Age of Sigmar: My Thoughts

Last year Games Workshop pushed the End Times for its Warhammer Fantasy game, giving this old game one last nod. Following this they introduced its replacement, Age of Sigmar. Initially this game came out with a total of 4 pages for the rules, and every pre-existing army received free rules, nicknamed Warscrolls.

The community is largely against Age of Sigmar for various reasons, however there are supporters out there for Age of Sigmar. I am not going to go into the argument of whether Age of Sigmar is a great thing or not, instead, I’m going to point out what I think Games Workshop got right.

1. Warscrolls

If you take a look at one of these warscrolls, for example the free ones introduced for the older armies, you’ll note that everything you need for the unit is on one page. I think this is great, every special rule is explained clearly and you do not need to open 2 separate books (Codex & Rules) and locate the rules every time you forget what something is. This is particularly great for new players, as being told to read through so many rules before you can play can be largely offputting.

2. Simple Rules

Games Workshop was listening to its newer customers when it wrote Age of Sigmar. I remember hearing people explain how much more difficult it was to get through all of the rules for Fantasy, and then getting your army build and tactics right on top of that. Granted I believe GW went overboard a little with simplifying this ruleset, another 2 pages of rules alone would clear up the most common queries and imbalances in the game. Combined with the Warscrolls, getting into the game is incredibly easy.

3. Points System

Games Workshop completely removed the points system from this game, and this is not what I’m supporting. Instead, I praise GW for reassessing the points system and not keeping to the traditional ‘count to a thousand’ system. I strongly believe they should have kept points in, as now it is much more difficult to play a balanced game with friends. Instead GW should should have looked at point systems such as SAGA.

In SAGA, your game size will vary between 4 and 8 points. All units are worth 1 point, and their unit size is dictated in the rulebook. Translating this to Age of Sigmar, let’s say you get 20 points, and your favourite infantry squad is 2 points for its minimum size of 5, and pays an extra 2 points for every 5 men. For your warlord, a small guy that doesn’t do much may only be worth 1 point, whereas a monstrous creature that spires fire everywhere may be worth 5 or more points.

This example above doesn’t require a great deal of counting and figuring out, making it equally as appealing to newer players as the lack of a point system, and more appealing to existing players who want to enjoy a games random element of not knowing who will win.

That’s all for now,

Peakwargamer Aaron.

Easter Update, SAGA and some 40K

Hey guys, Peakwargamer Aaron here and here’s an update for the blog, which admittedly I have been rather neglecting thus far. Since my last blog I have had plenty of games, entered into a painting competition and started collecting for SAGA (basically Vikings vs Saxons).

Mostly I have been playing X-Wing and Antares these last 2 months, in X-Wing I have been playing plenty of varied lists with great success, from flying 3 Aces to the Falcon with a mini swarm for support. As for Antares, I discovered a common trait that is responsible for my many losses in that any 40K, I have chosen what I consider to be the coolest army, which currently needs the most effort to win a decent sized game. If I haven’t mentioned already I am devote follower of Chaos in 40K.

A quick introduction to SAGA, I got introduced to this at my local gaming club and it is set in the times when Vikings were invading England. The starting factions are Vikings, Anglo Danish, Normans and Welsh. The ruleset is incredibly simple and still allows for a great number of tactics in the game. I’ll leave you guys to read into this further elsewhere on the internet until I have gotten some games in with this. If you need getting into the mood for the setting, I highly recommend reading/watching The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell.

I have spoken a fair bit about new games that I have recently come into, but how about the game that brought me into the hobby? That’s right, Warhammer 40K. I currently own roughly 7’000pts of Chaos Space Marines and 2’800pts of Chaos Daemons, I don’t get many games in currently, but I figured for this blog I would start posting my own tactical advice for Chaos Marines, given I have more experience here than anything else I’m currently talking about.

I’ll get started with the Chaos Sorcerer

Despite playing Chaos, a codex that is full of random tables, I prefer to know what weapons I’m taking to the battlefield. As a result, I often take a shooty Sorcerer, as you can guarantee that the Sorcerer will get 2 Witchfire powers if you choose Biomany and Telepathy, as you get to swap to Primaris if you don’t like your result. It’s up to you what happens with the third power. To add to the Sorcerers firepower, I add the Burning Brand of Skalathrax on top. Now you have a Sorcerer that burns everything around it.

So now he/she can put out some damage, what about keeping him alive? Well given that the options above work best between 12”-18”, this is a rather important factor. Usually you’ll see Terminator Armour, a Bike or even a Disc of Tzeentch. But how about the humble Rhino? This thing can move fast, shoot, transport a 9 man squad (the sorcerer is staying inside) and protect the guy that’s shooting out of the firing point. The Sorcerer will be immune to S4 weapons for 35pts, I’d say that’s quite a good deal considering everything else the Rhino does for you.

As for the other upgrades, the Spell Familiar is a must. Now regarding the Invulnerable Save, I don’t think you should bother purchasing one. Think about it, you zoom up the board alongside a couple other rhinos, start shooting, pop some smoke when you start receiving lots of fire and eventually the rhino goes BOOM! When this happens, those Lascannons & Meltas will move onwards to the other armoured targets and you’ll get shot to death by the standard firearms, e.g. Boltguns. Even when this happens, I’d expect to have a nearby squad of Chaos Marines to move and join the Sorcerer to add wounds. 

So think about it, maybe this will be different in your meta, but will you need to pour points into an invulnerable save that you may not even roll?