Age of Sigmar: Rules (Part 2)

And I'm back to discuss Age of Sigmar. Last time, I went over the general rules for the game including army construction, setting up the battlefield, army deployment, and victory conditions. This time, I delve into the actual rules for playing a game of Age of Sigmar and address a few of the more controversial or confusing aspects of the game. Let's get into it!
Battle Rounds
A game of Age of Sigmar is divided into a series of Battle Rounds (or turns, as they are more commonly known). Games can be a set number of Battle Rounds based on agreement between the players, the rules of a scenario, or set on completely a specific objective (like wiping out all of an opponent's models).

In comparison to prior incarnations of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, in Age of Sigmar, the determination of who goes first during each round is determined EACH Battle Round rather than at the start of the game. Thus, at the start of each round, both players roll a d6 (or any die really so long as both players roll the same type) and the player who rolls highest CHOOSES who goes first for that particular Battle Round. Roll off in the case of a tie. This is an interesting dynamic to the game as it adds a level of initiative planning to your strategy that has not been present in the fantasy-based gaming system for quite a while. Usually, you set up your plan knowing that your opponent goes next, but the opportunity to go second one round and set up charges with key units and then get to go first the next round and charge before your opponent has a chance to move his units away has a huge impact on planning and unit movement. Although turn initiative is determined by fate and the favor of the Dice Gods, random initiative is a major strategic force that smart generals will be able to plan for and capitalize on in their games.

Each Battle Round (or turn) consists of six (6) separate phases:

1. Hero Phase
2. Movement Phase
3. Shooting Phase
4. Charge Phase
5. Combat Phase
6. Battleshock Phase

One player completely finishes out his turn, moving from one phase to the other until all six phases are completed. Then the other player takes his turn in its entirety. This is important in Age of Sigmar because, as will be addressed further down, a single Battle Round there are two combat phases and two battleshock phases. These are phases when both players units act or have to take tests. Thus, in a single Battle Round a player's units could be involved in two whole combat phases and have to take two separate battleshock tests.

Pre-Battle Abilities
Some unit warscrolls may have abilities that trigger at the start of the game or allow you to use the ability after set-up of the battlefield and army deployment is complete. Any pre-battle abilities are used before the first Battle Round and if you forget to use the ability and start the game, tough. You just wasted that ability. If both players have pre-battle abilities then the players roll off and whoever (or is it whomever?) rolls highest gets the choice to use his ability first, followed by his opponent.

Hero Phase
The Hero Phase is the first phase in each Battle Round. This is the phase where players get the opportunity to cast magic spells or use Command Abilities. Further, any unit that has an ability listed on its warscroll that can be used or activated in the Hero Phase is similarly used or activated in this phase. For example, many totems or standard bearers can plant (or use) the standard during the Hero Phase to gain an ability for that Battle Round or for the entire battle.

You can only use these abilities during your own Hero Phase unless the ability specifically states that you may use the ability or that the ability is activated IN EACH HERO PHASE. If, by some chance, both players have abilities that are used or activated in the Hero Phase, the player whose turn it is gets to use ALL of their abilities first, followed by his opponent.

In your Hero Phase, your army General can use ONE (and only one unless the ability specifically states otherwise) Command Ability. Command Abilities are listed on the character warscroll and can include abilities to grant re-rolls or bonuses to units, make units immune to battleshock tests, and a myriad of other useful and (sometimes) game changing special abilities.

Each character has its own (or sometimes more) Command Ability that it can use in the Hero Phase throughout the game. Check out the Mighty Lord of Khorne warscroll. He comes with a specific Command Ability granted only to him as listed on his warscroll entitled Gorelord. Additionally, each player's General also has the Inspiring Presence command ability. The Inspiring Presence command ability allows the player to pick a unit within 12" of the General. The unit chosen by the player does not have to take battleshock tests until the player's next Hero Phase (thereby bypassing TWO Battleshock Phases). 

Magic
As the casting and dispelling of magic also takes place during the Hero Phase, let's now turn to those rules. Some models, perhaps because they are slightly cooler than others or went to a special school on some secret island, have an innate ability to case magical spells during the course of a game. These models are known as Wizards and have the Wizard keyword (or some similar  listed on the there warscroll. During your Hero Phase you can use your own wizards to cast spells and during an opponent's Hero Phase you can use your wizard to unbind your opponent's spells.

