My local gaming group is starting a new league, and I got in my first game in it today. This is also only the second game I've played in 8th edition and I am definitely sold on it. It is far, far better than 7th edition in too many ways to list.

First, the lists:
Mine:
Dwarf Lord, gw, Preservation, Resistance, Stone, Fate

Runesmith, gw, MR Balance, Spellbreaking

Thane, BSB, MR Gromril, MR Spite

Master Engineer, pistols, rune of fire

Dwarf Warriors x20, gw, FC

Longbeards x20, gw, FC

Quareller rangers x12, mus

Hammerers x20, FC, Sanctuary x2

Cannon, forging

Grudge Thrower, accuracy

Flame cannon

Total: 1998

His list:
Lord on Griffon with 4+ Ward

Warrior priest

Two or three captains with handguns

Battle wizard, level 1, Metal (rolled up Transmutation of Lead)

3x 10 handgunners, champ, each with two 5-man detachments of handgunners

3x great cannon

Hellblaster volley gun

Stank

Deployment:

He deployed his gunline from one end of the board to the other. I placed my three machines on my left, with the three main blocks in the center (hammerers, longbeards, warriors). General joined the hammerers, BSB joined the longbeards, and runesmith joined the warriors. Rangers deployed in some woods in front of his middle (woods turned out to be poison).

He won the roll for first turn and took it.

His stank moved up towards my right and the general flew behind some ruins on my far right. Then most everything opened up on the rangers. His wizard hexed them and then the handgunners, stank, and one cannon proceeded to kill them down to one guy (who passed his panic check :guinesssmilie: ). One cannon fired at my cannon, but failed to wound. :guinesssmilie: Not much else happened.

On my turn, I moved the warriors a bit so the stank and general were in their front arc. The Lone Ranger shot his (silver) quarrel at the general, but missed. The grudge thrower dropped a two-ton boulder on the tank, rupturing several valves and taking it down to six wounds. The cannon blew up his cannon on my left, and the flame cannon cooked up some handgunners in two different units (who all passed their panic checks).

His second turn, the steam tank's boiler exploded when the engineer tried to push too much pressure through a previously damaged valve. Not wanting to face 10 (or more) great weapon attacks on his mount, the general charged the Lone Ranger. I got off one shot from stand-and-shoot, but failed to wound. Most of his mainline moved up this turn after he realized I didn't start on the 12" line. His remaining cannons shot at the warriors, but one overshot and the other misfired, taking it out of the game for two turns (that particular cannon managed to misfire nearly every turn of the game). The general easily killed Lone Ranger and declined to overrun...even though he was only 11" from the longbeards.

On my turn, the longbeards charged the general, who flew away behind his own lines. The warriors and hammerers moved up to get ready to charge his line, my cannon destroyed his hellblaster (which never got off a single shot due to being out of range the first turn and moving the second), the flame cannon toasted some more handgunners, and the grudge thrower scattered when trying to take out a second cannon.

His third turn, his general railed, the steam tank blew itself up again, and he started shooting up all of my infantry. He eventually got the longbeards down to about 8 and the hammerers down to 11, while the warriors managed to end the game with more than 15 models left. Part of the decimation of the longbeards was due to us both confusing the poison woods rule; we both thought it applied to ranged attacks, too. Ah well, live and learn.

My third turn, the hammerers and warriors moved up some more and the longbeards tried a long-distance charge at the nearest group of handgunners. I rolled up low so they wandered into the woods, killing a few of them as they tripped on their beards and fell into poisoned nests. The grudge thrower and cannon teamed up on the general, killing his mount and but failing to wound him (stupid ward save). The flame cannon continued cooking handgunners, they continued passing their panic checks.

His general and warrior priest teamed up and formed a small unit of their own, the steam tank managed to generate a single steam point and moved behind some ruins (and in view of the cannon...TLOS is going to take some getting used to), and he continued shooting up my guys.

Now it was time to CHARGE! :dwarf: The hammerers charged one group of handgunners, braving their fire and that of their two detachments; the warriors charged a detachment of the middle group. The longbeards saw only a few remaining handgunners through the trees and opted to sit this out rather than get more nettles in their beards. The flame cannon killed the warrior priest, the grudge thrower killed the general, and the cannon put another two wounds on the stank, taking it to two wounds. Both combats were won easily, with the warriors killing the detachment to a man and the hammerers breaking the main group they were fighting. Oh, did I mention the battle wizard was in that group? He and the captain turned tail and ran, sparking panic in a nearby detachment. The hammerers overran into the other one.

The fifth (and as it turned out, the final) turn saw my warriors attempt a charge on a nearby detachment but come up short, the hammerers killed detachment they were fighting, the flame cannon killed the last of the main group in front of the longbeards, and the grudge thrower scattered when shooting at a cannon. My cannon took the stank down to its final wound but failed to kill it (we lost track of the turns, if I had realized then we had one left I would've killed it for sure).

We didn't both totaling up points, but he only got the 185 points for the rangers; he was left with one group of handgunners, two detachments of same, two cannons, and a badly damaged tank, approximately 650 points. Easily a massacre for the dwarfs.

All in all, I have to say I love 8th edition. No guessing, no partials, revamped magic, stepping up. It all makes the game much, much faster. We managed to run this game in about an hour and a half, something unthinkable in 7th edition. We could've gone even faster if I had started moving up the first turn.

Oh, and the flame cannon is definitely the new star of 8th edition. That thing is made of pure Win. Being able to hit two units per turn and cause panic checks in both is potentially far more devastating than hitting one unit hard. True, he managed to pass all such checks this game, but that's just dice luck. Next time he won't be so lucky. :diablo: