The new edition is here it’s time to dive into Age of Sigmar 3.0 core rules changes and see how the game is changing!
There is a lot changing in the newest edition, so let’s jump right into it and see how the new edition will play.
Breaking Down Age of Sigmar 3.0 Core Rules Changes
- First the players’ code is standard GW and I like that it is at the forefront of the book. To me, this is the most important part of the game to have fun with friends and share a love of the hobby. I never really thought it needed to be spelled out, but if it helps remind people to be considerate then I am all for it.
- Second, I like the layout of the rule book a lot, in terms of the graphics, the numbering, etc. It seems very well thought out and it makes it easier to tell your opponent what rule you’re looking at and how you are interpreting it so that they can easily find it and read it for themselves.
- Third I like bolding the words to give emphasis on what is important in a rule so that you can examine it more to make sure you understand it. It kind of forces the reader to think more about what the gist of the rule is rather than what might not be as important.
- Fourth I like the side notes with diving into more complicated ideas better-measuring bases or wholly within, etc. It’s like having the authors note that they release 2-3 weeks later right there in the book.
- Fifth I love that they capped the modifier for the hit, wound, and save rolls at +- 1 instead of cumulative. This balances out things a lot and will encourage more army composition outside of stacking modifiers.
- You can download the new rules PDF yourself here in a previous post.
Major Changes From 2.0 to 3.0:
Unit Coherency 1.3.3: Models with a unit size of 2-5 must now be within 1” horizontally and 6” vertically of 1 other model from the unit, while unit sizes of 5+ must be within 1” horizontally and 6” vertically of 2 other models from the unit.
- Reaction: This is big as daisy-chaining was very prominent in 2.0. Being able to take a huge block of models and leaving one on an objective while spreading out in a straight line was commonplace. It’s also going to make setting up reserves easier for your opponent as there will be more ground available.
Endless Spells, Invocations, Faction Terrain 1.4.1: You can take 1 endless spell per wizard in your army, 1 invocation per priest, and 1 faction-specific terrain.
- Reaction: Another big change from 2.0 where you could take any number of endless spells as long as you paid for them. While endless spell bombing was not common in 2.0 (though it is very fun) having a 1 to 1 ratio may affect some army composition.
First turn priority roll 4.1: Whoever finished setting up first wins ties on the first turn priority roll and can decide who goes first or second, each turn after ties go to the player who went first in the previous battleround.
- Reaction: This is big because rather than getting the automatic first turn if you have a one-drop army it only slightly gives you an edge and lady luck still needs to be on your side. This pairs well with doing away the battalions (more on this later) that gave a lot of armies an edge over armies with limited or terrible battalions.
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Command Points 6.0: The player taking the first turn receives 1 command point while the player taking the second turn receives 2. Generals give you an additional CP as well, and any CP not used at the end of the battlephase is lost.
- Reaction: This is GW trying to change the direction that command points were being used. With the reaction abilities, losing them at the end of the battleround, and unit champions being able to use them you’re going to get a lot more use out of your CP.
The Changes Just Keep Coming
Hero Phase 7.0: There are now heroic actions that can do one of the following; 4+ add CP, heal D3 wounds, a non-wizard can attempt to unbind, and one hero can add 1 to wound and save rolls. Also, there is a new command ability rally where you can roll a dice for each slain model in the unit, and on a 6 a model is returned as long as there are no enemy models within 3” of that unit.
- Reaction: First, the heroic actions are awesome and really help with armies that make be lacking in the wizard department. Also, finest hour can put some hurt on something with your hero getting plus 1 save and wound rolls. Rally is huge and can help restore units to fighting force, especially large units of high wound models (Blight Kings, Crypt Ghouls, etc.)
Redeploy 8.4: A reaction command ability, this unit moves D6 inches after an enemy unit has made a normal, run, or retreat move within 9” of this unit and there is no enemy unit within 3”.
- Reaction: Love this ability as it gives you some options in your opponent’s turn, you can make that charge harder to pull off or maybe redeploy to position yourself to take the charge a little bit better, etc.
Unleash Hell 11.2: Reaction command ability that’s used after a unit finishes a charge move within 9” and they are more than 3” from other enemy units. This unit can shoot in this phase with a -1 to hit.
- Reaction: Another great reaction ability that gives you something to do in your opponent’s turn and may cause them to think twice about charging.
All-out Defense 11.3.4: Reaction when the unit is picked as the target of an attack they add 1 to their save rolls. Reaction: More positives in my book, I am loving the reaction abilities that your units can take.
Garrisons 17.2: They set specific rules to what kinds of terrain can be garrisoned, by how many models, and what benefits it has.
- Reaction: I like all these rules laid out as it seemed like there was too much unknown in the past editions about what is a garrisoned terrain feature, and if it is something as big as a tower or castle how many models. I think in 3.0 you’re going to see a lot more garrisoned units in your gameplay.
