9th age battle reports

[Sherbert]

since some of you guys seem on the fence about 9th age I thought I would post some of the battle reports that floating around youtube.

 

 

 

 

thats it for now. I would really suggest that anyone who was interested in 8th edition check some of these out. I got my first game of 9th age in last night and im completely hooked. great stuff.

[smashthedean]

I'm going to continue to throw reports of my games up on here. I think I'll actually just use this thread so I don't have to keep making new ones. As Sherbert mentioned, he got a game in on Tuesday and it was against me!

I ran mostly the same list as in my game against Jim:

Vampire Count: level 2, path of necromancy, blood drake, crimson rage, armored skeletal steed, beastbane halberd, dragonscale helm, divine icon, sprout of rebirth
I traded my 4+ ward from my previous build for a 4+ regen with fireborn from the helm and took the Beastbane Halberd which gives multiple wounds(2) against chariots and monstrous type things to combo with red fury for a lot of extra attacks.

Necromancer: level 2, path of necromancy, dispel scroll
I traded out the book of arkhan from my previous list for a scroll.

Barrow King: bluffer's helm, great weapon
I traded by 2+ armor save for opponents rerolling successful wounds on me.

Skeletons x 50: shields, full command
Skeletons x 60: spears, full command

Direwolves x 5
Direwolves x 5

Barrow Guards x 28: great weapons, full command, banner of the barrows

Vargbeast: vanguard
Vargbeast: vanguard

405 - Vampire Knights x 5: full command, bloodline unit, castelhof banner

 

No changes to the rest of my list really. For descriptions of the units and what is different from 8th, check out my other thread. I'm going to be writing most of this report assuming that people have read that so I won't be explaining all of the mechanical differences between 8th and 9th. Sherbert took a fairly direct adaptation of his 8E Light Council:

High Cleric (Arch Lector): popemobile, fear-causing helm
With the new combined profile rules, the popemobile gives the AL his 4+ ward back, but the best armor save he can get with magic items is a 3+. Banishment has been nerfed down to the basic version (that he can cast from his bound spell) only being S4 but +1 to wound for each Light Wizard in range instead and the boosted version still being 24" max range, but getting the regular +1S like 8th. The AL gets to reroll failed castings of Blessings though which is really good.

Archwizard (Wizard Lord): level 4 (light), dispel scroll
I'm pretty sure he's more expensive than he used to be at level 4, which is the case for level 4s in all of the army books.

Captain: bsb, 1+ armor, hw/shield
Captains now have orders that they can give to their units to make them more maneuverable, give them cold blooded leadership, or boost their shooting.

Captain: pegasus, lance, 1+ armor
Pretty much the same unless they didn't have combined profile before when mounted on pegasi.

Apprentice (Battle) Wizard: level 1 (light)
Apprentice (Battle) Wizard: level 1 (light)

Imperial Heavy Infantry (Halberdiers) x 40: halberds, full command

Militia x 20: support unit
Detachments didn't change much from 8th except that they don't have to be deployed next to their parent unit anymore (but still have to be close to get to make the free charge reactions I think). Also additional hand weapons give +1 initiative now.

Militia x 10: bows, skirmishers, support unit
Instead of having separate units for Archers they combined them into Militia, but you can also take skirmishing dudes with just additional hand weapons or with pistols or whatever so that's cool. Jim is excited to field Duelists again I know.

Imperial Heavy Infantry (Swordsmen) x 25?: full command
Parry giving -1 to hit made these guys good again.

Knights x 5: musician, lance, shield
Pretty much the same, I think they went down to WS3 from 4 (unless that was a 7th to 8th change), but are cheaper.

Worshippers (Flagellants) x 30
Holy balls these guys are amazing now. Flails are now +2S every round, but give enemies +1 to hit you, they never lose Frenzy and got bumped up to WS3 along with getting cheaper. They also have an option to upgrade a unit champion into a mini-Warrior Priest that gives them Hatred and can cast Blessings.

Imperial Reiter Cavalry (Pistoliers) x 5: brace of pistols, musician
These guys are also really really good now. They get to make a special close combat attack with their pistols on the charge, got upped to BS4, and got cheaper. Very nice.

Steel (Steam) Tank
Got a lot easier to use and is still very good. Generating steam points is gone and you now just have a chart and become less effective as you take wounds plus you can grind in your opponent's round of close combat.

