The 3rd Edition Positivity Thread!

[Enoby]

It does feel like AoS has a more cohesive vision than before - perhaps the new lead designers has had the chance to make their impact.

[WAAAGHdogg15]

So far, I very much like what I have seen of AoS 3.0. It's early days and I have only played one game at time of writing, but there is a lot to like from my experience so far.

The thing I like most is the absence (so far) of cookie cutter mentality. There are so many more decisions and so much more uncertainty - to take Galletian Vets or not? To take the new battalions or not? To give away turn priority or not? etc.

These choices have become so much more debatable with the emergence of a few rather elegant rules. Once the book has been in play for a few weeks, this may all change of course, but I always prefer the game when it is in a state whereby there isn't just one way to win or be successful. I think we will see much more variety on the table and much less "you're doing it wrong, you have to do it this way..."

 

 

[Gailon]

More generic positivity. Game after game I play is completely filled with exciting moments and compelling rolls. It seems like I am constantly facing the critical moment with respect to a decision or a roll. Also constantly faced with a situation where I realize how different things could be if I had made difference decision one or two turns earlier. 

I credit a lot of this to a non-competitive local meta where we really strive to stay away from dominant shooting, but that only exists within the rules of 3.0. 

Excited for more difficult battle tactics. 

[derpherp]

I hear from 40k players pretty often that they are hoping some things from AoS 3.0 make it over to 40K 10th edition. They think AoS 3.0 is the bees knees.

 

....As an aside the warhammer fandom as a whole desperately needs more positivity. I'm so burned out with reading and seeing over the top negativity online, it really does get tiresome and comes across as so grotesquely entitled a lot of the time. Spoilt rotten children are more pleasant than many of the grown adults I see in the fandom, and at times I think the warhammer fandom has become more toxic than the Undertale fandom at its peak awfulness, which is a truly dire thing to admit and terribly sad.

GW has had a very very good few years imo and are regularly knocking it out of the park. If they can truly deliver on all the warhammer potential that seems to be coalescing, with models, and games, and animation, and live action, it will be the most impressive growth I have ever seen for an IP I like. 

I hope nothing derails it, because good lord is the future looking good.

[NinthMusketeer]

It does get excessive but I try not to fault people too much for complaining--it is as justified to speak about someone one does not like as it is something one likes. And decent criticism is essential for improving the game. I think it is worth looking at each piece individually, because while there is a lot of negative commentary out there it is not created equal; honest feedback of 'I had this experience and it made me feel X' should be treated with the inherent validity it deserves. Rationalized criticism based on evidence should be considered and responded to in the same manner. The only part that is cancerous is the stupid negativity, the hyperbolic nonsense, the baseless theories, the unironic insults towards poorly defined entities, etc. But that is only a portion, and we shouldn't allow it to colour our perceptions of all criticism as that gives those opinions more power than they deserve.

 

It is kind of like balance in a way; the overall picture is atrocious but there is a margin for good experiences which can be uncovered with a bit of extra effort.

[Beliman]

Looking AoS Stats from Honest Wargamer, it seems that the game is a lot healthier than what people expected. Top 5 high tier armies are close to 50-60%, and only a few Low Tier armies are below 40%.

There are some "hard counters" around AoS that are not fun to play against (you know who would win before even looking at the list of each player... I mean 14% to win...).

There are a lot of diferent armies showing in Top3, and even same armies with completely diferent lists. 

Personally, I like that GW creates new keywords like new Veterans, but I hope to see this being expanded and improved for each specific battletome: armies with only 4 units will feel like they have 8 units instead.

Not sure about seasons, but Thondia seems a good step in the right direction.

[Skreech Verminking]

Well, I can’t say much positive right now about the skaven book in particularly, but what it at least did was increase the chance to win with the skaven army in total.

personally this book isn’t really done well.

But I have a feeling that this isn’t the last time we’ll have heard about the skaven this and next year.

ps: I’ll be doing a small skaven review at some point this month.

 

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

Lol.  
 

I will of course defer to @Skreech Verminking re:any and all things Skaven but actually came looking for this thread after reading the new Skaven tome.

