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 (Click the banner to go directly to the 9th Age Rules download page) What is Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age? Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age, often simply called The 9th Age, is a community-made d6-based miniatures war game in which two grand armies clash in an epic battle for power or survival. Each army can be composed of simple foot soldiers, skilled archers, armour-clad mounted knights, powerful wizards, legendary heroes, epic monsters, huge dragons, and more. Born from the ashes of previous wargaming communities, 9th Age has grown to become a major player in an increasingly competitive market of fantasy-themed strategy wargames. What sets 9th Age apart from many others is its dedication to the traditions of the past while still integrating modern concepts into the design of its gameplay. Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age is a multi-faceted competitive war game allowing players to use the miniatures they have grown to know and love after years of dedication in building and painting. In addition, 9th Age is an ever-changing battleground. Where other games may not release updates to their factions in many years, the 9th Age team maintains a strict schedule in how they regularly maintain each faction and the rules of the game as a whole. In addition, the 9th Age team strives to uphold a standard of transparency where members of the development team can be immediately addressed via the 9th Age website's active forums and regularly take part in discussions. The 9th Age is a community, built around a game, and is explicitly not a company. Therefore, they can be completely dedicated to the continued support of their game to ensure it is a fun, satisfying, and above all balanced experience where each player can compete equally with an army they love. They have no biases towards selling models, pushing the newest, hottest factions, or any such problems that might plague miniatures companies who release rules for their models. If you've played Warhammer: Fantasy Battles, Kings of War, or any other rank-and-flank style wargame, I implore you to give 9th Age a try as it offers an experience like few others.  Check out the user map (Link) to find 9th Age players in your area. And if you're not on the map already, be sure to make an account and make yourself visible! Armies of the 9th Age  Beast Herds are animalistic, feral tribes of monsters shaped in a cruel mockery of man's image. Where humanity represents a light in the darkness, and hope that good may one day triumph against evil, the Beast Herds are the antithesis. They are an unrelenting horde emerging from the shadows of night, their coming marked only by their telltale braying. They destroy all in their path, tearing down the creations of civilized peoples and erecting crude totems in their place under which they worship heathen gods. If you enjoy fast-moving, hard-hitting, and incredibly tough troops with little-to-no armor to speak of and a miniscule shooting phase, Beast Herds are for you! They have a huge variety of styles of play including a focus on hordes, on medium cavalry, chariots, monstrous infantry, and monster-mash.  The Daemon Legions come from a realm beyond knowing. Though each host of eldritch beings bears resemblance to the sin for which they were created, no two armies of the Dark Gods look alike. Arriving on this plane through tears in reality itself, they are implacable, otherworldly horrors from which there can be no defense. Where other combatants may simply slay their enemies, the soldiers of the Daemon Legions assault mind, body, and soul at once, trapping the essence of their defeated foes forever where they may one day join the ranks of the Legions themselves. [Subject to change as the fluff is currently under development, soon to be released] Daemon Legions are a tough army to describe, as their book is made up of units dedicated to a patron god that are meant synergize not only with each other, but also with units from other patron gods in the book. Armies can be made up entirely of units dedicated to a single god, and receive substantial benefits for doing so, but can also include units from many different gods in order to encompass a wholly different style of play. Generally, however, they are an army characterized by smaller, elite units specialized at a certain task. They are also difficult to shift in combat as they will never flee and instead de-materialize based on how badly they lose that round.  The Dread Elves are a race who knows contempt like no other. Expelled from their homes and forced to roam the stormy seas, the Dread Elves have endured hardships like none other, and now seek their revenge on the upstart races of the world. Whether appearing as a group of lightning-fast raiders that ventilate their foes with a hail of barbed crossbow bolts or an armor-clad host of brutal, raptor-riding knights, Dread Elves are always a force to be reckoned with. Their gods are an embodiment of slaughter and excess, and everything that the torturous Dread Elves represent. Where the Highborn and Sylvan Elves are regarded with a careful acceptance by other races, for the Dread Elves there is only fear and hate. Dread Elves can play the field in a variety of ways, not the least of which include an effective shooting presence, ultra-fast light cavalry (some of which can be effective casters), some of the best heavy cavalry in the game, and units of incredible elite infantry empowered by shrines that they bring with them to battle. They are, of course, Elves, so usually their lower toughness makes armor their only source of protection.  The Dwarven Holds have existed long before most races can remember, or even trace history to. But the Dwarven Holds remember those days well. Gifted with incredible natural resilience and extraordinary long life, the Dwarves prefer lives of simple duty, working to support their families and, above all, their Hold. Dwarves maintain some of the greatest builders and craftsmen in the known world, and Dwarves take great pride in their work and all they do. It is for this reason that a Dwarf will never suffer a grudge to last. Any misdeed done toward a Dwarf will be remembered for their entire life, and even through their lineage depending on its severity. Dwarven kings may spend centuries campaigning to avenge a wrongdoing, commanding legions of stout warriors clad in glittering heavy armor who would gladly follow their king into the void of the Daemon realms itself. Dwarves are hardy and resistant warriors who often fight with astonishing competency despite their few numbers. They specialize in medium-sized units of elite models that can excel in combat as well as shooting, backed up by some of the most effective and reliable artillery in the game. They also have a unique magic presence, where they make enemy magic more difficult to cast and utilize a unique set of Runes that can improve their own units or devastate an enemy.  