The community has been asking for an FAQ for a while and today GW finally delivered, publishing a dozen new FAQs for Age of Sigmar. These updates range from “minor tweaks” for some factions to “massive shifts” for others and there’s a lot to cover. So as always, let us be your guide to all of the changes and what they mean for you in your games.

If you want to find the latest FAQs, you can find them here.

In today’s update, we’ll cover:

• The Core Rules
• Blades of Khorne
• Daughters of Khaine
• Disciples of Tzeentch
• Hedonites of Slaanesh
• Orruk Warclans
• Ossiarch Bonereapers
• Slaves to Darkness
• Soulblight Gravelords
• Stormcast Eternals
• Sylvaneth

In addition to these FAQs and updates, there’s also a Battlescroll update that has points changes, errata, and some matched play adjustments. Not every army saw rule changes, just points adjustment so if we don’t talk about rules changes they just don’t exist.

The Core Rules

Subfaction clarification

The core rules FAQ is still a hefty document full of minor corrections and clarifications including the new 27.4 Sub Faction clarification listing out all of the battle traits you can choose for your subfaction – nothing changed just makes the wording work. Specifically the list given is:

• Battletome: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfrays
• Battletome: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Courts
• Battletome: Fyreslayers – Lodges
• Battletome: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Covens
• Battletome: Daughters of Khaine – Temples of Khaine
• Battletome: Blades of Khorne – Slaughterhosts
• Battletome: Kharadron Overlords – Sky-ports
• Battletome: Idoneth Deepkin – The Enclaves
• Battletome: Lumineth Realm-lords – Lumineth Great Nations
• Battletome: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribes
• Battletome: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Ossiarch Bonereaper Legions
• Battletome: Seraphon – Coalesced Constellations,
• Starborne Constellations
• Battletome: Sylvaneth – Glades
• Wrath of the Everchosen – Hosts of Chaos
• Broken Realms: Be’lakor – The Emerald Host, Reikenor’s Condemned
• Broken Realms: Kragnos – Jaws of Mork, Glogg’s Megamob,
• Grimscuttle Tribes

Heroic Actions

Heroic Recovery, one of the heroic actions you can carry out each hero phase, can no longer be used to heal heroes within 3” of an enemy unit. This is a pretty big change to melee Heroes like Gotrek or Archaon who could happily be in a tarpit turn after turn healing back the wounds that were already difficult to take off of them. A positive change. Also means that you can’t take off Disease points (the new Maggotkin mechanic) with this while within 3” of units too. 

On the plus side, it’s also now always D3 wounds even if you roll equal to your Bravery making it slightly better when pelted by the stray arrow or magic spell.

Charge Phase Command Abilities

Unleash Hell has seen a nerf. Now when a unit receives this command they can only target an enemy unit within 6” and the only models that can shoot are those that are within 6” of the enemy unit. Doesn’t change much if the unit receiving this order is the one that was charged, however it makes charging enemies near a unit of archers/gunners/whatever much less scary. 

The Amulet of Destiny got worse

The Amulet of destiny now gives its bearer a ward of 6+ instead of 5+. This is pretty huge though not unexpected since this generic artefact became the go-to for just about every single army. It’s still a good artefact to take with the number of mortal wounds flying around but is now going to be more of a choice and a toss-up when putting your army together. 

Battleplan: The Trap

Very minor change to one of the Path to Glory battleplans, previously if you were the Invader you only needed to have units alive on the battlefield but now need them to be wholly within enemy territory. The enemy territory is the vast majority of the board so this won’t be hard to do, just means you can’t hold back something in your little corner to score. Basically, no cowards allowed. 

Path to Glory Tweaks

Small change to the Large Settlement Territory making it a bit more expensive to add a Hero to your roster, decreasing your Glory by 2 now instead of 1 and then if you have the City Wall upgrade decreasing by 3 instead of by 2. I haven’t played quite enough Path to Glory just yet but so far from the Fyreslayers, Kharadron, and Maggotkin rosters I’ve looked at you have access to enough Heroes anyways so this shouldn’t be a huge deal to your campaign and it makes enough sense that Heroes cost just a little more!

