Warhammer Fantasy – Magic Items Makes it Suck?

In the last week I managed to get in two games of Warhammer Fantasy with the only other player in our group, the man Gribblin. As far as fantasy is concerned we have a healthy and long-standing rivalry and have changed the armies we use as time has gone on (me far more than him unsurprisingly).

I know that one of our players specifically doesn’t play fantasy due to a perceived imbalance in the power that certain magic items bring to the battlefield. This view of the game was not helped when against Gribblin’s Vampires my 50pts Hellheart netted me 600pts of dead Vampires. The following game was not played in such a social setting so he didn’t get to see it do bugger all.

Anyone that plays Fantasy is aware of the game changing nature of some of the magic items, these are normally ones found in some of the older army books. I am talking about items that can change the game and cost very little for the consistent effects that they have. The second game I was playing was against Gribblin’s Lizardmen, a game I tend to find a lot harder than going against the Vampires. I’ll start off by saying that it was a close fought Battleline scenario and he scored 400pts more than me to net a win, however, when you looked at the table at the end of turn 6 there wasn’t a lot left on either side, but congratulations to him all the same.

I took a pretty normal Ogre list, keeping in the Stonehorn and using my new unit of Mournfang Cavalry for the first time (they were awesome). Across from me is one of the most frustrating models in all of Warhammer; the Mega-Pimp-Hand-Uber Slann. This particular anti-gravity amphibian had more bling than a 1980’s Mr T. Cannon balls screamed right through him, while he completely shutdown my magic phase, firing off an entire lore’s worth of spells every turn and (but for a poor dice roll) throwing his miscasts around to everyone else. Yes he is expensive but that model completely removed me from being able to play in one phase of the game, that’s pretty powerful.

I think that I am actually coming around more to our non-Fantasy playing friend’s way of thinking. When  I look at something like Kings of War from Mantic, each army has models with special rules dependent on the army, characters also get special rules but these are also available across the various armies. There is no real customisation of things with special item options.

I like the new 8th edition approach, that the rulebook contains the most of the magic items that are available to armies and there are but a few (normally pricey) options in each army book. However, in some of the older books the fact that magic items contribute such a huge amount can alter the balance of the game. There is the capability to completely neuter and army in a particular way, now, some may consider that just prudent planning and good generalship, but should you be able to win a game almost purely on the back of the fact you spent 100pts on a certain combination of stuff that your opponent can do nothing about?

I appreciate that Warhammer is a hugely complex game, but shouldn’t a battle be decided by the models on the table and the ken of the generals rather than an arbitrary decision made before the models even hit the table?

Please do not think that I am making a whine post because I lost a game of Warhammer, I had a very enjoyable time playing that game, momentum swung back and forth through the game and if I’d have remembered some more of the rules for my army I might have done a little better, still it was a well-earned victory and the first ever loss for my Ogres. The point of the post is to gather opinion on just how much of an impact people are happy with magic items providing to a game. I am not bothered about a 4+ ward save or 2+ armour save, those can be failed. But when you can kit something out to be nigh invulnerable and/or shut down a core part of the game when it already comes with decent protection, is that good irrelevant of cost?

I think much of what makes some of the Fantasy armies, “top-tier” is the access to their magic items list. If everyone purely had access to those in the main rulebook do we think we’d have a far more balanced game, or would it sacrifice variety for the sake of an opinion about what makes the game fairer?

 

6 Inch Move Review – 8th Edition Warhammer Armies – Ogre Kingdoms

No-one in the Warhammer speaking world can have failed to notice that one of the army books in direst need of being updated has finally crashed through the wilderness of the GW design studio and landed with a thud in stores around the world.

I’ve read, pondered, digested, giggled maniacally, planned, re-planned and procrastinated the writing of this post. I thought it about time that I actually put forth my feelings on the latest book. I believe the best way to start that is to look where we’ve come from.

The previous Ogre book stemmed from a previous age and was starting to show it, even in its native 6th edition it was regarded as an auto-win if you faced them across the table. Seventh edition didn’t do them any favours either but there were those of us who enjoyed the fat, sweaty, subtle as a London rioter being filmed walking down the street with the 52″ TV he’s just looted from the local branch of Currys, big guys! People played the Ogres the only way they could that would let them have any chance of winning. Then, we got 8th edition, a whole new era of gamer dividing awesomeness, suddenly Ogres were actually competitive again. Sure, no-one was singing that they were as broken as Skaven or Daemons but the changes of the new edition brought enough of a see-change that even though people still decried them as bottom of the ladder we could now bring the pain and shock people. Arguments ensued over just how Gut Magic worked, small children wept at night about how many characters were stacked into all-consuming death stars of Bulls or Ironguts but the Ogre players, like the armies that they played, rolled with it and kept on fighting.

So, after almost 300 words of drivel what is the new book like then? As we all know by now GW have decided to put all the new 8th books into hardback, another way of screwing more money out of gullible punters or a genuine improvement in robustness? I’ll let you be the judge of that. However, I must admit that the new books are very nice, still not sure they are worth the money, the Ogre book is 96 pages for £25 afterall but I paid it so I can’t really say all that much now can I?

The background section has been fleshed out (pun intended) so we get much more detail about what happened to the Ogres on their forced migration across the mountains, there are also larger sections expanding the known tribes and the new map is brilliant for showing the tribes, their haunts and the various roads leading through the region. Background and fluff is something the Sherriff has never had a problem with in my book. They might not be able to write clear and concise rules or even balance stuff all that well in some circumstances but they can certainly spin a yarn.

The bestiary is good and provides fluff for all the options in the book, although people have noted that the old Forgeworld Rhinox fluff has been copy/pasta’d into the Mournfang entry. Rather unsurprisingly all of the new units that models have been released for are viable. Ogres certainly have a lot more variety in how they can bring the pain. Gnoblars lost a dedicated Trappers entry and Bicker! but went up in price by 25% when the cost of Ogres across the board dropped in a lot of areas. The Tyrant got more expensive as did the bargain that was the Slaughtermaster who now makes a viable (if low leadership) general.

The special characters are generally overpriced for what they are and the Ogres have far less of them than the other new books, although you could argue how many Ogres you can get with a distinct personality. The new Lore of the Great Maw is pretty decent containing a huge haul of Augment spells and you have to take it on at least one of your Mages, the Lore has no quirks now and works off the standard rules just like how the Lore of Nehekhara has been brought into line with the new edition.

