Amy came along to the club last sunday to help me show off the new skaven army we've been working on. I cranked out the punching bag tribe of orcs to give it a nice easy run
This was our first game of 8th, and although the situations didn't surprise me having read the rules already, it's nice to see some of the new mechanics in action. Take a look at the pics or if you want, the full slideshow video with commentary:
video part 1 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BjLdQGrI8ovideo part 2 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ozPG2GPz4Below: Amy contemplates sending her doomwheel around the forest. I suggested that she deploy the nightrunners elsewhere, as the forest would slow them should they run through it - but that is 7th edition rules memory talking! Nick came over to tell us that now infantry can just walk straight through forests without penalty - but only if it's a 'normal' forest. Apparently now you have to roll for it, and apply all sorts of wacky rules. We treated our forests as 'normal' ones to simplify matters.
Below: Wasn't quite sure how skirmishers work as you can see from this pic. What you ought to do with plague censers is to line them up so that when they charge they simply form a little wall like you would intend for them to be in combat back in 7th. Now, they form up BEFORE they charge, so you want to avoid leaving guys behind other guys.
Below: Big brawling combats like these allow you to roll a lot more dice in 8th. Although we didn't have any 'horde' units to test this game, all the supporting attacks made things pretty interesting. Also, amy's doomrocket had really weakened my black orcs, so even though they were fighting against slaves, it took at least two rounds to clear them out given that they were 'steadfast' due to having more ranks than the orcs - with a BSB behind them.
Below: Magic has changed the most, but we didn't get to test any new spells since skaven and orcs each have their own lores. I must say that bound items are weaker now, since I had to use actual power dice to charge up the 'itty ring. Also, having that spirit totem made a big difference the way dispel dice works now. This game only saw one miscast - from the grey seer, but amy was lucky enough to roll an 8, which had no real repercussions. The danger of taking a grey seer nowadays is that you might inflict a hit on every model in contact with the seer - which would technically be the 15 or so clanrats in contact with the bell.
Below: The cool looking assassin in sprung - he's got one of the new 'common' items, potion of foolhardiness to give him an extra attack for a turn (5points, also makes you ITP). Skaven assassins are better now that they can re-roll misses against non-asf/lower than Initiative 8 opponents. This assassin had 5 attacks + poison with re-rolls. Dead giant!!
Below: Breaking ranks is a little different now - you have to have enough guys to get around the side - a single monster won't cut it. Enough slaves will do it though.
Below: Frenzy is notably different. You can take a LD check to restrain charges now, which rocks. Also mounts like these boars don't get the frenzy. And frenzy doesn't help with supporting attacks in the case of my savage orc spearboyz (although the extra rank of supporting attacks made up for that). These savage boarboy bigguns still didn't even dent the wheel though, the brutal crushing attacks totally ruined their day.
Below: No orcs or goblins left after this one, I guess even 8th doesn't change situations like what you see here.
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