Age of Strife

Was going to be a short report on the game I had against Ogregut (Jamie) last night (but seems that I can write and essay - wish english homework was this interesting at school), highlighting the major events and changes with 8th Edition.

Firstly - setting up the table, it calls for 4+d6 pieces of scenery, we rolled up 8, the ones that caused the most effect was a 'Raging Torrent River', 'Altar of Khaine' and a 'Wall' (the Wall does not sound very interesting but in this game it was setup along a road in the middle of the table - Jamie found that all his shooting over it was at -2 to hit with the new rules which meant that my poor little Nightrunners were hardly hit).

The first big thing that happened was that in my 1st turn I failed all my Plague Monk Frenzy Leadership tests as a unit of Dark Riders and Shades where at maximum charge distance, so off the Plague Furnace and Censer beares plod a failed 5", whereas Skrolk and his unit charge 16" and hit the Shades, which were on the Bridge over the river.
Now because of the 'Raging Torrent', the Plague Monks gained +3 Initiative, so were striking first but with a -1 to hit for the wall on the Bridge. I failed to kill them all and using the Dreadlords Ld they stayed for another round of combat.

2nd big event - Jamie had taken Lore of Shadows for his Sorceress and the spells he had were not big on damage but were Hex'es, he managed to reduce the Plague Furnace movement down by 3", the DoomWheel Toughness by 2 and the Plague Censer Bearers Strength by 2.

The reduction in the DoomWheel T meant that his Dark Rider Spears were wounding on 4+ which caused it to run.

3rd big event was Jamie deciding if he should charge his 16 strong Cold One Kinghts at the Plague Furnace (afterwards Jamie explained what the unit was tooled up with - maybe I'll let Jamie explain). But the distance was 18" which would mean that Jamie needed to roll 11 on the highest of 3 dice. He decided not to and charge the Plague Censer Bearers who were only 10" away.
He rolled the dice and got 5, 6, 6...so would have succeeded - the new game I think favors the bold.

4th Event is the Witch Elves needed 14" to reach the flank of my Hellpit Abomination which he managed to roll 9. Then the Witch Elves two ranks of 6 models rolled a hideous number of dice with re-rolls and managed to get 6 poisoned hits (+2 more normal wounds), luckily I passed 4 regenerations and lived for 1 turn (died the next turn). Will have to remember to stay away form Poisoned units in future.

5th Event - my Gutter Runners arrived behind Jamies Repeater Bolt Throwers and managed to kill 1 due to poison hits, the other lost a crewman even with Toughness 7 for shooting as you now need 6+.

Finally - the Witch Elves killed off my HPA and then charge my Plague Monks in the flank - they kill 10, but I still get 4 models fighting back with 3 attacks each and kill 6 Witch Elves. I still lose but am unbreakable - now another change is that with a successful Ld Test you can reform the unit even if did not win the combat. So my unit passes and lines up against the Witch Elves with Furnace and Plague Priest in the front rank - the Witch Elves are no longer alive.

Overall a fun game with lots of interesting and nailbiting situations.
Game takes a little bit longer while we learn the rules.
Nice to measure things before deciding things which will speed up activities.

Think we will stick to 2500pts as the standard Monday night in 3 hours.

Now who won - not sure, we ran out of time to count up.

My losses were:
Lord Skrolk
Assassin
Plague Monks (19)
Plague Censer Bearers (10)
Warplock Jezzails (3)
Warpfire Thrower
Giant Rats (6) + Packmaster
DoomWheel
Hellpit Abomination
Total: 1594pts

Jamies losses were:
Dark Elve Spearmen (34)
Dark Riders (5)
Shades (5)
Shades (5)
2 x Reaper Bolt Throwers
Witch Elves (21)
Harpies (5)
Total: ?

We were playing the rules for the Warhammer Battlefields event; I managed to roll 'take the High Ground' which with only 1 hill on the table and in my deployment zone was easy to achieve +400VPs. Whereas Jamie rolled 'Kill the Elites', he had to kill more Special and Rare units of mine than he lost: Jamie lost 5 units, I lost 4

So Jamie - can you work out how much I had killed?

Looking at it - I don't think I managed to get 1200pts off you?

So does all the "special" interactive terrain make for a better game or just more to remember?

