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In fact, the fear that the new edition will turn the rules upside down, and force you to reassemble the army, did not materialize. The changes are particular, and many rules rather clarify previously missed issues, than introduce something radically new. The closest analogue is the switch from the 6th to the 7th edition of 40K. So, what's new?

Turn order: Random order is an important feature of AoS. It forces you to think ahead and brings an element of chance into play. But sometimes it's absolutely unfair to the players. So now, in case, if you throw a dice and get a draw, the right of choice is given to the players who was the first at the previous turn - it is unlikely that he will give you the turn two times in a row. In the test game that we’ve played, this happened twice, and helped a lot one of the players.

Heroes' abilities: Command abilities can now be used not only by the general, but by any character. And any number of times. But they cost command points. You get one automatically at the beginning of each turn. Also, each battalion warscroll taken gives you one more at the start of the game. You can spend them immediately, or you can save them. In the basic rules, there are three abilities common to all – in 12 inches from the hero, a unit gets 6 inches run/charge reroll, or auto-pass of moral test. Can be useful for anyone. Obviously, we are waiting for unique stratagems for each army. The innovation is interesting, and it’s great that unlike 40K, you get command points every turn.

Magic was promised to be changed a lot, as eloquently hinted by a whole separate set with spells remaining on the table in the form of miniatures. However, there is nothing about this in the core rules. But both standard spells have changed. Arcane Bolt now deals only 1 mortal wound, and only if the cast is 10 or more - the previous D3. Instead of +1, the Mystic Shield now gives reroll of 1-s. It is not fair for the units with shields, but it is quite logical.

Movement: All measures are now officially made from the base. Also, they have told us how to move through obstacles - literally measuring the required vertical distance. They have stated the 3 inch pile in move before an attack. All this was implied by the rules before, but now it has found its place in the main rulebook and will no longer cause controversy.

Shooting: If your unit is in melee combat, it can only target the unit which it fights with. Quite logical. However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth. Also, now, when shooting at a character 3 inches from his friendly squad with 3 or more models, you get -1 to hit. A kind of protection for the characters was needed, especially given the increase in the number of shooting armies. It's good that it was done not in such a radical way as in 40K.

Close combat: There are almost no changes. Unless the cover bonus now cannot be obtained, if you have charged. By the way, it now does not apply to the war machines and the monsters with 8+ wounds (from shooting, too). We are glad that now everything is mentioned in core rules in details. 4 pages of rules, of course, are fun, but many obvious things should be stated in order to avoid controversy.

During the test games, a new important rule about the coherence suddenly played a big role. Now at the end of the turn, if you have models left apart from the unit, you must remove them from game. In practice, this means that you have to think more, placing models in close combat, and removing losses - there is a real chance to lose half of the unit due to careless arrangement.

In general, the new basic rules leave a very good impression. All the changes are logical and have been expected. At the same time, they do not break the game in any way, and make many moments clearer. We are waiting for the full rulebook to evaluate new game modes, magic, stratagems, and much more.

More in our blog: https://warzone40k.com/age-sigmar-new-edition-review

However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth.

I'm very confused about how the game being still about hand to hand justifies being able to shoot into close combat by other units with no penalty.

auticus wrote:

However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth.

I'm very confused about how the game being still about hand to hand justifies being able to shoot into close combat by other units with no penalty.

OP appears to be a robot advertising a blog. Don't expect a response.

auticus wrote:

However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth.

I'm very confused about how the game being still about hand to hand justifies being able to shoot into close combat by other units with no penalty.

Age of sigmar is about fun play, not realism. Making shooting units useless when the inevitable melee happens would take away from that I imagine.

Doesn't have to make sense, just needs to be fun!

What about when non-intuitive gameplay is not fun? And we use the term "useless"... meaning to have no use. To have no function. Which there are many ways to implement more intuitive mechanics that don't rob a unit of all of its use or function.

 Captain Roderick wrote:

auticus wrote:

However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth.

