We've shown off loads of the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar so far, from the impactful new commands, the tightened-up fight phase, changes to spells and prayers, and the modular rules that underpin everything. But when the new edition was first announced, the Warhammer Studio excitedly spoke about Spearhead – a brand new way of playing the game. Now it’s time to find out what it’s all about.
What is Spearhead?
Spearhead is a new game format for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, where you use self-contained, existing boxes of miniatures to play fast and furious games with streamlined rules and nail-biting finishes.
There are a number of differences between full-sized Matched Play games and Spearhead, which has been designed to make the game accessible but retain rich tactical depth. It’s a brilliant stand-alone game and a fantastic primer of what you can expect from full-scale battles of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
Spearhead's footprint is also dramatically smaller than that of a full game, played on a board measuring 30" x 22.4" – that’s a quarter the size of a full battlefield, and the perfect size to play on a kitchen or coffee table.
The incoming launch box provides everything you need to play with a friend, including two complete Spearhead forces, terrain, a double-sided board with printed objectives, and the packs of cards that really make this mode tick. You’ll also get a beautiful hardcover book that includes everything you need to play – the core rules, the Spearhead battlepack, and the rules for every Spearhead force in the game – so you can start playing with your existing collections immediately.*
Existing Vanguard and Spearhead Boxes
Each faction’s Spearhead force is created from the contents of a single box – and all currently available Vanguard boxes will be rebranded as Spearhead boxes.** As these sets contain different quantities of models, Spearhead has its own dedicated warscrolls and faction rules, and introduces new mechanics to balance each force against one another. The Warhammer Studio has put tremendous effort into this balance, and as a result every game you play comes down to a knife-edge!
“This is one of the most play-tested games we’ve ever produced, by virtue of how quick it is to play and how much fun we were all having with it,” explains Ben, Product Developer for Age of Sigmar. “Once you know how to play, you can get through a game during a lunch break. The whole Warhammer Studio was so enthused about it – we had a chart up on the wall listing which factions had played against which other factions and how many times. People couldn’t get enough – we’ve run two huge leagues so far – so we had lots of data to work with.”
With some Spearhead boxes containing elite units and monsters, and others packed with quintessential troops and foot heroes, balance is established in a number of ways – from holding powerful units back for the later turns, to giving less durable units a second chance at life.
Units in Spearhead forces with the REINFORCEMENTS keyword can return to the battlefield after they’ve been destroyed. By using the Call For Reinforcements ability, you can set up a fresh unit in friendly territory, providing you with a way to reposition and resurge in future turns.
Particularly powerful units may instead be held in reserve. Yndrasta’s Spearhead, for example, features the God-king Sigmar’s Prime Hunter and a trio of hefty Annihilators… but the Lighting-Strike Arrival ability keeps them off the board until the penultimate battle round.*** That means your Vanquishers, Knight-Vexillor, and Stormstrike Chariot need to hold ground until the damage dealers can arrive to turn the tables.
This is the Battle Trait for Yndrasta’s Spearhead. Each faction gets their own powerful and thematic battle traits, and can choose from one of two different Regiment Abilities and one of four Enhancements at the start of the battle to customise their force once they know who they are facing.
Warscrolls in Spearhead
Spearhead warscrolls are slightly simplified but designed to feel similar to warscrolls in the full game. The Spearhead battlepack doesn’t use advanced rules modules, so it doesn’t involve special rules for command models or advanced magic, but it does introduce many of the advanced concepts through abilities and cards.
Your warriors almost always share the same characteristics and base weapon profiles as their full Warhammer Age of Sigmar equivalents, but the warscrolls have all been adjusted to work properly at this scale. For instance, the Clanrats below are vile verminous hordes who’ll swarm the Spearhead board – in full Warhammer Age of Sigmar games, they’ll lose the REINFORCEMENTS keyword, but gain command group benefits and the Crit (Auto-wound) ability, making them even more ferocious.****
The Disc-riding Magister demonstrates how magic is simplified in Spearhead – in full Warhammer Age of Sigmar games, the Bolt of Tzeentch spell is part of a Spell Lore you can choose for your army. Here, it’s tweaked to fit Spearhead, and turned into a simple ability. With no magic module, there’s no need for power levels or casting values, so everything fits into a neat ability that emulates all the foundational rules for casting a spell – rolling 2D6 and blasting foes on a successful roll.
This covers the basics of Spearhead, but there’s another driving force for this new game mode. Two decks of cards are included in the box – one that provides you with a Twist for each round, and another that gives you the ability to score Battle Tactics or use powerful command abilities. They’re a critical part of what makes Spearhead so compelling and rich with strategic depth, so we’ll be taking a closer look at them later in the week.
* These rules will also be available free online, shortly after the release of the launch set.
** The Mancrusher Mob set will also become a Spearhead, giving Sons of Behemat a way to play in Spearhead games.
*** Every game has four rounds.
**** If you want to get started assembling your Spearhead or Vanguard sets ahead of time, build them as they’re shown on the front of the box and you’ll be good to go. While command models don’t add extra rules to the game mode, we encourage you to build them anyway for when you want to use your units in larger games.