Each wizard has a special list of spells that it can attempt to cast during each Hero Phase listed on the wizard's warscroll. Thus, rather than choosing a lore with a range of spells, you choose the wizards warscroll during army construction that have the specific spells you wish to cast during a game. The number of spells that a particular wizard can attempt to cast (or unbind) is also listed on the wizard's warscroll. From what I have seen, most basic wizards can only attempt to cast or unbind a single spell in each Hero Phase, but the more powerful wizards (and especially some named special characters) can attempt to cast or unbind several spells. Regardless of the number of spells a wizard can attempt to cast a turn, a wizard can ONLY ATTEMPT TO CAST EACH SPELL ONCE PER BATTLE ROUND. So if you fail, you fail. Tough love!

Besides knowing the spells listed on the warscroll each wizard also knows two additional spells: Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield. Arcane Bolt (which has a casting value of 5) allows a player, if successfully cast, to pick a visible enemy unit within 18" of the casting wizard to immediately suffer d3 Mortal Wounds (Mortal Wounds will be discussed in more detail later). Mystic Shield (which has a casting value of 6) allows a player, if successfully cast, to pick a visible friendly unit within 18" of the casting wizard to gain a +1 bonus to ALL SAVE ROLLS made by the unit until the start of that player's next Hero Phase.

Casting a spell in Age of Sigmar is easy. Simply choose the wizard you wish to cast with and then choose the spell. After you have chosen the wizard and the spell, roll 2d6. If the total of the 2d6 roll is EQUAL TO or greater than the casting value of the chosen spell, the spell is cast successfully. If the roll is less than the casting value, the spell IS NOT cast successfully. Note, here, that you do not need to pick the target of your spell until the spell is successfully cast (unless stated otherwise in the spell). This allows you to not give up your strategy unless you are successful with the spell.

Attempting to unbind a spell in Age of Sigmar is similarly easy. If an opponent successfully casts a spell and you have at least one VISIBLE wizard of your own within 18" of the casting wizard (and visible is important as you can hide single models fairly easy with standard terrain) you can attempt to unbind the spell. Roll 2d6 and if the total of the 2d6 roll is GREATER THAN (not equal to) the roll to CAST the spell, then the unbinding attempt was successful and the effects of the cast spell are NEGATED. However, if the total of the 2d6 roll is less than or equal to the roll to cast the spell than the unbinding attempt is not successful. Regardless of the number of visible wizards within 18" of the casting wizard, only ONE attempt can be made to unbind each spell.

Looking at these rules it is apparent that casting has been made much easier than in 8th Edition. First off, unbind attempts are only successful on a higher roll on 2d6 which means that a successfully cast spell is much less likely to be unbound than dispel attempts in 8th edition (which only had to equal the casting roll to be successful). Second, wizards can only attempt to unbind a spell if they are within 18" of the casting wizard AND if the casting wizard is visible. This allows players to target units with spells that are ahead of an opponent's wizard without worrying about unbinding attempts. Further, it allows players to hide wizards behind terrain pieces to block line of sight and prevent unbinding attempts from enemy wizards.

If you look at lots of the rules changes used in many Age of Sigmar events (which I will be going into in depth in upcoming posts), some rule sets change the basic rules to allow any enemy wizard to attempt to unbind successfully cast spells regardless of distance or visibility to the casting wizard (sometimes with a -1 penalty to the 2d6 roll). This takes away some of the strategy is using and hiding wizards, but at the same time it takes away some of the power from wizards being able to completely dominate an area of the battlefield where a player has no wizard of their own.

Having taken a look at the various wizards and even the most basic spells that each wizard gets, I would say that taking a wizard in a game is almost mandatory (as nothing is really mandatory in a wargame like this). I know there will be players who never choose to take wizards. But in comparison to 8th edition where there were lots of different army builds that could survive and thrive without a wizard on the battlefield, in Age of Sigmar, the lack of a wizard is detrimental if your opponent has brought his own (or more than one). Although there are no longer game breaking spells like Infernal Gateway, The Dweller's Below, Pit of Shades, Dreaded Thirteenth, etc. that killed entire units of troops or single models quite readily, the availability of spells that can grant bonus armor saves or negate wounds (including mortal wounds) means that it is entirely possible to face armies that have a 1+ armor save (or even a 0+ armor save - also known as the can't fail this turn) or prevent all wounds afflicted on the unit thereby preventing your entire army from doing anything against that unit. This is not the type of game most players want to be playing or the type of army they want to be facing. Easiest answer is just to take a wizard of your own, if only for the chance to unbind some spells.

