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Getting started in Age of Sigmar can be daunting because there’s just so much information. And, admittedly, Age of Sigmar 3.0 is a little dense to get through. It’s been a long time since Age of Sigmar 1.0 when all of the rules were summed up on four sheets of paper.
Even so, getting started in Warhammer, and getting started in Age of Sigmar gameplay can be rewarding and fun. Depending on the type of gamer you are, you may prefer Age of Sigmar to Warhammer 40k because of its relative simplicity, or because of its fantastical setting, or because of its lore. In this article we’re going to look at Age of Sigmar’s gameplay.
Getting Started in Age of Sigmar: What You Need to Start a Game
Dice
You’re going to need dice to play Age of Sigmar, but fortunately the game only requires D6s, so you’re not going to even need a trip to your Friendly Local Game Store to pick up some lesser-used dice. Almost everything is decided by a D6, though some things use 2D6 or 3D6.
Games Workshop loves to sell super expensive dice that are themed to specific armies, but these are universally a waste of good money. Here’s a link to some (Buy on Amazon) but here’s our recommendation for buying a lot of fine dice cheap (Buy on Amazon.)
Measuring Tape
You’ll need something to measure distances, and I’d recommend a small measuring tape. Generally speaking, a tape measure from the game store or the hobby store is more of what you want than something from the hardware store.
You don’t need anything very thick, and a 6 foot or 12 foot tape measure is more than enough for what you’d need. (Plus you’d hate to let a powerful tape measure come flying back toward you and whack some of your opponent’s models.) Here’s our recommendation for a tape measure (Buy on Amazon)
Battlefield
For a battlefield, you’ll need a surface where you can spread out your models. This can be a kitchen table, a pool table, or the floor (or a custom-made gaming table). Some battlepacks (we’ll get into battlepacks a little later) have size recommendations for their specific battle scenarios, but generally speaking you can have a battlefield as big or as small as you’d like.
Terrain
Terrain can be as elaborate as you’d like. Games Workshop sells some beautiful terrain for Age of Sigmar, such as their Sigmarite Mausoleum (Buy on Amazon) or the Azyrite Ruined Chapel (Buy on Amazon) as general terrain to move in and around and through.
And there are some terrain features that are specific to individual factions, such as the Awakened Wyldwood (Buy on Amazon), and the Bad Moon Loonshrine (Buy on Amazon). These faction-specific terrain features have special powers that affect the game.
Models
And, of course, you’re going to need some models. My recommendation with models is to start small, maybe with a Start Collecting box or with a unit that you just think is cool. Yes, some armies are going to be harder to play than others, but with the meta changing all the time, it’s virtually pointless to choose an army based on what is currently winning.
Here’s a link to our article about getting started in the Age of Sigmar Factions, as well as a handy flowchart for picking your army.
The easiest way to get started in all of this is through the Dominion Starter Set, which is currently selling for a killer deal. (You can get it for less than $120 on Amazon when it retailed for $200.)
Getting Started in Age of Sigmar: Creating an Army
Just kidding. We’re going to talk about this AFTER we talk about Gameplay, because there’s lots of different ways to create an army. But I wanted to create a placeholder here that indicates that before you get to gameplay you’re going to need to create an army according to the various rules for doing so. But we’ll come back to this.
Getting Started in Age of Sigmar: Gameplay
The Battle Round
The Battle Round consists of the Priority Roll (seeing who is going first) followed by doling out command points.
The Priority Roll is basically rolling to see who gets to take the first turn. Whoever rolls highest gets to choose. HOWEVER, unlike Warhammer 40k, wherein you’re locked into a back-and-forth combat from there on out, you make a Priority Roll on every Battle Round. Highest always goes first unless there’s a tie, and if there’s a tie then the person who went last on the last Battle Round gets to pick.
Then you dole out Command Points. There are different ways to get Command Points, which we’ll talk about, but for the basics, whoever goes first gets one Command Point, and whoever goes second gets two.
Also, each player picks a General, and if the General is on the table at the beginning of the Battle Round then they get an additional Command Point.
