My Opionion: Age of Sigmar -The Rules and Skaven Warscroll

So, having read the rules and just now, the Skaven Warscroll, I've seen what has changed and how it will effect my group. One important thing to note is it looks like point lists are gone and so are many restrictions, meaning games will be very unbalanced. Stats have changed and initiative is gone. That said, let's take a brief look at the game rules (the Lore I'll look into in a future article as there isn't a lot of it so far for me to make a proper judgement on it yet).

The Rules:

The game turn is split into multiple phases:

1. Hero Phase: This is where heroes can activate Command abilities and Wizards cast spells. All wizards know the two basic spells (Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield) with some knowing a third shown on their Warscroll. Each wizard may attempt to cast each spell once per turn, rolling a 2D6 to see if it equals or beats the casting roll of the spell. If the opponent has a wizard within 18" of the caster, then that wizard can attempt to unbind (dispel) it by beating that score with his own roll of 2D6. Limited spell choices, no pools and no miscast. Very simplified.

Edit: The wording in the rules state 'A wizard can cast each spell once per turn', yet this isn't entirely true. Wording in the profile of Wizard characters state that they may cast one spell per turn and unbind one per turn (two or more for some named heroes). Not sure if they ment each spell per army, though the wording suggests it's referring to each single wizard, which I'm now curious about.

2. Movement Phase: Unit's move based on their movement characteristic. Can't move within 3" of enemy models and if you start within that range, you can choose to retreat (enemy can't follow). Running and Flying are also part of this phase. Terrain movement might be similar to 40K, but there is no marching or rotating anymore.

3. Shooting Phase: Units that have a missile weapon (as long as they didn't retreat or run) can pick a target unit within it's ranged weapons range and shoot. The range weapon has it's own 'to hit' and 'to wound' stats, so no more charts. Also, no more markers too (flame or blast are gone).

4. Charge Phase: Units that did not run or retreat (or within 3" of an enemy) may attempt to charge an enemy unit within 12". Roll 2D6 and move one model up, if it reaches 1/2" of an enemy, it's successful and move the unit up. If not, it fails and the unit stays where it is.

Edit: Forgot to mention, there are no more charge reactions in the game anymore. The unit  either charges successfully or it doesn't and the unit they charge just stands there.

5. Combat Phase: The player who's turn it is goes first with his melee attacks, and the opponent goes second. Melee weapons have attack stats, to hit, to wound, the number of wounds they cause and save modifiers (range weapons are the same). Each unit/model has it's own save modifier to save against attacks.

6. Battleshock Phase: The replacement to combat resolution. Each unit/model has a Bravery characteristic. In this phase, you roll a D6 and add the total number of models slain. Then compare the units bravery to that result, adding +1 to the bravery total per every 10 models in that unit. For each point above the bravery total, one model is removed from the unit and from the game, having fled the battlefield.

Turn ends.

There is slightly more to this, but as we can easily see just how simplified this game is compared to 8th Edition.Is this a bad thing? It's hard to say. I suspect that many will be angry about the simplification and lack of strategy that the previous editions had. After all, the old style of unit line ups and formations have gone for a more free flowing style. The moving to round bases was inevitable in this regard, but you can still use square with no penalty. Personally, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of magic, but then we have no death bombs, so that's a plus. The fact the rules a free is a big difference here and so is a good chance for most to test it out and see what happens.

Many of my complaints about the changes were lore and visual base (I'll discuss that in a future article), so really, I've got no major complaints with the rules. That said, don't expect fair play or tournament play from this game and that my cause problems in it's future.

Skaven Warscroll

Reading the rules and for the most part, very simplified. I'm glad my Warlock Engineers have Warp Lightning and that Ikit Claw is still around (I use his rules to represent my leader Skith Warpclaw), but there are one or two things that bug me. Firstly, options are very limited. You can pick one of three weapon options for a Warlord, but there is nothing else really. My next is that a Warlord riding a Rat Ogre Backbreaker now just counts as a normal Rat Ogre is a major blow. In fact, at least six or so unit/model options were redirected to a plain variant or substitute. Worse, backlash and misfire effects are gone, meaning the fun of watching my army collapse on itself is now gone.

Still, not all bad. Most of my units are still usable and the fact that Weapon Teams are now on their own (meaning I can have as many as I want) should be good for a laugh. As it stand, my army has grown in strength, though I feel it's flavour and character suffered as a result. I'll wait to see what future products Skaven get, but at least my army is still valid to a degree. I'll do a bit more indepth to this in a future article.