The warscroll has been a mainstay of Warhammer Age of Sigmar since the first days of first edition. They’ve evolved with each edition, but they’re still one of the most recognisable parts of the game.
Things have changed once again for the new edition – and these changes tie into the new modularity of the rules. Everything a unit can do is now an ability, and these are clearly labelled, colour-coded, and symbol-coded to demonstrate exactly which phase of the game each ability is used in.
This system is the key that unlocks the whole game – even basic, universal actions such as moving and fighting are now shared abilities listed in the core rulebook,* while every warscroll has at least one ability unique to them, which help define each unit’s battlefield role.
What’s on a Warscroll?
Despite this change to unit abilities, the information contained on a new warscroll is actually mostly very similar to previous iterations. The unit title, for instance, remains entirely the same, while the characteristic emblem still contains four stats:
Move, which is unchanged
Health, which is the current Wounds stat changed for sense purposes**
Save, which is unchanged
Control, which replaces Bravery and functions as a measure of how able a unit is to hold Objectives. A unit’s Control Score is the sum of this characteristic from all models in the unit contesting an objective
Likewise, the keywords banner at the bottom remains the same – though important gameplay keywords have been moved onto their own line at the top for easy reference.
Weapons have seen a few subtle changes, but they still function in more or less the same way. In melee, five key attributes function as before: Attacks, Hit, Wound, Rend, and Damage – though they’ve all been carefully rebalanced for the new edition to better reflect each unit’s miniatures, lore, and battlefield role.
Liberators hit hard for basic troops, especially given their Crit (Mortal) ability – one of seven universal weapon abilities. It has a simple effect: an unmodified 6 to hit counts as a Critical Hit, and this ability turns Critical Hits into Mortal Damage.
However, while missile weapons still have a Range – albeit generally reduced – every model can now fight within a 3” combat range in melee. It’s a simple change, but one that will streamline pile-ins and combat resolution.
Finally, there are the redesigned abilities. Our Liberators have a fairly easy one – Stalwart Defenders, which helps them control your closest Objectives. It’s purple, which marks it out as an End of Turn ability, while the circle symbol makes it a Control ability. Passive ensures that it happens automatically. Each phase and ability type has its own colour and symbol, making it incredibly easy to see when you use them.
But that’s a fairly simple warscroll. How does a complex one look? Say, one belonging to a god…
Even though it belongs to the literal god of Death, Nagash’s warscroll (like everyone else’s) fits on one side of a card. He has several decisive abilities, which affect the game in three separate phases.
The Staff of Poweris a passive buff which greatly improves his spellcasting power during the Hero Phase, while
Supreme Lord of the Undeadis an incredibly powerful once-per-battle ability that can turn the tide of a conflict.
His signature spell is Invocation of Nagash, a flexible conjuration that can restore models, shield them from incoming damage, or deal damage to the opposition. Finally, Hand of Dust may be used in your turn or your opponent’s. This is an example of a new-look rampage – the vast majority of monsters now have a unique ability called out on their warscroll. You’ll notice that various universal special rules, such as WIZARD, FLY, and WARD appear in the keyword bar, and have been standardised in the core rules.
As you’d imagine, there’s a huge scope of warscrolls which sit between humble soldiers and literal gods, but they all fit into the same space and they all function exactly the same. We’ll have more on Warhammer Age of Sigmar next week.
* And, you guessed it, we’ll have more on the rest of these abilities next week.
** Many newer players who hear that a model has 10 Wounds might assume that it’s in pretty poor shape, rather than fighting fit…