AOSigmar: Beastmen v Tomb Kings

Had my very first game of AOSigmar and at the end of the report I will let you have my thoughts, for what they are worth.
I played with the army I posted yesterday and Steve played with Tomb Kings, we decided to take 8 units with no more than 20 models in a unit and up to 2 monsters.

This was Steve's army:

Tomb King on a Royal chariot

Necrotect
Liche Priest

20 Archers

4 Skeleton chariots

1 screaming skull catapult

Necrosphinx

Bone Giant

Deployment over, Steve handed the first turn to me.

My Great Bray-Shamen tried to summon a monster and failed.

I didn't let the Beastmen surge too far forward, although many could have moved further than they did.

The shock of seeing the Necrosphinx right up in my face must have been a treat for Steve, I couldn't believe it!

The Skeleton Chariots got very close to the Ungor Raiders protecting my Bray-Shaman and Wargor BSB.

The Bone Giant kept up with the skeletons, well nearly.

Missed some shots here concentrating on the game. The Necrosphinx charged the chariots and destroyed them, but because it was within 3" of the Minotaurs they got to pile into the combat.

Between the last gasp attack of the last chariot and the Minotaurs with Slaughter's call, the Necrosphinx was dispatched.

At the last minute the Skeleton Chariots swerved to take on the Gors who were threatening their flank.

Together with the Tomb King in his chariot they destroyed  the Gors.

The Bestigor rounded the ruins in an attempt to single out the Tomb King and draw as many attacks as possible on him.

The Bone giant moved forward ready to charge.

The last 2 Gor were sent to the after life by the Tomb King.

The poor Ungor Raiders were stamped and punched into the ground, only 3 got to attack back, poor little loves.

The Bestigor make it into the Tomb King, over the next 3 rounds of combat the Bestigor managed to fluff  their attacks rather badly.

While my Doombull failed a 6 " charge into the Bone Giant.

Here I made a terrible error, never charge into combat with 2 characters if you don't have too, the Giant trod on the Wargor BSB, a waste, and the Shaman failed to hurt the Huge creature.

The minotaurs continue to plough on through the archers.

The Skeleton Chariots retreat out of the combat area, while the Bestigor v Tomb King fight raged on. The Tomb King was very tough.

The minotaurs keep slugging at the Skeleton archers. The archers fail to wound the minotaurs.

The Bestigor fight on, I kept hoping for a good series of dice rolls, but they never came.

The Bray-Shaman retreated out of combat with the Bone Giant.

The minotaurs finished off the archers.

My Shaman cast Savage Dominion and suddenly there loomed a huge bladed form of a Ghorgon.

My Doombull finally charged into the Bone Giant.

This was the Liche summoning Skeleton archers.

The Skeleton Chariots thundered into what was left of the Bestigor.

In a combat that the Dukes of Hazard would have been truly proud of, Boss Hog, that was the Bestigor unit, realised his end had finally come.

The minotaurs strode towards the screaming skull catapult.

Both the Doombull and the Ghorgon managed to destroy the chariots, although the Doombull was dispatched as well, while the Ghorgon suffered 3 wounds.

While the minotaurs killed the crew of the catapult while the Liche Priest raised more and more skeleton archers.

For the second time the Great Bray-Shaman cast Arcane Bolt causing 1 damage to the Tomb King.

In the dieing moments the catapult was destroyed and the Tomb King tried to kill the Shaman but failed. 

At this point we decided to call the game. The day was running on and we had played an even number of turns.

Epilogue

After some discussion we decided to give Steve the game. Mainly because his army had really stood up so well to a much larger force. He could have legitimately played for a sudden death scenario, I more than outnumbered him by the requisite amount. but we wanted to play a straight forward game for our first try.

So what did I think- I actually enjoyed it very much and will look forward to playing another game. 

• I really liked how the characters mainly provided buffs for their troops and how magic no longer dominated the game. 
• I also loved the free movement options, the skirmish aspect to the game really frees it up. Its 40k style works well in my opinion (its something I had been advocating for years). 
• I did not miss the idea of ranks and blocks at all or all the shuffling for position to enable a charge.
• The War Scrolls made it easier to play, were very easy to understand and I just like them.  
• We both felt that it was full of strategy, eg deciding where you would fight and in what order.
• The simplicity of the magic phase was refreshing.
• I liked the whole retreating aspect of the game, which made up for not being able to flee a charge.
• The only issues were, force balance and perhaps the 3" rule concerning combat and pile ins. But I think the former can be sorted by prior discussion between players and the latter I probably need to read again.

We both enjoyed the game, it ebbed and flowed from one side to the other which kept us thinking and  talking. It is not the game I was expecting :-)

Cheers for the game Steve.