Lull in releases for Matched play AoS

[Ryan Taylor]

Whilst I am hopeful for 2018 I am getting a sense from community members over here is the USA that the lack of releases for Matched Play AoS will lead to a drop in players and more people straying from the game. 

Have you felt this in your community? Are you feeling this?  I wanted to get a broader outlook on this situation some feel where we have not had a Battletome release since April and is this causing a slowdown in players?

 

Look forward to hearing others thoughts on this. 

[Nico]

It has been a positive time for AoS at the South London Legion. The GHB 2017 plugged the gap in releases well (apparently a few 40K releases came out). In particular people have started new Slaanesh, Skryre and Freeguild armies (and I’m stopping myself). Hopes of Nurgle, Death and Aelves for next year also help.

[Turragor]

To directly answer - I think more players are coming in and no one is stopping due to any release schedule (in my neck of the woods).

I would say 40k took a few back to regular games (flavour of the month) but they all say they'll be back to AoS too.

Shadespire is appealing to some players enough that they might 'choose' it over AoS.

A bit off topic (this could almost be a separate discussion tbh, I might remove this to keep the thread on track if ppl focus on this part too much) -

I'm relatively new to playing competitively. I started playing GW back in the 90's but never in a very competitive way until I restarted with AoS launch. Has it always been an impatient scene?

What about letting things mature?

Is it a 'sign of the times'? The same thing as fans of a video game getting super impatient for updates and sequels - consumers trained to yearn more and faster releases?*

*please know I have no intent to offend anyone - I've felt the same impatience but for AoS, I still react like I did when I started collecting as a teen - a bit non-plussed as GW takes their time, no biggy.

[Ryan Taylor]

Thank you both for your feedback. To put it out there what I think it has been a great year for AoS. (Some will say I am drinking the Kool Aid but whatever.) I think that 2016 was so jam packed full of releases that and decline in releases would result in the perception of lower love if that makes any sense. 

 

[Turragor]

26 minutes ago, Ryan Taylor said:

Thank you both for your feedback. To put it out there what I think it has been a great year for AoS. (Some will say I am drinking the Kool Aid but whatever.) I think that 2016 was so jam packed full of releases that and decline in releases would result in the perception of lower love if that makes any sense. 

 

Yea I know what you mean and I do think it'd be tough for 2017 to have lived up to 2016. I don't think there is anything to worry about though.

[RuneBrush]

11 hours ago, Ryan Taylor said:

Thank you both for your feedback. To put it out there what I think it has been a great year for AoS. (Some will say I am drinking the Kool Aid but whatever.) I think that 2016 was so jam packed full of releases that and decline in releases would result in the perception of lower love if that makes any sense. 

I hadn't actually thought of that, but would say you're right.  2016 and the first couple of months of 2017 were jam packed with releases - so many that I know quite a few friends (and me) simply stopped trying to keep up!  2017 has allowed us to catch up with some of the things we fancied doing/trying

[Twitch of Izalith]

Yeah Shadespire has had an affect on my group and we are playing more 40k but its not really a problem as its providing time to get GH2017 lists painted and so on.

There has been a slow down in having things to talk about (aside from moaning about vulkite berserkers getting a 150 points drop for a unit of 30) so we don't talk about AoS so much but we are still playing as much as we can.

[Sheriff]

17 hours ago, Turragor said:

 

Is it a 'sign of the times'? The same thing as fans of a video game getting super impatient for updates and sequels - consumers trained to yearn more and faster releases?*

 

Videogamers are the opposite of this, we like developers to take their time and make things high quality and bug-free on release, and only substantial DLC releases of a similar quality when the time is right. 

GW has been more like one of the less-good developers and given us day-1-DLC and bug fixes galore, and imbalance. So yeah gamers of all types should be salty about that. 

[DarkBlack]

40k had a lull when AoS was new; only fair.

[tolstedt]

We play every week and are enjoying all the new scenarios.  

Haven't even purchased the open war cards yet (which we thought would become our default mode of matched play) since the GHB17 scenarios have been so fun.

With the new allegiance abilities maybe many have got new armies to paint so the mix of armies at tournaments are not seen yet.  I am claws deep in pestilens at the moment myself.

[Stevewren]

2017 has felt like a lull personally, but only because I have not had the opportunity to play much. However a lot of that is self inflicted and/or family related. Because I haven't been playing it feels like not much else is happening in terms of releases. However with the New Year fast approaching and two events planned for January I'm sure I'll be feeling the gaming bug again soon...

And I hope the start of the year will be a nurgle infested love fest as I have 40 plaguebearers read to go when/if a new book drops.

[Twitch of Izalith]

2 hours ago, Sheriff said:

GW has been more like one of the less-good developers and given us day-1-DLC and bug fixes galore, and imbalance. So yeah gamers of all types should be salty about that. 

If the game was perfect we would have even less to talk about!

Its only really relevant to tournament play anyway. Among your local group its easy to fix stuff that seems like a mistake or that none of you like.

[Uveron]

21 hours ago, Ryan Taylor said:

Whilst I am hopeful for 2018 I am getting a sense from community members over here is the USA that the lack of releases for Matched Play AoS will lead to a drop in players and more people straying from the game. 

Have you felt this in your community? Are you feeling this?  I wanted to get a broader outlook on this situation some feel where we have not had a Battletome release since April and is this causing a slowdown in players?

 

Look forward to hearing others thoughts on this. 

I have found that this slow down has been good for getting a few new players up to speed with the setting and the rules, ita allowed for the number of players who know the system well to increase which itself has drawn more folk to the game.  That being said, I haven't seen anyone new move towards AOS in last few months, so I think this 'Slowdown' has overstayed its welcome by about a month and half. 

[Mikester1487]

For my area not having a summer campaign to play in has drastically slowed down interest in aos games, but I did just attend an event this past weekend and found several other players who play more often. 

From my surroundings there are still holdouts who have not come back to fantasy because of aos.  Slowly seeing new blood trickle in though so who knows.

[wayniac]

Between AOS generally being less popular, 40k 8th edition coming out and for some strange reason General's Handbook 2017 (most of my community seemed to regard it as not really doing anything and making things worse, for some unknown reason), AOS has fallen by the wayside here in my area.  There's a very tiny handful of people who still play, but they don't really advertise it as part of the community; it's not like there's a designated AOS day anymore (it become a "GW Game Day" which really means 40k gets a second day).

[Ryan Taylor]

Thanks again for the replies folks.

 

It seems that my initial assumptions would be correct. It's pretty much the same but we are all biting at the bit for more AoS releases. 

[chord]

Very slow, but not just for matched play, but for AOS in general. 

[Ratatatata]

I think the main explanation is 40K. When it dropped, so did AoS. Not completely, but I did see a fair chunk of players jumping back to 40K. At least where I live, the old Warhammer Fantasy crew never really got in to Age of Sigmar, bar me and a few mates. So most of the players where rather 40K-players or new players.

Now however, it feels like the game is picking up again, as the "new and shiny" syndrome of 40K is ending. My mate just posted in our local group about a one-dayer in january and more then 20 players joined in less then an hour. So I'm not worried at all.

[Sheriff]

4 hours ago, wayniac said:

 for some strange reason General's Handbook 2017 (most of my community seemed to regard it as not really doing anything and making things worse, for some unknown reason)

That's because for many players it nerfed and took away options for their armies. Its not an unknown reason. 

[RuneBrush]

15 hours ago, Mikester1487 said:

For my area not having a summer campaign to play in has drastically slowed down interest in aos games, but I did just attend an event this past weekend and found several other players who play more often. 

To be fair to GW, they've tended to run their campaigns rotationally for a number of years, so fantasy one year, 40k the next.  I can't recall any point when we had two campaigns in one year.  Possibly this is something the community could address the next time there isn't a GW AoS campaign?  I'd happily knock out a submissions website and I'm sure we've enough experience on writing and running campaigns to create something for the summer period

[Fungrim]

There actually seems to be people in the progress of starting AoS where I am (folks on our shop message board saying their armies will be ready to go in the new year)

That said: the actual playing of AoS in our FLGS currently has massively dropped off. Squarely due to 40k, both in popularity and release schedule.

I think GW has framed releases like Skirmish, Path to Glory, Shadespire (etc) as AoS releases, and therefore quenching the thirst as it were... unfortunately these things only appeal to certain games/hobbyists (myself included), which I get, as at the end of the day people want to see new models/battletomes, not only to buy/play, but also to help move the meta along (the meta being crucial in tournament-heavy gaming systems).

I know GW had a huge task on their hands getting 40k into the right place (god knows we should appreciate that as AoS players). but I do hope 2018 is a bit more balanced and meaningful in terms of release schedule. Hear on the grapevine we'll be having an interesting January at least (beyond Malign Portents)

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey @Ryan Taylor,

Interesting topic.

I think you definitely need to look at 40K, which has obviously been a massive release and focus for GW during the second half of the year. I think AoS had pulled over a small section of the 40K player base prior to 8th Edition's release thanks to the simplified ruleset and ease of play. I suspect with 40K emulating a lot of what made AoS a success, those players may have drifted back towards the grim darkness of the far future. At a local level, 40K was picked up universally and enjoyed, however it soon dropped off as people went back to AoS, so I honestly couldn't say that 40K had a impact (though is experiencing a bit of a resurgence at club recently - I've got a buzz for it I have to admit).

We also do need to consider the fact that it's been a long time since we had a Battletome, which is obviously going to impact things. To counter that though, I would say the GH2017 did a fantastic job of reinvigorating the game and in some ways was the equivalent of many new Battletomes (I sure felt that way in regards to Ironjawz).

Shadespire is also a contributing factor. On a personal level this game has grabbed me entirely and I have to admit that right now is my game of choice. I felt initially like this was being pitched as a quick game you can play after you finish a game of AoS on a club night or whatever. This can certainly be the case if you just want to play a one off game or whatever, but I am very keen on the best 2 of 3 match format. If you play the game like this, you're unlikely to squeeze in a full game of AoS as well. This isn't a problem whatsoever, it's just a choice for me (and others) to make. I am really interested to see how they develop Shadespire and if it holds a solid player base. IMO this will depend on future releases. It will also be interesting to see how this impacts on AoS (if at all). This all said, if I want to play Shadespire at club, I have very few options (though there is at least some interest) and actually have to travel a FLGS an hour away where there is a pretty booming scene for it. I guess my point is that I'm not sure how much overlap between AoS and Shadespire players there actually is.

So all in all, whilst my preferences might currently be somewhat shifted personally, AoS is still the game of choice at club and going very strong.
I have no doubt that 2018 will bring about some big, exciting releases for this game that will pull any of us with our heads turned, back on board!

[Twitch of Izalith]

55 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

I guess my point is that I'm not sure how much overlap between AoS and Shadespire players there actually is.

I think that's a good point actually. I think Shadespire is a great game - but I'm not that interested in playing it because its not a tabletop wargame and I only dabble in board & card games.

I guess if you have a big player base and GW keep up the card and miniature releases it can stay interesting but for my very limited group of players it was a distraction for a couple of weeks and we have already moved on.