To say I’ve been excited for this would be an understatement. Warhammer equals wargaming for me, at least it’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about ‘wargaming’. Ranked units, precise manoeuvre, punishing combat and lots of magic… that’s Warhammer to me. TOW seems to have delivered on that, so much so I’m just going to call it Warhammer from here out. It’s different, more nuanced relative to older editions. It’s hard to say (or at least too soon to say) if that’s a good thing, but it feels right. My Bretonnians felt like they should. John’s Wood Elves felt right. It all looked right and was very familiar.

We played a 1250pt Open Battle game to try to get our heads into the rules. We managed three rounds in 2.5 hours, which certainly involved a lot of rule checking. There’s a lot going on. The basics are pretty similar to 6th/7th/8th, but are different enough you have to check things. There are also a lot of special unit and weapon rules. Again, these are logically consistent with previous editions, but differ in the details. I believe most of the things we had to look up we’ll remember for the next game, so I’m hoping it’s just a learning exercise rather than a complexity challenge.

As for the game we had some fun. A six-knight Lance and unit of Mounted Yeomen performed better on my right flank than they had any right to. My main Lance, with all of my characters (Baron, Paladin and Damsel) were hesitant with a unit of Wardancers occupying the middle of the battlefield, but they eventually galloped past them and smashed into some Waywatchers. My Pegasus Knights and some Mounted Yeomen gave some Glade Guard a hard time on the right flank.

We definitely got some things wrong and Lances do complicate some of the rules, particularly charging and (potentially) being charged. But the point was to play the game, get some things wrong and read the book(s) again with that one experience behind us.

I’m very much looking forward to more games. I’ve been rebasing and repainting my Bretonnians and have been loving it. I’ll write a post about them soon – this is an opportunity to examine the history of an army 200 years before the army I used in 6th+ edition WFB. I had a strong narrative for that army and I have the makings of a good origin story forming at the moment. Anyway, more on that soon.

Until next time,

Owen