Flippy

Maw-Krusha, finally! 😄

Just checked the BoC; updated and still free.

Yes, you made a very good point. I can see this tension between flavourful rules (at least the ones that involve more rolling with separate piles) and the GW’s aim to make the game more streamlined. So, in this optic, the prevalence of MWs (MWs on the charge, MWs on 6s; MWs from spells, MWs near the Wyldwood…) is a deliberate choice made to speed up the game. Now, while I understand the choice, I will not fully endorse it. This streamlining has a price, and I guess that’s why we’re having this conversation (sidenote: a great one) and why some people in this thread compared AOS with a computer game. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to solve this – my experience with AoS is very short, nowhere near the time spent with WFB. I can remember well where the excitement was: the War Dancers (choice reflecting fluff), the loooong list of magic items (choice, customization); the Winds of Magic (side game with cards) etc. But I can also remember that the length of the games was one of the reasons for leaving the hobby at that time. I miss the spice, but you are right – too much might change the game.

Is it, though? I’ve never even tried to design such rules, but a number of interactions between mechanics are still barely touched; you have rend / strike first – last / pile-in, so why not: - increase rend on certain hit / wound rolls; - choice: increase rend in return for strike last effect; - choice: increase pile-in distance for the price of rend decrease; - choice: obtain strike first but lose rend… the options are there, and you can easily support them with the fluff (war dances, combat drugs, shapeshifting, various weapons etc.). The main problem I see is the overuse of MW, which are almost always better than any fun and thematic rules you can design. The Volturnos sword rule is really nice – but it’s still essentially “a worse MW” .

So true 😄. While this old book is shorter than the current Lumineth tome, it feels the other way round. The problem is with the stories and how you can represent them in a game; the old stories were more focused on human-level characters with flaws and actual emotions (teen fantasy level, but still) and the game provided much more space to customise your heroes (steeds, equipment, looong list of magic weapons, armours, amulets…). Seems to me now that it was some influence of WH RPG that still lingered in WFB and provided this charm.

https://plasticcraic.blog/2022/03/02/going-4-1-with-bonesplitterz-and-kragnos/ Highly recommended - entertaining and instructive blog. Moreover, an exemplar of good attitude: a perceived "weakness" of a faction should not stop you from having fun. Ironically, when the codex was released, people were amazed by the Brutes (still very good unit). So much about the initial impression. I don't play this, but enjoy the occasional read. It seems that, surprisingly, the Eldar do not fit into this pattern (https://www.goonhammer.com/the-codex-aeldari-competitive-roundtable/).

There is a choice - at the start of the first battle round you apparently get to choose one ritual (or two, if you have a Tidecaster). So you can effectively choose one / two rounds in which the Tides of Death get power-up.

I’ve also grabbed some alternative Brutes (WoW style) from the same source. These guys were finished yesterday.

Etsy: MadMaxMiniature; Rock Idol Golem

I’m not into 40k, but these are the Space Elves. Take Lumineth, strip them of the silly stuff (cows, hats), turn up to eleven - and we still not even close.

I was under the impression that the WH AoS app is always up to date. I like my books and initially dismissed the app, but it is actually... nice.

Ikea Rudsta, more for „display”, less for „storage”.

I see the difference, and I understand that this has a huge impact on our price-sensitivity. Most people I know who are in the hobby are really into GW and I tend to take it for granted. Anyways, thanks for the discussion!

That wasn't me. I don't know. I was just sharing my story - the GW branded characters got me into GW branded army approx. 25 years ago and that is why I recently came back to wargaming after a long, long time. I have alternative models now, but I never would have started for the alternative models. It was GW for me. Truth be told, I was very much into LoTR books before that. If only someone would have offered an actual LoTR wargame, things would be very different for me now. Oh, wait... https://www.playmobil.co.uk/ These are good, well machined and a lot of fun. Guess what? They made their own movie and charge you a lot. I can definitely see a pattern here, can you?

Do we need any? I can see the hype thread 3292 pages long on this grown-ups forum. People are living for this hype. I often tell people to settle for Toyota and yet they end up with Mercedes or BMW. There is a lot of marketing in this and they don't really need the BMW. Maybe building up defenses as kids would have been good.

Oh, I am very aware of that. The Optimus Prime example was based on a real-life experience and what a perfect example that was, of a company using storytelling to charge you many times more for a same plastic robot. Now, I'm almost 40, nobody's enforcing WYSIWYG on me, I've lost my precious Teclis somewhere along the way - and I can deal with the GW soft addiction. What I was trying to say is that maybe, just maybe, you actually need the childish drama between Teclis, Tyrion and Malekith to get the young people into the hobby and they want the exact models to carry the emotions - something that the Perry Vikings and 3D prints cannot provide. Think LEGO; you can find the alternative, but you've seen The Lego Movie 1&2, Lego Batman Movie, Lego Ninjago Movie... and they are charging you in a way that makes GW look like business noobs.

When your kid begs for Optimus Prime, try giving him some generic robot truck and see how that works. I can only guess, but probably the same goes for the inner kid in most of us – the story behind the toys is the driving force; otherwise, why even bother with assembling, painting and moving random plastic dudes. I can maybe settle for an elf mage to use in any system you want when on budget, but I can still remember the insane amount I’ve spent in the mid 90s to buy Teclis – just because he was the Teclis, the High Loremaster of Hoeth.

First time I tried AoS (around 2017) I was fairly sure that this is a joke of a game. Coming from WHFB 5th edition what I saw was: - conga lines (WTF? is that a unit?); - weird scoring (no VP for killing? is that a wargame or what?); - no points assigned to units (is that even a game?). Once I got to the DT, I was laughing so hard that we never actually finished the game. Took me another four years to give it another shoot, and it turned out that the DT is not nearly as bad as I remember. So, I understand the initial reactions, as the mechanic seems very unfair – most games (any games) are based on alternating the initiative and so the DT looks like a disturbance in the natural flow of things, and it feels wrong. But surprisingly, the actual game is fine once you accept the idea and don’t mind spending the opponent’s DT on chatting, admiring minis, having a drink, explaining the game to kids and occasional reactionary command abilities. I don’t.

Really nice, both are great. I’m not that much into Kruleboyz - but the models can look surprisingly good. I’ve just finished the alternative Idol - quick and relaxing job.

True. Back in the times of WHFB my friend fielded Orcs & Goblins and I've always associated them with variety - which was great. Ironjawz are really nice, but variety is sadly not the name of the game.

Thank you! The funny thing is that even with the whole conversion effort it was quicker and easier to assemble and paint these guys then to deal with actual Gore-gruntas. I already have Mozrog waiting to become the Mawcrusha alternative, but this one may require an impressive base to make up for the size difference.

And yet, my first thought upon seeing the new Guardians was – are there enough bare heads in the set to fix the Stoneguards.

Squig riders are a bit small, but they add some variety - and are way easier to paint. Also - assistance gitz are the best.