Jeff helped me move furniture Saturday, so his thanks was to play our first 8th edition game.

I want to try my wall of thains unit, but since Jeff was running Daemons, tons of killing blow made that idiotic. Then I dropped in the Anvil because of the uncertainty on how it affects dice-determined charge distances. So with 2500 points I roughly fielded:

Dwarf Lord, loaded, including MR(2)
Runelord, no Anvil, MRoBalance, spellbreaker
Thain BSB, tanked

25 warriors, FC, gw
23 warriors, FC, gw
20 Longbeard FC, Rangers, Battle, Determination
10 Longbeards, shields, MRoGrungi
12 Slayers, one champion
2 Stone Throwers
2 Organ Guns

Daemons had:

Keeper of Secrets, level 1, Siren, Torment
Herald of Khorne BSB, 3+ armour
Herald of Tzeentch, Lore of Life, spellbreaker
30 Horrors
15 Bloodletters
2x5 Furies
2x6 Flesh Hounds
2x6 Flamers
2x1 Fiend

We set out to follow the rulebook rules for setting up and starting, and rapidly concluded they are awful. We got various wacky pieces of terrain, then each of us took turns sticking the ones we didn't like in corners, so terrain did little. After looking at the scenario rules for 5 and 6, we skipped to straight pitched battle as well. Now that I own the rulebook and have really read it, I am definitely NEVER playing that Watchtower scenario.

Runelord shut down his magic, except for an IF Bolt of Change on turn 1. But it came in at just 5 strength 5 hit, and the MRoGrungi saved enough that I lost just a couple guys. MRoGrungi saved a lot of wounds, as the Flamers rolled tons of shots and inflicted little damage for 3 turns. However, my artillery could not hit anything. Misfires, scatters, terrible rolls. I killed 5 Furies and 1 Horror all game with artillery.

I deployed the Longbeards forward behind an obstacle, so they would have Flamer cover. But the Daemons went first and the Keeper Siren'd them in turn 1. I did 3 wounds to him eventually, but he ate the entire unit on his own. Late in the game, Lore of Life healed him to full health.

To support the Rangers, I moved forward. Bad idea. One unit of Flesh Hounds engaged and killed the slayers. I killed a couple dogs, but that was useless. Bloodletters and Horrors were trying to gang up on my center block with characters, while the second Flesh Hounds kept the second block busy, and the little stuff ate the artillery. With the artillery engaged (nice to hold, but still cannot beat daemons off with artillery crew), my blocks had to kill the enemy.
But moving forward opened up the line, and the Bloodletters (with extra charge banner) easily charged past by Lord and into the MRoGrungi bunker unit. That contained the Runelord. I had to flee that charge, and then rolled double 1s for distance, killing the unit and my magic defense.
Suddenly Flamers and the Tzeentch level 2 with Lore of Life dominated. With my saves and ward save gone, magic and shooting killed about 10 warriors the next turn. Then T8 Flamers parked in front of my Lord's block and dared me to do anything about them. We charged and did a wound, dropping another on combat resolution. In other words, nothing of consequence. So Bloodletters hit me in the rear and Horrors in the front. Bloodletters and Herald killed 9, basically wiping the unit and ending the game.

I killed a unit of Furies and one Fiend, for 115 points. We didn't play it out, but I was effectively wiped from the field. Everything he had was beat up, but no unit kills means no VPs.

Obviously, I played stupidly. I brought a list with 7th edition unit sizes, then played it aggressively. 8th edition requires fewer units that are bigger in size, if you want them in combat. If I stay back and just stand in front of my artillery, I come out better, because my Runelord lives and my artillery might last longer.

Conclusions:

Daemons are still nasty. Their break test rules and ward save are still a huge advantage. Greater Daemons can still kill entire units alone. It is riskier for the Greater Daemon, but Thunderstomp sure helps them. The Keeper went first and was immediately in combat, so I could never shoot at it.
Nothing broke, except the Lord and BSB after the unit was killed around them. Daemons just killed them all. I passed all leadership tests.
Lore of Life is just as effective as advertised. A Tzeentch level 2 with Master of Sorcery is all the Daemons want for magic. Plus the 10 Horrors to give him some protection, but going more magic than that is likely pointless for them.
5 wide Dwarf warriors are crud. Which fits if you do the math.
The obvious answer to the above is my two Warrior blocks should have been combined into 1 big unit, 10 wide, size 40. That would be scarier in close combat. However, given the magic situation, my opponent would then roll 6 dice (or whatever he had) at Dweller's Beneath each turn. One pair of 6s and I lose half the unit and my number of attacks plunges.
Slayers are useless in small units. They don't have enough offense, and they die.

"New" Theories:
Multiple units of 5 slayers, in conga-lines, to guard flanks. Conga-lines are rude as hell though.
Alternative is several solo dragon slayers for the same purpose.

True LOS is so different from before, and currently feels idiotic. My Stone Thrower models, which are exactly the old GW ones, can technically see over every Dwarf unit I have. The book says measure LOS from the firing point, and with no base or conversion work, that crossbar is higher than my troops. Deploy artillery on the table edge, put blocks in front of it, sit there and shoot over your troops. We have gone from "all models block LOS" to "you can always see everything".