The Empire of Sonnstahl is a relative newcomer to the world, seeking to stake their claim while enduring the onslaught of countless bloodthirsty races who would see their lands taken from them. A proud and often stubborn race, humans make up for the lack of quality in their professional fighters (given the comparatively short lifespan of your average human) with their impressive numbers. The work of an imperial soldier never ends, as every time one enemy is finally vanquished, another seems to poke up its ugly head. And though some might crack under the pressure of such a dire existence, it is with the blessings of Sunna and the pantheon of human gods that men find the spirit to march on toward tomorrow. EoS can be considered a jack-of-all-trades army. They are capable of fielding just about any style of army you can think of, but will never be quite as good at it as the race specifically designed to function that way. They have decent all-around fighters (and a lot of them), competent magic, and an impressive array of shooting. Where EoS really stand out in their own right is their capability for synergy, where almost every units plays off of one another for support and protection. Many EoS units gain bonuses based on their proximity to characters or specialized "buff-units". EoS makes an excellent army for a beginner, as they allow the player to gain an understanding of the significance of every phase of the game.  Highborn Elves, like the Dwarves, are among the eldest races in the world. The "purest" of the Elves, these noble, sea-faring champions seek out evil wherever it may hide. All Highborn citizens are trained in the art of war, as any and all may be called upon to defend their realm. They often consider themselves the "police" that keep the balance of power in the world in check, but also tend to hold themselves to a higher standard than other, younger races. It is for this reason that many races consider the Highborn haughty and untrustworthy, as elves have become known to stand by your side one minute and hold you at spearpoint the next. Highborn Elves are capable of excelling at almost every phase of the game. Like Empire of Sonnstahl, they can be considered a Swiss Army Knife. The key difference is that every unit is in some way capable of fending for itself, but can also work extremely well in combination with others. They have excellent independent leadership to keep each unit in line, and many units have a defined task they are designed to undertake. But just like any other Elf, they are somewhat elite and they aren't especially good at taking a hit, so early losses can hurt especially bad.  The Infernal Dwarves are the blackened shadow of the Dwarven Holds, presiding over their sprawling, iron-wrought fortresses from which no escape may be found. Corrupted by the influence of malicious gods, the Infernal Dwarves revel in the suffering of lesser races, using entire companies of slaves taken from the ranks of their enemies as cannon-fodder. In battle, the Infernal Dwarves themselves march clad in impenetrable suits of armor enchanted with protective wards, and armed with runic weapons designed to maim rather than kill. At their side, the Infernal Dwarves command armies of daemonic entities, bound to this realm with dark magics and forced into service. Infernal Dwarves, like their nicer cousins, are tough and implacable, but bring a different set of toys to the table. Where most Dwarven arms assail the enemy from longer range, Infernal Dwarves need to get in your face before blasting you with Shrapnel Guns, Blunderbusses, and other impressive weaponry. They also have slave units that they set forth to whittle down the enemy while the Dwarves do the real work, and unique monstrous units capable of handling the enemy on their own. They excel at close-range engagements, and are both tough and well-armored enough to withstand a significant amount of punishment while they close in or let you come in range of their guns.  Resembling the feudal states of medieval Europe, the Kingdom of Equitaine maintains a complex social hierarchy so constantly at war with itself that the nation has become devoid of any scientific or cultural advancement since its inception. From the down up: Peasants are peasants. They live short, uneventful lives of thankless work for a lord they may never know. The greatest honor they ever receive is dying in battle after being conscripted into service. However, peasants revere all knights. Hedge knights work at becoming wealthy or famous enough to join the professional army of a local lord, who answers and pays tribute to the sitting king. The king is second only to the Lady, the principal deity of Equitaine who delivers blessings to those that pledge their righteous service to her. Exempt from this hierarchy are the mysterious Grail Knights, unmatched martial combatants said to be an extension of the Lady's will and perhaps even demi-gods. KoE employs some of the greatest cavalry in the game, able to shrug off otherwise mortal wounds thanks to the blessing of the Lady and able to reach across the board in incredible, unstoppable charges and send their foes reeling before them. They're also surprisingly competent at hoard tactics. I suppose you can accomplish anything if you throw enough crazed peasants at it.  Ogre Khans rule the steppe unopposed, none daring to face the might of the Sons of the Avalanche. Towering humanoid goliaths, Ogres are insatiable in all things. Their innate hunger drives them to greatness among their people, and those that wear the title Khan are greatest of all. Their brutal, nomadic lifestyle makes them among the toughest of the world's inhabitants, able to weather every type of hardship imaginable. It comes as no surprise then, that many races seek to harness the strength of the Ogre. Many human mercenary companies employ Ogres so long as they can muster the coin to feed them (lest they become dinner themselves), and Infernal Dwarves consider Ogres the most prized slaves of all. Their relatively simple minds also make them prone to the attention of the Dark Gods, whose gifts can make them unstoppable. Ogre Khans are a unique army in that they are made up almost entirely of monstrous infantry, meaning that each of their models can take nearly three times the punishment of any other army's and put out roughly that amount of damage in return. Of course this means that their models are much more expensive per point, and that you need to be especially wary of weapons that deal multiple wounds. Otherwise, they're a surprisingly fast army that revels in close combat but has an impressive amount of medium-range shooting as well. Ogre Khans are a popular starting army because they require many fewer models to build and paint.  