Age of Sigmar: Are ‘Regiments of Renown’ A Good Thing To Add?
Regiments of Renown are coming to Age of Sigmar but is this a good addition or an experiment that could blow-up in our faces?
Games Workshop announced that the Regiments of Renown are coming to the Age of Sigmar and I’m still unsure how to feel about this one. My initial reaction is one of reservation about the addition of these special battalions to the game.
We don’t have a ton of details yet about their special rules but we know that they are going to be available to use in Matched Play. That’s the part that worries me. Why? Because we’ve been down this road before and GW already came to a different conclusion to additional Battalions in AoS Matched Play: Don’t.
The Pros of Regiments of Renown
Again, to reiterate we don’t know the full details of these rules other than what the previews showed off. Basically, these 6 Regiments of Renown will have a Battalion that allows you to take the units in their respective boxes together as a single drop “unified” option. That’s all well and good. These Battalions will also have access to special rules for the units in the Battalion.
On the surface this seems neat. Buy a box of stuff and it can be slotted right into an existing army and has cool rules to match. And more importantly they are “legal” for Matched Play. That all seems like stuff in the “pro” column. Great right? But that last one is where we hit our first roadblock.
Whatever Happened To Warscroll Battalions – AKA The Cons Regiments of Renown
You might remember in AoS 2nd Edition that Armies had Warscroll Battalion options. These were special Battalions that were basically an extra layer of rules you could pay the points for. While they did have a points cost associated with them they were sometimes a bit much in terms of benefits. At least in Matched Play. Then, with 3.0, Games Workshop shifted those Warscroll Battalions away from Matched Play and into Narrative/Path to Glory play only.
There still in the books…but when it comes to things like the Metawatch these things aren’t even considered. In fact, lots of people just skip over the entire Path to Glory section (because it’s not Matched Play official). It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. These Warscroll Battalions can also be a *tad* unbalanced — but it’s not Matched Play so it doesn’t “matter” to the meta.
The Warscroll Battalions added an extra layer to list building and rules that may or may not be good for the current state of the game. Honestly, with the 3.0 Rules and the seasonal GHB options I personally don’t miss them at all in Matched Play. I think adding them back in at this point would be a mistake due to how this version of the game has been constructed.
I’m good with these extra rules, thanks.
And now GW has come along and decided to throw a wrench in the machine with the addition of the Regiments of Renown. These rules sure seem a whole lot like old Warscroll Battalions. And depending on the points they could really mess things up. Should they be allowed? I think the would fit a lot better in Narrative/Path to Glory games. How will they work in Matched Play? That’s yet to be seen. However this trend does worry me.
A Tzeentch-themed Regiment of Renown with all three Tzeentch Endless Spells? Sure…what could go wrong with this one?
Again, what bothers me about these is that GW sectioned off the Warscroll Battalions from Matched Play themselves. Now they are undoing that in a roundabout way by introducing these boxes that come with their own special rules and battalions. It’s counter to what the trend has been for AoS in 3.0 Matched Play and I really hope they got the balance right. The big issue is that if they are too good then they become auto-include/replacements for the existing options. But if they are way worse then there’s no reason to include them in your army at all. Seem like their addition is trying to thread the needle. If it doesn’t land right on target these Regiments of Renown really could go either way — and both results are not good.
What do you think of the Regiments of Renown? How do you think this experiment is going to end up for Age of Sigmar?
