Age of.......Confusion

Hello people,

Brace yourself it's another meandering musings post.

So, as I don't live under a rock I've been watching the community reaction to Age of Sigmar. On the face of it its been pretty polarised with plenty of RAGE to go with the usual froth.

For me it's been more a case of confusion and resultant caution. I'll explain ;)

In honesty I simply don't understand where GW is going with this one. It's been just over 10 years since I left them so I'm sure I'm well out of the loop but I just don't get it. As much as I'm well out of the GW hobby I feel they've made some positive moves going weekly with White Dwarf, End of Times and the Skittari. As much as the demise of Fantasy has been rumoured for sometime I never expected this.....whatever it is!

A set of free to download quick-play mini-skirmish rules without a points system and whacky rules is a HUGE departure from the GW norm. It's almost like they're trying to out Mantic Mantic. Add in the Stormborn as a blatant link into 30/40K and is it really that simple? The most obvious answer is often the most likely and in hindsight I can see the progression with Fantasy Apocalypse, monstrous creatures and arcane scenery. It's almost like it's a return to Realms of Chaos / Lost and the Damned style gaming, almost, and you've got to go back a long way for that.

There's plenty of "opinion" out there but Tabletop Gaming News recently put up an unboxing review that covers all the bases, pardon the pun, without becoming hysterical.

In honesty I understand the RAGE with the apparent total about face after the move to bigger and bigger blocks of rank and file. Given GW's track record of abandoning previous editions and spin offs, Specialist Games anyone?, I feel that I can understand the angst. I'm sure plenty of people will play on with whatever edition they like but it has to come with the knowledge that GW WILL leave them behind. If it were me, which it isn't (thankfully), I'd be more than a bit narked feeling that my investment in the game has just been utterly scrapped for something far far less.....

I'm sure that there's got to be more to come from AoS, you'd damn well hope so, but I've always felt that the Fantasy community regarded themselves a cut above 40K, as a proper wargames, and I doubt they like feeling like they're being dragged down. Lets not even mention the idea of rebasing your whole army :/

For myself I've got enough LOTR orcs to put a force on the table and give it a go. In truth I'm kind of scared to.......I might just like it!  ;)

I shall be watching with quiet(ish) interest........