Ogre Bulls are now just called Ogres, are cheaper and now come with armour, they have a number of options and Ironfists now count as a shield so you can get a Parry save! Ogres have lost the Armour Penetration of their Ogre Clubs but also will be more reliable when charging into stuff and scoring impact hits due to the changes in those rules. The Special choices are really where things get interesting for the Ogres now, Sabretusks can be taken in packs of 1-10, that’s right for a mere 21pts you can take a M8 model with the same stats as an Eagle for running around on flanks and hunting warmachines or redirecting the enemy. The Mournfang cavalry are the heavy shock troops for the Ogres, they can get a 2+ armour save, can carry a magic banner and can use Ironfists to get a Parry even when mounted. They cost a lot but are going to be a huge benefit for Ogre generals. Slam in some normal Ogres into the front of a unit and a flank charge from these guys is going to be devastating! If you want another unit that is going to make your opponent cry then the new Maneaters are where it’s at. Substantially cheaper than before you now get to pick two of a myriad special rules when picking the unit, this makes them eminently customisable. They are not cheap either but then Ogre players are used to having to deal with expensive units.

In Rares we now find the Scraplauncher that uses a small template but won’t charge headfirst into the first thing it sees! We get a cannon with S10 grapeshot that is mounted on a chariot, it’s 40pts more than the (cheaper) Scraplauncher but also fills more of a hole. We get the Slave Giant now called a normal Giant and using the same profile from the Orc book, although I think he will now feature in even fewer lists thanks to our new arrivals. The Stonehorn (pictured at the start of this post) is a pure brute, it does an increased number of impact hits when it charges. It certainly isn’t going to take a normal sized unit down on its own but it will make a mess of what it hits. The Thundertusk is a support beast, still big and tough but not as brutal in combat. It can spit out spheres of ice and give Always Strikes Last to enemies within 6″! No more re-rolls for those pesky High Elves.

The Ogre magic items are typically lean as has been the style with the new books, they are often overpriced for what they are. Debates rage online about just whether the Ironfist (which performs exactly like a shield so the rules tell us) means that a Slaughtermaster can take magical armour but overall we have another solid book here. The general consensus among Ogre players is that this is a massive improvement, an assessment I am happy to agree with. It doesn’t make the Ogres hugely overpowered, but offers improvements and viable choices where none existed before.

I’ll be looking to get some of the new units for sure and will give a rundown of how the go when I finally get around to putting them on the tabletop.

 

Warhammer and Comp Restrictions – A Viewpoint

Wow, I suppose that this is another milestone, the 250th post here on 6 Inch Move. We’re certainly crunching through numbers here recently. I suppose that with so many cool things being released at the moment (new version or Warhammer, expansion for Malifaux) that there is a lot of things to write about, even if we here at the floating citadel are experiencing a drought after a month that was filled with all kinds of gaming goodness. I suppose we each just have a lot going on at the moment, I know I do.

Yet, even if we are not spending every night with a paint brush in hand or stopped over a table filled with little plastic men, we will not let the Internet down by spewing forth our thoughts on the gaming hobby. Following on from yesterday’s opinion post I wanted to really push the boat out and make another one. We’re boarding up the windows of the citadel, just in case the tweens have developed some kind of long range siege weaponry.

As I stated in yesterday’s post I am not a tournament player, although I read enough articles and forum posts to understand what goes on and the kind of armies that people take. There is also one particular point, that, while not universal to all tournaments, crops up often enough and can be quite divisive with many people being “for” it and equally as many being “against”. This system is Composition or Comp as it is more widely called. The basic premise of this is that various people (not GW developers) take the army lists and the rules and then change things around. Primarily these restrictions and changes are there to “balance” the perceived differences in the army power levels. Sometimes Comp is used in this restrictive format, other times players are asked to score one another’s armies (it is generally accepted that many players will mark an opponent down if they lose to them).

There are many different systems and variations of those systems in use, your tournament score can be affected if you take certain units or models and certain things are banned altogether. With the new spell lores in 8th edition I have read about sets of Comp restrictions that remove access to the top spells from some of the lores. Historically Daemon armies were the focus of some quite horrific restrictions to stop them being “broken” or “auto-win” and there were many arguments back and forth on various forums about whether this was fair or not and if Daemon players were being penalised because other players were not stepping up to the challenge and just whining that they couldn’t win taking their normal armies.

First off, I suppose I need to put forth my stance on tournaments and how I see them. For me wargames are about competition in general, you are trying to win against the player opposite you according to the specifics of the game/scenario you are playing. While at home this is done with a bit more of an atmosphere about having a laugh and enjoying the game in a relaxed manner, in a tournament I’d expect a more cut-throat “win at all costs” attitude as you are being rewarded according to your success. While some people might go just to play some games against some new opponents if you are paying money to go to one to these things and there are prizes on offer I’d hope that each person goes there with an attitude to try to win.

Within this environment you are therefore going to try to make the most optimal and strong lists possible to give yourself the best chance of winning, I mean, hey, it’s a tournament you’re supposed to try to win right? That is what I’d expect. Now, from that stance you can probably quite easily work out which side of the comp argument I come down on. I can hear the counter arguments already, “but some armies are better, we need comp to balance things to make the games fairer!” I am sorry but I say “suck it up”, do you think that Leonidas stood in the Hot Gates with his 300 Spartans (I know there were more men at Thermopylae than just the Spartans) and looked over the Persian horde and said “man, these teams are stacked, Xerxes, why don’t you send some of your guys over to play skins to even things up a bit?” Somehow, I don’t think so.

My main argument against Comp is that you are changing things around with the rules and the army books, arbitrarily altering people’s choices because certain things are too strong. I hope people can see my argument there, I can agree that GW should write books that are more or less similar in their power level but a perfect balance is not something that is ever going to be achieved, this is a tournament after all. While in the confines of our own home we play around with units and armies to have fun in a competitive setting the winning is not the be all and end all of the game. In tournaments it is, yes that may mean that we only see a few armies at a tournament, the perceived “strong” ones, but that doesn’t stop someone from coming up with a winning list from something outside that group when the playing field leans in a particular way. If you are going to a tournament why wouldn’t take the strongest list you can? Doesn’t that give you the greatest chance of winning?

Results show that there isn’t just one army that blitz’s all before it, if there was then I’d imagine that everyone would take that list, on a good day any one army can take another due to the fact that a sizeable part of the game comes down to luck. Dice rolls make a lot of the decisions on what happens irrelevant of the strategy of the general.