Greenskins are seen as a menace across the globe, including to the Greenskins themselves. Oppressive and savage, Orcs are prone to explosive outbursts of rage and violence, often killing something just because it was the nearest thing to them when they felt like killing something. An orc leader need only point their kin in the right direction to ensure victory. Goblins on the other hand, are cunning, conniving creatures constantly paranoid of their own mortality. Though considering Orcs and Goblins often share such close proximity, one can hardly blame them. Where Orcs are an overhead axe swing to split your head in two, Goblins are a knife in the ribs. Equally deadly, just not quite as big or flashy about it. Orcs and Goblins can be played in a great many ways able to field large numbers of cheap, effective Orcs who can handle enemies all on their own. Goblins are the opposite. They don't do much in close combat, but they're decent ranged units and they make great roadblocks and support units with their ability to hamper enemy movement and reduce an enemy's effectiveness in combat. Orcs and Goblins can also field a respectable shooting phase, given their relatively cheap access to artillery pieces and the sheer number of bow shots they can muster. Orcs and Goblins are another great starting army as they can make a few mistakes but their main units are tough enough to endure and make up for it.  Most archaic and least understood of all the Elder Races, many believe the Saurians built sophisticated civilizations when the Elves were still wearing animal fur. The time of the Saurians and the Dawn Age ended when they were cast down by Elves and Dwarves, or else swallowed by the sea in some cataclysm of that turbulent time. Ruins that remain, even in the heart of Vetia, attest that Saurians built structures which eclipse all to come since. Their magics were capable of connecting continents and effecting change on a global scale. Their descendants endure, yet they are a shadow of what they once were, scattered among isolated jungle valleys. Reports from colonial expeditions claim they remain timeless in physical appearance, as if copied from the carvings of their crumbling temples. They still eschew steel in favor of bronze, yet their hides are tough as mail, their poisons defy all healers, and their soldiers act with an unnerving unity of purpose. Saurian Ancients are similar to Orcs and Goblins in that they are made up of two primary races. Saurians are the bread-and-butter troops, more than able to handle themselves in combat but unfortunately very slow. Skinks on the other hand are fast and nimble, but are painfully weak and rely almost entirely upon their jungle poisons or the strength of their allies and mounts. Saurian Ancients are also capable of fielding one of the most effective casters in the game, the Cuatl Lord, but he comes with a pretty significant price tag and needs everyone else to protect him. Because they're cold-blooded, Saurian Ancients don't scare as easily as other armies and have more consistent leadership.  Some argue that Sylvan Elves represent the oldest and truest of the Elven civilizations, closest to the primordial Fae. Their fate is entwined with the forests they call home, and the spirits dwelling within, both nurtured by and allied to the Elves beneath the canopy. Those same spirits are murderous when roused, and Sylvan archery is feared across the earth. Since the withdrawal of the Highborn across the seas, they are what remains of the Elves in Vetia, occupying the forests in tentative seclusion. Their disregard for human borders often causes strife with their neighbors; many a woodsman has met a grim fate and every missing child is “lost to the fairies”. Sylvan Elves play the best keep away game in 9th Age, thanks to their lightning-fast cavalry and their proclivity for keeping to the trees. They even get to bring a free forest with them to every game, can move forests around, and make every forest on the board dangerous for the enemy to occupy. Their tree spirits are menacing in combat, and their shooting is among some of the most reliable in the game, if not necessarily the most powerful. They are absolutely the worst armored when it comes to the Elves though, so make sure your enemy is well weakened and you're capable of finishing them off before deciding to get into combat, though tree spirits are fairly durable.  "Where you see one rat, there are ten more you don't" – a saying that did not originally apply to household pests. From the moment they laid low mighty Avras, the Vermin used cunning tactics and ingenious weapons to augment their multitudinous hordes. Dominion over swathes of Vetia proved a simple proposition to the Vermin, and while tribes of men and beasts held them at bay with ferocity or tribute, it was centuries before their supremacy was challenged. In the events leading to the dawn of this Ninth Age, the might of men broke the Vermin Swarm and cast down their King. Fear of Sunna's godly strength sent them scurrying into the earth below, never to return. Reports of man-sized rats with gleaming eyes and sharp black blades always abound, but few consider these isolated incidents to be cause for concern. The Vermin Swarm are steampunk assassin pestilence worshipers. They excel at fielding enormous hordes of cheap infantry to grind down their opponents over time, and have an exciting array of toys to use while they do it. They're the only faction in the game that can fire ranged weapons into close combat (because they don't care about the safety of their own soldiers) and can outright refuse challenges to their characters without penalty. They're inspired by their own numbers, so as long as you keep a reasonable number of them around, they'll stay eager in combat, and can even field units humongous, mutated, vat-grown beasts if the slaves don't fight well enough.  Ancient nobles held to this world by pride and power long after their bodies have rotted, the Undying Dynasties represent the remains of the oldest human empire. With honor guards of skeletal warriors, whose instilled discipline has survived the grave, and living constructs of stone, entire armies have been said to appear from the sand in a single moment. Naptesh is no longer the fertile land it once was. Crumbling monoliths, the tombs of the great pharaohs, have attracted looters for centuries, and golden artifacts have changed hands many leagues from their former masters. But the dead are restless wherever great Dynasties endure, and thousands of years in the earth have not dampened their appetite for war. Undying Dynasties combine a variety of characteristics unique to their army that make them especially interesting to play. They (almost) never suffer penalties to their shooting attacks, they possess the only units in the game that can ambush suddenly from any point on the table, and they are one of only three armies in the game that are either Undead or Daemonic and therefore will never run from combat. Their excellent combat blocks and the ability to resurrect fallen warriors make them great at grinding down their opponent over time, as well.  