Ian, a regular at the Highland Library 40K club recently landed a sweet job as a Manager of the brand new Games Workshop store in Ann Arbor.  (GW, if you’re reading this, BRING BACK THE NOVI STORE YOU BASTARDS)  As part of his getting paid to come to club, he demoed the new successor to Warhammer Fantasy.  That’s right, the oft maligned Age of Sigmar.

So, I tried it.

It was fun, let’s see what happened!

I was playing the Stormcast (foreground), versus Paul who had a horde of Khornate warriors (rear).

I pulled off to my right to deny the flank.

Paul advances.

My Stormcasts charge a Khorne monster.  However, their charge brings them to within 3″ of the Marauders, who get to pile in!  In AoS, combats can swarm and engulf units not associated with the original charge.  All hits and wounds from a unit are always the same rolls in AoS, so my Stormcasts manage to do some damage to the monster.  However, great saves prevent a lot of this damage.

More charges end the Stormcasts, however the fight spills over into my other squad, who smash a Bloodstoker because his whip got within 3″ of them!

Meanwhile, another Stormcast squad charges some Khorne warriors.  In AoS, combat is resolved one unit at a time, so because my other Stormcasts were fighting for their lives, they went first.  The Khorne Warriors got to swing first at these Stormcasts, and did some serious damage!  Order of combat is a really important tactical decision in AoS.

The rest of my army charges.  My lord riding a dragon-horse-thing does a ton of damage.

In the end, my forces smashed through the Khorne forces.

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Final Thoughts:

AoS is easy and streamlined.  To hit and wound is easy, and toughness is now all about saves and number of wounds.  However, it still remains a game without a balance system.  You have to figure that out for yourself.  Is it fair?  Well, you decide what’s fair.  Is that a cop out?  Yeah.  Is it fun?  Also yeah.  Try a demo of AoS for yourself.  If you like it, play it.