The Mortal Realms are home to many creatures, from the lowliest grots to living gods. There are plenty of interesting new dramatis personae popping up every year, and as the game evolves to include new factions and rules updates, the designers want to ensure that it remains fun and fair for everyone.
While the rules team is happy with the general state of affairs, they’re constantly looking to make sure that every army feels fair and enjoyable to use. This is especially important in Matched Play where small changes can affect the balance of the competitive environment.
With this in mind, present and future Warhammer Age of Sigmar updates will be collected into downloadable booklets called Battlescrolls. These gather rules changes, points changes, and other tweaks into a simple, easy-to-read format, preventing you from having to wade through hundreds of pages of information.
Each Battlescroll will feature new rule-tightening and fine-tuning, with improvements coming to factions that could use a bit of a boost, and slight changes to prevent a few powerful armies from dominating. These will be used alongside the annual General’s Handbook, which provides updated missions and rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar matched play.
These rules will be in effect at all official Warhammer Age of Sigmar events, and we think they make the game better, so we’d encourage you to try them out at home and at your local club, whether you’re playing intense matched play games, narrative Path to Glory campaigns, or wild open play free-for-alls. Of course it’s up to you – it’s your game!
Click the button below to download the first Battlescroll, and read on to find out a little bit more about what’s in store. And for users of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App, the changes will be filtering through as soon as possible. For further faction-specific information, be sure to check out the freshly updated FAQs page, too.
If you are the kind of ambitious Age of Sigmar player that likes building models the size of your head, then this may just be the update for you. The first-ever Battlescroll is starting off big, with a theme of ‘Gods & Heroes’.
To make sure that the most powerful models on the battlefield reflect their status in the Mortal Realms, this update tweaks devastating figures such as Kragnos, Nagash, Archaon, and others. Matt Rose of the Warhammer Studio explains.
Matt: For our first Battlescroll, we had two main focuses. First, we've adjusted a few of the most powerful Warscrolls to make them more consistent across factions and to bring them in line with our intentions.
Secondly, we've gathered feedback from some top tournament players, and analysed data from thousands of matches to make tweaks to three core rules, and focused points adjustments to almost every faction.
Thanks to a thriving competitive scene and a wonderfully supportive community, you can look forward to more regular balance adjustments, focused on maintaining a diversity of choice while constantly moving towards a fairer and more compelling experience.
Kragnos has received a beefy update. Everyone’s favourite egg-smasher now has a 6+ ward through The Shield Inviolate ability, giving him a little more safety whilst wreaking havoc across Ghur. Of course, the ability also retains its original effects.
He also receives the brand new abilities Avatar of Destruction and The End of Empires, both fitting monikers for the God of Earthquakes. Avatar of Destruction prevents Kragnos from being slain by a single spell or ability, with anything to this effect instead causing him D6 mortal wounds. The End of Empires is an improved charge, allowing Destruction units to charge 3d6 instead of 2d6 when they begin wholly within 12”.
Nagash has a new command ability, with Death Magic Incarnate allowing a friendly Death unit to add 1 to their ward rolls until the end of the phase.
His Supreme Lord of Death ability has been slightly improved, now also affecting abilities that return slain models to friendly Death units.
It is worth noting that these buffs don’t come without drawbacks – both Kragnos and Nagash will no longer benefit from allegiance abilities. Nagash can still get his cheeky spell lore enhancements, however.
Even Archaon has received a slight improvement, with his By My Will ability now extending to all Chaos units rather than Slaves to Darkness units – after all, why shouldn’t Chaos’ most powerful champion be feared and respected by all of the Gods’ children?
And if you are taking Alarielle the Everqueen with a Sylvaneth army, or Morathi-Khaine with a Daughters of Khaine army, they will both receive access to that army’s spell lores in addition to the spells they already know.
Miscellaneous Improvements
The rules team has been keen to make sure no faction feels too left behind. As a result, the Grand Alliances are enjoying points cuts across the board, with almost every faction getting at least one decrease.
There are a few smaller tweaks, too, with changes to the Heroic Recovery and Unleash Hell abilities and the Amulet of Destiny item.
With all these new rules and the release of Battletome: Maggotkin of Nurgle, it’s the perfect time to enjoy a game of Warhammer Age of Sigmar over the holiday season. Click the button below to download the Battlescroll.
These rules will be in effect at all future official Warhammer events, as well as many independent Warhammer Age of Sigmar matched play events, so be sure to have a read.