Jump to content

The Scattering of AoS's Ruleset


Enoby

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Fairbanks said:

Yes sir, this one right here! I saw him practicing threadomancy!

 

To bite on the premise of the question, here's my question: Tell me what books and other information I need to bring to the table, for a game against a random stranger, who could bring any models, spells, and rules, but won't share any of his books except for his Army's Battletome (because nobody would tell you it's sane to bring every army's battletome).

From my recollection, I have to bring: My Army's Battletome, Core Rules Book, Malign Sorcery, Malign Portents, General's Handbook 2018, and the FAQ (Don't we have several?). That's an awful lot of books to bring.

Almost not worth playing when you have to worry about bringing that much junk....!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply

@Fairbanks I was once like you, young child, but I have become wise, strong, more pow-ah-ful. 

Are you a casual gamer? Go without realm stuff (In Core Book 18 and Malign Portents). If your opponent is not happy with both of you going without, I would urge good sportsmanship and have your opponent share their material, no matter how protective they are of their fancy books. Casual gaming only needs the core rules and each army's rules. If you bring a pre-set army, you won't need points out of the GHB18.  In my mind, so long as one player can provide the scenario you're all set. 

Intermediate play. I recommend the GHB. At this level its more about learning about your opponent than adding all the fancy realm rules. It has some scenarios for you to be proactive about starting a game and setting up. In addition, if you're opponent has a Grand Allegiance, their rules are in there as well. More importantly it has the pitched battle profiles. I would lean on these point costs to gain insight in how powerful/important your opponents units are, without the need of constantly asking for their material (while also seeing if their army was built correctly). A grain of salt however, as you should evaluate the same way you would look at your points. Feel free to add realm artifacts and spells that you want you're army to have, but don't bring a book. Write down the handful of stuff on a spot in your phone or on an index card. 

Advanced play.  I must admit, I don't recommend bringing anything more than your battletome (if you have one), core rules and GHB. The scattering of the rules, lack of support in apps, just doesn't allow an efficient way to quickly start a random game. I'm sorry.  An advanced game in my mind is where you have everything added, realmscape rules, realm artifacts and spells, endless spells, special terrain and the like, while also playing an opponent you know well enough AND between the two of you you have all the information/books. Its not so easy. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, a bit about myself, I've played AOS from the beginning without a smart phone or any book for that matter. I've relied mostly on my friends to tell me whats up. But as I continued, I began to make sense of the hot action and found frugal ways to more efficiently play. My first attempt was TCG sized warscrolls that I custom made and at all times have printed sheets of my points and the core rules. I am actually glad I learned the game in such modest fashion because I became far more curious about the rules (and calling out my friends for pullin' a sneaky one on me). Not to mention, without a battletome/army rules for my faction, I could focus on the mechanics of the game itself. I would make the case that not every game has to be so fancy. There is value in just playing the core rules even for the experienced players. Its cheaper as well, less book burdened, faster to play, and if in good company, still fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Skabnoze said:

Photocopy the artifacts from a friend's book?

I understand not wanting to pay full price for something that has just a few rules that you want, but it seems to me that GW did think this product through.  The fact that most people purchase it, or find some level of use for the product, strikes me as their target goal.  Their main goal was most likely for this product to have as wide of a sales base within Age of Sigmar players as possible.  The second goal, and probably the one the dev team cared about most, was to make it a fun addition to the game for most players.  It seems to me that they succeeded at both of those goals - although some people do not care for the associated monetary cost.

I don't care about the monetary cost.  Money is not an issue for me. It's the fact why would I buy something that 99% of the product I have zero interest in?   Sure there may be parts of GW's audience who buy and never use;  I'm just not group.  And sure but nobody in our gaming area has bought it either (same reason, no interest) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Modern GW and it's rules material is one of the reasons that the only way I will ever invest in the AoS ruleset is through Skirmish.  As far as I can tell, to play Skirmish all you need next to the table is the free rules PDF, the softcover Skirmish rulebook, and (IMHO) for the best campaign play, a copy of the Hinterlands PDF.  If you are just playing one-off battles and want to use the old renown costs of the softcover rulebook, then replace Hinterlands with Forgotten Heroes for a full renown list.

Either way, that's just three sources of rules material for the game, because Skirmish does away with all the stuff that keeps adding more and more and more stuff to the table.

The Hinterlands PDF also has a really nice 1-page campaign roster that replaces needing a handful of warscrolls for each warband; they can stay on the computer, only to be used as a reference to fill out the roster before the campaign and when you add fighters between battles, rather than clutter the table.  Incidentally, while the new White Dwarf rules change Skirmish to use points costs for individual fighters instead of the old renown, that is something Hinterlands did all along. 

If I tried to play a game of full-scale Age of Sigmar (or 40K) with even half the "complete" rules material present, the few people I can actually get to game would be immediately intimidated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rules compendium update. For a thorough set of rules I'd like to add pitched battle profiles (for all armies) however I've noticed that its time consuming (go figure). I'm translating them to edit worthy tables for longevity but I'd rather not do it all  myself. If interested, you can help me by sending your faction's points in a simple MS Excel spreadsheet file. Better yet if anyone has a compiled list already that would be great. 

Also, when formatting a reference sheet for these points, does anyone grief over there not being much order to how they're listed? Alphabetical maybe? or by type (hero, warmachine, battleline, etc)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...