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17 Apr 24

The Fires of Combat Rage Higher

Than Ever in #NewAoS

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a game of combat: kinetic clashes between mighty

heroes, twisted monsters, and warriors tempered in the fires of a thousand battles.
The melee is the core element of the game, and the rules for fighting at close quarters
have been tuned for the new edition to make these conflicts feel more epic than ever
before.

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 The changes to commands mean that Counter-charge and Power Through are
powerful new tools to turn the tides of battle. We’ve already seen that every miniature
now has combat range in a 3” radius – and this simple change has plenty of far-
reaching ramifications that result in a smoother and more satisfying Combat Phase.

Combat in the Age of Sigmar

Players familiar with the current edition will find the new process very similar: units still
charge into combat and fight, but these now also work as abilities with clearly defined
declaration and e!ect steps.

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 The order of operations is generally much clearer in this edition. There are no more
‘start of phase’ or ‘end of phase’ subphases: in each phase the active player uses any of
their abilities in whichever order they want, and then their opponent can do the same,
like the Ardboyz’ Shield Bash and the Blood Sisters’ Crystal Touch.

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 The Combat Phase has one significant di!erence to other phases: after both players
have resolved any of their other abilities for this phase, they then take it in turns to
activate units to use FIGHT abilities, starting with the active player. Strikes-first and
strikes-last e!ects are still very much in the mix, occurring on either side of the
standard fight timings.

Coupled with All-out Attack and All-out Defence, the Combat Phase remains a tense
and strategic a!air. Units cannot make shooting attacks if they are in combat, unless
their weapons have the Shoot in Combat ability, so tagging a missile unit is a great
opportunity for counterplay.

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 A unit can perform a pile-in move as part of the FIGHT ability, allowing models to move
up to 3”. Every model in that unit must end the move no further from the target unit
than it was before piling in, and must still be in combat with every unit it started the
move engaged in combat with.

Fight, Fight, Fight!

The process of working out combat will be familiar to players, with a few key changes.
Unmodified rolls of a 6 are now critical hits, a term that can trigger a range of new
e!ects on attacks, while mortal wounds have been renamed mortal damage.

Overall, rend has been reduced throughout the game, and while you can still positively
modify your save profile with All-out Defence, this remains capped at +1. Most
factions lack any other tools to further increase a unit’s save profile, so “save stacking”
– the process of negating rend by adding extra save – is largely a thing of the past.

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 There’s a slight change to the way damage is allocated. Instead of allocating damage
points to a model in a unit, damage points are now allocated to the unit as a whole.
When the total of damage points allocated to a unit equals the Health characteristic of
that unit, the commanding player removes a model from that unit, but they must stay
in coherency.

This greatly speeds up how damage is totted up, and stops you from losing track of
which model was injured, or absent-mindedly allocating that first damage point to
your unit Champion and coming to curse your past self.

Unit Roles

With combat range gone, you might have some questions about how a warrior with a
hammer is set apart from one with a spear. This has been handled by further
di!erentiating the role of each unit on the battlefield. Weapon and warscroll abilities
now provide units with specific roles – take the bristling spear-wall of Stormcast
Eternals Vindictors as an example.

They have Anti-charge (Rend +1) as a weapon ability, granting additional Rend when
they are charged, while they have the opportunity to strike first if they successfully
Hold the Shield Wall.

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 Greater combat range and no battleshock makes seething hordes of Clanrats and
Crypt Ghouls more dangerous, but monstrous infantry like Kroxigor love to cut a
bloody swathe through these teeming mobs. Their Anti-Infantry (+1 Rend) devastates
armour, while the Brutal Blows passive ability can pulverise four bodies in a single
swing – and they get four attacks.

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 Coherency Range

All that moving, charging, piling-in, and general jostling around is also tied into
coherency, which represents how units move and fight together. The coherency range
of units is now ½”, and models must remain within range of at least one other model in
their unit.

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 Models in units of seven or more fighters must remain within coherency range of at
least two of their comrades, while certain units (especially those composed of large
models like Stormdrake Guard) have a larger coherency range noted on their
warscrolls. Coherency is measured horizontally, which means height di!erences don’t
matter.

Retreating

Battleshock has gone because to fight in the Age of Sigmar is to fight for the fate of the
Mortal Realms – armies engage in battle with utter conviction and battle to the bitter
end. But Retreat is now an ability used in the Movement Phase, a tactical decision that
comes with a cost of D3 mortal damage, though some wily units may be able to use
special abilities to slip out of combat without reprisal – including certain Skaven.

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 On Friday, we’ll be unrolling arcane scrolls, brushing o! our dogma, and pondering
orbs both thaumaturgical and theological as we unpack how magic, prayers, and
manifestations work in the new edition.

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 More to Explore

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Photography Guide
Detailed instructions and helpful hints from the pros.

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 Keep Reading

Warhammer Age of Sigmar A Complete History of the Great-

Organised Play – What’s New for Mighty Skaven
2024
18 Apr 24
06 Feb 24

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