 

Chaos

Beasts of Chaos

The Points 

• Cygor down 15 pts (125)
• Ghorgon down 15 pts (155)
• Dragon Ogor Shaggoth down 30 pts (155)
• Bullgors down 25 pts (130)
• Dragon Ogors down 25 pts (125)

Great to see. This is an army that has just often felt a touch too expensive on a lot of the more elite units and now they sit in a much better place. Depending how you were taking your army before, if you had a number of these units then you’ve probably opened up space for a whole new unit of Ungors with the decreases alone, mulch for the Herdstone. Overall this is a real improvement for the army as a whole but doesn’t fix its underlying issues. Still, a few lists will free up ~100pts and some Warherd focused lists will pick up on excess of 180pts, great day to be a Beasts player.

Blades of Khorne

The changes to Blades of Khorne focus on the new BLADES OF KHORNE keyword and who gets Blood Tithe rewards in the army.

• The BLADES OF KHORNE Keyword was added to each warscroll in the battletome
• Only BLADES OF KHORNE units get a Slaughterhost keyword
• Blood Tithe rewards now only affect BLADES OF KHORNE models

For the most part this only matters for coalitions, most importantly Archaon. You can’t bring in units from other books to create beefy combos, which is a running theme in the other mono-god books.

The Points 

• Blood Warriors down 20 pts (190)
• Korghos Khul down 15 pts (150)
• Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut down 15 pts (140)
• Mighty Lord of Khorne down 10 pts (120)
• Skullreapers down 10 pts (195)
• Wrathmongers down 10 pts (145)

Great to see points drops on an older tome army that needed to get more models on the table. Is this really enough to see more Khorne hitting the scene? Probably not but like the rest of this update it’s a step in the right direction and helps, especially casually. 

Disciples of Tzeentch

Battle trait was modified to only affect DISCIPLES OF TZEENTCH units instead of just TZEENTCH. The largest impact that is going to be felt is that Destiny Dice can no longer affect Archaon’s Slayer of Kings ability which is going to be a huge change in his viability in Disciples of Tzeentch. It’s not going to completely end his presence there, but it’s not a sure fire thing that you can delete a hero/monster.

The Points

• Kairic Acolytes down 10 points (115)
• Tzaangors down 20 points (175)
• Tzaangor Shaman down 25 points (135)
• Horrors up 35 points (250)
• Tzaangor Enlightened down 20 points (95)

Magic goats got some much-needed point drops, shaving 20 pts off Tzaangors, Tzaangor Enlightened and Tzaangor Shaman. This brings the Tzaangor units in line with their Beasts of Chaos counterparts in terms of points while Horrors went up 35 points, a much needed increase. 

JoeK: This won’t change much in the grand scheme of things for the army. You just probably won’t see 70 horrors spammed anymore and may only see 60. Which is still much more than most lists can handle. With the additional nerf to Archaon you may not see him as often in Tzeentch, but he will still show up to party every once in a while. Just because he can’t guarantee auto killing heroes, he’s still the lord of the end times and he will end some heroes’ times anyway without that trick.  

I think the biggest change here is coalition wizards no longer gain Tzeentch spells. Which will really force you to stay in the book for anything meaningful.

Hedonites of Slaanesh 

Like the other chaos gods, all references to Slaanesh armies are now Hedonites of Slaanesh which reduces the overlap of coalition or allied units benefitting from battle traits. This affects slaanesh a lot less than Tzeentch or even Khorne so they will barely feel this one.

The Points

• Blissbarb Archers down 10 pts (170)
• Myrmidesh Painbringers down 15 pts (145)
• Slaangor Fiendbloods down 20 pts (130)
• Symbaresh Twinsouls down 20 pts (165)

An army that is widely known for being too expensive, especially when compared to very similar counterparts in other armies, and even still might be a little too expensive on some units (looking at you Blissbarbs). Still nice to see of course but with so many other armies getting similar decreases in the grand scheme of things doesn’t actually change too much. 

Skaven

The Points 

• Plagueclaw down 25 pts (135)
• Deathmaster down 15 pts (100)
• Plague Priest on Plague Furnace down 10 pts (235)
• Night Runners down 10 pts (75)

Still more of a “fun” army with all of its whacky rules and random rolling the decreases help you get a few more rats on the table if you were taking multiple of the above units already, otherwise it’s very minor and doesn’t really change a whole lot since none of these were particularly being spammed. 

