Games Workshop has revealed changes to the Age of Sigmar army building rules coming in 4th edition. A Warhammer Community post on Wednesday reveals that armies in the new edition will be made up of one to five ‘Regiments’, each consisting of a Hero and up to three units.
Some restrictions on how you build Age of Sigmar armies have been removed. Fourth edition Age of Sigmar removes any delineation between Battleline, Behemoth, and Artillery units, which means there’s no limits on how many of your biggest beasts or shootiest guns your force can contain. Any number of units may be reinforced with extra models, though it will no longer be possible to reinforce a unit more than once.
However, the choice of Hero that leads a Regiment will have a major impact on its composition, with each Hero pulling from a fixed list of supporters. The Warhammer Community post gives examples from the Lumineth Realm Lords: a Vanari Bannerblade can include Vanari units in their regiment, while an Alarith Stonemage can include any Alarith units.
While there’s no requirement to take a minimum number of Battleline units in your army, the most common units can in an army can be taken in many different Heroes’ regiments; the Vanari Auralan Wardens can also be taken alongside the Alarith Stonemage, despite not being Alarith.
Big heroes can further mix things up. The Regiment that your army general leads can include up to four units; faction-leading centerpiece Heroes can include any units in their Regiment; and certain Heroes can bring other Heroes in their Regiment, if it’s lore appropriate, like the Mighty Lord of Khorne and his Gorechosen hangers-on.
During deployment, you’ll place each Regiment down as a single drop, with the player who finishes deploying first more likely to have a choice about taking first or second turn. It’s possible to bring ‘auxiliary units’ that aren’t part of a Regiment, but these must also be deployed one at a time. They also penalise you on command points, with the player who takes fewer auxiliary units getting an extra command point each battle round.
The new edition will still have rules for subfactions, now renamed to ‘battle formations’. Unlike previous iterations of these rules, battle formations aren’t tied to specific paint schemes and lore backgrounds – which means that unique Heroes will no longer be pinned to specific subfactions.
Enhancements to heroes will return, including Artefacts of Power, Spell Lores, and Prayer Lores. Heroic Traits replace Command Traits: apparently they will function in “a similar manner”, but they can now be taken by any hero rather than just the general. The WarCom article makes mention of ‘Manifestation Lores’, but doesn’t go into detail. Endless spells? Invocations? Something new? We can only guess.
We’ve been following the Age of Sigmar 4th edition rules changes closely, as well as eagerly watching for signs of miniatures that were already teased in the AoS 4th edition trailer. Have you seen the new Stormcast Liberator glow-up?