Age of Sigmar/Tactics

Hello, this is the general Tactica dump for the Age of Sigmar armies, units and rules.

Basics

AOS is a very different beast compared to that which it replaces, Warhammer Fantasy Battles. AOS is streamlined, faster, and easier to get into. Just don't mention the dark early days of rage, pain and suffering.

All games consist of multiple (usually two) Armies, playing out the narrative given in a Battleplan.

Each unit in an army will have a Warscroll describing its own abilities and special rules. Additional abilities are given for grouping certain units which are usually found in Battletomes.

A Battleplan will state which set of Battle Rules to use in addition to setup, objectives, victory conditions and any special rules.

There are various Play Types each with their own style (tournament, narrative, league etc) and set of Battleplans.

Battle Rules are simply the Core Rules with additional restrictions.

Core Rules

Either downloadable or in the Core Book.

Battle Rounds

After the first initial round where either yourself or the Opponent takes the first turn subsequent rounds are randomized on who will take the initiative for that new battle phase. How it is randomize is by both players roll a dice each and the highest one can pick to start the next round or let the opponent start, so in other words you have a 50/50 chance of going first again if are lucky enough so a good general will always keep that in mind when positioning units on the board for those 'just in case' situations.

Phases

The game is split into multiple phases, like Fantasy, but these splits are a bit different. Also take note that modifiers are now applied AFTER re-rolls are made.

• Hero Phase: Here's where your wizards can do wizardy shit and heroes do leadery shit. Its also worth noting that many other abilities can also take effect or expire during this phase.
  • Spell Casting - Every wizard can cast at least one spell per turn dependent on their warscroll. Each spell has a casting cost which you must roll or beat with 2d6. Each spell can only be attempted to be cast once per phase (regardless of whether it's successful or not). Wizard's usually have at least one spell on their warscroll, plus they know the following:
    • Arcane Bolt - Cast on a 5+. One enemy unit within 18" takes 1 Mortal (Read: Unsaveable) wound, 1d3 if the roll was 10+.
    • Mystic Shield - Cast on a 6+. A friendly unit within 18" of the caster re-rolls saves of 1.
  • Unbinding - If you have a wizard within 30" of another wizard that's casting, you can roll 2d6 to cancel it. All you need to do is beat the casting roll by rolling an equal amount of dice (2d6), which can be laughably impossible if the other guy managed to roll really high; both sides apply modifiers before comparing.
  • Command Abilities - These are abilities that Heroes can use in the Hero Phase (unless said otherwise) that give buffs that cannot be stopped. They cost 1 command point each, which you start the battle turn with 1 for each battalion warscroll plus, if you bought it for 50 points, one an additional CP. You also gain 1 point at the start of each of your hero phases (including the first turn) Each of them can only target a unit wholly within 12" of a Hero or within 18" of your general or a unit with the Totem keyword. You can use as many different Command Abilities you want as many times as you want - or the same one multiple times a turn (unless otherwise specified) - as long as you have the command points to do. Some models have Command abilities that they can only use if they are the general so plan accordingly. Everyone has the following, which affect a single unit for a single phase:
    • All-out Attack - One unit can reroll hits of 1 during combat phase.
    • All-out Defense - One unit can reroll saves of 1 during combat phase.
    • Volley Fire - One unit can reroll hits of 1 during shooting phase.
    • At the Double - One unit within can treat a rolled run as a 6.
    • Forward to Victory - One unit within can reroll a charge.
    • Inspiring Presence - One unit within can ignore battleshock.
  • Heroic Actions - Introduced in AoS 3E, these are new actions that each hero can be triggered at the start of the phase. All of these are focused on supplementing a hero that triggers them, especially if that hero's getting in the thick of it.
    • Heroic Leadership - Pick a hero and roll a d6, adding +2 if your general is dead. On a 4+, you gain a CP you can use to make that hero use on a command action for that phase. Pretty much emergency CP calls here, as it's not quite as baked-in as 40k.
    • Heroic Willpower - Pick a hero that isn't a wizard. During the enemy's hero phase you can let this hero dispel an enemy spell, but during your hero phase you can make this hero unbind an endless spell. Helpful to at least grant a minor measure of anti-magic for your Khorneboys and giants.
    • Their Finest Hour - Pick a hero, they get +1 to all wound rolls and to their saves, ideal for taking on big menaces. Because of how powerful this is, you can only use this once for each hero.
    • Heroic Recovery - Pick a hero and roll 2d6; if this roll is below the hero's Bravery, you heal 1d3 wounds, and if it's equal to the bravery you heal 1 wound. For big heroes like the centerpiece ones and monsters, this isn't going to really do much but it'll equal to hiding behind a corner and regenerating if you get like two turns to patch yourself up.
• Movement Phase - Each unit still has a movement range described in their profile/warscroll, which they can walk. Running adds d6 to that result (but can't shoot or charge afterwards) and can't move within 3" of an enemy unit. Flying units can move within 3" of enemies as they ignore intervening models and terrain but cannot end within 3".
• Shooting Phase
  • Pick a unit to shoot.
  • Roll to-hit, which means seeing if you roll over your chosen weapon's To-Hit score on a d6. This isn't modified based on any armor or other factors, meaning that if you have a weapon that hits on a 3+, ANYTHING will get hit. Unit positioning and cover should be taken into consideration during this phase after turn 1 or during setup.
  • Roll to-wound, which means using a d6 to roll over the chosen weapon's To-Wound Score. People complain about there being no modifiers to the roll due to how tough a creature is now, don't worry about that as it is reflected by how many wounds each model has in a unit now.
  • Roll to save, which are now all covered in one stat. After all hit and wound rolls are resolved then armor saves needs to be taken. Roll as normal then apply modifiers such as rending, cover saves etc. and see if you passed or failed the roll.
• Charge Phase - For each unit within 12" of the enemy, roll 2d6 and if you can get a model with 1/2" of another unit with that roll, you can charge that unit. Means if you have 2 targets in range, you can pick which one you hit, positioning is key for successful charges.
  • Monstrous Rampages - So AoS 3.0 looks to establish the forces of Destruction as the central adversaries of this edition. Destruction means lots of big, scary monsters so all those Monster units have new actions to use after the charge phase. Each of these can only be used once per phase, so it'll be more inconvenient on a monster-heavy army like the Avengorii Soulblights or the Sons of Behemat.
    • Roar - Pick an enemy within 3" of your monster and roll a d6; on a 3+, this unit can't use issue or receive commands for the following combat phase. Especially the one to pick you you're planning to hit a unit hiding next to a hero.
    • Stomp - Pick a non-Monster enemy unit within 3" and roll a d6; on a 2+ this unit eats d3 MWs right off the bat, which especially bites for small and medium-sized gangs like Stormcast and Slaves.
    • Titanic Duel - Pick an enemy Monster unit within 3". Your monster now gets +1 to hit theirs for the following combat phase, and you might well need it.
    • Smash to Rubble - Find some defensible terrain or an enemy setpiece within 3" and roll a d6; on a 2+, that setpiece is now useless, unable to be hidden in and no longer able to benefit your enemy.
• Attack Phase - Combat phase. Now this is where things are a little different. For hitting and wounding it is the same thing as shooting however the main differences is which unit shall you pick to attack first. So if it is your turn you pick 1 unit in a combat, they attack, then your opponent picks 1 unit in combat, they attack, and you continue until all units attack. You have to be tactical if you have multiple combats as you have to try and maximise the amount of attacks your guys get before your opponent maximises his. Also two other differences is that 1) each weapon has a range (normally 1") so you actually have to pay attention to the positioning of your guys. And 2) your units can only use the selected weapons they have equipped on them (monsters can bite and swipe in the same attack) so read the units warscroll first and decide what they are going to have BEFORE the game starts but generally the model would show what they are wielding anyway.
• Battleshock Phase - This is the panic phase. Any unit who lost models during ANY phases has to test Bravery on d6, adding 1 for every model that has slain from the unit during that turn and subtracting 1 for every 10 models the unit has. Failing this test means a model leaves for each degree it fails by. An example would be a basic unit of 10 model count Blood reavers with a bravery of 5 suffers (no upgrades for example sake) 3 casualties and made a Battle shock roll which ended up being an 4. Now you add the amount suffered in the combat phase(3) and add it to the roll you just made during the bravery phase(4) which equals to a total of (7). Compare this to the bravery profile (5) and you failed by 2 so the result is two more models running away leaving 5 left out of the original 10.