Personally I don’t think that Warhammer in its new incarnation lends itself much towards tournament play, there are a lot of options and a lot of random elements. Plus there is the decisive nature of some of the top spells, I understand why some organisers want to nix these in order to try and create a more tournament friendly rules set. However, when anyone does this it detracts from the game by superseding what the games developers were trying to achieve when they wrote the game. I’m not saying that Warhammer players shouldn’t hold or attend tournaments in 8th Edition, I just have the opinion that there are other games that lend themselves better to tournament play (Warmachine, Hordes and Malifaux spring straight to mind).

I dislike Comp because it removes options rather than allows players the full run of their armies. If you are attending a tournament you can pick what you take, no one is stopping you from taking the biggest, baddest list you can come up with and in a setting that glorifies winning, I don’t think you should ever be stopped or penalised from bringing the best you can. After all, if Warhammer were real a rampaging army wouldn’t ask one of their elite units to sit on the sideline because they are a bit too strong against their opponents, it’s just silly.

Warhammer 8th Edition – New Terrain Rules Investigated

I am about to open up yet another post stating my own personal opinion about something. Regular readers are no doubt aware that we do this from time to time, I mean, what else is the Internet for if not expressing one’s self? This is also the reason why the 6 Inch Move citadel is a floating one, kind of like Dalaran from Warcraft. In order to avoid the vitriol of close-minded nerds who seem unable to grasp the concept that other people might think differently than they do, we magically airlifted the bunker in which the writing team were hiding themselves. Since doing this we’ve, thankfully, stayed out of range of the majority of nerd rage.

As is inevitable with a new set of rules there is the potential to divide a community into camps who like the changes and those who do not. This isn’t quite as polarised as it may seem though as many people will like certain changes that others do not and dislike some changes that another party may find works well for them. Now, no rule set is ever going to be perfect, humans are imperfect creatures and GW has a long history of ambiguity and unclear writing. This then lends itself to division between players, in general this division does not result in a clash of sabers but there are camps out there in Internetland that will defend their particular standpoint with the full force of a cabinet minister being caught on a night out with some ladies of ill-repute. Normally this is reserved for the various power levels of individual armies, yet this preamble is getting towards what I would like to discuss today; the new terrain rules.

This is probably (next to the introduction of True Line of Sight) the cause of the majority of discussions regarding the new rules. I bought the issue of White Dwarf that heralded the arrival of 8th Edition and it provided some insights there. For every scenario in the rulebook there is a guide telling you how to set up terrain for a game, this panel normally refers you to page 142 which says for you to place D6+4 pieces of terrain on the table. Normally this is done by rolling on a table and looking up what that roll represents, some terrain pieces are then rolled for to see which particular type you get. For instance, you could roll for a building, you then roll again on another chart to see what kind of building that is. Sometimes you will get just a normal building, however, in the majority you are going to get a piece of terrain which can have an impact on units nearby. These rules range from a modifier to certain dice rolls (i.e. a minor buff) to the potential to cause significant damage across a unit.

GW have explained that the Warhammer world isn’t just a fantasy medieval version of our world, it is something wholly different where the very land is as much a threat as the inhabitants. This in turn raises the argument about what do you want from a game? Do you want a test of generalship one person to another?, or do you want a narrative whereby you are just playing a game and the battlefield is as much an enemy as the army you are facing off against? Historically Warhammer has been a game where one person faces another to see who marshals their forces better to complete an objective (normally kill everyone, take names and maybe try to hold table quarters in turn 6). With the addition of scenarios there is now a range of battles you can fight without having to make stuff up yourself and I commend GW for this. However, when the terrain has the potential to kill off your dudes, I believe the game loses focus. Sure, there is as much a chance for your opponent to fall foul of the things that you do and it does ask you to make decisions that you would otherwise not have to make during the game, however, you are not there to fight against the board, you are supposed to be having fun with a friend. I’ve only played a few games of 8th so far and am looking forward to more, however, in one game terrain did virtually nothing, in the second game it had a much more profound effect. We rolled a Haunted Mansion and dropped it in the middle of the table. If units are nearby it does a random number of Strength 1 hits to every unit in range. Now, strength 1 might not seem like much, but rolls of a 6 always wound in the new edition, you can imagine where this is going. Even with armour and ward saves I was losing troops every turn I was near it, we used a proper mansion to represent it as well so the building was quite large. To be honest I almost lost more models to the Mansion than I did to the enemy!

Considering you are also going to have a minimum of 5 pieces of terrain on the battlefield chances are that only one of those is not going to be something out of the ordinary, thereby you are either going to be flicking through the rulebook to find out what they are, have to remember, or write down what each terrain element actually represents. I don’t think that this helps the flow of the game. While it can provide for some comical moments (Daemons getting nailed by S1 ghosts…) I’m not sure that it fits within a wargame where the general MO is to crush your opponent into dust. I’m still going to play a few more games with these terrain rules before our group makes a decision on whether to use them or not. However, another thing it brings up is the tournament scene.

Now, I am not a tournament player, never have been and more than likely never will be, yet I don’t think the new terrain rules fit in with the tournament crowd. They want a straight fight over a battlefield and to see who comes out on top using competitively built armies. There are enough spells and magic items out there to counter or survive without stumbling into a stream and suddenly finding your expensive unit of elite troops has just got splattered due to some bad dice rolling. I know that these inclusions in the rules doesn’t mean that you have to use them, but it does give an insight into the minds of the games developers. If these rules are included and from that you assume that you are being encouraged to use them, does that mean that Warhammer is not being developed with tournament players in mind? They are certainly a very vocal bunch, especially on the matter of whether their army got borked by the changes in the new rules. If GW are trying to create a game that represents the world as much as the inhabitants of it then are they trying to take us down the route of narrative games and moving away from the “gamer vs gamer who plays better” principles that have existed since I have been into the hobby (almost 20 years). Are future tournaments going to be more around having fun with others that you haven’t faced before rather than trying to come out on top as the only incentive?

I just think we won’t see many tournaments using these terrain rules. It’ll certainly slow down the games as you have to stop for certain features to do their thing. How do you feel about the new terrain rules?

Warhammer 8th Edition – 2nd Game Findings

There are about three or four things I can think of writing a post for today, however, I really feel that I should follow up by telling you all about the second game of Warhammer we played using the new edition of the rules. This means, of course, that I will now forget the amazing topics I have selected for posting later in the week, no doubt they would have been chock-full or profound insights into the gaming world and its community, I apologise now for depriving you of such unbridled awesomesauce.

