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Sell me on 9th age


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So I've been playing Kings of War up here, but it's hard to get any traction with it, I'm hoping 9th age can do that.  

BUT.....

I really dig the not having to re-rank up models post game, the fixed unit sizes makes the game quick to play and re-setup and gives lots of tactical play.  

I have heard 9th age is quite a bit like 8th, except with a few tweaks to reduce magic and other small rules changes, that the biggest thing is the rebalancing of the army books.  Is this true?

Any way to play this with kings of war style bases? Mark casualties with dice etc?  I tend to play armies of the largish size so going back to having to re-rank units of 40ish doesn't thrill me in the slightest, and to be frank I enjoyed 7th edition much more than 8th (although I'll fully admit it was the super crazy magic phases that were my biggest peeve).

Someone sell me on this game, I've downloaded books, but struggle to motivate myself to read them to potentially get into yet another game that is flash in the pan.

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9th has such an uphill battle. Every once in a while I go out and start reading the 9th age stuff. But as soon as I read through one of the books, I get turned away from it.

 

I too really like KoW, but again, traction here in Portland is slim. WFB didn't have a huge following anyways, and once the player base got disbanded, I just don't see anything bringing them back in. Good luck.

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As someone who also preferred 7th to 8th, I think I can sell you on 9th.

 

The biggest thing that I liked about 7th that 8th took away was just how critical a well-planned flank or rear charge could be to taking out your opponent's units. Steadfast was designed to bring big blocks of troops back to the forefront, but without flank charges taking it away, we got huge Deathstar units that were impossible to beat unless you had a huge Deathstar unit of your unit. This is no longer the case as not only can Steadfast be broken, but flank and rear charges give even bigger static combat resolution bonuses if you have at least one full rank in your unit.

 

The rest of the story:

 

9th fixed magic. You can't use more than 5 dice to cast and the miscast chart gets worse the more dice you use. You can't be sucked into the warp with 3 or less dice anymore. Irresistible force is also no longer an auto-cast, but adds d3 + PDU (power dice used) to the total and can still be scrolled. All of the magic lores have been rebalanced and the crappy lores that had maybe one good spell (Orcs & Goblins anyone?) have been made worthwhile across the board.

 

9th fixed balance. The army books have all been exhaustively re-balanced after lots of playtesting and review. This is both external balancing between the different armies to bring everyone to the same power level and internal balancing within the books to try to take away "auto-include" units and make every unit in the army a valid choice.

 

9th fixed gameplay. Imagine playing a game of Warhammer and having every rules question actually spelled out in the text instead of having to dig through FAQs (which are often inconclusive) and internet arguments over RAW vs RAI. This is 9th Age. They have done a fantastic job of making all of the weird scenarios that come up during a game actually spelled out in the rules in clear language that makes sense. And if there's ever any questions, it is amazing how quickly you can get a response from the people that actually wrote the rules on the 9th Age forums.

 

I could go further into specific improvements, but these 4 are the big selling points for me along with just the fact that I really love the idea that 9th Age is a game made by people who love playing Warhammer for people who love playing Warhammer. A community supported projected that actually has it's s*** together with IP lawyers, top tournament players, artists, writers, and all kinds of other talented people that actually care about the hobby getting together and making it work is something that I love supporting, especially given the alternative of a money-hungry Corporation that went deaf to the needs and concerns of its community in favor of tightening up that profit margin for their investors.

 

And as for playing with Kings of War "unit-sized" bases, I think if I were across the table from you I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as you were cool with explaining what's going on and we were able to be gentlemen about it. I think you would find yourself hurting a little bit for the lack of flexibility with reforming, but it might be fine. I'd personally recommend just relying on "unit-filler" type blocks in the middle of your unit with some single-based guys around to make things work if a reform was needed, but like I said, I wouldn't really care either way if I was playing you.

 

I think 9th Age is definitely not a flash in the pan, especially with the new inclusion of Avatars of War starting a whole 9th Age redesign of their website and lots of other miniature companies hopping on board as well. There's even a 9th Age US Masters event being organized from what I've been hearing so from what I can see, this game is going to take off big. It's actually already pretty huge in Europe and starting to take off on the East Coast so I'm really excited about it's future and get more excited with each game I play!

