The Adepticon Reveals from Games Workshop are never dull, and this year amongst the first sightings of the new Chaos Space Marines Codex for Warhammer 40,000 (excited!) we also got to see the Cinematic Trailer for the 4th Edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

There’s so much to explore in the trailer itself around what the miniatures in the launch box will likely be for the Skaven and Stormcast Eternals and lots of implications from the advances in the wider storyline but I’ll let you explore all of that via the Warhammer Community blog. I did want to just post some thoughts about what the advent of 4th edition might mean and what I’m hoping to see. Please do share what you think and what you’d love to see in the comments.

Goodbye to Third
I pretty much always have mixed feelings when it comes to edition change time. I think 3rd Edition has been amazing and so there’s a large part of me that doesn’t want to see it go! But if I cast my mind back far enough I felt similarly about 2nd Edition. Therefore, I’m mostly hopeful about the changes that are to come

What We Know
So far, not a huge amount. We know we’re getting Indexes to replace ALL of the 3rd Edition Battletomes. We know there are some tweaks around how the Double-Turn works. There’s a general tightening up and streamlining of the rules that sounds similar to a lot of the language used ahead of the launch of 10th Edition Warhammer 40k. We also know that there will be some changes to the way Command Points work and to make Command Abilities more interactive.

What the Rumours Say
So such is the circular nature of rumours I’ve got no idea of the original source for these (happy to credit if anybody knows!) but some rumoured changes:

• No more Battle Tactics for each Battletome but there will be Grand Alliance ones and Generic ones
• There will be a Command Ability to let you counter-charge
• Melee Weapons will lose their range characteristic – presumably working similarly to 40k with models in base-contact with an enemy or in base-contact with a friendly model that’s in base-contact with an enemy able to fight
• Reworked Unleash Hell
• If you win Priority and Choose to take the double-turn you can’t score any Battle Tactics that round

Indexes
Understandably, this bit seems to have caused the most concern amongst the forums and WhatsApp groups I’m part of. I get it. Everything we know is potentially going to change! It’s a little frustrating as we’ll be starting over – and I tend to find these limbo periods at the end of an edition a strange time to play and hobby in as you’re essentially treading water, unsure how or what to build unable to commit too much to any lists because they’ll all be gone.

However, it does present a really great opportunity to look at some of the balance in Age of Sigmar. As you can see from the stats on Metawatch on Warhammer Community – the overall meta is in a healthy place:

That’s amongst the most balanced I remember seeing things throughout the edition. However, knowing Hedonites of Slaanesh especially well. I know that the internal balance is a little out of whack. There’s plenty of stuff that’s useable in the battletome (despite what some naysayers might tell you!) but there are some things that just don’t work or don’t manage to compete against other units in the same price-bracket or role. For example – Painbringers just don’t do what they need to do – they’re incredibly pricey compared to their equivalent Chaos Warriors in Slave to Darkness and the rules they have leave them in an odd limbo where they’re just not good enough at anything to justify taking. If you started every game with 36 Depravity Points, they’d be amazing but alas! An Index is a clean slate so I am excited at the chance to get more use out of some of the pretty miniatures that just don’t get to come out of the cabinet at the moment!

The other big benefit to Indexes is it softens that curve that happens around the first few books in a new edition. They’re always great when they come out but quickly end up being left behind as the edition finds its groove and/or the design space start to thin out a little and the slow power creep becomes inevitable. Meanwhile, you often end up with bizarre interactions with odd holdovers from previous editions if you’re using a book that’s much further down the battletome roadmap! Indexes reduce a great deal of this effect – in theory. Obviously the quality of the rules writing will ultimately decide things but the way 3rd Edition has gone the AoS development team have a lot of credit in the bank for me!

The Warhammer Community blog mentioned rules for sub-factions being present which is hugely encouraging as that would have been one of my main concerns for Indexes. Assuming my Hedonites retain their Godseekers, Pretenders and Invaders options I’ll be happy (again some opportunities here over that internal balance though!)

