Age of Sigmar: ‘Strongpoint Assault’ Rules Provide Team Event Fodder
Dawnbringers: Book V – Shadow of the Crone is coming and the Strongpoint Assault rules add new team-based game elements to try.
So these rules popped-up yesterday on WarCom but I’ll be honest, I’m finding them both confusing and intriguing. Confusing because these rules are for teams based games and events. That’s a genre that GW dabbles in with their games and this attempt is …different. Not in a bad way just is a different format. And I’m intrigued because these rules can be used in narrative campaigns, one-off battles, and also Matched Play events. Yep, it’s a new team format that seems like quite the trip. Let’s see if we can’t dive a little deeper into these rules.
Strongpoint Assault – A New Team Based Format
Let’s start off by talking about what exactly a Strongpoint is:
“Strongpoints are collections of terrain features, representing half-built outposts or reclaimed ruins occupied by exploring armies.”
These terrain features don’t “behave” the same as they normally do. There are new rules for them and the new Dawnbringers book has full rules on how to use them. But you really get the most out of them with the Strongpoint Assault team events.
So what’s a Strongpoint Assault team event?
“Each team in a Strongpoint Assault has four players, each with an army from the same Grand Alliance. Every team also has a strongpoint, which it must protect from any rivals, while trying to conquer the enemy’s own headquarters. “
That said, this isn’t just a 4v4 battle. Players will pair off based on battle location and then roll to determine the battleplan. So really, this is similar to other team formats where the two teams of players form-up and then break off into 1v1 games with the aggregate score determining the winner between the two teams.
So how do the players break off into pairs in the first place?
“One pair fights in the West, one pair fights in the East, and a pair fights at each side’s strongpoint, using battleplans decided by their location. The team captains assign battle locations alternately, and in secret – but each captain can reveal the enemy player assigned to a single battle location, allowing for some careful management of match-ups.”
Again, this feels very similar to team-based events already. So other than the battleplans and terrain what else is different? Well those battleplans are different and have a special set of rules. However, there this really shines is the Lay Siege battleplan that happens at the strongpoints.
“The defender spends up to 50 resource points to build the strongpoint in their deployment zone, using a mixture of strongpoint terrain warscrolls.”
The Defender can setup one terrain feature in each of the marked sections spending those resource points to do so. What sorts of things will they be able to spend them on? Terrain features like this:
It is worth noting that all of the Strongpoint Terrain feature are going to be considered models in terms of being able to attack them. Smash to Rubble from a monstrous rampage will deal 5 mortal wounds on a 3+ to them instead of instantly destroying them as well.
Now, if you’re like me, you’re probably seeing those rules and thinking “Whoa, attacking a Strongpoint is going to be insane! What’s the point?” The point is, well, points. In this team based mode, you’re fighting for laurels of victory from each individual game. And again, you’re going to take your team scores and add them up to determine the winner. And it turns out winning a Strongpoint battle as the Attacker has some big points to score.
While the East/West games are going to be important, the Strongpoint games are really going to cause the big swings overall. Even a Defender Minor victory really won’t push the scales too far in the Defender’s favor. It’s only a net gain of 2 points. Conversely, a successful Major Victory has a net gain of 15 points in the attacker’s favor — the Defender gets zeroed out in that case.
Personally, I would really like to get my hands on these rules and take an even closer look at how the terrain works and building a Strongpoint table compares. I think it could be a challenging way to run a Team Event, too. “Shadow of the Crone includes complete guidance for running a Strongpoint Assault as a matched play event “– so the resources are going to be there for Event Organizers to give them a go.
If you’re a narrative player these rules also work great for longer campaigns with various teams. I’m sure there’s lots of ways to cut up the battles even if you’re a doing single player teams in a campaign. At that point, maybe it’s four semi-linked battles. Get creative and use these to build the ultimate Strongpoint campaign!
Hopefully this helps these rules seem a little less confusing and even more intriguing!
