With the end of 2023 about a day away some of our Age of Sigmar staff came together to talk about the year, sharing their thoughts on what happened in the game this year and what they hope to see in 2024. So join us as we recount the Good and the Bad from this year’s releases and developments.
The Good
Bair
Overall it’s been a good year for Age of Sigmar. Third edition books continued to come out and it continued to be the best edition this game has had yet. Games Workshop moved away from the 6-month cycle of General’s Handbooks halfway through the year and we’re going into 2024 with the same one we ended 2023 with; that’s a bit positive, changing every 6 months was just exhausting. Some of the best models came out this year from the Harbinger of Decay to Trugg. The latter of which also kickstarted my Gitz army. Fyrelayers also finally got a new unit!
SRM
I’ll be greedy here, but two of my main armies got substantial updates this year. While the launch box dropped in 2022, the expansion to Slaves to Darkness made them an absolute blast to play on the tabletop. I had a ton of fun with them at Adepticon, and even after playing them quite a bit, the Battletome feels like it has more to give me. Opposite them, Cities of Sigmar were an absolute slam dunk for me, giving mortal humans (ft. Aelves and Duardin) the range, lore, and rules they deserve. It’s an inspired range, and the background they’ve written in both their Battletome and the Dawnbringers books has been great at grounding the setting. We also got Realms of Ruin, a genuinely decent video game that brings Age of Sigmar to life.
Marchettus
The best thing that happened in Age of Sigmar, from a balance perspective, is that GW started looking at and adding Battle Tactics as a way of balancing armies. This, combined with a GHB that does not include guaranteed tactics, shows that they are serious about continuing to adjust the game and create a good experience for everyone. People love to talk about how “If this unit was 20 points cheaper the faction would be good” but wins and losses on the table are based on scoring points. Daughters of Khaine and Fyreslayers essentially flipped in win rates between GHBs not because of significant changes to the armies but because the GHB from the first half of the year favored Fyreslayers and the current one favors Daughters of Khaine. Another side effect of making changes to the things that impact winning and losing is that Games Workshop also signals to players what they can and should adjust to get better at the game.
Cronch
I’ll claim the honour of being late to the party, and thus being able to say “I agree with everyone else so far”. I’m super glad to see the back of six month GHB seasons, and I think the current Andtor season is also a big step up in quality. Having fewer auto-score Battle Tactics has pushed the game in a really interesting and creative direction from a competitive standpoint, and I’ve watched some truly mind-boggling games of AoS this year. On top of that the model and Battletome releases have been solid, with the Flesh-Eater Courts army box being a particular highlight for me.
The Bad
Bair
Rally. While the edition is the best we have had so far there’s a few things that I’d love to say goodbye to and the main one is Rally. Especially when very good units have access to a 4+ or 5+ Rally. Absurd. Will I keep using it as much as I can with Gitz and Fyreslayers while it exists? Absolutely. Would I rather just see it go completely? You bet. There’s been a few weird things in meta shifts but that’s just part and parcel with any wargame.
SRM
I was hoping more Battalions would have an impact on the game, but I’ve rarely seen anything but Battle Regiments in the wild. Maybe this is just my local meta and the events I played, but its ubiquity practically serves as an old school Force Organization Chart. Also, keeping my focus on Cities of Sigmar, all the non-human stuff in there feels like an afterthought. What was once Battletome: Isle of Misfit Toys became a mostly cohesive army that still has some vestigial Warhammer Fantasy models in there. I understand GW doesn’t want to invalidate ⅔ of peoples’ armies and there’s only the resources to make so much for a release, but the Duardin and Aelves in there don’t have the same attention or care as the humans.
Marchettus
I HATE the Kharadron Overlords book and the Army of Renown not because it’s powerful or “unbalanced” but because it seems to just have a lack of imagination. Kharadron Overlords have these iconic looking steampunk dwarf models that feel very “Sigmar” to me and are saddled with rules that aren’t fun to play with. The 3.0 book was a missed opportunity to expand how the faction played and create scenarios that didn’t feel like “Oh I got shot”. While this unlocks the highest degree of difficulty for winning “Best Sport” with the least fun army to play against (AKA the Jason Sanders). I really hope that KO get the rules attention and care an army like Sons of Behemat received in both the 3.0 book and the Army of Renown the next time they get a rules drop. There are so many things that “Flying Dwarves who really really like money” can go in the rules. What about a doomsday prepper faction that gets bonuses for not moving? Why not give another “sticky objectives” and allow contests on the turn they moved? Imagine using command points to purchase certain results on rolls? There are so many rules possibilities that what we got just isn’t fun.
Cronch
Whilst I do broadly like the current GHB season, one thing that I like less is that it can feel quite restrictive on list-building at times. By not taking a wizard you’re automatically locking yourself out of two battle tactics, and making a few scenarios an uphill battle too. Whilst it’s not a huge imposition for a lot of armies, for some (e.g. Sons of Behemat) it can feel like you’re hamstringing yourself during army selection, which is not ideal.
