The new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is almost upon us, and in a special episode of Metawatch Lewis catches up with Matt from the Warhammer Studio to find out what they’ve been up to ahead of this momentous launch.
The new edition is an all-encompassing change to the rules of the game, with new Core Rules and Faction Packs affecting every facet of play. While the team conducted as much internal and external playtesting as possible during development, when the new edition is released into the wild there will be a huge influx of data which the studio will be looking at very closely to inform any necessary adjustments.
There will be a free document made available for download before launch that contains all of the battle profiles – unit points and regiment options for each army – alongside answers to frequently asked questions and errata. This new approach, one document in multiple languages, is designed to make it much easier to have everything in one place.
When the game receives a major balance pass, those updates will be contained in that one document. These are Battlescrolls, the primary delivery method the Warhammer Studio is using to ensure a healthy, evolving meta that strives for balance both between and within factions.
These are planned for every quarter and the Studio is going to continuously aim for a healthy mix of updates to internal and external balance where needed, while trying to keep the overhead of staying abreast of the changes manageable. Points changes remain the primary means of adjusting balance, there may also be changes to warscroll abilities of battle traits where appropriate.
The interim updates in spring and autumn are spot fixes to deal with outliers from the expected 45%-55% win-rate band, as well as addressing problematic interactions and points of confusion. The summer and winter will be more substantial: this is where you can expect wider-ranging updates to help smooth out internal balance or the inclusion of universal options in lists. All of the changes will be contained within the one Battle Profile document and will be summarised at the top.
There are a number of lenses that the Warhammer Studio uses to interpret incoming data. External balance between armies and their overall win rates is one of the easiest metrics to measure, with the goal to have every faction sitting in that 45-55% win rate sweet spot. Internal balance is also important, however – the new Faction Packs are designed to give each unit, battle formation, and Enhancement a specific role and use case.
One of the goals of the new edition is to have improved play and counterplay, encouraged by units that each have specific strengths and weaknesses, so units that excel in multiple scenarios and which are overwhelmingly represented will be monitored and tweaked as necessary.
Finally, universal, cross-faction options – which have now largely been boiled down to manifestation lores – will be observed to again ensure that one option does not see constant use at the expense of others.
The team will be travelling to major events and talking to players around the world to ensure that these changes are impactful, but also that they align with what they are seeing on the tabletop, and that they make sense to players.
Matt, like everyone else on the rules team, is extremely excited to finally see how people engage with the new edition, and can’t wait to play lots more with friends and players from around the world – perhaps even you.
We’ll have all the latest balance updates for Warhammer Age of Sigmar right here on Warhammer Community. The Skaventide launch box is available to pre-order on Saturday, and it contains the Season 2024-25 General’s Handbook as cards so that you can start playing Matched Play games immediately.