"Aren't we meant to be on the same side now?"
"Nah..."
Hi all, and welcome to this Battle Report I compiled testing out the new Age of Sigmar rules. Unless you've ignored pretty much every single thread in the
WHFB section these days, you'll know that one of the main qualms people have with Age of Sigmar is lack of a balancing system. Whilst many people are leaning to wounds, we decided to give the Formations a whirl, since they all look fairly evenly balanced. We (we being myself and my friend Lewis) kept all infantry units the same size (10 models, which was the minimum size for many) and both cavalry units as 5 models. Whilst all units can take Standard and Musicians, we just had a smattering of them, partly to fit in with
WYSIWYG but also to see how much of a difference it made. For the characters, we went off what the descriptions gave as potential combinations, as this seemed the fairest thing to do. We also threw a mage in on each side since High Elf and Dark Elf wizards have been pretty much the same cost since we both starting playing and we wanted to see how magic worked. So, this battle served to give the
AoS rules a go, as well as see how the Formations stood up to one another.
I'll be posting out thoughts on the battle and of our first foray into the Age of Sigmar rules at the end of the report - feel free to skip to there if you feel uneasy reading of such a violent encounter
The Armies Dark Elves (controlled by me)
Dreadlord with Chillblade
10 Bleakswords with standard and musician
2 x 10 Darkshards, one unit with musician
5 Dark Riders
5 Cold Ones with standard and musician
Sorceress
FWIW - 42 models / 60 Wounds
High Elves (controlled by Lewis)
Prince with Enchanted Polearm and Reaver Bow
2 x 10 Spearmen, one unit with standard, the other with a musician
2 x 10 Archers, one unit with standard and musician
5 Silver Helms with standard
Mage
FWIW - 47 models / 60 Wounds
Setup We couldn't be bothered expanding the kitchen table, so the battle was played on a 5'x3' field, which we thought would suit the skirmish nature of the battle batter, and, if anything, speed it up. We did forget that the field was only 3' wide at first though, so in our initial deployment (which I think is the one in the photo) all our units are slightly far too forward.
We did the whole alternating deployment shenanigans, which result in my deploying the Cold Ones and Dark Riders on one flank; the bleakswords, one unit of darkshards and the Dreadlord on the other flank; with the other darkshard unit and the sorceress on the hill in the centre. The High Elves had a unit of archers and a mage opposite my cavalry, the silver helms and another unit on the other flanks with the two spearmen unit and the prince in the centre.
DEPLOYMENT
Dark Elves win roll off to go first
Dark Elves Turn 1 Hero – Dreadlord uses IP on the bleakswords and the sorceress casts Mystical Shield on the Cold Ones
Move – Everything with the exception of the darkshards on the flank moves up with the Bleakswords and Dreadlord running into the cover of the forest (models can really shift when they want to!)
Shoot – Dark Riders shoot at the mage and take off a wound
High Elves Turn 1 Hero – Prince uses his re-roll ability on archers. Mage casts arcane bolt on dark riders and kills 3.
Move – Lewis moves everything up, bringing the archers into range and the silver helms dangerously close to the bleakswords and dreadlord
Shoot – Shooting kills one cold one and three bleakswords
Charge/COMBAT – Helms charge into bleakswords in cover. They kill one and the bleakswords fluff their to wound rolls in return
Battleshock – The depelted bleakswords lose another 4 models, everything else is fine
BOARD AFTER TURN 1 (sorry about rotation)
Dark Elves Turn 2 Hero – Dreadlord uses his re-roll wounds ability on darkshards. Sorceress sacrifices a model and casts word of pain on silver helms. The sacrifice was completely unnecessary but hey....
Move – Dark riders move further up the flank, the cold ones move close to archers and the dreadlord closer to the silver helms
Shoot – Darkshards on the hill pick off 3 spearmen, the buffed darkshards shoot at the silver helms causing 6 wounds but the helms pass all their saves. Dark riders pick another wound off the mage
Combat – Cold ones charge archers and take out four, losing a wound in return. The dreadlord charges into the silver helms and minces his way through 3 of them, whilst the helms and bleakswords fail to do anything.
Battleshock – Archers lose three more models, silver helms hold.
