AoS: Meeting Engagements Explained
The new General’s Handbook is coming soon with new ways to play. Today, we’re focusing on Meeting Engagements!
AoS is chugging right along with a ton of new stuff coming out soon, like the General’s Handbook 2019. Our man Clint has his three things he’s excited about with the new book (and it’s not just points, points, points). One of the things he mentioned was the new Meeting Engagements and now we have a much better idea of what those will be.
Meeting Engagements are designed for matched play, but form a flexible system that’s rewarding to use whatever style of play you like. If you’re looking for a quick format for your open play battles, it’ll fit in nicely, while the new game mechanics are really effective at depicting the clash of two patrols ahead of their main armies.
The core gameplay doesn’t change with Meeting Engagements – just the formatting of army selection, deployment and the battleplan options. So you don’t have to learn a new system – just modify how you’re construction your forces. This means it’s great for new players as the required points level is much lower (typically 1000 points). So, if you’re looking for a good intro game, if you’re wanting to change things up from your regular games, or if you want to use this for a campaign/narrative style “setup-up” game before a big battle, then this format is for you!
Essentially, your army is split-up between 3 different elements and each force must have 1 unit.
- The Spearhead: An advance force made up of 0-1 Leaders, 0-2 Battleline units, and 0-2 other units
- The Main Body: The primary element of your force, which includes 1-2 Leaders, 1+ Battleline units, 0-1 Behemoths and any number of other units
- The Rearguard: A reserve force that arrives last, and includes 0-1 Leaders, 0-1 Behemoths, 0-2 Artillery, 0-2 Battleline units, and 0-2 other units
On top of that, there are other restrictions that apply as well:
- Your army may include no more than 2 units from the same warscroll (unless they’re part of a Warscroll Battalion).
- Units in the spearhead can only be taken at their minimum size. Any Battleline units in the main body, and any units in the rearguard, can be taken at up to double their minimum size.
- You may only include one Warscroll Battalion.
- You may only include one allied unit.
- You may only include one endless spell.
The handy chart above summarizes this pretty well. But you can already see how this will be different from your standard games. You games should be pretty lean for the most part and it will provide some interesting tactical challenges for sure. You’ll be faced with questions like “do I front-load my army or try to slow-roll it out?” Those types of things will have to be accounted for when you start the scenarios and will change from game to game.
Deployments & Battleplans
In Meeting Engagements, every battleplan has you start the game with your Spearhead on the board. Typically, the main body will be deployed at the end of the first turn and the rearguard at the end of the second. Depending on the battleplan, you might end up deploying all your forces in relatively the same spot – or you might end up on different parts of the board.
These changes mean that balanced forces will be key – you don’t want to end up on the opposite side of the board from a key objective if you overload your Spearhead or Main force. Then again, you might be too weak to fight off your opponent if everything is in the Rearguard – decisions, decisions…
One final thing about Meeting Engagements – they are designed to be played on much smaller tables compared to your standard games. The battlefield can be played on a 30-36″ by 40-48″ zone! We’re talking coffee table sized games vs big tabletop games. That’s great for new players and perhaps more importantly, it’s great for tournaments, too. You can fit a lot more players in a 3′ x 4′ space vs a 6′ x 4′ space – that’s just science.
“That’s like …double! Just like my Scotch.”
The General’s Handbook is coming out for pre-order soon – are you ready to change the game?
