Introduction:
At the Eurobash I played a test game of The 9th Age to try out how much this edition played compared to my (old) experience of playing 8th. I had a very nice opponent that flung a list of 2,5k together on the fly and we probably made some list building mistakes here and there but all was in good fun.
The Armies:
Empire of Sonnstahl (played by me)
Lords
Marshal on Great Griffon (General)
– Seasoned General, Hardened Shield, Ogre Sword, The Winter Cloak
Archwizard (Path of Alchemy)
– Level 4, Talisman of Supreme Shielding, Tome of Arcane Lore
Heros
Captain
– Battle Standard Bearer, Dusk Stone, Plate Armour, Razor Blade, Shield, The Black Helm
Artificer
– Divine Icon (Mistake nr1), Long Rifle, Master Artificer
Preacher
– Blessed Armour of Frederick the Great, Sword of Strength
Core units
40 Heavy Infantry (Halberdiers)
– Seasoned Soldiers, Full Command (Banner of Courage), Swap Shield for Halberd
20 Heavy Infantry (Swordsmen)
– Full Command
11 Light Infantry (Handgunners)
– Seasoned Soldiers, Full Command, Long Rifle on the Champion
10 Light Infantry (Crossbowmen)
– Full Command
Special units
Cannon
Imperial Rocketeers
10 Knightly Order (Cavalry Hammers)
– Full Command (War Standard)
5 Reiters
– Champion (with repeater pistol), Musician, Heavy Armor
Rare units
4 Knights of the Sun Griffon (Lances)
– Full Command
Orcs and Goblins (played by Shavixmir) – From memory as I don’t know the complete list, all Common Goblins and Common Orcs unless otherwise noted
Lords
Goblin King General
Goblin Big Shaman
– level 3
Heros
Orc Chief on Boar
Goblin Chief (Battle Standard Bearer)
2 Goblin Chief on Wolf
Core units
20 Orcs
~30ish Goblins (Bows)
~30ish Goblins (Bows)
~30ish Cave Goblins
– Mad Git
5 Goblin Raiders (Wolfs)
5 Goblin Raiders (Wolfs)
9 Orc Boar Riders
Special units
Goblin Wolf Chariot
Goblin Wolf Chariot (well a squig chariot..)
3 Trolls
Giant
Rare units
5 Skewerers (his mistake I see just now as max 3 allowed) (bolt throwers)
The Battle
Choosing spells:
Goblin Big Shaman after rolling and picking: 0 (Evil Eye), 3 (Itching and Scratching), 6 (Curse of the Green Moon)
Archwizard after rolling and picking: 0 (Molten Metal), 1 (Enchanted Blades), 2 (Creeping Corruption), 4 (Silver Spike), 6 (Transmutation of Gold) – Got 1 more spell due to the tome carried.
Deployment:
Now here is a little new mechanic compared to 8th at the end of it. You put down units 1 by 1 alternating. If one side then is done deploying the remainder of the other players deployments are the added to the dice roll for who wants to start. So here I got a +4 and decided to go first. But first here is the deployment:
Empire from left to right (picture up to down):
Reiters and behind them the Knights of the Sun GriffonCannon
Handgunners with Artificer (being Master Artificer giving 6″ range to the handgunners) and behind them the Rocketeers.
Swordsmen (with Captain) and near them the Archwizard
Halberdiers (with Preacher) and behind them the Marshal on Great Griffon
Crossbowmen
Knightly Order (not on picture)
Orcs and Goblins deployment
From right to left (top to bottom on picture)
Wolf Riders and a Chief on Wolf (out of picture)
Wolf Chariot (squiq)
2 Skewerers
20 Orcs
Wolf Chariot
3 Trolls + 30ish Goblins
30ish Goblins (with BSB)
30ish Cave Goblins (with Big Shaman and Goblin King)
2 Skewerers
Wolf Riders and a Chief on Wolf, Giant behind them
Boar Riders (with Orc Chief on Boar)1 Skewerer
Then we made some Vanguard moves (my Reiters and his 2 units of Wolfriders and his 2 Wolf Goblin Chiefs as loose units).
My Knightly Order found it a juicy target and charged the Wolf Riders but they fled. Redirecton too them in the Goblin Chief on Wolf. A round of combat later the Chief fled aswell but wasn’t fast enough taking the Knights almost into the Skewerer.
On the other side the Reiters fared less good, after a few shots they got charged, but their feigned flee didn’t get them far enough out of the way and they got caught by a chariot. That taunted the waiting Knights of the Sun Griffon.
They then cleaned up most of the board on that side besides the sneaky Goblin Chief that later took out the Cannon before being shot down by the fusillade of the Handgunners.
The center didn’t fare that good though, with lots of shots from the Skewerers the Marshal and his Great Griffon took to many hits and was downed.
The Trolls took a beating by the Swordsmen and Captain, but the goblins behind the Trolls finished the job very good (with abysmall dice rolling on my behalf..) and a Mad Git. Routing Swordsmen got caught. Help from the big Halberdier unit was far to be found.. (failed charge rolls) So I lost both my anchors pretty fast in the battle.
So how did the Knights on the other side go? Well the Giant wanted to play with them and managed to squeeze thru the wolf riders and boar riders to get to them. He was badly injured though from the only cannonball hit that I got off. (Down on 2 wounds).
The Giant then managed to tie up the Knights (with failed fear tests) for 3-4 combat rounds.
When they finally passed their fear test it was done pretty fast. Just to pick up the fight with the boar riders.
Meanwhile back in the middle… I got the mutation spell off killing a quarter of the Cave goblins. But then all those goblins decided to hold movement for a turn and let loose all those volley fire arrows.. about 75 shots.. it took out around a quarter of my Halberdier unit who then decided it was not a good environment to stay in and fled off the board..
I then decided to throw in the towel.. As the game took long enough with all those rules reading and getting to grips with the game (haven’t played 8th in a while either).
We did do the battle between the Knights and Boar Riders to see how it would have ended. Well only the Orc Chief on Boar would survive that onslaught.
Conclusion (as far as I can take one after 1 game)
All in all it feels way more balanced then 8th did, even though we still made some crucial mistakes here and there. Magic still feels underrated and most doesn’t do much as it’s easily dispelled.
After playing (for me) lot’s of Age of Sigmar games it does feel off to spend so much time before hand to get an army list going even if my opponent flung one in pretty fast there and then.. But all those rules, tables for dice rolling and looking them up. Reading, interpreting… there is so much time lost.. And I know after several games it all will go a lot faster, but in my meta there won’t be much games to do.
So I rather stick to AoS but if someone wants I will definitely try another game of 9th.
