To be honest i'm curious why they've been releasing at such an astonishing rate. For the past few years we've been averaging like 4-5 entirely new (or completly overhauled) armies per year for AoS alone. And that's ignore specialist games and 40K. I would expect a slightly slower pace to end up in more sales over-all as players can then actually afford to buy into 2 armies, or buy some of the specialist games, instead of getting overwhelmed by the sheer quantity and not being able to keep up. Cuz I don't need a new army every 3 months, nor do we need 30+ factions in AoS. The rate at which they're releasing is astonishing lately. Especially the rate of major releases of entire new armies. I'd much prefer it if they'd give smaller updates spread out over the existing armies than the constant "here's another entirely new faction". It's exhausting to keep up with. Players only have so much money & so much time to paint. So overwhelming them with new releases doesn't seem very effective. Even if you take into account that the average player won't care for every individual release.
Thanks for having said what i was thinking I do believe that AoS is now at risk to suffocate under its own increasing weight .
You guys talk like if you were forced to buy every new model. New factions just open the horizon for new players, make the in-game diversity higher and increase the model offer for those already in the hobby. However, this may be slowed down in the future when they achieve their goals. Kind regards
I have to say, one of my biggest gripes with Warhammer 40,000 is that it just seems to be the same factions with no additional variety or new factions ever being added, or at least not regularly. None of the releases ever seem to be that innovative or fresh, whereas in Age of Sigmar you regularly have new and exciting models and factions being brought in. Like @inakue said, nobody is forcing you to buy these models and GW obviously have enough commercial savvy to not be releasing new factions if it’s going to end up harming the game (they wouldn’t be doing as well as they are if they didn’t). It gives new and old players alike a wider choice and for me at least makes the game feel constantly evolving and engaging far more than I find 40,000 to be, and, for the most part, the army releases are sufficiently large and well rounded that asides from the odd rules update and extra model or two, armies can largely be left be after release and still seem complete and valid. If they want to keep releasing new factions, I say let them - if nothing else, surely from a gaming perspective you would appreciate having fresh new armies and tactics to go up against instead of just the same old factions?
Adding even more armies to the roster only slows down the speed of reworked releases in the future even more. GW needs to get their house in order (read: long established armies) before adding new factions nobody even asked for. I hope they continue to refrain from doing so in 40k.
It is not. It will be: February 29th, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to most years that are divisible by 4, such as 2016, 2020, and 2024. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth's revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in most of the world. Lunisolar calendars (whose months are based on the phases of the Moon) instead add a leap or intercalary month. Wikipedia
O sure, the occasional new faction is good. I just feel they've reached the point where they should slow down a little while ago. We're nearing in on 30 factions. Which is a lot. Plus, it'd be nice for the smaller factions to get some new models. We have 20+ units, but there's plenty of factions with 4-5 units and 3-4 heroes. Why not give thosea couple more alternatives instead of making an entire new faction? Seriously, there's a weirdly low amount of updates to existing factions in AoS aside from the SCE & Nagash. Give me interesting sub-factions, expand on the tiny factions that have no real variaty in what they can field as they only have 3 units and 4 heroes. Right now factions in AoS are very varied but a lot of them have little to no depth to them. There's plenty that can be done without introducing yet another new faction, both gameplay and lore-wise. Or at the very least, don't put out 4-5 new factions per year while (most) existing factions get maybe 1 minor hero model every 5 years. Spread the love a little bit. Also, 40K mostly has the issue that half of it's factions, and most releases, are just some variant of space marines. Which makes it all very similar. As for GW's commercial savy-ness, presumably their strategy works. But I'm really curious what their believe as to why it works is.
Yep. The thing is: AoS already got almost 30 factions. A game doesn't need so much variety and, most of all, if you think you should add even more factions to attract new players, you are wrong. There's plenty of choice, new factions means only that some of the existing ones will be neglected. It's a physical consequence and it's already happening . A different thing happens in 40K, where something new would be welcome but GW just adds new flavors of marines. At least psychic awakening gives something new to everyone.
I just say this; the power creep in AoS is disgusting. Orruks, Ossiarchs, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch are ridiculous in the wounds they can dish out, with even earlier second edition battletomes stand little chance against them. My biggest issue is why even get other battletomes when they can’t put up a somewhat decent fight?
If you want to play competitively you're forced to digest and understand every new book as if you played it.
Every new battletome is good with maybe the exception of sylvaneth. And nighthaunt. Fyreslayers, skaven, and cities (plus what you mentioned) can all podium. I bet even slaves/chaos is gonna do well with the new wrath of the everchosen bookmarks. That's a ton of variety at the top. Sorry for back to back posts. Meant to edit, but just reposted and you cant delete. Oops.
Not just competitivly, even playing on a fairly casual basis you need to at least vaguely understand whatever it is your opponents are capable off.
This is true for most things though. Watching TWWH 2 players in tournaments, they understand every faction and what they bring to the table. It just sucks that a AoS faction has such a high barrier to entry.
good point. WHFB was crippled by the large amount of core rules. AoS now offers a small set of core rules, with such an amount of exceptions and army rules, that those basic rules are just guidelines, and you play through a sea of battletomes and FAQs. Plus, i don't think the possibility to choose between 30 armies, it's exactly beginner-friendly.
The problem is also all the rules from malign sorcery and generals handbook. To play the game you need an army, a battletome, generals handbook and malign sorcery if your going to play the full game.