My local game store (AFK Games) had an Age of Sigmar newbie event for anyone who was interested in giving it a go. I haven’t played Warhammer Fantasy in about 20 years, so it seemed like a good opportunity to try it out. I packed up my square-based Empire army and headed out to AFK to see if I could make an army out of the array of figures I had.
My Empire Army consisted of a lot of old GW figures as well as stuff from the game BattleMasters. Back in the days when I played WHFB, Empire was sort of weak – their biggest strength was their artillery, but the troops were sub-par. I figured that they were going to get wiped off of the board rather quickly.
I played my friend Jeff who had brought his Sigmarite army along with the big dragon. We played 1000 points because I had no clue of what I could throw on the table, so we quickly assembled a small army of a unit of halberdiers, a unit of swordsmen, a steam tank, cannon, and a couple of Freeguild Generals.
All I can say is WOW! What a good time I had, the battle was bloody and unfortunately, my cannon crew blew it in the end when I hit his dragon twice and rolled two ones to wound! Ouch, that really cost me! The Empire is way more solid than it’s ever been in all the years I’ve played WHFB. A few things that I took away from this small battle:
- The steam tank for its points is pretty darn good – it’s not invulnerable like it was in WHFB, but it is a tough nut to crack. It held out against the dragon for a number of turns before it was crushed. I will be taking this unit in the future.
- The generals aren’t great as far as stats go, but they really make the line units shine. Hold the Line really did adhere to it’s namesake – my swordsmen were really dishing out the damage. Add some shields and they will be even tougher
- Don’t send out the generals on their own – they aren’t great alone and I think the intent was to make them great force multipliers and stay by a unit to make it even tougher. Losing Hold the Line hurt big time when I charged my general into some Prosecutors and he got torn up. He would have been better off sticking by his unit.
- I like the way battleshock works – having models peeling off as the battle wore on was pretty cool.
- Rolling for who goes first every game turn was nail-biting. It can be a big deal to be able to move and fire first!
- For Empire, bigger is better – larger units get some pretty decent buffs.
I didn’t have any casters, or anything too fancy. I’m actually excited about getting my old army up to date and filling out units that are short models since you have to buy them in a fixed multiple or lose points. I looked around my old models and found more stuff that had been MIA for years and in the end, I had:
- Karl Franz on Deathwing
- Kurt Helborg
- Marius Leitdorf
- 30 Handgunners
- 30 Swordsmen
- 30 Spearmen
- Various Empire Hero models
- 5 Knights of the Blazing Sun
- 8 Reiksguard Knights
- 15 Flagellants
- 10 Freeguild Archers (Halflings)
- 2 Steam Tanks
- 2 Volley Guns
- 2 Cannons
- 1 Mortar
- Halfling Hot Pot
- 5 Pistoliers
- 5 Kislev Horse Archers
- Various Battle Mages
- War Altar of Sigmar
- Empire War Wagon
A pretty good core, I think. I am hoping that they make rules for the War Wagon, it’s a beautiful model.
I am pretty darn happy that my Empire Army actually improved with this edition of rules. I am currently working on getting stuff moved to proper bases and re-painted!