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Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





The latest book(let) for Age of Sigmar has just arrived, covering skirmish/warband level battles in the Mortal Realms (specifically, the Realm of Death). I have a feeling this book and whole style of play is going to get overshadowed by the new 40k which starts popping up next week, but I will forge ahead with a review regardless!

For all the piccies: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/review-age-of-sigmar-skirmish/



First things first. This is not Mordheim, nor even an Age of Sigmar version of Necromunda. So, get that out of your head.

What this book is, is a £6 way of playing with Age of Sigmar models in a different manner.

So, is it any good?


Well, things kick off with a four page overview of the Mortal Realms and what has been happening in them up to date – nothing you have not already seen if you have bought an Age of Sigmar book, and it may seem a little odd, given the Age of Sigmar rules (which are fully used in Skirmish) are not included. Then again, they are still available for free download, so someone could conceivably to this book ‘raw’.


We then crack on with the setting for Skirmish (no reason you cannot skirmish in any region of the Mortal Realms, but this is the default provided with the book). This is Shadespire, a ruined city deep in the Realm of Death. Once great, the rulers (the Katophranes) managed to honk Nagash off by crafting items from Shadeglass, which gave them ability to live beyond their mortal bodies.

And Nagash is never going to be down with that.

The end result is that the city has been purged of its original inhabitants and the ruins are gradually getting swamped by the surrounding (and frankly lethal) desert. However, there are great treasures lying around (albeit guarded with some vicious traps), so it is worth the while of every power, from the lowliest tribe of Grots to the Stormcast Eternals, to brave the desert, accept the casualties it deals out, and get to the city where they will have to fight off other warbands looking for goodies themselves.

The hook (as far as the wider realms are concerned) is that the treasures found in Shadespire could have a major effect on the wars elsewhere.

So, what about the rules?


You play Skirmish pretty much the same way as you do Age of Sigmar. In fact, the rules changes (tweaks would be a better word) can be more or less summarised as:

Every model is its own unit and does not have to stay within 1″ of its friends.
Yiou need a General, and he must be a Hero.
Inspiring Presence is not allowed, but all other command abilities are.
When a warband as a whole takes casualties, a single Battleshock test is taken for everyone, using the general’s Bravery.
No summoning, adding of models, or anything that even remotely smells like either. So no, Flesh-Eater Courts will not be constantly revitalising units.
The Three Rules of One are in effect.
And that really is about it.

Grand Allegiance abilities can be used, not faction specific ones, though there are new command abilities and artefacts of power unique to Skirmish as well. There is also a new Mysterious Terrain table to reflect the terrain of Shadespire.


There are campaign rules and, in fact, a complete 6-part campaign of linked Battleplans that tells the story of a couple of warbands entering Shadespire in an effort to locate a great artefact. However, you can use just about any Battleplan yet published for Age of Sigmar with little or no extra effort.

Warbands are built with Renown points (25 is the recommended start), and more Renown points are acquired throughout the campaign (you earn 6 for losing, for example, and 10 for a major victory. After each battle, you also get to roll on the Rewards of Battle table (victors effectively get to roll twice), which grants you more Renown, magic items, or relics that allow Wizards to learn new spells (such as Soul Siphon, which dishes out a mortal wound while healing the caster).

Tournament rules (Matched Play) are also included – warbands are bumped up to 50 Renown (a suggestion is made to escalate the number of Renown used throughout a day of play), Battleplans are a little more regulated, and there is a scoring system.

Other than that, Matched Play is the same as the campaign, and any Age of Sigmar player will get to grips with both very quickly.


There are six Battleplans dedicated to Skirmish; Clash at Dawn, Treasure Hunt, Fragile Cargo, Vortex of Power, Assassinate, and Seize the Relic. These are the Battleplans assembled into the ‘default’ campaign (come back here soon for a full campaign report!) though, as mentioned earlier, you can use any Battleplans to create your own unique campaign.


Finally, we get to the warband lists…

It was kinda hinted in the run up to this book’s release that you would be able to use almost any Age of Sigmar model as they do, of course, use the same Warscrolls. The great behemoths and war engines would be taken out, of course, and we could all accept that. However, looking through the lists, there are some odd omissions.


For example, if you are a dedicated Wood Elf or Dwarf player, you will find yourself well covered here with decent lists for the Dispossessed and Wanderers. However, if you are a Beastclaw Raiders player, you may be glad to see the Mournfang Riders… but no Icebrow Hunter (who might have fitted in quite well) or Frost Sabres. For the Seraphon, you might well be be able to get past the fact that there is no Slann Starmaster – but there is no Skink Priest either (you get the Starpriest or Oldblood as a choice of general).

A further complication (and this will not be a factor for Matched Play) is that 25 Renown points are suggested to begin a campaign. However, a Megaboss costs 28 points. An Oldblood is 24 points.

You are going to be starting your campaign with minor leaders – which is fair enough, but someone is going to be trying to save points for a Big Bad on their side. So, what, the Megaboss got lost in the desert, and has now turned up to find the Warchanter has been leading the warband and is now the general?

Not a massive mis-step, more of an oddity.

Overall, I am looking to get my teeth into this. Games are going to be fast and furious, and getting through the entire campaign in a single day will be no great effort. The chances are you already have a complete warband in your collection and, for £6… well, I cannot see any reason for anyone not to give this a whirl.

40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in us
Flashy Flashgitz




Armageddon

I get it, finecast sucks, even GW knows that, but the omission of so many heroes in a game were you need a mandatory hero is just.....inexcusable.

Can't use skaven assassins? Witch Hunters and warrior priests? Branchwyches/wraiths? Skaven Greyseers are plastic and I don't even see points for those.

Its like they saw Hinterlands and went 'hmmm, if we spend 10 minutes on our lunchbreak we could get some money from that'.

"People say on their first meeting a Man and an Ork exchanged a long, hard look, didn't care much for what they saw, and shot each other dead." 
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Sigh. Seems like they can never make one of these things without some really odd stuff being left out? Thank you for the review though! I'm still planning on getting a copy on account of it's affordable and probably fits what i'm trying to set up campaign wise

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






Thank you for the review! I really like the look of this. Especially because I just started collecting the overlords and they seem perfect for this. Fluff wise at least. Game wise will remain to be seen.
   
Made in ie
Gangly Grot Rebel






Its definitely a bit of staking a claim, probably because of the success of hinterlands.

But anyway, pre-ordered my copy, even with my doubts, as it looks like it will be fun, and worst case scenario is that you can incorporate the campaign into hinterlands.

As for the stuff that is left out, its easy to house rule in. I have brought quite a number of models to go with it, that have no rules. We will either use them as proxies, add them in using the /5 points rule, or as 'boss encounters' (for things like dragons)

Its a good excuse to paint up stuff I'd love to do but would otherwise not bother with, and I love warband sized stuff at this scale.

I will even be incorporating the new overlord airships in to the game- either as encounters or as terrain.

Was very pleased to see woodies and dwarves in there as I thought they would be the two I wanted rules for that would have been left out.

Only thing missing I really also wanted was squigs (and snotlings lol) but I will probably run them as spider riders as my opponent is a arachnophobe so this works out well for the two of us. Will probably run a snotling pump wagon as a doomwheel at some point (was really surprised to see the doomwheel in there!) just for laughs.

Thanks for the review. Sadly I preordered, something that I never do, but as I dont get post at weekends, then away for a couple of days, I dont think I will get my order until the end of next week or the week after. Shame.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Not a fan of AoS as it is now, but pre-ordered this as I believe this is more what I was hoping AoS would have been to begin with. When a warband as a whole takes casualties, a single Battleshock test is taken for everyone, using the general’s Bravery is the only thing I am mildly leery of, the rest is fine.
   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

On Sunday I'm going to a skirmish event and half of my warband is stuff not in the book. It's no problem though as I can go to scrollbuilder and figure out the points for one model and then divide that by five and I have the renown value.

Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






 thekingofkings wrote:
Not a fan of AoS as it is now, but pre-ordered this as I believe this is more what I was hoping AoS would have been to begin with. When a warband as a whole takes casualties, a single Battleshock test is taken for everyone, using the general’s Bravery is the only thing I am mildly leery of, the rest is fine.


Yeah, how does this work exactly? Does the controlling player still decide who flees? And are there still bonuses to bravery for having groups of ten? And if the general activates a command ability that ignores battleshock (an overlord admiral for example) does that still apply here?
   
Made in nz
Screamin' Stormboy





New Zealand

Don Savik wrote:I get it, finecast sucks, even GW knows that, but the omission of so many heroes in a game were you need a mandatory hero is just.....inexcusable.

Can't use skaven assassins? Witch Hunters and warrior priests? Branchwyches/wraiths? Skaven Greyseers are plastic and I don't even see points for those.

Its like they saw Hinterlands and went 'hmmm, if we spend 10 minutes on our lunchbreak we could get some money from that'.

while I agree the selection of missing models is dismaying and unnecessarily the grey seer is actually in the book (all by it's self in its own lonely masterclan list on the other side of the page to the rest of the skaven)


frozenwastes wrote:On Sunday I'm going to a skirmish event and half of my warband is stuff not in the book. It's no problem though as I can go to scrollbuilder and figure out the points for one model and then divide that by five and I have the renown value.


This is what we are thinking of doing at my club
(as well as bumping up the starting renown to 30ish to allow more variation in warbands, otherwise practically everyone is cheapest hero and 2 of the cheapest troops at the start)

 
   
Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





 Don Savik wrote:

Branchwyches/wraiths? Skaven Greyseers are plastic and I don't even see points for those.



Branchwych on page 40, Greyseer on page 36.

 RexHavoc wrote:
Its definitely a bit of staking a claim,


That would be speculation, not definite.

 frozenwastes wrote:
On Sunday I'm going to a skirmish event and half of my warband is stuff not in the book.


With the low number of models used, that will not be an issue (plenty of warbands will start a campaign with just three models - I am going to try to do some samples later).

 Future War Cultist wrote:


Yeah, how does this work exactly? Does the controlling player still decide who flees? And are there still bonuses to bravery for having groups of ten? And if the general activates a command ability that ignores battleshock (an overlord admiral for example) does that still apply here?


One battleshock test for everyone, owning player chooses who flees (don't worry, they will be back for the next battle!).

40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






@ MongooseMatt

Cool! That works for me!
   
Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





If anyone is interested, I put together some sample starting warbands for a campaign, so you can get an idea of what they may look like: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/skirmish-warbands/


40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in dk
Flashy Flashgitz




They sure do start out small.

I almost consider starting up a Tzeentch warband and getting a dragon ogre. A Nurgle warband would look cool too, if uneventful for a long time.

I'll stay with Khorne. Fortunately I have the minis already. Now do I choose the skullgrinder er exalted champion...

With love from Denmark

 
   
Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





Waaargh wrote:
Now do I choose the skullgrinder er exalted champion...


I was wondering the same thing.

You have to go Skullgrinder

40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






Wow, the warbands start off smaller than I thought. Which makes sense I suppose. Out of couristy, what do you reckon a starting overlord warband would look like?
   
Made in pl
Horrific Hive Tyrant





Great review! Thanks
   
Made in gb
Dakka Veteran





Thanks for the review and the warbands! What about a herald of Nurgle instead of the lord of plagues? Does the locus still exist in skirmish?
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

So... less warbands and more "A champion and their drinking buddies" but that could be fun...

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in gb
Arch Magos w/ 4 Meg of RAM





I would definitely recommend starting the campaign at 30 to 35 renown. One of my biggest gripes is that loads of the factions can't fit into 25 at all.