Army Tactics

Generally, people play using the points system introduced in the Generals Handbook. This limits you to choosing your army from either a single faction (plus optionally some allies from a restricted set) or one of the Grand Alliances (Order, Chaos, Death or Destruction). By choosing a faction that has a Battletome you'll receive additional bonuses. The official Warscroll Builder can be an easy and effective way of building a roster.

Technically, nothing in the core rules limit your model choices and thus can field anything from any army alongside each other. While this can create interesting thematics, such as oldschool Morathi armies using Dark Elves and Daemons or Chaos Magic Sigmarines, if you play this way you should expect players to be grizzled sex pests, and prepare to fight fire with fire (if you know what I mean). Early editions of AOS played entirely this way until points were added to give the illusion of balance.

Anyone with old WHFB minis that aren't listed in any of the factions find them in Legends. Whilst anyone wanting to play AOS rules that have been superseded by newer editions should mosey on down to the Old section. Neither of these will be valid in either tournaments or many local groups.

In the table below, Factions with Battletomes are listed on a row above the unloved factions. Factions in italics either don't have a battletome or do not have the correct units to field a full army.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules

General Rule sources

You'll need a battletome for your faction(s).

Core rules: here.

Matched play rules, battleplans and expansions: Generals Handbook 2020, plus the battleplans from the Core Book and Endless Spell rules from Malign Sorcery.

Supplement all the above with any Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.

Play Types

The various GW books outline different ways of playing, often in an attempt to mix things up and get people playing something other than Matched Play.

Open Play

Core Book and Generals Handbook 2020

Play with whatever models you want. Go nuts. Have fun.

