Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - First Game

So, once I had my head wrapped around the new Warhammer Age of Sigmar release, my big boy and I settled into a game with the new rules.

I don't have much of a proper Fantasy army, just a few war bands and some odds and ends.  But I do have a nice set of Daemons that I use for 40k (including some Reaper Bones minis), so no problem there.  My son ran them, with the following units:

He managed to squeeze in a lot of fire power, with a Bloodthirster, a Deamon Prince, two Heralds (Slanesh and Nurgle), 30 Plaguebearers in one unit, two units of 10 Pink Horrors, 3 Flamers and 5 Fleshhounds.  Phew.

I also have I have a bunch of Orks, and if you squint, they look pretty Fantasy-ish, so Gaz became a warboss, Boyz became Orcs, a Grot Herder stood in as a Great Shaman, Nobz were Ruglud's Armoured Orcs and, finally, I used the Burna Boyz as Arrer Boys:

I was way underpowered!  Two units of Orcs, 25 strong each, but only 10 Armoured Orcs, five Arrer Boys, and a Warboss and a Shaman.  Needz Moar Greenskinz!

By model-count, it looked pretty even, but in terms of what would have been "points" back in the World-That-Was?  Not so much.  Oh, well.

We rolled for the terrain, per the rules, and wound up with a pretty well covered board, set up in the manner of the third territory example (basically cutting the board diagonally):

My wife insisted on getting a large dining room table.  Who was I to argue?

These Deamons had a lot of ground to cover to get to the Orcs.

Orcs, steeling themselves for defending their territory.   

The Shaman and Warboss were stationed in the middle.

Arrer Boys were positioned well away from the action, but ready to shoot.

First round, my Orcs didn't do any damage, but eight out of ten of my Armoured Orcs were wiped out by the Bloodthirster, Daemon Prince and Fleshounds:

Easy pickings ahead!

Armour is no match for Deamon Claws, Suckas!  

Good night, Irene!

A ninth Orc ran away due to Battleshock, leaving his poor, abandoned buddy surrounded.

Oi!  Where'd 'erybody get off to, then?

He managed to last a few more rounds, as only the Deamon Prince remained and the rest of the Khorne Hole Gang headed to a more "target rich" environment.

Second round saw the action heat up.  My Shaman managed to knock off a whole two Pink Horrors using the Arcane Bolt spell.  Whoo hoo!

Presto!  Vanishing Pink Horrors!

Then, in retribution, the Flamers wiped out a few Orcs while the rest of the Pink Horrors unit flooded the Orcs in combat.

Orcs and Horror in wild melee!  The Warboss's special rules were the only thing keeping the Orcs on top.  

Meanwhile, a second unit of Horrors is right behind the first!

And, the Bloodthirster and Fleshounds found another Orc unit to beat up:

The Bloodthirster and Fleshhounds began to feast on the underpowered Orcs.

In Round Three, the Shaman knocked two wounds off the Slaneshi Herald, and the Orcs took out five of the incoming Horrors.  But, the Bloodthirster and Flesh Hounds keep peeling off the Orcs, continuing to thin the herd.

The wizard attack spell is very nice, as the roll to cast is low (5 on a 2d6), scoring d3 automatic wounds with  no saves!

The Orc versus Horror battle was raging, with the first Horror unit having been wiped out, along with ten or so Orcs . . . 

. . . but the Bloodthirster battle was very lopsided.  The Orcs were unable to get any wounds against the big guy, while he picked them off a handful at a time.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, the Plaguebearers were trudging slowly over wet sand.

Round 4 was all about close combat:

The Warboss proved solid in close combat, wiping the remaining three wounds off the Slaneshi Herald.

But the Plague Bearers finally reached their target and surrounded the Warboss.  

Round Five:

The Arrer Boys found a perch from which to pick off the shambling dead.  Unfortunately, they only hit on a 5+, so they were pretty useless.  Seems like they'd only be worth their paint in larger numbers. 

The Boss managed to pick off a few Plaguebearers, as did the Shaman's Totemic Pole (eight in all), and both left the round accruing no more wounds.

Hmm.  This doesn't look like it will end well.  And, SPOILER ALERT:  It didn't.  The Bloodthirster was now free to find another target.  And a nice big juicy one at that!

Nearby, a war of attrition continued between the Orcs and the Horrors/Flamers . . .

. . . with both sides reducing their numbers significantly. 

And, finally (and rather naturally), Round 6.  Fight!

The new rules are agnostic on the number of turns in a game, but 6 still feels right to me.

While the Boss was tied up with Plaguebearers during the Orc's phase, guess who's coming to dinner?

Hellfire Breath?  Pretty much "Pick Something and Kill It with Halitosis."  At least if you roll a 6.  This is certainly one way to streamline a game! I love me some D3 Mortal Wounds.

With only one wound remaining on the Boss, the Daemon moves in for the kill.  The big guy lifts his . . .

When my wife overheard my son say "Mighty Axe of Corn!" she burst out laughing.

And, with a glorious finishing move, the Deamon fells the Orc Boss.  Game over man!

Fun times.

To wrap it up, some final thoughts on the new rules:

• I still find the To Hit/To Wound mechanism oddly sterile.  But, the special rules (plenty of re-rolling options on either offense or defense) do add some flavor.  
• Battleshock is a great, simple mechanism that helps streamline things.  "Mortal Wounds" also keep the game moving by avoiding all those "save" rolls, and feels very organic - not every bullet can be dodged.
• There are some nice "Force Multiplier" rules for those minis with "Command Abilities."  For example, the Kohrne Bloodthirster enables Khorne units with 18" to both run and charge in the same turn.  The Orc Warboss enables all units within 12"to have an extra melee attack.  Seems like many of the other units are going to be quite dependent on these boosts.
• The game does move quicker than under the old rules.  But, it didn't seem that much faster.  Perhaps that was my opponent, but I didn't see the 66% reduction in time I've seen reported elsewhere.  Maybe a 30% reduction.  Hopefully that improves with time.
• It was far more pleasurable not having to flip through multiple rule books each round.  What a relief.  Best improvement by far.  If GW did the same for 40k, and changed nothing else, I'd still be very happy!
• The game was way more lopsided than I'd have preferred.  Not having points will certainly get some getting used to.  That said, I didn't pay much attention to how many wounds the Deamons had (14 for the Bloodthirster alone!), so next time I'll need to plan ahead better.  
• All in all, it was lots of fun.  Streamlined, but it still felt very familiar as "Warhammer."  
• Thumbs up!

Thanks for stopping by!