Age of Sigmar: Metawatch – The New General’s Handbook Has Shifted The Meta
Games Workshop has dropped a new Metawatch showcasing how the new season has already impacted Age of Sigmar.
The latest Metawatch is out and covers the last 60 days for Age of Sigmar. In that time a new General’s Handbook has arrived a few armies have gotten to play with their new Battletomes. How did those shake out and what has the impact been? That’s what we’re getting a look at today.
“Battles in Warhammer Age of Sigmar have spilled out from the tunnels of Gallet into the magically-infused tundras of Andtor. As generals compete to master the sorcerous energy trapped within this bitterly cold land, thousands of games and dozens of events and tournaments are painting a picture of which factions rule the roost.”
As noted by WarCom, the Bonesplitterz have been left off due to a lack of games played with that sub-faction. But also noted is that they are being taken in Big Waaagh! armies however.
General’s Handbook 2023-24 Kickoff Meta
Looking at the top of the charts we have Soulblight Gravelords, Ossiarch Bonereapers, and the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Relatively speaking these books are also some of the newer books as well. Games Workshop says that the two death armies are at the top due to “a good cross-section of units to choose from, which are all viable.” I don’t disagree. At least locally I’ve been seeing Soulblight use more than a few different builds quite effectively since their updated battletome.
These armies are swinging higher than the sweet spot in win rates so I’d expect to see them get a tuning in the points department if nothing else. That said, the new GHB has only been in effect for roughly half the time for the dataset so GW might wait a bit longer to get more data before making adjustments.
As far as the middle of the pack, it’s looking rather healthy right now. There are 16 out of 25 (26 if you count Bonesplitterz) armies in the sweet spot of 45-55% win rates. Personally, I’m a little surprised to see Seraphon in this zone and not in the top. The Seraphon’s magic heavy options only benefited from the new GHB and overall are looking like a strong contender. I’d keep an eye on them as the season progresses.
Skipping down to the bottom of the meta we’ve got some of the usual suspects. GW pointed to the new Battle Tactics as a major reason for a couple of these armies in the bottom:
“Battle Tactics are also in the studio’s mind as they analyse the incoming data. The new General’s Handbook has seen an intentional shift in how these are scored, rewarding players that dedicate resources to do something, rather than just scoring more for things they are already doing. Factions like skaven find this focus challenging alongside the way their battletome’s Battle Tactics are divided up amongst Clans, and the studio is also keeping a close eye on Stormcast Eternals and Maggotkin of Nurgle for similar reasons. “
What I’ve personally noticed is that the armies that have strong (ie easier to score) book tactics are faring much better than the armies that were relying on the GHB Battle Tactics. Especially considering how much more of a “challenge” it is to score some of the GHB Battle Tactics. If you’re not able to reliably move around or cast spells or if you didn’t dedicate resources to scoring particular GHB Battle Tactics then this season has been a rough start.
Again, only about half the data was usable due to the other half being from the previous season. So I’d expect these win rates to shift a bit more by the next time we get an AoS Metawatch. Additionally, this gives players more time with the new GHB and more time against some of those tougher armies out there.
We might not see major points adjustments quite as fast as some folks might like. We’ll have to wait and see what GW does to tweak those win rates.
