A lot is changing with the new edition to streamline the game, check out all the ones that are coming to the Age of Sigmar 3.0 core rules.
There have been a lot of people unboxing the newest set from GW. We sourced this through a bunch of unboxing videos, which you can find here, so pick your favorite and enjoy the unboxings!
If you want to see all the warscrolls for all the new units coming in the Dominion box, check them out here in our recent article as well. For now, let’s get into the changes.
All The Big Age of Sigmar 3.0 Core Rules Changes
Let’s first look at how actually building your army has changed because it’s actually quite different.
Core Battalion Rules Age of Sigmar 3.0
This was transcribed over from the comments and makes a handy reference for all the symbols on this new Battalion chart.
Warlord Minimum Requirements:
- Min Any 1 Leader (Max 2)
- Min 2 Leader w/ less than 10 wounds (Max 4)
- Min 1 Troop (Max )Benefit: Both
Benefit: Both
Magnificent: When you pick enhancements for your army (See 27.3) you can pick 1 extra enhancement.
Strategist: Once per battle, when you receive command points at the start of your hero phase, you can receive 1 extra command point.
Battle Regiment
- Any 1 Leader
- Optional: Leader w/ less than 10 wounds (Max 2)
- Min 2 Troop (Max 5)
- Optional: 1 Non-Leader Behemoth or Artillery
Benefit
Unified: One-Drop Deployment
Grand Battery
- Any 1 Leader
- Min 2 Artillery (Max 3)
Benefit:
Slayers: Once per battle, 1 unit from this battalion can receive the All-Out Attack or Unleash Hell command without the command being issued and without the command point being spent.
Vanguard Requirement:
- Any 1 Leader
- Min 1 Troop (Max 3)
Benefit:
Strategist: Once per battle, 1 unit from this battalion can receive the At the double or Forward to Victory command without the command being issued and without a command point being spent
Linebreaker
- Any 1 Leader
- Min 2 Non-Leader Behemoths (Max 3)
Benefit:
Swift: Once per battle, 1 unit from this battalion can receive the At the Double or Forward to Victory command without the command being issued and without the command point being spent.
Command Entourage
- Any 1 Leader
- Min 2 Leader w/ less than 10 wounds (Max 3)
Benefit: (Choose 1)
Magnificent: When you pick enhancements for your army (See 27.3) you can pick 1 extra enhancement.
Strategist: Once per battle, when you receive command points at the start of your hero phase, you can receive 1 extra command point.
Here’s a quick reference guide to what all the different abilities mean from Warhammer Community.
Choosing Your Battle Type
Before you choose a mission, you need to figure out which battlepack you’ll be using. Battlepacks bundle together a suite of rules – introducing restrictions, determining the size of the battlefield, and dictating the number of units you can bring to the fight. The Contest of Generals battlepack in the Core Book is one such option, designed for matched play. It’s been carefully crafted to make your games as balanced as possible. Take a look at this chart to get a sense of how it’ll work.
This was spotted on Warhammer Community and is an overarching set-up to play your games, how much terrain to use, how many reinforced units you can take, and basically everything else. This will further change how your units are taken and attempt to balance out the game in one swoop. Next, let’s check out how reinforced units will work.
How Reinforced Units Work
Perhaps you noticed the line from the Contest of Generals battlepack that mentioned reinforced units? These units are simply double the size of the minimum listed in their Pitched Battle profile. If the unit has the Battleline battlefield role, you can reinforce them twice, making them three times the minimum size. Now you can still run large hordes as long as you don’t exceed the available slots for reinforced units. The new ruleset allows each unit to benefit from only a single command ability at a time, so you’ll see a lot more synergy with multiple units working together, instead of budding generals putting all their eggs in one basket. You won’t feel quite as compelled to ‘max out’ every unit to make them effective.
