The new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar has been out for a couple of months now, but the work hasn’t stopped. The rules writers have been keeping a very close eye on game data as it comes in – and they’re releasing the first quarterly download of the edition. The full document can be downloaded at the bottom of this article, and here’s what the Warhammer Studio have to say:
“Updating the rules for every faction alongside the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar was a big challenge, and as expected there are a handful of factions over, or under, performing at the moment. Thanks to everyone for sending in your feedback to aosfaq@gwplc.com, as it was instrumental in identifying common challenges and opportunities for adjustment.
"We’ve broken the changes down into five categories, covering balance adjustments to the Core Rules, the General’s Handbook,and all four Grand Alliances."
Core Rules and General’s Handbook
Manifestations
If a manifestation is removed from play, it cannot be summoned again in the same turn.
Banish Manifestation: Add 1 to the banishment roll for each additional enemy manifestation on the battlefield after the first.
Morbid Conjuration: Removed Wild Form from Purple Sun of Shyish, increased the casting value of Summon Suffocating Gravetide to eight, and made Malevolent Maelstrom's Morbid Detonation mandatory when it reaches six maelstrom points.
Primal Energy: Removed Wild Form from Ravenak's Gnashing Jaws.
Honour Guard
Priority Target: Reduced the power level to improve internal balance between Honour Guard abilities.
Other
Clarified faction terrain rules for fighting and piling in.
Covering Fire: All-out Defence may now be used in response.
Designers' Notes: While we've thoroughly enjoyed Endless Spells and Invocations raging across the battlefields of the Mortal Realms, it has become clear that they are having a more pronounced effect on games than intended. The internal balance between Lores also needed an adjustment, and Morbid Conjuration in particular has become a dominant pick. As such, we've made some targeted adjustments to overperforming Manifestations, and two broad rules changes to open up additional counterplay.
We also felt that the Honour Guard abilities from the General’s Handbook could use an internal balance adjustment. Priority Target only offers a bonus to Hit and Wound against the enemy general and honour guard (instead of all units in the general's regiment), and only within 12" in order to reduce the benefit for long-range shooting.
Grand Alliance: Order Adjustments
Cities of Sigmar
Freeguild Fusiliers: They can now pick either ranged weapon profile while in a fortified position.
Daughters of Khaine
Shadowpaths: Core keyword removed, so a unit that attempts the ability can still move if they fail the roll.
Fyreslayers
Auric Runeson: Clarified the cumulative effect on the Magmadroth's Vying for Glory ability.
Lumineth Realm-lords
Shining Company: Only gives -1 to hit if the friendly unit didn't Charge or use Power of Hysh in that turn.
Lyrior Uthralle: Clarified the wording and timing of Voice of Tyrion.
Shrine Luminor: Clarified the wording and timing of Enter the Shrine and Exit the Shrine.
Seraphon
Celestial Translocation: Core keyword removed, so a unit that attempts the ability can still move if they fail the roll.
Saurus Astrolith Bearer: Clarified the wording of Celestial Conduit.
Stormcast Eternals
Peerless Manoeuvres: Requirements clarified and Core keyword removed so the unit that attempted the ability can still move if they fail the roll.
Praetors: They can now use Soul-bonded while in reserve.
Sylvaneth
Treesong: Wording changed to make it easier to set up Wyldwoods.
Wyldwoods: now have Ward (5+) and the range of friendly abilities which require units to be wholly within 6" of a Wyldwood is increased by 3" for each additional scenery piece in that terrain feature.
Alarielle: Rite of Life becomes 'Once Per Turn (Army)', and reduces the damage points allocated to returned Monsters to six.
Vengeful Skullroot: Added an additional ability to allow it to count as a Wyldwood for some friendly abilities.
Designers' Notes: The two Order factions we chose to focus on for this update were Sylvaneth and the Lumineth Realm-lords. We made several adjustments to Sylvaneth to make their battle traits easier to use, while as the Lumineth Realm-lords have been over performing in early results, we’ve started with an adjustment to tone down Shining Company, but we’re also closely monitoring the Hurakan units and will likely make further adjustments down the line.
