WFB 8th Ed- getting back in the ring.

I decided to get my feet wet again with some Warhammer 8th Edition this last week. After a long period off and only a couple casual games under my belt since October..I got back in with two big games this week, a 4000 point monster versus Rich and a 2200 Adepticon test versus Aaron. Both games were with my Empire against one of 8th Editions toughest armies and the one that's winning all the big local and regional tournaments around here. Warriors of Chaos.

The reason for 4000 pointer has a small story behind it. first..I had some long forgotten units I wanted to try out in 8th edition. Secondly we had been talking about getting away from the current scoring system for fun and trying WAB's army break point system with WFB and finally I been in involved in some discussion of the last few months about 8th and its ups and downs. Lamenting GW's ball dropping on fixing the magic system. (as in the fixed the mechanic wonderfully, however they then made the spells so OOT, they might as well stuck with 7th's magic phase) Discussion seemed to center around, 'well if magics getting you down, try a 3000-4000 point game it's ends up way less dominating" true enough and good point..so we did.



Empire Right Flank

Rich's list was what I expected for a big 4K game.
Daemon Prince, Sorceror Lord, Chaos Sorcero,r 2 Exhalted Heroes ( 1 BSB), Throgg the Troll King, 48 Marauders w/ GW's, 10 Marauders, 15 Warriors MoK , halberds X2, 7 Trolls, 2 Chariots ,Shaggoth, Giant.

4K Empire is alot of models My Empire was

General on a Griffon, Wizard Lord- Level 4, Lore of Shadow, Battle Wizard Level 2, Lore of Life Mounted BSB 2 Warrior Priests (one mounted, one on foot, both w/ GW's) Master Engineer w/ Hochland. 30 Swordsmen X 2, 30 Free Company, 10 Handgunners x 2, 30 Flagellants, 5 Knights with GW's 10 Huntsmen, 10 Inner Circle Knights, 5 Pistoliers, 20 Greatswords, 2 Cannons, 1 Mortar Rocket Battery, Steam Tank



The Left Flank

Table was pretty even set up, rich got the first turn which wasnt particularly bad on me other than the irresistible casting of "Pandemonium". Being rusty as I am, I over looked the "all doubles are miscasts thing"..even thou Rich told me it plain as can be, at the bottom of Turn 1, I got ahead of myself and idiotically cast a spell instead of just dispelling Pandemonium, Miscast!!!! Rich uses the Infernal Puppet to drop it to "calamitous detonation" taking my level 2 wizard and 20 his 30 swordsmen with him, running the remaining 10 toward the table edge. what a way to start the game. Thankfully It was pretty back and forth after that. Some other events of note from my side of the table


Old School

I took down the Shaggoth with shooting, then finished him up with the General on the Griffon, a pretty good monster killer. I wouldnt put it on the table against other cannons or bolt throwers
but in a fun game like this great.

Inner Circle Knights can take out Chaos Knights if backed up with a Warrior Priest.

Lore of Shadow is hands down the way to go against WoC as far as magic goes. (no secret here)

The Trolls (proxied by minotaurs here...Rich's army is 5th/6th ed and he has tons of great old models) where super tough...the Steam Tank got barely threw a couple of them when the best tank destroyer in the game..the Chaos Giant who shugged off two cannon ball hits to come on in and fold the tank into a pretzel.



One thing you never want to see across from your Steam Tank


Interesting scrap between the Marauders and Flagellants where I did 25 wounds to his 48 guys and he does 25 wounds to me.pulling all those models for one round of combat was comical in the wargaming grognard sense..we were both like.."time for the 10 wide single bases."

Magic played out exactly as discussed, it pretty much inconsequential while lowering the toughness of chaos warriors got me some mileage early, Rich being able to manipulate miscasts and neither rolling high than 9 power dice over the 8 phases (we probably averaged 6's)
magic didn't have too big of an effect (other than my bomb turn 1)

In the end it came down to same old story with Empire in either edition when it comes to playing chaos..if you can't convert opportunities when you get them..you lose. Shooting dice for artillery were epic bad...Rich got alot of milage out of Ward Saves...in a straight fight 15 Warriors MoK are going to obliterate any S3, T3 unit, immediately (my Greatswords) being all spread out on 4 x 8 there where alot of units on the flanks that couldnt get into the bigger battles.

The army break idea seems cool, (we were both at around 25 breaking on 7's) but since we only finished 4 turns in our 3 hour time limit we had to default to VP, and in those he had me by a cool 1000's. These games between Rich and I always become theoretically wargaming discussions in the beer and pretzels vein over the standard competitive game I usually play which is why I love them and win or lose its always a pleasure.

Saturday afternoon Aaron stops by with his awesomely converted WoC army..the sculpts in this army are just insanely awesome, if he can manage to paint them anywhere near the standard of his sculpting this is going to be "the" WoC army people talk about in these parts. check out his stuff at Little Green Monsters.

2200 is good size format in 8th its bring out lower model count armies because of peoples tendencies (and the games) to break out bigger monsters.


Aaron Warriors with Halberds

Aarons List

Tzeentch Daemon Prince, Chaos Sorceror (level 2), Exhalted BSB, 18 Warriors Halberds MoT, 18 Warriors Halberds MoK, 2 Chariots, 10 Chosen HW& S MoT, Hellcannon.

Empire List

General (on foot), Wizard Lord level 4, Life, Mounted BSB ,Warrior Priest Master Engineer, 28 Swordsmen, 30 Free Company, 20 Flagellants, 10 Handgunners, 6 Inner Circle Knights, Cannon, Rocket Battery, Steam Tank


Two Chariots and his Daemon Prince which is 100% scratch built except for the plastic head in the belly

Pretty straight up back .and forth tournament game, I got a lucky break from the Flagellants who made a long charge that ended up trapping and taking out both chariots before they could do anything. the Hellcannon wreaked havoc on me..basically putting my main unit out of the game..The Chosen drinking from the Wyrding well on the table, got stupid and missed there chance to get the knights who found the hell cannon early..tying it up for the rest of the game both units of warriors broke under my shooting, the Steam Tank's grinding and Free Company beefed up to toughness 5. magic had a decent impact, but nothing critical I was all buffs...Aaron got off one good Gateway (strength 9) , but I shut about everything else down. The Daemon Prince came out about a turn late..finished off my Flaggies. got into my BSB and free company when the clock ran out after one non eventful combat round. We had the big melee in Aarons backfield with the Hellcannon, my Stank, My Knights and the remnants of rallied unit of warriors. At the bottom of 6, I had the the Hellcannon with one wound left and 4 Warriors..after my 3 remaining Knights wiffed on killing the Hellcannon, I had a choice go for the moral victory and have the Steam Tank take out the hellcannon or go after the points for the warriors..I took the warriors and was up by about 1000 points in the end. Great game.

His Hellcannon and Chosen

Pretty good list for me, probably what I will run at Adepticon, with some minor adjustments. The big decision is Life or Shadow...Life worked out here, but Shadow is the best for Chaos and we will see alot of WoC armies this year. a second level 1 wizard is awfully tempting but a what cost...I'd be running 6 characters..ouch. 2 Hellcannons is going to be the soup du jour for this year..no way around it. Not sure what I will against two of those things- brutal...but that's ok...my Lizard army is going to 3 maybe 4 Stegadons, just to fall in line and play my part in the 8th edition Fantasy monster dome. double Hydra, double abomb, double hellcannon, double giant spider, double Sphinx (the new TK thing), double Steam Tank (not me, but others) . Any takers until "No duplicate rares" comes up as the first tourney composition requirement??


The Chosen getting some paint...you better hurry my man 40 days!