GW’s Age of Sigmar. Should I give a sh*t about it?

So the old Warhammer is gone. Replaced by GW‘s latest brainfart, Age of Sigmar. As an oldhammer player and veteran since 2nd Edition WFB, I’m not sure how to take it. Of course, this effects nothing in terms of playing WFB, I’ll still be able to play, but this new direction GW has taken, leaves me a bit undecided about this new release.

I’ve read tons about it on line, with mixed reviews that usually end up as “meh”, and comparisons to sigmar’s lot being more 40K than Warhammer fantasy. It makes me wonder if it’s not the fault of the game, but rather us old guard making all the noise.

It’s a brave departure for GW to be giving away the rules free, we warhammer players can jump straight in and play no problem (I will, at some point) but on the other hand, I can see their move being a canny conversion tool, designed to suck in existing players to the new stuff. I just think I’m not excited about it at all.

I’m old skool, I was brought up with GWs products and minis, they played a large role in my childhood and beyond, but I’m not crying about how it used to be, but maybe we hold this old period of gaming history in too high esteem. I’m not saying that WFB is the best wargaming system to ever grace this planet, sure it’s ok, but, I think we older gamers are just used to it. We have become set in our ways and hold Warhammer on a pedestal.

On the reverse, there are some things with Age of Sigmar (AoS) that don’t float my boat. don’t get me wrong, I’m still tempted to get the boxed set, who wouldn’t be. Everyone likes loads of miniatures. I just have some issues with the models themselves.

The Stormcast Eternals are my main gripe. I’m mixed about these. Even so years ago there were always going to be a celestial element versus chaos (ala the eternal champion influences from the early days) it had never panned out until now (only the chaos bit was expanded) The forces of order here, are a bit underwhelming, and far too space marine like for my liking. They are ok, but lack some oommff (So to speak)

Alternatively, if Sigmar is developed as a force, does this mean we’ll get some other new forces to represent the other lawful gods of the warhammer pantheon in a similar style? It’s possible, and could potentially create some really cool stuff.

The Khorne stuff in the box is ok, with a few good models and the rest sort of not. Again the similarities to 40k are apparent to me, so maybe this is trying to appeal to 40k players more than the rest. Since the 40k game is way more popular than WFB ever was, its a shrewd marketing move for them to do this, yeah I get it. Its just starting to feel like the warhammer fantasy flavour is from whats bolted on (like you can use your WFB armies and play it now with the free rules) Warhammer and all the miniatures from the previous incarnation, seems like its only now an afterthought to keep loyal WFB players who game in store, happy and subdued.

Just how does this guy manage to wipe his ass?

Also, some of the Khorne stuff seems a bit too S&M slannesh to me. Am I missing something, or is it just me?

I dunno, what it is with this, i’m in two minds. On one hand, this could be good eventually, and getting onboard with the game would be good. There’s a lot of great models coming out, and even though I’m not a fan of the prices GW charge, I’d buy a few bits (the rest from cheaper decent manufacturers!) but, on the other hand, it could be a fail and not interest me enough to play with the game, only to return to WFB or kings of war etc. At least the rules are free. Jesus, you could just play the game without the boxed set and play with whatever minis you like!

With my time, concentration and funds limited, I can’t make my mind up about it.

Please, share your thoughts, do you like it? have you played it? what do you think?

 

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Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: Books, Scrolls & Maps Vol 1, Free PDF Download!

 

Ok people! I thought long and hard about a decent way to tackle some material in this article series, and rather than the usual, I’ve opted for this.

So, what is it? Well, I wanted to share with you how I made my books, scrolls and other small 28mm accessories for my mini dungeon, and since I had it already half made for myself, I thought I’d finish it as a PDF publication and give it away free for all on Wargames Vault. Yup, that’s right, Free free free!

I’m quite proud of it to be honest, each method for constructing the parts of this paper kit are fully explained with pictures, and with this ebook you’ll be able to reproduce hundreds, if not thousands of tiny books and stuff for your games and models. See, I’m that generous!

I’ll be posting a link on the side of the menu later to direct everyone who wants a copy, but for now I’ll be available here: Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: Books, Scrolls & Maps Vol 1 Paperkit direct from Wargames Vault.

If your not a member of the site, go and sign up and get hold of your copy. It costs nothing to join and the PDF is totally free, so what are you waiting for!?

I’ll be back later to show you how to construct some furniture to place your new 28mm books on.

As ever, likes, comments etc are much appreciated (I’d love to see what you all think of the kit, if it’s popular I’d be tempted to make some more….)

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Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: If you choose to open the door, go to part 6…

Back again with the next in my series of dungeon terrain building articles, if you missed the last episode, we dealt with my chunky basic door pieces, but this time we are going to go more advanced and create opening ones like thus:

These are not hard to make, but are a little more involved than the basic ones. So gather your craft bits and tools, and lets get started….

Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: Dwellers of the Pit: Orc (common)

An old fave of mainstream fantasy today, fleshing out more monsters for the Dungeons of Doom Fighting fantasy miniature skirmish game, the common orc. You might notice that I’m trying to bring some uniformity to the monster stats, this is for making monster cards later for my game. I thought I’d eventually have to do this for all the monster types I’ll need for the dungeon, so what better moment than now, just to get them out of the way before I get into doing the more obscure creatures. Orcs don’t possess any noteworthy abilities other than to serve as antagonists, common orcs are just that, common.

