Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar Rulebook Cover
Manufacturer(s) Games Workshop
Publisher(s) Games Workshop
Years active 2015 - Present
Genre(s) Wargaming
Players 2+
Setup time Varies depending on size of game. Usually 15 to 30 minutes.
Playing time Varies depending on size of game. Usually around two to eight hours.
Random chance Medium (dice rolling)
Skill(s) required arithmetic
Website www.games-workshop.com

Age of Sigmar (AoS) is a tabletop wargame released by Games Workshop in 2015. It replaces Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) as the fantasy wargame in the fantasy universe. Several supplements released for the eighth edition of WFB centred on the End Times which led to the almost total destruction of the Warhammer world and the death of most of the world's population. This leads into the Age of Sigmar with the return of the long-lost founder of the human empire worshipped as a god.

Setting

Following the destruction of the Warhammer World by the forces of Chaos, Sigmar floated through outer space, clinging to the core of the Old world. He eventually encountered the celestial dragon Dracothion, and they became good friends. Dracothion let Sigmar ride him, and showed him the way to nine new realms, each a representation of a magical "wind" emphasising some element like fire or light or life - as well as the later, unilateral addition of Chaos by the Chaos Gods - which are connected by magical portals called realmgates. Souls were drawn to these realms, some being survivors from the previous world, some new, or were sought out by Sigmar. Sigmar forged an alliance amongst these peoples and their gods (his former acquaintances from the old world) as civilisations were re-established. Following an attack by the Forces of Chaos which captured most of the realms the alliance broke down and the civilisations were almost totally destroyed before Khorne and his forces turned upon the rest of the Chaos armies. Sigmar decided to create the mightiest warriors ever, the Stormcast Eternals. Armed with mighty storm weapons, the Stormcast led the fight back against Chaos. The Age of Sigmar begins many, many generations after this with Sigmar attempting to re-establish the former alliances and purge the world of Chaos once and for all.

As in the lore, there are present souls who survived the End Times and have wandered through space, nearly all races from the WFB game and even individual characters noted as having died in the End Times, are eligible for play.

Factions

There are four main factions in Age of Sigmar, called Grand Alliances.

Order Grand Alliance

Order wishes to beat Chaos. It comprises:

The Bretonnians were eradicated by Games Workshop in late 2015, but Bretonnian models can be used to represent troop types that are generally represented by Empire miniatures, so that Bretonnian players can continue to play Age of Sigmar.

Chaos Grand Alliance

Fueled by the base desires and actions of mortals (wrath, decay, intrigue, and lust), they seek to bring every realm to heel. They serve the Four Chaos Gods. Before the Age of Sigmar they had conquered 7 of the 8 Mortal Realms and began the Age of Chaos, before Sigmar struck back with the Stormcast. It comprises:

Death Grand Alliance

Opposed to Chaos, more or less allied with Order when uniting in common cause against Chaos, but wishing to rule all the realms for themselves. Ruled by the self-proclaimed god of death, Nagash. They consist of:

Games Workshop removed the entire Tomb Kings range in late 2015, and as such the Sandlords and Monolithia are unofficial factions, but former Tomb Kings players may wish to start creating unofficial warscrolls for Sandlord and Monolithia miniatures they have to use them in their games, or can still use their miniatures using the warscrolls supplied by Games Workshop on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Rules page of their website. The rest of their troops can be used as units more often represented by Vampire Counts miniatures (for example, Carrion can be used to represent Vargheists).

Destruction Grand Alliance

Unpredictable and opportunistic, they fight for their own self interests or often for the sake of conflict. They consist of:

Rules

General principles

Age of Sigmar emphasises the narrative part of the wargaming experience. It encourages you to play scenarios and recreate battles from the existing books or to make your own stories.

The ruleset is designed to make the game easy to learn but hard to master. It is very quick to read the basic rules common to everyone, while more specific mechanics are contained in "Warscrolls". Each unit in Age of Sigmar has a Warscroll: a pamphlet detailing its rules and stats, giving you everything you need to play your unit on the battlefield. The art of the game lies in understanding how your units work together, and exploiting synergies to use them as a cohesive army.

The rules and Warscrolls are free, and can be downloaded from the Games Workshop website or viewed in the Age of Sigmar app.[1]

Game balance

Where Warhammer Fantasy Battle included points totals for different units and opponents agreed on the number of points to be fielded by each army, Age of Sigmar has several different modes of play, including Matched Play which, just like Warhammer Fantasy Battle includes points total for different units and opponents can agree on the number of points to be fielded, in this mode of play, there are also Army Composition rules that change depending on the point level being played, and the base rules are modified to allow for balanced play (Three Rules of One). All of the information and points cost to play Matched Games is contained in the General's Handbook. Also contained in this book are Campaign modes and Narrative modes. And of course the original mode of play has no points, but is mostly based on model/wound count which lent itself to only elite units being any good.

Bonuses for player behaviour and appearance

The rules compendia have included rules (one for each "old" army, with a few exceptions) that are regarded as absurd and could be considered tongue-in-cheek humor.[2]

For example:

If, during your entire hero phase, you can maintain a dignified (even arrogant) composure and not smile, smirk or laugh regardless of your opponent's antics, you may re-roll all hit rolls of 1 made for models in a Dragon Host until your next hero phase. (Dragon Host, High Elves, page 28)

and

You can re-roll any failed hit rolls when attacking with the Runefang so long as you have a bigger and more impressive moustache than your opponent. (Kurt Helborg, The Empire, page 4)

Other rules offer bonuses for toasting to the mythical figure "the Lady", pretending to ride a horse, dancing while rolling dice, and other unusual criteria.

It has been stated, however, that the silly rules for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies were intended as a sort of tongue-in-cheek sendoff to the Old World, as well as an incentive to get people to take a look at the newer armies they would be releasing, as it would be somewhat embarrassing to play with these rules in public.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Warhammer Age of Sigmar Rules". Games Workshop. 2016-07-11. Archived from the original on 2016-04-12.
  2. ↑ "8 Ridiculous Rules From the New Warhammer Age of Sigmar". Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  3. ↑ "Age of Sigmar: Antworten von GW". Retrieved 2015-12-16.

External links

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