One of the things I’d enjoyed doing in 2.0 was breaking down and debating Tomes with @Televiper11.  Hadn’t really had a chance/been inspired to yet in 3.0 (SCE too big, Orruks too fragmented, burned out on Nurgle, etc.) but the combination of the Skaven tome and the new Thondia season got the old juices flowing.

And I found myself really intrigued by the new Tome as, to me at least, it really seemed to solve some of the list building problems that had lead to me being repeatedly warned off the old tome.  Really liked they way you unlock battleline and allegiance abilities with Heroes, for example.  But, particularly with Thondia giving roles to some different units that had felt sub-optimal before I was getting really drawn in by the different options available for creative list building.

Absent a lot of opportunities to play lately this got me really excited to get back to AoS gaming.

[NinthMusketeer]

@Beliman bear in mind that overall tourney stats have a massive skew towards 50% due to non random matchmaking; winners v winners, losers v losers, etc. Getting the real win rates means only looking at the first round. But regardless, there has been improvement since early 3rd and that is positive!

Anyways, anyone else super happy that GW took the step of making the new Warcry rules available for free download? And it's the full rules exactly as in the rulebook, not a slimmed down version. It will make recruiting new Warcry players SO much easier when the rulebook cost isn't creating sticker shock, and people who like convenient physical copies can still buy them. Great move from GW here.

Then there's the rules themselves which mainly added reactions then just did a few tweaks here and there. Fantastic, since the ruleset was so well designed in the first place, and Sam Pearson knocked it out of the park again by knowing not to fix what wasn't broken. The narrative system got a total overhaul instead, which IS what it needed and I am excited to try it out.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

1 hour ago, NinthMusketeer said:

Anyways, anyone else super happy that GW took the step of making the new Warcry rules available for free download?

Yes, I am actually super happy with that. I think it is a massive step towards lowering barrier of entry for all games in the AoS family. Getting even 1000 points ready for AoS is daunting, but I think most people can manage a 10 man warcry warband.

I just recently got the Sepulchral Guard when GW announced their range rotation plans. I painted them up for fun, thinking I would probably not get to use them in either AoS proper or Underworld. But now I really have a desire to just build them up into a Deathrattle warband for warcry. The free rules make me want to pick up the new Wight King and figure out a way to convert up some cool Grave Guard. And if I enjoy the game I am sure I will eventually be tempted by one of their box sets, if one comes out where I like both the terrain and at least one of thr warbands.

[NinthMusketeer]

I am liking that the new Tzeentch battletome is more coalition-friendly for Slaves to Darkness, while still not going full bore on letting them have everything. It creates a nice middle ground and let's people have fun with alternate army builds without exploiting them.

[Skreech Verminking]

18 hours ago, NinthMusketeer said:

I am liking that the new Tzeentch battletome is more coalition-friendly for Slaves to Darkness, while still not going full bore on letting them have everything. It creates a nice middle ground and let's people have fun with alternate army builds without exploiting them.

I haven’t yet seem it but am very interested in seeing how well the coalition rules have been dine for the slaves to darkness, after hearing so many positive reviews

Edited October 4, 2022 by Skreech Verminking

[Vyrullax]

Not sure if this is the right place but i just want to state that i am really happy GW made an extra sprue and 2 new mega gargants. I know most of the parts are reused but i am glad the sons of behemat are not forgotten after the initial hype for it.

[NinthMusketeer]

Bit late, but I like the Lumineth lore in the new battletome. It is still more overblown than I would like, but it is a big step in the right direction in my eyes. It doesn't indulge so much in the power fantasy of the army and is more open about exploring the factions flaws.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

I've been super hyped about AoS lately. I love the battletomes we've been getting, especially the new Slaves to Darkness one where my armored favorites are good again--and more importantly to me, feel like they should for their impact in the lore. I also made a whole post in the Slaves to Darkness thread gushing about the Chosen kit--I won't repeat it here, but suffice to say it is amazingly well designed and executed on multiple levels.

It's not just S2D that has me excited, though. I've been slowly working on fitting all the 3rd ed tomes into my budget, making this the first edition of any Warhammer game in years where I buy tomes or codices of armies I don't play. The lore has been a lot of fun to keep up on and feels like it's consistently fresh without losing sight of what made AoS appealing to me at any point, plus I'm playing regularly enough that keeping up on extra rules is useful.

