Fighting over objectives is a large part of winning battles in Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but pursuing battle tactics is key to victory. Whether you’re playing with the First Blood, Matched Play, or The General’s Handbook battlepack, you’ll be using Battle Tactics– so let’s get to grips with them.
If you’re new to Warhammer Age of Sigmar, battle tactics are secondary objectives you’ll want to complete each turn – whilst also trying to secure objectives and slay your opponent’s warriors.
At the start of your turn, you can pick one battle tactic using the Tactical Gambit ability. Upon completing that battle tactic you’ll be rewarded with four valuable victory points, to supplement the six you can score each round from that game’s battleplan.
You can only pick a battle tactic you haven’t yet attempted, and a crucial change in the new edition is that you can’t pick a battle tactic if you win the priority roll and choose to take a second consecutive turn. Importantly, however, if your opponent wins the priority roll and decides to let you take two turns in a row, you can still pick a battle tactic – you can’t be “forced” to miss out.
Each battleplan in the Core Rules and the new General’s Handbook allows you to score a maximum of 10 victory points each round, so winning the priority roll and taking two turns in a row means forfeiting your ability to score four of those 10 points. That’s a sizeable opportunity cost, and one you’ll need to consider carefully.
A double turn can have a major impact on the game. Choosing to forfeit a battle tactic might let you consolidate your control of the board, or use your momentum to surge forth and severely damage your opponent’s army, though new command abilities like Counter-Charge give your opponent more tools than ever to stall your momentum. On the other hand, if you misjudge and can’t fully capitalise on your double turn, you could find yourself quickly falling behind in victory points.
The Battle Tactics module contains six universal battle tactics, which are used in both the First Blood and The General’s Handbook battlepacks. To carve a path to victory, you’ll need to carefully consider which battle tactic you’ll declare each turn. Are you safe to pick Sieze the Centre near the start of the game if you think you can guarantee staking a claim with no reprisal? Or do you risk being undone by an opponent using the Covering Fire or Counter-Charge commands?
Take the Flanks may require some forward thinking in the deployment phase to achieve early on, depending on the battlefield map. If your army is on the slower side, securing it might leave your units out of position, forcing you to spend a precious command point on At the Double or Redeploy to get them back in line.
Slay the Entourage creates tension at the list building stage – your general can take up to four units in their regiment, but is that putting too many eggs in one basket? Will adding a fragile unit to your general’s regiment leave you open, or serve as the perfect bait?
Even if a battle tactic appears to be easy to score in the current round, the decision to attempt it is important – especially if it’s competing with other battle tactics that will be harder to achieve later, or if your army might benefit more from the momentum provided by two consecutive turns.
The General’s Handbook 2024-25 also includes two extra battle tactics for each Grand Alliance, alongside the Honour Guard Season Rule. These provide some extra flexibility outside of universal battle tactics, and replace faction-specific battle tactics.
Since all battle tactics are now part of the annual General's Handbook, the Warhammer Studio will have more opportunities to balance battle tactics and ensure a fair playing field as the edition progresses.
Next week, we’ll be pulling back the curtain on Spearhead – the fast and furious new game mode for Age of Sigmar – and learning more about the changes to endless spells, invocations, and faction terrain in the new edition. Perhaps there will even be a shiny new miniature! You’ll just have to wait and see.