Where vampires rule, power and glory belong solely to the immortals, while the living are unwittingly enslaved. Rivalry between these immortal beings is murderous – but kept beneath the veil of humanity they wear. Wars are waged in secret, political pawns maneuvered and armies of mindless drones are raised from the ground, only to vanish again. Vampires thrive in the ignorance of their human prey, concealing their existence in rumor and myth, pulling the strings of mortal puppets. It seems that as long as humanity has existed, these leeches have worked behind the scenes, orchestrating events for their own gains. An army commanded by powerful vampires and unscrupulous necromancers, the Vampire Covenants utilize implacable blocks of throwaway infantry that can be effortlessly brought back to life at the will of their masters along with massive undead horrors of the night to smash through the enemy ranks. Your opponent might spend an entire game trying to work their way through a unit of zombies, only to be stuck there until the game's end. All the meanwhile, units like the Dark Coach or ravenous Vampire Knights carve a swathe through the rest of their army.  Each Dark God has need of followers, and each has their methods of ensnaring the souls of the unwary. Whether it is lust or bloodlust, corruption of body or of ambition, the traps of the Dark Gods are myriad and competition for the greatest of followers is fierce. Once started on the road to damnation, a soul is forever tarnished and spurned by former deities. Cultists of a martial disposition travel to the Wasteland and other grim places, enduring unimaginable trials. The few who survive emerge an entirely different breed – marked in abhorrent fashion, hardened and scarred. Warriors of the Dark Gods are known for the incredibly powerful combat blocks for which they're named, along with a menagerie of powerful beasts that follow them to battle. Whether you want to field an army of mounted raiders straight out of Conan the Destroyer or the mutated host of a maniac warlord, Warriors will definitely have something for you. One thing you won't get too much of in a Warriors army is shooting however, so get used to toughing it out in close combat. --- Links to other relevant threads: Miniatures Painting Thread: Link GW Death Thread 2017: Link Age of Sigmar Thread: Link Mantic Thread: Link WARHAMMER Thread (  ): Link--- If you'd like to make your army-list building fast and easy, check out Battlescribe, available on PC, Mac, Android, and iOS. The link for the repository for 9th Age is this one right here: http://battlescribedata.appspot.com/repos/The-9th-Age/index.bsi Just copy & paste in the appropriate place, and you'll be all set! The files should prompt you to update automatically with each release. Definitely looking for feedback on this OP as it's my first ever, and I know it's a doozy but I wanted it to be comparable to the old WARHAMMER thread OP. Deino fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Apr 24, 2017 |
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Jan 13, 2017 22:08
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This is the game that was supposed to be the next edition of WHFB, right? What are the major changes from WHFB?
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Jan 13, 2017 23:18
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Pierzak posted:This is the game that was supposed to be the next edition of WHFB, right? What are the major changes from WHFB? I think they reduced the rng (charge distances are static IIRC), effectiveness of magic (save or die is gone), and they added entries for all of the discontinued units, fan favorites (ex. Dwarves have golem monstrous infantry), and made some common sense tweaking Edit: its been a while since I read the rules but it's pretty much a fan rewrite of 8th that actually bothers with intercodex balance
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Jan 13, 2017 23:46
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Pierzak posted:This is the game that was supposed to be the next edition of WHFB, right? What are the major changes from WHFB? Not supposed to be WHFB. Entirely separate. The rules were initially created by a group of tournament runners and high-level competitive players who had created the original Swedish Comp system for unified tournament WHFB play. When they decided they didn't like what the market had to offer after WHFB went kaput, they went ahead and wrote up their own ruleset instead. A year and a half later and a dozen balance patches later, we're here. The first full-color rulebook with fluff and everything was just released a couple weeks ago, too. Business Gorillas had it pretty well covered, but I'll go into a little bit more depth. First of all, the points system and the way you build a list is completely different from how you might have gone about it in WHFB. Instead of Lords, Heroes, Core, Special, Rare, you have Characters, Core, Special, and one to three (?) unique categories that your units fall into. Lords & heroes have been consolidated into a single choice, and many of their profiles have been combined as well. This is done to reduce the "spam" of characters by certain armies that were able to abuse it. This way your characters are still massively important to the success of your army but you are able to take significantly fewer of the same ones. Every army has a different configuration of how they're allowed to spend their points, to greater emphasize the character of each army. Beast Herds, for instance, are allowed to invest up to 40% of their points in Monsters (significantly more than most armies are capable of), and only need 20% of their army to be made up of Core units, but have a hard cap on the amount of their Core that can be Ambushing. In addition, the average game size is 4500 points. The standard of points in the game was almost doubled (from 2500) for every model in the game, to allow more flexibility with the balancing of a units' costs. Because the size of armies are now approximately 10-15% smaller, games now take 2-1/2 hours at the most to help support tournament play. Admittedly with the new system of list building in place, it can be tedious to make a list by hand and still manage to keep all of your percentages straight, so it's recommended that you use a software army builder like Battlescribe (whose data files are managed internally to ensure consistency). Characters have significantly greater customization than they've had for a while. Vampire Covenant have Bloodlines and their associated powers back, Highborn Elves have Honours that help define their characters' abilities, and so on. They're usually not the combat powerhouses that they might have been in previous editions that you might be familiar with (unless they're mounted on a dragon or something) but they might provide bonuses to your units or army as a whole simply for having constructed them the way you had. Dread Elves, for instance, can dedicate their army to a specific cult, and their units will gain a bonus based on that cult. Movement has been greatly simplified to prevent conflicts and the kind of gaminess that you might have come to expect from WAAC players. Things like unit railroading, Skirmishers compressing out of a unit's charge arc, and disputes over true line of sight no longer exist. A unit's command group does significantly