We’re almost there – Skaventide is available for pre-order tomorrow. This packed launch box contains everything you need to play Spearhead – a brand-new game mode that uses pre-constructed armies along with special Battle Tactic and Twist Decks to play fast, tactical games over a battlefield that fits on your coffee table.
We spoke to the Warhammer Studio about what makes Spearhead such a delicious proposition – and how it gripped staff in Nottingham for months ahead of release.
Warhammer Community: How would you sum up this game mode, and its appeal?
Sam, Rules Writer: Spearhead is designed to be all about nail-biting finishes, no matter your level of experience. The design conundrum we faced is that we usually use points values to balance our games, but with Spearhead, you get a predetermined roster of miniatures – the contents of a single box. So, if we can’t use point values to balance the game, what can we use?
We had to find different levers to achieve the level of parity we wanted, and as such Spearhead has a lot of self-balancing mechanics built into it, which we call “rubber banding” or “catch-up” mechanics. The first of these is expressed through the two unique sets of card types in Spearhead – battle tactics and twists.
Players are trying to score the most victory points to win across four battle rounds. They do that by either taking objectives or completing battle tactics. You’ll have a hand of three battle tactic cards, and each also features a unique command. Instead of trying to score a battle tactic from your hand that turn, you can choose to use its associated command – so if you’re in a bad spot, you have three very powerful tools at your disposal to help keep you in the game.
The other catch-up mechanic is the underdog system. At the start of each battle round, if one player has fewer victory points than their opponent, they’re determined to be the underdog. Each battle round, a twist card is drawn from that deck – these apply a special condition to that battle round, and give the underdog a boon of some sort. They’re all different, and if there’s no underdog – like in the first battle round – they’ll sometimes affect a random player, or just not activate at all.
Through these two mechanics, games tend more often than not to have really close finishes, coming down to the wire, with players having near enough equal victory points at the end of the battle.
Each Spearhead also has its own internal balancing mechanics. Some Spearhead boxes include more points worth of models than others, just by what’s inside. If your army is on the lower end, points-wise, you might find some of your units are designated as REINFORCEMENTS, noted by an icon and keyword on their warscroll. If a unit with this keyword is destroyed, it can return to the battlefield once per game.
It’s a good balancing factor, because if you’re winning and you aren’t losing units then you don’t get the benefit, but if you’ve lost units then you can reinforce, replenishing your army and staying in the game. On the other hand, Spearheads with a lot of units or high points values may instead have reserves – units that don’t arrive on the battlefield until later in the game.
Matt, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Lead Rules Writer: This balancing works really well, and it means that in games which are really one-sided early on – where a player was devastated by their opponent charging in and making lots of lucky attack rolls – they get to bring stuff back onto the board. And, not only do they get units back, they get them back with a unique positional advantage. Reacting to your opponent and choosing where to place your units can really help a player come back into the game, fighting back to even that score out.
WarCom: How familiar will Spearhead rules be to Warhammer Age of Sigmar players, and vice versa?
Ben, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Product Developer: Very! One thing that’s worth noting is that a lot of the terminology is very similar between the game modes. The battle tactics and command abilities you are using in Spearhead largely have analogues with those that you’ll find in full Matched Play games.
Matt: You’re learning the themes and ideas behind the Advanced Rules of Warhammer Age of Sigmar without actually having to read all of those Advanced Rules in the first place. For people brand new to the game, it’s a great way to start learning those concepts.
Ben: Commands let you pay a cost to do a cool thing, getting you ready for paying command points in the main game. Your battle tactics score points, but have a strategic cost. A WIZARD will have an ability that requires you to make a casting roll of 2d6 to unleash a powerful effect, but then the full rules for spellcasting will introduce you to spell lores, power levels, and unbinding. On top of that, these mechanics are just fun to play with in Spearhead – it always feels like you’re playing a rich game.
WarCom: Some Spearheads feature really big monsters – were they difficult to balance?
Sam: They were a fun challenge. We made a decision not to modify any of the unit or weapon characteristics between Spearhead and Warhammer Age of Sigmar. In terms of something like the Carnosaur, instead of rebalancing its output via changing stats, we just removed one of its weapon profiles – it’s still powerful and the change in larger games makes sense.
Ben: It was really important to be very smart with these changes, because if lots of people start playing Spearhead, and then decide to start playing larger-scale games, we don’t want them to have to double-check every single part of every single warscroll to see what’s different. There are definitely some changes, but it’s measured.Sam: Part of Spearhead's strength, in terms of playing against a force like the Seraphon, is that battle tactics really reward positional play, which can involve avoiding combat. For example, the Raid battle tactic card requires you to end your turn in enemy territory, but not in combat. I play a lot of Gloomspite Gitz, so I am used to getting smashed up by bigger ladz, and I try to use my Squig Hoppers to dart around and score points, running rings around those slow, cold-blooded Seraphon. It’s not all about who can do the most damage, but who sometimes who can be the tricksiest.
