Welcome to "The Age of Sigmar"!
This is a blog devoted to Games Workshop's new Warhammer game. There will be battle reports, tactics articles (tacticus), and educational articles on this blog. Disclaimer: this blog is completely unofficial, is not endorsed by Games Workshop, does not own anything to do with Warhammer (including Intellectual Property), and exists purely to talk about the wonderful new creation of GW's, the "Age of Sigmar".
I have been a Warhammer player for a long time, over 2 decades. With that has come highs and lows, experience and wisdom. I have played numerous other war games as well, and even a few board games. I have won plenty of tournaments (for what that is worth), including a 5+ winning streak. I have also had experience running tournaments, events and a gaming community.
This blog shall exist to help players to the game, explain trends and tactics, discuss army lists and even talk about "higher" issues, such as: company policy, game balance and the Warhammer community (with it's endless issues...). This blog is mostly directed towards newer players (see below), but is of worth for older players as well. Of particular note: this blog is not going to join the pyschotic frenzy of blood crazed "gamers" (they have no right to use that title) that have been and currently are attacking the game and the company that made it. This blog is not for the old Warhammer community, this is for people who play the new game and don't subscribe to those old, hateful values that were so popular in the Warhammer community.
Warhammer used to be an amazing game, until the community ruined it. Warhammer tournaments used to have forty plus people (at local stores!!) with more who wanted to play but could not fit in. People would travel all the time to play, there was a better attitude towards the game and fellow gamers, and people knew how to have fun (which is not approved of now). All of this was slowly destroyed over the long years by negative attitudes in the community, which were screamed out at any passerby by those noisy individuals. Because of this, the game has slowly dwindled to nothing. The end point of the game was right before the "End Times" (the end times in the old fiction), where the game was not making any money for GW. All of this has changed, and for the better.
There has been a change of policy in GW headquarters and it is drastic. It is obvious that GW is making a new game, not a "new edition". They are abandoning most of the old game and most subsequently, most of the old community. No one in their right mind would wish that sort of community on any gaming company and finally something is being done about it. This new game is almost completely different, with so much of it being positively influenced by other games, such as Flames of War.
This is where we stand, although almost all of the new players would not be familiar with the history of the game, this is the edge of the cliff that we stand at. Fantasy was practically no more before the release of this game, and now we will all see if Games Workshop can recreate their epic game/hobby and draw in new, positive, fun loving customers. One thing is for sure: the old ways of doing things were not working and new methods were needed. Many people in the old community are angry about this (an understatement if there ever was one), but there views are no longer valid, being that many of them have spent the last half a decade raging at GW while simultaneously complaining about not having all of the very things that GW is now doing/creating.
This is a new age in Warhammer! The game has been reinvented, and is now faster, more fun, more fluid and most obviously was designed with having fun in mind. The old, competetive game system that was used almost exclusively for obsessive, competetive tournament goers is gone. The new game works very well for people who want to have fun, not crush their opponents at any cost (including numerous forms of cheating). This new system will appeal more to the type of people that play flames of war and other more fun-based war games, and it will appeal to people that do not play any of those, because it is so great. This is a game that a person can pick up and learn to play within a few days. The old game took years for a person to become any good at and that is no longer the case.
On a happier note, this game is very flexible. For countless years, the internet has been filled with whining and crying from the old Warhammer community demanding for the players to have more control over the game, more flexibility and less restrictions from "big, bad GW". All of this and more, Games Workshop has granted the players. This game was designed for players to be able to do what they want. Players can play with small warbands or they can play with large armies. Heck, they can even play with epic sized forces, such as 300+. The games can be very themed and scenario driven, or they can more standard. Armies can be balanced far better (in terms of fairness) then before, due to the player having total and absolute control over this part of the game. Players can use forces made out of only heroic characters, or they could go to the other side and only use common joe foot troops. The possibilities with this game are near endless!
Welcome to the Age of Sigmar!! This is a new age in war gaming, where people will have fun playing a game, be able to choose multiple ways of playing (small vs. large games, hero warbands vs. armies, themed/scenario based vs. free for all brawls..) the game and of course there is the epic new fluff to go along with this game. The future looks bright, brigter then it has for over a decade, easily. The Age of Sigmar will bring GW's fantasy gaming back to life and hopefully in the near future, the same treatment will be done to their sci-fi part of the game and reinvent that as well.
Couldn't be better!
