I love 8th Edition, me!

[ACE01]

It's up to us, we are the community after all!

I'm half way tempted to do 'beginners guides' to the Army Books, based on a fixed template of common Fantasy Strategies. Won't be intended to be a comprehensive guide on how to win, but to give a broad idea as to what you can and can't do with each army.

I'd read that, would be great to bring new people in too, since new players = new readers/posters.

I'll go ahead and do something with my tk/lizards, and see if it's worth continuing!

[Cap'nSmurfs]

If there's an appetite, I'd be happy to do/contribute to a thread covering the collecting, modelling and gaming sides as a player returning after not playing since the 90s. What do people think, could we so this collectively to keep each other on track?

I would be completely into this and would do it. One of the things I always love in White Dwarf is when they do the Tale of Four Gamers. It's a decent model for getting armies done and generating enthusiasm.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

Think I'll attempt to build the beginning articles around the contents of the Battalion boxed sets and that.

[ACE01]

I would be completely into this and would do it. One of the things I always love in White Dwarf is when they do the Tale of Four Gamers. It's a decent model for getting armies done and generating enthusiasm.

Right! I'll try to get something together in the next day or so tracking my progress so far.

I'd be up for doing a tale of x gamers though, love those articles!

[lupo1982]

I hate this edition, really explain me that,
Me Empire(old 1 bnot new dex) vs Lizards

1st Turn for Lizzy Slan launch the Purple Sun of sometingh however is a full power so un-bloccable don't know the english name couse i'm italian
anyway it kill half of my list including general rest of the list test and fail on leadership running away

1st turn for me i got 10 Gunners on the table.....i force myself to not scream and launch it all away
than put all the stuff back in the bag

What is my mistake? what? i've never have a change of play!i lost on enemy first turn!! simply for an unstoppable force power , **** it 8th edition is all laucnh 2 die if u luck win if no lose NO TACTIC no LIST CHOOSING nothing only luck, tanke you army go straingh forward pray for high charge roll pray for high die on combat.

I play fantsy game i play Mordheim that its very well done and despite rats and beastman is BALANCED!

[Mr Mystery]

I've had the really naughty spells do horrendous damage only a handful of times. And yes, they messed me up on occasion (except my Ogres, who frankly defy probability on I tests!).

And this threat discourages 'death star' units, encouraging a more thoughtful and considered deployment.

Now in keeping with the first post, I'm not trying to say anyone's opinion is wrong. Just countering.

[Kirsten]

yup, it is exceedingly rare for magic to have a big effect like that. not only are the average magical effects pretty low, but you have a good chance of stopping some spells even if you don't take much, or any, magical defence. sure it is unfortunate to lose on the first turn due to one irresistible force spell. but I would bet that never happens to you again.

[Chronowraith]

I hate this edition, really explain me that,
Me Empire(old 1 bnot new dex) vs Lizards

1st Turn for Lizzy Slan launch the Purple Sun of sometingh however is a full power so un-bloccable don't know the english name couse i'm italian
anyway it kill half of my list including general rest of the list test and fail on leadership running away

1st turn for me i got 10 Gunners on the table.....i force myself to not scream and launch it all away
than put all the stuff back in the bag

What is my mistake? what? i've never have a change of play!i lost on enemy first turn!! simply for an unstoppable force power , **** it 8th edition is all laucnh 2 die if u luck win if no lose NO TACTIC no LIST CHOOSING nothing only luck, tanke you army go straingh forward pray for high charge roll pray for high die on combat.

I play fantsy game i play Mordheim that its very well done and despite rats and beastman is BALANCED!

While I only know the information that you've presented in your post... what you've stated is fairly unlikely given the variables stated (although instances of this have happened in every edition of Fantasy). At most the the Purple Sun is a large blast that moves a maximum of 36" in a straight line. Given that the caster is a Slann it's unlikely that in the first turn he's in the flank of your army to "kill half your list". Moreover, if the Slann was in Temple Guard and not in the front rank, he'd be doing at least a few wounds to his own unit. At most he probably wiped out whatever your most powerful unit of ranked infantry was (that likely had several characters in it) and they broke and ran which caused other nearby units to panic and run as well. This happens. It has always happened in Fantasy. Every edition has stories like this and yes, it sucks. However, this isn't due to some intrinsic flaw found only in 8th edition. Even in 7th edition I saw whole armies panic and run off the table due to particularly bad die rolling. At the end of the day it's a game of chance because it relies on dice to accomplish fundamental actions like attacking, casting, etc. The new edition didn't change that except to add random charges and make magic a little less reliable. Chance has been a factor of every single edition of 40k and Fantasy.

[Aenir]

As a Bretonnian Player, I don't like 8th ed, but not just because Brets suck now :P (I also used to play empire)

Charge distances. I don't like additional random rolling for more steps, I would have liked it to be a choice, 2x Movement flat, or you can try for movement + 2d6, the choice would be fine with me, it lets you pull off those cinematic super long charges, but if you don't want to put your faith in the hands of nuffle (BB, Woo!) you have a standard you can fall back onto.

Magic I think that some spells are wayyy too powerful, especially if you IF it. You always see people hoping for Dwellers or Purple sun, namely because of the potential damage it can give out. Magic Resistance is nearly useless now, as all the spells you would want it for don't allow the saves, and the smaller spells your Armor / Ward is usually sufficient.

Large Blocks of infantry, sure its a nice change from MSU all over the place, but they went a bit too far, If a unit of ANY book's heavy horse hits say, Skaven slaves, that unit of slaves should be decimated, as it is, you kill maybe 10, they stay there and then weight of numbers ties you in and its over. I wish if they got charged, there would be some sort of upgraded reaction which leads into the next part

Psychology... I don't know where to go with this, It just seems a complete non-factor anymore, WS 1 is a pain, but given that most armies have large blocks of infantry, even if you only hit/wound on 6s, you still throw enough out that it doesn't really matter, worse with spears

Im not sure what else could be changed atm, this IS as of about a year ago (when I last played due to local store closing) But even then, WHFB was even going down at that point, a campaign in 7th or 'Ard Boyz filled up the tables with extras (~20 people total) last 'ard boyz had 4 people, and I was doing it because I worked there to help fill out the bracket. All anecdotal sure, but it just points out that 8th doesn't really seem to work too well here at least

[Mr Mystery]

There's also dirty items you can use to.....discourage high dice casting.

My favourite is the feedback scroll. For every die rolled to cast, roll another. On a 5+ the caster suffers a wound. With a bit of luck, you can take the casters head clean off. Doesn't really help with IF, but the miscast usually does that job anyway.

Whip that out, and in future your opponents will be a lot more conservative when rolling to cast!

On the subject of Slavepits (not as kinky as it sounds, not even remotely), that's what they're there to do. And at the risk of sounding a right harsh git, don't charge it. Skaven are rubbish without their general. Without his Ld, Slaves top out at a lack lustre ld5. So look for ways to bump off his general.

Psychology....I think the change was needed. Auto-break due to Fear is a harsh loss for Undead, but would have made them horribly bent against Hordes. Ws1 is a lot harsher than it first seems. WS2 stuff swaps to-hit rolls. And against Heavy and Elite infantry, that's an unpleasant shift, especially as they're quite squishy if you actually get to slap them around for a change. And there's the chance it will go off in every round of combat.

It's not everyone's cup of tea of course. No system can be. But I heartily recommend dusting off your models and giving it another bash!