Many long-time fans of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 look down on Age of Sigmar, the latest in the worlds of Warhammer. Now a new player has gotten involved and can’t understand this at all. He believes: Age of Sigmar does everything right and is as twisted and absurd as one would wish from Warhammer.
What kind of world is this?
- Warhammer is divided into three different universes: the original Warhammer Fantasy (now: The Old World), Warhammer 40,000, and Age of Sigmar.
- Of these three, Age of Sigmar is the newest world, having been released only in 2015. Warhammer itself has been around since the 1980s.
- Age of Sigmar replaced Warhammer Fantasy when in the lore the world was destroyed, and the game as such was not further produced (for the time being). The universe combines high fantasy with outrageous steampunk, gods, and different worlds that are interconnected.
Why is Age of Sigmar so unpopular? Essentially, Age of Sigmar sealed the fate of Warhammer Fantasy, at least back then. It is the continuation of the lore of the world that was destroyed, which did not sit well with the fantasy fans.
Players accused Games Workshop of not being able to make enough money from Warhammer Fantasy anymore, thus designing a new and simpler system for new players, letting the old system die. This was compounded by controversial design decisions such as:
- Renaming certain races like Elves to Aelfs or Dwarfs to Duardin
- new units like the Stormcast Eternals, who for many fans simply looked like a fantasy version of the superhuman Space Marines (hence the fan nickname “Sigmarines”)
- the official inclusion of the Skaven into the Chaos Pantheon
- the division of races into specific factions such as Order, Chaos, Death, Destruction…
Age of Sigmar did have some successes in tabletop, but in the community, it was not well received for a long time. One of the more recent video games, Realms of Ruin has completely flopped. Now, ten years later, players say: Age of Sigmar is actually pretty cool.
“How High Fantasy meets Heavy Metal Album meets wild cosmic god dreams”
On Reddit, a user explains that he has now truly gotten into Age of Sigmar for the first time – and he is thrilled. The whole world is just wonderfully outrageous:
The Stormcast Eternals are basically fantasy Space Marines but much more tragic. Every time they die, they come back “wrong.” Like, what? It’s so dark, I love it. And then you have things like the Idoneth, the literally soul-stealing underwater elves. They don’t even try to make sense. Just weird and cool […]
I don’t know why people hate [Age of Sigmar] so much. Yes, it’s not the old Fantasy or anything, but who cares? Things change. Get over it. Age of Sigmar is super now. It’s weird and broken and kind of chaotic, but that’s part of the charm. I like my fantasy loud and strange and somewhat philosophical, but also with guys with big swords riding on dragons.
The user even praises the new models and suggests that they could simply be placed in a showcase, looking like really pretty decorations. Furthermore, there is the completely absurd lore – which in true Warhammer fashion knows no real “Good and Evil”, but where you can somehow empathize with the villains.
In the comments, there is agreement and positive mentions for the new ideas that Age of Sigmar brings, like the Idoneth. The new Warhammer does many things differently than Warhammer Fantasy did back then – and that had scared off the fans before. Today, Age of Sigmar is really cool.
Ultimately, the setting even excites players who usually dwell in Warhammer 40,000. Particularly some of the new (or old) factions, for which there is no real equivalent in the sci-fi universe, appeal to the 40k players – for instance, the Skaven: One of the coolest races in Warhammer you will never get to know if you only play Warhammer 40,000
