So... Where to from here?

Apologies, this is likely to become a bit of a ramble. It's a confusing time and I am somewhat confused. Read on if you dare.

Unless you live under a rock, you will have seen the leaked information about Age of Sigmar that has been doing the rounds on the internet. People are reacting in many different ways - some are excited, and some are disgusted.

For my part, I am just disappointed. It would appear that Games Workshop has finally acted upon its long-term stance that they are not a games company - they are a miniatures company. Their focus is selling models, and the rules are just there to give people something to do with their models, and to hopefully give them an incentive to buy more. Age of Sigmar feels like the embodiment of this, by doing away with all the overhead associated with producing army books, and using a simple rule system. It may be that GW see this as the way of the future. Who knows, it may even work.

For me, my primary concern was whether Age of Sigmar would offer a system with which to use my existing collection. Games Workshop have clearly stated that players will be able to use their existing models, and that the basing doesn't even matter. But looking at the pictures of the upcoming releases, my conclusion is that it won't work for me. The new models really don't look like they belong in the same universe as my older ones. This is probably intentional, but I have no interest in leaving behind my existing collection and moving to a new one (which is undoubtedly GW's ultimate ambition). The rules have not been officially released yet, but I have seen enough for it to be clear that this is not the way forward for me.

I will not be playing Age of Sigmar.

I have no real trouble saying this, but it does have ramifications. For the first time in almost 25 years, I will not be playing a version of Warhammer this is supported by Games Workshop. It leaves me in uncharted territory. I have spent a while now considering what I will do, and I figure that for me there are a few options.

1. Continue playing Warhammer 8th edition (with or without End Times elements)
2. Make changes to 8th edition and play that
3. Play Kings of War

8th Edition
I have stated before that I feel 8th edition has been the best version of Warhammer I have played. It was a dramatic shift from the previous 4 editions, but I felt it was an improvement and in particular it worked better for one of the things that I most enjoy - playing large games. The game got an almost complete suite of new army books during 8th edition, as well as numerous expansions like Storm of Magic. Apart from Bretonnians, Beastmen and Skaven, the game came dangerously close to presenting a self-contained product.



End Times made a bit of a mess of things with the sudden change in character limits, combined army lists and super characters with combined monster profiles. It gave things a bit of a shake-up, which was not entirely unwelcome to people who had been using the same system for 5+ years. But it also paid scant regard to game balance, and left the game in a somewhat unsustainable position. If you kept playing with End Times unchecked, it wouldn't be long before the combined "legions" armies were dominating the scene to the detriment of everyone else.

Modified 8th Edition
For all that I think 8th edition is the best version of the game, that does not mean it's without its flaws. There are a number of niggles that I would be tempted to address if I were to keep playing the game, and didn't have to worry about using "official" rules anymore. It might have been tempting to adopt some house rules in the past, but being involved in the wider tournament scene meant that it would just have caused confusion in the long run. 8th edition did a good enough job out of the box, so I stuck with that. But without any current "official" rules to really align with anymore, and with the likelihood that the existing tournament scene is going to shatter with the advent of Age of Sigmar, it might be time to start tinkering with things to see if it makes the game better.

In truth I think a lot of different groups of people are going to jump at the chance to make what they perceive as improvements to 8th edition, and try to make it a more robust, tournament-ready system. In all likelihood this will result in dozens of home-brewed rules with no real authority behind them, and none of them will really take off as a widely accepted tournament system. But I might be wrong.

Kings of War
There are some fundamental problems with the future of a game that is no longer supported by its manufacturer. Even if someone manages to modify the rules, ironing out some of the things that caused complaints, and turns it into a balanced and well-received tournament game, it is likely that player numbers will fall over time. There will be little to no "new blood" entering the scene, and even the stalwarts will eventually drift away. Normally it's a cycle of players leaving and new ones taking their place, but that would likely become more of a downward spiral now.

Kings of War is the most obvious alternative in terms of a mass-battle Fantasy game that allows for most of the models players currently use in Warhammer. It's been around for a few years now and a new second edition is due to land in August. Mantic has always positioned itself as an alternative for Games Workshop players, and the shift to Age of Sigmar is potentially the key moment for them. I have played only one game of Kings of War thus far, and for all that a game looks similar to Warhammer battle on the table, the game is very different and far more streamlined. My initial feeling was that I didn't like the system as much as 8th edition Warhammer, but one game is not an adequate sample size, and it could just be that it would take some time for me to adjust and get a proper feel for the system's potential. I won't pass judgment on it until I've played it a few more times. Mechanics aside, the game has a growing number of supporters and is far more affordable to get into than Warhammer (using Citadel miniatures) had become, so its future is probably brighter than anything that clings to an obsolete product.

My first ever game of Kings of War. I was using Elves against Kingdoms of Men. I lost...

... But I did get to sandwich some Human Knights pretty well...

Fluff
Looking at things from a background perspective, I think I am still attached to the Warhammer world. You know, the one that doesn't exist anymore. My models are all from that world, and in a lot of ways I feel like I have unfinished business there. There were things I wanted to do that have not happened, but that doesn't mean they never can. The End Times were novel for making things actually progress in terms of events in the world, but there was an agenda behind them (the reset for Age of Sigmar) that I don't think I'm ready to embrace. So for me, my ideal setting remains in the old Warhammer world, before the End Times. Even if I play Kings of War (which has its own setting in a world called Mantica), I think to my mind the games will be taking place in that old Warhammer environment. Maybe I'll do some storytelling of my own.

The Blog
Over the years this blog has accumulated quite a number of readers, almost all of whom presumably are in some way tied to Warhammer (whether currently or in their past). I don't really know how things are going to pan out, but I still have a backlog of thousands of models and a desire to make use of them, so whatever I decide to do, the results will be here for people to see.

In the spirit of blithely carrying on in the face of catastrophic developments, here is stuff that hasn't managed to make it onto the blog yet. Apologies for my use of the phone camera. Motivation, don't you know...?

My converted Wyvern has a rider all of its own. He's just sitting on a pin at the moment, so can still be shifted off.

I finally painted the correct rider for this Wyvern too. I don't think I would have had him for 10 years before him getting painted. Well, maybe. He waited very patiently

Another unit filler! Because what could be worse in the face of all this round-based, skirmishy Age of Sigmar news than a unit filler? I have some unfinished business with a bundle of undercoated Halberdiers, and I was wanting to try making a shorter cart for this unit.

The wagon master looking after his horsie.

It's just a basic supply wagon. I should be able to do a nice convoy for an ambush scenario soon.

The wagon is the exact same 3D model used for the other fillers, but this one got the chop. Quite a few chops, actually. But it works now.