With a new edition comes new point changes, and it’s an especially exciting time in Age of Sigmar. Due to COVID we never got a massive points overhaul last year, so a lot of point values have been sitting around for 2 years without being touched unless you got one of the new battletomes or were in Broken Realms. Well, no longer. So how did each faction fare? The Goonhammer team is going to break them down faction by faction for your convenience, but we will be having further deep dives on each and every faction once the FAQs hit. 

One other note is that Warscroll Battalions are now completely removed. Although the core book said that battlepacks would inform you if you could use core or warscroll battalions, the warscroll battalions are not listed here at all, which implies they are super dead for matched play and you will need to stick to what’s core. This will have game wide repercussions on each faction which we can’t discuss too much here but will in that army’s faction focus.

Ellarr: I think it’s worth noting that for some factions, they might not notice a difference at all despite the broad points increases. This is because many armies were already taking warscroll battalions in their army, and because they can no longer take them they’re finding that those points just get used to cover the price bump their previous list saw. There are exceptions obviously, but I do wonder if this will have as much of an impact as GW thinks.

Liam Jordan: Before you all get the pitchforks and torches out, please have a look at every faction, not just your own (Unless you play Slaanesh). Nearly everything has gone up in some shape or form. Instead look at how much stuff has gone up vs something else in its weight class, how much something has gone up as % and if not taking the Battalion you used to just gives it you all back in and you don’t need to change your army at all OK?

General Trends

In general points clipped upwards. Similar to 40k, a smaller map means there should be fewer models on the field, and Games Workshop wants to make the game more accessible without such a huge buy-in. So if you don’t see mention of a specific unit assume it got a minor price hike. Some general trends after crunching the numbers:

Order

A quick aside, Gortek lost 85 pts which might make him a little more desirable but it’s likely he still won’t see the field much on the competitive circuit.

Cities of Sigmar

SRM: There’s a pretty uniform price hike on most characters and infantry units here. We’ve got a 5 or 10 point increase on everything from Greatswords to Pistoliers, with a curious 20 point drop on Steam Tank Commanders. Griffon-mounted characters, Drakespawn Knights, Wild Riders, and Demigryph Knights all saw some significant points drops which should incentivize some more mobility for what can so often be a static army. Furthering this, basically anyone with a gun saw a 5 or 10 point increase, so those walls of Handgunners, Black Ark Corsairs, Irondrakes and so on just got a bit more expensive. With how much this army can dominate the shooting phase, plus the new Unleash Hell command ability, I think that points increase is completely justifiable. Handgunners already have a Stand and Shoot ability too, so unless that is changed in the future, charging a gunline is still going to be a tricky prospect.

Daughters of Khaine

Magos Sockbert: Daughters of Khaine players are looking at a top to bottom rewrite of their lists. The spikey elves have been hit probably the hardest of any army we’ve looked at, and it feels like potentially an over-correction from their excessively low points coming out of the battletome. Points hikes of 20% aren’t rare, with Morgwarth going up 120% (good), Blood Stalkers up 50 points bumping them by 42% (fine), and both endless spells doubling or more. Heart of Fury dropping 25 points (31%) is interesting, as we’ve seen almost every other invocation or endless spell go significantly up. For battleline, Witch Aelves went up 20 points, Sisters of Slaughter went up 15 points, and Blood Sisters. stayed the same. Heroes all spiked upwards, and given the Daughters reliance on them you’re going to see *major* changes to your lists.

JoeK: Morathi is still criminally TOO cheap. If your army had a battalion in it, then you’re just hillin with new points. The shooty snakes being down to 15 models vs 20 will also kinda hurt? Except now they can shoot you again when you charge them.

Fyreslayers

Bair: So all of the Leader characters not on a magmadroth went down in points or stayed the same, the Battlesmith especially dropping 15 points to make up for +1 to saves no longer stacking as effectively this edition probably, however will still be worth taking. However, the Grimwrath Berzerker and Doomseeker went up a few points each? Weird. With the changes to Monsters, Magmadroths went up 10-25 points depending on variant, very unsurprisingly. Vulkite Berzerkers are odd though, having gone up a whole 20 points per 10 models, this unit was already a bit lacklustre and probably could have been fine to just stay where they were. Hearthguard (both Auric and Berzerkers) are the biggest change however, with both maxing out at a unit of 10, or 15 in the right army as Battleline. Both variants went up 5 points per 5 models, and a lot of slayer players are going to be really upset about these changes. Please read the rest of this article and realise that similar changes happened to every army, not just slayers, and that it is, in fact, ok. Taking 2 units of 15 Hearthguard Berzerkers, using all 4 of your reinforcement points in 2k games, is going to be common and very good. 

