Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar logo
Manufacturers	Games Workshop
Publishers	Games Workshop
Years active	2015–present
Genres	Wargaming
Players	2 or more
Setup time	Varies depending on size of game, usually 15 to 30 minutes.
Playing time	Varies depending on size of game, usually from one to four hours
Chance	Medium (dice rolling)
Skills	Military tactics, miniature painting
Website	www.games-workshop.com

Warhammer Age of Sigmar (often abbreviated as Age of Sigmar or AoS) is a fantasy tabletop miniature wargame from Games Workshop that simulates battles between armies by using miniature figurines. Games are typically played on a relatively flat surface such as a dining table, bespoke gaming table, or an area of floor. The playing area is often decorated with models and materials representing buildings and terrain. Players take turns taking a range of actions with their models: moving, charging, shooting ranged weapons, fighting, and casting magical spells; the outcomes of which are generally determined by dice rolls. Besides the game itself, a large part of Age of Sigmar is dedicated to the hobby of collecting, assembling and painting the miniature figurines from the game.

Whereas some wargames recreate historical warfare, Age of Sigmar has a fantasy theme heavily inspired by the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and Michael Moorcock. Player's armies fight with medieval-era weaponry and cast magical spells, and the warriors are a mixture of humans and fantasy creatures such as elves, dwarves, and orks.

With the first edition released in 2015, Age of Sigmar is the successor to the discontinued game Warhammer.

Editions

The first edition of Age of Sigmar in 2015 replaced Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The initial release of AoS did not include point values for individual units; these were added later. Summoning new units used the same mechanics as spellcasting and required the dedication of reinforcement points for each summonable unit.

The second edition of AoS, titled Realm War, was released in 2018 following the Malign Portents event. It brought multiple significant changes to the rules, notably an overhaul of the summoning system, the elimination of reinforcement points, and the introduction of endless spells.

Setting

Age of Sigmar is set in the Mortal Realms, a system of eight interconnected realms spawned from the Winds of Magic. The second edition brought with it rules for each of the realms, adding spells, artifacts, and realm characteristics.

• Azyr, the Realm of the Heavens is the only realm untouched by Chaos. It is ruled over by Sigmar, and is home to the Stormcast Eternals as well as a diverse population of humans, aelves, duardin, and other races.
• Aqshy, the Realm of Fire is dominated by volcanoes, deserts, and lava fields. It is home to the Fyreslayers. It had a significant Khorne presence before the arrival of the Stormcast.
• Ghur, the Realm of Beasts is the de facto kingdom of Gorkamorka. Orruks and ogors rule over a land of titanic beasts.
• Ghyran, the Realm of Life is distinguished by its extreme fecundity. It is claimed by Alarielle, goddess of the Sylvaneth. It was the focus of Nurgle's attentions before the resurgence of Alarielle.
• Chamon, the Realm of Metal is composed of metal-based continents and the floating citadels of the Kharadron. It is particularly coveted by Tzeentch.
• Shyish, the Realm of Death is under the uncontested domain of Nagash. Vampires, ghouls, undead, and nighthaunt all are found here.
• Hysh, the Realm of Light is the domain of Tyrion. It is the "sun" of the Realms.
• Ulgu, the Realm of Shadow was claimed by Malerion and Morathi. It is a land of shifting illusions and impenetrable fog.

In addition to the eight Realms, the Realm of Chaos permeates the void between the Realms and is home to the Gods of Chaos. Of the original four Chaos Gods, Slaanesh is currently missing, imprisoned between the realms of Hysh and Ulgu. The Horned Rat has ascended to the pantheon of Chaos and is now the Great Horned Rat.

Gameplay

Age of Sigmar emphasizes the narrative aspect of the wargaming experience, encouraging the play of story-driven scenarios, recreation of battles from lore, and player-created stories. The ruleset is designed to make the game easy to learn but hard to master. Basic rules of play are simple and quick to understand, but more advanced mechanics can be found in unit-specific "Warscrolls" that detail more rules and stats of the individual unit. 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.

Age of Sigmar has three different modes of play. Of these, Matched Play includes points total for different units and specific points limits for army building (1,000, 2,000, and 2,500 points). In this mode of play, there are Army Composition rules that change depending on the point level being played, and the base rules are modified to allow for balanced play. A Matched Play game also requires a minimum number of Battleline rank-and-file units, and imposes a limit on the number of Heroes and Behemoths that can be fielded.

