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Played 40k for a few years and always thought I wouldn't get into any fantasy game again.


Saturmorn Carvilli

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Hello,

I have been in involved in tabletop games on and off of decades starting with D&D.  I played so much D&D when I was younger that even now I am still burned out on Tolkien/Gygax fantasy.  So when I started playing miniatures war games (as playing TTRPGs became tougher and tougher to keep groups together) I kept a good distance from anything fantasy. 

I started miniatures war gaming with Dust Warfare transitioning into Dust Tactics Battlefield with the gaming group I was playing with made the rules switch.  However, when Battlefront and the game creator Kickstarter dispute came to a head and they parted ways, so too did my gaming group trying a couple of games of Dust 1947.  The group started playing Warmachine which is still too much generic fantasy for me.  I started playing Bolt Action and other historical games no earlier than the black powder era. 

I played historicals (mostly Bolt Action) until a little into Bolt Action 2nd edition.  I didn't really care for the addition of templates (Dust Battlefield had me dislike them) as well as a few other changes and lack of changes elsewhere.  So that combined with the announcement of 8th edition Warhammer 40k pretty much ended the player base locally for me.

I had played a little of 7th edition 40k but mostly Heralds of Ruin Kill Team.  Which I will maintain that 7th edition 40k works fine for a small skirmish game but has too much going on to bother with at even platoon level.  I also played a little bit of 8th edition but took a break until the introduction of the latest Kill Team.  It was Kill Team that really brought me back to miniatures war gaming.  I started really playing it regularly in November of 2018 and still consider it my primary game as I play it pretty much every week.

It was from my Kill Team group that I learned more about Age of Sigmar.  I had heard the often repeated stuff (points, silly rules, etc.) but never really gave it any mind since it was fantasy.  The more I heard about the setting the more I liked the idea of it.  So that combined with me playing and enjoying 5th ed D&D, a escalation league starting up and new Slaves to Darkness stuff, I started playing Age of Sigmar.

 

TL;DR  Hi.

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Unfortunately, the escalation league was a bit of a nightmare for me.  My first game was against Bonereapers in a  500 point kill point game where all I had were the warscrolls that came with the build instructions.  I lost some 0-40.  More than half the games in the league didn't happen and those that did were anti-fun.  Because I really like the potential of the lore, I was determined to either like Age of Sigmar's game or absolutely despise it.

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Recently, I had my first fun game of Age of Sigmar (the above photo).  It was a 2000pts game of S2D (me) vs.  1000pts Nighthaunt and 1000pts Gloomspite Gitz three player game.  The battleplan was Places of Arcane Power.   I managed to win by playing to the mission and making use of the toughness of my army to just sit on two objectives and let my opponents wear away and my units.  I like to say that I won but would have preferred to been where the losing armies where.  What I mean by this, is that my army was on its last legs at the end of the game while my opponents armies still had a lot fight in them.  As a player I tend to like to destroy opposing armies over winning.  I just don't think that is how my Slaves to Darkness army is going to work.

Edited by Saturmorn Carvilli
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The early days are often rather rough and you should expect to lose more than you win. That's broadly the same in most competing games and events. You're still learning the ropes and even increasing point values changes things as there's more units you can use, more variety and more things going on at once. A 500 point game can be easier to get your head around, but at the same time some things don't work as well as they could (no room to add units to help buff them up) and you can sometimes get a bad matchup more easily. 

 

I think that playing to the objectives is clearly a sign that you are learning and sure you didn't win by military victory of conquest, but you did secure the objectives. Your steadfast group of battle-hardened warriors held the line just long enough to secure a victory over a superior opponent who was soon outnumbering you despite your valiant efforts.

 

In the end the more you learn, try and play the more you'll get out of it. Slaves to Darkness have gone through a very big change only a very short while ago and there's some new models coming just around the corner for them. In addition you've a huge wealth of allied options to bring in from the demonic armies so its one of the most varied armies out there. 

I'd say stick with it, keep working with your Slaves to Darkness and make use of the new Tome and its new tricks and options.

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Honestly, my first game of Age of Sigmar I don't think there was anything that could be done to win given the forces involved, the battleplan and the point limit.  Battletome-less Slaves to Darkness vs. Ossiarch Bonereapers at 500 points in a 1 wound = 1 victory point game could only be won by excellent positioning on the S2D player, poor positioning on the OSB player as well as much better than average dice rolls for the S2D and much worst than average rolls by the OBR.  I don't think that is the case now that Slaves to Darkness have a battletome, playing more than kill point missions and 1000+ point games.  Just the same, I do think head to head OBR (as well as a number of other factions) will out kill Slaves to Darkness.  Or at least a Chaos Warrior/Knight heavy army like mine.  Warriors and Knights are pretty tough but they don't have the damage output without buffs like Daemonic Power, Spurred by the Gods or Warshrine.

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Yeah without a battletome against a 2.0 battletome army is a tough match for pretty much any army in the game at any points level. 

Ossiarchs will often out-last most armies and can often kill quite a good number of the opponent too - however their slow speed and fewer models on the table means that you can maximise any mistake they make; you can slow them down and you can secure objectives before them and give them an uphill struggle. Sure in a game of infinite turns they might win eventually on killing; but with limited turns and with objectives you can really make it a hard game for them to win. With reapers another aspect is leaning what's best to kill too. Going head on into the guard when they've a leader and harvester behind them is mostly playing how they want it; flanking or rear attacking them and taking out the harvester first is what they don't want you to do - they can't bring that harvester back; and you've just shut down their best repair/healing unit too. 

 

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The above photo is from my first game.  I will totally own the spreading out my forces too much as well as not understanding I didn't need at least 3 Battleline units (hence the two groups of five Chaos Warriors).  It didn't help that the OBR player made an 11" charge onto my knights and won the double turn.  I managed to cause 3 wounds to the Mortek Guard but the hero (Boneshaper I believe) raised them back up.

 

@JackStreicher

I don't know about hard to play.  Of course, most of the players in my area are nearly as new to Age of Sigmar as I am.  So I am probably not playing against the most optimized armies...yet.  Still, I see my Slaves to Darkness army as being mostly about solid fundamentals of rank and flank style games.  Funny enough AoS requires more effort with frontage since you have to physically get the models in fight distance rather than a block of troops just causes X amount of attacks. Too bad it doesn't really reward flanking other than a few more attacks and/or encirclement.

I will agree that the army kinda feels like it assumes you are just getting buffs for the points paid on everything.  For the most part that is easy enough to get on units that need them.  Sometimes there still are not enough buffs to always go around, and in the case of spells casting, failure is always there.  Plus, it requires a fair number of support units which may or may not be the weak spots in your army.

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