The 9th Age 9th Age Beta, discussion thread

[Mad 'At]

The 9th Age Beta is out!

The basic rulebook for the 9th Age beta is now released. This is a stand alone document fully detached from any GW material. It replaces the BRB and all FAQs relevant to it. Very shortly, another two documents will be released, one containing all the magic paths in the game and one containing rules for all the armies.

Here is a link to where you can read about the goals, purpose and future of the 9th Age project. And here is one to where the team working behind it is introduced.

Everything is part of a single webpage they have dedicated to this project, with news feed, feedback forum and lots of other stuff.

Personally I am very excited about this, although there are certain things I am unsure about (looking at you Wizard's Hood ) I think all in all this is a vast improvement to 8th edition and I truly welcome the changes made (good or bad) as it will bring new and exciting times to my battlefield.

Tell me what you think

 

[Leithel]

Hi, thanks for the links. I've been following along with the new rules and trying to figure out where I want my gaming to go and 9th seems more likely to be adopted by my group than KoW. I read the rules and they look pretty good but without the relevant changes to the respective army lists it's hard to tell. I mean for example if you nerf magic (which I think looks good) but don't balance the points costs of wizard levels then they are going to be hard to play. Also I'd love it if the team publicised details on how this is being playtested.

It looks like a good step though and I hope it's successful.

Cheers
Leithel

 

[Eternal flitter]

I imagine they themselves are doing some playtesting but the whole pint is that the community, as in you, me anyone who wants to, can play a game and then feedback on their experience and what they thought about it all. And they will take C&C into account if enough people are saying the same things; which is awesome IMO.

 

[Mad 'At]

@Leithel: Yeah, I am eagerly awaiting the Ravening Hordes releases with all the armies.

Regarding playtesting I am believe much as @Eternal flitter, some they've done themselves but from now on a lot of that will come from the players. The intention is that things will be continuously updated to make it more and more balanced. Another big source of playtesting they will use I think is tournaments. Looking at the results and how the armies that did well were built. Judging what armies did well and why is not always easy though, there are a lot of factors to consider, possibly the most influential being player skill. Swe-comp was adjusted a lot through this though, so they've got experience in it.

 

[Eternal flitter]

I mean a club local to me is running a map based campaign under the 9th age and they're excited because they feel they'll be able to shape the future of the game; even ever so slightly.

Ultimately though if this is going to be anything more than a flash in the pan it needs to be chosen by the ETC as their fantasy system and there need to be tourneys running it. Interesting times anyway.

 

[logan054]

I'd say I'm on the fence atm. The ravening hordes looks ok but it seems to have killed wraiths as unit.

Still not keen on the chaos marks.

A lot however liking the look off a lot of things and I think we enough feedback certain things will change (like the 80pts forcefield for dragons.

Skullcrushers look buffed dramatically with T5 at no additional cost.

VC once expanded with a proper book should be good. I guess it really depends if it takes off with the wider community.

 

[Eternal flitter]

Yeah it's absolutely all about the wider uptake really.

And yeah things like the Force shield will come out in the wash, but in fairness 80 pts s one hell of a price tag...

 

[logan054]

I have this funny thing like forcefield won't get changed drastically. It looks like they overrally paranoid about hero hammer (it's also odd when compared to a greater daemon).

Did anyone noticed that after the dragon riders got announced that the MoN got changed (as this was providing poison protection).

MoN was changed due to being OP yet everyone with a HW & SH now effective has this ability?? I do really like the minor change to 2HW.

I'm really not liking the wraith unit being changed to to single wound single attack models. They just aren't worth it at 20pts a pop given how easy they are to kill. I think all they really needed was a price reduction and/or a extra wound.

I'm really not sure why vampire lords are all WS7 now.... On the bright side blender lords are still very much a live and kicking. I'm guessing most will be going blood dragon backed up by a lvl4 necromancer. Sadly he will only be S6 (just hitting most things on a 2+ with an extra attack). Still, that isn't drastically different than before.

 

[Mad 'At]

Just want to inform everyone that the 9th Age team is currently looking for people to help them write Army Books.

Following this link to find out more:
http://www.the-ninth-age.com/news/index.php?news/45-staff-wanted-army-book-creation/

They want to create small groups of people, each working on a single Army Book.

 

[Emicrania]

I'm gonna give it a try tomorrow,small warband1,5k does anybody have some tip? Other than nerfed wraith doesn't feel like have been a big difference

 

[Mad 'At]

@Emicrania: Atm the main changes are probably the reintroduction of Bloodlines and the nerf of the Terrorgheist. The Blenderlord can still be about as killy as before, although he has to sacrifice some protection to do it and can't be better than level 2 either.

Personally I quite liked having a Nosferatu Lord with Forbidden Path to access some fun lore. In this battle rep I used one with Path of Alchemy and it worked quite well.

All in all I think the changes has opened up a lot more options for us. Before there was little reason to take anything other than a blenderlord but now there are other interesting builds. Time will tell if they are really worth it but atm I think so.

 

[Abrasus]

Hi mates!
I recently became 9th Age Army Support for Vampire Counts. I'm here to hear all complaints and suggestions about current ruleset, ideas what should be changed in our army and battle experience you have from 9th edition battles.
Here is the link for current rules (0.11 now) http://www.the-ninth-age.com/index.php?simple-page/

The 9th Age community is growing bigger and bigger with over 5000 forum users now. I think it is great and I see the chance here to make our old wfb playable again. For now, versions are pretty stable finally, next one will probable see the shelves around March/April, so we have some time to test now. Next week there will be revision of VC armybook so if you have any ideas please share them now .

Cheers,
Konrad