Age of Sigmar: Veteran Infantry Take Center Stage In The Next General’s Handbook
The time of the great beasts is over as the Infantry Units in Age of Sigmar are stepping up their game in the new General’s Handbook.
With every General’s Handbook in Age of Sigmar GW kicks off a new season for the game. These seasons help to create the overall meta for the year and also tie the Matched Play focus back to the ongoing narrative of the game. Currently in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Monstrous Creatures are the focal point of the season as armies battle in Ghur. However, when the new GHB drops, the focus is shifting to your Infantry units.
The wars of Ghur have taken a turn inward — or downward — as the armies move into the massive tunnel network of Gallet. This means a lot more tight, close-quarters fighting and mastering these twisting pathways. Rules-wise, this is changing the game from being focused on big beasts to your new Veteran Infantry.
General’s Handbook – Veteran Infantry Edition
“Your Battleline units now all gain the GALLETIAN VETERANS keyword… if they’re small enough to squirm into the tunnels, anyway. That means no mounts and no-one with too many wounds, marking a shift away from the supremacy of beasts.”
This is a large shift for the Matched Play meta for sure! On one hand, many of those big benefits for running large creatures are going away. On the other hand, Hunters of the Heartlands is also going away — here come the stomps!
So what does this new Galletian Veterans keyword do? Well, it’s going to open up a ton of new scoring and objective based gameplay options. To start, the Proving Grounds are going to be a thing:
This offers a lot of tactical diversity for going second. You’ll be able to force your opponent to move towards the relative objectives. Are you going to block their big beasts from scoring a particular objective or are you going to tempt them into an ambush? There are benefits for going second for sure! Especially if you manage to pull off a dreaded double-turn…
The Galletian Veterans also picked up a few other tricks doing all that tunnel fighting. Combat is about to get even more interesting with some more models getting to attack:
This is kind of a throwback to old school melee attacks from previous versions. For some armies and units this should allow for those 1″ range attacks on 32mm base models to be a lot more effective! There’s also the possibility those charging units can stop an opponent from swinging until after they do:
I’m looking forward to seeing what other Realm Commands we get! Overwhelming Assault could pair very nicely with just about every army. There’s also two new Core Battalions as well:
“Expert Conquerors are more accomplished at holding objectives than most, while Bounty Hunters specialise in gutting opposing armies – they deal extra Damage in melee when targeting the enemy’s GALLETIAN VETERANS.”
Are you noticing how these changes are really focused on the Infantry and Matched Play Objectives? Because that’s the theme for sure! The GHB is a game changer and the new season is going to shake things up for sure.
On top of all of those changes here’s a quick list of everything else you can expect:
- 12 new battleplans
- eight fresh battle tactics
- six Gallet-focused grand strategies
- a new spell for Wizards fighting in Gallet
- new Pitched Battle Points
I’m a little confused as to why they are calling this Season 1. I thought the current GHB’s Pitched Battles book was the first season. Oh well — That doesn’t diminish my excitement for seeing what this new book will bring to the tabletop!
The new General’s Handbook will be up for Pre-order this weekend and it’s a must buy for any Matched Play Generals out there!