Army Specific Battle Tactics
From a making armies feel unique perspective these have been great but from a balance perspective they’re a real mixed bag. Armies can often be quite make or break upon release based entirely on the quality of their Battle Tactics currently. Victory Points win games so if you’ve got easier ways of scoring them then you’re more likely to win. Having to create somewhere between 3 and 6 Battle Tactics for every army leaves very little original design space so they end up samey or they end up horribly skewed trying to avoid samey. Having the generic one and four sets of Grand Alliance ones sounds like a far more manageable system if those rumours are correct.

I do see a lot of complaining online about some Battle Tactics rewarding non-interaction with the opponent’s army. I have to say I have less strong feelings on those overall. Most have a little bit of counter play through Command Abilities – Redeploying your units to block the path to a table edge for Surround and Destroy or pinning a unit in its own territory to stop Intimidate Invaders will never not be a great feeling if you ask me! Besides, not all armies should be desperate to march to the middle of the table and just have a scrap. The objectives of a battle can be beyond kill these monsters or hold this point and I think this creates a greater narrative feeling to things.

Command Abilities and Unleash Hell
Going to lump these in together as there’s really not a lot to go on with these rumours but can make some guesses. As a Hedonites player with a good few Blissbarb Archers I love Unleash Hell. As a Pretenders player I really love Command Abilities and Unleash Hell! However, having enjoyed having three units of Blissbarbs pepper enemies with arrows when they charge in, I can accept that it may need a little examination. Wouldn’t be surprised to see this switch to a snapshot style rule of 6s to hit. I think it’s important that Shooting remains an important phase of the game but it perhaps shouldn’t overtake the other phases. There’s a reason Longbowmen for example were so feared in medieval warfare – shooting is a great leveller against armoured men armed with melee weapons – but battles won that way were just as much about great manoeuvring by generals and their troops and canny use of terrain etc. Something I would love to see have a tiny bit more influence on things!

Otherwise, I hope we retain similar Command Abilities and options around them. Redeploy is genuinely my favourite Command Ability. Rally has caused some issues in the meta I know, although I have reliably rolled terribly every time I’ve used it, but wouldn’t be surprised to see some changes there. All-Out-Attack and All-Out-Defence probably might need a look. Whilst Roar and a few other abilities and spells have lessened the impact of these two Command Abilities – the default position is combat starts with deciding where you’re using each of these and All-Out-Defence is probably going to the same unit as did Mystic Shield and Finest Hour if it’s a Hero! These could maybe do with reflecting a little more what the title says they are – All-Out-Defence implies we’re prioritising protecting a unit over its combat ability after all… If I was to guess I think we might see both go in place of some different Charge Reactions. Unleash Hell stays, maybe some sort of Shield Wall ability to make a unit hunker down to receive the charge, sacrificing their melee output to try and absorb the impact. Then the counter-charge ability could come in there, with another option being to instead try and steal the initiative of a charge from an enemy by pushing further up to engage with them – could be lots of fun for Battle Tactics counterplay too!

Melee Weapon Range Change
This one is huge I think. A massive chunk of Age of Sigmar has been defined by the interaction between weapons ranges and base-sizes and I don’t think it’s always been in a way the designers have been fully clued into. 1″ weapon range is generally rubbish for units – unless you’re on 25mm bases and then it’s amazing. Some units, like Painbringers for example, are utterly pointless to reinforce as there’s too many points of models not getting to fight because of their larger bases. It’s a rule that has punished elite infantry and cavalry more than those cannon-fodder units on the little bases too and that feels a little counter-intuitive too.

