Reviews TabletopGame / Warhammer Age Of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar. Please don't listen these two below.

While the title seems inflammatory, it's a justified statement. Both reviews date from 2015 and in the meantime there's been changes so radical that they don't hold on any longer: we have points and the "joke rules" automatically activate, without a need of making the silly part. That's just the begginning of it but ANY of the complaints mentioned below has been solved in one way or another (and virtually all of them are for the better... like 99.9% of them)

So with making clear that the other arguments don't hold weight any longer, let's get into the setting and gameplay.

Setting wise, Age of Sigmar draws from two sources and has a certain undercurrent: one is norse mythology (the nine realms, Sigmar looking like the lovechiled of Odin and Thor, etc.) the other is Moorcock's works (as per usual in GW's works, and even more hardcore than in other titles). The current undercurrent is a colonialist (late XVIII-XIX vibe) that is starting to appear in these last books and event. While the setting is a bit more straightforward, the gray morality is still existant (if not as prevalent). The Old World, known now as the world that was, is held in reverence as the stuff of legends (and in fact, a few of the surviving members' backstories HAVE become legends). Stormcasts are basically the Order/Sigmar's version of the Warriors of Chaos. Beneath those armors? Regular men and women, with blessed and magic gear, just like the chaos counterparts.

Gameplay wise, the game is very rewarding and has its fair share of tactical depth. Matched play doesn't allow you to win via tabling the opponent, so just packing the biggest punch possible won't win you victory. Misions' requirements are fun and varied, forcing players to effectively take TAC lists since the objectives require so. As a result of this, the points system being extensively playstested, and an adjustment of the units' abilities, there's an extremely smoother power curve than in WHFB and 40k. There's still differences in power but at a casual or semi-competitive level they are almost unnoticeable.

All in all, and despite the very rocky start (my recommendation is that you don't read the two first books, instead start with the mortarch of night and knights of vengeance series if you want to begin reading the lore) the setting is flourishing into something we will end up holding as dearly (if not more) as the World that Was.