Idoneth Deepkin

Liam Jordan: This is kind of what you’d expect really. If it’s in the standard lots of Eels and King list then it’s gone up a high %. If it’s not in that list then it’s gone up a smaller %. Nothing to be shocked at here, you’re still the same army as before. 

JoeK: To add to Liam’s comment, with more or less the same models you had before. Same army, same models. Same amount of models.

Kharadon Overlords

Bair: Points didn’t actually go up as high as expected. If you were taking the Gunhauler Escort Wing previously then your list has likely not even changed as far as composition goes for matched play games (since book battalions aren’t available). Endrinriggers going up 20 points and being 5 more points than Skywardens now means that you might have reason to take Skywardens over Endriggers more often? Maybe? Thunderers saw an increase of 15 points, making a unit of 10 cost 30 points more than it used to. These will be seen riding Ironclads ready to use Unleash Hell. Navigators actually went down 5 points and there aren’t many decreases in this book, with the amount of Wizards around you’ll want to be putting at least one into a list. 

Ellarr: Honestly as a faction that frequently took a battalion, you’ll probably find that they don’t really lose much from their army because they get those points back from refunding the battalion. KO came out strong out of this.

Lumineth Realm-Lords

Liam Jordan: Might have come out of this pretty unscathed in the long run? Sure everything has gone up and you’ve now got some actual choices to make (Severith vs the none character version is actually a gap in points now). Sentinels didn’t take the hit nearly as much as I think most people expected and while Teclis got hit, the fact that you’ve lost battalions mean you’ll absorb most of the points increases there. It’s good to be an Aelf. 

Joek: Sentinels are STILL cheaper by a MILE than Slaanesh Blissbarb archers. This is crazy, and they can cap at 30 now. 

My idea for 6 Windspirits in a list is dead, Teclis now probably will never be taken again as he was already a trap. Well done Teclis. You can hang with Alarielle in the bin.

Seraphon

Magos Sockbert: Let’s start with the problem units: Kroak remains the same as Broken Realms (still undercosted), Astroliths went up only 10 points, and Saurus Guard went up 15, so your standard ‘pack’ went up 25 points since Kragnos. Chameleon Skinks went up a whopping  25 points (28%), while normal Skinks went up 25%, from 60 to 75 points, which I’m ecstatic about but most Seraphon players likely won’t be. The nerfs feel both targetted and inaccurate; while we’re less likely to see Chameleon Skinks sniping characters and hordes of normal skinks in Fangs of Sotek, Salamanders only went up 10 points. Terradon Riders went up 28% to 115 points, and Saurus Guard went up 15 points to 105. I won’t go through every change, but suffice to say there is some strange distribution of nerfs going on here; not all of those who needed a meaningful points hike got it, and some who didn’t need a hike absolutely got it anyway. The only two units who went down are Saurus Sunblood (down 5) and the Ark of Sotek Bastilidon, down an amazing 35 points. Solar Engines went up 15 though, so there’s now a 50 point split between the two ankylosaurus wannabees.

Stormcast Eternals

Magos Sockbert: Stormcast went up a fairly flat amount across the board, mostly by about 10-15 points. This is a fairly meaningless number right now, since we know they’ll be getting a new book very shortly, so we’ll move right alone. Unsurprisingly, the Dominion units are consistent with what came in that box.

Sylvaneth

Magos Sockbert: Despite what I’m going to euphemistically call ‘somewhat moderate performance’ at events, Sylvaneth got hit harder than average by the points bat. Allarielle remains the same as she was in Broken Realms, sadly, and the only units to receive points cuts were the Underworlds warbands and Dryads, who received a 5 point boon. Kurnothi hunters, seen by some as potentially big winners of this new addition, went up 25 points for scythes and 35 points for bows and swords. Your big tree friends fared even worse: Treelord Ancient up 35, Drycha up 30, Durthu up 40, and bog standard Treelord up… 10. Minor win, I guess? Galdewyrm and Skullroot more than doubled in points each, though Spireswarm Hive got a 10 point cut. These are all honestly confusing changes, and it almost makes me feel like the points team is being bullied by a Sylvaneth player, and this is the only way they know how to fight back.

