It’s just been announced that players can summon for free in the coming Age of Sigmar 2.0. But you can’t just do it willy-nilly. You’ll have to prove yourself worthy.
Warhammer Community released the news on the new summoning interactions and mechanics.
Summoning is now Free
The big change for matched play, though, is that summoning now no longer costs reinforcement points! Instead, you earn your summoned units with in-game actions: bloodshed, spreading plague, mastering magic, and other thematic goals. For some recent armies, this ability works just like it does in your battletome today (but free!). For others, their unique summoning ability will be rolled into their army’s new allegiance abilities, which will be found in the General’s Handbook 2018.
You heard it right. Summoning doesn’t cost any points now. View summoning as a reward for serving your Chaos God well, or collecting the right kind of energy if you’re a Seraphon player.
The Hosts of Slaanesh, for example, revel in suffering and pain, both given and received, so they generate points when their Heroes deal or receive wounds which do not slay their target. Meanwhile, the Seraphon generate points by performing rituals with their Slann Starmasters and Saurus Astrolith Bearers.
This is such an exciting mechanic because it adds even more of a degree of fluff into the game. You don’t have to worry about paying points for summoning and you can’t just spam things that got summoned either. It looks like they found a delicate balance between the two options.
Did you miss our other articles of what’s coming in AoS 2.0? Look no further
Daughters of Khaine in AoS 2.0
The Daughters of Khaine will be tailored in AoS 2.0 like every other army and there are quite a few nice synergies. Doomfire Warlocks will be able to practically unbind a spell anywhere on the battlefield when you combine the 30″ range on canceling spells and their move characteristic.
Another big change is that you won’t be forced to take Morathi as a General to take advantage of her amazing command ability to have two units shoot or fight out of sequence. A Bloodwrack Medusa would be a fantastic choice as it unlocks Blood Sisters as battleline allowing you to take a more-elite army.
The Daughters’ Artifacts
This is pretty nice considering it literally costs you nothing. It could be devastating on a 60 man squad of Clanrats. You’re probably going to get about 10-15 5’s so you know they’ll be failing a bravery test.
You just have to roll to hit for this thing if you get a 6. Then doing D6 mortal wounds can outright slaughter something with armor that’s tough to crack.
Daughters of Khaine look like they are going to be medium to fast paced and have some very solid melee and even more solid melee tricks up their sleeve. Keep a close eye out for more information as we come closer to AoS 2.0.
Tzeentch is also getting some love with a nice port into Aos 2.0. Let’s take a look at what exactly is going on here.
Disciples of Tzeentch in 2.0
With the new unbinding range of 30″ you’ll have to be more careful on your wizard placement. But the good news is that you’ll probably have more spells to cast than your opponent can deny. On top of this, your opponents will probably have a harder time getting their spells to go off!.
Tzeentch Arcanites armies have always had loads of choice on which magical lores they can use and who they’re going to use to cast them, and they’ll love the new endless spells system. While it might be tempting to grab big, flashy, offensive spells, we’d recommend the Chronomantic Cogs – a nifty way to help make a wizard more survivable and better at casting, but which can also be used to increase your army’s (and the enemy’s) charge ranges.
The Chronometron
This looks like it’s going to be a global board state of effect so be careful on what you choose and when you choose it. But this can be devastating to have a 2″ bonus movement and charge on your turn. Your enemy will be able to move and charge a bonus 2″ too but it doesn’t matter if you’re already in combat with everything!
Look Out, Sir!
Talk about a huge bonus for swarm armies like Skaven. It does say “unit” instead of “model” but you can easily get 3 different squads of 20 clan rats around your general and it looks like this ability stacks!
Fyreslayers in 2.0
Fyreslayers have always had a collection of badass heroes to choose from, but now with the ability to use everyone’s command traits, you can buff a whole slew of different units with things like Inspiring Presence, At the Double, and Forward to Victory.
