Age of Sigmar: The Open Play Battleplan Generator Is Great For All Types Of Play
Why is no one talking about how great the Open Play Battleplan Generator is? Looks like we need to kick this off then!
There is a new edition of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar on the horizon and it’s looking solid. It still supports Matched, Narrative, and Open Play and while I know a lot of the competitive scene my roll their eyes at the idea of Open Play, they might want to pump the breaks and take a look. Why? Because the Open Play Battleplan Generator looks like a great tool for adding some spice to your typical game.
Open Play – The Basics
Open Play is designed for folks with a big collection in mind. It’s pretty free-form with the List building and if you liked the current way to build lists (ie, you want to use your current Warscrolls) this mode still allows that. One big change to Open Play is that the games do have Points limits now. So there is that balancing factor – it’s not quite as “Open” as previous editions. Then again, if you want to play an asymmetrical battle with different points values per army you can still do that – the GW Tabletop Police aren’t going to knock on your door for playing how you want…but that’s a whole other rant.
Aside from the Points Limit and free-form army construction (as in you can take what ever units you want as long as you stay within the points limit) you also get to use both Warscroll and Core Battalions. Again, this all sounds similar to matched play to me – just with less restrictions. I mean, you could play a combined Order and Chaos force vs your opponent’s Death and Destruction army…but you’ll probably lose a ton of synergies and it might not work the way you want. But it would be kind of epic.
The Battleplan Generator
Here’s where Open Play starts to shine. The Battleplan Generator is a way to randomly determine your Setup, your Victory Conditions, and any other special rules. Now, if you’re looking for more of a “Matched Play” experience but with the Open Play Battleplan Generator, just ignore the Twist and Ruse steps. Everything else would still work. In fact, if you wanted to build an army using the Matched Play rules and then use the Open Play Battleplan Generator to create your battle, you could do just that. Tournament Organizers – take note!
The Maps
The Maps are on a D6 chart. You’ll roll to see which setup you’ll be using. And yes – they are weird. But that’s the point. If you don’t like a particular map option, then just make that a “roll again” (looking at you Deployment #6). Sidenote: It’s also funny that GW put the compass on each map – do we have to play based on that orientation? What if my game table is setup Northeast-to-Southwest?! (hint: don’t worry about it and stop being so pedantic.)
Anyhow, these deployments are pretty straight forward. And in the Deployment section, you do have to deploy at least 6″ away from your enemy’s territory. So that’s been covered, too.
The Victory Conditions
The Victory Conditions also include 6 other ways to come up with objectives for your games. They are different from the other Battleplans and provide some variety to your games. Again, you can use these in pretty much any game mode and it might be a nice change of pace for folks. One callout is Arcane Prize which has another chart to reference. If you don’t want to do that, just make #5 a “roll again” option and problem solved.
Also note, maybe of these missions don’t have a VP count – it’s pretty binary for who wins/loses. If you don’t want to bother with VP tracking, these missions are great for that. Again, if you’re a Tournament Organizer and you want to have some additional or alternate win conditions, check these out.
I know that Open Play can get a bad rap from the Competitive crowd but in the new edition it IS worth a look. If you’re looking to get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself as a general, then give the random battleplan generator a go!
Play what you want – it IS a game after all.
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