The Ugly
Bair
The only “ugly” thing, and I really dislike that term here, is Armies of Renown. Themed lists like this are always something that sound cool but Age of Sigmar is so incredibly open with list building to start with that these just feel incredibly unnecessary. Some of them just really make you scratch your head too (looking at you, Fyreslayers) but in general it’s not something the game needed and I’m not sure who asked for it. Themed lists have been tried and tested across numerous game systems and previous editions of Warhammer; they have even ruined some games in the past and the only positive here is that these aren’t game breaking in any way. In fact they’re largely just not as good as playing a normal army list, the Truggherd aside maybe.
SRM
I’m wondering if Armies of Renown being kinda crummy is a reflex from Formations in 7th edition 40k. I haven’t encountered any in the 20something games of AoS I played this year, nor have I felt particularly motivated to roll them out myself. They usually garner an “Oh, neat! Anyway…” reaction from me before turning the page and forgetting them forever.
Marchettus
Everybody hates Armies of Renown.
While I know that “supply issues due to covid” have been something since 2020 that people have blamed for all sorts of things Games Workshop needs to be much better about making sure faction specific items are in stock, oh I don’t know, around the time a faction receives a release. As somebody who loves Gloomspite Gitz, the only thing that keeps me from writing the “GLOOMSPITE GITZ ARE THE BEST STARTER FACTION IN AGE OF SIGMAR NO MATTER HOW YOU PLAY” is the lack of availability of the Loonshrine. The other day I was in a store picking up things and overheard a shopper tell his partner ‘I’d love to get two of these boxes but I can’t find the endless spells to go with it.” Around Christmas that’s literally code for “Don’t buy me this thing I’ve been talking about”. Weep for the shareholders.
Cronch
Time for some grandstanding – I hate physical books taking up space in my flat, I hate having to carry them to events and casual games, I don’t like having to buy them every three years for each army I own, and whilst I appreciate the ton of hard work that goes into them from a bunch of talented artists, writers and designers, they are not fundamentally something that I ever end up spending much time looking at. Add on a big core book every three years, a GHB every six to twelve months, and extra stuff like Dawnbringers (which I tend not to buy) and I am drowning in hardback books.
Please Games Workshop, for the love of all that is holy let me pay for a rules subscription. I’ll pay anything. I’ll still buy warscroll cards from you too, I like those.
Looking Forward to 2024
Bair
Lots to look forward to in 2024. Following GW’s seemingly standard release schedule we’re expecting 4th edition of AoS with the last months of 3rd living in Andtor which is fine. I really can’t wait to see where they take it, what new minis will be out, and most of all where the narrative takes the setting.
SRM
Because this is the only place I can cram my tinfoil hat theories, I’ll drop a few here. With the redesigned Liberators in Realms of Ruin, I have a gut feeling the older parts of the Stormcast range are going to be getting a refresh. Despite only being from 2015, they look pretty long in the tooth compared to the sleeker Thunderstrike aesthetic, and there’s a lot of redundancy in the army. I’m wondering if the inevitable 4th edition of AoS will be a redo of the 1st edition set, but we could wonder that all day. The Dawnbringers books echo Arks of Omen, Gathering Storm, Broken Realms, and all the other multi-part end of edition book series, so I think 4th edition in 2024 is a pretty safe bet.
Marchettus
Since Goonhammer rejected my expense report for spiders earlier in the year I didn’t get to go to any travel events after the Cherokee Open in 2023. Next year I have six (possibly seven) already booked and I couldn’t be more excited to go out to a strange city, drink, and just be part of the community. With my kids getting older and life returning to a more normal state since Covid-19 I have less time to actually play games so I’m pretty excited about painting armies in 2024.
Cronch
In the short term, I can’t wait for Ushoran to release. I adore the model and really want to paint him. Beyond that I’m also keen to see the new models for the factions we haven’t yet seen in Dawnbringers. For the game in general, I agree that a 4th edition is practically a dead cert for 2024, and I’ve been having fun speculating on the potential focus factions for a launch box and subsequent starter sets. My money is also on some updated Stormcast, plus a Necron/Tyranid-style range update for Skaven. Let’s see if I’m right in six months.
I am also hopeful, although not betting any money on it, that the release of The Old World might put paid to some of the dreadful “they’re bringing it back because AoS is dead” nonsense. We all know it’s a load of keyboard warrior bullshit, but it’s a talking point I’m very tired of.
That wraps up our round-up! We’d like to thank everyone who reads the site for visiting in 2023 and we want to wish you all a happy new year – we’ll see you again in 2024! In the meantime if you have any questions or feedback or thoughts of your own, let us know in the comments (or in the Goonhammer Discord).
