Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar - 2015

Age of Sigmar (AoS) is a tabletop wargame released by Games Workshop in 2015. It replaced Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Setting

Several supplements released for the eighth edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle focused on the "End Times", an event which led to the almost total destruction of the Warhammer world and the death of most of the aforementioned world's population. The eight Mortal Realms of the Age of Sigmar are the new primary setting for Age of Sigmar.

Following the destruction of the original Warhammer world by the forces of Chaos, Sigmar floated aimlessly through outer space, clutching onto the metal core of the previous Warhammer world. After a long passage of time, he was rescued and befriended by the great celestial dragon Dracothion, whom led Sigmar to the "Mortal Realms": eight planes of existence connected by portals called "realmgates", one of which was bestowed upon Sigmar to rule by Dracothion. Souls were drawn to these realms, with some being survivors from the previous world and others new. Sigmar forged alliances with these peoples and their respective gods as civilization was re-established in the Mortal Realms.

This growth was short-lived, however, as the Forces of Chaos struck again, invading the Mortal Realms. Led by Archaon, the Chaos dominated seven of the eight Mortal Realms, sparing only Sigmar's realm, Azyr. The civilizations and alliances Sigmar strove to make were ultimately destroyed in the Chaos invasion. Angered, Sigmar created the mighty Stormcast Eternals, and, with them, led the fight against the Chaos, thus beginning the Age of Sigmar.

Factions

There are four main factions in Age of Sigmar, called Grand Alliances.

Order Grand Alliance

Chaos Grand Alliance

Death Grand Alliance

Destruction Grand Alliance

Rules

General Principles

The core ruleset is only 8 pages long, and designed to make the game easy to learn but hard to master. Basic rules of play are simple and quick to understand, but more advanced mechanics can be found in unit-specific pamphlets called "Warscrolls" that detail more rules and stats of the individual unit. The art of the game lies in understanding how your units work together and exploiting synergies to use them as a cohesive army.

The rules and Warscrolls are free, and can be downloaded from the Games Workshop website or viewed in the Age of Sigmar app.

Age of Sigmar emphasizes three styles of play. Competitive (Matched Play), unstructured (Open Play), and narrative (Narrative Play) aspect of the wargaming experience are offered, in the annual General's Handbook series of rules supplements.