Slaves to Darkness 

The major changes are mostly centered around Archaon, who we will address at the end in the Multiple Factions section. Instead enjoy some point changes.

The Points

• Chaos Chariots down 5 pts (100)
• Chaos Warshrine up 30 pts (215)
• Chaos Sorcerer Lord up 20 pts (135)
• Ogroid Myrmidon down 10 pts (125)
• Fomoroid Crusher doen 10 pts (100)
• Gorebeast Chariots down 15 pts (115)

A lot of changes here. The Warshrine going up is maybe the only one that has me scratching my head. Gaining the Priest keyword and having generic prayers has been a pretty big boost to this unit overall this edition but 30 points seems steep. The Sorcerer going up makes more sense with its ability to add another +1 for save stacking automatically each turn on top of casting a spell. None of the other units have really seen a whole lot of play so maybe some decreases will help with that, the chariots especially but can’t see it making a huge change to the army. The larger change is within Archaon himself who really fits best now in a Slaves to Darkness army, but more on that later. 

Death

Flesh Eater Courts

The Points

• Crypt Ghouls down 10 pts (85)
• Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon down 15 pts (430)
• Crypt Horrors down 15 pts (110)

 

Nice to see points changes on battleline and what’s often the bulk of the army, being able to get more bodies on the table is always a positive since it’s how you take objectives to score points (and win). 

JoeK: I feel players will be pleased with the drops.

Nighthaunt

The Points

• Black Coach down 20 pts (200)
• Kurdoss Valentian, the Craven King down 20 pts (160)
• Reikenor the Grimhailer down 20 pts (145)

Again with the unique heroes going down in cost but good to see the Black Coach down too. This army now benefits more from taking Nagash as well which is pretty solid but the Black Coach could definitely do with gaining the Hero keyword at least to be able to benefit from Heroic Actions. 

Nagash being taken however can’t really be underestimated. The NightHaunt spell lore is great and Nagash being able to reliably cast it gives him real options when the army couldn’t manage it before. 

Ossiarch Bonereapers

There aren’t any rule changes directly, other than losing Lords of the Ossiarch Empire, which let you add Arkhan and Nagash despite not having the Ossiarch Bonereapers keyword on their warscroll. 

They seemed not sure what the future held for them, and settled on a much more elegant solution: Arkhan now gets the Ossiarch Bonereapers keyword, while Nagash has his own thing going on that lets him coalition into any Death army. This does mean that Nagash gets kind of cheated on Relentless Discipline, as the only thing he can use is his warscroll ability. Perhaps this will be looked at in a future battletome but it’s fine. We’ll look at how Nagash has changed at the end. 

The Points

• Arch-Kavalos Zandtos down 25 pts (180)
• Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis down 20 pts (450)
• Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe down 20 pts (135)

Some of the slightly heftier points drops here on unique heroes, many of the others being 10-15 points, and nice to see. You don’t really see much of these heroes on the table though, maybe Katakros sometimes, but not sold that just these points drops are enough to make these guys see more play. 

Soulblight Gravelords

The only change to the faction itself is Nagash who we’ll look at a the end of the article and then a few small points changes.

The Points

• Mortis Engine down 20 pts (180)
• Bloodseeker Palanquin down 20 pts (270)
• Coven Throne down 20 pts (290)
• Black Knights down 20 pts (100)

Decreases on the 3 versions of that one kit you can build as well as the lesser-seen cavalry unit: Black Knights. This unit is now just about half the cost of Blood Knights but with ⅓ less wounds, a much worse armour save, and much worse weapons. If you absolutely wanted to flood the field with Black Knights alongside Nagash to bring a bunch back each turn maybe that could be amusing, but really the unit needs a Warscroll rewrite not a points drop. The other 3 haven’t seen loads of play in part because of how much they cost while not being Monsters, which is so big in 3rd edition AoS and 20 point drops on each might not be enough to see them on the table.

Destruction

Gloomspite Gitz 

The Points 

• Skitterstrand Arachnarok down 20 pts (180)
• Dankhold Troggboss down 10 pts (240)
• Loonboss on Mangler Squigs down 20 pts (290)
• Dankold Troggoths down 20 pts (170)
• Loonsmasha Fanatics down 15 pts (130)

Another army which just across the board has been a bit too expensive to really be hitting top tables at events, these changes are very welcomed especially to the Troggoths. Is this enough for the army? Probably not, but as with the rest of all of this it’s a step in the right direction and it definitely helps and doesn’t hurt in any way. 

Ogor Mawtribes

The Points

• Ogor Gluttons down 10 pts (250)
• Tyrant down 10 pts (150)
• Gnoblars down 20 pts (100)
• Ironguts down 10 pts (235)

Gluttons are still just weird. Huge 40mm bases with the newer restrictions for units of 6+ models to be within 1” of at least 2 other models means you’re not getting them all in combat until one dies. Going down 10 points doesn’t really help with that in any way and they still lack Rend on any attacks. Ironguts also going down, being a unit of 4 with a better save and with Rend on their weapon attacks just makes them (and keeps them) better than Gluttons. I’d love to see Gluttons have more of a use but at the moment it’s still all about Ironguts in a Gutbuster list. Gnoblars being much cheaper gives you extra screening potential too, which is great. As discussed below Ogors in general also just massively benefit from Kragnos being around too.

Orruk Warclans

The Points

• Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork down 20 points (280)
• Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork down 20 pts (540)
• Orruk Gore-gruntas up 20 pts (170)

The Gore Grunta increase is a no-brainer. The unit has been set as a bar of damage output that other units are compared to because of how good they are. Gobsprakk and Gordrakk follow the trend for Unique heroes to come down in points probably to help reflect that they don’t get to benefit from artefacts/command traits like generic heroes can. I liked Gobsprakk especially at his cost before so a decrease is a very welcome change! 

Sons of Behemat 

The Points

• Mancrusher Gargant Mob down 15 points (475)

This one definitely feels out of place. This isn’t an army that’s been doing particularly poorly and a mob of 3 Mancrushers is a staple in many competitive lists since you get to throw more boulders at stuff with a unit of them. Kind of bizarre, but ok. With how limiting the composition of the army is in general this doesn’t really change anything either. You could already take 3 mobs with any Mega-Gargant and….still can. 

Order

Cities of Sigmar

The Points 

• Battlemage on Griffon down 20 pts (255)
• Freeguild General on Griffon down 15 pts (290)
• Dreadlord on Black Dragon down 15 pts (275)
• Sorceress on Black Dragon down 15 pts (280)
• Irondrakes are up 10 pts (170)

The decreases to the 4 mounted Heroes are nice to see if not a little surprising given that they just received mount traits, the Griffon one being especially good as well, from the Tome Celestial in White Dwarf. The Irondrakes are a solid staple of just about any Cities of Sigmar army putting out a punishing amount of firepower so this makes a lot of sense, making many existing lists go up 30 points for having their unit of 30 which might force some list adjustments to competitive armies. 

Daughters of Khaine

Morathi

JoeK: I am surprised Morathi got a buff without a points increase. She is now a loremaster of the DoK spell lore. On top of already being one of the best god characters in the game. Bloodstalkers only going up 10 points and Morathi getting this buff, I don’t know the insides and out of the army all that well but that seems like a fair trade to me. I’d take that on Fateweaver any day.

The Points

• Avatar of Khaine down 15 pts (120)
• Slaughter Queen down 10 pts (130)
• Blood Stalkers up 10 pts (180)

Blood Stalkers are one of those ranged combat units in the game that just spit out mortal wounds so it makes sense to see a points increase like the Lumineth Sentinels, this alone will change up some competitive lists. The other two going down is nice to see but the archers here are what matters for the army, as well as Morathi’s change below. 

Fyreslayers

The Points

• Auric Runeson down 10 pts (80)
• Grimwrath Berzerker down 15 pts (105)
• Doomseeker down 10 pts (85)

These are the only changes that Fyreslayers see and I was hoping for a little more (especially Vulkite Berzerkers) but am happy that these lesser heroes have seen points decreases. The Runeson was already a staple in my list for his command ability and the Grimwrath becomes easier to fit in now too. Doomseekers are very cheap and there’s play for them if you can’t quite fit in a Grimwrath to your list, but can’t see them being taken if you have the choice at any point still. Seriously, why are Vulkites so expensive, GW please give me a points decrease on these guys, I want to run them more. 

Idoneth Deepkin 

The Points 

• Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Sea down 30 pts (325)

The less favourable Eidolon build gets a nice points drop, making him now 5 points cheaper than the Aspect of the Storm build. Probably not enough to warrant taking over the Aspect of the Storm still in competitive builds; it is nice that these 2 are more similarly priced now. 

Kharadron Overlords 

The Points

• Brokk Grungsson, Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar down 25 pts (200)
• Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit down 10 pts (180)
• Endrinmaster with Endrinharness down 10 pts (95) 
• Skywardens down 10 pts (105)

As with a lot of other armies here some otherwise expensive heroes have seen some points drops, especially the named guy Brokk, who is still expensive at 200 points but no longer barely cheaper than a Frigate. The Endrinmasters going down is going to change my own list massively as I like to have 1 Dirigible Suit in every list with at least one Endrinharness guy in my Ironclad and will be easier to fit now. The Skywardens going down in cost is fantastic to see though, they have too long been too close to Endrinriggers in their pricing making the Endrinriggers the easier pick almost every time, now being 15 points cheaper per 3 you’ll be able to squeeze some Skywardens into lists that Endrinriggers don’t fit into. However they’re probably just a bit too expensive still for 3 models with 2 wounds each and a 4+ save but all you Barak-Zon players rejoice – cheaper units! 

Lumineth Realm Lords 

The Points

• Alarith Spirit of the Mountain down 20 pts (355)
• The Light of Eltharion down 30 pts (220)
• Avalenor, the Stoneheart King down 20 pts (395)
• Vanari Auralan Sentinels up 20 pts (170)

I’m definitely happy to see these, the Sentinels are one of the biggest problem units in the game and seeing an increase on them is definitely good to see alongside drops in units that you really don’t see much of (especially in the competitive scene). Some lists increasing a total of 80 points in just their archers will make lists be changed for sure.

JoeK: Sentinels are still power pieces and will probably be in just about every Lumineth list. The drop to Eltharion brings him closer to being playable which I think is ace. I don’t think the cows will be playable yet but, like the deepkin turtle, maybe someday. It is nice for the people who have them though. It’s very strange the foxes weren’t looked at.

Seraphon

The Points

• Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek down 20 pts (165)
• Bastiladon with Solar Engine up 15 pts (250)
• Ripperdactyl Chief down 5 pts (80)
• Ripperdactyl Riders down 10 pts (85)
• Terradon Riders down 10 pits (105)
• Salamander Hunting Pack up 20 pts (140)

We see a continuing trend – lesser used units go down in points while more competitive options go up in points. The Solar Engine and Ark of Sotek become further and further apart in points with the former being just so much better, especially in Thunder Lizard lists with the ability to fire twice with a command ability however now only 15 points cheaper than a Stegadon so harder to choose over another Battleline Monster. Salamanders see a needed points increase as well, when used in Starborne armies being able to sit behind cover and out of range safely turn 1 only to teleport and cause massive damage wherever needed turn 2 is incredibly strong and they’re still worth their cost. 

JoeK: Will this force salamander spam into the Starborn hosts so they can summon replacement salamanders after losing 1-2 to these points changes? Probably not. We will probably start to see more of a focus on stegodons, but who doesn’t like big lizards?

Stormcast Eternals

Very minor here and nothing out of the blue. The Drakescale Armour artefact does not allow save re-rolls against random damage weapons, which makes sense since that’s rolled after the save so would be impossible to know when rolling the save. Also their unique enhancement Holy Commands are clarified as to how they’re taken and basically work the same as all other enhancements: can’t take the same one more than once, you get 1 basic and then can spend extra enhancements on more through things like Core Battalions. No surprises here. 

The Points

• Aventis down 15 pts (310)
• Gardus Steelsoul down 10 pts (150)
• Gavriel Sureheart down 10 pts (120)
• Neave Blacktalon down 10 pts (110)
• Vandus Hammerhand down 10 pts (205)
• Knight Draconis (300) and Stormdrak Guard (170 or 340) unchanged since last update

Overall this is positive, bringing down the unique heroes is nice since they are often avoided since they can’t take artefacts and command traits, the only one that surprised me here is Aventis who is already seen in lists frequently enough for his ability to buff nearby units. 

