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Author Topic: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS  (Read 2980 times)

Offline Ships

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How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« on: July 10, 2015, 01:43:14 AM »
I'm just wondering how you are supposed to collect an army in AoS ?

I used to collect an army based on points and fun conversions I wanted to do, but now without points you can't do that. Without a meta due to points you can't collect an army doing that, ie 40 halberdiers . Without points your army is based upon what your opponent decides is fair, that new £50 model nope you can't use that.

My question how do you have fun building an AoS army when you don't get to decide what you play as you have to ask your opponent first?

Offline knightofthelance

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2015, 01:51:27 AM »
I think the hope is people will just buy what seems cool. Which would probably mean lots of big kits.

Offline Warlord

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2015, 01:54:04 AM »
Wait and see?
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Offline Ambrose

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2015, 02:09:27 AM »
I'm just wondering how you are supposed to collect an army in AoS ?

I used to collect an army based on points and fun conversions I wanted to do, but now without points you can't do that. Without a meta due to points you can't collect an army doing that, ie 40 halberdiers . Without points your army is based upon what your opponent decides is fair, that new £50 model nope you can't use that.

My question how do you have fun building an AoS army when you don't get to decide what you play as you have to ask your opponent first?

You don't have to ask your opponent first.  My guess is that, in a hope to sell miniatures, people won't feel restricted to a specific army.  If you like a model, go out and buy it.  There should be a warscroll for it.  The, play it when you wish.

All of this talk about silly armies (I am guilty too) will die down and those of us who will try the game will try different combos.  Some with the miniatures we have, some with the new box set, etc.  If you have miniatures, put an army together, print off the warscrolls and challenge someone to a battle.  See what happens.

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Offline Deuce

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2015, 03:44:40 AM »
Without points your army is based upon what your opponent decides is fair, that new £50 model nope you can't use that.

My question how do you have fun building an AoS army when you don't get to decide what you play as you have to ask your opponent first?

As Ambrose says, this isn't actually the case. Because AoS is such a minimal ruleset, people are scrambling all over each other to try to make it "fit for purpose" and one of the first things that's come out of that is trying to impose army composition limits, whether that be numerically (number of warscrolls/wounds) or by agreement with opponent. But the rules have been out for less than a week and while there are obvious holes in them nobody is quite sure how things are going to shake out. Some of the solutions people are coming up with might well be for problems that turn out not to exist. In fact this is something which both amuses and concerns me: that the community is going to break AoS while trying to fix it because they don't understand what it is. I don't like the look of the game myself so it doesn't really bother me but I don't feel like it's getting a chance to breathe before being stifled by the sort of considerations it's almost explicitly trying to avoid.

Anyway. No aspect of army selection or deployment in AoS requires your opponent to approve your choices. If you possess the model and have a warscroll for it (and pretty much all 8th edition units and monsters have freely available warscrolls) you can use it. Your opponent may not like it, might forfeit, refuse to play you again, flip the table, drop-kick your figure across the room... but he could do that under the previous ruleset too.

That still may not help that much in collecting an army, as the variety of choice available might lead to paralysis, or the optimum game configurations being difficult to justify in the fluff. But the anything-goes approach also opens up some genuine possibilities that weren't there in the RAW previously (or at least before End Times): a Sylvanian army featuring both the Undead and living state troops, for instance; Ogres and Dwarfs back in an Empire army; a Marienburg army with substantial High/Sea Elven contingent; a Dogs of War army chosen piecemeal from every list! With some imagination it should be possible to come up with some really characterful armies. Whether with the destruction of the Old World and the likely discontinuing of the model ranges that'll be something desirable or easy to manage is a different question, of course.

Offline StealthKnightSteg

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2015, 06:54:37 AM »
I think there will be a restriction on the factions, that you can't combine Order with Chaos, or Destruction or Death and vice versa.
But the options within are already bigger then we had.
As you are supposed to just bring and battle, I think they ideas that will be sprouting are what combinations are good that you want to field (attack options) and what defense options do I have / might need to counter opposing factions. It will be a mix and matching for those I guess.
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Offline Darknight

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2015, 03:10:42 PM »
I don't think you DO "collect an army". I think you buy and paint miniatures, which can be many different things.

Or, you could collect "an army" in the sense you are choosing different models from different factions etc. to build up your personal fluff.

And, sure - someone could say "Nope, not playing against that" - but someone could say that in Warhammer, too. Loads of people would say things like "I'm not playing your three Steam Tank army" etc.
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Offline Krokz

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2015, 03:25:00 PM »
You collect Battalions. Or go Unbound and be all over the place.

Offline valmir

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2015, 04:39:17 PM »
caveat: I haven't played a game of AoS. BUT:

I think that the no-army-lists thing of AoS is actually the most interesting aspect of it. It remains to be seen whether or not the new units will actually be implemented in a way that takes advantage of it, but I think it's a fascinating approach.

I'd go further, which is to suggest that comping the game so that you have a certain number of wounds or something is absolutely counter-productive to "fixing" the game. Rather, this tries to transform the game into something that it isn't.
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Offline knightofthelance

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Re: How is collecting an army supposed to be fun in AoS
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2015, 05:47:53 PM »
Quote
I'd go further, which is to suggest that comping the game so that you have a certain number of wounds or something is absolutely counter-productive to "fixing" the game. Rather, this tries to transform the game into something that it isn't.

I agree with this 100%. I've played maybe 10 games now, and I've got to say it's never going to be my favorite game. However, it is good a being what it is, which is fairly simple fun, and a chance to play a game without having to get all worked up about making sure you take the best choices you can. That's become a rare thing for a lot of people when it comes to GW. As soon as people start comping it they'll go right back to finding "optimal" choices. That will take away the positive parts of the game and leave you stuck with the rest of the rules- which aren't great.