From the picture gracing the beginning of this post you can probably guess what I was fielding. I knocked up a 2000pts Daemons list while Gribblin penned a new Happy Tree Friends list. It wasn’t massively dissimilar from the list I took against against the Vampires but this one had a Treeman in it, not that Gribblin has the best of luck with Treemen in general (a trend to be repeated this time around). I came up with a list that used what I had to hand, it ended up being suprisingly effective, here is what I took;

Herald of Tzeentch with Master of Sorcery (Lore of Death) and Spellbreaker – General

Herald of Slaanesh Battle Standard Bearer with Standard of Sundering and Siren Song

Masque of Slaanesh

25 Daemonettes with Full Command and the Siren Standard

20 Bloodletters with Full Command and Icon of Endless War

10 Flesh Hounds

5 Flamers

3 Blood Crushers with Standard and Icon of Endless War

It was compact, with hindsight my spell lore choice was wrong and I might as well have not taken the banner because we totally forgot it was there for the whole battle. Our scenario was to kill each other (nice and simple) and the deployment was the random rolls. Luckily I ended up with my entire army either on my left flank or in the centre, so I naturally turtled my army together with only the Blood Crushers heading out towards the right of the centre protecting that flank around the Haunted Mansion in the middle of the table. Gribblin rolled for his stuff and everything pretty much ended up in the middle other than the Treeman who had to be delpoyed on my right flank far away from everything.

Through the course of the battle the Haunted Mansion did more damage to my troops than the Wood Elf shooting (D6 Str1 hits, I rolled average for hits but nearly every hit I rolled a 6 for the wound roll). I got off Purple Sun once which ended up clearing line of sight through a unit I wasn’t aiming for so the Herald got peppered by arrows in the following turn. The Bloodletters got flank charged by Wild Riders and sat there for a few turns before my rampaging Daemonettes arrived to help them out. To be honest the Daemonettes were the stars of the show, the Flamers didn’t do too badly as they rolled oodles of shots every turn, but the Slaanesh troops just tore things apart. Always Strikes First is really nasty and the fact I took a big block of 25 helped minimise the impact of casualties. They ripped apart Treekin, massacred the Wild Riders and then ate through Glade Guard. Sure they are only Strength 3 but the sheer number of attacks is ridiculous and then they are re-rolling their misses and dice just mount up, with Wood Elves having next to no armour to speak of, it just made things better for the Daemons.

I held back my Herald which kind of gimped him, Lore of Death has some pretty low ranges on its spells so didn’t get to make much use of the fact he knew all the spells. Overall magic can have a much bigger impact on the game but if things go wrong it can hurt you just as much, it’s a very risky business nowadays but if you have access to a level 4 Wizard I can’t see a hugely compelling reason not to take one. With the bonus to cast and dispel you don’t really need support either, sharing your pool dice with another wizard using smaller bonuses doesn’t see all that good. For armies like Daemons the Battle Standard bearer is now a must. Even though we forgot the banner I gave to mine the re-rolls on Instability tests was great, even when I rolled and eleven, re-rolled and got an eleven again. 8th really did give the BSB a boost and I expect them to be much more prevalent than they used to be. Certain armies always have benefitted from one but with the current changes I feel that almost every army will try and cram one in.

Little things like being able to move your units backwards provides you with options that were not really there before, this allows you to expand your thinking when moving your troops, there isn’t just the option of trudging forwards. If you think you might just be within range for something to charge you, now you can shuffle back a few inches and, barring a lucky dice roll, be odds on to avoid it and gain the bonus for charging yourself in the next turn.

I’m not sure about the new Terrain rules though, I like the random number of elements there are on the table as well as the new scenarios to play, however, not knowing if a wood is really a wood, or the chance that walking near that building could lose you half a unit just seems a mite too unpredicatable. I know they are trying to show off just what the Warhammer world is like, but these funnies and random elements do not translate to a game where you are trying to test each other. I’ll continue with it for a while but some of the elements (haunted mansion for instance) can have too great an impact on things.

Overall, two games in I am enjoying the new version of Warhammer, I pick up the rest of the models to make my 3ooopts army this Friday. Hopefully some hours of gluing various bits to my personal body parts will mean that I then end up with something I can chuck on the table and have a go properly with an aarmy list I’ve worked out and bought to with the new edition in mind. I can then play something while painting the rest of my War of the Ring units.

Warhammer 8th Edition – First Game Thoughts

I may be naught but a humble re-animated buckler of swashes but there are a couple of things that really wind me up, I feel like sharing these with you before diving into the meat and potatoes of my actual post. Both of these relate to the toiletry habits of the male Homo Sapiens Sapiens in a working environment, point the first; why is it that some guys seem incapable of working the flush mechanism? I mean, it’s not rocket science, all you have to do is push a button or push the handle down a very simple process that means the next user doesn’t have to stare at whatever it was you deposited during the last time you took the Browns to the Superbowl! Point the second, the toilet is a male only domain, no women can use the men’s toilet, there is a sign on the door and everything, wangs only!!! That means you are allowed to leave the toilet seat up, in fact doing so provides the gentleman with a larger target to hit while standing and judging by the trail of pi$$ dripping from the seat you could really do with having a more sizeable area to thrash your wild beast, it’s possible you may hit the right target then!

Anyway, that wasn’t really what I wanted to talk about today. After my previous post regarding our sojourn to Warhammer World and our subsequent trial of the latest edition we have managed to play a couple of games using the varied gaming facilities of the 6 Inch Move floating citadel, in other words, mine and Servitob’s living rooms. I wanted to give a quick rundown, not a full battle report, of these games, their participants and the feelings that I have towards how things worked out and using the new rules in general.

The first game we played was alluded to from my previous post. Due to Gribblin’s required sacrifice at the altar of “I want to maintain a Girlfriend” (we have quietly suggested amongst ourselves that he should get married, this quite handily solves all of the nonsense about having to spend time together “I’m going out with my mates on Monday” for some reason tends to be more than OK) he was ideally placed to service our needs. Servitob rang him while we were on our way back in the good ship ZombiePirate (also known as a Mazda) and asked him to knock out a couple of 2000pts armies and bring them along. So it was that we arrived at our respective domiciles with a couple of hours to spare ideal time to chill out after the drive and arrange suitable snacks for the evening’s entertainment.