Matt: Every faction rule and warscroll has been assessed and tailored for Spearhead. There’s much more of a focus on defensive abilities rather than offensive ones, because you have a much lower model count. The scale of the impact has been scaled down to match this, and as Sam said the deployment of reinforcements and reserves across the forces help create more balanced conflicts.
There’s a lot of chance for skill expression too, with some Spearheads being better suited to scoring early, some are better at scoring later – you can find a playstyle that suits you because there’s a tactical difference there. Even changing your regiment ability is important for certain matchups.
WarCom: How has Spearhead been viewed by the veterans of the game, and others that you’ve introduced it to?
Matt: In terms of accessibility, even this close to release, we’ve got another Spearhead league going on right now. Not just because of how quick it is, but because of the footprint. You can play this game on a coffee table. We could play right now on the table in front of us!*
Sam: We’ve got a whole shelf of Spearhead boxes here in the playtesting room, all neatly stored in Warhammer Underworlds lids, which have been determined as the best way of carrying them around between games.
Phil, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Creative Lead: The appeal of that table size can’t be overstated either – it gives you more places where you can play a game that feels just as exciting and in-depth as a full-sized one.
Matt: What’s really interesting is that early on we bought a bunch of competitive tournament players in to test Spearhead. We didn’t really think it was aimed at them, we’d envisaged it more as something that was for newer players, with an accessibility angle, and people who wanted a small format version of the game.
We decided to run the playtesting weekend as a tournament, and they got super into it. They played 12 games each, over the weekend, and at the end of it they were buzzing about how you could run a three-game tournament on a weeknight, and a five-game tournament in a single day.
Since then, I've had the chance to demo Spearhead to a range of content creators, several of whom have got really into it, and booked entire days after the release date to demonstrate the game mode to people. It has such a broad range of appeal.
I think part of that is because it distils so many of the great things about Warhammer Age of Sigmar into a bite-sized format. If you’re curious about how the priority roll mechanic actually feels, come and play a one-hour game of this and you see very quickly how it works. You win a priority roll, and then go “ok, so I get to have a second turn in a row?” and we go, “Yep! But you can’t draw any new cards.” and then you’re like “but… I need my cards, what do I do?”. It instantly gets you on board.
Phil: Each Spearhead has four different enhancements for your general, plus two different regiment abilities to choose from, so you can really get into tailoring your playstyle through just one box. But what we’ve increasingly found is that people really start to wander and cherry-pick a range of Spearheads. I’ve basically got every Destruction one, and I want one for every Grand Alliance at least.
Matt: It’s really fun to switch between them, and a lot of people in the Studio league will play with different Spearheads every time. Tournament organisers have even talked about doing draft events, or events where you rotate every round because you can set them up super quickly.
Sam: This is going to be a supported format – it isn’t one and done.
Matt: Absolutely! Fans can look forward to new Spearhead army sets for their favourite factions, dedicated support products, and ongoing support from the rules team to address any issues that might come up.
Sam: We’ve got tactics articles planned for White Dwarf – we’re already coming up with fun names for some of our in-house tactics. Look out for an explanation of the ins and outs of the Closed Behemat manoeuvre in due course…
WarCom: Everything you need to play Spearhead is in the Skaventide box itself. Was that always on the cards?
Ben: It’s our commitment to how great we think this game mode is. You get the board, the cards, the scenery, combat gauges on the sprue, the rules, the miniatures – all you need is some dice, and a table – or a floor at a stretch. It’s also the first time a Warhammer Age of Sigmar launch box has had plastic scenery in it.Matt: I’m particularly proud of the hardback Spearhead: Fire and Jade book. This book is weirdly nostalgic for me because it takes me back to the Ravening Hordes supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Battle – printed rules for every faction in the box? You can flick through and discover other factions, and see the cool rules and concepts they all get to play with, and almost every Spearhead is accompanied by a photo of armies from people in the Warhammer Studio – which you’ve maybe seen in the Faction Focus articles.
Phil: The real triumph for me is that it still feels like Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It’s the full experience. It’s not a different game in the same setting, like Warhammer Underworlds or Warcry – it still feels like a bigger game, just zoomed in. There are loads of meaningful tactical decisions, plays and counterplays – you get all the juicy bits – but in a much faster, smaller format.
Thank you everyone for your time. This is the end of our behind the scenes interview series on the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. All that’s left to do now is pre-order Skaventide and count down the days until you can play the new edition.
* It was indeed quite a small table.