Hi,

as the title says in my eyes 9th Age is a step into a new age of tabletop game system.
I know that are great words and they need to be backed up by something. So let's try to explain me why I think so
positiv from this system. I am writing with the focus on 9th Age 2.0 which is probaly leaving the beta this month -
I have been playing the beta since more than half a year.

First from the more objective point of view.
1) Rules
Seems to be an odd thing, but after some plays you get simply used to the fact that there are no Erratas and no FAQ - and they are not needed.
The rules are precice and do not leave much room for interpretation. To be honest they are not (yet) as easy too consume as it would be nice. Compared to the old checking errats, checking faq, checking errats for armybooks and so on this is incredible . In case of a unclear situation you just sit down and check the rule book (sounds simple and is by this awesome).

2) Balance
The external balance between the different armies is very good. You realy feel that there is no company behind that needs to push sales by making new units better.
The balance in the armybooks itself is quite good, at least to such a degree that there are not the one to three lists to be played for each army. You need to get creative and find your way to handle the army.

3) Miniatures
9th Age has no own miniature collection - but they have many vendors which procude for 9th Age, or which can be used. This gives you a lot of freedom to shape the army design to your liking

4) Costs
Rules and Armybooks are free to download!

This are the more simple and easy facts that make the game good. Some other games have similiar pros.
For me the emotional part makes the big difference. The game is a valid heir to Warhammer Fantasy. It has enough cool stuff like magic, magical items and it is real fantasy with offensive and deffensive dice rolling (I realy like to roll a good save against all odds, and feel a bit uncomfortable with things like KoW or AD&D where everything is included in the attack roll).

But the most important thing:
After GW trashed the Old World my group disappeared and my Minis went to the shelf and collected dust. It was ok, to some degree - but in the back there was always an itchy thing, something was missing. Until one of the old guys turned up and put the idea on the table to give 9th Age a try. To be honest I was not realy convinced as we had some tries before and none of the systems realy grabed me again. Then we played some games and I realized that it realy felt like playing my old Slanesh army with some other rules, but it was the right feeling how the army played and behaved. It simply put me on fire again...I put the armies out, started painting again, ordered minis  - simply all that stuff that related to playing Fantasy Battles 🙂

I can simply say: Give it a try it is worth!

P.S. Please go for Release 2.0 and not 1.3 anaymore