At the appointed time we met up at Servitob’s estate, emptied a cars worth of terrain and armies and went about setting things up. Gribblin had brought his Wood Elves and his Vampire Counts, one army that got considerably weaker in 8th and one that stayed about the same. This was going to be an interesting matchup. We rolled off to see which army people would command, so it was that Gribblin and team-mate Servitob took the forces of Sylvania while myself and nBreaker had a force of Greenpeace rejects with which to play. As I am writing this up a few weeks after it happened the specifics of the list are lost to the hazy twilight of hindsight but please bear with me. Our Wood Elves consisted of a Spellweaver with Lore of Life, a Noble Battle Standard Bearer, a Branchwraith, 2 units of 15 Glade Guard, a unit of Eternal Guard, a 10 man Glade Rider unit, 10 Wild Riders, 10 Dryads and 3 Treekin. Across the table were a veritable horde (literally in the case of the zombies) of the Undead led by a combat oriented Vampire Lord.

The game was based around the Break Point scenario and was our first proper game of 8th edition at an appropriate points level. This late in there is no way I can provide a turn by turn account of what happened, what I can do though is to highlight parts of the game that surprised us and talk about things we enjoyed. Movement and deployment are still as vital as ever. If you position your troops in the right way you are still a good way to achieving victory and just because you have a unit of Fast Cavalry that can use the Vanguard move doesn’t mean you have to. If they are going to be unsupported for a turn or two then hold them back with the main line, unless they can survive being out there on their own waiting for your infantry/other cavalry to arrive. Monsters are now sicker than ever. The vampires took a Varghulf and that thing can cause an horrific amount of damage, the Thunderstomp attack may come last but it can deal enough damage to swing a combat, likewise the Treekin with just their normal Stomp attacks benefitted greatly from it, 3 of them single-handedly saw off a unit of 20 Ghouls.

I deployed the Glade Guard in 2 ranks to maximise the shooting, however in hindsight I should have stuck with three ranks, I’d have lost some shots for the first few turns but after that they would be much better in combat. I could also do 2 ranks for turn one and then reform in turn 2, this was the first time I was playing as Wood Elves so forgive me a few mistakes. We deployed the Branchwraith, Dryads and Treekin on our left flank and everything else went either on or towards the right, this split the Vampire Counts and the Forest Spirits held their flank well despite getting mostly wiped out. I was impressed. Cavalry in units of 5 are not worth it, I had two units of 10 and the supporting attacks from those in the second rank makes things really worthwhile, with most armies this is going to eat into your points but the offensive benefit is well worth it. It was a close fought game with the Eternal Guard charging the Zombie horde, we knew it was going to be a grindy combat but I wanted to stop that unit rather than let it run around threatening other stuff. Lore of Life was fantastic, for one turn I had the Toughness 7 Regenerating Elves of doom! It was great, but using the regular spells to bring back your own troops had a big impact against the Undead. Just as they could boost their units, bringing back Elves was really useful and helped out no end.

Combats were intense and very bloody, some of them wound on a little bit but that’s what happens when you fight Undead. Eventually the Wood Elves did win due to killing off enough of the standards, it was still a closely fought game and very enjoyable. I’ve waffled on enough now so will have to have the second game as another post, but we were very impressed with the game. No arguments for rules came up that I can recall, everything worked and we had a fun game, that can never be a bad thing.

6 Inch Move – Trying Out 8th Edition at the Home of Warhammer

With the days of Summer now dwindling as we approach Autumn, the 6 Inch Move team descended from our floating citadel to take some well-earned (mostly) days off. August is traditionally a month for vacationing and so we took breaks from our usual employment of reconfiguring printers and people’s faces to spend time avoiding wives/girlfriends through various creatives uses of our time. I thought I’d catalogue some of this as it may be of interest to all those web-trawling Googlebots.

During the first day of our vacation we decided to stick with something traditional, not quite a slap-up dinner at Mrs Miggin’s Pie Shoppe but nonetheless decidedly tasty. We started with a hearty McDonalds breakfast before heading up north to balmy Lenton and it just so happened that it was the first day that the Island of Blood boxed set was being demonstrated. Unfortunately not all of us were allowed out to play, Gribblin spouted some nonsense about his girlfriend (how he can be asked to spend time with her rather than his mates after taking her to see all three Twilight movies and the DVD releases I do not know) so it was just the three of us making the pilgrimage this time. In reality we had travelled several hours north just to get a Fat Bloke burger but mum’s the word on that if our wives are reading.

While taking in the store we took a look over the display they had for the new set, to whet your whistle I provide a recently released screenshot of how things look from the box.

I have to say that I was impressed with the quality of the models. We were almost instantly beset by an other-enthusiastic red shirt doing his best Del-boy Trotter impression hoping we’d lay down some cash for a set. Servitob, piqued from his normal Warhammer Fantasy malaise decided to take up his offer of trying the game out. I’d already read through the rules but good ol’ Servitob is not normally into this kind of thing, he took part as the verminous Rat-men while I was left with some haughty Elves.

The models are really good, high quality and if you collect either of the armies in the box you could do a lot worse than grab this set. Some of the models seem a little odd to include as a set but for learning to play they have a good selection of different types of models. We were apparently destined to try to kill each other which we set about in short order. Memorable moments of the battle were the first turn Skaven magic phase, a level 1 Warlock Engineer fried my Mage with a single Warp Lightning cast, the Warp Fire Thrower decimating the unit of Sword Masters almost to a man, the Ellyrian Reavers fleeing a charge and then not rallying for two turns, the cremated Sword Masters seeing off the unit of Clanrats supporting the Warp Fire Thrower that had scorched them earlier. This was then joined by the Griffon riding Elf hero scaring off the Skaven Warlord’s regiment bt landing behind it and saying “BOO!” in a particularly loud and menacing fashion. When all things were tallied up both sides had been thinned massively and we happily called it a draw.

First impressions of the game were very favourable, things have been streamlined and the game play is faster, Servitob hasn’t played for a few editions but also took a liking to things, you know how much by the fact he tried to paint a Skaven the other day. When we got home in the evening he even suggested we arrange another game. Our red shirt wasn’t quite up to scratch with the new rules, he needed reminding of a few things every now and again but from talking to him he was new there so I’m not going to be too hard on him. I have to say I did enjoy the game, the warmachines included as part of the Skaven are really evil,  don’t fancy facing those across the table in a proper battle but in general the game was quite bloody with both Elves and Skaven dying in  droves.

