What kind of player are you?

By Jacob Dungey

I’ve talked with a lot of people about playing Age of Sigmar. A lot of the time the conversation moves towards getting into the game and my question to the person is, “what kind of player are you?” 

What I mean by this is, are you a competitive gamer? A narrative one? Do you want to play what you want to play, regardless of if it’s “competitive” at the moment? I am a firm believer of know what kind of player you are and what kind of game you prefer, and you’re bound to enjoy yourself. I can count on one hand the number of games where I’ve walked away at the end and firmly had a bad experience and I’ve been playing Age of Sigmar since 2.0. 

I like to play on the more competitive side of things. I’m not a meta chaser, but if I’m going to play an army, I’m going to try and do the best I can as often as I can. If you play this game long enough, you’ll see all armies have their time in the sun as well as their time on the bottom of the barrel, competitively speaking.

Regardless of what kind of player you are, I would also encourage you to attend as many events as you can. This is for a number of reasons. First, the Age of Sigmar community is a fantastic one. The overwhelming majority of players are good people. Even top-tier players are great to play against. Most won’t be “that guy” and are amazing to play against, even as they are beating you on the table. They tend to be generous with their knowledge of the game, so ask them questions after the game is over. Ask them what they think you could have done differently and potentially some decisions you could have made differently throughout the game. 

Second, the majority of players are there to have a good time and don’t expect to go 5-0 at a large tournament. What that means is, if you’re not there to go 5-0, you’ll most likely get 4 out of 5 opponents that are there to roll dice and play with their favorite toy soldiers. Yes, you may get paired round 1 with that person that is trying to go 5-0, and that may be a less enjoyable game overall, but from round 2 on, you’ll most likely be playing people that are a similar type of player as you. 

Third, you tend to get exposure playing against armies you wouldn’t normally get to play against otherwise. Most people have a group of players they play with on a consistent basis and, within that group, there isn’t access to every single army in the game. As a result, you tend to get a lot of experience against, say Stormcast Eternals, but little to no games in against Nighthaunt. Going to events gives you the experience against armies outside your typical group of opponents. 

Finally, and, in my opinion, most importantly, you get to meet other members of the community. As I said initially, the Age of Sigmar community is a pretty fantastic collection of people. Getting out to events in your area will allow you to get to know more people in your area. Not only as gamers, but on an individual level. Seeing them and getting an update on what’s going on in their lives, as well as bringing them up to speed on yours, is a great way to build lasting relationships. No, you may not become best friends or have BBQs in each other’s back yards, but with some, you might. Having a common interest in gaming is a foundation to spark up conversation, learn more about people and make friendships. It helps build the community in positive ways and makes the community more welcoming and inviting to those that it otherwise would not. 

So, if you’re thinking about picking up Age of Sigmar and getting into the hobby, I would encourage you to. Look on the Games Workshop website for an army you like the look of and try to answer the question of “what type of gamer are you?” and I think you’ll truly enjoy this game, this hobby and, most importantly, this community.