The Turn Sequence
The Hero Phase
In the Hero Phase, you can make heroic actions. Some of the most basic heroic actions include Heroic Leadership, Heroic Willpower, Their Finest Hour, and Heroic Recovery. But every army is going to have heroic actions that are specific to their faction or to the hero.
Also during the Hero Phase is when Wizards and Priests can cast spells and dispel spells.
There are also some Command Abilities that can be used in the Hero Phase, such as Rally. Command Abilities are special abilities that cost Command Points.
Movement Phase
The Movement Phase is fairly straightforward. During the Movement Phase you can make a Normal Move (move your specified movement rate), Retreat (move out of combat), and Run (roll a D6, add it to your movement rate, and move that far). If you Retreat or Run, you’re not allowed to shoot or charge for the rest of your turn.
Moving through terrain will depend on the terrain and rules that either the game sets up for it, or the rules that you and your opponent have agreed upon for it.
Flying allows you to move across and over any terrain and, if possible, land on top of it. Your Warscroll will say if your unit is a Flyer.
Shooting Phase
Units that are allowed to shoot (either because they haven’t moved or because they made a Normal Move) are allowed to make a Shooting Attack. First designate a target and make sure that it’s within range of the shooter and that the target is visible to the shooter (meaning you can’t shoot through a wall).
Combat
To attack, you make a To Hit roll using the weapon’s To Hit characteristic. You’ve got to score equal to or higher than the To Hit number. If you do, then you make a To Wound roll. This is done the same way: Rolling equal to or greater than the To Wound characteristic of the weapon.
Then the target gets to make their save roll. This is done the same way: they have a number that you either need to get equal to or above the Save characteristic. However, some weapons have a Rend characteristic. This changes the Save roll.
Example: If a target has a Save of 3+, but the weapon has Rend -2, then you would need a 5+ to save that wound.
Finally, check the Damage characteristic of the weapon, and, if the target didn’t save, then it takes that many wounds. If it gets more Wounds than it has on its wounds characteristic, then it is removed from the battlefield.
Charge Phase
If a unit wishes to charge into close combat, it declares a charge. (NOTE: It doesn’t have to designate the target of the charge.) Then it rolls 2D6 and it can charge that number of inches.
If there is any enemy unit within range, it can charge into them. If you can get within ½” of the target, it is successful. If you cannot get that close, the charge fails, and the charging model doesn’t move at all.
Attack Phase
Attack Phase refers to close combat. Every unit that is within ½” of an enemy unit may attack or pass. The player who has priority picks the first unit that is going to attack.
The attacking goes in the same way we described in the above “Combat” section. (ie, To Hit rolls, To Wound rolls, Save rolls minus rend, then allocate wounds.)
After an attack is made, or is passed, it is the opponent’s turn to pick a unit to attack, or to pass. Attacking goes back and forth like this until either both sides are out of units to attack with, or both pass.
Battleshock Phase
Every unit that has lost units has to take a Battleshock test to see if they will run away. Each unit has a Bravery characteristic. For a Battleshock test, roll a die and add the number of models who were killed. If the total is higher than the Bravery characteristic, then the number that it exceeds the Bravery by is how many of their models flee.
For example, if a unit has a bravery of 8, and they’ve lost three models, then they roll a die and add three to it. Let’s say they rolled a six. This adds up to 9, one greater than their bravery of 8, meaning one model flees.
End of Battle Round
That’s it! Then, if the objectives have not been met, then the game continues, going back to rolling for priority.
Organizing Your Army
Warscrolls
Here is a Warscroll from a Stormcast Eternals Vindicators Unit. All Units, Heroes and Monsters have Warscroll cards that look like this.
The numbers mean:
- Name and Type
- Unit Characteristics
- Weapon Characteristics
- Description
- Abilities
- Keywords
You’ll notice that one thing is missing from the Warscroll, and it’s POINTS. This can be a little maddening. Points are found in the appropriate Battletome of each faction. HOWEVER, currently the Age of Sigmar app has all of the Warscrolls from all of the factions listed.
There’s a rumor that this is going away, but in the meantime it’s a remarkably convenient resource–for free.