Chaos

Beasts of Chaos

Bair: Most units here went up 5-10 points, some units didn’t shift at all, and a couple actually dropped 5 points. The larger change to Beastmen is how reinforcing units works, with none of the units changing in terms of minimum unit size, so you’ll be stuck choosing which few units will have more models. Monsters might be the way to go here, Cygors didn’t see a price hike and with all the magic flying around at 140 points having an extra unbind that also damages (kills) wizards can be great. The only letdown is that Bullgors and Bestigors really didn’t need to go up in cost, they could have stayed the same and started to see some use.

Liam Jordan: Up and downs here. Monsters didn’t see big points increases, this is great as in nearly every other faction these went up to represent their new rules and bonuses. However here it seems to be the middling “knight” class of models which saw the big increases, Dragon Ogres and Bullgor both shot up in points compared to the rest of the army which was unexpected and slightly disappointing. 

Blades of Khorne

Magos Sockbert: Khorne came out pretty well out of this, which is probably for the best. More units had minimal increases or had actual cuts here than almost any other army, with only a few units going up by more than 10 points (Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury up 25, Skullreapers up 25, Wrathmongerrs up 15). Korghos Khul, Mighty Lord and Lord on Juggernaut all got small price drops, while everything else went up only 5 or 10. Honestly, pretty good shout here; armies will be a bit smaller, which seems to be their goal, but nothing got really ‘nerfed’ like in some other armies. On the other hand, in line with the new double-activations and other changes to endless prayers and spells, Bleeding Icon went up 10 points, Hexgorger Skulls up 20 and Wrath-Axe up 25. Given their potential output and the smaller unit sizes, I feel this is fair. Khorne looks to be coming out well this edition, with smaller tables getting you into combat faster and easier, and smaller units feeding you far more Blood Tithe.

Disciples of Tzeentch

Magos Sockbert: At first glance this looks painful; a bunch of heroes went up over 20%, with the worst hit being the Changeling (up 50 point , 42%), Magister on Disc (flat 50% points increase) and, uh, Vortemis the All-Seeing up 75 points or 54%. Someone really doesn’t like Underworlds players. Outside the hero slot, Kairic Acolytes spiked 25 points and both Exalted and normal Flamers took a hit, going up by 40 and 55 points respectively, which is probably a fair penalty given their potential to be obnoxious last edition. Horrors only went up 15 points, which is a little surprising, but you’re probably going to see them in smaller units so it’s probably fine? Endless spells all went up significantly, alongside the poor chaos spawn who also went up 40% because… reasons.

JoeK: We lost Changehost so the price increase of the army is probably fine to compensate. I’m not bothered much. The change to endless spells will make this army still great. And we shall see what happens to pinks after their FAQ.

Hedonites of Slaanesh

SRM: Hedonites got hit hard. Some of the conversations around the book at release were that most units were overcosted at the time and that they were probably costed with 3.0 in mind. I regret to inform you that that is decidedly not the case. While the Infernal Enrapturess going up by 90(!) points is understandable in part just due to how goddamn useful she is for magic defense, and the Keeper of Secrets and Shalaxi Helbane going up about the same makes sense given how strong Monsters are in the new edition, the already struggling army is in an exceptionally rough place. There was already a dearth of affordable unit options in the book, and with the 30 point hike on Daemonettes, 20 point hike on Seekers, and 80(!) point hike on Keepers of Secrets, those summons are going to be more valuable than ever. Slaangor Fiendbloods getting a 10 point increase is some real insult to injury on an already underwhelming unit, and Fiends, one of the more durable units in the army, are the only unit to get a points decrease at -10 points. The overcorrection from the previous edition of this battletome definitely seems like it’s continuing, and Hedonites are likely going to be suffering for some time yet. 

Maggotkin of Nurgle

Bair: A really strange mix here, lots of units going up but also a lot of units going down. Pusgoyles going down 5 points are going to be really good to take in units of 4, using 1 reinforcement point they won’t suffer from needing to worry about new coherency points and now count as 2 models each for objectives which is a nice buff. Great Unclean Ones went up 30 points and with all the new command points you’ll have to use as well as spells etc this is probably ok, not that it was seeing too too much use before. Blightkings saw a (needed) price hike but are still very good at 165 points for 5. They miss out slightly by having only 4 wounds so won’t count as multiple for objectives, but casting the Glottkin’s spell on the unit to bump them up to a wounds characteristic of 5 could be very useful to nab an objective. 

Skaven

JoeK: Most of this army went up. But not by a ton? And at this point they have some extra tricks now with overwatch with their previously really good shooting units, and good hero-monster-wizards.