We had a quick look round the store, went for our burgers and then took a trip to Maelstrom Games as we were in the neighbourhood. I’ll write-up another post charting the battles we have fought of 8th edition proper to give a better impression of how we found the game, currently we have used Wood Elves, Daemons of Chaos and Vampire Counts, full run down coming soon so stay tuned.

Warhammer 8th Edition – Army Power Levels Explored Part 4

Wow, this has taken a long time hasn’t it? I’m sorry Interwebz, I am currently on vacation from work and I’m going to use that as an excuse for not having got through with this sooner, that and a really hectic week before that following an office refurb. However, I am here now and ready to finish off with the last three armies. This has all been done alphabetically rather than any genuine attempt to annoy Gribblin who uses two of the armies that we will be looking at today. I suppose that once I am done with this final post in this series we should start writing up our experiences with 8th edition as earlier in the week 6 Inch Move were at Warhammer World and got hands on with the new boxed game Island of Blood and we came back and played our first proper 8th edition game that evening. But first…

Vampire Counts

In 7th edition the Vampire Counts list was one of the toughest to beat, up there with Dark Elves and Daemons of Chaos. With some of the rumours coming out before we got our hands on the actual rules typical Internet doom-mongery was at its most fertile with fervent trolling of apocalyptic decreases in the power level of the book. Luckily for all right-thinking individuals the prophesied doom of the Vampire Counts did not come about. While some of the cheesier elements are not quite as strong as they used to be, I’m looking at you single dice casting spam, the rest of the list has survived intact and elements have gotten ever stronger. While you now add your wizard level onto the casting total of spells a natural total of 1 or 2 will end your magic phase, so those single dice castings could really screw you over. However, both the Corpse Cart and the Varghulf are monsters and therefore get the Thunderstomp rule!

The rest of the army is still composed of some of the most evil combat characters in the whole game as well and most of the Lore of Vampires spells are easier to get off with the new casting rules, however, I would expect to see Vampires plucking some Lore of Death or Lore of Shadow spells in larger armies due to the nature of the spells in there which would perhaps give them more offence than the standard coterie of summoning. I know that you want to keep your units alive by rezzing them but a single Vampire with one of the new Lores could do a lot of damage to the opponent and thereby reducing the damage your shambling horde takes.

If Zombies were a tarpit before, with the new horde rules you are looking at one of the best in the game, they are dirt cheap like all good hordes should be but cause fear and are Immune to Psychology. Good luck getting through that without putting way more power into a combat than is warranted. Vampires didn’t too badly at all out of the new rules and I expect them to be as evil as ever. Not unbeatable by any means but still will put on a strong showing.

Wizards of Chaos

That’s right, I made a funny! But seriously, considering the power that is Infernal Gateway, how many WoC players do you face that take a combat Lord these days? OK, well, take a guess who went from average to bat-poop crazy? Here is another army that got catapulted into the top-tier of army lists with only a massive rules update to thank for it. Warhammer 8th edition is about infantry, killy, choppy infantry and who has some of the killiest and choppiest stuff out there? Warriors of Chaos, that’s who. I am looking at the humble Chaos Warrior who has WS5 and I5 to start with and a 4+ armour save due to his Chaos Armour, give them a shield and that’s 3+ with a Parry save for that 6+ Ward. Bolster that with Mark of Tzeentch and that ward save goes to a 5+, not bad for a Core troop choice, or you could give them halberds for S5. While you could argue that cavalry took a hit and that used to be a big part of Chaos lists the fact that the infantry got so much better more than makes up for it, you can take almost three Warriors per Knight and while I still think Knights will feature (who doesn’t want a unit of Fear causing S5 magic attacks?) Warriors of Chaos will finally be about just that, the humble Warriors. Cheap Marauders allow you to get a Horde unit or two if you want and just like the Vampires you have some of the best Lord level characters in Warhammer to choose from too.

With spells easier to cast that flying Tzeentch wizard that has been nuking the living crap out of your expensive units is here to stay and has some nice new items to pick out of from the new rulebook too. Lore of Metal will still work wonders against these guys but if you don’t know what you will be facing then you’re not going to be able to tailor your spell Lore just for these guys. The Warshrine can now Thunderstomp as it’s a monster so is much better at protecting itself in combat now but the units that you would never take before still aren’t worth anything. So the army did get quite a buff, tough, armoured warriors with a high initiative, couldn’t ask for any other army that really captures as much of what 8th is about as these guys.

Wood Elves

Last, but by no means least, we come to Gribblins favourite, tree-hugging friends, the Wood Elves. I’m going to make an alarmist statement and then back it up, so all fanbois prepare to stop reading after the next sentence. No army got gimped as much by the new rules as the Wood Elves. There, no we’ve lost all the rage-quitters after I just dissed their army I’ll tell you why I think this. Wood Elves are an interesting army, always have been. They have a large number of skirmishing units, next to no armour at all, one of the poorest spell lores in all of Warhammer and Woods are no longer difficult terrain anymore so anyone can go right through them.

In translation, the Wood Elves lost some of their advantages, whereas before you’d never have charged anything the Woodies had if it was shaded beneath the boughs of Oak or Beech, now you can charge in with impunity and thanks to no armour and T3, even if they get to strike before you, you are going to ROFLstomp them into the ground. Wood Elves are expensive points wise, the same with all Elves but they don’t have the all out offence that the Dark Elves or High Elves can bring to the table. Yes, Treemen and Tree Kin got mightier with their various stomp attacks and the ability to gain ranks but most armies are going to pack some kind of flaming weapon to get rid of Regeneration these days and that leaves them vulnerable. Also, with skirmishers losing their 360 degree line of sight a lot of the freedom of movement that the Wood Elves enjoyed is gone. While you can still join combat on a flank or the rear to help with combat resolution those skirmishers are going to be tougher to use as you need to plan their movement like a regular unit now rather than being able to divert them at a moments notice.

With all the skirmishers not having options for a standard bearer either in Blood and Glory scenarios you are going to be at a disadvantage. This really is the edition of the Eternal Guard. Where the Wood Elves did get good is in their Lord level casters. Lore of Life is now an amazing Lore to use and I’d expect it to be the default Lore for any Wood Elf worth his salt. This Lore gets around some of the key weaknesses of the Wood Elves, namely low toughness and crappy armour. You can now get T7 Regenerating Elves that you can res back if they die, what’s not to love there? As you can cast Augments in combat you don’t have to worry too much unless your dudes are being targeted specifically by models they are in combat with.