In addition to those factions, we’ve also made a handful of rules tweaks across several other Order factions, mostly for quality-of-life fixes, along with points adjustments across every faction to improve internal and external balance.
Grand Alliance: Chaos Adjustments
Blades of Khorne
Wrath Axe: Changed the timing of Hatred's Edge to make it easier to use.
Skull Altar: Clarified wording and timing of Ascend the Altar and Descend the Altar.
Disciples of Tzeentch
Burning Wyrdflame and Quenching the Flames can now affect manifestations and faction terrain features.
Shield of Fate: Must target a Disciples of Tzeentch unit.
Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch: They can now be set up on the battlefield during deployment.
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch: Re-worked the effect of Radiant Transmogrification.
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Temptation Dice: When an opponent rolls a 1 or 2, they must replace their roll with that value instead of with a 6, and allocate D3 Damage points to their unit.
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Burst Pustules: A new ability which spreads the Diseased condition to a nearby enemy unit when a Diseased unit is destroyed.
Bloab Rotspawned: Miasma of Pestilence wording clarified.
Designers' Notes: The Maggotkin of Nurgle receive a brand-new ability, Burst Pustules, which makes it easier to spread Disease across the battlefield, while we’ve increased the risk for opponents who use Temptation Dice against the Hedonites of Slaanesh.
Other factions get quality-of-life adjustments along with points changes.
Grand Alliance: Death Adjustments
Flesh-eater Courts:
Charnel Throne: Clarified the wording and timing of Reigning Champion and Duty Calls.
Nighthaunt
There is No Escape: This ability now only affects one friendly unit.
Dreadblade Harrows: Phantasmal Discorporation now happens during your Movement Phase.
Terrifying Entity: Reworked to be easier to use.
Soulblight Gravelords
Torgillius the Chamberlain: Reduced Attacks of Necrotising Bolts to D6 and restricted Trusted Lieutenant may only target units that have not already been the target of Deathly Invocation that turn.
Orb of Enchantment: Clarified wording.
Designers' Notes: Our main focus for Grand Alliance: Death was to tone down the Nighthaunt, who have been one of the strongest factions in early event results. We primarily focused on the Death Stalkers battle formation, which has now been adjusted to only affect one unit instead of the entire army, as well as adjusting the Dreadblade Harrows.
Other factions have smaller adjustments where necessary as well as points changes.
Grand Alliance: Destruction Adjustments
Kragnos, the End of Empires
End of Empires: Ability now happens during your Charge Phase.
Lowered points by 100 to 580.
Gloomspite Gitz
Webspinner Shaman: Changed Control characteristic to 2.
Ironjawz
Ironjawz Waaagh!: Ability may now be used once per battle per Hero.
Ogor Mawtribes
Mawpit: Clarified wording and timing of Feed the Maw and Step Away from the Maw.
Sons of Behemat:
Glowy Lantern: Now uses the manifestation lore you picked during army composition rather than during the Deployment Phase.
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant: Clarified how Get Orf Me Land! interacts with objectives with special scoring requirements.
Designers' Notes: The biggest adjustment we made for Destruction was to the mighty Kragnos. We’ve decided to limit his End of Empires ability to only work in your Charge Phase, as we found that the use of that ability for counter-charging was a bit too strong. In order to compensate for this change, we’ve lowered his points cost by 100, making him much easier to include in rosters, and more tactically focused on the battlefield.
Ironjawz also get a significant boost as they can now use Ironjawz Waaagh! once per Hero instead of just once per battle.
That's your top-level review, but there are plenty more changes, with points adjustments on more than 250 units, updates to frequently asked questions and more. You can expect monthly FAQ updates towards the end of each month to adjust any issues that crop up, as well as bigger adjustments in our quarterly battlescroll updates.
As always, please send your feedback to aosfaq@gwplc.com to let the team know what you think and if there are any issues that you’d like to see addressed in the next update.
With Battletome: Skaven available and these balance changes now live, it's time to hit the tables and claim your stake on the Mortal Realms.
