Looking to Start, help?

[SpawnovChaos]

hey everyone, I've been perusing dark ages for a long long while now. In that time i've invested, unfortunatly in GW, but for a positie investment, warmachine! I've gotten dissapointment after dissapointment with gw, and im looking for a fresh change.

enough about that though, i beleive i really want to start darg ages, it looks exeptionally awsome, these minis are in my top two favorite minis being produced ( the other sharing the slot being warmachine)

i do have a few questions that I'm sure you guys get alot on here, but if you could help me that would be great

1. how large are general games, are we looking at warmachine skirmish like or wfb epic conquests with thousands of miniatures?

2. how well do the rules flow, obviously i should pick up the quick start and rule book, but my internet is being slow :D

3. sort of connecting with question 1., how much money am i going to be investing initially to get a decent force of say, all 4 factions ( not that im buying all 4, but give me some examples please)

4. my real problem that is stopping me right now, is that i live in san jose california, and really ive never seen a single person play this game, should i equip myself with 2 demo armies and some mind control devices and get to work?

5. what two forces make good demoa rmies?


thanks guys for your time, any additional tips and info would be great as well!

-Shane

[DA_Magpie]

Plenty of people will give you

[Freakbrain]

Hello and welcome to Dark Age

here're my thoughts about your questions:

1. general games are played with around 500 - 750 pts per side. These are about 10-20 miniatures with the Dragyri being the only exception which have to field 3 slaves per Trueborn

2. The rules seem to be simple at first. You really get fast into it, but the more you dig into the rules you find out how tacical they are. But in the end they're fast and brutal :)

3. starting forces should be around 30$ each. We'll release Warband boxes which will contain a good selection of the specific force arming you with a playable army.

4. Well...I did it this way, and my group is growing :)

5. The rulebook contains St. Mark and Dragyri Ice Caste. These are currently our only official fully tested forces. We have 'Exodus' in the pipeline which will contain Skarrd and St. Mary.
Experience has shown, that a human race against a monstrous race impresses most, so I would point you to St. Mark vs. Ice Caste.
If you really plan to convert peole you should get eyecatchers like the Ice Elemental or Death Device. Some time ago, when I was a Demoteammember I got surrounded by people when I unleashed the Ice Elemental...ahh...good old times ;)

Hope I was able to answer at least some of your questions.

[Malignant Lettuce]

You were looking for comparisons with Warmachine. I play both and find they have similarities but are different enough for me to want to play both. Obviously the rules are different, unit activation and the mechanics of what models can do in a turn, etc. That is down to personal taste, really. From a more practical point of view:

I find Dark Age is not as expensive. In Warmachine you can play with small armies, however there is so much available that it's easy to end up buying loads of stuff (at least I do). Also in Dark Age you have smaller unit sizes, so you don't need 6 or 10 of eveything.

On the downside for Dark Age it's harder to find opponents, but as people have said, if you get two small armies and show people the game you should quickly find yourself with a small DA group, especially if you already know some gamers.

Warmachine releases tons of miniatures, Dark Age releases are slower. Not all the army lists for DA are totally balanced yet. To me DA is more of an easygoing, fun game, which will get better and better as it develops further. Warmachine feels more serious.

So yeah, I enjoy both.

[SpawnovChaos]

thanks for all the help guys,
im really into all the factions, but ill pick and choose once i see if i can get a couple of my friends into it.

thanks again, so there are only play tested rules for two factions? this confounds me a bit, my cpu still wont downlaod the quickstar rules, but will these cover all of the 4 groups, or only the selected 2 in the new rulebook?

[Thalandor]

Quick start rules are only rules to physically play the game. Then you need force lists to be able to pick your troops. The book Genesis has forcelists for 2 factions (St-Mark, Dragyri Ice caste), which are official lists, while the website has quick start forces list covering the 4 other factions (St-Mary, St-John, Scarrd and Brood). However these lists are not finalized and still under play testing.

[Thalandor]

Opps, I forgot quickstart force list for Dragyri Air caste...

[Shinobi]

My turn :roll:

1. Most DA games are between 500-750 pts as Freakbrain mentioned. For demos, we normally run 350-400 pts to allow faster games.

2. I actually prefer the rules to most, especially when compared with Warmachine. I stopped Warmachine a while back after getting fed up with losing the initiative in the first round and then watching as he activates his entire force, using a whole load of combos and seeing my army reduced by half before I'd even started......... Dark Age is a fast system, with players alternating activation of squads/individuals, so there is less 'down'-time for each player as they don't have to wait for their opponent to use all their army first.

3. I would say that you're looking at around $25-30 each for a very basic human force (Forsaken/Skarrd), and around $35-45 each for the basic 'monstrous' forces to get basic armies...... so around $120-150 for 4 basic armies.

4. Hahahahaha, we had the same problem all the way over here in the Tropics...... limited games shops over here, and no DA at the time, so I took the plunge and started a Demo team. We've had good response, and now one of the LGS is in the process of bringing the stuff in :D , plus we had a great time showing off the game at GAMECON-1, even outdoing the Rackham booth next door :twisted:

5. I would recommend Forsaken St Mark and Dragyri Ice Caste at the moment since they are the only fully ready army lists out there. The QS lists are good for friendly play but not quite suitable for demoing just yet since there are a few unbalanced units that may affect participant's enjoyment.......... saying that, you could go for a generic Forsaken army, as mentioned before, just using non-St Mark only units........ another good idea would be to use a Dragyri Air Caste army, since those Dragyri Babes are some of DA best-selling minis, and again, you could designt he force around generic Dragyri rather than Air-Caste only.

