[WHFB] First game of 8th Ed

Morning all,

Last night I played my first proper game of 8th Ed Fantasy. I played once with the Island of Blood set against Sanguinus, but we probably messed up a ton of rules or completely forgot some things.

So last night I dusted off the Bretonnians after spending the last few weeks painting a few units (still got pictures of my Questing Knights to put up) and got them onto the table against the High Elves.

We played 1500pts so I could get the hang of the rules and not be at the club until Midnight. My list was as follows:
Paladin - Barded Warhorse, Shield, Lance, Virtue of the Joust
Paladin Battle Standard Bearer - Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Duty
Damsel - Level 2, Warhorse, Chalice of Malfleur

8 Knights of the Realm - Full Command
8 Knights of the Realm - Full Command
30 Men at Arms - Spear, Shield, Full Command
16 Archers - Standard, Musician, Defensive Stakes, Braziers

8 Questing Knights
5 Mounted Yeomen

Field Trebuchet.

I was massively surprised at how much I was able to fit into a 1500pts list (assuming I didn't calculate anything wrong in Excel!!)

Time for some pictures...

Overall, I did well because I was allowed to charge with the Knights, plus the Bretonnian Lance formation works really well since it allows rank bonuses for 3 models instead of 5, which means that I can get decent rank bonuses for less models.

Overall, my thoughts on 8th edition:
- Magic is a lot more random, and it didn't pay off for Mike's High Elves. I don't think his Level 4 wizard ever managed to cast a spell, either from bad rolling for Winds of Magic, or bad actual casting rolls.
- I also don't think I managed to do very well with casting either, but I'm not sure if that was my being a fantasy Noob or whether that's just how magic is.
- Combat seems a lot quicker, although I've yet to play against Undead yet (they were the bane of my 6th and 7th Ed games!!)
- Movement seems a lot more free flowing and far less intricate than in 7th ed, having to deal with angles, move 1" here, wheel, 1" here, then you minus some movement for something else.... Nope, seems to be miles easier to deal with now.
- Guessing ranges is out of the window now. One of the challenges I loved about 7th Ed was being good at guessing ranges of things on the table, whether it was charge ranges or warmachine shots. Also, with pre-measuring it gives a fair bit more scope for options.
- Random charge ranges are a bit meh for me... I like the idea of keeping things fresh and there always being a chance it could fail, but at the same time I liked being good at guessing charge distances.

Also.. another point of 8th edition, is that I'm apparently blessed by the dice gods to pass every 5 or 6+ Ward Save under the sun. I must have passed about 90% of the Ward Saves on my Knights units.

Overall, 8th Ed seems like good fun and I'd like to get a few more games under way whilst I carry on painting the rest of my Bretonnian units.

Peace,
SB