Further, I will say that the basic rules for Magic make summoning additional units onto the battlefield way to easy, but I am going to address summoning issues in an entirely separate post as the issue is too large and convoluted to address with other rules.

Movement Phase
In Age of Sigmar, movement is done unit by unit. Pick one unit and move each model in the unit a number of inches up to the movement value of the unit listed on the unit's warscroll. Movement can be in any direction, including vertically to climb onto or over terrain. As stated previously, all models in a unit must end their movement within 1" of another model from that unit. Further, no model can be moved more than once during each movement phase. After you have finished moving one entire unit, chose a new unit and repeat the process.

It is important to note that models can cross or climb over terrain, but cannot move through terrain as if it was not there. Similarly, models cannot be moved across other models including you own units. Further, you MAY NOT move any model to within 3" of any enemy model. If a unit has a model that starts the Movement Phase within 3" of an enemy model, that unit only has two choices: it can either (1) stay put and not move a single model, or (2) the entire unit can retreat. If a unit retreats then all models from the unit must end their movement more than 3" away from all enemy units (but the unit does not have to move backward, it can move in any direction so long as the models end their movement outside of 3" of all enemy units). If a unit chooses to retreat, then that unit CANNOT shoot or charge later in the turn.

When you choose a unit to move, you may declare that the unit will make a special movement ability called RUN. If a unit chooses to run, roll a d6 and add the number rolled to the unit's movement value in inches. So if you have a movement value of 6" and roll a "4" on a run roll, the units new movement value for that movement phase is 10". Any unit that chose to run CANNOT shoot or charge later in the battle round just like a unit that chose to retreat. Thus, running is only useful if your unit will not be able to do anything else during the current Battle Round.

Some units have a special ability that allow them to FLY over other units. Units that have the fly special ability can pass over other models or scenery as if the models or scenery were not there (i.e. they don't have to pay movement value for climbing over terrain and are not blocked by other units). However, a unit with the fly ability may still not end its movement within 3" of an enemy unit. Further, if the unit starts its movement phase within 3" of an enemy unit, the unit with fly can only choose to remain stationary or retreat. It cannot use its flying ability to move normally. Units with fly also still have to maintain 1" unit coherency at the end of the movement phase.

I am sure that there will be additional special movement rules for new units that GW comes out with and there may even be some in all of the warscrolls released for all the old armies, but I haven't read through every warscroll available yet. Maybe one day I will do an army by army warscroll break down. We'll see.

Shooting Phase
After the Movement Phase comes the Shooting Phase. As a long time Wood Elf player, the shooting phase has always been my favorite so I was really interested to see how Age of Sigmar handles ranged attacks. Truth be told, after reading through the rules I was disappointed as I feel that Age of Sigmar makes shooting attacks unbelievably powerful. Way above and beyond anything that has ever been in a GW ruleset. Check it out and see for yourself.

In the Shoot Phase each of your units armed with any type of missile weapon can make a shooting attack. Simply pick any unit that has a missile weapon (bow, breath attack, cannon, etc.) that has also not ran or retreated during the Movement Phase. Each model in that unit then attacks with ALL of the missile weapons it is armed with on its warscroll. So if a model has a bow, it attacks with the bow. If a model has a throwing axe and a ranged breath attack, the model attacks with both of those weapons. After all of the models in the unit have shot, chose another unit and repeat.

Shooting attacks are governed generally by the rules for Attacking and Wounding (which will be addressed below in detail), but some important considerations should be addressed here. First, a unit that wants to attack in the shooting phase uses the missile weapon listed on the warscroll. That weapon will determine the maximum range of the attack, the number of attacks with that weapon, and the damage caused by the weapon. Second, a unit composed of more than one model does not all have to shoot at the same target. In fact, the rules specifically allow you to choose a new target with each model in the unit so long as that target is visible to the attacking model and within the maximum range of the missile weapon. Third, there is no restriction about shooting into combat. In fact, shooting into combat is completely allowed and there is no penalty to such and attack as you have ZERO chance to hit your own models. Thus, an extremely common and viable tactic is to charge a unit with a large combat unit and then whittle it away with shooting attacks by your missile troops. If these changes don't make shooting extremely powerful, then nothing will. People were afraid that moving to skirmished movement rules would make the game more like Warhammer 40K, but these rule changes to the Shooting Phase have taken Age of Sigmar in an entirely different direction to a place where 40K shooting looks tame in comparison.