Sylvaneth

The only change here gives Alarielle all of the spells from the Lore of the Deepwood as well as any spells she knows. This would be better if Unique heroes were allowed to choose basic spells like Flaming Weapon but it’s still great flexibility given for free. 

The Points 

• Treelord down 10 pts (180)
• Drycha Hamadreth down 15 pts (315)
• Treelord Ancient down 15 pts (280)
• Spirit of Durthu down 15 pts (325) 

Would have been nice to see some other units come down a little as well, but still nice to see any amount of decreases for this older battletome. 

Multiple Factions

3 Characters known for their ability to jump between different factions within a Grand Alliance received updated warscrolls: Nagash, Archaon and Kragnos. Gotrek’s didn’t change but he did get a points adjustment.

The Points

• Gotrek Gurnisson up 50 pts (485)
• Archaon the Everchosen up 30 pts (860)
• Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead down 15 (955)
• Kragnos unchanged 

That’s a hefty little price hike Gotrek got and it’s probably deserved. He sits in a weird place where he will absolutely dismantle anything he hits in combat…if he can hit it in combat. Some armies are able to straight up avoid him which makes him difficult to judge.

Archaon the Everchosen

Archaon gets a new warscroll. Here are the major changes:

• • Better damage table. Archaon’s profile doesn’t degrade at all from 0-8 wounds suffered, and will only degrade at 9-11 wounds, 12-14, and 16+ wounds taken, with his lowest profile being 8” move and 3 head attacks. 

• Not affected by allegiance abilities. You can still use your army’s allegiance abilities if you include Archaon in a Blades of Khorne/Hosts of Slaanesh/Maggotkin of Nurgle/Disciples of Tzeentch army, but he can no longer benefit from those abilities.

• • By My Will now affects all CHAOS units. This Command ability is no longer limited to Slaves to Darkness units, making it more useful to bring Archaon in other armies.

• Deflecting mortals with the Armour of Morkar has a range limit. Archaon’s armor still gives him a ward of 4+ against mortal wounds, but now unmodified 6s on your ward rolls will let you pick an enemy unit within 3” to suffer 1 mortal wound that now can’t be negated. So you’re not limited to bouncing the wound back on the attacker any more, but also limited in the range you can bounce mortals to.
• Loses access to spells outside Slaves to Darkness. This isn’t a change on the Warscroll directly but each of the 4 mono-god armies had their rules changed for allegiance abilities to the book name (Blades of Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch, Hedonites of Slaanesh and Maggotkin of Nurgle) rather than just the god name, which is how Archaon was able to skate by for so long. He’s only got Arcane Bolt and Mystic shield, which aren’t bad for him but are going to drastically curtail his utility in other armies.

These changes put Archaon in a weird place. He can ally with mono-gods but I’m not quite so sure you would want to anymore. A lot of broken combinations just went out the window and he likely will want to remain in Slaves to Darkness where he belongs.

Nagash, Supreme Lord of Undeath

Nagash is now basically Death Kragnos, as he probably should have been. This means he can be integrated into Flesh Eater Courts and Nighthaunts the same as Soulblight and Ossiarch Bonereapers..The downside is he is no longer considered part of the latter two factions and he cannot benefit from their battle traits. This does create an odd eccentricity where he no longer has the 6+ ward inherit to Death factions from Heroes so I wonder if that will be patched. He did keep his Mortal Wound ward so he can fall back on that.

He received a new command ability to replace the reroll 1s to hit and to save, bringing it in line with their attempt to reduce rerolls in the game. The new one, Death Magic Incarnate is wildly different, adding +1s to wards. That’s hot! A 5+ ward on a key unit can go a long way in boosting their survivability. I’m not clear if it does anything if you don’t have a Ward but I’m going to make the safe bet and assume no.

Supreme Lord of Undead is no longer a command ability but allows you to reroll how many slain models are returned for abilities that do that, or add +1 to the number of restored models. If I’m reading this right, it means that Nagash’s own ability could return two 3 wound models to a unit, which is pretty big!

Overall I like the changes. It cements his utility as a god in any Death faction, and being able to modify wards is huge. All that at a points reduction, too!

Kragnos, The End of Empires

Oh man, Kragnos is looking very good now.  Seemingly intent on hitting every negative mark against him, people have had his warscroll update come with a slew of changes and it didn’t increase his cost by a single point.