Magos Sockbert: Rat-friends came out of this looking pretty good! Yes, almost everything went up, but there seem to have been a few targetted buffs, or at least minimising nerfs. Giant Rats dropped by a full third, Warp-Grinders (still for some reason in metal) dropped slightly, and Master Moulders and Spiteclaw’s Swarm both ending up better than before. The big losers here are the Plague Priest on Plague Furnace up a whopping 45 points (likely still paying for the sins of the first Skaven Pestilens book) and Stormfiends (up 22% to 315, rest in peace). Bell of Doom and Vermintide took hard hits, both at least doubling in points, but Warp Lightning Vortex only went up 10 points, to the joy of Kharadron Overlords players everywhere.

Slaves to Darkness

SRM: The points changes here aren’t all that massive; if anything the biggest change on first glance is the unit sizes, which translate into some points differences. Marauders and Warriors both going to a unit size of 10, with a 20 point increase on a 10-man block, is a bit of an increase but nothing insane. If anything there’s actually been a good number of units reducing in cost, like both flavors of Chariot and some of the Warcry-associated one-offs like Raptoryx and Furies. Speaking of Warcry, the Cultist warbands all stayed pretty much the same, with Iron Golems going up 5 whole points. They were definitely the most represented on the tabletop, with their rerollable 4+ save making them an extremely popular choice for holding objectives or tarpitting enemy units. Monsters saw a small points increase – around 10% – which is totally worth it for the sweet new rampage rules and all the monster buffs going around. Fomoroid Crushers and Manticores should be seeing some increased utility in this edition, and the points premium is more than worth it. Honestly, I’d say Slaves to Darkness got off pretty well here, especially among some of the grousing I’ve seen around other armies. 

Ellarr: Varanguard are going to be absolutely sicko in 3rd edition, between being a punchy unit on a small footprint, having no issues with coherency and being pretty mobile on a board that’s only gotten smaller. Oh and they saw no points changes – hell yeah. Another winner from the update is the Chaos Lord on Manticore, who went down in points and now has access to a generic 5+ ward from the common artefact pool. Oh and Archaon apparently hid from the playtesters long enough to be largely forgotten about, receiving a paltry 30 point bump which is huge news considering how many buffs he’s gotten as a result of the new edition’s changes.

Death

Flesh-eater Courts

Kenji: FEC are the only full army I actually own, so please take some of this as an armchair General reading, but overall my reading of points changes here is minimal. Ghouls decreased 5 points, while most big staples got slight increases. Generally, I don’t see much here that changes how FEC works as an army, and their points increases are fairly minimal. Some units even got decreases, such as lone Zombie Dragons and Crypt Horrors, presumably to make them more attractive to take versus the fairly static FEC lists. The biggest issue FEC has is that they have one of the most anemic army lists in the game, so any massive point swings would really harm how this army functions. Basically, if you played FEC before, not a whole lot seems to be changing here. The allegiance with Soulblight Gravelords seems possibly fun, but I’m not sure the two armies work well together on paper. My read of FEC as an army that mostly summons and revives its units in 2.0 seems unchanged in 3.0, but I will say that I wish they’d make a damn plastic Varghulf already if you’re going to make them so attractive to run!

Nighthaunt

Ellarr: Did quite well considering. If you put to one side the expected 10% bump for most stuff, there’s a few notable things that are nice for players. Firstly, Harridans and Bladegheists went up to min size 10 which is a huge quality of life boost for players who were having to make tough choices previously with their precious few reinforcements. Secondly, Harridans made out like bandits in the update, as they’ve gone down in price despite being one of our best hammer units from a pure damage output standpoint. Overall, NH players are likely to be quite happy.

Liam Jordan: Only a handful of units went up in any meaningful way. A lot of characters stayed the same or had minimal increases. Overall I feel this is a pretty big win based on points. Blades and Harradians going up to 10’s means you can really flex bigger units of them if you want which is a luxury not many armies elite troops get. Harradians especially have been double buffed with the new Warscroll from Broken Realms and now a points drop. Fairly sure I’ll be picking up a couple of boxes for myself.

Ossiarch Bonereapers

RagnarokAngel: Almost everything went up, except for Leaders who almost universally got a slight point drop. Probably to account for not being able to use the new command abilities. This is only speculation though.

