Alongside warscrolls and the priority roll, issuing commands for units to react in your opponent’s turn is one of the key features of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. These have received a lethal overhaul in the new edition in the shape of the Commands rules module.
Command Points
As we hinted to previously, command points are a tightly controlled resource. Each player gets four command points at the start of the battle round to spend over the course of that entire round – but there are 10 commands to issue. Any command points you haven’t spent by the end of the battle round are gone forever, so there’s no way of hoarding them.
The Army Composition module may also affect your CP economy: if you start with fewer auxiliary units than your opponent, you earn one extra CP per battle round.
Finally, the underdog can harvest one extra point each round – that’s the player with fewer victory points at the start of the round. This provides a powerful catch-up mechanic, ensuring that games remain closely fought.
Your pool of command points is an incredibly precious resource, as there are no abilities in the game that can generate additional points. Units and factions (such as the disciplined Ossiarch Bonereapers) which previously relied on additional CP can look forward to powerful new mechanics to compensate – stay tuned for more info in upcoming faction focus articles.
What’s more, the restrictions on who can issue commands are gone: needing to use generals, totems, heroes, unit champions and elite units to issue commands is a thing of the past. This makes using commands clear and concise, while retaining the tough choice of when to use your core offensive and defensive abilities.
Reactions
As we’ve seen, everything in the new edition is an ability, including commands, which all have clear timings showing which phase they’re used in. All of these commands are found in the Command module, so no more hunting around to find them.
Four of the 10 commands are reaction abilities, which are used once you have declared an ability but before the effect is resolved, bolstering that effect.
All-out Attack and All-out defence are familiar from previous editions, becoming reactions which occur once an Attack ability has been declared. They have simple effects: making your chosen unit better on the offence or defence.
At The Double and Forward To Victory are equally simple, allowing you to get your troops exactly where they need to be in the Movement and Charge phases.
New Commands
Commands, on the other hand, are more reactive. There are six new or revamped commands, which are used at the end of their respective phases once the active player has finished all their actions – allowing you to respond with a counter-punch and stay on top of a changing battlefield.
Rally now gives you a more flexible way of healing or returning models to your units. The scaling has improved: you can no longer get lucky on the dice and bring back two full Stormdrake Guards. This is also a good example of how some of the functionality that used to be part of Heroic Actions, in this case Heroic Recovery, has been incorporated into other abilities to avoid two separate systems.
Redeploy is also back, but you’ll now have to wait until your opponent has moved all of their units before using it.
Covering Fire enables shooting units to exert pressure, replacing an old favourite, Unleash Hell. The new hotness in the charge phase is the powerful Counter-charge ability, which costs two command points and allows for brutal interceptions – cavalry units in particular revel in this ability, but any units that trigger abilities on the charge can become exceptionally powerful when used correctly.
Magical Intervention permits the reacting player to cast a spell or chant a prayer in their opponent’s turn, allowing for powerful counterplay (or counterpray). Note that prayers have seen substantial changes to differentiate them from magic in this edition – we’ll beseech the powers that be and talk about these divine changes in due course.
Finally, Power Through is activated at the end of any turn, letting rampaging monsters and barreling chariots smash through infantry or scatter cavalry, dealing damage and moving through the unit opening up new positioning opportunities.
You can expect other abilities in the game to alter the way that certain commands work, or trigger off them in interesting ways. For example, Stormstrike Chariots can double down on this command with their Celestial Blaze passive, triggering an additional D3 mortal damage and granting their gryph-chargers an extra D6” to their movement.
Later this week we’ll be taking a look at how Battle Traits work, and what you can expect for Battle Formations, the replacement for subfactions.