In addition to Matched Play, Open Play represents an "anything goes" game style, while Narrative Play focuses on recreating historical battles and scenarios. The latter often adds additional rules specific to the setting or event, such as dangerous terrain, a meteor shower, or movement restrictions.

To play any of the game modes, two or more players assemble armies beforehand. The battlefield and its terrain is set up on an appropriate surface, and dice are rolled to determine turn order. The players play in turns, with a round consisting of one turn per player. Combat is resolved through a series of dice rolls: a hit roll and wound roll from the attacker, and a save roll from the defender. If both the hit and wound rolls pass and the save roll fails, then damage is allocated. Mortal Wounds do not require dice rolls and are allocated directly.

The first part of a player's turn, the Hero Phase, is when spells are cast and command abilities are activated. Wizard units can usually cast one of three spells: the offensive Arcane Bolt, the defensive Mystic Shield, and a third spell unique to that unit. Command abilities, on the other hand, require a Hero on the battlefield with that ability, and use Command Points for activation. The second phase is the Movement Phase, in which units are moved across the battlefield; the player may choose to make them run, which makes them incapable of shooting or charging in the following phases. The Shooting Phase resolves all the missile attacks possible for the current player, then the Charge Phase gets melee units within range of attacking. The Combat Phase starts with units piling in, then attacking with all their melee weapons. The player whose turn it is attacks first, then the defending player fights with another unit; the players continue taking turns until all units capable of attacking have done so. The final Battleshock Phase tests the morale of depleted units; failed Battleshock rolls cause further models to flee a unit.

Factions

There are four main super-factions in Age of Sigmar, called Grand Alliances, united by common goals. Armies can be built solely from individual factions (e.g. a Stormcast Eternals army) or include a limited number of allies from related factions within the alliance (e.g. a Stormcast Eternals army with 200 points of Seraphon allies). An army consisting of multiple factions within the same Alliance (e.g. Stormcast Eternals, Seraphon, and Sylvaneth) has allegiance to that particular Grand Alliance but not to any of the individual factions. Factions usually synergize best with their own units, and faction-specific armies receive bonuses and additional rules that are not available to mixed Grand Alliance armies.

Factions in bold have received dedicated battletomes.

Order

Order is primarily opposed to Chaos, and its factions are united by a common desire to maintain civilization, art, and learning, or preserve natural or divine holdings. Despite this shared goal, each faction more or less pursues its own agenda - sometimes to the detriment of the others.

• Stormcast Eternals, demigod-like warriors imbued with a portion of Sigmar's godly power and clad in magical armour made of sigmarite, analogous to the Space Marines of Warhammer 40,000. They were created by Sigmar with the aid of Grungni to be the ultimate weapon against the forces of Chaos.
• Seraphon, previously the Lizardmen. In the current iteration they are celestial Daemons who fight for Order. The Slann, now aboard great cosmic vessels, literally "remember" the seraphon into existence whenever needed.
• Sylvaneth forest spirits range from dryads to towering treelords, and follow the reborn goddess Alarielle.
• Duardin, previously the Dwarfs. The Dispossessed represent the more traditional Dwarfs who still bear grudges against their enemies and worship Grungni. The Ironweld Arsenal focuses on the artillery element of the Dwarfs and are allied with humans.
• Fyreslayers are mercenary duardin who worship Grimnir and fight for Ur-Gold, a magical element believed to be remnants of their fallen god.
• Kharadron Overlords are a steampunk duardin faction that consists of ironclad airships and warriors wearing armoured suits. Separated a long time ago from the rest of their race, the Kharadron live in sky-cities and are armed with shooting weapons powered by aether-gold.
• Humans include the Devoted of Sigmar, priests and evangelists, the wizards of the Collegiate Arcane, and the Freeguild knights, archers, and soldiers.
• Aelfs, previously the Elves. These include the Wanderers, the wizards of the Eldritch Council, the warriors of the Phoenix Temple, the Lion Rangers, the Swifthawk Agents, the Orders Draconis and Serpentis, the fleets of the Scourge Privateers, the warlocks of the Darkling Covens, and the Shadowblade assassins.
• The Daughters of Khaine are a shadowy cabal of witch aelves devoted to Khaine and Morathi; ostensibly they wish to revive Khaine, but Morathi secretly is plotting to ascend to godhood.
• The Idoneth Deepkin are marine aelves created by Teclis that ride sea monsters into battle and raid for souls on the surface.

