Warhammer: Age of Sigmar / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation: Pretty much the entire Grand Alliance Of Order, as they're the defacto protagonists of the setting; are they genuinely good and heroic characters with some Anti-Hero traits? A Lawful Neutral Villain Protagonist no better than Chaos? Somewhere in the middle? Even the writers can't seem to agree most of the time.
Broken Base: Severely.
- The very existence of Age of Sigmar upsets a lot of Warhammer fans and just about every change has stirred up flame wars the likes of which Sigmar has never seen, from the new lore to army composition. The fact that the old setting was going on 30 years old when Games Workshop decided to Soft Reboot the franchise led to many fans feeling frustration at something they liked being unceremoniously replaced. It didn't help that the first edition in particular made a bunch of very unpopular changes that even most people who now enjoy Age of Sigmar will acknowledge as being poor choices. General opinions on the game improved significantly as new factions were supported and the lore and focus expanded beyond just Chaos and the Stormcast. In years that followed many common complaints got dealt with, people who didn't like the new setting got tired of complaining and moved on, and in particular, when the second edition came out. Of course there are still plenty of detractors who prefer the old game or setting and bringing up Age of Sigmar at all is still a pretty reliable way of getting an argument started among Warhammer fans.
- The initial rules for legacy units from the old Warhammer included a number of deliberately silly real-life requirements, like lifting a goblet and yelling "For the Lady" for a re-roll or needing to have a bigger mustache than your opponent. Some players saw it as a harmless bit of fun, others took it as a deliberate slap in the face to players who wanted to save money by using existing mini collections. The General's Handbook later made the effects coming from these rules automatic, without any embarrassing antics at the gaming table.
- For the first months of the game before one of the biggest divides came from the lack of any game mechanic enforcing any kind of balance between players' forces, combined with a number of easily exploitable unit combinations. Age of Sigmar relied entirely on the players to create balanced games themselves, which is both easy to abuse, and very hard to do, even if both people are genuinely trying. The only reason this might not count as a broken base is almost no one was happy about this. The players who theoretically benefit are narrative players who dislike the metagame of points efficiency, but such players have always been able to ignore the points system anyways. Meanwhile the lack of balance effectively eliminated competitive play outright, as well as making balanced casual pick up games much much harder. The General's Handbook returned the old points-based system along with other modifications, which mostly had positive reception.
- The Tomb Kings and Kingdom of Bretonnia being discontinued, their rulesets no longer being updated and the lore of Age of Sigmar no longer mentioning either of these factions or their characters. Although this decision was made because both factions were relatively unpopular, this still caused major backlash, unsurprisingly primarily from the fans of those factions. Eventually official stats for Tomb Kings and Kingdom of Bretonnia were supplied in the form of a compendium of warscrolls for the various units. Of course there's still plenty to complain about, as factions supported in this way are almost always clearly weaker than full factions, as they won't be getting updates or new models and lack many of the benefits other factions enjoy. Plus a number of units did not get unique stats, instead just using the statistics of whatever unit is most similar. This was eventually solved when Games Workshop announced The Old World, a reimagining of the old Warhammer which was launched with a return of the complete Bretonnia and Tomb Kings ranges for sale.
- Random turn orders/initiative. Rather than being alternating turns for the entire game, who goes first in each round is determined by a roll-off (winner chooses, whoever went first last round wins ties). This means it's possible for a player to go twice in a row (the infamous "double turn"). The intent was to at least limit, if not outright eliminate the first turn advantage, since only the player going second can get a double turn, allowing players a chance to come back in games they would otherwise have no chance of winning. However those opposed to the rules typically feel like the double turn is so powerful that it often makes the entire rest of the game irrelevant when it happens and indeed a timely double turn is often enough to decide the game. It is still the default rule and used in tournament play, but using the old standard system of alternating turns is a fairly common house rules.
- The Stormcast Eternals being very heavily inspired by 40k Space Marines. Some people still refer to them as SigMarines for how similar they are in terms of design and lore. Space Marines are by far the most popular/best selling part of the 40k setting so the decision to add a similar faction to the fantasy setting isn't very surprising. Of course there are a good number of fans who are unhappy about this, usually because they feel the Stormcast don't fit into the fantasy setting, or because they already resent how much focus the Space Marines get in 40k and don't want that ported to Fantasy as well.
- Of course, there is a lot of debate over Age of Sigmar's far more optimistic and heroic tone than 40k or Fantasy. On the one hand, fans of Fantasy and 40k argue that Grimdark is one of the staples of the entire franchise, and removing that fundamentally takes something away from the setting. Warhammer is, after all, a war game, so a Forever War is kinda required if the homegames are meant to take place in canon. Those who are in favor of the Lighter and Softer setting argue that it is an enjoyable change of pace for the franchise. Grimdark has been the norm for both Fantasy and 40k for decades, and a lot of fans are kinda sick of it, so it's nice to have a setting where not everything is doomed all the time. Besides, the setting is definitely lighter, but it's far from a heroic fantasy.
- A while after the announcement of the fourth edition of the game, a new cut of old models was announced. While a few were expected, such as most of the Skaven range and early Stormcast models that was obviously being remade from scratch due to being the new starter set armies, many other ranges were a bit contentious and provoked a large backlash. This includes the entirety of the Beasts of Chaos and Bonesplitterz factions (which at least are supposedly staying around for The Old World), all the Stormcast units introduced in the second edition and the original Warcry warbands.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The Chaos Lord Korghos Khul (the guy with the pet Flesh Hound), for being the leader of the first group to deal the Stormcast Eternals a defeat, besting a Lord-Celestant in a fight, his unique appearance and being able to tame a Flesh Hound as a pet. He even got his face plastered over the General's Handbook because he was so popular.