Bye bye Dakkadakka, happy hobbying! I really enjoyed my time on here. Opinions were always my own :-) 
   
Made in fi
Courageous Space Marine Captain






One question: are the Silver Tower heroes in?

   
Made in us
Ollanius Pius - Savior of the Emperor






Gathering the Informations.

 Crimson wrote:
One question: are the Silver Tower heroes in?

At least a couple of them are.

The Knight-Questor and the Skaven Assassin are in there.
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

It'd be neat to see the warpriest in there, leading himself some free peoples

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in us
Fiery Bright Wizard





California

Did Kharadron Overlords make it into the book? They are pretty much the only AoS army i'd be interested in buying models for at the moment...at least until the Aelves get a revamped look.

 
   
Made in us
Confident Halberdier




Los Angeles, CA

 Thargrim wrote:
Did Kharadron Overlords make it into the book? They are pretty much the only AoS army i'd be interested in buying models for at the moment...at least until the Aelves get a revamped look.

Of course they did, from what I can tell most of the Kharadron heroes cost 20 Renown except for the Endrinmaster who costs 16... Guess the guy doesn't need much incentive to get out of the ship and hunt for treasure...

That or he's really that bored when the ships are parked outside...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/05/25 22:49:00


 
   
Made in us
Fiery Bright Wizard





California

 IronDerp wrote:
 Thargrim wrote:
Did Kharadron Overlords make it into the book? They are pretty much the only AoS army i'd be interested in buying models for at the moment...at least until the Aelves get a revamped look.

Of course they did, from what I can tell most of the Kharadron heroes cost 20 Renown except for the Endrinmaster who costs 16... Guess the guy doesn't need much incentive to get out of the ship and hunt for treasure...

That or he's really that bored when the ships are parked outside...


Oh good, I saw a flipthrough of the book and must have missed them. For the price of the skirmish book it looks like this is something I can't pass up.

 
   
Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





 Vomikron Noxis wrote:
Thanks for the review and the warbands! What about a herald of Nurgle instead of the lord of plagues? Does the locus still exist in skirmish?


Yup, Herald is in there (all of them, except the Skullmaster!), and the Locus is still a thing.

 Kanluwen wrote:
 Crimson wrote:
One question: are the Silver Tower heroes in?

At least a couple of them are.

The Knight-Questor and the Skaven Assassin are in there.


Along with the Darkoath Chieftain (and Gaunt Summoner with Familiars). No priest though (and no Devoted of Sigmar, for that matter).

 Thargrim wrote:
Did Kharadron Overlords make it into the book?


Indeed, a typical starting warband may be any of the Heroes and two of the Arkanaut Company. Alternatively, use an Endrinmaster and you can add a Thunderer to that, or take the Arkanaut Company guys out and you can have two Thunderers.

40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






Picking my copy up this weekend, but please tell me this. Do units still require unit leaders? They don't seem to be bound by any of the other restrictions.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/05/26 09:01:48


 
   
Made in fi
Courageous Space Marine Captain






MongooseMatt wrote:

No priest though (and no Devoted of Sigmar, for that matter).

Boo! A priest and some flagellants would have made a perfectly thematic warband!

   
Made in us
Enigmatic Chaos Sorcerer




Tampa, FL

The starting points for a campaign seem pretty low it is like they expect you to take a henchman first and then have the real leader show up later when you get more points. Can't say I like that

- Wayne
Formerly WayneTheGame 
   
Made in us
Clousseau




I'm 50/50 on this.

Plus points: the cost. It enables people to play "official gw rules" skirmish games (because that is important to a lot of people).

Down sides: My preferences basically. Skirmish with heroes running around isn't something that I wanted to see. I prefer the old skirmishes which were mainly normal dudes backed up by an elite model or two.
Not everything is represented. So people will have to houserule their favorite models in (see above on officialdom)
   
 
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