ORC (COMMON)

We all know what an orc is I’m assuming, so I’ll skip any proper descriptions, and take an excerpt from the original text from Out of the Pit.

Description: (Excerpt taken from the original Out of the Pit 1985 Puffin Books)

Orcs are disgusting, filthy creatures with vile habits to match. they delight in the pain of others, even weaker members of their own race, and they will torture their captives before setting them to work as slaves. The living quarters of an orc stronghold will be knee deep in filth and muck, and will be unhealthy, to say the least. Orcs delight in unsavoury activities. Their favourite food, for example, is a rare dish called elf intestines in gnome’s-blood sauce, though when this is out of season they have to settle for more mundane delights like rat-gizzard soup, or curried bat surprise!

Grim’s Dungeons of Doom conversions

There is nothing special about the common orc. It serves as a generic dungeon monster for adventurers to fight (as with most mainstream fantasy games and fiction and so on) They have no abilities other than to hit your players and be a general pain in the ass.

 

The orcs I’ve used here are mainly made up from some old GW plastic orcs, and you’ll notice the two at either side are actually some 15mm irregular miniatures trolls I use to shake it up a little. (they are quite old skool looking) hese will serve as my basic orcs for the time being, until I phase them out with some more individual models (you’ll always need more orcs…)

I don’t mind these plastic orcs, as they are just fodder, even so I’m trying to evoke an old nostalgic feel, where I’d prefer to stick metal individual minis in (I have a ton of them don’t get me wrong, just not too much time to paint them up, these are from various units of my WFB army, mostly sort of uniform and generic.) no doubt you’ll see the others in roles befitting them of greater orcs or personalities/leaders, that is when I get around to it…

I’ll be back later to detail the next generic monster for the dungeon, the humble goblin, and hopefully the next Grim’s Dungeons of Doom article detailing opening doors….

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Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: If you choose the basic door, go to part 5…

Hello everyone, I’m back with the next part of the Dungeons of doom, a series of articles dealing with the creation of easy and cheap to make 28mm scenic dungeons.

Still on the basic and integral parts of any dungeon are the doors that lead from room to room, encounter to encounter. I have all sorts of doors in my build, but I’m going to show you how I do my run of the mill homemade ones.

So, this time we’re going to deal with my version of a very basic modular door. I’ve seen tons of other versions all over the place,but what I had in mind originally was in keeping with the chunky wooden feel of the rest of the build, as I didn’t want them to get broken. Also bear in mind, I wanted to churn these out quick if needed, so that was a factor too.

So these are my basic chunky dungeon doors, they are nothing special, they don’t open (That one’s for next time..) but they are quick to make, robust and fit perfectly with the build so far. Lets set out what is needed for the construction of these chunky doors…

Your going to need the same pine wood battons like what were used in the walls tutorial, and in some respect is the same principle, so as well as a couple of popsicle sticks and maybe some thin barbeque squewers or matchsticks, you’ll need some thin cardstock like before, and a small plastic drink straw. (and PVA & superglue/cyanoacrylate type glues)

When you’ve cut your wood section and decided how tall you want the door ( I’ve chosen a piece 4cm x 1cm x 1cm, but you can adapt this around whatever you like) get the lolly sticks and cut 4 slightly smaller pieces than your block (in this case around 35mm in length)

Next, snap or cut them down the centre to create this kind of effect.

Glue these into position as these create the wooden door fascia. Do this on both sides with PVA and leave to dry (also make sure they line up on the other side too)

Next, use scrap wood from lollysticks or matchstick/toothpick etc to frame out the door shape as per the above pic, again on both sides, leave to dry.

Use cardstock to create strips at the top and bottom of each door, also cut out small shapes to detail the hinge fastening (you’ll need 4 of each) Also attach a small square to the opposite side for the door handle later.

After the card has stuck, add studs by using the tiny rhinestone nail art gems or the embossed circles (available on ebay for 99p) They are great things to have for rivets and bolts.

I usually give them a dab of liquid superglue after they set, just to make sure they bond properly (cheapo superglue is brilliant for that!) Next bit is tricky, but gives a nice effect.

Heat the end of the straw until it deforms into a circle, once it cools, chop it off and attach to the door plate with superglue. Then, take a small strip of card and form the ring that attaches the plastic circle, glue that down too (this is the tricky part (but I’ll go through this again with the next part as I have better pics) Do this on both sides. It should now look something like this:

Like the wall sections, clad the sides with the same process as before and leave to dry, before blackbombing it.

Once dried, paint up to match your dungeon scheme, as usual for me, the same grey for the brick sides and starting at burnt umber gradually fading up to a sand brown.

The studs and hinges and handle were given a quick lick of black, then painted a bronze and silver highlight to make them pop.

Add a few cracks and faux wood graining and its all about done, seal it in and there you go. simple and quick chunky modular doors.

Ok, I know these doors aren’t going tow in prizes or impress any adventurer,but they keep well with the wooden modular feel and are really easy to make, anyone can replicate this simple technique.

Ahh, but you wanted opening doors eh? Maybe something like this?

Well, why didn’t you say, you’ll need to go to part 6 to find out how to do them….

See you next time Dungeoneers…

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