more to help them reliably maneuverable. A Champion ensures that their unit's minimum charge distance is 4" + M, so you won't need to worry about rolling double 1's and missing a crucial charge anymore simply out of randomness. A Musician makes Quick Reforms possible, and no leadership test is required to confirm them, in addition to the value they provide in overturning a combat that might otherwise have been a wash. Standards are no longer the determination over whether a unit is Scoring or not. Magic has been greatly streamlined. The number of magic lores has been reduced from 21 to 10, channeling can only ever provide a single extra magic dice, but the number of wizards you take influences how easy that roll is to make. Save or Die spells are out. Magic on the whole is significantly less dramatic in how it could decimate entire armies. Spells are certainly still impactful, though. The number of modifiers that effect magic rolls have been drastically reduced, so now it's usually just up to whether your wizard is an apprentice (+1 to cast) or a master (+2 to cast). That said, casting values have also been decreased to supplement this. You usually aren't throwing more than 2 or 3 dice at a spell unless you really need it to go off. And then, in the event of a miscast, you aren't horribly punished unless you threw that big amount of dice. No more getting sucked into the warp after throwing 2 dice at a spell. Shooting has been mostly toned down. A game is won and lost in close combat, and that is by design. But many armies certainly excel in shooting compared to others, and it shows. They're precisely the kind of armies that need to whittle down enemy units before they become manageable enough to handle in combat (Sylvan Elves, Dwarves, etc.). Cannons are no longer high-powered sniper rifles, and templates have been removed entirely. Look Out Sir is no longer a dice roll. You either have the cover of your unit to protect you or you don't. A unit's ability to use or ignore cover is based upon a unified height system based on Troop Type. So a Monster will always be able to draw line of sight over infantry, and will never be able to claim cover from them, but Monstrous Infantry and Cavalry certainly can, albeit at penalties. And Volley Fire now allows the user to ignore intervening units for purposes of cover. Combat has remained largely the same, though there's no more Always Strikes First or Last to muddle things up. Initiative is king. Once a character is in base contact with something, they have to stay there, so there are no more Make Way shenanigans. I could go on and on, but this post is long enough. Deino fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jan 15, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 00:22
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So, exactly the game that was supposed to be the next edition of WHFB, just with serial numbers filed off and without the official GW stamp.  But please, do go on. It's very interesting to read from the point of someone who gave up WHFB like 4 editions ago.
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Jan 15, 2017 01:17
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Another thing that I'd neglected to mention along with the other scale changes to the game was that there are now different minimum and maximum caps on a unit's size, on a unit-by-unit basis. In WHFB, every unit seemed to be costed based on the philosophy that every model was worth a specific amount of points regardless of the number you took. Basically that every consecutive model was meant to have the same value as the previous one. But that clearly isn't accurate, as one can attest that every Irongut you added to a GutStar made it more and more efficient. In 9th Age, every unit is meticulously costed based on the initial size it needs to be to be a useful unit that can contribute meaningfully to the game, for the purpose it was designed for. Let's take a Mongrel Herd, for instance, in the Beast Herds army book. The unit starts off at a cost of 140pts for 20 models. So, that's 7 points per model, right? Only to start. Every model after that costs 8 points, to a maximum of 50 models in the unit. As previously mentioned, this takes into account the fact that a unit of 20 Mongrels has a specific value that is worth only so much. And as your'e adding more models to the unit, you're making it more valuable by an increasingly large factor, but also more efficient in its intended role. Mongrels are intended to be a roadblock, so it only makes sense that as you buy more models for them, the unit becomes a better roadblock. So you can take a big horde, but you can't take a massive, immovable 10x10 block like was possible in WHFB because not only is that annoying and unwieldy to move around the battlefield, but also completely against the intended design philosophy of the whole game. On the other end of the spectrum, we have a unit like Kingdom of Equitaine's Knights of the Grail, about as elite as elite units get. Compared to the horde mentality of the Mongrel Herd, Grail Knights start off at just 3 models, at a total cost of 220pts. So not only are you getting nearly seven times the number of models in a standard Mongrel Herd but at a discount of 80 points, too? Well I'm fairly certain even just these 3 Grail Knights could run over any unit of Mongrels with no trouble at all, but let's start making this unit larger. The first three Grail Knights cost approximately 73.34 points each. Every additional model costs 84 points per model, as a greater example of what we discussed above with Mongrels. Grail Knights are utter killing machines, but they'd be in combat with 50 Mongrels for quite some time unless they had a little help from their friends. And because Kingdom of Equitaine knights are able to utilize more of their unit's attacks in ranks beyond the first than most other armies, it's only sensible that additional models beyond the first 3 would cost a significant margin more. This also means that if you wanted to take a smaller unit as an ultra-efficient harasser or just in a lower points game, you're more able to than you might have been before. Grail Knights are capped at 8 models total in each unit, and you're only able to take two units if you didn't take any artillery. If you did, you're stuck with just one. That should be more than indicative of just how powerful a unit they can be. Every unit in every army book has significance now. There are no more units like Shadow Warriors in 8th Edition High Elves or Centigor in 7th Edition Beastmen that you just don't take, ever, because they're bad in comparison to almost literally anything else you could possibly take. Also, comparisons between army books are one of the last things taken into consideration from a balance perspective. A Highborn Elf knight isn't going to cost the same as a Dread Elf knight because they fulfill drastically different roles in the army. You really can't put a price on stats like you could in 8th Edition WHFB because there's so much more that goes into balancing, now.