Narrative Play

Core Book and Generals Handbook 2020

Play using restrictions generated by fluff and optionally narrated by a GM.

Specific narrative play books include

• Realmgate Wars: Quest for Ghal Maraz
• Realmgate Wars: Balance Of Power

Matched Play

Core Book and Generals Handbook 2020

Also known as tournament rules. Make sure you have all the latest rules and FAQs to hand and be ready to defend every move you make (I'll be watching you).

Matched Play: Meeting Engagements

Generals Handbook 2020

A different way to play 1000pts.

Matched Play: Coalition Of Death

Generals Handbook 2020

2 vs 2 games of 1000points per player.

Skirmish

White Dwarf Jan 2019/Feb 2019

You know how Kill Team took the smaller units from 40k and wrote an awesome new set of rules around them? Well this is the same, except GW didn't make any effort. Points are divided by 10 and every model is now a unit. Updated set of rules for AoS 2.0 published in White Dwarf Jan 2019 and Feb 2019. Most other rules remain the same. Expect some stuff to be just broken (Branchwych!).

Technically, this should be good for introducing noobs to AOS. However, just make sure you explain it's missing all the really cool stuff as you point them to the warscoll for Nagash.

Season Of War: Firestorm

Still usable in tournaments, apparently.

Path To Glory

An on-going campaign using a subset of the AOS minis, with a self-set goal depending on which armies are used.

Realm Of Battle

As per the Core Book, battles may be fought in a Realm. This a set of additional rules providing additional benefits, penalties and often spells. They are not restricted to any particular game mode, so can be used in Open, Narrative, or Matched Play games. They have been rewritten in GHB2020, and are listed as mandatory for matched play.

See Realm Of Battle.

Malign Sorcery

Malign Sorcery is an optional expansion for Age Of Sigmar which introduces Endless Spells - persistent spells with models that can be used by wizards in any army.

Other rules introduced, such as realm specific spells and additional play types and battleplans have been replaced as of GHB2020.

See Malign Sorcery.

Mercenary Companies

A flash in the pan, Mercenary Companies was a GHB2019 addition, but then dropped for GHB2020.

Dogs of War in Age of Sigmar but not really. For starters, the units offered are not unique models at all but instead existing units cherry-picked from their respective faction. On one hand, it opened up to some interesting combinations in army building which could end up being either hilariously bad or hilariously good. On the other hand, you'd be spending your starting command point on these guys and the whole concept of it can easily become a narrative clusterfuck. Probably why it was dropped.

See Mercenary Companies if you still want to play using them.

Terrain

Terrain rules have recently been simplified, and you should be looking at the Generals Handbook. However, many people don't bother with any of these rules and just consider all scenery as obstacles to move over/around.

Most generic terrain rolls off the following list, which you roll for before the game begins.

1. Damned: Suckers within 3" can opt to take d3 Mortal Wounds in exchange for adding +1 to all hit rolls until the next Hero Phase. Mobs can especially benefit from this since the damage won't mean so much to them and they get more guaranteed hits.
2. Arcane: Wizards within 3" of this piece add +1 to all casting and unbinding rules. The use is pretty obvious.
3. Inspiring: All within 3" add +1 Bravery. While wasted on Duardin and Stormcasts, this can mean the difference between a pack of Orruks holding on or breaking for the hills.
4. Mystical: Now here's a wildcard. All units within 3" have to roll d6; on a 1, the unit becomes stupefied and can't do shit until your next Hero Phase, but on any other result, you can re-roll wound rolls.
5. Sinister: The units within 3" now trigger fear (Inflict -1 Bravery against any other enemies) until your next Hero Phase. Pretty much your go-to for deleting mobs with the fist of a spiteful god.
6. this list is out of date... there are more rules than this.

Whereas most of the official scenery kits are restricted to a single effect:

• Arcane Ruins: Use Arcane rules.

• Azyrite Ruin: None.

• Baleful Realmgate: A unit within 6" of the gate and 6" of a friendly wizard can teleport to another gate instead of moving.

• Barbed Venomgorse: Consists of exactly 3 Barbed Venomgorse models. Use Deadly rules.

• Citadel Wood: Blocks line of sight. If you are Sylvaneth you can use these as Sylvaneth Wyldwoods.

• Dragonfate Dais: Use Damned rules.

• Magewrath Throne: It's a giant command throne. If your general is within 3" and the enemy general isn't then +1 command points in your hero phase

• Numinous Occulum: Use Mystical rules.

• Ophidian Archway: Use Sinister rules.

• Shardwrack Spines: Consists of 2-5 Shardwrack Spine models. Use Deadly rules.

• Sigmarite Mausoleum: A catch all for everything you can get in the Mausoleum kit. Counts as a garrison for up to 30 wounds worth of models. And counts as a Legions Of Nagash gravesite.

• Walls and Fences: This is pretty stupidly obvious. No specific rules.

• Warscryer Citadel: Counts as a garrison for up to 30 wounds worth of models plus a flying monster if you've built it right. Once inside Heroes inside can roll a dice and on 2+ get one command point in your hero phase and Heroes can unbind one spell per turn, whilst Wizards get an additional unbind.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules