I think the biggest thing for me was that AoS just wasnt what I wanted.

It was too close to 40k, and I played that. It was another skirmish game, and I didnt need or want that.

I like masses of square troops. Its the game that got me into the hobby. KoW was too slimmed down for me…i like the granularity of 9th age.

I really dont think its whfb by fans – not anymore at least. I think its growing into its own game, and I like that its made by a community. Its growth and development is participatory – its made by a community in the truest sense – or at least thats how its felt to me.

I havent really found there to be a lot of aos bashing – maybe back in 2015 when shouting “for the lady” was still a thing – but most t9a players ive interacted with are really laid back.

 Well, in fairness WHFB died for a reason. I think the days of individual models in huge blocks of infantry taking ages to set up for a game and longer to paint, not to mention costing more with the sheer number of minis compared to skirmish games from warband to platoon level and up put the last coffin in games like this.

I really dont think thats true at all. I know competktive aos/40k can outnumber t9a. I know 40k/aos sometimes now use movement trays. Not to mention historicals that have just as many or more repititive core infantry *stares over to giant pile of romans*

I think GW just broke the physical scale of their style of game. Whfb and 28mm fantasy doesnt handle things like mini titan knights, and big giant foot high monsters…it broke the scale lf the game. (I would argue the same for 40k, but thats another topic altogether).

I am firmly against hobby elitism, and the idea of wrongfun – there is no *wrong* miniwargame.

Since t9a has a group of over 100 volunteers making it happen, do you think its on a different level of ‘fan made’? Because i think there is something radically different and disruptive with what theyre doing. Its not 1 guy writing fan books…but literal hundreds of people building together…thats what pulled me in.

Im curious as to why one form of game is seen as legitimate and another just ‘fan made’

Thanks for the responses!

One of the things I like about 9th is that the model count is back to a more sensible number. I find the physical size of the game as being closer to whfb 6th.

I dont think anyone from t9a expects the game to be as big or popular than whfb was… But from what I can tell its as popular as say Antares, or even Kings of War depending on geography.

Thanks for responding guys. Good food for thought!

Point taken – but i also completely disagree.

a game lives and died by it being supported by a company that created. It gives an official stance, structure and final say one way or another.

There are many games that are played (especially in the historical world) that have little to no company backing.

Aside from profit, what is the difference between “too fat lardies” line of games and T9A? Both make only rules, both rely on others for miniatures. Too fat lardies make profit, T9A puts it up for free – both strive to make a “good” game liked by their audience.

without a business or company supporting it then it is destined to not be propped up strongly enough to instill confidence in gamers, shops and distributors for it to take off.

Well, being supported by a company wasnt enough to keep whfb, epic 40k, older LOTR games, gothic, warmaster, etc.. Alive. If anything, being supported by a company was *the* reason those games died – the profit motive killed them. None of it had anything to do with how good or fun or popular a game it was…it was about turning a profit.

Something maintained by a pool of passionate people who’s only concern is the end product (with profit motive removed) instills far more confidence in me than slmething that could disappear tomorrow if it fails to appease shareholders or profit motives.

Again, GW, warlord, wotc, and others have all gleefully axed things in the past – “company backed legitimacy” is just a marketing tool meamt to encourage you to buy a product instead of finding an alternate – none of it actually impacts the quality of the product.

Fwiw – i have no issues with the profit motive. But i just find that for our hobby, a profitable game is not always “good” and a good game is not always profitable.

This is probably due to my experience in historicals where the break between rules and minis is commonplace – and free online rules/mods are widely accepted as valid products.

Thats said, has anyone thats posted played t9a recently (last year?) Or seen the latest works released?

IMO – 9th has a great community and excellent balance, which has driven away WAAC players, and been great as a fluff player/modeller. There is no netlisting in t9a, in that there is no 1 dominating build.

I like the community because there is a solid feedback between producers and consumers, and the door is open to participating.

No official models has been liberating, as I can make a cool army of romans, use the perry minis for knights, mantic for undead, mierce for beasts, etc… Its all about rules of cool for me. The balance also rewards fluff builds since the game works really hard to focus on olayer skill over powerlists. Some lists have more synergy requirements than others, but smart maneuvre and hot dice still impact the game more than bringing the latest big bad.

And its free. So theres that, even though i still bought rules from amazon because i retain reading rules from books better, but fully free rules is nice)

I suggest downloading the rules and playing a few games. It plays similar to whfb, but imo its evolving nicely into something new, yet familiar in style.

@limburgat9a

T9A has been going for 4 years this august. Every so often someone tells our community our game is dead, or that its failed, or that its wrongfun. And we’ve mostly learned to politely smile and nod.

I have to say that for the most part i have not run into any negativity about AoS. Of anything I get hounded in GW forums/boards for being a T9A player. Most T9A people just didnt want to play AoS – like I said in the first post really.

Put frankly, i came here to find out why people play the game or dont. Not to slag one system over the other, but to see what others outside my bubble thought.

Most of your post just feels like its here to bash the game, and not contribute constructively to the conversation – mostly because i dont think you’ve read the rules, the fluff, etc..

I mean, you want a non-profit volunteer project to buy game rights to established IP and then rewrite everything from the ground up to match that IP…

t9a doesnt want to be the next big thing. It just wants to be a fun thing. A fun game for people who want to play and help build it. There is no financial incentive here. No costs to recoup, no money to be made.

Anyway, as I asled before, has anyone tried it within the last year? If so what were your thoughts?

Let me clarify – in the last 2 years which ive been active in the t9a community – ive not seen much negativity.

In 2015? Well i think people were jarred by the game change more than anything regarding plot or story. Kings of War’s rise in popularity was borne of a similar sentiment, yet no one gives mantic a hard time the same as t9a gets – even though mantic trolled hard with their golden “fisty glue man”!

Like I said, its been 3.5 years and things are different. Aos is different, and the t9a community is different, and I feel the dust has mostly settled.

Im also the first to tell anyone mocking someone elses game of toy soldiers to stop being silly.

@woldenspoons – maybe one of the community members will run a demo game at a store or convention near you in the future! If you get a chance, give it a try, i like it more than whfb by a large margin.