Review: Age of Sigmar General's Handbook

Review: Age of Sigmar General's Handbook

Surprise arrival pressie today was the new General's Handbook for Age of Sigmar. Lunchtime was a quick flick and read through and was very impressed with the layout and the artwork.

More of the review after the break.

So with further reading after dinner tonight the book is split into 3 styles of play:

Open Play:

Taking from GW:

Ideal for new hobbyists, this straightforward system will have you playing games in no time.

Having read through this section, it gives you what you had from the Age of Sigmar box game, great fun games with no frills.

There are 6 new Battle plans which give some nice scenarios so grab some figures and terrain and role some dice, I think great for pick up game with your mates who don't really play and just want to roll some dice and have blood on the first turn.

Narrative Play:

New to Age of Sigmar this section of the book goes into a lot more detail on how to build a themed army and recreating Battle of the Past. Lots of Battle plans and campaigns either to follow or to use as inspiration for creating your own.

Personally for me I think this is where I will focus my gaming for the Age of Sigmar as I have always liked creating a background to my armies and having a reason to engage with my foe over the fields of battle. It will also lead to inspiring paint jobs and conversions.

Matched Play:

New to Age of Sigmar but not new to realm of Fantasy. This for me has been community driven and this may cause some wrinkles but again I feel the thin end of the wedge has again shouted the loudest and got a points based system for a system that really did not need it.

However if you are a competitive person then behold a points system so that you can play points matches to your hearts content.

Yes I may very obviously be not a competitive player and driven by the narrative  but we all have our styles and motivators to play and paint.

Even though I feel that this book has been a long time coming and agree with some should have been included with the release of Age of Sigmar. However I feel that it does show that GW is taking note of the community and have given a great book for all style of gamers and not just to points play.

If you were on the fence with Age of Sigmar I recommend picking up this book as no matter what type of gamer you are GW have provided a rule book for £15 (it also has the rules in the back as well).

Buying a new army could not be cheaper with the new starter sets.

So go on dip the toe in and roll some dice