With the exception of Tomb Kings and Ogres, Wood Elves are now the oldest book out there, having been released just as 7th edition was about to appear. I don’t know what they will do to help the forest lovers out but Wood Elves are even trickier to play than they were before. While most Elves are polarised by their strengths and weaknesses this just seems so much more apparent in Wood Elves now. To really get the most out of them will take some good generalship, they are not going to lose every game by any means, there is still a lot of power there, but they are not a beginners army.

So, there we have it, a round up of all the armies for Warhammer. I’ll break it down now by giving a listing of where I think each army rates on the typical Tier chart. Remember folks, this is just the opinion of an ageing Undead Buccaneer, you are free to agree/disagree at your own pleasure;

Tier 1 – Dark Elves, Dwarfs, The Empire, High Elves, Skaven, Vampire Counts, Warriors of Chaos

Tier 2 – Daemons of Chaos, Lizardmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Orcs & Goblins, Wood Elves

Tier 3 – Beastmen, Bretonnians, Tomb Kings,

Warhammer 8th Edition – Army Power Levels Explored Part 3

The problem with a game that has 15 armies is that it takes an age to go through them all. Splitting them up also means I’m not taking up the entire first and second pages of the site with a single article. I think the other authors like a bit of exposure some times. So it is that I present you all with part 3 of our look at the Warhammer armies and how they have changed for 8th edition, there will be one final part following this one and by then we’ll have covered all the armies.

Without further ado, let’s get on with things.

Ogre Kingdoms

One of the weakest of books from the last edition got a pretty significant boost, now, I’m not saying that Ogres are going to be bull-charging their way into the top-tier and taking tournament crowns, but when you see an army of them staring at you across the table you won’t be thinking of the free win.

The changes to monstrous infantry means you only need 3 wide to form a rank and anything in the rank behind contributes up to 3 attacks. Therefore a normal unit of say 6 Ogres is now going to be getting 18 attacks if they don’t have a unit Champion. Their fear is now less scary as there is no autobreaking but then Ogres didn’t normally outnumber their foes in the first place. Add in the impact hits from a bull-charge and the Stomp attack they get then your bog standard Ogres are not pretty beefy in combat. Their diminutive cousins the Gnoblars are also great as tarpits, they are dirt cheap and are likely to benefit from being deployed as a Horde to get lots of attacks while remaining steadfast and tying up your opponent until you can get a charge off with Bulls, Man-Eaters or whatever.

If your army has been gathering dust while something else has been taking up your playtime then now may be the time to reconnect with your inner Ogre and slap some unsuspecting opponents around.

Orcs and Goblins

I don’t know what it is about the letter O but under 7th edition rules both of the books fated to start with it have been the most underpowered of all the army books. This isn’t just my own opinion but one I have seen spread around the online Warhammer community. However, just like the Ogres before them, while Orcs do get better in this edition they still face the problems that they did earlier. One thing that Orcs have always been good at is producing a ton of infantry, they are not the best at it but can do it well enough. Big infantry is the hallmark of 8th edition so Orcs have that one covered. They still have a pretty decent spell list and their own miscast table to boot, this saves them from some of the nastiness in the rulebook. Cheap lords mean you can kit out some really good fighty characters and still take some magic ability without compromising your list.

Where things get really good is when you look a Night Goblins. These guys had a ton of options before, with Netters and such like, give them spears and drop them into a Horde formation and you have 4 ranks of attacks coming your way from a very cheap unit. Add in the bat-poop craziness of Fanatics too and you have some really funky, not to mention cheap, units that can wreak havoc. Bolt Throwers and Stone Throwers can help soften the enemy on the approach too, but big blocks of Goblins are going to be big feature I think. Still not the best army out there but Orc players should no longer consider themselves bottom of the pile.

Skaven

I am sure no one has forgotten how awesome the new Skaven book was when it was released towards the end of 7th, well, they have only gotten better in the new rules. While Orcs can spam infantry well, Skaven do it even better, with a greater focus on large blocks of foot soldiers Skaven have gone straight to the top tier of armies as they can put more feet (well, claws) on the ground than any other army out there. While the ratmen benefited from outnumbering their foes in the past when they do it now they are truly formidable, stubborn on leadership 10 provided they have the ranks for Strength in Numbers and are close to a Warlord is going to make them tough to shift. Disposable units of slaves are even more disposable and are likely to make an even bigger boom when they are broken. Skaven characters are cheap and you can kit out a Warlord and still have a Grey Seer should you want. It may be a tight squeeze if you are one of the Screaming Bell crowd but larger point games play even more into Skaven hands. The new casting rules make a lot of their spells easier to cast and you will normally have the wounds to soak up casualties if your mages are on foot.

Let’s not forget a new common magic items list that fills in a lot of the perceived gaps that the Skaven only items have. Abominations are still evil and get more so with their Thunderstomp even if it is a little easier to stop regeneration in this edition. A grand army can take a lot of them too, not something I’d want to be facing. Rat Ogres got the same kind of boost that all monstrous infantry did and are now a viable choice to add extra hittting power into a Skaven force, also you can no longer stand and shoot the A-bomb nor the Doomwheel due to their use of random movement, you’re either going to have to deal with them up close and personal (not recommended) or beat them to a bloody pulp at range. Although now you can pre-measure Skaven shooting is even better than it was previously. In fact the only thing to get worse is Plague Censer Bearers due to the new Skirmish rules and even then they are still worth taking. I can’t really think of too much the Skaven lost in 8th, only a lot of plus points for them.

Tomb Kings

The oldest book in Warhammer is showing its age. Long overdue an update (much like the Dark Eldar in 40k) the egyptian themed Undead hordes certainly are an interesting army. With an interesting update to the magic system cleared up through their FAQ the risen forces of Khemri are certainly not to be trifled with.

They still suffer the same problems they always have, troops that cost way more than what they are capable of doing, sub-par choices in some areas leading many armies to look like carbon copies etc… Yet they still had a decent tournament showing with people who knew what they were doing. We get some nice stomp attacks for Ushabti and Tomb Scorpions, Thunderstomp on the Bone Giant and still a potentially devastating magic phase if played right. Despite all of this the Tomb Kings really just need a new book, even more than Ogre Kingdoms who appeared before the Wood Elves at the end of 6th. While they can certainly hold their own they aren’t an easy army to use. A little more variety in unit choices wouldn’t go amiss as well as a re-write of the Incantions that they use. I love the theme of this army but they could be so much more. We are probably looking at a middle tier army here but their age shows through.

