I am primarily a historical gamer. My love of history made getting into historical gaming an easy move and one that has turned into a life long hobby. Over time, I spread my wings and got into fantasy and science fiction gaming. All these systems had their own lore and written “history”, so I guess that helped. The first fantasy game I dipped my feet into was Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I liked the lore that GW immersed their system in. I liked their miniatures and how the games looked and the “feel” of the game. Kind of a historical ancients with magic!
Over time, my collection of fantasy battle figures and armies took the first spot in overall value of my collection. I looked forward to each new version of the rules (which I always felt was better than the version that it replaced) and army books. My collection continued to grow and I met new friends along the way. This kept going until “the End Times”… GW decided to kill the game that had given me and my friends so many fun games and stories. That left me with a huge collection of miniatures that no longer had a game….
GW released Age of Sigmar and I gave it a try. I think it is a fine game. Frankly, it fixes a lot of the short comings in the older mechanics of Fantasy Battle. However, it is a blob game (which describes most modern games). You have a whole bunch of figures that move and fight in groups, with little maneuver. I think this is fine for squad level gaming, particularly when we are talking about more modern periods. However, it was not my thing, I wanted to command blocks of troops and out maneuver my opponents….
Kings of War came out shortly after “the End Times” and I gave it a whirl. Formations were back, but it just did not hook me. I liked the idea of every unit being an opportunity for building mini dioramas (reminded me of the old game Flower of Chivalry). It might have been the lack of lore (something that takes years to build), but probably just that it was too generic for my taste. Blocks got pushed together and were not that different from each other. I also really disliked how one player did everything until they were done and the other just sat there as a spectator. I needed immersion and my opponent’s interaction!
Well, fortunately, the Ninth Age came out and I had a successor to 8th edition Warhammer. My buddies and I jumped in with both feet. At first, the game was mostly like 8th edition, but with more balancing. We played games, collected more minis, even focussed a YouTube channel on it (something I need to get back to…). However, as time went on, the lack of a company backing it up and the lack of hobby shop direct support started to drag and made it hard to get more players. Then as time went on, the game changed more and more, with a greater focus on tournament play. I know a lot of tourney players and this is their fun zone. However, I’m not really a tourney player. I like group games and like the occasional random event to throw my plans out the window. As such, my interest in the game faded over time….
I tried some other rules out there the last few years, but they just did not scratch the right itch. Then we got the first GW spoiler showing a square base… Could it be? Then the rumors started to flow very slowing that Fantasy Battle would be returning. I, of course, lapped these up like a doberman at his water dish. Covid came and everything slowed down (except my painting). Things started to get back to normal for all of us and the rumors started to pick up, along with my anticipation… As we got closer, the rumors ramped up more. The game would be out in 2023, then it was not… Would it come out in 2024 or was it now on hold? Who knew? Then we got into the holidays and the GW marketing team got into full gear. We got news every month, then every week, then a few times a week! It was finally official, the game would be available for ordering in January!
I was very excited, but also a bit nervous. What if the game sucked? What if it was just not my thing? Well, I would just have to wait and see. I got on my FLGS list and preordered all the books. I waited in the queue on order day and ordered all the cards from GW and then I waited. Then we got a little snow and all good plans were laid to waste… No stuff and more delays… I watched videos on Youtube to get info on the game. Things seemed very promising.. Then the day arrived and my books arrived at my FLGS, I drove that night to pick them up. My cards arrived the next day in the mail. All the waiting was over, I now had my 542 pounds of books and cards, which was offset by the amount of cash that was no longer in my wallet… Time to get reading!
My buddies and I did our reading and started to figure out what was what. Some things were clear, this was a different game and would take some time to master… How big should units be? What are the best formations? What will the Meta be? Lots of low level mages or a big guy? Those question and many more would only be answered by playing the game…
It was are normal Tuesday gaming night and we converged on our FLGS. The plan was for each person to organize 500 points of troops. We would play a 1500 point game with three players on each side. This way, we could all have some troops and learn from each other during the game. The smaller size should ensure we actually finished before the store closed (the games that I had watched to that point all went very long…..).
We set up the game with the forces of good being represented by the Dwarves, High Elves and Bretonnians. The forces of evil would be represented by the Dark Elves and Beastmen. The Beastmen had a level one mage, which was the only one on the table! There was even a Ghorgon! The forces of good would be represented by ground ponders. We lined up our troops and had at it.
The forces of good were shooting heavy, so they held back to “thin the heard” (pardon the pun). The evil doers advanced to engage, attempting to concentrate on the center and left, in order to leave the Bretonnians out of the fight. The shooting did its job and took a toll on the attackers, with the Bestigors being shot down. The witch elves made it forward, only to be overwhelmed by the Bretonnian knights and a Lion Chariot.
On the right, the Thunderers took on the rest of the Beastmen. They shot down the harpies screening the advance and thinned down ranks of Gore. However, there were just too many vile creatures. The Thunderers were joined on their hill by the commanding Thane and received the combined charge of the Gors and Ungors. Whether it was that the hill was too steep or it was the intervention of Grungi, no one will ever know. However, the Thunderers did not only hold, they won the first round (by one). This gave the Slayers time to support hill and drive the Ungors back, as they fled before getting to grips.
The forces of evil had hit their high water mark, now it was time for the forces of good to send them back to their evil layers. Bretonnians charged, elves shot and dwarves swung their Gromhil blades. In the end, the Dark Elves and the Beastmen were all but destroyed! The forces of good had prevailed!
That was our first group game. The plan for now is to play these smaller multi player games to help everyone learn the rules faster and then ramp up to larger games or run larger games when we have a whole afternoon. Going through the rules on paper, most things look like this will be the best version of WHFB ever. We do have a few worries on some mechanics that might be problematic (I’ll cover this in my rules review later). We will have to play more and see the counters. In the meantime, we all agreed. After a very long wait, Warhammer is back baby!
- Manteuffel