St Mary and Skarrd lists will be coming very soon in Exodus, and I have a pretty solid feeling that these two armies are going to prove VERY popular :roll:

[SpawnovChaos]

wow, thanks guys, thanks for all the awsome responses.

i dont quite know if this is illegal or not :? but can someone post a good list of what a dragyri ice cast and st mark army would look like for demos? I gotta sell of a few more space marine squads to get the cash, but i bet ill be able to get enough and then some

[Shinobi]

Nothing illegal about comparing force compositions....... copying segments from the book, scanning piccys.... hmmm yup, thats not good :D

Have a look at this other thread, where I went through some demo preparation games before the big Convention we had in December, we had a couple of variant demo forces going to see which were the best to use:

http://www.dark-age.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=255

[SpawnovChaos]

thanks : D now i just need to get my lgs to order some and i need to brainwash my friends : D

[Pr0fane]

Spawn...remember this; we're not pushing this on you or your friends. Take the rules and proxy a bunch of figs to get the play down then decide if you're going to jump in with both feet.

We're that confident. :wink:

[Shinobi]

Good advice, and if you're still having probs downloading the QS pdfs, PM me your e-mail address and I'll try sending them to ya that way :wink:

[punkrabbitt]

Brainwashing friends? I always try threatening them first... "Play Dark Age or I'll bring my kids with me next time!"

Seriously, try Pr0's suggestion and proxy with whatever else you play with. My first few games were played with an unholy combination of Vor and 40K figs, and by the time I actually acquired some DA models, I was hooked. In fact, I was so hooked that I became a forum nuisance, and eventually they bribed me with a Developer position if only I would quit begging for new stuff to come out. Apparently they thought it was demeaning to me, and they couldn't stand to see their biggest fan grovelling that way.

[SpawnovChaos]

thanks DA_Profane for the sound advice, dont worry i wasn't planning too. I have a few friends looking for another game being gw is raising their prices again and they are calling it quits, leaving them gameless. So far they adore the dragyri models, so im looking to start setting something up. I finally got it to downlaod, my cpu is eing crazy....anyhoo, this coming weekend ill sit down and do a test game with a few friends, ill tell you guys how it goes!

Thanks shinobi, see above, but thanks for the offer :D

[Shinobi]

No probs, glad you've got them. Of course, the full rulebook is waaaaaay better and provides a better game, but the QS stuff will give you a great idea as to how things work.

Also, our forum buddy Scrollmaster did a nice Flash Battle report with the old rules, which should still provide a great feeling as to how the game runs (even though many things have changed in the game since :roll: )

Scrollmasters Flashy Stuff (http://www.scrollmaster.net/darkage/030830battlereport.php)

[SpawnovChaos]

i must say, ive been watching dark ages grow since way back when, i saw alot of these new magical characters (saint mary and mean jellybean) rise from ideas to models, and im utterly blown away. From what ive read over in my quick start rules, i think im in for a real treat. once my collection of space marines sells, im taking the plunge :D


id really like to thank everyone for all these responses, you guys are seriously helpful and make a new guy feel right at home :D

[Stunke]

id really like to thank everyone for all these responses, you guys are seriously helpful and make a new guy feel right at home

I have to agree with you there, nicest forum I've stumbled across yet!

[Vaxillus]

Hey SpawnovChaos. Im a newb too, but like you I've been keeping an eye on the game pretty much since a few of the first models appeared on New Wave Games (I don't shop there, but they have a lot of diversity in their stock).

Anyway, right now I'm in Long Beach, right next to LA, but after I get out of college for the summer or even spring break, I'll be heading back to the Bay Area. I live in a town near mountain view, so I'll send you a PM when I'm in the area.

I have to say, I have problems finding stores that carry Dark Age, and thus, people who play it. Game stores are on the decline while online stores are thriving. GW is also loosing a lot of popularity, while other lines are rising. It's hard to keep everything in stock right now, which makes some of the less heard about games hard to find. Dark Age seems to be gaining popularity though, and having a concrete rulebook should definately help. Anyway, Hopefully some day we'll see stores well stocked with Dark-Age, among the other aspiring games, and without their current gross excess of GW stuff. End rant.

[SpawnovChaos]

kickass, thanks vaxillus, i look forward ot hearing from you

[DA_Magpie]

id really like to thank everyone for all these responses, you guys are seriously helpful and make a new guy feel right at home

I have to agree with you there, nicest forum I've stumbled across yet!

Allow me to add my voice to this round of forum praising. This place is very friendly. :D

[SpawnovChaos]

hey guys, got another question(sorry if i asked this earlier, im doing this in a hurry)

is the standard game size 300 points, or 500 points?

if its 300, wow, i can easily afford this game, thanks DA for being so bloody awsome looking( favorite looking minis out there) and affordable :D

[Shinobi]

'Standard' game size is 500 or 750 pts.

However, you can play any size you want, though less than 350 pts may not be worth it.

We normally use 350 pts for demo sessions, allowing 3-4 Squads and Individuals per side, and lasting about 1 hr.

500 - 750 pts would be suitable for a good 2+ hr session involving a decent sized force.

1000 pts + involve large armies and are best suited for when you wanna take the Saints or Arbiters.


Basically with 350 pts you can have a great game, with 500 pts you get more variety and tactics, with 1000 pts you get the big-guns without causing problems by losing too much of a percentage of your total points on a single figure.

[punkrabbitt]

On being a newbie... I feel like that too sometimes. After all the blood, sweat, and tears that it took to make Genesis happen, it's like a whole different game than the one I remeber working on, because so many things were tweaked and changed along the way. I was strongarmed into doing a demo a few weeks ago, and through the whole thing, I was "Hey, Larry, does such-and-such a rule work this way or that way these days" so learning the game the "right" way is an adventure unto itself.

Oh, and 750point game tonight, Skarrd vs. Forsaken in "Artifact Hunt," an oldie but goodie (thanks, Jeff!)