Previously, Fyreslayers armies would only be able to benefit from one command ability, based on which Hero they picked as a general. Now, you can harness the full extent of your Runefather’s and Runeson’s powers, whether you’re adjusting your strategies on the fly or holding back to stack several benefits on the same unit. For example, an Auric Runeson on Magmadroth’s Furious Onslaught – which lets Fyreslayers roll 3 dice when they charge, discarding the lowest roll – with an Auric Runefather on foot’s Lodge Leader ability – which lets Fyreslayers pile in up to 5″ – is ideal for getting a large unit of Fyreslayers into position and effectively surrounding an enemy target.
Fyreslayer Artifacts
Fyreslayers are getting access to some artifacts to help deal mortal wounds or to make them into an even bigger bearded beat-stick
This seems alright because you don’t have to worry about dealing any mortal wounds to yourself. It’s basically a 50/50 free mortal wound. It has a shorter range for what most armies would like, but Fyreslayers want to get close anyway so you shouldn’t have any problems finding a target to throw glass vials of blood at.
This will more than likely be devastating considering how devastating Fyreslayers are in combat. We will probably be watching heroes hitting and wounding on 2s. The D3 mortal wounds to yourself is a little scary but hey, that’s only on the roll of a 1. 
Be on the lookout for more Fyreslayer articles popping up. We’ve only seen a few of the perks they’ll be getting in Age of Sigmar 2.0.
Everchosen & Slaves to Darkness
Slaves to Darkness are one of the most versatile factions to play in AoS because they can be allied with anything Chaos related. You really can’t go wrong with these guys.
Warhammer Community shed some light on a new warscroll battalion that has the power to put turn order in your favor.
The Everchosen, in particular, have a deadly advantage in the new edition with the Overlords of Chaos warscroll battalion. Made up of Archaon, a Gaunt Summoner and a unit of Varanguard – all great units in their own right – this formation means that turn priority is always fifty-fifty, rather than providing either player with an advantage, as well as letting you know if you’re going to get a double turn or not.
Matched play fans will be pleased to know that several units have had their points reduced, including Archaon, the Varanguard, and the Chaos Warshrine – you’ll be able to find these in this year’s edition of the General’s Handbook (which we’ll be previewing in full in time).
Curious to see how Archaon would work in the new edition? Warhammer Community also said:
We’ve had loads of questions about Archaon’s command ability in the new edition, and how it will function with heroes all being able to use their unique command abilities. Archaon will be receiving some small changes in the new edition, but his command ability will remain almost unchanged – and will still be one of the most powerful in the game.
If you were wondering how the Ironjaws would look after being ported into AoS 2.0, don’t be worried.
Why Play Ironjawz
Ironjaws are the tanks of AoS. they can take a lickin’ and keep on kickin’. But don’t forget they can lay down a beatin’ until you stop breathin’. One bonus to playing Ironjawz is that if your charging unit killed an enemy unit, you can pick a different unit to fight before your opponent even gets to do anything. Orks may not be the brightest but they are very good at bashing ‘eads.
What’s even more great news is that These “Ardboyz aren’t losing any of their artifacts, command traits, and warscroll battalions. Maw-krushas and Gordrakk are also getting a point reduction even though we don’t know how much of one.
Fans of Maw-krushas will be pleased to know that these iconic monsters have dropped in points for matched play games, as has Gordrakk himself –so you can now fit More-crushing into your army…
Ravening Hunger
Hopefully, you’ve seen this picture floating around the web. This is one of those interactive spells that last longer and can move around the table. The stats of this thing are pretty nasty.
The first thing that comes to mind is the horrible bravery all Skaven have. If this spell passes through a Stormfiend unit that is only bravery 6, that makes its bravery 5. If it kills a Stormfiend, the units’ bravery is basically 4 and that means there’s a lot of room for a 100 point model to run away.
We don’t know the casting cost or movement chart on this spell yet so that could change its outlook. But this is definitely giving the Orcs a nice edge
After seeing this tidbit of information, what else do you think will be coming next in AoS 2.0? What army will you choose to summon with? What summoning interactions do you think other armies will get besides Slaanesh?
Let us know in the comments on our Facebook hobby group.
. Get the latest on Age of Sigmar 2.0
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
