A Token Gesture? (Age of Sigmar)

I always get in a muddle when pushing large armies round the tabletop who has what ability, how many wounds they've taken, whether they've activated or not or what buffs/debuffs they've recieved during that turn.
You may have seen in some of my battle photos (or if you watch Facebook Live) that I have started using tokens in my AoS games in order to keep track of information within the game. It's not something that I'm saying everyone should do and it should be a core rule within the game but it is just something which just provides a bit of clarity to your opponent what's what when they are assessing the board state.
Unlike other games out on the market, GW games - due to their large volume of models - tend to be a very 'closed' system some times with limited transparency between players which can lead to misjudgement in actions in the game, sometimes leading to a negative play experience for one or both players.

I recall a game I had against a player at WS10 a few years ago where their unit of rather flimsy warriors engaged in combat with a unit of seeminly standard marines, however because of buffs that had been given to that unit and the player forgetting what had happened in the previous turn, they met their doom as rabid power axe and power sword wielding deathcult assassins struck with deadly accuracy to tear them limb from limb. Now, no-ones fault in this situation but had I have had a marker of some description down - like in other games - then this may have helped that player's judgement as they went hurtling up the board and into some pretty aggresive women disguised-as-Chaos-Warriors-because-that-was-the-done-thing-in-those-days-instead-of-paying-£10-for-two-assassins...okay?! Anyway, I am by no means saying that other games systems are better or far superior to the GW games, that's for a player to decide, but I'm saying that they are often more transparent in their playability in order to give your opponent all information.

Now, you'll be reading this and you'll probably make the following points:
*A player should ask another player about that abilities/buffs which have been given to a unit.
*You should be talking to your partner at the table letting them know what your units have on them/any abilities they possess.
*You're wrong. It's my opponent's problem if he's too stupid to remember things.
*It's a very open-information setting anyway, they have access to information if they need it.
*Good/Regular players will know what things do therefore it should be no surprise if they make a decision and something unexpected happens.

And, of course, you would be right. However, this is my blog - therefore my opinion!


I've used these little things so far in my battles:

If you don't know - they're Warmachine Token Sets. They are used for many things - mainly in Warmachine, however they have blank tokens which are labelled 'Spells' and even had larger tokens (you can see there are 3 of them more or less in the centre of each picture) which are very handy to use to keep track of casulaties suffered during a combat/turn.
Example:

I even use it for VP:

So what? Wow, coloured tokens! What a way to sharpen up your game! What's the point?
Well, for me:
*No way of knocking over/accidently using them as dice.
*There is no limit to the number you can put on them (case and point above - my VPs going to 23).
*They are flexible so you can use them to mark terrain, wounds, casulties, spells, VPs and more.
*Hard wearing so they can be used over and over.

Now, like anything there are downsides:
*In close quarters, you can mix tokens up (easily fixed if you place them on bases, etc)
*Things can get wiped off
*You can forget to update information on them.

There are of course pros and cons for anything. However, the cons can be easily fixed!

Additionally there are these beauties:

These are base hugging blank tokens which serve the same effect as the other tokens but they slot right onto the base of a model, therefore making it blatantly clear what that model's ability/buff is.

I haven't actually used them yet but I will be using them for two things - General Trait and Artefact! Every game I've played so far I just completely forget about them and one day it will cost me!

Using these it provided a very transparent view of the game. I know in other games systems where things need to be tracked carefully they are a great help.
Maybe something to consider in tournaments or games to help with tracking?

Like I said, I think they're great! They're so easy for you and your opponent to use (and you can get them as you want them) and they work in so many ways: to help you remember, to share information with your opponent, to decipher terrain and to even keep track of who has activated in combat/movement/shooting phases.

Thanks for reading.
I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy