The new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar has been revealed, with a totally fresh look to the core rules, featuring refinements and tweaks that make the world’s greatest fantasy miniatures game even better. We’ve mentioned modular rules as one of these new changes, but what exactly does this mean?
Put simply, the game is divided into Core Rules and Advanced Rules. The Core Rules are quick to learn, and cover moving, fighting, shooting, unit coherency, and everything else you need to know to play a simple battle from start to finish with objectives and terrain. The Advanced Rules cover Commands, Terrain, Magic, Army Composition, Command Models, and Battle Tactics. As any experienced player will tell you, these are all vital for in-depth, tactical games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, so what makes them modular?
“Rules have been structured in a modular manner,” says Ben, the Product Developer for the game. “This means that you can learn and play games with the Core Rules, and then when you need them you can go on to learn the Advanced Rules. You can even just leave them out completely if you want – though some battlepacks will require them. It’s all part of making the game that existing players love more accessible to newer players.”
“Modularity is born from the idea that Warhammer Age of Sigmar is much more than just a game,” continues Matt, the man in charge of the rules. “It’s essentially a platform that supports many types of games. People play Warhammer Age of Sigmar as a narrative experience, a competitive tournament game, at sizes ranging from huge mega battles with hundreds of miniatures to smaller format games like Spearhead, and everything in between.
“With modular rules, you only need to read the rules necessary to play the type of game you want. To play Spearhead, all you need to read is the Core Rules, and no Advanced Rules. Everything else is covered in the Spearhead battlepack, the Warscroll cards, and the unique cards that Spearhead uses.”
This system means that everything outside the Core Rules is designed to be plug-and-play – which has serious implications for the future of the game. Those familiar with the General’s Handbooks will know that each season has focused on a unique spin, from the Predators and Prey of Ghur – which centred monsters and those hunting them – to the devastating Primal Magic channelled by Andtorian Locuses in the current season. The new modular structure provides a clean and clear way of implementing such things in future.
“The current General’s Handbook is set in Andtor and focused on magic. It’s one of my favourite seasons, but in practice, it ends up being a little bit awkward for newer players because the rules are split between Primal Magic rules at the beginning of the book, and the standard magic rules they interact with deep in the core rules at the back of the book,” explains Matt.
So, how will modularity impact this? “In the future, we could simply replace the magic module entirely with a ‘Magic of Andtor’ module, as an example. This could seamlessly integrate thematic modifications to the magic rules for that battlepack, without resorting to extensive Core Rules errata or layers of extra rules on top.”
There are also other benefits, as Matt explains: “Say, for example, we find out during the course of a season of Matched Play that the economy of Command points isn’t quite right for competitive play. We don’t need to issue an errata online; instead, we could have a new General’s Handbook with a new Command Module that is both thematically resonant and helps evolve the internal balance. If we want to bring that Advanced Rule module back in the future, we can.”
The potential for this system is huge, and it helps clearly delineate certain aspects of the rules for both beginners and experienced players, creating clear steps to follow when teaching the game. The team has plenty of ideas on how this might shake things up in the future, and you’ll see from the start of the new edition how it works in practice. Tomorrow, we’ll be back with a look at one of the most exciting and unique aspects of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, the tactical twist known as the priority roll.