Battalions
You can organize your army according to any of these core battalions. Each of them tell you what kind of units you can field, but more importantly, they tell you the benefits of fielding each kind of battalion. The symbols beneath each battalion are their Ability Icons, and they say what bonuses your army gets from fielding this type of battalion.
So, for example, the Linebreaker battalion has the Expert Ability Icon, which means that once per battle this battalion can use the All-Out Attack, or All-Out Defense commands without having to spend points on these Command Abilities.
Allied Units and Allegiance Abilities
Generally, units from the same Grand Alliance (Order, Chaos, Death, Destruction) are allowed to fight alongside each other. There are pros and cons with this. The pros are obvious: you get to pick from a wider range of troop choices. But there are cons, too, because if you choose an army that is entirely one single faction, with no Allies, then you’re going to unlock special abilities that you wouldn’t get if your army were mixed.
Types of Age of Sigmar Games
Open Play
Open Play is the most accessible form of the Age of Sigmar game, and as such most games that are played are going to be Open Play. But if you’re familiar with Warhammer 40k, you’re going to notice that Age of Sigmar Open Play is quite a bit different from Warhammer 40k Open Play.
For starters, Open Play in Age of Sigmar does include point values for armies, and it also includes scenarios to play: the Open War Battleplan Generator.
In this Battleplan Generator, you will randomly roll off to determine the map for the battle (note that this is different from the terrain; the map refers to where you set up your forces.)
The Battleplan Generator also has a Victory Table, where you’ll determine victory conditions, plus a Twist (such as playing the battle in the Dead of Night, or among Lightning Strikes). It will also have a Ruse Table, with things like Ambushes and Reinforcements.
Overall, Open Play is a very good way to get together with your friends, or especially a one-shot game with someone at your Friendly Local Game Store, and pound through a fun game in a few hours.
Narrative Play
This, I think, is where the Gameplay system in Age of Sigmar really shines. Again, unlike Narrative Play in Warhammer 40k, this is a completely different type of thing–it’s for playing campaigns, and it’s a lot of fun.
You start your campaign by creating your Path to Glory, which consists of:
Step One: Choose Your Faction and Realm
Pretty simple here. You’ll very likely already have a faction you want to play (the one you collect) and choosing a realm will give you plusses and minuses.
Step Two: Choose Starting Size and Territories
Choosing your size will be something you’ll want to discuss with the person or people you plan to play through this campaign with. You don’t have to be equal, but you should be aware of what you’re up against.
The Starting Territories will give you bonuses to what you can include in your army, and the larger your army, the more territories you’ll get. For example, if one of your territories is the Wild Lands, then you can increase your Monsters by 1, and if your territories are Sacred Sites, you can increase your Priests by 1. Etc.
Step Three: Order of Battle
This is basically deciding which units you’re going to have in your army. Your unit limit is determined by your Points Limit, as well as your Starting Order of Battle Limits.
Step Four: Core Enhancements
As you go through your campaign, you will gain enhancements, both Core Enhancements and Bonus Enhancements. Core Enhancements are enhancements that you start the campaign with and Bonus Enhancements are ones that you’ll gain along the way.
Step 5: Pick Your Quest
In this narrative campaign you’re not just trying to beat your opponent–you have a goal that you’re after. These can be anything from “Search for the Artefact” to “Master Magical Lore” to “Scout Fertile Lands”. When you get the correct number of Quest Points (which are gained from playing and winning battles) you will get closer to your quest. And, when you win your quest you’ll get rewards that will stay with you through future battles.
In my opinion, Narrative Play is one of the funnest ways to play Age of Sigmar.
Matched Play
Matched Play is essentially tournament play. You play with very strictly regimented army lists, which determine which types of troops you’re allowed to bring, the size of the table, and even the recommended number of terrain pieces. The terrain is put out as fairly (read: symmetrically) as possible to give no one the advantage, and you play as perfectly even a game as you can.
That’s it for Getting Started in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Gameplay. Read the article below for the background on the various factions, as well as Getting Started in Age of Sigmar: Hobby and Getting Started in Age of Sigmar: Lore.
