The 9th Age

I don't love 9th Age. I mean, I like it ok, but I don't love it. I would rather just play 8th edition. I will keep playing 9th Age, mainly because I like the guys I play with and playing 9th Age is better than letting my models sit in a box. but I have serious problems with 9th Age, and they aren't what you think they are.

My biggest problem is with the simplification of the rules. What I LOVED about Fantasy is that it was complex, it was meaty, it wasn't perfect but the rules had FLAVOR! that is the biggest problem with 9th is the lack of flavor and character in the rules because they decided to "simplify it."

For instance. "Mounts Protectiion 6+/5+" and "barding." Now, Highborn elves just don't have the option for "Ithilmar barding", but they can take "mounts protection 5+" which, yeah, it's the same thing as "Ithilmar barding", but dammit "Ithilmar Barding" has a lot more character to it that "Mounts Protection 5+" High Elf Phoenix's now don't have the chart for what you rolled on the winds of magic. It's just gone. Why? It wasn't broken, but we are now "simplifying." but in the process we are losing fun and flavor from the game in my opinion.

They are trying to make a game that is perfectly balanced and streamlined for tournaments.  That is impossible without removing all character from the rules set.  Having the Martial Prowess rule for High Elves was awesome and fluffy.  It put in rule form the fluff that every High Elf was well trained to fight because of need.  Now, maybe the rule it's self was a little over powered, giving it to every unit.  I like how 9th Age has only given it to a few units in the book, but they just call it "Fight in an Extra Rank."  Now that is boring.  I'm not saying they should call it "Martial Prowess"  but they should be able to think of something.  They won't though,  because that would add complexity?  Really?

Also, balance. Frankly it is impossible to completely balance the game out. The game is unbalanced, and it always will be. That's another thing that I loved about it. The armies weren't the same and some, yeah, were disadvantaged.  Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to bring the extremes back to the middle a bit, but I would rather sacrifice balance in the name of story and fluff any day. I played a long time with Elves that sucked, Tomb Kings that sucked worse and Dwarfs that weren't much better, but it was FUN. Getting my wizard blown up in turn one because he happened to roll two 6's on two dice was fun and you know it. Sure, it sucked because you were behind from something random, but you can't tell me you don't have fun telling those stories.

I remember playing a 5th edition game of where 1500 points of my High Elves Teamed with 1500 points of Undead against 2-1500 point Brettonnian armies. On turn one the Brettonnians happened to take out the Vampire General, and he had no other characters in his army, which back then meant that the whole army just died. Poof! Gone! so it was just my 1500 points of High Elves V. 3000 points of Brettonnians. Sure I lost, but I gave them my best and it was one of the best games I've every played. The Undead player just played another game with somebody that showed up later. I remember once in a tournament I lost all 6 of my Silver Helms in one shot because I failed 7 2+ saves. I won a prize for that! Or the time that I blew up both of my Dwarf Cannons in one turn and they both had the Rune of Forging on them.

I love these stories, and now I will not have nearly as many because my wizard will not be sucked into the warp only using 2d6. The Doom Bell can't just blow up, fewer crazy things happen, and to me that is not a good thing. 9th Age is fine, and I enjoy it, but you can't tell me it has the same character.  The problem is that I can't find anyone to play 8th Edition Warhammer with.