DREADLORD FACES DOWN THE SILVER HELMS
High Elves 2 Hero – Prince’s ability gives the spearmen re-rolls to hit, whilst the mage finishes off the dark riders with arcane bolt. (I did realise later, however, that Dark Riders have 2 wounds, not 1, and so they shouldn't have actually been dead by this point...)
Move – Prince and buffed spearmen move to help the archers with the cold ones, the other spearmen unit advances through the crater
Shoot – Archers pick off a bleaksword. Prince shoots his bow into the cold ones but they pass their saves.
Combat – Spearmen in the crater fail their charge on the darkshards opposite, but the prince and other spearmen make it into the cold ones. Prince causes 2 damage with his enchanted polearm, speramen do another wound, picking off the wounded cold one, leaving two left. Archers fail to wound. Cold Ones fail to do anything in return. On the other flank, the remaining Silver Helms do a wound on the dreadlord but the dreadlord finishes the off.
No battleshock
BOARD AFTER TURN 2
High Elves 3 Hero – Prince’s re-roll hits ability used on spearmen in middle of board, mage casts mystical shield on spearmen in combat with cold ones
Move – Spearmen in centre move closer to darkshards, mage moves closer into the centre of the board
Shoot – The archers near the forest pick off the last bleaksword. At this point we realise that the Prince and archers could have been shooting whilst in combat but, since we forgot, and we thought it was silly, we ruled that models couldn't do this for the rest of the battle.
Combat – Prince fluffs attacks but archers and spearmen together take down a cold one. Cold one does nothing in return again. In the combat on the hill, spearmen take out two darkshards, darkshards fail to do anything in return.
Battleshock – Darkshards on the hill lose two more
Dark Elves 3 Hero – Sorceress casts mystical shield on darkshards on the hill, dreadlord gives darkshards in the corner re-rolls to wound
Move – Sorceress retreats, dreadlord moves and runs to the archers, stopping at the edge of cover. Darkshards move closer to their fellow darkshards in order to shoot at spearmen,
Shoot – Only 4 darkshards in range of spearmen – fail to wound despite dreadlord buff
Combat – Cold one picks off a spearmen but prince finishes him off in return. Darkshards fail to do anything to spearmen and take a casualty in return.
Battleshock – Darkshards pass
BOARD AFTER TURN 3
DARKSHARD CONGA LINES
TO THE RESCUE
Dark Elves 4 (when rolling to see who goes first this time, we roll equal four times in a row and question why
GW didn't bother to add in the
LotR where the army that didn't have priority last turn gets it in the case of a tie)
Hero – Sorceress casts arcane bolt into combat, kills three spearmen
Move – Dreadlord moves up close to archers, darkshards move to shoot spearmen, now all in range
Shoot – Darkshards shoot, do four wounds but cover and elven shields allow spearmen to pass them all
Combat – Dreadlord piles into the archers and takes out three suffering no damage in return. Darkshard/Spearmen combat results in 0 casualties for either side.
Battleshock – Nada
High Elves 4 Hero – Prince gives re-rolls to himself (we weren't sure if he could do this, but decided at the time he could. However, in hindsight, we would have ruled against this). Mage was out of range of everything
Move – Spearmen move and run to help fellow spearmen buddies. Archmage moves and runs to a central position, now within range to cast spells on either archers or spearmen.
Shoot – Prince shoots at Dreadlord but causes no wounds. Remaining archers fire at darkshards in combat, but cover helps them save all wounds.
Combat – All combats result in no wounds for either side (yep, even the dreadlord fluffed his attacks!)
Battleshock – nothing had died this turn. Poor effort all round, really.
BOARD AFTER TURN 4
High Elves 5 Hero – Prince gives re-roll hits to one spearmen unit. Archmage casts MS on archers (would’ve arcane bolted the dreadlord but we ruled he could not see due to intervening models [banner shouldn't really be there])
Move – Prince moves and runs near to the archers vs dreadlord combat. Spearmen move up close to darkshards
Shooting – Archers pick off a darkshard
Combat – Spearmen finally finish off the darkshards on the hill and the archers sneak a wound through on the dreadlord but lose two models in return.
Battleshock – Archers pass
Dark Elves 5 Hero – Dreadlord gives himself re-rolls (as the prince did this, we thought it was only fair) Sorceress bolts off 2 spearmen.
