The thaumaturgical powerhouses of the Mortal Realms have arrived in the frozen tundras of Andtor, joined by mage hunters adorned with nullstone – it’s the latest season of competitive play for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
General's Handbook: Pitched Battles 2023-24 presents new challenges for players to puzzle out, and with all the competitive data harvested from major tournaments and gaming events around the world, it’s now time for the quarterly Warhammer Age of Sigmar Battlescroll. Matt from the Warhammer Studio is here to explain more.
There are a wide range of changes to core rules, points, and factions in the new Battlescroll, so here are a few of the highlights to help contextualise the changes.
The Lore of Primal Frost is the hip new spell lore being cast by all the coolest Andtorian Locus wizards, and it’s seen two big changes. The first files down the fangs of Rupture – it still targets an enemy Incarnate or predatory Endless Spell, but deals D3 mortal wounds to the bonded unit or caster, before simply dispelling the Endless Spell or dropping the Incarnate a power level and sending it wild. Rupture can also only target enemy Incarnates – which means no shenanigans involving sacrificing your own Incarnate.
Merciless Blizzard now requires intense focus, so you can only unleash this savage aetheric storm if your caster has not been set up or moved earlier in the phase.
The Feedback Overload rule in the Battleplan No Reward Without Risk has been clarified to only affect WIZARD HERO units, meaning Tzeentch’s Arcanites and the Lumineth Realm-lords can engage in sorcerous warfare a little more safely.
The aelves from Hysh have also seen a few direct changes. The set casting roll produced by the Scinari Deep Thinkers ability can now be modified, while the Great Nation of Ymetrica and units with the Enduring as Rock ability now get a flat Rend reduction to a minimum of 0, making them easier to play and slightly more powerful.
The top-performing Soulblight Gravelords have also seen a change to their spellcasting, with Spirit Gale being overhauled. A successful cast now only targets three units, while unmodified casting rolls of 9 can pick up to six units.
The Mortarchs and Mortisan Boneshapers of the Ossiarch Bonereapers have also had their resurrective abilities adjusted. They are now only able to reconstruct the fearsome Immortis Guard and Necropolis Stalkers with one wound remaining – knitting them in full is too tough in the midst of battle.
Elsewhere, factions that have been struggling with scoring have found new goals. The Stormcast Eternals, Maggotkin of Nurgle, and Skaven each receive one new battle tactic, while the Nighthaunt get a fresh grand strategy.
There are other updates – Grey Seers on Screaming Bells, and Plague Furnaces with Plague Priests have discovered the power of self propulsion, while the Bloodthirsty Shivers of Feuthan have gotten snappier.
The biggest change is to points across 10 different factions. These updates include a range of Soulblight Gravelords units and other hot picks like Slann Starmasters and Blissbarb Archers, while Idoneth Deepkin, Stormcast Eternals, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Skaven, and Nighthaunt have also had adjustments to help new army compositions surface.
You can download the Battlescroll below to get every single rules change in one convenient place, and find out what the latest points costs for your armies are.
