Age of Sigmar Spearhead Review - NOT for Veterans!

Age of Sigmar Spearhead review. Why on earth were people raving about how tactically deep this was??! They drank the coolaid. It's a GREAT beginner game, though!

#ageofsigmar #warhammer #aos

[gnaleinad]

Totally disagree. 😂
My friends and I had so much enjoyment and depth from Spearhead that we are playing it exclusively until the end of the year.

Just how many games and which armies have you played? 😂
I had 20 games in total after last night.

I have both of the Stormcast Spearhead, Sylvaneth, Skaven, Gloomspite, Ogor Mawtribes, Mega-Gagrant, Kruleboys, and Nighthaunt.
They were mainly from box sets of the previous 2 aos launch. Some needed a little top-up, but it's really perfect for those who collected those sets.

Just last weekend, I hosted a 8 person Spearhead tournament at my place. All I needed is just 3 foldable tables and my dining table.
We each had 3 games starting at 1 pm, and we were done in about 3 hours. And we had so much time to talk about it over dinner and beer.

Gone are the 2.5 to 3 hours per game tournament, after 3 games and you are shagged out. You just wanna go home and rest.

We are so hype and planning for another one at the end of the month, and most of us are getting another army to try. That's about the amount of time to build a new box of spearhead anyway.

My pal came over to play a round with me just last night, using my spare spearhead army since i have a few. We were done with game 1 in about 50 mins and played another round with other armies for another 45 mins. Nighthaunt vs Skaven, then Gloomspite vs Sylvaneth.

He came at about 7pm and left at about 9pm? It would have been impossible if it was a 2k game, and easily it would have ended at 10plus.
Spearhead is a God sent for working adults like us.

I have a booking for another game tonight. Someone is

Sure, a 2k game is deeper, but you haven't really played enough to make any judgement on this format.

Have you played against all of the factions?
The only factions I haven't played with/against are Ironjawz, Idoneth Deepkin, Kharadron Overlords and Flesh-eater Courts.

I'm planning to start Lumineth, Kharadron Overlords, Tzeentch and Seraphon.
My friends are starting Fyreslayers, Seraphon, Kruleboyz, Gloomspite Gitz, Sylvaneth.
Can't wait for IronJawz spearhead list.
I have a massive ironjawz army, so I'm already ready.. Unless they have some new ironjawz model...

So please go play more before saying that it's not for veterans. We are all in our late 40s and many of us have been playing since 4th Edition Fantasy Warhammer. One even made it to the ITC team and represented his country in 7th ed fantasy.
Even he said that it was surprisingly good 😂

[arbitrary_mike]

Spearhead serves a subset of players who don’t have the time or desire to spend 500$+ to build out an army or allocate tons of hours to list building. Those are very valid ways to enjoy the game, but there is a ton of appeal to me to spending that 500$ on four (discounted) spearheads and having the ability to pair up against my kids with several different options for an hour and a half on a weekend afternoon. It’s not tournament-level play, but it’s fun and there are meaningful enough decisions to be made.

[naitp]

I think there's probably a subset of AoS players who only play small games and "collect broad" (as they mention way down on page 46 of the free rules download on warcomm), and GW has figured out how to validate those players by making it a legitimate format in a fun way for AoS.

If so, then this contrasts nicely against Combat Patrol, which is a format where (as far as I can tell) new players are condescended to for six months while they never get around to building a full army, grow tired of spending money on it, and simply stop showing up. :)

[earnestwanderer]

Read the comments, so... I haven’t played Spearhead yet at all. That said, I’m an old fogey and have been playing tabletop for decades. I’m really interested in giving this a try, but here’s my gut feeling. If you’re just talking about playing one faction’s Spearhead box, especially against just one other faction, as with a friend also getting into the hobby. And, you’re limited to the boards, terrain and scenarios currently available. This game is going to have very limited replayability. Now, if you’re willing to try different factions, and are playing in a group setting where you face different factions, and GW continues to support the system with new board layouts, terrain pieces and scenarios... then I can see this as being a viable format.

[gurtana]

I played my first 2 spearheads games today and I would say while I agree that it's a beginner way to play, one thing you've mentioned but didn't go into much explanation is that once you get the order structure and basics of your army down, this is supposed to be a quick game. This is supposed to be (or at least marketed as) something that you could play in the space of 1.5 hours. and in my second game I found that was the case. We don't all have the time for an entire day, or long evenings for a 2000 point game. I don't think I heard anyone say it was deeply tactical, it's still a stripped down game, but the card play does make the game less predictable and is something that Combat Patrol lacked. Yes, you're in combat quicker in Spearhead but you don't have always stay there.

[matth]

That was interesting, thank you. A few of us are getting together at the weekend to play Spearhead, we are treating it as a way to learn the basics before moving to bigger games.

