Age of Sigmar: Battlescroll Update – Big Winners And Losers
The Battlescroll Update has been out for almost a week. It’s about time to declare the big winners and losers from this latest update.
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar players were waiting for the Battlescroll Update to arrive and it finally did last week. There were a whole lot of changes to points and one major change that flew under the radar. That said, we’ve had more time to look over the lot of changes and here’s our list of the big winners and losers.
Big Winners
Bodyguards And Characters
The change to wards and how that impacted Bodyguard units was kind of a huge deal. We touched on that topic already but this is probably the single most impactful change because of the waterfall of impacts it’s making down the line. And while bodyguard don’t negate the wounds they will at least keep your character around for a whole lot longer and most consistently now that the ability is considered a ward.
Nighthaunt, Beastmen, and Fyreslayers – Melee Range Changes
A slew of units got their melee ranges updated from 1″ to 2″. The Beastmen, Fyreslayers, and Nighthaunt all got a big boost thanks to these changes. Nighthaunt in particular got three units updated and, frankly, they needed it. In the last GHB season, Nighthaunt armies were doing alright but not tearing up the scene with specific builds. Those armies kind of fell off afterwards because of the Galletian Vet changes. Now, those builds might see a resurgence — that 2″ reach really does help! Heck, even the Stormcast Eternals Vanquishers got their melee extended to 2″ as well.
Everyone Who Got Lots Of Points Drops
Seriously, there’s a TON of green on the points changes. There are 14 armies that got nothing but point drops. Now, to be fair, one of those is the Beast of Chaos who only had one point change and it was a decrease in cost. And other was the Idoneth Deepkin who had two units drop by 10 points each. Regardless, that’s a whole lot of cheaper point armies across the board. This was a pretty huge win overall,
Honorable Mention – Daemon Princes
Daemon Princes got a boost to their melee output. It’s a bunch of free attacks they didn’t have before. They are worth mentioning but I wouldn’t call them a big winner. We’ll have to wait and see if they start showing up in lists or if they are still relegated to a “oh it’s nice when I summon one in from the Eye of the Gods table” still.
Biggest Losers
Kharadron Overlords – Points Increases
The Kharadron Overlords got slapped with points increases pretty hard this pass. Not much to say about it other than “ouch.” KO players will have to re-jigger their lists and unfortunately that could result in them running leaner crews overall. I do wonder if this is going to be compounded by just about everyone else getting more units on the tabletop now.
Multiple Unit Targeting Change
This is actually a reversal of a previous FAQ in the Core Rules updates. You can no longer pick the same target for an ability that allows you to pick multiple units at once. Each target has to be different target. This directly impacts Cities of Sigmar and Idoneth Deepkin in particular. These abilities are still good options they just don’t allow you to overload the buff/debuffs onto a single target now.
Cities of Sigmar – Points Tweaks and Alchemite Warforger Nerf
It was really a mixed bag for the Cities of Sigmar but ultimately we opted to put them in the losers category. For starters, the nerf to Blazing Weapons hurts their ranged output significantly as they lose out on those mortal wounds.
At the same time, they got some points adjustments to push them away from running all those Steam Tanks for some odd reason…
To me, it looks like GW is wanting to push Cities of Sigmar armies more towards a particular play style where they take a mix of units vs spamming a singular “do it all” option. Ironweld Great Cannons might actually be worth considering due to the Blazing Weapon nerf and now with a points drop. Your Fusiliers aren’t going to be pumping out Mortal Wounds at range to deal with everything anymore so the cannons could plug that hole.
(Dis)Honorable Mention – Players Without Wizards In Their Armies
The good news is you can now score a Battle Tactic with the Nullstone Adornment. The bad news is you’re still stuck with this GHB for another four months.
Who are your biggest winners/losers from the new Battlescroll Update for Age of Sigmar?
