Age of Sigmar 2.0 Core Rules are out now, and they’re a little bit more complicated than the 4 pages of rules that AoS started with. Here are the main takeaways you need to know.
Clocking in at 20 pages (with whole page art on the 1st and 20th pages) there’s more explaining and examples in this version of AoS. They did, however, add complexity and tweak existing rules. Let’s dive in and see what’s different!
Top Core Rule Changes: AoS 2.0 Second Edition
You can view the core rules pdf here.
Battle Round Phase
Both players roll a D6 to decide who gets to go first in the next battle round. The higher roll gets still gets to decide but unlike the last version where you reroll on a tie, instead, the player who went first in the previous turn is considered the winner and gets to decide. If it is the FIRST Battle Round the player that finished setting up their army first gets to choose who goes first.
Command Abilities / Points
In the past, you used a single command ability from your general in the hero phase and that was it. Now you acquire what’s called command points which can be spent in any phase to activate any heroes “command ability”. To get command points you can purchase a single command point for 50pts in matched play, you gain an additional command point for every battalion you take, and you generate a single command point every battle round.
Once spent these command points do not come back, so if you have 3 command points on turn 2 and spend them all, on turn three you only generate 1 point.
The other main difference is the addition of 2 additional command abilities to all hero characters along with a modification to inspiring presence. They added, “At the Double” which you can use after a run roll of a friendly unit with 6” of a friendly hero or 12” of your general. It treats the result of that roll as a 6.
Next they added, “Forward to Victory” which is used after you make a charge roll for a friendly unit within 6” of a friendly hero or 12” of your general. You get to re-roll the charge roll. Finally, they tweaked “Inspiring Presence” so that it 6” of hero and 12” of general.
Movement / Measuring
Movement and all measurements are now officially made base to base, the only time it is not is if a model does not have a base in which case you use whichever part of the model moves furthest from its starting location.
Also, terrain now affects movement in that you can no longer run through walls or trees but they can climb up and down them. So a 2” wall will take 4” of movement to climb up and then down it on the other side.
Shooting
There are three new things to take into account in the shooting phase now when shooting at enemy units. The first is called “look out sir” and if an enemy hero is not a monster and is within 3” of an enemy unit containing 3 or more models you suffer a -1 to your missile hit rolls. Next is if an enemy unit is wholly within 1” of an obstacle then that unit is considered in cover against missile attacks. Finally, if an enemy unit is within 3” of your unit that is shooting, your unit must target that unit.
Combat Phase
There are two changes the main one is how piling in and attacking works in the combat phase. In the past, if you were already in base to base contact with a model your model could not pile in any further. Now when you pile in you can move models up to 3 inches as long as they finish their pile in at least as close to the nearest enemy model as when they first started. For example, if you have a model in base to base contact you can move it so that it wraps around your enemy model to make room for more behind them, as long as they end the move in base to base contact.
The other change is that you must attack in combat if eligible to do so, you cannot pass on using an attack from an eligible unit and must use all melee weapons that you can.
Battleshock Phase
One huge difference is that at the end of battle-shock phase any models that were split so that they are no longer within 1” of each other are removed. So if you keep a unit joined together with one model and your opponent (or you remove) that model, thus your unit is split into 2 separate blocks of models, you would lose one of those blocks.
Rolls of 1 before modification are always a fail and rolls of 6 before modification are always a success.
Arcane Bolt
Now does 1 mortal wound instead of D3 unless your casting roll is 10+
Mystic Shield
Rather than give a +1 to save rolls it has been changed to re-roll failed to save rolls of 1.
Unbinding (not to be confused with dispelling) has a range of 30” now.
Scenery Table Changes
- Dammed: Same as old AoS in that you can choose a friendly unit within 1” to take D3 mortal wounds, in return you can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for that unit.
- Arcane: Same as old AoS as it adds 1 to casting and unbinding rolls for all Wizards within 1”.
- Inspiring: Same as old AoS as it adds 1 to the Bravery characteristic of units within 1”.
- Deadly: Different from old AoS in that instead of rolls of 1 instantly killing the model, they instead take D3 mortal wounds when they finish a move or charge within 1”.
- Mystical: Different from old AoS in that rather than rolling a D6 at the start of the turn and on a 2+ they get to re-roll failed wound rolls and on a 1 they can do nothing. It has changed to each model within 1” of the terrain gets a 6+ special save against any wound or mortal wound they might suffer.
- Sinister: Same as old AoS in that you subtract 1 from Bravery characteristic of any units while they are within 1”.
Garrisoning a Feature
A unit can set up as a garrison at the start of the battle if a terrain feature is wholly within that players starting territory. In order to garrison a feature otherwise a unit that is wholly within 6” of a feature and no enemy units within 3” instead of making a move action. Once garrisoned remove the unit from the table and treated as “inside” the structure and enemy units not treat the terrain feature as an enemy unit.
Range and visibility is now measured from the terrain feature, models inside count as being in cover as well as enemy units attacking them suffer a -1 to hit rolls. You can ungarrison by sacrificing the garrisoned units movement and set the unit back up so that all models are wholly within 6” of the terrain feature and more than 3” from enemy units.
New Battleplan First Blood
You split up the battlefield into two halves horizontally and roll to see who decides which side and sets up first as normal. Units must be set up wholly within their territory and more than 12” from enemy territory. First Blood: the player in command of the army that first slays an enemy model receives 1 extra command point. The battle lasts five rounds, at the end of the 5th round each player adds up the wounds characteristics of all the models they slew. The player with the most wounds wins a minor victory, or if it is 50% more then what their opponent has then it becomes a major victory.
Realm of Battle
There are no special rules tied to the free rules (they are in the magic supplement and generals handbook 2018) there are 7 different realms the battle can take place in.
- Aqshy, Realm of Fire
- Shyish, Realm of Death
- Ghyran, Realm of Life
- Hysh, Realm of Light
- Ghur, Realm of Beasts
- Chamon, Realm of Metal
- Ulgu, Realm of Shadow
Overall, I’m happy with these changes. The original rules needed some complexity and tweaking to make them fair.
Shooting and the basic spells were very powerful so this minor nerf seems reasonable and makes the movement stat much more valuable. The terrain changes were needed because mystical and deadly terrain was very powerful in the last version. This tones those down a little bit while still making them a part of the game. The garrison, cover, and movement over terrain like walls was needed so that terrain placement becomes more important. The biggest change is the command abilities needing command points, but being able to use any trait is huge. It allows you to play with more characters rather than forcing a general with the best command trait on you.
All in all, this is a much more solid core of rules for the game to be built on than when it was first released. Add in the sweet Malign Sorcery expansion I covered in this article and you can foresee a good future for AoS.
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