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Jan 16, 2017 14:50
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Can anyone give me a rundown on the relative merits of 9th Age vs KoW aside from the community driven angle? Can I play this easily buying some slotted trays if I've got round based Skaven?
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Mar 3, 2017 21:50
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Pierzak posted:This is the game that was supposed to be the next edition of WHFB, right? What are the major changes from WHFB? They made it TOURNAMANT and unfun.
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Mar 3, 2017 22:02
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I dunno about unfun, and TOURNAMANT is a compliment in this case, at least in comparison to the way 8th Edition WHFB used to play. The rules have become clear-cut enough to the point where there's no more interpretation involved. There's no more 20 minute arguments by WAAC grognards over whether or not their rule supercedes and they get to dumpster their opponent. The rules just work. And they're absolutely designed with tournaments in mind, because that's exactly the kind of people the game was designed by and for. The differences between 9th Age and WHFB are significant and getting larger by the day, but the game, at its core, is still a fantasy-themed rank-and-flank strategy battle game. It just runs smoother than it used to. If that's your bag, then you should try it out. mango sentinel posted:Can anyone give me a rundown on the relative merits of 9th Age vs KoW aside from the community driven angle? I'll come right out and admit that I haven't played KoW, because my gaming group here in Detroit made the switch to 9th Age immediately following our departure from AoS. From my limited perspective though, I think 9th Age definitely supports a broader range of playstyles with each army than KoW might. Each army has its niche, for sure, but there are enough different units in each army book that two armies of the same race can look entirely different from one another. This may include the drawback of requiring you to remember more and more units' stats, but each army's units tend to work from the same framework of stats, so each unit will usually only be different in small ways help to lessen that burden a little. You can play a different way without needing a whole new army. In regard to your Skaven, it'll depend on the way in which you based them. If they're on 20mm round bases, you'll be just fine. If they're on 25mm round bases, you'll run into a bit of issue at least in terms of keeping sizes congruent as each model has a clearly defined base size as shown in its unit entry.  You can see that a Rat-at-Arms model is intended to be on a 20mm x 20mm base, as shown beneath the pennant (indicating it is a scoring unit). As long as you and your opponent have no problem with a few extra millimeters on the sides in regard to your unit sizes, I see no reason why you couldn't play with your Skaven as-is just to get a handle on the rules. Unit sizes have been drastically reduced from 8th Edition WHFB as well, so you won't need to worry about finding a pizza box lid to move your 50+ models around on, anymore. Deino fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 15:13
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Fantastic! I've been hoping for a while now to have a 9th Age section here on SA.
