8th Edition - First Games

Over the weekend I was running Maelstrom VII for Warhammer 40k but took the opportunity to play my first couple of games of 8th Edition.

On Saturday I played Tom's Daemons with a very 7th Edn Skaven list, while on Sunday Gordon brought along his Bretonnians. The list I used on Sunday was very much an 8th Edn list - 5 characters, 4 Rares.

The new rules were very easy to pick up and use. While I'm sure we played some things wrong, all three of us got a good feel for how the mechanisms worked.

I was very surprised how important the new Steadfast rule proved to be. Skavenslave units were able to hold up many their points worth of Flesh Hounds (Tom had two units of 6) allowing the Skaven army to whittle away the rest of the Daemons.

As we all knew Magic is much more fickle - but you don't realise how much until you have actually played it. In both games my Seer used the Plague deck and was able to get off some nice spells. Miscasts were common but I have quickly learned a few tricks to minimise the negative effects. I lost a Mage (not the Seer) but it was not catastrophic.

Both my opponents used Lore of Life and I can tell you that deck is going to get very old, very quick. The Life Attribute Lifebloom is a fantastic bonus to what is a very strong lore - Flesh to Stone, Throne of Vines and Regrowth are all great spells but you have the cheap to cast Awakening of the Wood to tap into the Lore Attribute. As I said I see the Lore of Life being very popular - excellent for Daemons (via a Tz Herald with Mastery of Sorcery)on soooo many levels

One of the biggest changes to the game is one that has drawn only minimal comment - no points unless unit is destroyed. In the second game I chose not to commit my HPA after he took five wounds from a Trebuchet. This meant that I denied Gordon any points for the beastie.

Having now played 8th I am very keen to start developing strategy and tactics with my 8th Edn Skaven.

I can say with confidence I've played my last game of Warhammer 7th!