Ranks and Flanks, Please.

So Age of Sigmar.

The last time I mentioned Warhammer Fantasy in a blog post it was when we were still anticipating 9th Edition.  Yeesh.  That was... yeah.  A train wreck?

I had started collecting those 4 End Times book sets toward the end of WHFB but gave up.  It's not that I couldn't find them.  I was actually able to keep up fine.  The problem was that I started getting a funny feeling that all these dollars I was spending for these books was not going to feel like money well spent when it came down to it.  Boy, was I right or was I right?

I mean, as collector's items they're great... provided you have the space and the desire.  As gaming accessories... Pffffft.  Can't use 'em in Age of Sigmar, can ya?  and oh, the world got destroyed at the end of that fourth one anyway. 

That's when I walked away.  Age of Sigmar is another skirmish game in a hobby that's overflowing with skirmish games.  That, and Bretonnia basically got, as my buddy put it:  "the whole finger."  Yeah thanks for that, GW.  Glad I spent money on your overpriced Bretonnia minis when I could have been buying generic medieval minis all because I wanted to support the brand end encourage more Bretonnian content.  See what that got me?  And people wonder why I have a sour taste regarding Primaris Space Marines.

Happily, there's Kings of War.  I switched to that because I like my ranks & flanks style gameplay and Mantic was more than happy to not only  keep that going, but to provide army lists for all the now homeless Warhammer factions.  The added flexibility also meant that I could have elements in my Bretonnian army that I never did before, like heavy infantry and monsters.

Kings of War 3rd Edition is coming soon, and I'll be buying it.  I haven't played in a while, so this'll be a good time to shake off the cobwebs.  

Side note:  When the switch from WHFB to AoS occurred, I was a  big fan of the Garagehammer podcast.  You know, it was these guys who made me aware of Kings of War in the first place, back when they did Garage gamer episodes.  They crowed about it so hard that for a moment I was afraid the podcast was going to go full KoW.  Then later, when AoS dropped and they switched to it, they actually spoke disparagingly of people who didn't switch with them.  I distinctly remember Dave saying "Aww... can't live without your ranks & flanks?"  or something like that.  Jerk move, man.  

Look, I got into WHFB in the first place because of the ranks & flanks style.  I like it because it's a better approximation of how medieval battles were conducted on a large scale.  That's the kind of wargaming I wanted to get into back then.  I still like it so yes, I like my ranks & flanks and I don't know why that's somehow a bad thing now that GW has moved away from it.  Fanboy much?

It's not like Kings of War is the only option for ranks & flanks anyway.  There's Hail Caesar (which I can also use my Bretonnians in, as a medieval army) as well as some really old ones like DBA.  I went to KoW because they had army lists for all of us in my group of friends who were sitting on fantasy armies.

Yeah I know, this post isn't exactly current events.  Well that's what happens when you're back from a 4 year hiatus from wargame blogging.  You come back with a few old things to get off your chest.