If they are a battleline unit, they can be basically three times the size of the minimum. If they are anything else, the biggest you can have is double the number of minis. Again though, the number of reinforced units you can have depends on the size of the battle. So if you move down to 1,500 points, you can take at most 3.
This won’t affect certain factions, but if you played with just a bunch of big units, you’ll have to adjust your strategy for the new edition.
This came from Imgur and has some big changes. If you do reinforce a battle line unit twice (to triple the number of minis), that counts as 2 reinforced units. Meaning at 2,000 points, you can only have another 2 reinforced units in your entire army.
Overarching Rules
- Unit Coherency changed to be more like 40k (which actually works well now)
- Max +1 / +1 to hit and wounds. This is following along with the changes to make this more like 40k/
- Max +1 to save
- Endless spells: Only the caster can move them, no more than one per mage in the roster, if the caster dies it goes back to old Endless Spell Rules
- A priest can dispel Endless Spells
- Ward save is the “ignore wounds” new name- remember fantasy anyone?)
- No +1 to Bravery for every 10 models
Hero Phase & Heroic Actions
These are a totally new type of ability, used in each and every hero phase by both players (or all of them if you’re playing in a big multiplayer brawl). Heroic actions bring fresh tactical opportunities and keep the action flowing for everyone involved. These rules are different from command abilities – think of them as extra freebies.
This is a pretty cool new rules mechanic for Age of Sigmar 3.0, especially if you play an army without wizards. Honestly, there are just so many spells, so being able to unbind one every turn is pretty nice. The only thing that makes us a little nervous is this could slow the game down a lot. They mention both people can do it in each player’s turn, meaning this could take a long time for people to decide on what to do and how to use these. Well at least at first maybe?
With the updated rules in the new edition, it’s a little harder to decide if you want to go first after winning the priority roll, thanks to a bonus command point going to the player who goes second. You’ll still earn another point if your general is on the battlefield, bringing your total to either two or three points for most of the battle, before taking any other abilities into account. Those crucial command abilities are also more versatile.
Generals and Totems have a longer range than before, and units led by a champion don’t need a support Hero to escort them into battle for the buffs alone.
Adding the ability for unit champions to issue commands is pretty nice. On top of that, increasing the range of the generals makes sense and gives you much more versatility.
Combat Objectives
Pick one each turn, if you complete it you gain 2 VPs. You can only pick one of each per battle. Because of the change, it should make for more rounded armies.
- Break their Spirit – Destroy a unit in enemy territory. It should be easy, but at once per game, make sure you pick it on a turn you can complete it.
- Broken Ranks – Destroy one unit from the enemy’s starting army. Again, it should be easy, but at once per game, make sure you pick it on a turn you can complete it.
- Conquer – Control a specific Objective Marker that your opponent controlled at the start of the turn.
- Repel – Destroy one unit in your territory; this could be a good one to save for later in the game when a small unit has made its way across the board.
- Seize the Centre – Have more models than opponent within 6″ of the center of the table
- Slay the Warlord – Slay the opponent’s general. With having to pick this at the start, just be sure you have that kill lined up!
New Command Abilities
All-out Attack and All-out Defence also synergize well with all Orruk Warclans units. A bonus to hit in the shooting or combat phase, or to save rolls made for a key unit, can make all the difference.
Both sides of this are beneficial and can just buff up a unit to either hit harder or stay a little safer. If you combine this with the potion from the Swampcall Shaman, the unit will receive +2 to their saves.
Orruk Warclans really benefit from the changes in the new edition – especially command abilities. In the hero phase, Rally is a brilliant way to bring more ladz back into the fray and can be a game-changer for a big unit that’s down to only a few models.
If you have some giant units, this could really bring back a decent number of minis. If you are somehow left with one guy, this has the possibility to bring the unit back to strength. Here are the other ones in the book:
- At the double: Run 6 but declare before rolling
- Redeploy: 1d6″ reaction move
- Overwatch: (Unleash Hell) shoot someone that charged within 9″ of the unit.