Warhammer 8th Edition – Army Power Levels Explored Part 2

I know it has taken a while, my boss feels that it’s relevant to make me do some work during the day rather than admit that work is an 8 hour lull spent thinking about the next model we’re going to paint or game we’re going to play. As soon as I figure out how to monetise writing a blog sufficient to fulfill my needs, well, we’ll have a really happy writing staff if they can get a piece of the action.

Anyway, enough with the inane waffle, time to leap right back into our series on the changes wrought on the Warhammer armies due to the advent of the 8th edition of the rules.

DWARFS

Dwarfs have undergone some pretty major changes thanks to the new edition of the rules. These changes have catapulted them (or grudgethrowered depending on your bent) right up into one of the most dangerous and powerful armies of this edition. Random charge moves mean that the short ones will on average be going 10″, much faster than they were previously capable of. If an enemy isn’t expecting this it can come as quite a shock. True line of sight means there is little space to hide from all the artillery that can be thrown your way, 50% of an army on special choices is a lot of Cannons, Bolt Throwers and Grudgethrowers, before you factor in what can be taken from the rare choices or that core Quarellers and Thunderers can now fire in two ranks.

Dwarfs with their base leadership of 9 are going to be tough to beat in combat too, large infantry units have been a staple of Dwarf armies for a long time, now they are going to be even more difficult to shift. Due to their poor Initiative I reckon you are only ever going to face them when they are armed with Great Weapons, you are going to be striking last anyway so might as well fight back with some oomph, and with large blocks you are not going to be suffering enough wounds (at T4) to reduce attacks back in the first round. The stunties are really going to have to be softened up before anyone can hope to beat them through combat. Their magic defence is still as nuts as ever as Runesmiths can still take three dispel runes while all other armies are reduced to taking one scroll if they choose nothing else from Arcane Items lists. Premeasuring also means that shooting is rarely going to miss and it is all high strength. Fighting against Dwarfs means you are going to take a pounding going in and a pounding when you get there. Unfortunately you need the same kind of tactics to fight them, soften them up and thin them out before getting into combat and that is much more easily said than done.

Empire

After the Dwarfs, the one army that has also gained a goodly amount is the Empire. Finally we have a human army that isn’t Space Marines and can hold its own pretty well in a new field. Like the Dwarfs, Empire shooting got even better with the extra ranks you can use and Empire artillery also benefits in the same ways as mentioned above. While a gunline will be just as devastating as before the Empire has access to a lot of very cheap infantry units that will allow them to really have a combined arms force that works very well on the table. Wizards with access to all the basic spell lores gives them incredible versatility and they can be taken at level 4 alongside another lord level character relatively easily. I am imagining some pretty hefty infantry units backed up by melee and ranged detachments with an outfield filled to the brim with as much artillery as can be crammed into the list. Greatswords are going to be worth taking now you will get to fight back due to stepping up and the large number of Knights available will make great supporting units for when your halberdiers and swordsmen get stuck in. This army has really gained a lot and shot up the rankings to be one of the most versatile and deadly books in the current generation.

I even considered switching armies again, but then I read more into the…

High Elves

That’s right, the army I pledged not to use until I had it painted. Then we got 8th edition and War of the Ring. War of the Ring is winning in the painting stakes but these guys are coming out soon after. Elves still suffer from being T3 and High Elves don’t have a huge amount of armour to protect them. What makes them good in this edition is what made them good in the last edition, Speed of Asuryan. Not only do all High Elves come with Always Strike First, but their version overrides all other weapon rules. Swordmasters and White Lions are now equally destructive and will cause a huge number of casualties in whatever they face, supporting attacks help the Lions more than the chaps from Hoeth but both units are quite viable in larger numbers than they were before. Elite army also means you ignore the duplication limits on Special and Rare choices no matter the points level played to. High Elf mages are still some of the best in the game, High Magic got easier to cast with the changes to the magic system and being able to pick any of the other Lores from the book is still a massive gain over others. it is now possible to have a Prince not flying around on a Dragon and for him to be useful.

Repeater Bolt throwers are kind of useless now as they only have 2 wounds, need two crew to fire and everything can wound them on 6’s or better. For 100pts you are normally better taking a couple of Eagles (who are still great) and troubling your opponents war machines or lone characters. Always Strike First now grants re-rolls to hit if your Initiative is the same or higher than your opponents means High Elves are going to be nasty in combat with normal units, Lothern Sea Guard are experiencing a coming of age and Spearelves are back on the horizon too as they can fight in 4 ranks normally or 5 ranks if you go horde! The future is looking bright for the Elves, I look forward to finishing off my army at some point and giving them a try out. Luckily I didn’t finish it as a lot of the options I’ll now be looking at are different from what they were in 7th.

Lizardmen

The last army for this part of our analysis is the Lizardmen, one of the later books from 7th edition who got a power boost with their new toys. While not generally considered a top tier army they were always a tough opponent to beat, not a lot has changed with this. Saurus get better now that they can step-up as their low initiative isn’t that much of a burden overall. Large blocks of them surrounded by a BSB are going to be tough to shift. A Slann in a unit of Temple Guard is even harder to try to break now too, I’d avoid this kind of bunker even more than I would have in the old edition. Again the giant frog is one of those guys that has access to all the Lores in the book, however, forcing you to pick your lore at army creation has the potential for some bad match-ups the same as with other armies who have this feature. The Slann options for magic items can really upset things now, with a really evil miscast table the Slann chucking his miscast’s at an enemy spell caster is likely to hurt big time and removes a lot of the risk that Mr. Frog would other face for chucking as many dice as he can against a spell, although I find it amusing to picture what would happen when the Hex scroll is used to try to turn the Slann into a frog…

Multiple Lords on Carnosaurs are now possible in smallish lists and Salamanders will probably see more tabletime now as well. With big blocks of infantry being the order of the day, the Stegadon spam lists should also dwindle as the last thing they want to happen is to be stuck in infantry. Lizardmen didn’t gain a huge amount from the new rules, certainly not as much as some other armies, but they are still strong enough to hold their own and provide a challenge.

That’s it for now, stand by for Part 3 coming soon!