There’s exciting news today for fans of the Mortal Realms, with an update direct from the Warhammer Studio on the topic of Legendary Battalions presented in the Tome Celestial!
If you’re not familiar with the Tome Celestial, it’s a recurring White Dwarf feature which shines a spotlight on a particular force or faction from Warhammer Age of Sigmar. You could think of it as a mini-battletome that delves into new detail. These have covered awesome topics such as the Steel Souls Stormcast Eternals, the Vostarg Lodge of the Fyreslayers, and the Host of Syll’Esske – to name but three.
Many of these include Legendary Battalions – best described as super-thematic warscroll battalions that delve into a specific, narratively driven force. These are tremendously exciting for players who like to get stuck right into the stories and themes of the Mortal Realms, and are willing to sacrifice a little flexibility for something cool (like a horde of squigs or a cavalcade of ghostly riders).
Without further ado, let’s hand over to the Warhammer Studio’s very own Lord of the Mortal Realms, Jes Bickham, to explain the latest update to the General’s Handbook 2020...
Jes: In our designer’s commentary for the General’s Handbook 2020, we highlighted questions that were received regarding the use of rules that exist outside of current battletomes and in other publications such as White Dwarf and the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars expansions. We wanted to address, in particular, whether you needed your opponent’s permission to use these rules. Unfortunately, we did not provide enough detail at the time and created further questions in doing so – especially in regards to White Dwarf’s Tome Celestial. Supporting rules content that is no longer available, such as when an issue of White Dwarf goes off sale, can be problematic and create the appearance of haves and have-nots – which means, of course, that some of these rules potentially have a short shelf life.
Now, of course this hobby of ours is a creative and time-consuming one. For those customers who spent time, money, and creative resources building and painting the forces we presented in Tome Celestial articles, not making them ‘legal’ in an ongoing fashion was clearly a disappointing decision – if not an outright upsetting one!
So we sat down and had a good, hard think and realised that a ready-made solution was right in front of us, at least in terms of White Dwarf. Digital back issues of White Dwarf containing Tome Celestial content are available to purchase, and so we have updated the General’s Handbook 2020 designer’s commentary to provide a comprehensive list of which publications can be used in Pitched Battles (2020) without your opponent’s permission. This now includes all Tome Celestial content preceding the 1st of August 2020, so anyone who has laboured over painting the Emerald Host or Vokmortian’s Tithe Legion can now rest easy as their army doesn’t require an opponent’s permission to play against. And any Tome Celestial rules released after this date are in the same, fully-supported boat – good news for anyone frantically painting squigs for the Jaws of Mork!
We will continue to work collaboratively with our player base to make Warhammer Age of Sigmar the very best it can be, and thank all of those who contacted us regarding the clarity of the designer’s commentary. As always, please send in your thoughts, concerns, and enquiries to aosfaq@gwplc.com so that we can continue to use this vital feedback for the betterment of our beloved game.
Thanks, Jes! A great result for everyone, and a brilliant reminder of how important and valuable everyone’s feedback to aosfaq@gwplc.com really is.
Want to know more about the Legendary Battalions? We’ve got you covered. You’ll find everything you need in the following issues of White Dwarf -–available to download digitally right here.
If you want to make sure you’re always at the cutting edge with the newest rules from the Tome Celestial (and everything else, from Middle-earth to Blood Bowl), you can subscribe to have White Dwarf delivered to your door every month, with full-art covers exclusive to subscribers!