In the Grim Darkness of a New Edition

So I've finally managed to start getting in some games of Warhammer 40,000 8th edition. Two whole games in fact! Both were relatively modest-sized games at the 50 Power Level size, and I got creamed both times but had a lot of fun doing it. My first game was against my buddy Stuart and his Necron force.  We played the Eternal War scenario as neither of us had taken the game out for a spin yet and we wanted to keep it simple.

Game 1 on a 4'x4' board vs the Necron dynasty.

Basic Necron warriors come in distressingly large units in this edition.

I REALLY really really really wanted my Deff Dredd to make the acquaintance of Stu's Necron Lord.
Unfortunately, the 20 warriors on the gantry had something to say about that...

He slaughtered me to a man, and it took me most of the game to get to grips with his forces but when I did - oh, boy! it was on. I managed to kill his Lord and wipe a unit of warriors off the board, so the loss didn't sting too much even though I felt behind the 8-ball from the start. But that's a pretty common Ork player feeling.

I really like the streamlining of the new rules system. There are some things I think they kept for purely meeting older player expectations that could be ditched - I still find the Strength vs Toughness system slightly tedious as opposed to the speed of Age of Sigmar's fixed wound rolls but I know that most players seem to regard this as quintessentially part of GW's games so I don't really fault them for keeping it. Especially not with their big money maker IP. All told, the game feels easier to pick up and plays super quick which solves most of my major complaints about the previous editions. I'm also loving the use of Power Levels instead of Points Values - army construction is much quicker, and its only conceding an expectation of some level of balance rather than promising a totally balanced game (which no-one ever really pulls off anyway).

My second game saw me squaring off against the Adeptus Militarum, ably led by my friend Marky. This was my first time experiencing heavy tanks in the new edition, and while they seemed scary at first I don't think they were crazy over-powering in the game. In fact, his ability to make his troops move quicker or fire twice seemed much more deadly to me. Again, I was slaughtered to a man and really only managed to damage some tanks and kill a squad.

I broke out the full 4'x6' for this game against Marky's Imperial Gu- ahem - Adeptus Militarum.

The Stormboyz assaulting the refinery LOOKED awesome.
But a turn of firing and a Morale check wiped them off the board.

In the end, a unit of Shootaz took the objective, but again were wiped out by the fury of the Guard.

Not Pictured - the Killa Kans who assaulted the Hellhound. Because they were dead by the time of the photo.

A very aptly named Leman Russ Punisher variant held the center of the entire game.

I feel like I'm missing something tactically with my Ork army. Units of less than 30 Boyz seem to be a total waste and I'm having trouble even getting larger units to connect with anything due to the sheer weight of firepower that I've faced so far. There still obviously a lot for me to tinker with in the army - I'm not so much interested in winning games as I am in giving as good as I'm getting. After only 2 games I'm not going to moan about the army - there is obviously something I'm doing wrong. And part of the fun of a new edition is figuring that out and turning things around! If you have any Orky Know-Whats to drop in the comments - please do. In the meantime, I'll keep playing and seeing what I can learn from each defeat.

Cheers!