[SunStorm]

15 hours ago, RocketPropelledGrenade said:

I've been super hyped about AoS lately. I love the battletomes we've been getting, especially the new Slaves to Darkness one where my armored favorites are good again--and more importantly to me, feel like they should for their impact in the lore. I also made a whole post in the Slaves to Darkness thread gushing about the Chosen kit--I won't repeat it here, but suffice to say it is amazingly well designed and executed on multiple levels.

It's not just S2D that has me excited, though. I've been slowly working on fitting all the 3rd ed tomes into my budget, making this the first edition of any Warhammer game in years where I buy tomes or codices of armies I don't play. The lore has been a lot of fun to keep up on and feels like it's consistently fresh without losing sight of what made AoS appealing to me at any point, plus I'm playing regularly enough that keeping up on extra rules is useful.

That's good to know with the chosen. I've not looked at the chosen yet, been focused on the demon prince, which itself is an amazing kit. Building and painting this one as Khorne, but while building him I was already thinking about how I'd build a second, so many cool parts. 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by SunStorm

[NinthMusketeer]

Well it has been TOO LONG since I visited this thread! I blame the brain surgery.

-Thank you GW for maintaining a consistent design paradigm throughout all the 3rd edition battletome updates. I may not agree with all of them (looking at YOU, mortal wounds on 6s) but I respect and appreciate that the concept hasn't done a right turn halfway through.

-Thank you GW for keeping army theme/narrative central and holding important the idea that an army should play on the table like it does in the fluff. Some do this better than others, but my top three are Nurgle, Sylvaneth, and BoC for all feeling very thematic in totally different ways without their core mechanics being too strong or too weak. Well done.

-Thank you for the season 2 GHB. Normally I'd lay fault for making us buy a new one after 6 months but this is such a dramatic improvement I don't mind!

[Skreech Verminking]

Dear gw, should you ever consider redoing the the current skaven book, consider my thanks a possibility 

[NinthMusketeer]

2 hours ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Dear gw, should you ever consider redoing the the current skaven book, consider my thanks a possibility 

You know the new one would be just as much madness, right?

[Skreech Verminking]

5 hours ago, NinthMusketeer said:

You know the new one would be just as much madness, right?

Probably, it is also the reason I chose with a possible thankful response from me.

gives me option to be less thankful to a new book, if they choose to go the rout the have currently chosen for the skaven.

I’m keeping my option open 

[RileyArlic]

My only real issue with AoS is the fact they've taken the same track of battletome-creep the same way that 40k has codex-creep... other than that, I have nothing but positive things to say.

Recently my gaming group has been going through a GW organized play event. It's been a BLAST. Getting games in with lots of different people, even on half-tables at only 1000 points, has been fantastic. So many awesome designs, everyone's passionate about the particular army they're running. Even where two people might be running the same army, they have different ways of playing it or painting it and it's so refreshing to see. 

I really like the rule system, the missions are fun, and there's so many cool models and factions that you just don't see anywhere else. Having a battle between vampires with giant undead bats and hordes of skeletons fighting elves riding flying sharks and turtles... pure awesomeness. 

[NinthMusketeer]

Ehh... I don't agree about it being on remotely the same level as codex creep. Worst case scenario a new tome hits and it needs a FAQ/eratta to bring some exploit(s) into line. I think the team has been making a really solid effort on getting better at balancing things. The balance of different enhancements within a given tome has gotten MUCH better since the early days; the Nurgle tome may be among my favorites thematically but it's enhancement balance is... not there!

[NinthMusketeer]

Anyways, wanted to throw down a post thanking GW for the quality of the new Seraphon minis. From Spawn of Chotek to Saurus to Cocaine Chickens all of it looks fantastic so far, really pushing the bar on quality.

[The Lost Sigmarite]

Newbie here, but I think this has a place in the positivity thread ! I would like to thank TGA, because this forum's existence just rekindled my will to play AoS after one year of my miniatures waiting on the shelf ! 

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

6 hours ago, NinthMusketeer said:

I think the team has been making a really solid effort on getting better at balancing things

It is arguably the best it has ever been right now. The quality of most of the 3rd edition battletomes coupled with the fact that we are getting substantial releases again makes me really optimistic that 2023 might be the year 3rd edition really reaches its full potential.