By now most of the Warhammer customer and fan base is well aware of the fact that Games Workshop (GW) has introduced an entirely new Warhammer fantasy (with a small “f”) game system to stand alongside it’s amazingly successful Warhammer 40,000 game and model range.
As with any major change, there’s a certain amount of consternation among the existing customer base over what amounts to the biggest change Games Workshop has ever made to their original flagship product line. I’m just one guy, but here’s how I, your friendly blogger and hobbyist known as Brass Scorpion, feel about it.
First, let’s start off by answering a common question I’ve heard about the redesign of Warhammer: why? Why did GW do this? Well, the answer which is probably already obvious to many is sales. Sales of the sword-and-sorcery based Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) have declined significantly in the last decade such that they lag far behind those of its science fantasy brother, Warhammer 40,000 (aka 40K). In fact, WFB has not been in the top five selling miniatures games worldwide the past few years. More importantly, WFB apparently accounted for less than 15% of GW sales last year. That’s not good news for customers or for GW. Things that sell poorly go away, often forever.
WFB was a huge product range with many army books and a massive number of model kits roughly equal to 40K, yet it no longer came close to pulling even to 40K in sales. Clearly, the old WFB was not a good investment in production for GW, the amount of time and money invested in all that labor, production equipment, marketing, shipping and shelf space just wasn’t worth it any longer. Something had to change. Enter, the Age Of Sigmar.
Now I understand there are a lot of things to miss about the old WFB as I played it myself for more than 20 years. The massed ranks of troops with their stylized swords and shields, spears, bows and even more fantastical weapons looked really cool. And setting up one’s army was part of the strategy of the game itself. Now besides losing the mechanic of ranking and moving the models in massive blocks (usually on movement trays) we also lost the old magic system, the square bases (on future models), and the points system for balancing opposing armies. That seems to be one of the biggest complaints, the removal of the points balancing system. Here’s what I have to say about that.
While the points system was useful it was far from perfect in either WFB or currently still in 40K. Each time an Army Book (or Codex) was or is released the point values are an approximation at best and experienced customers know that all points are NOT created equal. In fact, GW has a tendency to revise the points value system up and down over time so older Army Books may become less balanced with the rest of the system as the points for their units become either too expensive or too little compared to more current books for the game system. This has been a constant problem for years.
Personally, I never enjoyed the time spent (i.e., wasted to me) counting points and making lists though I know some players love doing those things. I am happy to say farewell to the points system and am not seeking a replacement. The most fun games I’ve played, 40K and Fantasy, we just plunked some models on the table and started playing, roughly balancing the game through the amount of and what models were chosen. It is not fun to me wondering if I should spend 3 pts. on a searchlight (in 40K) or worse, tallying points for musicians and banners (in WFB) that should just be a standard part of the unit because they’re pretty much essential to game play. It’s really annoying and a huge waste of time that I could just be playing, or painting models, or doing anything else more fun or useful.
Here’s the core of what’s important to me. I’ve been at Warhammer for more than 2 decades because the models are amazing, the game system was never great or particularly well designed and was (and is) always fraught with problems, but it was a way to have some fun with GW models. Which is all it was ever meant to be. That is something I have thought for a very long time and it made me feel wonderful when Jervis Johnson said basically the same thing to me about it in a conversation back in 2008 during one of his visits to the US. We were standing in the GW HQ a day or so after Games Day Baltimore and he said to me, and I’m quoting as closely as I can, “If you want to play a really great game there are better games out there, our games are designed to have fun playing with our models.” By Sigmar, well said, sir!
Warhammer (both systems), even when GW streamlined it in some versions, has always been a bulky, complicated system with rules cobbled together to make it possible to play with new models as they are released. Problems with it are exacerbated by the fact that it’s a system that gets built upon with each new model and supplement release rather than coherently designed all at once. It has always been filled with contradictions and conundrums and will I’m sure continue to have those problems. Yet, it will continue to remain a way to have fun playing with GW models and that’s why I still buy it, collect it, and occasionally even play a game with it. It’s not a great game, but it is great FUN. And I still think even after my roughly 26 years in this hobby that GW makes the coolest looking miniatures. On that subject, for me at least, they are second to none.
The outrage expressed by some over the game design change is not a surprise or unusual, but typically at times mildly amusing as a few people rage nearly out of control over what GW has done to their toy soldier game. Some people are condemning the new Age Of Sigmar system without trying it. I have tried it along with some other long-term Warhammer hobbyists (i.e., my son and a good friend) and we liked it. Do we miss some things about the old system? Sure we do, but that doesn’t mean that Age Of Sigmar isn’t a fun system in its own right. And the new models for it are absolutely terrific, simply gorgeous.
I painted this Glottkin last winter, it’s an amazing kit, really fun to paint, and a truly ferocious monster in Age Of Sigmar.
Age Of Sigmar is just getting starting, there will surely be tons more rules and models for it in the weeks, months and years to come. Some people claim it is “dumbed down” compared to the old WFB. Well I can tell you that some of the best strategy games out there have simple rules, it’s game play itself that provides fun through complexity. Chess has rules that anyone can learn in five minutes, but few are truly great at it. Many of the best Avalon Hill historical simulation games (now there’s a company I miss!) years ago had simple rules, but enormous strategic possibilities during game play. I still have great memories of playing Midway, Afrika Korps, and Wooden Ships And Iron Men when I was a teenager decades ago. Those games had some of the shorter rule books compared to many other Avalon Hill games, but there was plenty of strategy and tactics to be had. And because the rules weren’t terribly lengthy the games were quicker to learn and play with fewer rules errors.
So let the naysayers have their say and move along because those of us still buying the old WFB products simply weren’t enough in number and therefore sales for GW to make it sustainable any longer. GW had to do something different, be thankful they didn’t eliminate having a fantasy game and model range altogether, especially now because some of the WFB model released during last year’s End Times expansion are some of the coolest kits GW has ever produced. I hope Age Of Sigmar gives new life to GW’s sales of their fantasy models kits, both the existing ones and the new ones to come because we all need for it to do that if we want to see GW survive to keep producing amazing models.
Age Of Sigmar is already showing promise even with just the free basic rules and “Warscrolls” for models already released and a lot more is coming. There are many interesting strategic combinations of models possible and model placement and tactics are also filled with interesting tactical opportunities using the new 40K-like (and even a little Lord Of The Rings like) rules for maneuvering. I enjoyed my first couple times trying it out on the first demonstration weekend. So let’s hope Age Of Sigmar works out for GW and their customers and that there’s a lot of fun new stuff coming from the GW design studio for both Age Of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 for years to come. Personally, my attitude for years has been that the rules for both Warhammer games will always change, but a cool model is forever. So whatever happens with Age Of Sigmar, I’ll still be having fun with my models. Let’s hope Age Of Sigmar rescues GW and their fantasy model range the way Sigmar saved what’s left of the Old Warhammer World in GW’s background lore.
As they used to say, the King is dead, long live the King! So how many of you out there tried Age Of Sigmar recently? If you were previously a WFB player did it keep your interest? If you’d never tried WFB at all did Age Of Sigmar suddenly grab your interest as your first fantasy oriented Warhammer game? One thing is certain, GW has a lot invested in this so we’ll be seeing and hearing more about it for some time to come.
About the Author: BrassScorpion
