Age of Sigmar Comp

               The Warhammer community has been fractured just as much as the Old World and has been flung into the realms of Age of Sigmar. It was quite clear upon its release that AoS felt incomplete and marketed as an entry level tabletop game. The rules were four pages, included a new easy to paint faction, and seemed gutted of tactical game play. This was my initial reaction and I was completely wrong. The synergy and strategy that is incorporated in the warscrolls is very rich and deep. In fact, 8th edition WHFB strategy pales and seems like a gimmick in comparison. The shining key that unlocks this game on a competitive level is a comp/cost system known as Clash Comp or Mo Comp in some areas. You can find it HERE.  I'm also impressed with their companion list building site www.scrollbuilder.com. My hats off to them for an excellent comp system and list building site.  At this point, Clash Comp stands out from the rest and is a great jumping off point for any T.O. I will also be seeking the opinion of this year's Nova Open AoS T.O. and AoS winner of Da Boyz GT in a follow up post. I have a feeling he knows a little bit about AoS(/sarcasm).

            The initial community reaction was as expected, portions of the community feverishly clacked away on their keyboards, exposing the many short comings of AoS. Others in the community saw a system that, by design, was meant to be a frame to expand upon. Instead of poo pooing the clear lack of any army building rules inherent to the system they began creating a comp system of their own to enable list building and competitive play.  I doubt we will see any "advanced rules" from GW in the near future and I'm okay with that. I feel as though a player made "rule set" hearkens back to the golden age of gaming. For many it's our youth. Making your own rules up, changing rules, even designing your own game were all things that a lot of us probably did as a kid. In this respect, all this comp creation is rather exciting for me. But whats that you say? Pick up games are dead, huh? I don't think pick up games were how the majority of the community got games in and even if it is look at comp in Warhammer 40k for example. Players, based on their geographic region usually play a flavor of the game that is supported by the major GT's in their area. For example, west coasters play using the ITC format put out by the Frontline Gaming guys(a lot of people all over the U.S actually play with this format) and east coasters play using the Nova Open format in mind. I'm not saying everyone uses either one or the other. In fact most people play the game how they like to regardless of regional format. I'm just trying to illustrate my point. If major comp systems are prominent in your area then it is quite likely that your pick up game opponent is aware of it. 40k has been undergoing these community comp systems for years now and the sky has not fallen yet. Besides that, GW is a model company... It's best we the players decide exactly how to use our toys anyway!

In a nut shell let's look at some things that Clash Comp addresses in AoS.

-Lack of a points/list building mechanic.

This is the meat and potatoes of Clash Comp and everyone's main gripe about the AoS rules system. Clash Comp addresses this expertly with a pool choice system. Every unit has a pool cost associated with it. Average unit choices are usually 1, 1.5, or 2 pool choices for a minimum size unit. The most brilliant feature is the list building site scrollbuilder.com. It really doesn't get any easier to build your list. In general you select thirty pool choices and deploy twenty of them. 

-Measuring from the model, "bases don't matter" issues.

Bases now matter again, you always measure from them and they must be a reasonable size.

                 
-Summoning 

Instead of summoning gone wild you now can opt to deploy less than twenty pool choices and instead summon them onto the table.

-Shooting

   Clash Comp restricts shooting to forty shots allowed on the table per army.                                             

  -Pile in move clarifications

In a game where close combat is king, it's nice to have clarified pile in rules. 

       The T.O.'s at the Da Boyz GT took Clash Comp and altered it with some of their own house rules, Things like:

• Armies may consist of units from the same faction(IE: order,chaos,destruction, and death). 
• Use of quirky "flavor" rules. 
• Percentile hero/monster selection. 

Beautiful Venue at Da Boyz GT

You can find the Da Boyz GT comp HERE.

Fresh from Da Boyz  I can tell you that AoS is one of my favorite games now. Each game I played at the GT I understood more and more about the immense strategy of the game and by round five I was hooked. My next post I'll be talking Comp again and I hope you all give scroll builder and clash comp a try in the meantime.