Magos Sockbert: Soulreaper receiving a 5 point cut isn’t enough to make him useful, but Vokmortian’s 25 point cut at least shows they’re trying. Morghast Harbingers dropping 5 point whole Archai remaining at 190 is fascinating, given Harbingers were the only ones taken if either were, but the real pain here comes from the endless spells. The Bone-Tithe Shrieker almost tripled in cost from 30 to 85 points, which is a kick since new builds will likely be removing Katakros and his +1 to hit, the Nightmare Predator went up from 40 to 65 points (painful, but valid, it’s a damn good spell and double ticking every turn on the pretty could be brutal), but Soulstealer carrion, never seen in armies because it’s so situational and so average even when in play, went from 20 points to eighty five. Who hurt you, GW?!

Soulblight Gravelords

RagnarokAngel: Shocking nobody, there were almost no point changes to the Soulblights. Being released so close to third they clearly designed it with 3rd in mind so that tracks. There are two things that did occur, however. Nagash went down 5 whole points to 970, Mannfred got a surprising 40 point price hike and Radukar the Wolf can now be used without other Cursed City units. It’s not likely to make any serious changes but it does explain why the decision was made to sell him separately.

Destruction

Gloomspite Gitz

Magos Sockbert: The pain here really depends on where you look. Most heroes only went up 5 point sor not at all, though Loonboss on Mangler Squigs went up 30 and Zarbags Gitz went up a full 25 for absolutely no reason you lunatics. Normal Mangler Squigs also went up 35 points (monsters being just better this edition). Skragrott went up 10, a minor change, and Troggoth players will be happy that no Dankhold unit went up in points, and Fellwater Troggoths only went up 5. On the other hand, the only unit that got a points cut was Rippa’s Snarlfangs (?!?!), both Malevolent Moon and the Arachnacauldron more than double in points while Scuttletide almost tripled to 85, and both unconditional Battleline went up 20 points. Given Gitz is a horde army, they were already looking a bit wonky this edition with the limits on reinforcements, and making the poor bloody infantry more expensive just feels like a kick in the teeth right now. 

Ogor Mawtribes

Bair: THE OGOR BUS IS BACK. With how reinforced units work out and Gluttons changing to 6 minimum as a Battleline unit these guys can go up to a unit of 18. Is that good? Probably not? With coherency rules as they are you’re not actually getting too many into the same combat. However, with the ability for a Tyran to smack them for D3 mortal wounds turn 1 to then be immune to Battleshock for the whole game paired with the Rally command ability to bring back models at full wounds on 6’s this could be a very tanky blob that kills what it comes across. Just be aware that it will be attracting lots of attention and prone to debuff spells. Leadbelchers also went up to 4 minimum, which is annoying for anyone that picked up Feast of Bones that came with 2 of them, and every box you buy now will give you 4 more. 

Otherwise, generally, the points went up slightly but as said before this is basically countered by not taking a warscroll Battalion so your lists won’t actually look that different. 

Stonehorns and Thundertusks went up 25-30 points each, not surprising given how Monsters are working this edition, and how much better the Priest keyword is now too for those Huskards on Thundertusks.

Oh and Butchers actually went down 5 points so that’s pretty cool. 

By the way, if you’re curious, the Ogor Mawtribe book rule descriibing how many models they each count is still in effect, the Core Rules hasn’t changed that for Ogors. 

Orruk Warclans

Magos Sockbert: Fairly standard even increase across the board, with Gordrakk and the Maw-Krusha going up 40 and 35 points respectively (given the new power of monsters). Megaboss and Savage Big Boss both went up 20 points for some bizarre reason (hoping we learn a bit more in their new book), while everyone else went up 5 or 10 points, with the exception of Brutes, who jumped from 130 to 150 for no discernable reason. The only cut was to Ardboyz, who received a 5 point cut after being hit in the last round of points increases.

Sons of Behemat

RagnarokAngel: A lot of surprising changes here, actually. The points themselves did not change a ton, Gatebreaker went up 35 points while Warstomper went down 10, not a huge impact given the cost of these guys. What is interesting is all the Mega-gargants are battleline now! You can’t reinforce them, they are “Single” but that has huge repercussions for game modes that give advantages to battleline.

If you want to keep using smaller gargants for battleline, they got a cobbled together legacy rule of  a “Mancrusher Gargant Mob” which lets you take 3 in one unit for a discount of 20 versus 3 separate ones. Far as I can tell it’s the only army that got something like this.

Kragnos

JoeK: Looks like he WASN’T pointed for 3.0 and even with the 65 point reduction he’s still not good. Sorry.

And there’s a quick review of the points. We’ll still be doing a more deep-dive on the General’s Handbook 2021 and all the contents within, including battleplans and non-narrative content and a deep dive on each faction once all the FAQs are out. So stay tuned! If you have any questions or comments please leave a message down below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.