Imperial Beast Riders (Demigryphs) x 3: lances
These guys got dropped down to a 2+ max armor save

Black Powder War Machine (Great Cannon): cannon
Cannons and Mortars got moved to Rare and now share the same unit to keep armies from going to heavy on them. Cannons also have very different mechanics which proved to be still very accurate, but with a higher chance to miss if shooting at a small target. Basically you pick a point (generally the front of the unit you're targeting), scatter 1d6+1" from that point, subtract your BS from the scatter, and then bounce 1d6" from that point. If you hit, you do 1d3+1 wounds or 1d3+2 if you're targeting a flier. I like this a lot because it makes sniping lone characters harder with the scatter and makes it impossible to one-shot a W6 dragon, but also impossible to just do less than 3 wounds to him. Oh, also there's no look out sir anymore, you auto-pass if you have 5+ models of the same unit type in your unit.

Let me know if I missed anything Sherbert. Now, on to the battle report!

We tried out the new random terrain rules and ended up with a fairly balanced battlefield. We had a couple of ruins, a couple of hills, a forest, a building, and a field (dangerous terrain to cav/chariots and makes your units inside of it flammable!) None of the terrain made a huge impact on the game so I won't go into exactly where it was too much. I dropped my dogs first as individual drops so I could get an idea of where he'd be deploying and then dropped the rest of my army at once to get first turn once I had a general idea. I'm really enjoying this new deployment tactic as I often field smaller more elite armies so accepting I'll be outdeployed and getting the guaranteed first turn is a nice option. I set up my dogs on each flank with a Varghulf nearby, my infantry in the center, and my Vampire Knights with my General on my right flank. Sherbert deployed in a fairly tight line across the right side of the battlefield from the edge of my right-side to about 3/4 across the board. His Demigyrphs were holding up his left-side along with the Pistoliers in support. I vanguarded up all of my stuff and took my first turn.

On my turn one I moved my right-side dogs up to block his Steam Tank and advanced with everything full-speed ahead. Without a good place to go, I put the right-side Varg behind a building peeking out a bit and moved the left-side one up behind his lines, but a good distance from anything useful thanks to the ruins. My magic phase was garbage and I got nothing off :(

On his turn one he charged his knights into the flank of my dogs and moved his Pistoliers around to shoot at my left-Varg. I shut down a big banishment on my Varg, but he got a 5+ ward bubble through. His cannons both shot at my Knights and I ward saved one cannonball, but lost a Knight to the second and his Pistoliers got two wounds through on my Varg.

On my turn two I decided I wanted to see what my Knights could do and charged in at the Tank. I liked my odds here with 10 S7 attacks and my Lord swinging 5 S6 attacks with MW2 and red fury. The rest of my units continued the slow slog up the board and my Vargs shuffled around for position. The left-side one failed his march test and had to abandon his hopes of going behind the lines, so I lined up facing the rear of the Demigryphs instead. My magic again failed to do anything, but I did get his dispel scroll so that's something I guess. In combat my Vampire Knights did great, doing 7 wounds on the Tank, but my Lord completely whiffed and I was stuck with the Halberds and the Knights on either flank. I was really expecting to blow through the Tank with my MW2, in retrospect I really should have taken a Strength Potion instead of the Divine Icon to give me the extra boost when I needed it, but oh well.

His turn two my Knights with my Lord got double flank charged by the Halberds and Knights so that was pretty cool. He also charged his Flagellants into my Grave Guard, which I felt pretty good about and charged the Demis into my remaining Direwolves. His magic phase started with an overwhelming power banishment on my right-side varghulf that I decided to let through both in hopes of a bad miscast and to save dice for the inevitable buff spells that he had lined up for the big combat. I managed to stop the rest of his buffs except for a 5+ ward bubble that he got through. His Flagellants killed and my Grave Guard traded wounds almost to a man. I really should have done more hitting and wounding on 2s, but his ward save saved the day. In the big combat, my Blood Drake champion took the challenge with his Halberd champ and killed him dead. My Lord once again completely whiffed on the Steam tank, but the other Knight was able to put a couple of wounds through on the Halberds and I took no wounds back. In the end, I lost combat by 2 and lost a Knight... which was a pretty good result as far as I was concerned!

