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Offline Irisado

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Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« on: May 2, 2016, 10:13:02 AM »
It seems that GW is trying to attract more players to Age of Sigmar by diversifying its approach to the game.  Their announcement on Facebook is as follows:

Quote
That’s right, guys. As of this summer, you’ll have your pick of 3 great ways to play Warhammer Age of Sigmar. We couldn’t be more excited, and we’re certain you’ll love it too.

We’ll have more details for you soon. For now:

Open Play is probably the most similar to the way you play now, but there are new rules on the way to give you even more freedom, including the option for huge multi-player battles.

Narrative Play is as you’d expect – recreating the great stories and epic encounters from the Age of Sigmar. To help you forge your own stories within the Mortal Realms, there are also some really cool campaign rules and tools on the way as well.

Finally, Matched Play is something we know a lot of you have been keen to see. We’ve put these rules together in association with some of the world’s biggest tournament organisers, to create a new standard for balanced competitive play. And yes, it includes points values.

I might be more interested in having a go at playing it if the narrative play turns out to enhance the existing background, which I think remains the weakest element of the game.  Id like to see the narrative focus more on designing your own narrative campaigns, rather than just re-enacting those from the lore.  I'll be interested to see how they approach this.

There's a lot of debate about whether adding a points based alternative is going to help.  I think that it might, but I still wonder whether it will satisfy those who are really opposed to the rules and/or have concerns about balance in the game.  I'm still on the fence about this, as I haven't played the game or seen enough battle reports to make an assessment.

If all of these new ideas turn out to be successful though, then Age of Sigmar may start to gain wider appeal.
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Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #1 on: May 3, 2016, 11:20:04 AM »
I enjoy the game as it is. This will make it easier to play. I'm all on board. I'm looking forward to campaign and narrative play.
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Offline Calamity

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #2 on: May 3, 2016, 03:25:47 PM »
I noticed that Matched Play was made in association with tournament organisers.  That's a good sign.  Communication between GW and its users is always welcome.

I like AoS, so I'm keen to see how this pans out.

Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #3 on: May 3, 2016, 04:25:50 PM »
If you listen to the helenhammer podcast, they have a show about how GW invited the hosts of three AoS podcasts to come to Warhammer world and playtest and review the new AoS rules. Great episode, and great to hear how accepting GW is of community feedback.
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Offline Lorizael

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2016, 04:53:28 PM »


I might be more interested in having a go at playing it if the narrative play turns out to enhance the existing background, which I think remains the weakest element of the game.  Id like to see the narrative focus more on designing your own narrative campaigns, rather than just re-enacting those from the lore.  I'll be interested to see how they approach this.

Bizarre, I've found the background to be one of it's strongest elements...

The Narrative play section gives 4 or 5 different methods for playing campaigns and how to organise them as well as expanding the Path to Glory campaign to include races other than Chaos. It also includes more scenarios to play.

As an extra, the results of the summer Global Campaign will be written into the background- benefit of an ever expanding narrative background.

Offline Irisado

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2016, 05:18:40 PM »
Does it provide players with the advice and tools they need to construct their own narrative campaigns?

Age of Sigmar's narrative has yet to convince me that it is as rich, varied, and interesting as that of the Old World.  If you read through the old Warhammer Armies Undead book, you'll get an idea of the sort of background that I'm talking about :)

I'm open to persuasion when it comes to Age of Sigmar, as I'd very much like to enjoy it, but I still need convincing.  If you want to convince me, you're welcome to come up to Herfordshire some time and teach me how to play the game :).
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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2016, 06:14:20 PM »
I get the feeling that the background to AoS is one that's still in development.  So we have to sit back and watch it grow.  I like what they have so far but it needs more.

Offline Lorizael

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2016, 07:16:04 AM »
Warhammer had 35 years of background development, AoS has 10 months ;)
It will get there! The stuff already available is strong, yes it's limited, but only because the game and it's releases are working as a narrative- we discover more as the games protaganists discover more.

Offline Calamity

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2016, 05:40:45 PM »
Oh don't get me wrong.  I really like what they're doing with it.  And the best part is, it's now an ongoing story instead of one that keeps stalling like the old world.  ;)

Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2016, 09:28:52 PM »
I cannot wait until the return of the Aelfs and Slaanesh!
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2016, 09:56:22 AM »
I'm waiting for one of the new factions to really catch my imagination before I consider building an army.

Not to mention I'd have to sell somebody around here on playing, and that's never easy.

Offline Calamity

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #11 on: May 12, 2016, 10:03:26 AM »
I'm still looking forward to my first game.  We just can't get the time to do it.

Offline Irisado

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2016, 10:10:16 AM »
Warhammer had 35 years of background development, AoS has 10 months ;)

That's a bit like Gordon Brown claiming that he'd only been Prime Minister for a few days after he'd taken over from Tony Blair in 2007 during questioning in the House of Commons ;).

GW have had the opportunity to plan for Age of Sigmar.  They could have chosen to move the Old World forward by introducing new characters and advance the time line to accompany the new rules, rather than just rip everything up completely.  Having chosen to have something that is, to all intents and purposes, completely new, they needed to provide more of a gripping narrative to engage players, in my opinion.

There are some parallels to what happened when Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions was replaced by Epic 40K.  The idea was a good one, but the streamlining went too far and the marketing and presenting explaining the reasons for the change and the new approach were poorly executed.  My impression is that this is what has happened with Age of Sigmar.

Again, I stress that I'm not knocking the idea of making the change.  Warhammer was in a very poor state in its final years, with horrendously bloated rules, units which were too large, and serious balance issues.  I am just unconvinced that the way in which the change has been handled has given Age of Sigmar a high probability of success.
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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #13 on: May 17, 2016, 07:18:51 AM »

...they needed to provide more of a gripping narrative to engage players...

Isn't this purely subjective?
There are a great many of us who have been hugely gripped by the narrative! I'm being completely blown away by the background as it emerges and I'm far more engaged with it than I was with the tired tropes of the World That Was.

Offline Irisado

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2016, 08:18:32 AM »
Yes, it is, which is why I ended that sentence with 'in my opinion' ;).  I have been following a lot of the discussion of Age of Sigmar on various forums though, and I'm certainly far from the only person who feels that the narrative doesn't work for them.

Note that I am opposed to people going round various forums just rubbishing the whole concept.  I think that there is a lot to be said for Age of Sigmar in other ways, notably many of the streamlined rules, and I would really like to play some games.

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2016, 04:03:14 PM »
I will also go on record as being mostly unmotivated by the background. I find the alternate world/portal thing okay, but I am not, as yet, a fan of any of the factions. The angels of Sigmar faction (name slipping my mind at the moment) is totally lame, the Chaos factions have lost some flavor, and the Fire Dwarves look ridiculous.

But I'm still waiting.

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Re: Age of Sigmar - New Ways to Play
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2016, 05:49:45 PM »
I like the background that they've created so far, although obliviously I feel like it's 'not done yet'.   But it's the rules I really like.  Even though I haven't played it yet.   :D. They just need a point system to help with competitive play.

Anyone know how well AoS is doing?  I do want it to succeed.

 


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