These Shooting Phase rules are also some of the more commonly changed or altered rules for competitive and tournament Age of Sigmar play in the emerging Age of Sigmar gaming community.

Attacking & Wounding
The rules for attacking and wounding apply equally to the Shooting Phase and to the Combat Phase, but now if a good chance to dive into the rules as it provides better context for how the Shoot Phase really works. When a unit attacks, either in the Shooting Phase or the Combat Phase, the first thing you do is choose the target units (note UNITS not UNIT) that you wish to attack. Then determine how many attacks are going to be directed at each target enemy unit. Next, roll those attacks for one unit and determine any resulting damage. Repeat as necessary for each target unit.

The number of attacks a model can make is determined by the weapons listed on the model's/unit's warscroll. For example, Prosecutors come equipped with both missile attacks and melee attacks from their Celestial Hammers. When making a ranged attack, each Prosecutor has two (2) attacks. These attacks can either target the same enemy unit or be split between two enemy units as models with more than one attack can split them between potential targets as you wish. Further, one model may split its attacks while another chooses an entirely different enemy target. Remember, target designation is done model by model within a single unit. No more unit shooting only another unit.

After determining the number of attacks the model has, choose the target for those attacks. In the case of missile weapons, the target must be within the maximum range of the weapon which in the above example is 18", and visible to the target. Note that models within the same unit do not block line of sight to the target unit. In the case of combat attacks, the target must be in combat with the unit and within range of the individual model's melee attacks which in our example is 1".

To make an attack, roll a d6 for each attack directed at a particular target enemy unit. The attack succeeds if the roll on the d6 is EQUAL TO or HIGHER THAN the number in the weapon's "to hit" characteristic. So, for example, a unit of three Prosecutors want to shoot at an enemy unit. The Prosecutors direct all 6 attacks at the enemy unit and will roll 6d6 (one for each attack). For each number on the dice that is equal to or higher than a 4+ (the to hit number of the missile weapon), the attack hits.

After determining the number of hits, if any (who knows maybe you roll as bad as I do sometimes), then you need to determine if any of those attacks wounded. Roll a d6 for each successful attack. The attack wounds if the roll on the d6 is EQUAL TO or HIGHER THAN the number in the weapon's "to wound" characteristic which in our example is 4+. If successful, the enemy unit takes a wound.

For each wound an enemy unit receives, that player must make a save roll. A save roll is made by rolling a d6 for each wound suffered by the enemy unit. The unit passes it save roll if the roll on the d6 is EQUAL TO or HIGHER THAN the number in the unit's save characteristic (which for the Prosecutors is 4+). The unit fails the save if the number is less than the save characteristic.

A unit's save characteristic is modified by the attacking weapon's rend characteristic. For example, Prosecutors' missile attacks do not have a rend value (denoted by the "-" under the rend characteristic). Thus, when Prosecutors successfully wound an enemy unit, that unit does not modify its save roll by any number. However, if that characteristic was "-1" then the enemy unit would modify its save roll by -1. So if a unit rolled a d6 and gets a 5, that roll wound be modified to a 4 and then compared against the save characteristic. It is also possible to positively modify a unit's save characteristic through the use of magic spells or effective use of terrain. For example, any unit that has all of its models within or on a terrain feature adds +1 to that units save characteristic against all attacks unless that unit made a charge move during the same turn.

For each unsaved wound against the enemy unit, the enemy unit takes an amount of damage equal to the amount of damage the weapon causes as listed under the damage characteristic. For example, if a weapon has a damage characteristic of 1 and you cause 1 unsaved wound, the enemy unit takes 1 damage. If, however, the weapon has a damage characteristic of 2 and you cause 1 unsaved wound, the enemy unit takes 2 damage. Note, there are many weapons that cause d3 or d6 damage per wounds. For these weapons, simply roll for the amount of damage caused to the enemy unit,

After all of the attacks made by a unit have been carried out against an enemy unit, count up the total amount of damage caused to that enemy unit. The opposing player then allocates wounds to his models in the targeted unit as he sees fit, with only a few allocation rules. First, wounds must be allocated to the target unit, but they do not have to be allocated to models within range of the attack or that are visible to the attacking unit. Second, if a wound is allocated to a model with more than one wound (many models have two or more wounds listed on their warscroll profile under the wounds characteristic), you must keep allocating wounds to that model until it is slain before you can allocate any remaining wounds to additional models. This rule as written carries over to subsequent phases so that you cannot allocate one wound to a multi-wound model on one turn and then choose a different model to allocate wounds to on the next turn or in a different phase. Finally, if a model is allocated wounds equal to the model's wound characteristic, the model is slain and removed from the battlefield.

