So, I was lucky enough to play 3 games of AoS today, and here's what I learned from them. The people agreed to limit an army to 2 characters, 3 units with lowest model count possible and one warmachine (or another unit instead) in order to test the game in a more or less fair environment. This was the first time that i experienced how stupid the removal of point values actually was. I took a stag lord, a mounted spellweaver, a unit of wildriders, a unit of wardancers and 2 units of gladeriders.
In the first game, I was up against chaos warriors (chaos lord, undivided sorcerer, chariot, chosen, 2 units of warriors). I managed to kill off one unit of warriors, take off a half of the chariot's wounds and kill the unit of chosen. My opponent was a true gentleman and mostly due to that was the game very enjoyable. He also restrained from summoning countless chaos warriors each turn on a roll of 4+. I lost the game, and at the time, I believed that I lost it due to some hasty charges, mostly with GR. I also forgot to shoot out of combat, which is now a thing. The VIPs of the game were the wildriders, which grinded the unit of warriors, the spellweaver, which kept bringing wildriders back to life, and the stag lord, who is pretty good both in close combat and in shooting. The spellweaver-specific spell levels on OP, since it regrows d3
models rather than wounds, as
regrowth used to do.
The second game I played against an empire general, who brought a BSB, a witch hunter, a unit of demigryphs, 2 units of halberdiers and a steam tank. I lost this game too (and the third one, since we're at it

), but mostly due to thinking in terms of 8th edition. I deployed with a refused right flank, since my opponent left his halberdiers and the witch hunter unprotected at the far left. I deftly moved to the halberdiers' flank with wlidriders and characters, in order to start mulching through his soft flank unit by unit, the way you did in the 8th. I charged in and did quite a bit of wounds, but not wiping any unit out wholly, and then, to my horror, EVERYTHING which was near enough piled in. In his turn the stank charged backwards (which you can now do, obviously) which I completely forgot about, as well as the BSB. It wast then that I realized that the movement phase has lost its importance, that picking your fights is impossible, and that mass close combat is inevitable at some point. Which is very sad, since I loved the wood elves for their sophisticated ways of manipulating with the movement phase. Had I allocated the wounds differently and not have charged in with the spell weaver things might have been different, but oh well. I also learned that warmachine shooting was more powerful than ever, with regular to hit and wound rolls. I also learned that shooting from a safe distance in AoS was impossible- I was at 20" away from his demigryph knights, partly covered by some ruins- so that I shoot him but so that he couldn't charge me, or so i thought. Needless to say, I got charged and decimated. The lack of charge reactions was to be felt, and painfully so.
The third game was a doubles game (2 welf generals vs 2 empire generals), and as I mentioned, we lost, albeit closely. Our mistakes were indecisiveness when picking targets for shooting and deploying 2 units of wildriders, 2 spellweavers and the stag lord too far to the right, and by the time they circled the right side of the board and arrived in the opponent's flank everything else was either dead or useless, and, after all, there's no flank any more. The VIP's of the game were a unit gladeguard, who shot Kurt Helborg dead in the crucial moment.
All the games were enjoyable mostly (or only) due to having played with really nice people. The game itself boils down to massed combat, which further boils down to either number or power of models,and that has no sense whatsoever with the lack of point values. It all felt like a very,
VERY watered down version of a once great game. The "hero" phase was bleak and disappointing compared to the old magic phase since it removes a very big risk managing factor (even the people who quit 8th due to "magic being op" said so). Rending proved to be very important, movement, or rather the order of charges, did not. IMHO, the game really needs a point system, and, well, content (by which I mean special rules, terrain rules, and a more exciting hero phase). I believe that after this, the majority of the local community will be switching to KoW. Hope you found this useful and sorry for the long post.
