the all new age of slgmar thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > the all new age of slgmar thread

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I'm glad this thread recognizes the majesty of SLAMBO

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 21:05

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 09:55

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Real talk: Double turns, as implemented in Age of Sigmar are a bad mechanic.

Here are three examples from three different games.

Dropzone Commander
When creating lists in Dropzone, units are set as parts of separate battlegroups. Armor, infantry, command, etc. Each battlegroup has different units that can be slotted in and most have a support element and transports so even an infantry group might still have attached AA or something along those lines. The game uses alternating activations, but rather than single units, players choose one battlegroup each time. They take turns activating each in turn until both players have nothing left. Sometimes it works out that a player has one more battlegroup than their opponent and so they get a double activation at the end. Additionally, Dropzone has a roll for initiative at the beginning of each turn. Players roll off and add their commanders' respective leadership scores. The winner gets to go first. It's possible to end a turn by activating a battlegroup, take/keep the initiative in the subsequent turn, and activate that same battlegroup again. Models can move then shoot or shoot then move. Whole units and strategies are built around this.

Dropfleet Commander
Dropfleet uses a similar battlegroup system as Dropzone, but with a few differences. First, there's no initiative roll. Players take their different battlegroups and assign them cards. Every turn, they take these cards and arrange them in a small deck in any order they like. At the first activation, both players draw a card from the top of their respective decks. They then compare strategy ratings of the associated battlegroups. Each ship has a strategy rating, smaller ships lower and larger ships higher. The group with the lower rating goes first. Players really have to manage their activations with this system and double turns are definitely manageable if the cards are in the right order, but your opponent still gets to respond.

Bolt Action
Bolt Action does alternating activations, but in a pretty unique way. Units are activated one at a time, though commanders have a small bubble where they can activate units at the same time as themselves with higher ranks able to activate more in a larger radius. That's not what I'm getting at though. Each unit has an order die associated with it. Both players take their order dice and toss them all in the same bag. At the start of a turn, a player draws from the bag and the owner of that order die gets to choose a unit and activate it. This then goes on until the dice are exhausted and the turn is over. Needless to say, the random nature of this does not guarantee you-go-I-go structure and some turns can wind up pretty lopsided where one player gets to activate, say, 5 units before their opponent can respond. However, it's important to note that just because a player has activated a unit doesn't necessarily mean that unit will actually do what it's told. Units are pinned easily by enemy fire and any unit with pinning markers has to take a leadership test in order to accept their orders. Pinning markers are cumulative and decrease leadership. If a unit fails, they take cover, but there are ways to mitigate this and pin markers can be removed through certain orders, etc. It can be chaotic and sometimes your units don't do what you want or you're activating units you don't want to yet , but it's a good system.

In Age of Sigmar the players roll off with no way of swaying it. It's not a single unit or group, it's whole armies. That may be fine at 500-1000 points, but it's pretty ridiculous in larger games. It would probably work great with alternating units.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 09:19

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

MonsterEnvy posted:

The only somewhat ok name change is the Lizardmen to Seraphon. But it's still a incompetent change because they already called something else Seraphon. Seraphon is the name of the Black Dragon that Malekith rides.

No, Seraphon was dumb too. They did zero research and when they re-released them, the top google search results were all pokemon/furry tickle fetish stuff off of one dude's deviantart. It's still there if you scroll down a bit on an image search.

# ¿ May 6, 2017 23:49

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Crosspostin' because the WHFB thread is dead and I guess this model fits here.

Safety Factor posted:

My local store held a painting contest yesterday. Contestants had a month to paint a Warhammer/AoS model of their choice, to be judged by someone with an actual background in art. Naturally, I chose loving SLAMBO.

I did my best to mimic the studio scheme, that blended green took 3-4 hours to do. It was done with three shades of green and then tied together with a glaze. Highlights were done in yet another two shades of green and took another couple of hours. Not to mention the metallics and other details. Either way, this model was a ton of fun to paint and I got to try out new techniques I will probably never, ever use again. As ever, there are a couple of things I'd like to touch up, like the highlights on the eyebrow ridge, but all entries are being kept on display at the store for two weeks.

Anyways, back to the contest, there were a lot of great entries, including one by a commission painter. I thought I'd maybe take second or third, but the main competition, a skaven grey seer on a monstrous rat ogre-beast (formerly the End Times version of Thanquol and Boneripper), was apparently missing some attention to detail and I squeaked by. It was actually a tie, but the judge gave it to me because I had the higher painting score. I didn't even know what I was competing for and it turned out I won a $35 gift card.

SLAMBO

Safety Factor fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jul 30, 2017

# ¿ Jul 30, 2017 23:21

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I'm just wandering through here because while I hate Age of Sigmar for a variety of reasons, Shadespire has my genuine interest and I got to play a demo game last night.

I was playing as the Khorne warband versus my friend's stormcast. It was a really quick game despite the store owner basically coaching him through the rules. I had watched some videos about the game over the last week or so so I was better prepared. I set the two 2 wound idiots up front, they promptly got popped turn one and I managed to take out the stormcast leader (greatsword guy) early on. Unfortunately, my friend may as well have been rolling loaded dice because almost every attack/defend roll he made came up with criticals. He annihilated my warband and I was left with one model cowering in a corner at the end of the game while his remaining two models seemed to be invincible. If even one or two rolls had gone my way instead, it could have been a much different game. I had upgraded my leader to have an extra defense die and deal 4 damage on hits. He was capable of one-shotting any stormcast and had the best chance of tanking any incoming damage. It didn't work out. That's dice for you. :v:

However, I only actually lost by one point. I was able to grab a couple of points early on, and he had a steady stream of kills and objectives leaving him with 7 by the end of the game. There are specific objective cards that can only be turned in at the end of the third turn and I cashed in two two-pointers and he got one additional objective, leaving the game 8-7.

Overall, I liked the game and I'm looking forward to getting another game in. The card mechanic is not overbearing and adds a bit of variety to the game. A character's stat card doesn't necessarily represent what they can theoretically do if you've got the right cards. Similarly, you're really playing for objectives and they can swing a bad game back in your favor. This is also definitely a GW game and swingy dice have a big impact. However, if my game is anything to go by, you can get completely stomped and still eke out a close game pretty easily. For whatever that may be worth.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 20:25

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

JcDent posted:

How long did the game go?

45 minutes to an hour? This was a demo with a lot of explanations by the store owner; my friend was completely unfamiliar with the game. I expect real games will be at the 30-45 minute mark. It plays very quickly once you know what you're doing.

Neither of the starting warbands grabs me. I want the skeletons and orcs. However, I might paint up the stormcast in that one goofy maroon scheme just to try it out.

JcDent posted:

Hatred is the Emperor's greatest gift to humanity, passed down to us via our unhealthy relationship with Hams.

I will never not be mad about WHFB. :colbert:

At least the Total War games help assuage that somewhat. :unsmith:

Safety Factor fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 12, 2017

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 20:46

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Nebalebadingdong posted:

Why is the game only 3 turns? Seems odd

Each turn has 4 activations for each player. Each activation can involve selecting a model and moving, attacking, or charging or discarding a card of either type and drawing a new one. Cycling objectives can be pretty important to get ones you can actually complete. That's most of what I did with my third turn.

As I mentioned earlier, I was down to one model at the end of the game. The board is kind of small and things die quickly. It doesn't need to go longer.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 21:04