Age of Sig-nah

Maybe the best Warhammer products are the dead ones. Mordheim still goes strong, Epic and Warmaster have their communities as do Gorka Morka and Inquisitor. The recent fall out from the failure of the latest edition of Horus Heresy suggests that when Warhammer start tinkering with their products, often times it’s not for the better. So maybe the best Warhammer products really are the dead ones.

And which Warhammer product is the deadest?

No… it’s not Man o’ War. It’s the very first edition of Age of Sigmar. Hated and tolerated in equal measure, it’s amazing AoS survived. The unfinished nature of it, the lack of points, the broken combos. It was a strange time indeed. Unlike most dead games though, I do have all the rules for it at its inception. All you needed was that core rule sheet and the Grand Alliance books…

So I’m all set to play this odd and esoteric game. Especially the Skirmish version, which I threatened to dig out in a previous post:

The only problem was, as I also dug out some minis, I realised how much I dislike the current Warhammer experience.

Painting even a few Blood Warriors as festooned with details and armour trim is not an experience I enjoy (more power to you if tedium is your thing). It was at this moment I thought the whole thing was dead in the water… until I decided to proxy it all. Enter Frostgrave and Oathmark. Two fantasy miniatures ranges, in plastic, very kitbashable, which should give me almost everything I’ll need!

Frostgrave Barbarian heads on Demon bodies give you very good looking Chaos Warriors:

And Oathmark Dwarfs (mine are the Heavy variety) give you well… Dwarfs:

So my project isn’t dead in the water afterall! I’m already eyeing up some Wargames Atlantic skellies, and of course I’ll be needing Orcs and Goblins.

I’m also kind of keen to include the poster boys, the Stormcast Eternals… I wonder what knockoff minis would do the trick? Gold plate armoured Knights of the 100 years war variety?

I even got a little game in this weekend, the first Skirmish scenario, which was very bloody, and over in a single turn. I can’t complain about the speed of play! I can complain however about how simultaneously simple and yet wordy everything is. For example the Blood Warriors warscroll, which may be impacted by the command abilities, or relics carried by your general/hero.

Could do with a little tightening up me thinks. Maybe this is the start of something bigger. I’ve always been keen to have a fantasy game alongside Deathzap to play around with…