Age of Sigmar 4th Ed: The Full Re-Write No One is Asking For.

As was widely fear it looks like the next edition of Age of Sigmar is going to be a full re-write, invalidating all current books and resetting the armies back to indexes. With the disastrous launch of 10th Edition many people are understandably concerned, especially with 3rd edition being the most popular edition yet. At the same time, this may provide some positive changes too. Let’s discuss!

Let’s take a quick look at a summary of the changes as shown on Reddit:

There is some good here. Universal Special Rules (USRs) could be a great way to standardize abilities, something that was a major issue in 40K, and occasionally in AoS. The rules being free at launch is positive, though they will likely be removed once the battletomes start arriving. Changes to weapons, with the individual ranges being reduced, could be great if they come up with creative ways of balancing each options (something they have massively failed to do in 40k). Reactivity is always good, perhaps an end to the you-go-I-go format? (Let’s not get too crazy here).

Let’s also mention the elephant in the room, the double turn. Controversial when it was announced, and controversial today, this rule has become a bit of a shibboleth for players. The amount of hate it got early on made it a big sticking point with some people defending it for years. Thus, it now becomes tricky to remove given that people are invested in its existence. I think it needs to go because it has such a wacky effect on the game, but I sympathize with other people who insist it should be a core part of how Age of Sigmar works. It looks like it is still around in some fashion although it will apparently be more of a choice now, whatever that means.

I also worry we will see a loss of sub-faction rules, which were a great way to provide some flavor for individual armies. While it does make internal and external balance more difficult, it was a great way to make armies seem unique. I will be very disappointed if we see ma 40K-like detachment system, as this had made the game insufferably drab and dull.

This re-write will also serve as a rather macabre case study in how (if at all) GW has learned from the launch of 10th ed. The launch featured armies with such drastic differences in power level it was hard to believe the design teams were even playing the same game. Furthermore there were a litany of errors and mistakes with identical units having differing profiles based on armies, Has GW righted the ship and given the design folks enough time to create a balanced set of rules? We will find out.

What this news does confirm is that GW re-writes the games based on their own timelines more than the state of the game, 40k badly needed a re-write as the rules teams had made a mes of the system that could only be fixed by burning it down and beginning a new. I don’t get that vibe with Age of Sigmar. 3rd ed was popular, arguably the best edition yet. While it did need some tweaks they aren’t as massive as what we are seeing now. This is a bit of a dangerous move as people will be happy with almost anything that replaces a broken game system, but will have a higher standard when it comes to replacing a beloved set of rules. What do you think? What aspects of Age of Sigmar do you hope they will change? And what do you hope they will hold on to?

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