First, The Shield Inviolate now has a 6+ ward attached to its ability to ignore spells which is possibly the number one complaint people had for Kragnos. That 2+ save is pretty nice, not so much when he can get pelted to death by mortals. Now he has some level of protection that keeps him from getting destroyed before he gets there.

Don’t think you can just Hand of Dust him away now either, he got the Sons of Behemat ability to ignore insta-death abilities and take mortals instead through Avatar of Destruction. He also grants 3D6 charges to any friendly Destruction wholly within 12”, including himself through the End of Empires ability which also addresses his difficulty in getting where he needs to go.

Finally, Mightiest Makes Rightiest takes the final form of Sons of Behemat and Ogor’s ability and lets him count as up to 30 models based on health. Bonkers.

These are massive changes for Kragnos and hit just about every complaint people had. With no points hike I think he’s exactly where he needs to be, he’s going to be a terrifying beat stick on the battlefield which will have a place in most destruction armies except for maybe Sons of Behemat.

Closing Thoughts

RagnarokAngel: This is honestly more than I expected. Would I like to see more? Absolutely, but changes are incremental and some stuff requires an entire Battletome to work out. The changes made to the core rules are very solid. I had suggested changing Amulet of Destiny to a 6+ and I think that’s the change we needed, it’s not going to make it unfeasible but it will curb the frustration, especially since Heroic Recovery can’t be used in combat anymore.

I’m also happy about the changes to Unleash Hell. I’d go one step further and make it so only the unit charged can attack, like Overwatch in 40k, as I think shooting has become far too common in Age of sigmar but limiting the range helps substantially.

The points changes are fine, not General’s Handbook level of course but fine and seem to target a few key units. The warscroll changes to Archaon, Kragnos and Nagash are huge and are likely to severely impact how often we see these characters on the table.

Good work Games Workshop, I might have liked to see more but I’m not unhappy with what we did get.

Bair: It’s not going to fix the meta overnight, at all. Competitively the stronger armies stay strong here and see a few less models on the table, nothing huge really. This was something that a lot of people in the Maggotkin portion of the hobby were waiting to see after the battletome dropped recently and it’s a bit less than many of us expected. That being said this is a free update to a game that’s getting looked at regularly for balance changes and is a step in the right direction. I’ve been in this hobby long enough to remember when this wasn’t the case when broken combos were houseruled or written out of events by TO’s individually, if at all, because there usually wouldn’t be any kind of update (especially on points) for years until the next book came out. 

As a Fyreslayer player mainly I was really hoping to see a points drop to Vulkite Berzerkers to make me get mine back out on the table and as a Kharadron player I desperately wanted an FAQ on how garrisoning ships is meant to work (I wrote a Ruleshammer article all about that if you’re not sure what I mean) and so hope to see those out soon, but don’t expect to see more FAQ’s for a couple months now. 

Liam Jordan: Ok, so this seems to be very marmite based on what I’ve seen but one thing which is clear is that this doesn’t fix the game overnight. But what it does do, and I really mean this, is move it in a better direction. I’m keen to try new things with my BoC and the NH are almost certainly coming out of storage, potentially with a new figurehead leading them. Both of those show me it’s improving. 

What it doesn’t do however is fix some of the main issues people still have with the game. Save stacking still remains and not every army remotely has an answer for that. In addition despite some points increases I’m not sure hitting things twice (as seems to happen a lot) is the right way to go, for example Archeon got changed and increased in points, the Warshrine went up as well, I’m sure that one of those things would have been a better first step rather than hitting both. 

Overall though, I like this set of changes, it’s keeping me interested and wanting to keep playing new things. Some minor rules changes might solve some issues (6” Unlesh Hell) people have with the game and the lower tier armies have received a little upgrade, ticks the boxes I wanted ticking.

Joek: This is going to be really nice if we get updates like this once every 3 months, + the winter FaQ and the GHB. I can really see the game getting to a very healthy spot if they stop doing the bi-annual faq in place of a more regular release format. I do hope that this is a positive trend upwards when it comes to the rules team taking the balance of this game more seriously. 

If you have any questions or comments, please comment below or email us at content@goonhamer.com.