With two young kids and most of my friends having young kids as well, we all look forward to Spearhead being a good quick and fun game to play for an hour or two, and not needing to book 4 to 5 hour sessions for 2000p AoS matches. I remember playing AoS 2 with 1000p and the open play deck of cards and just having a blast of a time, and i also really liked Meeting Engagements from a past GhB (2020? Perhaps ). So I’m down for these alternative play modes. And even if they don’t support it for a long time, the hardback book and the rules being set makes it playable forever if we want!
Based on the online buzz i hope this game does stick around for the long time. Ive been dying for a smaller game where as you said, don’t have that 4-5 hour session.
@@AoSCoach Until now I only played WHFB years ago and then started again with 40k at the end of 9th edition. So my question is: What's the difference of playing Spearhead to playing, let's say, a 750p game? I just wonder if not having the option to change models limits the mid- to longterm motivation to play Spearhead. Thanks for your content btw
@@Orkimedes-sc8ef in spearhead you don't need to worry about list building. This is a double edged sword: on the one hand you don't spend time theory crafting and you don't have to worry about balancing - the game designers have already done it for you. On the other hand you don't get to customise your units / army, so if you get bored of the same play style your only option is grabbing another spearhead box. The other big difference is that spearhead does not include any of the advanced rules, like magic, prayers, etc... All rules and gimmicks are on the units' stat cards. In turn the stat cards are unique to Spearhead only and the same units will have a more detailed statcard for use in AoS. The third difference is your objectives and command abilities; again, these are streamlined to a deck of 12 cards that are the same for everyone. In AoS you will probably have a much wider variety, and it will likely get more frequent additions too.
Subfactions being toned down is definitely a positive. We all know there were subfactions that almost entirely defined a faction. They should be the spice, not the whole soup.
Thank you for the info! This will be my first time getting into AoS. This new edition sounds like just what I have been looking for. Spearhead will be great since I don’t know which faction I will expand into a full army.
Spearhead can be a great way to see if a faction is for you as the statlines have a lot in common with the full game. Hopefully it doesn’t kick start too many new armies in my collection 🤣
That's so awesome they let you play 4e and Spearhead! And I'm so glad to hear you talk about how much fun you had. Right now, my biggest concern is the double turn changes. The way I talked about it in Power Hour was that currently, there's two reasons to take the double turn: to catch up, or to put the game to bed. The second reason is the one most non-AoSers and casual AoSers complain about. And now, without the ability to score battle tactics if you take the double, I worry that will drastically reduce the amount of times people will take it to catch up, and will more commonly take it to put the game to bed. Increasing the issue instead of helping it (which I personally don't think there's an issue with it currently). But, great rundown! I can't wait to hear more! And I love the hat!
If someone is so far ahead they can put the game to bed by taking a double turn it is likely that game is over no matter what. The fact has been Round 3 often was "whoever wins roll off wins the game" where now it might not be possible for that to happen. If a player elects to take a double turn now it is also a hinderance. What I'm unaware of (maybe Coach explained it), is what happens if the player with priority won the roll off and elects to give their opponent a double turn? Does that person lose tactic ability?
From my experience people will still take the double turn to catch up and using it to put in a killing blow. They wont score max points but it can swing the tides of battle
Really excited to hear about Spearhead in particular. I already managed to get a couple friends into the game with the premise of "you only need to buy this one box por 90-100 €, and everything is pre planned for you, no need to meta-chase, and simple rules for shorter format games. I reeeaally hope it lives up to the spectation, and serves as a great strating point for the hobby Thanks for the video!!
My opponent did play Khorne including some mortals so battleshock removal played out. I liked it being gone. I found myself stuck into combat with 1-2 idiots using something like Power Through became vital to not get pinned if i couldn’t wipe the unit.
Great video, nice to get a few thoughts on the things to come. I am a very slow painter, but I do have enough models to make up a number of Spearhead forces. My only fully painted army right now is Beasts of Chaos, so I guess I better get painting the contents of a box that will be in the Spearhead book.
When talking about subfactions, I think the over simplicity and popularity of mixed forces is kind of a symptom of indexhammer. In 10e 40k, things feel a bit one note for factions that haven't gotten codexes yet, but (most of) those who did have lots of variety in the types of forces you can field. My prediction is that 4e battletomes will come with a few armies of renown in them, pushing towards very specific playstyles.
After being a bit disappointed by Combat Patrol, I was really hoping Spearhead would be better, and seeing all these independent reviews saying it's fun is really getting me excited! Being able to play on my dining table, the possibility of owning lots of small armies so I'm not locked into a single colour scheme and aesthetic forever, being able to lend somebody who doesn't play much one of my armies to play... that's all exciting!
Maybe I shouldn’t have compared it to Combat Patrol because i haven’t played it, just made some assumptions 🤣. Hopefully it can learn from Spearhead because its a great game
Thanks for sharing your insights. Based on what you saw of 4th ed. would you say the game has become less lethal? I never got into AoS because of its lethality. To me it seemed that most games were concluded by turn 2-3 (or even first with heavy alpha strikes). And that sucks if you have a game of 5 rounds.. How was your game?