On my turn three I brought my shield Skeletons into his Halberdiers' flank and sent my left-side Varg and my spear Skeletons into his Demis (which obviously made short work of the dogs last turn). All of my units were now in combat! In the magic phase, he blocked my Hellish Vigor, but I got an Invocation through and healed back a Knight plus a second Knight with a single wound thanks to the lore attribute. Things were looking up! I was excited to try out the new lethal strike ability of spears, but my Skeletons couldn't put a single wound through and my Varg rolled 4 hits followed by triple 1s to wound. With only the one wound and plenty of dead Skeletons I lost combat by 2 and my pre-wounded Vargbeast popped. It was a sad story. Elsewhere, my Lord finished off the Tank and my Knight champion got into a challenge with his BSB while the remaining Knights and their angry ponies killed a lot of Halberds. I think the Skeletons even killed some too and I ended up winning combat by 3 so with my Fear in the mix, he needed 5s to stick, but had given the Cold Blooded Leadership order the previous round on the Halberds and stuck and then the Knights stuck too! Boo!!! Elsewhere the Flagellants and the Grave Guard continued to trade wounds. I think I lost combat by 1.

His turn three he sent his Popemobile and Captasus into the Skeletons in the big combat and threw his Pistoliers into the flank of the doomed spear-skellies. He had another big magic phase and got a reroll to wound bubble along with Time Warp on his Flaggies (that spell is crazy good now! +1 to hit, +1 attack and double movement!). His combo charge on the left tore through the spear Skeletons and my spears continued to fail to do anything against the Demis. Stuck around with a small number of Skeletons left. In the center of the board, his Time Warped Flaggies killed off my Grave Guard completely. So to go over that again, a 270 point unit with buffs from a good lore destoyed a 416 point unit with a 125 point character in it. None of the lore of Necromancy spells would have helped that combat even if I had gotten some good magic phases so that isn't good. Basically I don't think I'll be taking Barrow Guard again until they get some fixes. Anyway, over to the big combat - My Lord made way to the Halberds and tore through some dudes with the help of the other Knights while my champion and his BSB traded wounds onto each other and a lot of Skeletons died from the Popemobile and Captasus combo charge. In the end I lost combat by 1 and lost the Knight I'd brought back with a single wound, but got the wound back on my champion with The Hunger so that was something.

Top of 5 started with all of my units engaged so we swiftly moved along to magic, where I put Hellish Vigor on my Knights to maximize their killing power, which they used to great effect, tearing through a lot of Halberdiers once combat rolled around and giving me a solid 4-point victory once everything was added up. The Halberds, Knights, and Captasus broke, the Knights fleeing through a building and off the board and the Halberds just barely escaping my Knights' attempt to run them down. The Pope stuck around and my Skeletons turned to face him and then his Wizard bunker Archer unit failed their panic test and fled 10 inches toward the table edge! They were pretty certain to rally next round and would be able to cast, but I was still pretty happy about the moral victory behind it. Oh, also my spear skeletons died, whatever.

Bottom of 5 he brought his Flaggies into the shield Skeleton combat along with the Militia into their flank and then... his Wizards failed to rally and ran off the board!!! Huzzah!! His Halberds rallied and turned to face the Vampires. Nothing really happened in magic and then his cannon took a juicy shot at the flank of the Knights and thanks to the new scatter mechanic, barely missed their target! Huzzah!

Long story short at this point, the Pope and friends finished off the Skeletons and the Vampires charged in and killed off the Halberd unit. The shop was closing at this point so we ended after the bottom of 5. All added up it was a Major Victory for the Empire with around 750 points in his favor (after the 250 point objective in the center of the table that I forgot to mention was added in). Once again, I had a blast and am enjoying the hell out of 9th Age. I thought I was totally boned after I blew it on my early charge, but the Vampire Knights are super bad dudes to the end. The rest of the army... didn't do so hot, but that's okay. I am definitely swearing off Grave Guard for a while and might try out a Strigoi list next time, but I'm definitely still enjoying the new VC.

[gilgamesh]

Looks like a fun game.  I have been looking into 9th Age some recently and am excited it is catching some traction.  I watched some of OnceBitten360's battle reports too and the game seems like the game works pretty well.

I still need to read up on all the rules, not just the main book but also for the armies.