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Mar 6, 2017 17:31
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9th Age Adepticon Trip Report: I headed down to Adepticon on Thursday morning with six friends, arriving just in time for the 3000pt Warbands tournament at 2pm. Earlier that day, the 6000pt Big Brawl tournament had started, but we probably would have had to have arrived Wednesday night to attend it and nobody wanted to take the extra day off of work. The Warbands and subsequently the Doubles Tournament (2250pts per person) on Friday were a load of fun, and I met a lot of cool gamers for the first time that I look forward to seeing at future events. We stayed at the hotel venue for the first time since we started going to Adepticon four years ago, and got upgraded to a suite at the last second due to overbooking. After experiencing how easy it was to be able to wake up, grab my army, and just ride the elevator down to my event, able to drink as much as I want and not have to worry about driving anywhere at any point, there's no way I'll ever stay off-site ever again. It was just too good.  The 4500pt Grand Tournament on Saturday/Sunday was an absolute blast. Here's a graph I whipped up on the spread of armies represented:  As you can see, there were 42 players overall. The only armies left unaccounted for were Undying Dynasties and Vermin Swarm. Everybody knows those players are out there, I just suspect some of them were attending Brawler Bash in Durham, North Carolina, a 6000pt 9th Age event that happened to fall on the same weekend. Here's what I was playing in the GT:  Round 1, I played a Sylvan Elf opponent who brought a little bit of everything. There were Dryads, plenty of archers, a pair of Treefathers, a sizable unit of Thicket Shepherds, and much more. The crux of his army was his Forest Prince on a Dragon, who I was terrified of all the way up until I was able to get a long charge from my Razortusk Chariot into it, and forced through the +1S from Awaken the Beast in the magic phase. Fun fact: Dragons don't enjoy S6 impact hits. The chariot couldn't get six whole wounds through though, and the Dragon ended up flying away after crushing the chariot to hide behind a building and preserve his points. In the end, I went away with a moderate victory. Round 2, I played the other Sylvan Elf, who would go on to win Best Neutral Army and take 2nd place overall. He was a great opponent, and I hope I get to play him again at some point. His army was focused much more on the direct synergy involved with the inclusion of a Chieftain with the Kindred upgrade in each of his main units. The Chieftain in his Blade Dancers gives them swiftstride, and makes them a fast-moving, hard-hitting threat. My Gargoyles and Centaurs gave their lives valiantly trying to keep those Blade Dancers out of my vulnerable units. And, the Forest Prince in his Wild Huntsmen provides their unit with Fear, an especially potent special rule against a relatively low leadership army like Beast Herds. Under weight of shooting and a few crazy situations, this ended up a moderate loss for me, but every minute of this game was enjoyable. A couple of amazing things that happened were when my two ambushing units arrived right behind his Wild Huntsmen unit on the right flank, and pelted them with 48 throwing weapon shots, killing five of them, and when my Gortach managed a long charge on a Treefather and managed to roll zero Lethal Strikes in two rounds of combat, getting smashed by the Treefather's Crush Attack each round until he was laid low. Round 3, I was faced with this:  The Zombie List. This guy had been the talk of the tournament so far. Nobody wanted to face this, least of all me. I might have been the first army he'd played against that could have had the sheer number of attacks needed to bring down these enormous units of zombies bolstered by up to four Evocations a turn and 5+ Regen saves, but it wasn't to be. I probably could have hid in the corner the whole game trying to avoid him and just submitting the objective to him, but I wasn't about to give up that easily. Though my units fought valiantly, each was brought down one by one under the sheer mass of zombies. Another moderate loss for me, though my opponent was definitely a cool guy even if his army list was a groaner. Round 4, I played a Saurian Ancients army with some really nice paint.  His army was made up of a Firstborn on Alpha Carnosaur, a big brick of Saurus Warriors hosting his BSB and Skink Priest, two units of Raptor Riders, two units of Ramphodons, a Taurosaur, and a Thyroscutus. An army like mine, reliant on monsters and my chariot-mounted lord to do the heavy lifting, is terrified of an Alpha Carnosaur. S7, Multiple Wounds D3 is just not something I want to have to deal with. I was thankful to get a long combo-charge of my Lord and a Gortach into the Taurosaur in the first turn, and after mopping up that beast, I was able to overrun out of the arc of sight of the Carno-Lord. Safe, for at least one more turn. The two Gortachs then made their way into the Saurus block and spent the next couple of turns ravaging them until they managed to fail a break test and get run down. By this time his Carno-Lord was back in position, and easily annihilated both Gortachs. The only way I was finally able to bring that monster down was in a protracted combat with my Chariot-mounted Beastlord, who managed to sneak the last wound through, and only took 3 himself in the process. I was granted a full victory this game, as the Gortachs really made a mess of things while the rest of my army was able to run basically unabated. Round 5, I faced Chihammer (a popular 9th Age Youtube Battle Reporter) and his beautiful O&G army.   This was just Not My Game. O&G are already a rough matchup for my style of army specifically, and Chihammer was running a list that is basically the antithesis of mine. A big brick of Iron Orcs that my Wildhorns can't handle and will mulch my Gortachs, and three big units of goblins with all the shooting in the world in addition to Pyromancy magic to harry me from afar. The game was a practice in seeing just how many points I could avoid losing each turn, picking off what I could and hoping my dice wouldn't fail me too spectacularly. Chihammer is a fantastic opponent though, so even as he decimated my army I was still having fun. One big spotlight moment was my durable Chariot-Lord charging the unit of Iron Orcs, looking for a challenge to keep him safe from all the great weapons. Over several rounds of combat (and some absolutely incredible morale checks on my part) my Beastlord actually managed to kill his Iron Orc Warlord, and I sighed in relief as I managed to pick up a fairly significant amount of points that way. The unit then proceeded to finish off my now-exposed general with no problem. My biggest loss of the tournament (even compared to the Zombie List!) but still a great game. I finished middle of the pack, 23rd out of 42 players. I can't say I'm disappointed with my performance, as my dice didn't spite me too much, and I'd say some of my losses really came down to the matchup I'd been handed. My friend who brought Empire of Sonnstahl ended up in 8th place, and took home the award for Best Good Army. Other than Buckeye Battles, I'd definitely say Adepticon is my favorite of the tournaments I go to. It's always a great time. We finished the weekend with a beer and a steak at Finn McCool's down the street before starting the long drive back to Michigan. 