General observation is that the games has become as lethal but in different ways. It's harder to save stacks, there is potentially more rend with all the Anti-X but perhaps the mortal damage has been toned down? That's a gut feel rather than solid evidence based research. I've found the games often go longer than that notorious T2-3 swing that can cripple an army. Not saying it won't happen but perhaps it will happen a lot less.
Can you please make one super short summary video explaining the differences between 3rd and 4th. I would love to watch one video that just cut and dry explains it without waffle.
@@AoSCoach just make it and put it out on the release date so people like me can catch up super quick. I reckon it will be one of those videos with awesome longevity as every returning player will want to watch it. All the changes in 15 minutes max 👌
I don’t think they were at the demo day I attended so it’s hard to say anything. Hopefully Warhammer Community share something soon with a faction focus
I am 99% confident Spearhead will have some sort of "seasons". The big launch box comes with a book featuring two realms and their respective cards - to me this is a more than obvious hint at future books featuring other realms (and new cards). And you can bet good money on additional Spearheads in White Dwarf, just as with Combat Patrol for 40K already.
Expansions via White Dwarf wouldn’t surprise me. Adding cards to your Twist Deck, alternative builds with the Spearhead box like i mentioned using Boingrotz, and other things.
Love the Spearhead format, I think this will allow me to bring in my boardgame friends into the WH world without overwhelming them. Any chance you can share more details on Yndrasta or Annihilator rules? We've seen the other spearhead box fully revealed (outside Questor) but not much from Yndrasta other than she does great damage.
Honestly i don’t remember too many rules for them other than within Spearhead they are both a strong offensive and defensive weapon. Since they both comes down at the half way point they i assume will swing the battle with a bunch of late victory points or do serious damage.
Ay boss, I think there's some weirdness going on with the timestamps. Its just spearhead for the entire video even though you marked 4th in the description. IDK why.
Overall, 4th edition sounds really good. The two areas where I am most concerned are battle tactics and army construction. At least they cut the terrible army-specific battle tactics, but the system is overall still very similar to the one from last edition.
There is a lot in common but also a lot of differences... could be good, could be bad. Depends on your army and what is important to you. I personally haven't found it too restrictive in my armies but it's still very early days
I think after this is all settled in, there is a chance the game reduces by about 30 min in a 2k battle. It may end up the same as it allows more thinking time rather than rushing
For sure get rid of the battletome ones. I hope they come up with a better battle tactic system for matched play on future releases. The spearhead one looks fun to try out
This was my exact issue with the underdog mechanic. People purposefully going behind to get benefits seems very counterintuitive to me and not in great sportsmanship spirit. Anyone agree or disagree?
It’s risk vs reward and its already happening right now in 3e. The game we saw in the masterclass had the Underdog get a +something on the charge, but if you lose the priority roll and your opponent charges you, benefit is wasted and you were better off capping max VP last turn.
@@AoSCoach yeah I suppose there is always nuances. I will reserve judgment as always until I’ve actually experienced it play out. I’m just a bit apprehensive about it
I would like to see more information compared to what they've released. I'm not a fan of the cookie cutter base template for models at all. It doesn't differ between melee/shooting at all. Which are key components to the game. Your video is good as always though.
Hopefully you'll start to see that coming from the Faction Focus' like the Stormcast one that was released today. Get into the weeds of the individual factions
@@AoSCoach I caught another video and the removal of morale is a big turn off for me. That's a part of war...and this is a war game. Sadly I'll be passing on AoS in this edition.
I have no actual experience with Combat Patrol but i’m told its a smaller sized game of 40k. I guess its not like Combat Patrol if its not fun, because Spearhead definitely is and i even bought another Spearhead army yesterday 🤣
Can you play spearhead with models not from the starters? I have a large 2ed Stormast collection, and l don't really want to buy 3ed or 4th ed models. Also how do you play it without the boards or the cards?
The army are fixed (varanguard boxes) but just use other models (with the same base) to represent the one in the box. Make a card board yourself or buy a plastic matt and plastic objectives.
The cards are critical components of Spearhead. Without it, you’re just playing a small game of Age of Sigmar. If your friends are happy to proxy your models like Evocators = Annihilators, that would work.
I didn’t see a Beasts of Chaos spearhead, however; with them being phased out, i’d be surprised if they were included. Might need to proxy those models as another army
Absolutely. Watched every episode almost immediately as it hit Disney+. Cracking first season… now to see if Season 2 includes Onslaught and what happens with the Past & Future.
Might want to take down this video. Hopefully it isn't the case and that as an upstanding creator you were given special permissions regarding what you can and can't talk about, but to what other people that attended your event they have been clear about certain topics that are still off limits that you may have touched on
Thanks for your concern. My video is within it’s guidelines and i purposely held off until the 4e Masterclass & Celebrity Spearhead battles showed the games in full.
That was a great video! Happy to see ya'll are excited for Spearhead as much as we are. If you and your community are interested we are running a SPEARHEAD demo game this Friday (5/24/) at 8pm CST on our twitch channel. We'd love if ya'll stopped by. twitch.tv/daweirdcast
