After nearly 10 years in service, the rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar are receiving their first ground-up rewrite.
And as we’ll start to see in deep dives on Warhammer Community – beginning tomorrow – this is a cause for celebration. It doesn’t mean that the rules are changing just for the sake of it – in fact, the framework remains much the same, and the majority of changes are smart refinements that will improve the all-round experience.
Every single Warscroll is changing. The team took the opportunity at the outset to measure up each profile in every faction to see whether their basic statline felt right – how does a grot stack up against a mortal human, for instance, or a saurus against an orruk? Over the course of this process, Warscroll design has changed, as has the kind of information that goes on it. Some characteristics have been renamed for clarity – for instance Wounds has become Health, while miniatures can now fight in melee if they are within a 3” combat range of opponents, speeding up pile-ins and combat resolution, and you can now contest an objective with a model within 3” of a 40mm objective marker.
Universal Special Rules are in – and there are a manageable amount, making them easy to recall. Battleshock has been removed, and there are meaningful Command Abilities in every round with clear and simple sequencing – but if you want to use them, you’ll have to deal with a strict Command Point economy.
Everything you can do in the game is now an ability, from moving, fighting, shooting, and casting spells, to the unique actions found on your warscrolls. These abilities have clear sequencing: a Declare step and an Effect step, and their timing is written out, colour-coded, and uses symbols, making it incredibly easy to understand at a glance which phase you can perform each action in, and what it does.
The modular nature of the new ruleset is something we’ll explain more about in due course, but essentially the core rules are supported by a series of more advanced plug-and-play additions. It’s perfectly possible – and quite satisfying – to play without Magic, for instance, while at higher levels, new Battlepacks and General’s Handbooks can slot in in the same way.
However, with changes this fundamental to the core building blocks of the game, it does mean that previous rules and rulebooks have been superseded. Every current Battletome will be retired when the new edition drops – but every Faction will receive a free downloadable Faction Pack on or shortly after release.
These Indexes provide a competitive and satisfying experience right from the outset. You’ll be able to buy physical Faction Packs from the outset, which contain your army rule, subfaction rules, enhancements including spell lores, and all your warscroll cards for both Spearhead and regular Warhammer Age of Sigmar. And of course, these Indexes will be replaced by new-look Battletomes for every faction as the edition matures.
Our investigations on the nuance of the new rules begin tomorrow, when we look at what modularity actually means in the context of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.