I saw that someone said they'd be interested in hearing some session reports so here is a synopsis of my first two sessions, with some notes as to things we liked and didn't:
Session One : I had two players, one played a High Elf Swordmaster and the other a Wood Elf Wardancer(?is that the right name?). We decided the story was that the Swordmaster was an envoy sent from Ulthuann and the Wood Elf has been assigned the the envoy as a guide. They are on their way to Altdorf to deliver take care of some unspecified business on the part of High Elf.
On their journey they come across a band of Beastmen in the woods who are in the process of launching an attack on the coach from "Day Late, Shilling Short" - I like to often take published material and change it up and squeeze in some of my own ideas. They decide to come to the aid of the coach, which has been tipped over, the horses killed and the coachman seriously injured. After a bloody battle, fought primarily by bow from the edge of the forest, the elves rescue the coach. We had a great moment when the High Elf Swordmaster used his Flight of the Phoenix card and impaled a raging beastman with his sword. We wrapped up the session with the players assessing the situation, realizing that the horse and carriage were unusable, finding an odd woooden box, of Elven design, among the packages on the coach, and meeting the sniveling, whining passenger in the coach. Lastly, they hear the battlehorn of the Beastmen in the forest around them and realize that a storm in blowing in.
Session Two : A third-player joined us for this session so he made a Human Hunter. We decided that the Human Hunter was on his way to Altdorf, as well, to find his estranged sister who had moved to Altdorf several years earlier. On his way he witnessed the characters' defense of the waylaid coach. He steps forward to offer his assistance. The coachman is unconscious and must be carried. As well, the passenger in the coach (who I've decided is the patron from the Eye for an Eye adventure) is on his way to the manor and is transporting his master's luggage - he insists that the pc's carry the luggage to the next town where they can get a new coach. After some fun role-playing they decide to get a move on as a storm is approaching and the nearest town is still a days walk from where they are.
That night they camp in the woods (about three hours from the nearest town) and set up watch. Just as the storm rolls in, about 3 am, a bloodied and frantic man comes stomping through their camp. He says that the nearby village has been attacked by Beastmen and the populace, including children and women, are being rounded up in cages. The players leave the wounded coachman and sniveling nobleman to wait in the woods as they go to investigate. They come to realize that this is an odd situation as Beastmen will rarely "take" a town but usually just raid and pillage. They sneak into town, attack stray beastmen along the way. When they get to the town square they see that a large Wargor is consulting with a small, hornless beastman (actually a Bray Shaman) and they are separating the villagers into two groups. Many children are being placed in makeshift cages. They devise a plot to free the villagers which eventually leads to the players being discovered and a running street battle between the characters and the beastmen. Eventually, they successfully take down the Wargor and the Bray Shaman (which, in turn, leads to a route of the Beastmen out of the village). The players do, however, suffer substantial damage - the Swordmaster gets taken down (but not dead) and the Hunter's use of Rapid Fire in Reckless mode brings him very close to passing out from Fatigue.
The Session ends with the party split up and the villagers reporting that the fleeing Beastmen have taken several of the town's children with them. The players decide they will pursue the Beastmen into the wilderness to retrieve the children.
Notes: We really enjoyed the game. All the players found the dice mechanic exciting and simple to use. Two of the players are friends that I've been role-playing with for over 20 years. One of the players is my 10-year-old son. Both the mature, older gamer and my inexperienced, younger son grasped the game mechanics with ease. We all really enjoyed the stance meter-mechanics and thought that they made for interesting role-playing guides.
Also, despite all the complaints I've read on this forum about too much recorded keeping (with recharging tokens, etc) I didn't find that process to slow the game down at all. At the end of each round I merely reminded players to remove one recharge token from their cards and they did. Eventually, I didn't have to do anything at all, the players just remembered.
The card component is phenomenal. Since I was the only one who'd read the rules, all I had to do was explain the dice mechanic. Once everyone had their cards in front of them they could play the game. No more constantly pass around the only copy of the rulebook (a problem that occurs in most of the games I've played). The only rule we had to consult in the book was healing. I couldn't believe it. I don't think I've ever played an rpg where we weren't constantly referencing rules in the rulebook - especially in the first two sessions.
I greatly enjoy the 3-episode adventure structure. It created short but fun sessions. It kept the action moving. Although some people on the forums have complained about the artificiality of the rally step, my players liked it.
Last Note : Between session one and session two I got my hands on a couple 2nd Edition sourcebooks and tried my hand at a little conversion of material. I thought the idea of a Bray Shaman and introducing some magic to the game would be fun (since none of the player characters were magic users). I converted a few Chaos spells from one of the sourcebooks for the Bray Shaman to use. It was pretty cool but he only got one spell off before he rolled a couple of Chaos Stars on a Channelling check, over-powered himself and took himself out of the battle with fatigue (which, of course, counts as wounds for an NPC). The spell he did cast, however, put some real fear into the players. They have a genuine respect for magic now.
This is the most fun I've had with an RPG since the mid-nineties.