On Wednesday, Games Workshop revealed more details about the changes coming to the Warhammer 40k combat phase in 11th edition. There are a lot of little changes that, together with the recently revealed new terrain layouts for the game, should make melee armies a lot more viable - and it's clear that the 40k design team has been taking notes from the Age of Sigmar developers down the hall in Warhammer World.
Age of Sigmar is a melee-first wargame, making it a great testing ground for what works and what doesn't in melee rules design. Not that Warhammer 40k 11th edition has just copied AoS's homework: there are still plenty of differences, and the experience won't be the same. But the similarities are plain to see, starting with the way that rules are written.
Age of Sigmar uses a very structured system to present unit capabilities: ability blocks. These specify the phase(s) the ability can be used in, exactly how a player declares the ability, what effect it has, and any keywords that apply to the ability. This isn't just for unit-specific abilities, but core abilities that all units can use, like basic moves and attacks.
The WarCom article introducing the new 40k combat phase shows us that similar templating has been used to communicate the rules for charge moves. The block specifies when a unit is eligible to make a charge move, the effect, and what occurs before, while, and after moving. It even specifies a variable "maximum distance" in its own section at the start of the block, as if this was a block of computer code.
There are a lot of design changes to the combat phase in 11th edition that favor the charger, and they borrow from Age of Sigmar. The engagement range of models has been extended to two inches, halfway between the distance in AoS and the old 40k value. As in AoS, the player whose turn it is gets the first pick of units to fight, including when both sides have units with 'Fights First'.
And just as in AoS, if a unit's charge target is destroyed, it's still eligible to pile in to attempt to engage a new enemy and fight. If you can crack open a transport with one unit, you might be able to fight the passengers inside it with another.
Still, these rules aren't a carbon copy of AoS. Charges aren't the same at all: units calculate their 'maximum distance' by rolling 2D6, then measure base to base to determine which units they're eligible to charge. While the charge must try to move models into base contact if they can, they only need to move into engagement range for the charge to count as valid. This should make it easier for units to get into melee around built-up battlefield scenery.
Units can also move through enemy engagement ranges, provided they don't end their move within them - not something we've seen in either AoS or 40k. And unlike AoS and 40k 10th edition, players make all their pile-in moves for their entire force one at a time, starting with the active player, before combat starts. Once all combats have occurred, players alternate making consolidate moves the same way: and if a unit consolidates into a new enemy, that foe will then get to swing back and hit them in the face.
These might individually be minor changes to the assault phase, but together they'll have a substantial impact on the experience of 40k. What do you think - has 40k picked the best bits from Age of Sigmar, or is it leaving the choicest morsels behind? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.