I'm very confused about how the game being still about hand to hand justifies being able to shoot into close combat by other units with no penalty.

Age of sigmar is about fun play, not realism. Making shooting units useless when the inevitable melee happens would take away from that I imagine.

Doesn't have to make sense, just needs to be fun!

Un-intuitive rules are bad for fun.

And you can't shoot freely into combat in 40k yet 40k is game of shooting...So claiming not being able to shoot into h2h is automatically making shooting units useless is provenly false.

auticus wrote:
What about when non-intuitive gameplay is not fun? And we use the term "useless"... meaning to have no use. To have no function. Which there are many ways to implement more intuitive mechanics that don't rob a unit of all of its use or function.

Oh, I'm sorry that in the game with metal dirigibles flying on magic farts, uncountable legions of walking dead, talking ratmen somehow numbering in the trillions, enormous golden armored supersoldiers who ride bolts of lighting across dimensions, literal gods and daemons, and whatever the hell a mutalith vortex beast is, that 'Legolas-ing' is the thing that REALLY kills the immersion for you. I mean, it TOTALLY makes sense to have half-snake ladies and half cow dudes and actual magic, but the idea that someone could shoot a bow at someone CLOSE TO THEM!?!?!?! Patently ridiculous.,

It works perfectly for the setting it's in. We watched people do this exact thing for 3 Lords of the Ring movies. It's seems non-intuitive to you mostly because you're really boring. As for it not being fun, how so? People actually being able to use shooting units in a game that bad for you? If you want a game where no army will ever bring a shooting unit against you ever, try checkers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

tneva82 wrote:

 Captain Roderick wrote:

auticus wrote:

However, it is still possible to shoot into close combat by other units. This is justified, given that this game is still about hth.

I'm very confused about how the game being still about hand to hand justifies being able to shoot into close combat by other units with no penalty.

Age of sigmar is about fun play, not realism. Making shooting units useless when the inevitable melee happens would take away from that I imagine.

Doesn't have to make sense, just needs to be fun!

Un-intuitive rules are bad for fun.

And you can't shoot freely into combat in 40k yet 40k is game of shooting...So claiming not being able to shoot into h2h is automatically making shooting units useless is provenly false.

Unless 40k was...somehow...maybe... a different game? With different rules? And shooting units that are far more effective than even the best of what AoS have to offer at even longer ranges? It's almost like that proves nothing and you're full of it?

And actually, shooting units not being able to shoot into combat is a big part of the balance issues 40k has always had between melee and shooting. GW has to figure out a way to valuate a unit that is massively powerful at range becoming totally worthless once anyone touches it. If they brought shooting into combat in 40k they might actually be able to make melee vs. shooting work for once.

If you make shooting units not able to do anything once combat starts in a game where every competitive army can touch the back board edge turn two, then the shooting units have to be exceptionally cheap just to compensate for them being without value for 3-4 turns out of a 5 turn game. Which means that you'd be able to mass enough fire in turn 1 with your cheap shooting units to cripple melee armies, which means shooting armies become the norm and oh look, Now you actually ARE playing 40k.

In all actuality, not only is this system better for AoS, it's better for ALL games that have both melee and shooting.

Nice read.
Haven't recognized the new coherence rule (in the battle shock phase). Requires more thinking.

This is just a bot trying to plug a blog. Haven't read the review but from past ones I'd say grain of salt because some of the conclusions were way off.

auticus wrote:
Submitted to mod for review.

They never do anything about this particular bot because people always make the mistake of posting in the thread and having a discussion.

Just flag it and move along.

I was submitting Erjack's personal attack post to the mods sorry not the bot. The bot is the bot... its been spamming us for a few months now.

Hey guys,

If you want to discuss this type of thread, or whether it's something you want to see more/less of on Dakka, please do so in the Nuts & Bolts thread already underway here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/758288.page

For mod alerts, please just hit the yellow triangle and don't post about it in the thread - we always check them out, even if you don't see anything posted in the thread.

Thanks all...

Understood. Thanks.