Sunday, July 18, 2010

Genoside throws down some Warhammer Fantasy




Genoside is a quiet, but key member of the team. One of his many qualities is that he is the only member that plays Warhammer Fantasy. Go figure right? Most of us get our fantasy fix from D&D (Pathfinder now actually) and our Sci Fi fix from 40k. Despite Genoside's best efforts, neither our wives or our limited paychecks will allow us to get into that game full time. In the spirit of full disclosure, however, I must say the Genoside has offered us all the use of one of his many armies. Anyway, here's Genoside:

Hello - Genoside here and I am kind of the ghost player of the group...always buried with work and if I get free time it is usually spend with the wife. After receiving the new 8th edition of Warhammer, however, I forced myself to get a game of it the other night. This is a great start for the new edition since I only played a handful of games of the previous edition. My opponent was a new guy to our group that happens to be a local dentist.

Battle set up was standard mission with no special terrain rules. In the new rules there is all types of terrain rules that effect the game such as rivers becoming blood rivers and that alone can completely change the game. We were going to have enough trouble stumbling through the rules, we didn't need anymore stuff to remember.

For the 2000 point battle I was taking my standard Empire army. Luckily for me having played since 3rd edition I have learned not to build an army around the cheese of the month items because they tend to go away quickly. I went with my stock build that I have used since 5th edition.

My opponent for this game took Dark Elves. This really troubled me because in the new rules close combat order is determined by initiative rating and the Dark Elves have a rather high one. As planned, the game started slowly having not to confuse rules from previous editions and ended early due to the fact that we are old men now and can't stay up late anymore. Anyway, I'm not going to bore anyone with the battle report since most members of Team Snake Eyes refuse to play Warhammer; I will only list the Pros and Cons of my first game.

EDIT: Check out the comments for Genoside's stock Empire list

Cons
Magic was a big shocker. It was quite deadly now...you either do very well with it or nothing at all. No real in between. So mages now are a big gamble in my eyes. Random Charge: My heavy knights were only like 12" away from his heavy knight unit and with the new rules of charging, you roll a number of D6's and add your movement. Mine was 3d6 (pick the two highest) plus my movement of seven. In true Team Snake Eyes fashion I rolled two ones and a two for a total of three which left me two inches short of finishing the charge. Next turn he was nice enough to roll right in and charge me with his higher initiative.

Pros
The rules seem a lot cleaner. Bolt weapons still need line of sight but stone thrower type weapons (artillery) can now shoot indirectly, following rules close to the current ones in 40k. I couldn't hit anything to save my life, but I really liked this rule. Support Attacks. Now, not only does your front rank attack the second rank gets to attack also. Plus, with the new horde rule (units that are 10 wide) a third rank can attack. This makes combat a lot nastier and seems to speed up the game a lot. One thing I know I need to get more games in, so I am not so rusty and make simple novice mistakes.


6 comments:

chaplainaerion said...

Very interesting (pseudo)battle report Geno. And was your opponent using a painted army? -gasp!- I like him already.

And I think you've given us our Team mantra: "I need to get more games in, so I am not so rusty and make simple novice mistakes."

Follow that with three "Hail Marys" and six "Our Fathers" nightly before bed.

Sigmar said...

Thanks Chosen1. That was a nice write up.

I definitely agree about Magic being a bit hit and miss now (all or nothing). I'm likely to steer clear of any major investment in spell casters.

Also, you;re spot on about the rules seeming cleaner.

Keep us updated, thanks for sharing,
Sigmar
my WFB blog
my WF battle reps

chosen1 said...

Hey, thanks for stopping by Sigmar! Don't thank me, thank Genoside. I mainly posted what he sent me word for word. If Genoside gets any more games in, we'll be sure to post more up.

Genoside07 said...

Thanks for all the nice comments.. I am working on my bucket list... play a game of warhammer; submit blog article; attend local game convention. I guess I need to make the things on the list more difficult..

Genoside07 said...

My stock build
24 Crossbowmen
24 Crossbowmen
30 Flagellants (Counts as core due to Sigmar Priest)
13 Knights with standard and musician
1 Cannon
1 Mortar
1 Hellstorm Rocket
2nd level Mage on horseback (replaced my Engineer in this game to try them out)
Priest of sigmar on horseback with power sword (+2 str) causes hatred in my knights
Battle standard on horseback with Griffon standard (doubles ranks) also with the knights
Empire General on Pegasus; Normally on Griffon; I screwed up and started with the griffon model on the board; then after the first turn read my army list and found I was trying to save cost by using a Pegasus. I always use the Mace of Helsturm where I make only one attack but it is considered a str 10 hit that does d6 wounds (didn't hit once in the game)

Craig Asselmeier said...

I had a good time .
My list went like this:
Lvl 4 Sorceress w/ dispel scroll
8 cold one knights w/ dreadnight
std. and mus.
2 Chariots
Hero on cold one w/ Battle std.
blood armor and some fanceh sword
16 spearmen w/std.
17 executioners w/std.
17 Corsairs w/ std.
16 Repeater Xbowmen
1 war hydra