[hepticity]

I genuinely hope GW sees the success of Spearhead as a game, and fixes Combat Patrol.
I'm mostly a hobbyist, but started actually playing recently with KillTeam. The reason why KillTeam (and now Spearhead) appeals to me so much, is that I can approach each different faction with a different set of techniques (hobby-wise) which keeps me interested in painting and modelling.
Then, on the gameplay side, if different teams/factions play different, I get the same thing in terms of playstyle (and it makes collecting a library of teams for people to play with something that makes sense from a hosting games perspective)

The sheer amount of 'bogged down' feeling you get from committing to 1 2k point army. I tried this with CSM, and I almost made it to 2k, but now I *viscerally hate* painting CSM, and especially in my army paint scheme. I recently built and painted a Legionary KT in a completely different scheme, and it was super fun to be working with some of my favourite models in a totally fresh way.

Anyway, I know you're not a hobby guy, but I thought I'd share that smaller games (if balanced well) can really appeal to players and hobbyists like me, where you can try a bunch of different things, rather than be locked into a painting and playstyle you didn't even understand before you played the game.

[TheRonan]

The only pushing on it being a gateway into full AOS that I can see is that they have the spearhead boxes posted under "Getting Started" in the AOS side of their website. That's a lot of assuming required from the customer at best.

[RCNSPARTAN]

My buddy and I have jammed a lot of AoS after starting with Killteam on TTS. We did 2 games of spearhead before we got the rules of 4th, it seemed pretty fun. Will probably play more on tabletop while our armies are being built, but ultimately we'd work towards more AoS

[puracy]

Disagree on just being a beginner version.

There is so much little stuff you can do, to have interesting "high level" play. Deployment /screening to deal with the first turn charges, pile in shenaigans, knowing your opponents 12 card options and playing on that. Playing the objectives instead trying to just kill stuff. Especially not killing units that can reinforce back onto the board, retreating units (either for objective play or even just killing them yourself to get them as reinforcements back on a different board edge).

It does not replace full AoS, but it does stand on its own very well. Will it last the whole edition? That depends on if gw supports the format and brings out new maps/twists and so on. But i suspect they will

[gammafighter]

I agree to an extent. If someone plays less than once a month and they have more than one spearhead to play and more than one opponent to play against, i can't imagine it getting old. If you're playing every week, on the other hand, then yes, you should aim to get 2k points asap.
I saw this in TCGs too. I played a tcg that had new sets every 4 months. By the time i played my first draf, the guys at my lgs were already bored of drafting and had dozens of games of full constructed decks under their belt. The draft meta was already "solved" by them, but i had a blast every time i played because i was so much more casual about it.
With Stormcast and Skaven getting second spearheads and with GW making new combat patrols when factions get their codex, my guess is that every faction will get a second spearhead as well. If they release new boards with new twists and even new tactics as well, i can see a lot of replayability. Never for the hardcore gamers but certainly for us casuals.

[Darwingreen]

Spearhead gives me vibes of the oldschool battlebox warmachine games. Just pick up your starter box and you can get a fun casual game.

[Akilli]

Thank you for the honest thoughts Mr. Glass.

[kollegex]

I mean yes and no regarding the marketing. For many I know Combat Patrol (and in turn Spearhead) is not (in their mind) an entry to large scale 40k. They think of it as a smaller affordable alternative that delivers the same experience. They dont want 2000pt 40k. They want a smaller game, thats quicker and does not demand as much money from you.
Now. Thats probably not a realistic or sometimes honest view. But it is why they buy it.

[kausalkraken]

I feel like in one year we will get an expansion / advance rule with a magic system and a bigger board (48 x 36) for spearhead.

[kristoff]

A gateway game! I have been wanting to get into sigmar…. Now I can because of spearhead… and then within a year I’ll be full on into proper sigmar

[jonmattison]

As a casual player, perhaps I don't get out enough, but Combat Patrol is the go-to game with my friends and I. I'm pretty invested in 40k and pretty much have zero desire for anything Age of Sigmar. However, over the years I have ended up with several old 'start collecting' for AoS and have recently enjoyed building them for Spearhead. Again, I have zero desire to invest in full Sigmar but enjoying Spearhead. On the topic of replay-ability, let me direct your attention to an older game called Chess: 1 board, 1 deployment, 1 faction, always a mirror match, no enhancements, no command points, no stratagems, no battle tactics...

[coreywhalen]

Hoping that everything good from Spearhead will end up in Combat Patrol for 11th 40k

[tiredguy]

I wonder if there wil be a combat patrol 2.0, taking lessons learned from spearhead.

[markcherry]

I agree looks like it's shoot, charge and fight. Removes scenery so no tactical moving as theirs nothing to move round. Learn to fight.