There’s a caveat to all of this. Whilst I think things like Monsters will be fine as the pile-in and the way damage spills over in AoS (unlike in 40k) means that they’ll still be able to put out a lot of hurt (well hopefully!). Models with spears and halberds may need some help. Whether that’s letting them fight with an extra rank or perhaps tying it Charge Reactions etc I’m not sure but there’s a chance the units always taken with Halberds so they all get to fight (except for that glorious window with Galletian Veterans!) will just have their arms ripped off and swapped for swords unless something additional is done. Curious to see how this one plays out but I’m putting it as a probably positive for my poor Painbringers!

Double-Turn
Let me start by saying, this was the one I was most worried about. The double-turn sometimes gets a lot of negative press online but it’s one of my favourite things about Age of Sigmar. It requires you to plan a little smarter and it allows you to upset the expected outcome of a battle based on the initiative roll – some people don’t like that I get it, but this is a dice game and read your history books – there are so many decisive battles and campaigns that were decided by a big stroke of luck falling one way or another – the great players have a plan for how to deal with the luck if it goes against them, or at least mitigate it. So, the double-turn staying is great news. Age of Sigmar remains Age of Sigmar. The rumour about scoring being affected by your choice here sounds really, really positive to me. There’s even more reason to think about when you play for the double-turn as you’ll likely sacrifice a chunk of scoring but if you can use it to severely damage your opponents’chance of scoring… could be a really great change this. Looking forward to hearing more about it!

What Else Might Change
Stuff I’ve not seen any rumours on yet but wouldn’t be surprised to see change:

• Objective Control – Warhammer 40k introduced this as a characteristic on the profile but a big chunk of 3rd edition has been about how many models a unit counts as on Objectives. I think this change seems like a no-brainer as it allows a huge amount of additional design space for units falling outside of the usual 1, 2 or 5 – allows for rules like the Sons of Behemat or Ogors have but also allows a much greater level of clarity when looking at Warscrolls as to what they do and for rules that increase or reduce that. There are a few artefacts for example that stop units with 1 or 2 wounds contesting objectives and they end up with quite lengthy rules text. That suddenly becomes – reduce the OC of a unit by 1 or 2 whilst within 6″ of this model say. A great little design space and definitely one to iterate upon here.
• Artefact Points Costs – How many artefacts are in your battletome that you’ve never used? I can tell you what the one and only one will be in most of my lists: If it’s Pretenders, it’s Crown of Dark Secrets. If it’s Godseekers, it’s Girdle of The Realm Racer and if it’s Invaders, it’s The Icon of Excess. Once upon a time there might have been the odd Arcane Tome but not so much nowadays. The others, they exist because there was space on the page for them but they couldn’t stand out against the one good choice. If they each have points values it allows them to be of differing levels of power, it allows for more subtle balancing (and re-balancing once we get our filthy hands on the rules and break them!) and it also frees these up to not just be a one per army thing, which to me feels a little more appropriate in a high-fantasy setting!

What I’d Love to See
Other than some of the things I’ve mentioned (did I mention I want my Painbringers to be good?) I think the main change I’d love to see is around scenery. The scenery rules for AoS feel a long way from where they ought to be for me. I know this isn’t a medieval historical game so it doesn’t need to reflect that but I do feel there’s a narrative impact of the battlefield that is just missed. I don’t think a wall randomly giving you +1 to cast captures that at all. I’d love to see some straightforward impact to terrain on the table – it doesn’t all need to be magical but forcing cavalry to charge through a bog or take the long way round… I would love to see that level of narrative over the course of my battles. There are so many lovely terrain sculpts from Games Workshop (and others) that it’s a real shame we’re not making more of them. It’s a difficult needle to thread I appreciate as the scenery rules can get unwieldy and out of control very quickly but I’d love to see a tad more support for some real evocative battlescapes. The Mortal Realms provide lots of opportunities to do some fun things but it feels like Woods and Faction Terrain are the only things that actually exist based on what happens on the tabletop and how armies interact with scenery.

Overall, I’m really excited by this news. Will be sad to see 3rd Edition but looking forwards to talking more about 4th as we learn more about it and then hopefully in the not-too-distant future, get to get our hands on it and get some games in!