Ive noticed there seems to be a vast difference in peoples mindsets. My whole gaming life consisted of me going into GW seeing like everyone on massive tables playing 40k in huge groups and then seeing a small table in the back with 2-3 people playing fantasy. I dont pparticularly like sci fi, and i love the fantasy setting but really it just flat out sucks that if you want to go to GW and play a game or take part in big team games you have to play 40k.

The facts are fantasy wasnt selling and has been struggling for probably over 10 years now, i actually heard from a GW rep that the sppace marines range alone sells more than the whole of fantasy range. Let me just repeat that, one army from one game sells more than a whole other game and ALL of its armies combined.

Now lets look at it from a new pplayers perspective, lets say a kid has 100 bucks to spend, He buys his paints/glue, he then chooses which game he wants to play 40/fantasy, he chooses an army, buys the codex, buys the rulebook and then buys a 2-3 boxes of models. If this kid chooses 40k he has a few units, that he can easily bring along to GW stand at one side of the table with some other people and play a game. If this kid plays fantasy he will be lucky if he can make 2 complete units. What can he do with those models? NOTHING! Why? Because he has to spend what 300-400 to get enough models, try not to burn himself out whilst painting them and then learn a complex rule system and then mabey play 1 game against a rude person that utterly destroys him and feels really good about it afterwards, whilst insulting the kids painting, telling him his army sucks, telling him all his faults and mistakes and lore nerding him into oblivion, what a great day this kid has 🙂

I have noticed 2 seperate communities when it comes to 40k and Fantasy and i have to say one of Fantasies biggest problems if the community itself. I'd say the 40k community is a lot friendlier, younger, more welcoming to new players and a lot more open in general. The fantasy community on the other hand seems on first glance from what ive noticed seems completely closed off, elitist and majorly scared of change. Now obviously there are cool people on both sides of the fence and this is a very general summarization but this is from a new players perspective on what game 'he' should pick up and play.

With the AoS GW is trying to get new players in, a kid can now just buy the starter box and have everything he needs to paint up get in and start playing. No more in depth list building, no more in depth complicated complex rule systems and no more $500+ barrier of entry. At the end of the day, the elitist purists need to face facts, the only thing that is gonna make a game live, grow and prosper is money being spent on the game. Now currently this amazing 8th edition, that so 'many' people love it is being out sold by 1 army from another game, so face facts its not working, no one new is coming in and this isnt down to GW or internal balancing or over pricing of models its because of the game, the rules and largely the community.

Its getting to a point where it seems that no matter what GW do, people complain, itsa never good enough. Last year rumors were going round that GW were scrapping everything, square bases were gone and you could throw away your existing armies, people moaned and groaned and threatened to leave. All that was of course BS and bases dont matter, you can field whatever you like. On top of this GW released free mini codexes for ALL your existing models so you could still use them. Of course this also wasnt good enough and now its a 'flawed' rule system, its unbalanced, its too simple there is no Toughness stat anymore. Seriously, instead of being so negative about anything mabey you need to stop playing these type of games. The game was dying/borderline dead so much so that GW had to come up with a completely new game/system.

The AoS box looks awesome, it looks like the perfect way for someone to come in buy it and get playing games straight away, it looks like its the breath of fresh air that the Fantasy side has needed for over 10 years and thank god its here. The models look gorgeous, the simple sprues are a godsend for the majority of people.

I am really looking forward to AoS, i am looking forward of spending 75 pounds and getting a box full of beautiful fantasy models that wont take me 3 days to glue together. I am looking forward to painting up 2 armies that i will instantly be able to take into GW and play some games and i am also looking forward to the future. I read an interview stating that GW has already planned out a FULL year of AoS story. Mabey they will release more fleshed out rules in a month or two, i mean this really doos seem like a 'quick' start type of things. Lets hope that what AoS does do is bring in new players, lets hope it starts making GW some money so they can deliver more awesome stuff and lets at least hope that it makes it so it isnt just Space Marines completely outselling it but mbaye now Space Marines and Tau outselling it. Im excited 🙂 Surely theres more people out here that are looking forward to it and the most amazing thing ive seen is all these people that have had AoS test games have actually really enjoyed it so far. Is it that unbelievable to think that its a game for friends to get together think about some good lists and just have a good evening playing some fantasy battles?