Hey!
9th age is saving grace for you, if you want to move into Warhammer. At least is has potential to be.
The thing is, as was stated before, that it is being developed mostly by ETC veterans and competetive players to make as balanced enviroment as is technically possible. That may mean few things (I might be wrong though):
1) the fluff will be bend in order for more balance to be achieved
2) less freedom in build orders to avoid OP combinations (e.g. model on foot might have different itemization options than mounted model)
3) the game strives to be balanced in 2,5k environment, and I am not entirely sure how it will look in lower games (1k etc.)
It also, on the other hand, aims for all your units to be usable in competitive environment, so you shouldn't be forced to play certain units in order to be "competitive". I don't know how serious you and your friend play, but I can speak from my experience - we play very friendly "meta" (talking 8th ed.) with my buddies, but it also can be frustrating (for all) when you pick something overpowered (even when you don't mean to "crush" your opponent).
I play Skaven for example and when I choose to play Doomrocket I almost pray for it to fail, because it is so cheap and can do serious damage. Not fun when 30 point item destroys 300 point unit. The same goes with Dreaded 13th spell. But then again, it was only thing in Skaven repertoire to deal with Chaos Warriors - it was rather silly - I either sent all my rats at his units and watch them die swift and dishonorable death or I wipe his regiment by one lucky irresistable force spell. Both were not fun. Those were extremes I certainly did not enjoy in 8th.
9th seems to move to "softer" position, but it might soon feel like pillow fight.
Only thing I fear is, that in order to maintain balance, fun choices will be removed - randomnes kills skill and should be avoided as such, BUT we are talking dice rolls, so..
This is hard to balance and hard to find good equilibrium with. Such is the nature of Warhammer though.
So, I recommend you to try and wait for 1st proper release of 9th and see how it looks like. I think it should be fine. Or you can play 8th and slowly "house rule" the game in order to get rid of silly shit GW let through.
Always aim for fun, because that is what this game is supposed to be. Don't cheese your friend, because he is the best thing you can have in this game.
And if you want to bring in the "powerhouse", give him heads up.
At least that is what I do. My 2 cents.
Good luck buddy!
edit: And yes, VS are definitelly in good place now (as far as I can tell).
edit 2: Oh yes, and as a Skaven palyer - just go for 9th age.. The armybook from Games Workshop is so poorly written - it was the last armybook in 7th edition BUT written "partially" for 8th. So it did not make sense in 7th, nor does it make sense in 8th. There are at least 2 sets of erratas and FAQs you need to keep up with and even then.. We never got propper 8th edition Skaven book.
) when they could end up ruining all of the balance changes that have been worked on.
