More Skirmish Warbands?

[Mr. White]

Skirmish is my preferred way to play AoS and the 4 warband boxes are great to help people get in...but are there going to be any more?

I guess I was hoping we'd see warband entry level boxes for skirmish and the starting collecting boxes for AoS proper. Two ways to quickly get into the game.

[Guest]

I think it probably depends on how well the current ones sell. My guess is that unfortunately they won't sell brilliantly because all but one of them contains models in lower numbers than would be needed to form a unit in AoS-proper, thus limiting their appeal to Skirmish players. And Skirmish is likely to remain a niche interest unless it's very well supported going forward through White Dwarf and official supplements.

This ties in with the fact that the only reason some of these warband boxes are viable is because these factions already have sprues with small numbers of models - the 3 Blood Warriors and 2 Retributors are from small 'Easy To Build' starter boxes that GW released previously, for example. There are very few factions that have core units on sprues in such small numbers, so there's a practical issue there.

It seems that GW's attention has already shifted to Path To Glory and supporting that through new Start Collecting boxes. Which makes sense for them because it's a more obvious gateway to playing the full game and buying full sized armies. I'd be pleasantly surprised if they continue supporting Skirmish in any meaningful way.

[Charles]

The Khorne Skirmish set comes with a full unit of either Wrathmongers or Skull Reapers. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Charles said:

The Khorne Skirmish set comes with a full unit of either Wrathmongers or Skull Reapers. 

Yes it does, but the Flesh-Eater Courts box is the only one in which all of the models/units can be fielded in AoS-proper in the numbers provided. When you consider the contents of the other 3 boxes as a whole, they're only useful to Skirmish players. Anyone dabbling in Skirmish with the thought in the back of their head that they might want to build up their force to play full AoS would be much better served by purchasing a Start Collecting box.

If you buy the Khorne warband box and later decide to build a small Khorne army for AoS, no matter what other boxes you buy you will always have 3 useless Blood Warrior models because aside from this box they are only sold, and can only be fielded, in multiples of 5.

My point is that while these warband boxes aren't completely useless outside of Skirmish, they do have very limited appeal beyond that and so are likely to sell in relatively small quantities.

[chord]

3 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Yes it does, but the Flesh-Eater Courts box is the only one in which all of the models/units can be fielded in AoS-proper in the numbers provided. When you consider the contents of the other 3 boxes as a whole, they're only useful to Skirmish players. Anyone dabbling in Skirmish with the thought in the back of their head that they might want to build up their force to play full AoS would be much better served by purchasing a Start Collecting box.

If you buy the Khorne warband box and later decide to build a small Khorne army for AoS, no matter what other boxes you buy you will always have 3 useless Blood Warrior models because aside from this box they are only sold, and can only be fielded, in multiples of 5.

My point is that while these warband boxes aren't completely useless outside of Skirmish, they do have very limited appeal beyond that and so are likely to sell in relatively small quantities.

For the blood warriors they sell a small 3 pack.  But it's the same issue as the Stormcast and retributors. they are the starter set with no weapon options.

[someone2040]

I don't think we'll get any more. Skirmish seems like a little splash release intended to get something out there quickly to help people start playing Age of Sigmar at small model count levels.

I also think that some of the sets so far are a bit awkward in what they give you. Stormcast gives you 3 Libs and 2 Retributors, Khorne gives you 3 Blood warriors, Ironjawz gives you 5 'Ardboyz. None of those units can be used in AoS proper.

 

Additionally for the Stormcast (Bloodbound also), you're just better off getting Thunder and Blood.

Skirmish: Knight Questor, 3 push-fit Liberators, 2 push-fit Retributors, 3 Prosecutors $110AUD

Thunder and Blood: Lord Relictor, 10 push-fit Liberators, 3 push-fit Retributors, 3 push-fit Prosecutors $100AUD and that includes the Bloodbound, battle mat, and box you can use as terrain.

So I can get 7 more Liberators, 1 more Retributor, and have to put up with push-fit Prosecutors, but it costs me less than half as much if I sell off the Bloodbound side. If you really want that Questor, then buy it with the money you saved and you'll still end out ahead.

 

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

Just a little side note on the Ironjawz box; whilst you do only get 5 Ardboys in the warband, the actual Ardboys box (inexplicably) contains 15 models, so there is an easy way to round out to 2x 10 or 1x 20 for full games of AoS.

I appreciate this is somewhat irrelevant as I'm sure most people get their Ardboys from the Start Collecting box (which includes 10) anyway!!

[Mr. White]

Playing Skirmish and Narrative is what appeals to me, so I'm less concerned about fleshing out to 2K pts or what not. Heck, if I were to play full blown 2k ...I'll even play taking the 'less than amount' unit penalty as I could care less about winning games and more on having a good time.

With that, what I like about these skirmish boxes is the ability to get small force on the table very quickly. The Start Collecting boxes are nice, but if each faction also had a Skirmish Warband box...I could see myself buying many. I mean, I have many Blood Bowl and Dreadball teams and they have similar model counts.

Plus it seems logical...if one has a skrimish warband box...how long before they look at the next box up, or more units, from the same faction? Seems lowering the price of entry can only work in everyone's favor.

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, Mr. White said:

Playing Skirmish and Narrative is what appeals to me, so I'm less concerned about fleshing out to 2K pts or what not. Heck, if I were to play full blown 2k ...I'll even play taking the 'less than amount' unit penalty as I could care less about winning games and more on having a good time.

With that, what I like about these skirmish boxes is the ability to get small force on the table very quickly. The Start Collecting boxes are nice, but if each faction also had a Skirmish Warband box...I could see myself buying many. I mean, I have many Blood Bowl and Dreadball teams and they have similar model counts.

Plus it seems logical...if one has a skrimish warband box...how long before they look at the next box up, or more units, from the same faction? Seems lowering the price of entry can only work in everyone's favor.

Again though, without meaningful long-term support Skirmish will be fun little diversion for existing hobbyists rather than a lucrative gateway for new players. Evidence so far suggests that GW are going for the former rather than the latter. The truth is that GW is known for its army-sized games, and most people who get into GW are here to play army-sized battles, not skirmish games. I can't see them expending a great deal of resources trying to turn Skirmish into a phenomenon in its own right, with regular new warband boxes, etc.