8th Edition Has Arrived!

It's 8th edition launch day!

Played a game with the 8th edition rules yet? How did it go? Feel free to post your initial impressions in the comments.

With the new rules come new strategies and tactics, and our tactics section here at the Stronghold could do with a few new articles! So if and when you've got some 8th edition experience under the belt and you'd like to share your thoughts with the rest of us, please send your tactics articles via email to:
Hragged@ogrestronghold.com

Some submitted articles may even end up in future issues of the Bellower webzine!

Now that the 8th edition rules are officially available (i.e. no longer rumours), please remember that Games Workshop frowns on forum posts containing large detailed chunks of content taken directly from their publications. It's OK to paraphrase or quote a short excerpt with a page reference for discussion purposes, but don't go any further than that. Thanks!

Well after flicking through the book I really like it. I find magic to be better now with spells being awesome and also some of the boost that come with each lore. I might be tempted to do an indepth look at the lores and spells to give some good tactacas about them.

All in all I like the magic a bit too much.

My first game ended up being Ogres vs Ogres. It wasn't a planned game, just a 'spur of the moment' thing

My opponent didn't have an army with him, so we improvised.  I made 2 quite similar 1500 point armies out of my Ogre collection, one for him and one for me, and after about 3 1/2 hours (lots of mistakes and double-checking rules along the way, I'm sure games will get a bit quicker in the future) we ended up with a draw

We both agreed that being able to measure everything was fantastic, and we really liked the new charging rules and the new magic system (seriously good).  It was a really fun and bloody battle, there's wasn't much left by the end of it (7 models, with our Tyrants still locked in a challenge and refusing to give in!).  Ogre units can generate a fearsome amount of attacks

BIG Caveat: only ONE 1,000-point game played with new rules so far, versus a Squig-heavy Goblin army that was largely designed to take on Ogres and featured mostly psych immune units up front.

Some impressions, all from the negative point-of-view, naturally!:   

Biggest factor that has me concerned is the whole charging and combat order changes.  Since chargers no longer fight first automatically, the charge rules help slower units more-- old rules an Ogre charges 12" and most other units (move 4) charge 8"... new rules w) variable charge distance an Ogre averages a charge of 13" (2d6+6) and most other units average 11".  A 2" difference doesn't sound like much, but can make a world of difference.  Then, even if they charge, our poor Ogres are likely to fight last-- the main charging units of Bulls and Ironguts have a whopping initiative of 2!  That means with the new rules we'll be taking a LOT of attacks before we get to have our turn at it.  I don't think the new stomp rule (the last of the attacks) offsets this.

I think the new majik system is going to aid the more majik-reliant armies with high casting power spells more than it helps us Ogres.  Gut Majik is mediocre at best, especially considering the potential harmful effects that come along with half our spells and the short range associated with many spells (half have 6" range with a Butcher casting them).  With the 3+ casting power requirement of our spells and the majik phase ending if the total rolled is a 1 or 2, we are almost compelled to use a minimum of 2 dice to get that 3+, lest we use only one die and roll a 1 or 2, thereby ending the phase.

A usual strategy against Ogres is to whittle them down with ballistic fire before they get to the enemy.  Now that a\most ballistic units fire 2-deep and there are other possible bonuses such as volley fire, we'll be facing a whole lot more fire no matter what the terrain.  That does not benefit us so much, however, as we're not going to be having massive 3-deep units of Leadbelchers!

Changes in the combat resolution process don't help us out.  Outnumbering is gone, thereby nixing our unit strength bonus.  Stalwart for ranks hurts us as well, as it makes the likelihood of an enemy breaking much less likely.  Also dunno if we played it to the rules, but a unit was able to stand and shoot without regard to my unit causing fear, as the fear test does not take place until the start of the close combat phase (someone please point out if we goofed and I was thereby buggered!). 

Finally, if you like heroes and lords, note that a low point battle such as the one I played (1,000 points) harms us, since most armies could field multiple heroes while we are limited to one because of the 25% maximum heroes allocation (our cheapest hero being 130 points).

my first 8th edition game was multiplayer, 3500 vs 3500.

since 2500 of the opponents points was spent on dwarfs, we faced quite some firepower, not really fun for a first game with ogres. I can rant on about how my ogres were pounded into the ground, but i won't. As for the changes, i really, really miss guess range, it's far too easy to hit with cannons IMO and stone throwers do massive damage as well, i think that gunlines are going to be a common thing now, seing as how easy it is to hit with cannons and how unrewarding charging is, at least for the low initiative armies.

I really like the changes on magic on the other hand, and supportive attacks are pretty nice as well, seeing as we play with monstrous infantry, which makes a second rank something worth considering(seeing as they can make all their attacks as well, except for the stomp attack)

Overall, i don't think the 8th edition is really bad, since most of the changes are pretty nice, but some of them(removing guess range, not striking first on the charge and the 2d6+ movement charge range) are for worse IMO.