Deino fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Mar 27, 2017 |
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Mar 27, 2017 15:49
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Great post, OP. I'll contribute what I can from my club. For those "lol internet fan project" skeptics I've got to say I've had more fun playing 9th age over the last 2 years than I ever did playing WHFB. I encourage you to give it a shot if you're interested in balanced, no bullshit-foozle-model, game play. Keep up the good work, Deino. Litterbox fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Apr 3, 2017 22:29
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Can anyone recommend an army builder program for the 9th age?
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Apr 22, 2017 09:25
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A lot of people use Army Builder, but it's become loathed by tournament organizers who have to sift through the complex tables of information, and players who aren't familiar with the layout themselves often struggle to find the data they're looking for when they need it. It also isn't free. I prefer Battlescribe. It's up to date within days of each major release (if not the day of), and you can easily customize your army lists based upon the amount of information you want to keep on it. For instance, tournament organizers will almost always only require the root point costs of each unit with all relevant upgrade information displayed, and Battlescribe handles this kind of display easily and intuitively. E: Come to think of it, this would be a great thing to add to the OP. Thanks! Deino fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Apr 24, 2017 |
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Apr 24, 2017 14:46
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Hey Deino. I will probably play 9th Age at some point. The fantasy players at my club all are into it but I'm still truckin' along with mates playing 8th. I want to give KOW a try as well but I don't have a group to play it with, so 9th is probably it.
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Apr 27, 2017 14:06
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In London, right? The tournaments section on the official 9th Age forums seems to be constantly overflowing with new events in your area. If you were going to play 9th Age, you certainly picked a great place to do it.
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Apr 27, 2017 16:33
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Yeah. It seems very much alive at my club. For weeknight gaming I tend not to like big long multi-hour games where I need something the size of a suitcase to carry my army around. Mostly a skirmish gamer for club night gaming. I'll get off my arse and give it a try soon! I'm also really bad at 8th Ed so 9th is probably going to be a hard learn for me.
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Apr 27, 2017 16:41
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In that case, anything in the range of 2000-3000pts would probably be appropriate, as you'd be able to finish within 1.5 hours no problem. As the points level goes up, it really just makes room for redundancies within army lists. The way list building works now, you can usually fit in whatever cool toy you want even at low points levels, and still keep a coherent army structure. When I introduce players to 9th Age, I do it at 2000pts, as I find it's just enough to fit in a caster, a shooting unit, and a couple solid combat blocks so that they can get a handle on and participate in all parts of the game, but even with rules explanations it won't feel like it's dragging on forever. What army/armies do you have? If you were looking for suggestions on building your first 9th Age army list, check out the Tactics subforum on the official forums, or simply ask here. I'll be more than happy to clarify any rules questions you have, too.
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Apr 27, 2017 16:52
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Deino posted:In that case, anything in the range of 2000-3000pts would probably be appropriate, as you'd be able to finish within 1.5 hours no problem. As the points level goes up, it really just makes room for redundancies within army lists. The way list building works now, you can usually fit in whatever cool toy you want even at low points levels, and still keep a coherent army structure. When I introduce players to 9th Age, I do it at 2000pts, as I find it's just enough to fit in a caster, a shooting unit, and a couple solid combat blocks so that they can get a handle on and participate in all parts of the game, but even with rules explanations it won't feel like it's dragging on forever. Cheers. Yeah I have Dark & High Elves, and Orcs & Goblins. I have a load of options for all three so I should be able to experiment with my lists a fair bit. My Elves are all based somewhat... unusually. I have them on 20mm round bases which fit into close order movement trays. There is a couple of mm extra between each model, so I expect hardcore folk will object! 
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Apr 30, 2017 14:34
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ineptmule posted:My Elves are all based somewhat... unusually. I have them on 20mm round bases which fit into close order movement trays. There is a couple of mm extra between each model, so I expect hardcore folk will object! Nonsense. It might make measuring arc of sight a little wonky as having square bases helps when trying to find 45 degrees, but since you've got a movement tray handy I see no reason why there should be any discrepancy at all. Until the unit gets into combat, all that matters is the unit's footprint, which from the sounds of it is identical to what it would be if the models were based "properly." And even if the models don't line up absolutely perfectly to where 20mm squarebased models would be, the positioning can all be worked out mathematically anyways so the absolute positioning of models matters less so, i.e. I'm running a unit of 20mm bases 7 models wide, therefore my unit is 140 mm wide and a unit of 25mm bases will be able to get 7 models in contact at 175mm wide.
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May 1, 2017 13:36
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Makes sense. I reckon the overall footprint is about 5% larger but this gets bigger if I'm putting movement trays together as the outer lip of the trays have the same 2mm as between the holes for the bases. Overall not a huge deal and as you say it's fairly easy to tell what the frontage is supposed to be. I've played a few games of 8th with this setup and it basically works fine, but that's with mates who are much more chilled about the fine details than I expect the community at large to be. I'm using the 40k bike bases for my cavalry which is nice from a modelling perspective but I realised way too late that they are at least 30% longer than regular fantasy oblong cavalry bases. Makes storage a pain in the arse but I doubt it matters too much on the tabletop 
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May 2, 2017 08:51
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