Move – Sorceress retreats slightly, as do the darkshards, whilst staying in range of spearmen
Shoot – Darkshards shoot at the same spearmen unit weakned by arcane bolt. Cover and elven shields allow them to make all six saves!
Combat – Evidently angered by being wounded the dreadlord wipes out the remaining five archers
Battleshock – Spearmen pass.
(some of) BOARD AFTER TURN 5
Dark Elves 6 Hero – Again, dreadlord uses his re-roll ability on himself. Sorceress arcane bolts one more spearman to death
Move – Dreadlord moves up closer to the prince otherwise there's none
Shoot – Darkshards shoot at spearmen, again to no avail
Combat – Dreadlord charges in for an epic showdown with the prince. Dreadlord gets two wounds through the prince's saves, rolls his 2D3 and… snakeyes! Prince down to 3 wounds. Prince fails to wound in return.
Battleshock – Again, all units fine
EPIC SHOWDOWN
High Elves 6 Hero – Sorceress casts Mystical Shield on Prince, who gives himself re-rolls.
Move – One spearmen unit moves and runs 3” away from darkshards, the other 3” from sorceress. Archers also move and run
Shoot – None
Combat – The buffed Prince strikes, hits the dreadlord three times, wounds twice, dreadlord doesn’t pass saves. Needs anything but two 1s/2s to kill... It's a 4 and a 5!
"And thus the dreadlord was smote upon my enchanted polearm" - Lewis, 2015 Battleshock – None
SPEARMEN FACE DOWN THEIR ENEMIES
High Elves 7 Hero – Prince buffs himself again. The mage out of range once again
Move – Prince moves closer to darkshards, mage moves and runs
Shoot – Archers fail. Prince picks off a darkshard with his bow
Combat – Spearmen units charge sorceress and darkshards. No wounds either side spearmen vs sorceress, but darkshards kill two spearmen and take no casualties in return.
Battleshock – Spearmen lose another model.
"Well, that went well" - Lewis, 2015 Dark Elves 7 Hero – Freed of
WHFB restrictions on magic missiles, the Sorceress arcane bolts three of her attackers away
Move – None
Shoot – None (we ruled no shooting whilst in combat, if you remember)
Combat – Darkshards continue their rampage and take out another two spearmen, taking no damage in return.
Battleshock – Nothing this time
Dark Elves 8 Hero – Sorceress arcane bolts the spearman that are attacking the darkshards, finishing them off!
"WELL THAT WENT WELL" (note the general lack of spearmen)
Move – The now freed darkshards move to fire on the mage
Shoot – Darkshards shoot at the archmage and continue their streak of general awesomeness, and take off his last three wounds! (I believe I say something along the lines of 'get in you beauties' at this stage)
Combat – No wounds in the sorceress/spearmen combat once again
High Elves 8 Hero – Prince buffs himself again
Move – Prince moves closer to darkshards
Shoot – Prince shoots at the darkshards but doesn’t wound. The still-clinging on archers manage to kill one, however.
Combat – Prince charges darkshards but rolls snakeyes on his charge range! No hits in the other combat once again
Battleshock – Nothing
High Elves 9 Hero – Prince buffs himself again
Move – Prince moves closer to the darkshards,
Shoot – Prince does two wounds with his bow to the darkshards and the archers manage another but they pass all their saves!
Combat – Prince charges in (doesn’t roll snakeyes this time) and kills 4 darkshards. Darkshards do no damage in return. Sorceress finally finishes off the remaining spearman.
Battleshock – Three darkshards flee to battleshock
Dark Elves 9 Hero – Sorceress arcane bolts the prince and does a wound
No movement or shooting
Combat – Prince takes out last darkshard
Dark Elves 10 Hero – Sorceress casts arcane bolt on the prince again… but fails! (The first spell-casting fail of the game)
"C'MERE YOU" - LEWIS, 2015 
High Elves 10 Hero – Prince buffs himself
Move – Prince moves closer to sorceress
Shoot – Prince takes a wound off sorceress, archers fail to
Move – Prince charges in takes the sorceress down to one wound. Sorceress misses with her attacks
Dark Elves 11 Hero – Sorceress fails to cast arcane bolt on her attacker again
Combat – Sorceress does 2 wounds to the prince (actually quite nasty in combat, we realised), but the prince finishes her off,
sweeping the high elves to victory! "WOO" - LEWIS, 2015 
NOT MUCH LEFT
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Ok, so that's the Battle Report, thanks for reading (if you did, that is
), hope you enjoyed reading it and looking at the pretty pictures as much as Lewis and I enjoyed playing the game and making our report. Find below our thoughts on the battle and the Age of Sigmar rules:
- Overall, we did enjoy the game. It certainly did help that it was a pre-organised game of roughly equal armies.
- The rules are indeed simple and easy to grasp and is a good entry point for people who haven't played wargames before (particularly if they're young). Lewis had never played fantasy before and said that this was certainly far less daunting than a
WHFB game. He said he would have got into traditional
WHFB eventually (he's slowly been building a Beastmen army) but that this release has sped his interest up.
- The game took about 2hrs 20mins, which was with us checking up on pretty much everything for most of the battle.
- Battleshock is not actually as much of a deal for big units (if 10 can count as big) as we thought it'd be, single models may not reign supreme after all
- Characters are awesome, both as an effective unit and as something that's fun to use. Not only are they powerful models, but they're also great force multipliers (as they should be). However, whilst people may have fears of "herohammer", the command abilities the characters have encourage you to have infantry units to use them on, otherwise you lose part of that model's effectiveness. This was why, in hindsight, we felt we should have ruled that characters can't use their command abilities on themselves - it does seem a little silly after all, even if the rules are vague on it (no surprises there though)
- Magic also very powerful, with low casting values for some very powerful spells. It does seem relatively hard to stop, but, then again, both our wizards were out of dispelling range for the entire game, so we can't really comment on this
- Formations, at least these two, seem equal. We need to do the maths on some of the other formations but, with our infantry unit restrictions (and the restriction that the dreadlord couldn't take a mount, as the prince was unable to), the number of wounds was equal between the formations too. The game was very equal and this convinces me further that wounds will be a good way to regulate the game.
- The random turn sequence is big, especially considering the absence of a
LotR-like priority rule (like I mentioned). One or two more dark elf first turn and maybe one better casting roll and the sorceress would have arcane bolted the way to dark elf victory
- The game changes a lot. We almost called a HE victory after turn 6 (I think it was) but played on and dark elves very nearly brought it back. This is one positive of
AoS requiring you to play until finish, but we both agreed that playing until one side is wiped out can often be a but of a slog.
- Units you’d have thought would be much better generally aren’t. The silver helms and cold ones generally couldn’t power through infantry units due to the infantry's increased numbers and the fact that, after the charge, they were hitting and wounding on more or less the same result, with not much difference in saves (although to be fair the cold ones did fluff a little bit). Even the charge didn’t make much of a difference. We felt that, had we been playing
WHFB, both cavalry units would have eventually beaten their opposing infantry units (though perhaps not with the intervention of the characters). Once again, infantry seems to be prevalent, though admittedly the mobility is pretty huge, especially with models with missile weapons.
- There were so many instances where we felt just tiny additions to the rules would have made the game much more realistic and in-depth (though perhaps slower). For example we felt that you shouldn't be able to shoot/cast magic missiles into combat and particularly whilst you're in combat; we felt that moving, shooting and charging is a bit silly; we thought a good, simple addition would be a -2 to charge range for charging into cover (like in
40k). These additions would not have added much in the way of length to the rules but would have greatly improved it, we thought.
- We deduced that it's a no-brainer to take a standard and musician in each unit since they're free. This is really a shame though as, with a system that had points values, a standard and musician would cost points, hence adding in another tactical element on whether you pay the points for those bonuses or spend the points on something else.
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Feel free to point out anything we may have done wrong in the rules and offer your opinion on our interpretation of some of them. Also feel free to say what you think about our post-battle reflections on
AoS.
For our next battle reports, we'll throw some Undead into the mix and mess around with the summoning shenanigans. We'll also play around with the "wound = points" theory and see if, like in this case, equal wounds does indeed make for an equal game. We may also have another formation game and see if it works with other formations. So keep an eye out for future reports!
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!
I 
