or writing in-depth reports for), but it's not the same.

I do enjoy watching video reports of AOS, and I think the only way to do a written report that works is with as many photos as you can combined with the right dash of narrative flourish. Diagrams (like I used to do with BC) are difficult to make and not all that engaging with AOS, putting more pressure on in-game photography, which can be it's own time and focus drag for the player-photographer. If there's a bright light to writing AOS reports, it's that all the named abilities make injecting flavor moments easy, and, even if they die with shocking ease, the continued importance of heroes in AOS means epic moments crop up with some regularity - epic fails as often as epic wins, but still

So I suppose I preferred reading WHFB batreps, but I'm ok watching AOS batreps, plus reading those few out there that are interested in doing more than recap their AOS beatdowns (which is very easy to do, given the swingy nature of AOS and the pressure cooker of Matched Play list building). I look forward to more written AOS reports happening, as I'm sure they will over the coming years, but I know we'll never be at the numbers we were for WHFB, with the ease of video reports and the medium's coziness with AOS's cinematic flavor.

EDIT: MongooseMatt's blog of course deserves a shout-out as one of the earliest and easily the most consistent written batrepper of AOS. While I often feel like the result is a foregone conclusion (because narrative games?) and I no longer read reports featuring Stormcast (remember that bit about heroes? yea, that's not often a thing when you're boring suits of armor), I totally respect his dedication and applaud his mission ... while secretly hoping he does more Matched Play with fewer Stormies

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:
I no longer read reports featuring Stormcast (remember that bit about heroes? yea, that's not often a thing when you're boring suits of armor),

Challenge accepted - I'll find a way to make the Stormcast battles more exciting!

BTW, got two battle reports in the hopper right now, neither of which feature Stormcasts Will be on the site next week.

MongooseMatt wrote:
Challenge accepted - I'll find a way to make the Stormcast battles more exciting!

BTW, got two battle reports in the hopper right now, neither of which feature Stormcasts Will be on the site next week.

Yessssss, thanks Matt <3

- Salvage