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GW Previews New AoS General’s Handbook

By James Rodriguez | July 26th, 2017 | Categories: Age of Sigmar, News & Rumors

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Games Workshop just previewed what’s inside the covers of the new General’s Handbook for Age of Sigmar, and it’s “game changing”.

GW just gave us our first look inside the new General’s Handbook. Let’s see what they had to say about it.

AoS General's Handbook Preview

That’s a lot of content – and nearly every single bit of it is new or updated. This isn’t just a new edition of the General’s Handbook, this is a completely new guide to gaming in the Mortal Realms – new ways to play, new Alliance Abilities, tonnes of new battleplans, allies, updated units and more…

Allies are an exciting new addition to matched play games. We’ve all had that struggle when building our armies having to choose between focussing on one faction to take advantage of Allegiance Abilities and battleline units, or using the full Grand Alliance to get access to a wider selection of options. Each faction now has a list of other factions it can ally with, fitting the theme of each force; if your army is made up of the multitudinous hordes of the Clans Verminus, you can ally in the specialised troops of the other great clans, while the Deathlords can rule over any of the other Death factions (the clue’s in the name).

We’ll be going deeper into the allies for each Grand Alliance in the coming weeks, but to tide you over, here’s your allied contingent allowances for matched play games:

AoS General's Handbook Preview

With between 200 and 500 points, you’ll have plenty of space to experiment – that’s enough for an Aleguzzler Gargant in an army of Ironjawz, a furious Spirit of Durthu aiding a warband of Wanderers, a vicious Chimera alongside the Khorne Bloodbound or a fast moving pack of Vargheists to aid your legion of Deathrattle skeletons.

AoS General's Handbook Preview

Allies are particularly useful in light of the new Allegiance Abilities. We’ll be going into these further with future previews, but armies like the Hosts of Slaanesh or the Dispossessed will be able to make full use of powerful unique skills while having a range of choices available when writing lists for matched play. Similarly, you’ll be able to combine powerful allegiance-specific battleline units with allies to make for focused lists made up of the models you want to play.

This is a major change for all matched play games, whether you’re looking to compete at a tournament or just use some new tricks in battles with friends.

The new General’s Handbook looks like it’s loaded with tons of new content. Being able to for Allies is going to open up a lot of options as far as what units you can take, and still gain bonuses. Is Age of Sigmar getting the 40k treatment now?Never Go Full 40k

Games Workshop we’ll be previewing the contents of the new book over the next couple of week’s, starting with a more in depth look at Death tomorrow. Make sure you check back in with us for the latest updates leading up to the release of the new General’s Handbook.

Games Workshop announced yesterday that the new General’s Handbook will be out some time next month. Looks like our prediction of an August release of the new General’s Handbook is coming true! Today the Warhammer TV put together a very unique announcement video.

All we’re going to say is… Enjoy?

The new General’s Handbook is not going to feature the Path to Glory campaign, but Games Workshop did recently give us an idea of what we can expect to see in it.

The General’s Handbook is to be the mechanism by which the game is continually supported every year, and we’re delighted to announce today that a sequel is on the way.

AoS Gen Handbook 2017 Cover

The General’s Handbook 2017 will again be an invaluable resource for any Warhammer Age of Sigmar gamer.

For open play, the multiplayer rules have been massively expanded, and now include Triumph & Treachery – devious rules for mid-game betrayals.

Narrative players are about to get really spoilt. With Path to Glory soon to become its own stand-alone expansion, this section has been freed up for a huge amount of new content in the 2017 edition. Highlights include rules for siege warfare in the Mortal Realms and Time of War battlefield rules for locations in every realm (even the one’s we haven’t been to yet!).

Matched play is set to get plenty of updates too. These include new Battleplans, new rules of one, and updated points for units in every faction in the Mortal Realms.

AoS Gen Handbook 2017 Battle

Perhaps most excitingly of all are the new Allegiance Abilities. These are much expanded from those four Grand Alliance army-traits from the previous General’s Handbook. The new book will cover Allegiance Abilities for the likes of Fyreslayers, Seraphon, Slaaneshi hosts, Nighthaunts and over a dozen others.

This book is going to be seriously awesome for any Warhammer Age of Sigmar fan.

For those of you with the current edition, loads of the content in there – such as the battleplans, narrative games and campaign overviews – will remain valuable gaming content, so it will be well worth keeping hold of.

The General’s Handbook 2017 is on the way later this year, and like it’s predecessor, will come in an affordable paperback format.

We’re seeing our first major update for Age of Sigmar with this new General’s Handbook. They’ll be adding new rules, updates, and Battleplans for all styles of play, as well as Allegiance Abilities for Fyreslayers, Seraphon, Slaaneshi, Nighthaunts, and more. The new General’s Handbook is due to be releases next month, and it will be in paperback to help keep the price low. So far our predictions of GW’s August New Releases are looking accurate…

What do you think about the announcement of the new General’s Handbook? Is there anything in particular you’re hoping to see fixed? Let us know in the comments below.

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About the Author: James Rodriguez

I’m a huge fan of anything tabletop. I play strictly Chaos in Warhammer, and Imperial in anything Star Wars. I spent 8 years in the military. Now I’m happy to be a civilian working with a great group of people.
“We are all tyrants. Do not fool yourself. We were bred for nothing else.”
-Mortarion