Age of Sigmar Test Game!
Well we did it Cobbers! We took the plunge!
This week we played our very first game of Age of Sigmar!
Using our much loved and frankly quite neglected Warhammer Fantasy armies we (cob)bled together two 1000pts armies. The battle saw the High Elves going up against the forces of Chaos, a mix mash of Chaos comprised of Beastmen and Slaves to Darkness.
We were apprehensive to begin AoS because we didn't know how to build lists that would be equally matched. Luckily there is an incredible Warscroll builder that we've fallen in love with!
It has all the units you need, a points value, magic items and abilities, you can name your heroes, detail the equipment of your warriors and then download and save your army list and it's all written out for you. It was a bit awkward for High Elves, the units had been split into different categories but eventually we got it going and we were off to a great start!
After a couple of read through's of the rules we had a pretty firm grasp of the game, it is really simple at it's heart and really that's what makes it quite attractive to play. There were a few things we didn't understand/thought were a little over complex and unnecessary however. We scrapped the part of the rules that details the abilities of the terrain. We felt this was a little over complicated for a first game and so gave it a miss. The game details victory conditions for major and minor victories which were perhaps a little (but not very) complicated. Basically, table your opponent to gain a major victory, or slay a higher percentage of their army for a minor victory. The rules didn't stipulate how many turns the game should really be played for...so we decided to take a punt at 6!
With the game length decided, the board set up, and a tentative grasp on the rules established we began our game!
One thing that was apparent straight away was that compared to Fantasy, movement phases were a lot simpler! As much as we loved Fantasy, there was a lot of wheeling, turning arcs, marching and angles to contend with, the joy of AoS is the armies feel so much more free, and fluid. Movement is much simpler without losing the tactics of how far forward you are placing your army and whether or not your units are exposed to charges.
We learnt quite a few things about our armies very early on. The first thing being that Beastmen are incredibly quick! Within two turns they had sprinted the entire length of the board and engulfed the High Elf Bolt Thrower that had only managed to scratch a couple of Chaos Ogres. In our old games the Bolt Throwers would sit at the back and be practically untouchable whilst they rained death. But the Beastmen in AoS replace their lack of ranged options with a great speed to help quickly close down those pesky archers and war machines! It was a great change from a Chaos players perspective.
But High Elves were happy also! Often push over's in combat in Fantasy the High Elves appeared to have a lot of rules that made them a lot more sturdy in combat. They have a high bravery and their banners make this bravery even higher meaning they can last a good while in combat without losing too many men to Battleshock whilst chipping away at their enemies!
These changes made both players very happy, and definitely balanced out the game, our old Fantasy games would usually boil down to the High Elves shooting Chaos to pieces and then Chaos obliterating The Elves in combat. So our old games would be a question of could the Elves shoot enough Chaos to survive the combat phase. But this game was very different! The game was close all the way through which really upped the tension, competitiveness and the fun!
Another big positive for us was the Combat phase. The scrapping of comparing Weapon Skills and consulting charts is a great move, the general hitting and wounding scores of weapons and troops makes the combat phase flow so much better, and means that any troop can hurt another. Previously in Fantasy the use of WS meant the troops with the best WS went up against the enemy troops with the best WS because they were the only ones who could really hit anything, which doesn't make for an exciting game.
One thing we love about The LOTR Battle Strategy Game, is the idea that every enemy is deadly, even a lowly Goblin can get a lucky jab of a knife in and wound your heroes. We love this because it makes sense, although warriors can be gifted with exceptional skill with weapons, there are always going to be instances where enemies will land a hit, either through luck or through sheer weight in numbers. AoS has this same philosophy, meaning that your Chaos Lord can't just stand at the head of a mass of twenty High Elf Spear-men and just knock their countless spears aside because he's WS 9. Now he's still lethal enough to take out most of the unit, but the unit will most likely take him down with them.
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows however, and there were a few things that were a little cumbersome and frustrating.
The sheer bulk of rules and special abilities and effects was very hard to get your head around. Each unit has its own ability and rules, which when you have 12 units on the table, gets a little hard to keep track of. Things get missed and half the time we were relying on the other persons good nature and sportsmanship to allow each other to go back and apply certain rules or re-rolls! Not only this, but units seemed to have a lot of different rules for standards, horns and shields. One unit would be able to ignore mortal wounds with shields, whereas another may get +1 to their save etc. Some horns added 1" to charge and run distances whilst others allowed you to run and charge in the same turn and so on.
This was hard to keep track of and a great bulk of time was spent in combat phases, reading, and re-reading and double checking the rules for each unit and what their equipment and weapons did. This part of the game relies heavily on player's accurately remembering the rules for each of their units. AoS requires players to really get to know their armies, which if you have a good memory is going to be easy! But if you don't then you are going to spend a lot of time with your head in Warscrolls with your opponent looking at you with growing frustration!
One other negative was that our game basically devolved into one central scrap in the middle of the table. Hopefully when we play more games we will see more tactical development and not just the usual slaughter in the middle.
But to be brutally honest, they were our only negatives in the entire game. Compared to Fantasy we did actually prefer it! (Sorry die hard Fantasy fans!) The game had a much better flow, made much more sense and was a lot more competitive and balanced. The free rules give you a great introduction to the game, and you can play a very decent game of AoS even though you're missing some of the finer details and advanced rules.
We are really chuffed with it and are definitely going to play a few more games and get some of our other units from our armies involved!
But enough of the analysis, you want to know who won right? Well, take heart children of Chaos, the forces of Chaos scored a Major Victory over the Elves, even though all that remained of the Chaos army were the three Heroes they started with! The Elves slaughtered the entire Chaos battlelines ALL in close combat! But in the end they just couldn't put those heroes down with the thin smattering of troops they had left, although wounded the Chaos Lord and Beastlord polished off a handful of White Lions and Spearmen pretty comfortably in turn 5 to finish the game.
The trail game has given us a firm enough grasp on the rules and our armies to allow us to build some bigger and meaner armies. So stay tuned Cobbers for even more AoS content coming very soon...
Below are some pictures from our epic battle for your perusal!
Until next time, Happy Wargaming!