In my own game the terrain made a huge difference. On of our hills (placed down the right hand centre of the board) was the Anvil of Vaul which made each unit within 6" have Magical Flaming attacks. Great when trying to kill a treeman but in my case a right ass as 10 Dragon Princes spent most of the game lurking nearby so I couldn't charge them. Being invunerable while on nearly 1/3 the table made me have to sit and wait unitl they left the area for a lack of anything better to do.

How many bits of terrain get special rules?


(still waiting for my book to arrive!)

mattjgilbert wrote:How many bits of terrain get special rules?

All of them can have special rules, normally it's a roll of 1d6 for that type of terrain. On a 1 it's normal, otherwise has a special rule.

This is GW High Fantasy 'The World Of Warhammer' - in practive I think I'll look to have just 1 special piece of terrain on the table with the rest being mundane.

You don't want the terrain to have too much of an effect, but then again we don't want an open flat battlefield (leave that to the Historical Gamers)

I think I'll try a few games first but having special terrain on a roll of 2+ per terrain piece sounds excessive. I can see myself reversing that (only special on a 1)

mattjgilbert wrote:I think I'll try a few games first but having special terrain on a roll of 2+ per terrain piece sounds excessive. I can see myself reversing that (only special on a 1)

It wasn't too bad in our game - of the 8 pieces only the Wall caused problems to the armies.
The 8 we rolled up were:
3 sections of Wall (-2 to hit across it)
A Raging Torrent River (Dangerous Terrain and +3 Init if in it)
A Scree Hill (Dangerous Terrain)
A settlement of Disorder including an Altar of Khaine (Ubits within 6" are frenzied) and 1 Building and 1 section of Hedge
A Normal Hedge (-1 to hit)
A Normal Building
and finally A Wishing Well (which gave Jamies Chariot Unbreakable and Stupidity).

You got 1107 points of me Phil, 1057 in destroyed units and 50 in banners so with your mission rules it would be a draw assuming you included points for banners and killing your general.

I agree 8th favours the bold! Had a unit of 16 cold one knights lead by a BSB with the hydra banner backed up with the cauldron of blood. If I had gone for the furnace on the last turn (which I would have got into) I would have had a good chance at beating the unit. Only had the front rank of 8 left but would have had 27 re-rollable Str 6 attacks and 16 Str 4 attacks plus the witch elves in the flank. Must remember "Balls of Steel" next time!

Bloody walls! It was my idea to put them down by the bridge and then I stupidly deployed my unit of 25 crossbowmen the wrong side of the river in front of the wall! So only have my self to blame.

An idea I had with the terrain is to roll D3 + 4 for amount and decide what each bit is (how you do it) then roll a dice for each piece of terrain, on a 6 its magical and you roll for the result. It was a bit silly last night, we had a encampment of order and destruction within a stones throw of each other, an alter of khanie, a wyrding well and khemri quicksand! I do love the new terrain rules but I defo think less is more in this case.

Was a good game, I liked the army I used last night over the corsairs as its a little more hitty, shall be updating my battlefield log in a bit. Really love shadow magic, its great for elves.

Learnt a bit as well. Was trying to figure how to use fast cav in the new rules, but now realise they should be used how they were in 7th, as re-directers, lambs for the slaughter and war machine hunters. Support is key for 8th, not many units can break another unit on its own, double teaming is very important. The skaven are great in the new rules esp the new war machine rules! Looking forward to using mine!

Ogregut wrote:You got 1107 points of me Phil, 1057 in destroyed units and 50 in banners so with your mission rules it would be a draw assuming you included points for banners and killing your general.

Seems that VPs has changed a bit.
1. You only get VPs for detroyed or fled from table units - so when we stopped on Turn 4 and my Plague Censer Bearers were running - they don't count! So thats -160VPs

2. Yep included the 100VPs for the General - Lord Skrolk

3. 25pts for each Standard Bearer killed - so you got the Plague Monk Unit Standard

4. No Underdog Challenges (Unit Champion killing Character in Challenge)

So thats 1594 - 160 + 25 = 1459 for the Dark Elves
Whereas the Skaven get 1107 + 400 (for Secret Mission) = 1507

So difference of 48pts - less than 100pts so a Draw....

Special Mission saved my bacon - that is going to make things very interesting as +400VPs could swing things easily.