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  • 3 weeks later...

No, come to AoS. 9th Age to me is a skeleton of its offspring 8th. AoS has updated its rules and fixed a big thing that 8th players were crying about. No points. Yes I know the other thing is round bases and no rank and file. But you can get over that. The Generals Handbook is worth reviewing. Come to AoS lets get this party started.

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Yes I know the other thing is round bases and no rank and file. But you can get over that. 

You say that so casually, like the loss of "rank and flanks" was just a minor difference between 8th and AoS. Personally, the loss of rank and file is what drove me AWAY from Age of Sigmar; I already had a 40K army, and the blocked trooped movement is what made WHFB tactically different from. When they took that away, I didn't really see any reason to stay with GW and switched over to Kings of War. KoW was great, and I still really like it. But it really did feel like a stripped down version of WHFB, despite what other people (myself included) said. 

 

As someone who loved 8th edition and wished the whole "End Times" never happened, 9th Age has been a perfect. You say it feels like a skeleton of 8th, which is fair; it's your opinion, and it's definitely not my place to say you're wrong. In my opinion, I feel like it's LESS of a skeleton that WHFB was, in the sense that it is a community driven project, concerned with balancing the game rather than selling the next big model. 

 

I'm not trying to bash on AoS. I think ascetically the game is very striking right now. While I did not care for any of the new Sylvaneth models, I think a lot of the new Orruk stuff looked ace. I'll guiltily admit I like the Stormcast models. Heck, I've got a buddy who is interested in putting together a small AoS force, and now that there are actually points, I'll probably try the game out with him. 

 

I think AoS is a fine alternative for someone who is looking to play a cool "mass skirmish" style game with fantasy miniatures. I definitely respect your opinion Mike, and I admire your enthusiasm to get AoS up and running. I think for someone who is looking for a more "traditional, rank-and-flank" style game that continues the spirit of Warhammer Fantasy while fixing a lot of its issues (and doesn't make you buy any books  :wink: ), 9th Age is the way to go.

 

Again, just my opinion, said will all due respect.

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Age of Sigmar is a completely different game and that's okay, but if you like ranked fantasy battles, 9th is the game for you.

 

The only way that you could truthfully say that 9th is the skeleton of 8th is if 8th had its flesh stripped away to a skeleton and then that skeleton was laced with adamantium and then the healing factor kicked in and it regenerated into a more badass unkillable version of itself that truly is the best there is at what it does.

 

Now just wait for 9th Age to oversaturate itself in the wargaming scene for 3 decades before eventually getting killed off and then coming back as an old man from an alternate timeline. MARK MY WORDS.

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Hooray! I'm super glad people had a good time and am especially excited for the future of Fantasy in the region! One of my favorite comments from someone not playing in the tournament was that seeing the models on the table and people enjoying the game went a long way toward undoing hurt caused by GW ending Warhammer and made them excited to play again. I'm really hopeful that as people see 9th Age being played more around the area, the game will come back to life and we'll enter a new golden age of Fantasy Wargaming!

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AoS' continuing evolution is making it more palatable, but I still don't think I can bring myself to step into that pile quite yet........

 

Then dont. OFCC was the best its ever been and I think that is because of 9th age. I was not worried one bit that I would face overpowered armies and I didnt. I got 5 good, close games against good opponents. Rules disputes were quickly resolved because the book is very clear and complete. Armies were closer in power level and most units were worth taking so there was diversity in the same factions. Since I and my opponents have become familiar with the new rules and books, it has always been fun and more importantly, close. My 9th age games have usually been nail bitters that come down to the last turn or so.

 

highly recommended. 

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I'm very excited to start learning 9th Age.  The #1 selling point to me is that the rules writers are committed gamers, and that GW no longer has its clumsy, unsupportive, condescending, awful-rules-writing hands in the books.  I'm also really really hopeful that next year's OFCC puts Malifaux back on Friday for a single day 3-game tourney, and then 9th age for the Sat/Sun event.  Yay for crowd-sourcing!! :)

 

NtK

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