Chaos

Fueled by the base desires and actions of mortals, Chaos seek to dominate the Mortal Realms. They serve the Four Chaos Gods. Before Sigmar's retaliation in the Age of Sigmar, they had conquered seven of the eight Mortal Realms, beginning the Age of Chaos. Though they are seen to be the most blood thirsty of the armies, players claim that chaos are simply misunderstood.

• Everchosen, the followers of Archaon the Everchosen of Chaos. Elite warriors of the Ruinous Powers, they seek nothing less than the complete subjugation of the Realms under Chaos.
• Slaves to Darkness, mortal warriors devoted to Chaos in its undivided form.
• Blades of Khorne, daemons and Bloodbound mortals of Khorne. At the start of the Age of Sigmar they were primarily stationed in Aqshy, and were the first to encounter the Stormcast Eternals.
• Disciples of Tzeentch, daemons and Arcanite mortals of Tzeentch. Their major stronghold was Chamon, where Ghal Maraz had been hidden.
• Maggotkin of Nurgle, daemons and Rotbringer mortals of Nurgle. Their realm of choice is the fertile world of Ghyran, where Nurgle sought to capture Alarielle for his own.
• Hedonites of Slaanesh, daemons and mortals of Slaanesh. Slaanesh is still imprisoned, but has been regaining power and may soon return.
• Beasts of Chaos, includes the forces of the Beastmen, Monsters of Chaos, Chaos Gargants, and Thunderscorn. Like the Slaves to Darkness they are not devoted to any specific chaos god, and many worship chaos in itself.
• The Legion of Azgorh (Chaos Dwarfs) and Tamurkhan`s Horde (Nurgle) are Forgeworld-only, and have their own rules.
• The Skaven are now formally part of the realm of Chaos as the Great Horned Rat ascended to the pantheon of the Chaos Gods. These vile ratmen are subdivided into clans with different approaches to warfare. The Masterclan unites the leaders of the Skaven armies. The Clans Skryre dabble in bizarre sorcery and science. The Clans Moulder breed grotesque war beasts. The Clans Pestilens are fanatically devoted to the Great Horned Rat's plague aspect, and they to spread pestilence across the realms. The Clans Eshin train stealthy assassins, and the Clans Verminus are Skaven warriors.

Death

Opposed to Chaos and more or less allied with Order when against Chaos, Death wishes to rule all the realms for themselves. The most homogeneous faction, it is entirely ruled by Nagash, the self-proclaimed god of death.

• Legions of Nagash, a general Death faction representing the forces Nagash has at his disposal. It includes the Deathlords, the Soulblight vampires, the necromantic Deathmages, the Deadwalker zombies, the ghosts of the Nighthaunt, and the Deathrattle skeletons.
• Flesh-Eater Courts, vile ghouls and vampires deluded into seeing themselves as cultured aristocrats.
• Nighthaunt ghosts, spirits, and wraiths. In Soul Wars they came to the fore as the rivalry between Sigmar and Nagash developed.

Destruction

Unpredictable and opportunistic, Destruction factions fight for their survival, for their own self-interest, or just for the love of a good fight. Their patron god is Gorkamorka, who is worshipped in different guises by each faction.

• Orruks and Grots, formerly the Orcs and Goblins. The Greenskinz and Gitmob Grots are the generic orruks and grots that form the rank and file of the greenskin armies.
• The Bonesplitterz or savage orruks are tribal, bone-wielding orruks that specialize in hunting and slaying the beasts of the realms.
• Ironjawz are heavily-armored elite orruk warriors. Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork, is an Ironjaw chieftain who has united many clans under his banner of the Great Waaagh!.
• The Gloomspite Gitz are a diverse faction united by their love of dark places and worship of the portentuous Bad Moon. They include Moonclan grots and their squigs, Spiderfang grots and their arachnid mounts, the brutish and durable troggoths, and the occasional aleguzzler gargant.
• Ogors, formerly the Ogre Kingdoms, include the fire-breathing Firebellies, the nomadic Gutbusters, and the mercenary Maneaters.
• Beastclaw Raiders are tribes of ogors who ride on massive warbeasts. Eternally pursued by the supernatural Everwinter, they are constantly on the move, and anything they do not eat or destroy is frozen in their wake.

Discontinued Armies

• Bretonnia
• Tomb Kings

Reception

Accolades

Realm War was nominated for "Best Mobile Game" at the Develop:Star Awards.

External links

• Games Workshops free rules and Warscrolls for legacy armies