Wizards, Endless Spells, & Priests
Miscasts 19.1.1: If you roll a 2 on a casting roll the spell is miscast and is not cast and the wizard takes D3 mortal wounds and cannot cast any other spells this turn.
- Reaction: Love this as I think there needs to be some risk with magic, this is less than I was hoping but it is a good start.
Arcane Bolt 19.2: Casting roll of 5, if successful in any phase you can unleash the bolt to deal 1 mortal wound to an enemy within 12”. If they are within 3” that is D3 mortal wounds.
- Reaction: Sounds good to me, it makes the ping spell a bit more useful as you can cast it, hold onto it and run into combat, and then unleash it for D3.
Dispelling Endless Spells 19.3.2: A friendly priest or wizard can attempt to dispel an endless spell within 30” of them. If they attempt to they can cast or chant 1 fewer spell or prayer than normal, and endless spells that are dispelled cannot be recast that turn.
- Reaction: Love that priest are able to dispel endless spells now that is a win, also adding the cannot recast a dispelled endless spell is great because you cant take advantage of summoning the spell, use you own guy to dispel and then recast again.
Predatory Endless Spell Control 19.5.1: Each wizard picks 1 endless spell they summoned within 30” of them and can control that spell. If it is not controlled by a wizard, it is considered wild. Players take turns moving, controlled endless spells, then that take turns picking a wild endless spell to move.
- Reaction: This is in line with how I think endless spells should work, each wizard can control 1, and then any remaining is randomized.
Priests 20.0: All priests know bless and smite, which bless has a chanting roll of 4 and gives a unit wholly within 12” a 6+ ward save and smite has a casting roll of 2 and allows you to deal 1 mortal wound to another priest within 48” (D3 if the chanting roll was a 6). On a chanting roll of 1, the priest takes a mortal wound.
- Reaction: Love that they are making the priests more useful and giving them an opportunity to smite other priests. This is going to make them more useful and fun to play with on the tabletop and I think you will see more armies running priests in their lists for the ward save alone.
Monsters 21.0: They can do one of the following in the charge phase: Roar (on a 3+ unit within 3” cannot issue or receive commands), Stomp (on 2+ unit within 1” that isn’t a monster takes D3 mortal wounds), Titanic Duel (pick 1 enemy monster within 1” of this unit and you gain 1 to hit rolls against that monster), or Smash to Rubble (pick 1 faction or defensible terrain feature within 3” of this model and on a 3+ it is demolished). You can only pick 1 monster ability per turn.
- Reaction: This is going to make monsters so much better, and I love that you can destroy terrain with them now.
Reinforced Units 25.3.2: A unit is considered reinforced if it has twice as many models as it starts with and is reinforced twice if it has 3 times as many models.
- Reaction: I think this is GW’s push away a bit from the massive unit sizes they had which slowed down the game a lot and game people free points. Overall like this as the massive units did bog down the game a lot and with the smaller table size mobility is going to be key.
The Final Age of Sigmar 3.0 Core Rules Changes
Battalions 26.0: You can now only use Core Battalions in matched play which are one of the following; Warlord, Batte Regiment, Grand Battery, Vanguard, Linebreaker, or Command Entourage. These are made up of a certain amount of mandatory or optional troops (see 26.3). They then receive a battalion ability icon that grants the battalion an ability.
- Reaction: This levels the battalion playing field which I really like because some armies had terrible battalions and were penalized for it. Also, it removes the battalions get dropped all at once ability (unless you choose battle regiment) which takes away a lot of the strong one drop armies out there.
Universal Enhancements 27.5: Series of tables that anyone can take and replaces the sort of realm-specific enchantments that 2.0 introduced.
- Reaction: I love this as the realm stuff got really cluttered, and this offers those people who do not have an updated book right away options to get some decent stuff to choose from.
Mysterious Terrain 28.1.3: Table that goes back to the original terrain from 1.0.
- Reaction: I love this as I thought the terrain rules from the last edition were too much, with this table you can easily memorize all the terrain. Also the terrain dice I bought for 1.0 can be used again and I loved those things.
This is everything I caught on my read-through and with a couple of playtest games we ran on them. It doesn’t include matched play changes from the new general’s handbook which I am sure there will be more of beyond just point changes. Overall though I like the tweaks as it keeps the game-changing and makes it less stale.
I do think shooting and magic are still a little too powerful, but the smaller table size and priests beyond able to counter wizards might help with some balance on that. I am sure I missed one or two rules this is what I jotted down while reading through the rules if I missed anything important feel free to leave it in the comments!
I will do this again when I get my hands on the new General’s Handbook with those changes.
Check out the full list of all the new AoS points changes here.
More AoS How-To For Beginners!
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
