Vermintide

  Played another great game of Age of Sigmar today, only this time around my boyz got proper smashed by a horde of Skaven.  We didn't use a comp system or plan ahead on force size, we just opted to bring roughly equivalent sized armies and go for it.  I left my boar boyz behind and the armies seemed about right, though I think I should have a few more heroes with my boyz (I only brought 1 savage orc shaman and 1 goblin boss on a gigantic spider).  We also agreed to a few simple house rules beforehand too - units could not shoot a unit they were not engaged in combat with, and shooting against warmachines would scatter between the machine and the crew. 

  All told, we got to grips very quickly, but things went downhill soon thereafter.  On my right flank, the gobbos and savage orcs were steamrolled by the plague furnace and plague monks (supported by storm vermin), and on the left my spider riders and gobbo boss were quickly surrounded by rat ogres who tunneled from below and night runners who slipped in from the rear.  The arachnarok and river trolls, my 2 best units, slammed into the center but too late - with both flanks gone they were quickly surrounded and dealt with.  After 3 turns, my gobbo big boss took the remainder of the spider riders and the war machines and fled back into the forest to fight another day.

The forest goblins and savage orcs brace for impact from the plague furnace.

The river trolls smash their way through the center, while the arachnarok loks to climb up the dreadstone blight (just because he can!).

The forest goblins take down a few plague monks before being turned into minced meat, and the savage orcs fail miserably in their attempts to take down the plague furnace (which withstood an enormous amount of fire power and melee to end the game with 1 wound left, hahaha)

Lessons learned:

• Chaff units are still important.  My river trolls couldn't get to grips with a worthy foe until they cleared some weapons teams out of the way, so it would have been nice to have smaller units to take out the enemy's smaller units.  Also, it would have been nice to have a chaff unit bear the brunt of the runaway furnace!
• I really need to get some bullies to whip my artillery into shape!
• Unit formations are still important.  My savage orcs were spread out too far wide, so when they got charged I couldn't pile in far enough to maximize my attacks.  It also made them vulnerable to being charged by more than 1 unit.  Next time I'll deploy deeper formations.
• My plan fell apart when I found myself surrounded.  I ran units in all directions and soon found my general was out of range to use his command abilities to boost my units.  I should keep my units closer to each other (especially the heroes) so they can support each other better.  

All in all it was a great game and congrats to the chittering hordes of rat men.  Next time we'll build bigger webs to catch them all!

Of Puke and Poison

Tried a pick-up game of AoS today and ended up facing off against a fellow devildog and Iraq vet.  I brought my motley crew of savage orcs, forest gobbos, and river trolls vs. a the finest of Bretonnia - knights, peasants, and trebuchets.

Since we didn't know each other we played using the "small battle" guidelines from the Azyr Comp system so we could both show up to the store (Critical Hit Games) with relatively equal forces, and I think it worked out.  We played a normal battleline game, nothing fancy, so we could focus on the rules and armies. 

Quick battle highlights:

• The peasant archers are wicked!  They can fire a salvo of arrows that blacks out the sky, which in turn allowed my entire mob of savage orcs (except the lucky musician) to die in the shade in 1 turn of shooting.  My opponent and I agreed it was terrifying, but would have best been used against the trolls.
• Identifying and "breaking" special rules for units seems to be the best use of early shooting and magic.  By this I mean taking a unit from 20 to 19 or from 10 to 9 can seem pointless, but in reality it can drastically reduce a unit's effectiveness by denying special rules like re-rolls.
• Poison on the spiders is tremendous.  It's like poison and killing blow combined from the old WFB - I was shocked at how quickly a mob of spider riders dispatched a lance of Grail Knights with just their poison attacks.
• River Trolls are still the toughest things I've got.  Boost them with a mystic shield and inspiring presence and watch them pound away!

The pride of Bretonnia charges into the fray...the trolls slimed them shortly thereafter.

Age of Sigmar - The Big Rule Book

After a week of feverish reading I completed the new Age of Sigmar big rule book, and here are my initial impressions:

The Good -

• Great artwork.  Some really mind-blowing depictions of the new realms with battle scenes that remind me of the cover art from Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader and the cover of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle Magic boxed set.  I have mixed feelings about the lack of John Blanche artwork....which was never beautiful but always evoked a unique sense of fantasy weirdness. 
• Interesting mix of game rules, realm rules, wars scrolls, and scenarios gives you everything you need for basic play and advanced scenario gaming.
• Classic over-the-top Warhammer writing style that is consistent with decades of GW's style.

 Needs Work-

• I like the expansiveness of the new realms, as it gives players plenty of room to create their own scenarios...but perhaps it's too much right now.  Maybe I'm just an old man, but I'm having trouble making the mental leap from "the world that was" on a decades-old map of a familiar looking world, to the new boundless sandbox of the Mortal Realms.  A few maps in the BRB help depict 4 of the realms, but only tiny portions of each realm.  And what about the other 4 realms?
• Unless you've been a Warhammer fan for years, the book gives little or no explanation or backgorund to 90% of the races in the Age of Sigmar.  As a guy who plays VC, Orcs and Ogres, I was left wondering where these guys are and why there was little or no mention of Death or Beasts.  Nagash is back....but which Mortarchs came back?  Is Manfred seriously still alive?  What about Krell?  A new player will have no idea what these guys are until more books come out. 
• Too many repetitive pics of the AoS boxed set forces....that space could have been optimized to showcase other races or more maps/details of the other realms.  
• Lacks the quirky sense of humor I love from previous Warhammer books, which is usually tied to the superior races like Orruks, Grots and Oggors (and others like Skaven and Nurgle).  The AoS book takes itself a little too seriously in the setting of super-good guys vs super-bad guys, and I didn't laugh once when I read this book (well, maybe a chuckle when Gorkamorka started bashing things).
• Where are all the toothless peasant of old, whose only functions is too farm dirt and get ravaged by the myriad of bad guys?  The new realms seem so desolate, with no real buildings or civilization to speak of, which makes me wonder who Sigmar is even bothering to save.  We need peasants to protect or plunder!  Is there even a house standing in any of the 7 non-Celestial Realms, or just ruins?

 Bottom line:  good first effort, I give it a C+.  It's enough to get you started, but unless you're a big fan of the Eternals or Khorne, you'll be left a little uninspired and wondering what's going on in the other 50% of the Mortal Realms.  I suppose more details will come out in the accompanying Black Library book, but not more info on the remaining realms.  I won't be satisfied until we get some Death and Beasts in the mix!