Oldhammer

Sunday night was a rule-book-flipping party for 3rd Edition Warhammer.  We threw down about 1000 points of wood elves and greenskins.  It was a lot of fun to run through various situations and challenge our brains to go back to the old way of thinking and playing. Overall, we got back into the groove a little more easily than I think either of us expected, so hopefully we can bring the hammery goodness to others!

And even through it wasn't a 'real' game, it still deserves a little bit of a write-up.

The wood elves and orcs square off across a plain.

Orc skirmishers take to the ruins, hoping for a decent vantage point.  In the background, mounted elven lords jockey for position with a unit of boyz.

This troll was perfectly positioned to jump into combat with the elven lords and assist the orcs.
Then he spotted a butterfly and wandered off.

The elves managed to rout the orcs after a couple rounds of combat and spook the troll in the process.
By the end of the game he had meandered all the way to the opposite long end of the table.

The troll and goblins panic as the orcs are routed by the elven cav, but not before the goblin shaman caused major havok on the elves with a couple rounds of wind spells.  The shaman managed three consecutive turns of denying an archer unit its shooting phase: MVP.

In the final round a unit of elves are charged by the other orc unit, led by Gutspilla the level 10 orc hero on a war boar, and another troll, This proves to be too much for the elves; they rout and their neighbor unit panics and flees off the table.  Waaagh!

So what did we learn? Quite a bit, but here are some highlights.

• The magic system is very different and pretty exciting.  It's probably most effective in the first couple of turns and then less so once units start getting into proper scraps.  Not having the winds of magic and dispel rolls was pretty refreshing.
• Movement is more rewarding and more restrictive, so it's important to know the movement rules cold.
• Reserve moves are AWESOME.  Lots of nice ways to apply that mechanic.
• Combat is handled so well.  The push-back rules are so helpful in providing good sensible combat.
• Trolls are stupid.  As they should be.