The purpose behind the wound allocation rules is to allow enemy payers a choice in which models are killed during the game. Maybe they want to remove all of the closet models from the game so that other units no longer have range to target that unit with missile or melee attacks. Or maybe they want wounds to be allocated on basic models and not on unit special models within the unit like champions, musicians, or standard bearers. As a player taking wounds it is important to properly allocated wounds so that you don't end up removing models with abilities that may help your unit or army in subsequent turns.

Mortal Wounds
Some attacks cause what are known as Mortal Wounds. If an attack causes a Mortal Wound rather than a normal wound (for example, some magic or special shooting attacks only cause Mortal Wounds) do not roll any d6 to hit, to wound, or to save against the wound. Instead, the enemy player simply allocates the number of Mortal Wounds caused to the target unit as per normal wound allocation rules.

Mortal Wounds are some of the most devastating abilities, if not THE most devastating ability, in Age of Sigmar. Even the most basic wizard knows a spell that causes d3 Mortal Wounds. Further, some special attacks cause d3 or d6 Mortal Wounds to an enemy unit within range. These attacks are absolutely amazing as they take out the randomness of dice rolling and allow you to inflict direct damage to your opponent's unit without giving them any chance to save that damage. I would say that it is an absolute necessity to have units in your army that can cause Mortal Wounds, especially with the different army designs running around right now that allow for certain units to never fail armor saving rolls (remember, there is no rule in Age of Sigmar that a d6 roll of a "1" is always a failure as there was in 8th Edition). If you aren't playing with Mortal Wound causing units or abilities in your army then you are playing the game at a severe disadvantage against any player that has Mortal Wound causing units or abilities in their army. And in a competitive environment (like a tournament) or a competitive game I would say that they are MANDATORY inclusions in your army build.

Charge Phase
After you have gone to all of the trouble of moving your units and shooting with your units you can now attempt to charge the enemy units and engage them in close combat. You will remember (hopefully, if your memory isn't horrible) that you cannot finish a model's movement within 3" of an enemy unit. Well, in the Charge Phase you now have the opportunity to get into close combat with the enemy units and have your models within that 3" combat bubble.

In order to charge an enemy unit, pick one of your units within 12" of an enemy model and that did not retreat or run in the movement phase. Roll 2d6 to determine the maximum charge distance for your unit and move a model in your unit up to that distance. The FIRST MODEL that you move must finish its move within 1/2" of an enemy model for the charge to be successful. If that is impossible, then the charge is failed and no models in the charging unit may move during the Charge Phase. For example, let's pretend you have a unit that is 10" away from an enemy unit. If you rolled a 10 or higher on 2d6, one of your models would be able to finish its movement within 1/2" of an enemy model and so your charge would be successful. If however you rolled a 9 or less, your unit would not be able to finish its move within 1/2" of an enemy model and the charge would fail.

The 1/2" rule is important and one of the more intriguing rules in Age of Sigmar. In 8th edition and prior versions of Warhammer you had to be able to make contact with the enemy unit on a charge move, but in Age of Sigmar a model only needs to end up within 1/2". This is important when it comes to determining charge ranges. If you are 7 1/4" away from an enemy unit, in editions past, you needed to roll an 8 or higher on 2d6 to be able to make contact with the unit, but in Age of Sigmar a charge roll of 7 or higher would see you into combat in this example.

Further, the 1/2" rule only requires that the first model that you move finishes its move within 1/2" of an enemy model, it does not require that you engage the closest model in the target unit nor does it require you to move your model in a straight line. Have enough movement to move behind the enemy unit? Go ahead. No rule is stopping you. Want to move to the farthest model that you can reach and not the closest? Totally your choice so long as you end that model's move within 1/2" of an enemy model.

