Age Of Sigmar Starter Box Unboxing and an Optimist's Opinion So Far.

With The End Times ended and the Old World destroyed, the plotline for Warhammer Fantasy didn't really have a lot of places to go. So, where better to go than up into space, with a god riding a big rock who then meets a dragon creature. Seems legit.

That's a pretty condensed version of the premise for Age of Sigmar, but Games Workshop needed to reboot somehow after a pretty successful showing of ripping a couple of decades of lore to pieces in The End Times in a process that injected a lot of enthusiasm back into a game that for some (myself included) had gone a little stale.

There are a lot of naysayers about in regard to Age of Sigmar, but I'm going to try not to be one of them. I'm going to try and give what should hopefully be a positive outlook on the new game and also throw in some pictures of the brand new Age Of Sigmar starter box, containing Sigmarines Stormcast Eternals and some Khorne dudes.




Lets start with the box. It's your pretty standard starter set box, containing two factions of plastic miniatures (though these guys, unlike previous editions, aren't snapfit and require gluing), dice, 18" measuring sticks, rules (all 4 pages, more on this later), building instructions and a 96 page "Welcome to Age Of Sigmar Guide Book" that details some of the initial lore that will develop over time, paint schemes for the Sigmarines Eternals and Chaos guys and also some scenarios to make the full use of your brand new minis and to introduce new players to the game.

Upon opening the box, the first new thing I notices was the measuring sticks. People who have bought starter sets of both 40k and Fantasy for as long back as I can remember (the first box set I saw was 3rd ed 40k) have received what could mostly be described as red canes that are more useful in making whistling noises in the air or causing sharp pain to unsuspecting friends. This box has gone for a slightly more useful solution of making them hollow, wider and less flexible than the older ones, making them safer and more usable. Why they don't bother putting a tape measure in (other than the fact they sell them separately) I don't know. 

Comparing Old Red with New Blue.

Also visible in those pictures are the shiny round bases. The rules for Age Of Sigmar (which, if you didn't know, are available free on the Games Workshop website) state that measurements are made to the model rather than to the base. This appears to prevent the backlash of people who have hundreds of square based miniatures who don't want to give up their ranked up units in favour of round bases which are how this set (and most likely future fresh AOS releases) come as standard.

Now some shots of sprues. There are a rather large number of pieces, making the numbers next to them and the instruction guide rather useful. There are 5 sprues in the box - the first one pictured (front and back) is duplicated. 

Once you get past the mounds of plastic, you get to the dice, loose large bases and book bundle. 

Getting past them, I also found a couple of snapped off pieces. Which sucks, given that these pics were taken straight out of the wrapping so I hadn't even had a chance to get my hands on things to break them myself, but I didn't really see much point in complaining about it to GW. 

I've so far managed to identify the spear looking piece to be part of the Chaos beastmaster guy (typically the first mini I built out of the box) but haven't built anything else to be able to work out which mini is missing a little poof of fluff/grass.

In the process of taking pictures of the box content, I put the lid on the floor. This was a mistake.

Someone decided that it was rather comfy, if a little small, so squashed and ripped one corner.

I'll get some shots of the minis once they're built (or maybe just when painted, as there are fair few flying round the internet at the moment) but for now, back to the non-AOS bashing debate with myself.

Sure, people are grumpy about the round bases, lack of points and stupid rules attached to some models. 

Round bases are a personal choice - they don't matter in the game. I'll be sticking with square bases so I can still rank everyone up. 

Lack of points - this was unexpected for me, as points have always been a good "balancing" factor and give you a guideline of what you can take in a battle. Now you have to work out your own balancing factor, and there are a few to choose from, ranging from limiting warscrolls or wounds to adding wounds to bravery then multiplying by attacks. Once AOS develops the balancing should work itself out as people get used to a new system that is less than a month old. 

The silly rules. At first look, some are amusing. Talking to Konrad von Carstein during the Hero phase lets you re-roll ones on his to hit rolls. If he talks back to you, that moves from ones to all fails. This sounds entertaining the first game around, and possibly in the third game. Can you see yourself enjoying it in game 20? That appears to be what GW are after - none of the new release models will have them. Barring one or two exceptions, these rules are limited to named characters who were either killed off prior to or during The End Times so can't really exist in the new mythology anyway but have had rules created to appease older players whose armies are largely made up of pre-End Times gear.  

A lot of people are hating on AOS for not being the much expected Fantasy 9th Ed but a completely new creature and more change than they would have liked. I personally haven't played Fantasy since mid 7th Ed but tried to keep up to date with 8th ed releases. I faded away from the game and moved towards miniatures for painting rather than gaming. The End Times brought me back hard - a massive shake up and shunt forward in time in the fluff (which doesn't happen in 40k, they seem stuck in a bubble on the edge of Imperial crumble and reminisce instead for the Heresy for development) made things interesting so I picked up my undead, which had been my back up army after High Elves and made them my focus. After buying enough boxes to take them up roughly 5k points, suddenly they don't have any points. 

I'm ok with this. I have an army book and rulebook for 8th, I'm sure most people do. I have the ruleset and compendiums downloaded free from GW for AOS. That's two completely different games from one set of minis. Sure 8th won't go anywhere development wise, but with the amount of people complaining about AOS not being like 8th, why would people want it to? I have a brand new game system developing in front of me with a view to consistently expand the background and setting as time and campaigns pass, with fresh miniatures coming out and free rules to go with them. 

In the end, I'm rambling. Having a new puppy (that turned up a couple of hours after this box did last week, in fact) tends to make you tired and lose track of where you are going with things. Overall I'm optimistic to see how Age of Sigmar develops. It's a bold step, but after the push from The End Times, I think it'll win over more people than it loses once it gets in full swing.