- The Sylvaneth faction have become quite popular, for being an original character concept, for having a well-developed backstory, for providing a unique new angle on Order, for bringing back three characters from the old setting and their GORGEOUS models. For awhile their range were counted among the bestsellers for Age of Sigmar. Their popularity only increased after the Sylvaneth battletome came out. For many fans, the release of the Sylvaneth was the first sign that Age of Sigmar had the potential to live up the legacy of the previous setting, be good in its own right, or both ^note.
- The Seraphon. They're both a new spin and a homage to the Lizardmen of the old setting ^note, for getting a power boost and for being arguably the ultimate anti-Chaos faction lorewise. They even have at least five Slann who survived The End Time (including Lord Kroak).
- Among the factions completely unique to Age of Sigmar (the Sylvaneth include forest spirit models and types from the previous setting), the Idoneth Deepkin are proving popular. Common reasons include being a powerful army in the game and being soul-hunting pirates riding sea monsters; the latter is also a draw for Dark Eldar fans from 40k, especially since the Idoneth Deepkin are less evil and more nuanced/sympathetic than the former.
Fan Nickname:
- The Stormcast Eternals are often considered to be the Age of Sigmar version of Space Marines given the similarities existing between their fluff and model design (heavy armour with huge pauldrons), often using the term "Sigmarines" to refer to them. Given their non-spaceborne nature, they can also be hilariously referred to as "Ground Marines". The addition of some suspiciously bolter- and bolt pistol-like crossbow weapons to their arsenal (including a weapon known as a boltstorm pistol), and the introduction of the Primaris Space Marines (whose Powered Armor actually seems to have taken a few visual cues from Stormcast armour) to Warhammer 40,000, haven't exactly helped to dispel the comparisons.
- Due to the similarities between the two armies, many players have called the Kharadron Overlords (a faction of steampunk flying pirate dwarfs) "Squats", after a discontinued Warhammer 40,000 faction which consisted of dwarfs Recycled In Space (literally in fact, as 40k started as Warhammer in Space, the discontinuity continued for a while but they were later confirmed to still exist but as individual survivors and descendants of such).
- Some call the game in general "Warhammer: New Coke".
Fanon Discontinuity: A number of fans refused to accept the axing of the original franchise, in particular fans of the Bretonnians and the Tomb Kings.
- Other players simply ignored the new edition and have stuck to one of the previous editions of the game. A few people even designed an alternate rules set, The 9th Age, which caters mainly to people who preferred the style of Warhammer's 8th edition.
Growing the Beard: To say Age of Sigmar got off to a rough start would be an understatement. Not only did it replace a beloved setting, its first edition had no game balance whatsoever (the rules simply say both players field whatever models they want) along with silly rules for most units, like re-rolls for having a bigger moustache than your opponent. (Really) Then came 2nd Edition, which removed all the joke rules, added a points system and support for competitive play, greatly expanded the world's lore, and added new and well-received factions like the Sylvaneth and Idoneth Deepkin. While fans of Warhammer Fantasy are still sore from its loss, by 2nd Edition it's generally agreed that Age of Sigmar is no longer a joke and can stand up to Games Workshop's other wargames, with some competitive gamers even preferring it to 40k.
Memetic Mutation:
- After some teasers for the new Idoneth Deepkin faction, the phrase "Deepkin WHEN" started doing the rounds.
- The two ghosts following Kurdoss Valentian around to taunt him are generally accepted to sound like Statler and Waldorf.
"So who would win in a fight, the Craven King or the Lord of End Times?"
"Well, the Everchosen's got that big sword, the Slayer of Kings"
"Oh well, Kurdoss is untouchable then"
"DOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO"
Rooting for the Empire: According to reviews of the Realmgate Wars audio novels surrounding the Hallowed Knights' attempt to parley with Nagash, many fans were hoping that Nagash would win and kill the Stormcast Eternals. He did, in a massive Curb-Stomp Battle, though Tarsus managed to defy him.
Sequel Displacement: Age of Sigmar is slowly becoming this, especially with younger generations, but also with some older people who never got into Wargaming. As mentioned earlier sales are beyond Warhammer Fantasy's last edition, but furthermore a lot of those sales are to people who were introduced by 40K but never really played Fantasy (if they are even aware of it at all) as well as outsiders of tabletop gaming (especially non-fans of Fantasy settings) whose introduction to Wargaming was Age of Sigmar. So much so that a lot of Sigmar players don't even know who Sigmar is beyond AoS wartomes, rulebooks, and beginner set manuals and are unaware of what a major role he played in Fantasy and the Warhammer setting as a whole.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The old Warhammer fantasy setting being totally abandoned after almost 30 years of support and development unsurprisingly made a lot of fans very upset. While there certainly are a lot of valid criticisms mixed in, there are still many that come down to just being upset that things have been changed from the old setting.
Win Back the Crowd: A lot of time after the games launch was spent trying to do this. A points system, the removal of silly real-life rules, and the Season of War Campaign have all started to turn people's views on the game.

YMMV / Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

Edit Locked