A new edition means more than just a massive box full of cool new miniatures; it’s the opportunity for the Warhammer Studio to take another look at the rules and make the game even better.
The core mechanics of the game are already much loved and working well, so the team took the opportunity to give them a thorough review and add more flavour.
Here are our five favourite revisions and additions.
Challenges
You can’t move in the Age of Darkness for bumping into epic heroes, carving out legends that will echo for 100 centuries.
When two of these figures meet in combat, it should be an epic battle for the ages, so there are now a suite of options for high-level characters involved in challenges to outfight, outthink, and outmanoeuvre their opponent. These hard-fought duels capture the feel of the dramatic showdowns from the Horus Heresy novel series, as well as increase the usefulness of these epic heroes to your battleplan. And they’re great fun.
Gathering your Legion
Army construction has been overhauled this edition. There are fewer limitations on your army composition, allowing you to build whatever thematic force is in your mind.
This means you can build an army of jetbikes, or Dreadnoughts, or whatever else takes your fancy.
The rules also let you add allied detachments to your force, perhaps representing two Legions fighting alongside each other, or a force supported by stoic Auxillia or arcane Mechanicum allies.
There are still benefits to bringing some of the ubiquitous but perhaps less specialist units to the field, with bonuses to your leaders and battleline infantry if they are taken as part of a balanced force, but there are no penalties for a more unusual army. And as you can tell from the pictures, Drop Pods are returning to the game.
Tactical status
There are more ways to control the battlefield than just killing your enemy! Tactical Status is a new way to represent the debilitating effects of the more exotic weapons of the era. Pinning enemy formations into place, breaking unit cohesion, and shattering the resolve of their warriors can all form part of your strategy.
There are four statuses: Pinned, Suppressed, Stunned, and Routed, which are represented by the useful plastic tokens that come in the Saturnine box.
Advanced characteristics
Where the mental fortitude of a warrior was previously represented by Leadership alone, there are now four Advanced Characteristics for each unit. These are Leadership, Willpower, Intelligence, and Cool – which oldheads will remember from the Rogue Trader era of Warhammer 40,000, and which add more nuance between units for a variety of in-game tests.
A Legion Psyker might have very high Willpower, while a tech-adept or communications specialist will have high Intelligence. Here’s how that looks on a Legionary:
As you can see, this Legionary has all 7s in the new stats. You test against LD, CL, WP and IN on 2D6, aiming to roll equal or lower. A Tech-thrall has a Cool of 12 (they’re not easy to rattle) but everything else is 4s. The mightiest warriors of the age – the Primarchs – can push these stats well into double figures.
Weapons, reworked
Ranged and close-combat weapons of all types have gone through some major changes, including new stats. All weapons now have a Damage characteristic, similar to Warhammer 40,000, while combat weapons now mostly work by modifying the base users’ melee characteristics – Strength, Attacks, and Initiative.
We’ll have more information on all these rules – as well as other smaller changes – in the weeks to come. For now, head back to the hub to read the rest of the day’s reveals.
