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You know, I’m actually very curious what the whole ‘point’ of Age of Sigmar was.
Now, none of us (as far as I know) have any completely solid numbers. Every thread always seems to rely on conjecture and anecdote. We assume Fantasy was killed because it wasn’t making enough money. We assume Age of Sigmar is doing well, etc.
That all being taken at face value, I actually feel like Age of Sigmar was a beta test for their new 40k. 40k is their bread and butter, I think everyone can agree. So it would make sense that they’d take risks with smaller product lines before messing with their behemoth.
Age of Sigmar came out before 40k, Silver Tower came out before Blackstone Fortress, Shadespire came out before Kill Team Arena, etc. In each case, the 40k version is a refined version of the fantasy product.
Age of Sigmar and 8th Edition 40k are so near-identical in rules that I find it pretty compelling that they were willing to sacrifice the Old World to make sure they didn’t take a huge misstep with their big 40k launch. I think this even came across in their marketing for it, saying ‘We won’t destroy the world this time, don’t worry!’, and the like. I mean… Age of Sigmar didn’t even launch with points.
Because whatever people say, Age of Sigmar really doesn’t do anything that Fantasy didn’t. I mean, it’s a far more brain-dead rules system, so I guess you could argue it’s more beginner friendly. Though it uses the same amount of models, the same buy-in cost, the same miniatures, for the most part. Nothing was really stopping them from bringing Darkcave Troggbogs or Gringribbling GloopGobblers or what-not into Fantasy.
While I’ve heard the argument made that Age of Sigmar was necessary, it fulfilled none of its promises. It’s not more accessible, it’s not smaller model count, it’s not cheaper, etc. So while I’m willing to believe it’s doing as well as Fantasy was, I’m less convinced that it’s more successful, or that its launch was divorced from what was to come with 40k.
TL;DR… Age of Sigmar feels to me a bit like a monetized beta test for 40k these days
