Last night at game night Dave, Mark and I played our first game of 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The game was 1000 points a side and had me playing my Tomb Kings against Dave's Empire army with the assistance of Gunner Mark. Here's the game at setup.
This next pic is I believe after turn 2. The Flagellants on my left flank are heading straight at my catapult meanwhile on my right flank the Empire Outriders have already shot down half of the skellie archer unit. In the center the unit of Ushabti was been dwindled down to one piece.
This next pic shows the battle at the most crucial point. The Flagellants on the left flank have destroyed the catapult and are effectively out of position for the remainder of the game. The Outriders on the right flank have destroyed the skellie archer unit and are desperately trying to get back into it but fortunately (for me) they don't make it in time. The Tomb Scorpion has risen up and destroyed the detachment of swordsmen and is in position to charge the block of halberdiers along with the main skellie unit.
This last pic shows the mangled halberdiers about to be charged again by the Tomb Scorpion and the skellie block.
In the end the shattered remains of the halberdiers with the general and priest attached ran off the field and handing me the win. A couple points of note: Mark rolls awesome for artillery (at least for me he did). Both Empire arty pieces were destroyed by misfires. Fun.
I thought the battle was a good introduction to 8th edition. Infantry blocks are awesome now. When I hit a unit and am rolling 15 dice for 3 ranks of skellies with spears, that's cool. And another thing, troops that are killed are replaced by rear ranks and can attack, so I don't have to worry about my front rank being killed and not being able to fight back. The artillery rules I kind of have an issue with as you don't have to do guess weapons first, you can shoot them at any time. This is going to make Empire and Dwarf gunlines awesome. Magic is interesting, I don't have to worry about 15 power dice armies anymore. I've read how they can be abused, so we'll see. The variable charge range is interesting, but as I play Impetus it doesn't freak me out any.
Thank you to Dave and Mark for an entertaining game and I'm looking forward to many more and thanks to Marc for providing the Egyptian themed terrain.