If the charge is successful, move the remaining models in your unit up to the maximum charge distance based on your dice roll. You can move these models however you want up to that maximum distance with the only caveat being that the unit must maintain 1" coherency. With this rule it is possible to engage more than one enemy unit at a time or perform other movement shenanigans and general trickery. If you are curious about what interesting moves can be pulled off with charging units look at some battle reports online. There is some interesting ways of blocking line of site and other tricks that are used with only having one model in combat at the end of the Charge Phase. I don't know how useful these tricks are, but there are out there for you to take a look at and try. I really just like the ability to charge multiple enemy units with a single unit if my opponent has chosen to keep his units too close together.

Combat Phase
After you have moved all of your charging units, you then move into the Combat Phase. The Combat Phase is probably the one phase with the most inherently confusing rules that have led to many online arguments on forums. So let's dive in.

Any unit that has successfully charged during the Charge Phase or has models within 3" of an enemy unit at the start of the Combat Phase due to successful charges in the previous Battle Rounds can make melee attacks in the Combat Phase.

Choose one unit that is engaged in combat (i.e. within 3" of an enemy unit) to attack with. First, each model in the chosen unit MAY move up to 3" towards the closest enemy model. This move allows models with shorter melee range attacks to get into range to attack. However, the important thing to note is that the model must move to the closest enemy model. This creates interesting situations where unit formations can be utilized to prevent enemy units from maximizing attacks. Check out some battle reports online for examples of this technique.

After all models have piled in that have chosen to do so, make all melee attacks the unit is armed with as per the basic rules for attacking and wounding. A model's melee attacks can be directed at any enemy unit that is within range of that melee attack.

After the player whose Battle Round it is has chosen a unit to attack with, the opposing player then chooses one of its units (assuming there are models left after allocating unsaved wounds) to attack with. Note, this does not mean that the opposing player must first choose a unit that was attacked by the other player. Instead, the opposing player can choose any one of this units that is engaged in combat. So if there are multiple combats on the battlefield, the opposing player can choose to attack with a unit that has not yet been attacked.

These slight changes to the combat rules about choosing attacking units increases the tactical value of choosing which unit to attack with. Have a unit with lots of attacks but low armor saves? Perhaps choose that unit first to make sure you get the full number of attacks. In contrast, if you have a small unit with lots of wounds and really good armor saves, it might be better to save them and attack with a different unit. Further, there is tactical play in who you attack. If you opponent has a large unit that won't be able to fully engage all its models even with a pile-in move, then it might be best to allow that unit to attack your unit first just to make sure your opponent is wasting a lot of his attacks. As you play around with Age of Sigmar you will find that it is not necessarily beneficial to just have a giant melee in the center of the battlefield.

The Combat Phase continues in this back and forth manner until both players have attacked with all units engaged in combat. Once the Combat Phase has been completed, the game then moves into the Battleshock Phase.

Battleshock Phase
In the Battleshock Phase any player who had models slain during the course of the current battle round - either through magic, shooting, or melee combat - must make a battleshock test. A player must make a separate battleshock test for each unit that lost a model. The player whose turn it is must make all battleshock tests first.

To make a battleshock test, the player chooses a unit that lost a model and rolls a d6 adding to that roll the number of models from the unit that have been slain that turn (not the number of unsaved wounds taken by the unit). Because a unit only takes a battleshock test if it lost a number you will always be adding at least a +1 to the d6 roll. For each point that modified number exceeds the units Bravery characteristic as listed on the unit's warscroll, one model in that unit flees the battlefield and is removed from play regardless of the number of wounds the model has. The unit taking the battleshock test may add 1 to its Bravery characteristic for every 10 models in the unit at the time the test is taken. The player taking the test gets to choose which models from the unit are removed.

After rolling for one unit, the player must continue rolling for each unit that lost a model during the turn until all units have been rolled for. Then it is the opposing player's turn to roll for all of his units.

The battleshock test is an interesting dynamic to the game compared with the older concept of leadership tests. With battleshock tests it is entirely possible that single models can hold up much larger units for another turn. I plan on exploring the Battleshock Phase in more detail in a tactics post as I go over abilities and spells that interact with the phase in interesting tactical ways. So stay around for that.

After both players have rolled all of their battleshock tests and removed all fleeing models from the board, the current Battle Round ends and the other player now proceeds through his Battle Round. After both players have completed their respective Battle Rounds, the players roll off for initiative again to determine the new play order for the next turn.

That completes my walk-through and review of the Age of Sigmar basic rules. Next week, a similar walk-through of the competitive rules for Age of Sigmar.