The focus of battles in Warhammer Age of Sigmar is undergoing a seismic shift – armies are moving from the vast plains of Thondia to the claustrophobic tunnel networks of Gallet in the new battlepack from the General's Handbook: Pitched Battles 2022-23 Season 1.
Monsters still rule in the Era of the Beast, but veteran infantry are the new top pick in these confined warrens – teeming as they are with insectile predators, explosive realmstone, and cunning ambushes.
A location change and a new battlepack – plus free points updates for every faction – aren’t the only changes coming to matched play. The Hunt is over and Battlescroll: Gallet is here, bringing a host of changes to factions that are performing above (or below) the sweet spot for win rates in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
Download the new Battlescroll right here, right now.
What’s more, we sat down for a chat with Matt Rose from the Warhammer Studio to get some insight into the intention and execution of this new Battlescroll.
“With the next General's Handbook heralding a shift from monsters to infantry, we've brought The Hunt to an end. We’ve made some targeted adjustments to certain units, many of which were previously designated as Priority Targets, and to some factions, many of which were Prime Hunters.”
“Our focus for this Battlescroll is purely on external balance – we want to bring all factions, subfactions or army types within our 45-55% win rate target. As such, you'll see certain Stormcast Eternals lists, the Cities of Sigmar's Living City subfaction, Seraphon's Coalesced army type, and Legion of the First Prince all come down a notch.
“Meanwhile Hedonites of Slaanesh, Blades of Khorne, Kruleboyz, Bonesplitterz, Gloomspite Gitz, Flesh-eater Courts and Ossiarch Bonereapers have all received a boost.”
Cheers Matt! Now let’s take a closer look at exactly what this means for the armies affected within all four Grand Alliances.
Order
First up, the Stormdrake Guard of the Stormcast Eternals will require a little more finesse to use as their Draconic Onslaught ability changes, now conferring a once per battle re-roll for charges. Thunderbolt Volleys can also no longer be issued to units that have been reinforced, limiting the size of your deadly barrages.
Elsewhere, in the Cities of Sigmar, the Living City’s Command Ability Strike then Melt Away is changed – it now requires the targeted unit to finish its move more than 9" away from all enemy units. Coalesced Seraphon also lose the Scaly Skin battle trait on units that don’t have the SAURUS, KROXIGOR, or MONSTER keywords.
Chaos
Khorne has clearly been looking at Corruption and Depravity Points with envy – the Blades of Khorne Blood Tithe is no longer reset to zero when summoning daemons or enacting Blood for the Blood God! buffs. The Hedonites of Slaanesh, on the other hand, saw hefty points cuts in the recently-posted free points update – big news for Sigvald.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Legion of the First Prince sees some changes to its dark lord Be’lakor. His First-Damned Prince battle trait no longer allows him to pass wounds off to friendly units, and swaps his re-rolls for a simple bonus to hit and wound rolls.
Death
In the realm of Death, the Flesh-Eater Courts benefit from changes to their Deathless Courtiers battle trait, which now offers a ward of 6+ across the whole army. Ossiarch Bonereapers get the chance to make Necropolis Stalkers and Immortis Guard Battleline if their general is a MORTISAN – a scary prospect for tunnel fighters in Gallet!
Destruction
That troggoth on the cover of the General’s Handbook is no accident – Gloomspite Gitz have received a serious leg up.
The Light of the Bad Moon now affects certain units differently – MOONCLAN gitz become Frothing Zealots who’ll Rally back into combat in great droves, while TROGGOTH units ditch their improved regeneration for a Moonlit Hide, adding one to their save rolls. It’s also even easier to keep your army under the aura of the Bad Moon, thanks to the Bad Moon Loonshrine spreading its light out to 12” all game.
The Orruk Warclans changes come in sneaky and savage varieties – Kruleboyz can now take a unit of Hobgrot Slittaz as Battleline units for each mob of Gutrippaz they field, and the Grinnin’ Blades have improved their camouflage techniques – their Out of the Mists ability now allows them to stay invisible beyond 12” for the whole battle, rather than just turn one.
Finally, Bonesplitterz have also tapped into the energy of Gallet to empower the Spirit of Gorkamorka. This battle trait now works regardless of unit size, giving every one of your wild orruks 2 hits on each melee hit roll of 6.
If a specific faction hasn’t received an update, rest assured that there’s a reason, as Matt explains below:
“There are a handful of factions, including Sons of Behemat, Fyreslayers, Beasts of Chaos, and Maggotkin of Nurgle that are also currently outside our target win rate, but we're going to take a bit more time monitoring to see how they are affected by the shifts introduced by the new General's Handbook – stay tuned over the coming months for more updates on this.”
The Studio is always keen to hear what you think about these changes – and everything else concerning the Warhammer Age of Sigmar rules – so please feel free to send any and all of your queries and comments to aosfaq@gwplc.com.
There’s a handful of updates coming even sooner – FAQs for every faction will follow in a short time, which include some essential clarifications for rules such as embarking and disembarking with the Kharadron Overlords.
You’ll also see a day-one FAQ document for the General’s Handbook just to tidy a couple of things up, which were reflected in the digital Points Update document.
Finally, those with eagle eyes may have noticed a new hero name in the Lumineth Realm-lords section of the Points Update. It’s a typical aelven gambit, but rest assured your questions will be answered sooner than you expect…
Once again, you can download Battlescroll: Gallet via the button below, and keep up to date with the latest changes to Warhammer Age of Sigmar by signing up for the Warhammer Community newsletter.