- Forward to Victory: Reroll Charge rolls
Overall you will have more versatility than ever when it comes to what your heroes and unit commanders can do.
New Traits & Relics Rules: Age of Sigmar 3.0
There are 5 new traits to take advantage of in the new book.
- Battle-lust: Re-roll run & charge rolls, pretty nice if you really have a big fighty character you need in combat.
- High Priest: Re-roll prayers rolls. This is pretty sweet considering how buffed-up Priests have become.
- Skilled Leader: extra command point in your hero phase on a 5+ (each turn). If you are going second, this could net you 3 points for each turn.
- Heroic Stature: +1 Wound. This is pretty simple but could make a big difference.
- Master of Magic: reroll 1 cast, dispel or unbind roll once per phase. With how effective magic is becoming, this is really nice.
There are 4 new relics as well in the book.
- Amulet of Destiny: 5+ Ward save on the bearer. this is just a super nice relic that we expect a lot of people to take.
- Arcane Tome: becomes a Wizard, if they are a wizard they can cast an extra spell. Giving your wizards more spells is never a bad thing!
- Manticore Venom: +1 to wounds with one weapon. If you’re already wounding on a 3+, this just really gives you that extra oomph.
- Seed of Rebirth: re-roll heroic recovery rolls. For high wound models, this could be super helpful.
Monster Rules
If you like your army to be suitably monstrous, you’re going to like this new edition too, as every single charge phase, each player’s Monsters can go on a monstrous rampage. We’re talking stomping on enemies, smashing terrain to ruins, roaring really loud – you know, all the classic monster stuff. If you have more than four monsters, you’ll have to be strategic about which of your vast horde you send on a monstrous rampage, as you can only carry out each ability once per phase. These rampages make Monster-heavy armies a lot of fun to play, and they’re potentially pretty catastrophic for your opponent.
This is a fun little way to make your monsters scarier and much more effective. You can only use one of each in the charge phase, so pick wisely what you want certain monsters to do. They are all fairly useful, but dealing mortals or adding to your hit rolls will just make them that much better in combat.
Age of Sigmar 3.0 Endless Spells Rules
All mobile endless spells are now moved at the end of each and every hero phase. That’s twice as often as before, which means they’re twice as lethal. Since they move in your opponent’s turn, you can set up problems they have to deal with right away, upsetting your foe’s plans and making them think on their feet. But you have to be careful – if any predatory endless spell moves too far away, or you summon too many, you might lose control of them. And you need to keep those wizards alive. You can’t control an endless spell if you’re dead!
With the spells moving double the amount, more chances to dispel them, and wizards controlling them, magic will have a bigger impact than ever before. Again, this is another element that could slow the game down. With everything that happens in both peoples’ turns, there looks like there may be more to remember than ever before.
Players alternate picking wild spells to move, so if you have too many spells to control there’s a chance your opponent will use one of them against you. That might be a touch embarrassing if they, say, order a spare purple sun of Shyish to do an about turn and start tearing into your units.
With more spells than ever, there are also way more opportunities to banish them! Which is a good thing, because, hopefully, it will be harder for your opponent to just steamroll you with them.
Prayers
Faith is also a powerful force in the Mortal Realms. In addition to being able to cast and banish invocations as well as endless spells, all Priests get two new prayers. These prayers give the sense that the gods are much closer to the action than before and the war of faith is happening at the same time as the physical battle. Plus, they’re great for buffing your army when your Priest’s other abilities are out of range, and they offer a brilliant bonus for armies that don’t have Wizards too. If you don’t currently include a Priest in your army, you might want to think about adding one to check your enemy’s invocations and give your key units a little more durability.
Looks like not only will they be able to dispel all kinds of stuff, but they will also be able to deal damage and buff up your units. So if you don’t have any, you really should grab some!
Do you like the new Age of Sigmar 3.0 rules, and all the new changes?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
