I mentioned earlier that my initial impression of the Matched Play rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar is that they improve upon a number of issues I find with current 40k (7th ed) gameplay.
While these are completely different games I was pleased to see that magic spells, psychic abilities, summoning, etc. were dealt with in such a way as to avoid the pitfalls of these same aspects in 40k. AoS presents a nice risk / reward scenario with Magic as the spells can be a huge boost to your army on a critical turn, but it's never a guarantee that you'll get it when you need it... see the first Rule of One:
Another aspect of 40k that isn't always fun is how only a handful of armies have access to free stuff via formations, free transport vehicles, weapon upgrades, free units from Summoning, etc. In AoS, formations are referred to as "Warscroll Battalions" and all have a points cost associated if one chooses to field a Battalion and make use of their special rules/abilities. Sigmar deals with Summoning by utilizing a pool that players allocate points (Reinforcement Points) to if they intend to summon units during the game.
Both of these are good concepts for the game and something I hope 40k adopts in future editions as it helps to keep both sides more evenly matched -- no 1850 versus 2250+ point matchups. There's also some unit restrictions based on the size of the match that helps to keep army composition in check (tired of facing an all Knight or super heavy list even at lower point levels?):
These are just a few aspects of AoS that stood out to me as steps in the right direction to improve the balance of Matched Play / tournament games without favoring any particular faction or army list.
If you're interested in exploring this topic further, head over to Frontline Gaming and check out their Age of Sigmar podcast: The Ninth Realm #21 Interview with a 40k Convert.
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