Warhammer Age of Sigmar Core Book

by Games Workshop

The Age of Sigmar began with the thunderous arrival of the Stormcast Eternals, borne upon the heavenly storm of the God-King Sigmar. Great heroes, snatched up at the moment of death and magically reforged, the sought vengeance on the followers of darkness, and the re-taking of the realms from Chaos. Yet in Shyish, the Realm of Death, the dark sorcery of Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead aims to transform the Mortal Realms into an ordered empire of mindless thralls. This is a new epoch, a time of mighty battles and unending war. This is the Age of Sigmar!

The Age of Sigmar is an epic setting populated by myriad armies, powerful heroes and magnificent monsters. It plays host to vast, realm-spanning wars between the forces of Order and Chaos, Death and Destruction. In the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Core Book, you’ll not only learn the rich history of this war-torn Age, but you’ll find all the rules you need in order to evoke these epic stories on the tabletop.

Contained in this 320-page hardback

Background

- The Tale of this first section of the book contains a detailed, illustrated story-so-far, from the shattering of the world-that-was to the present. This covers 3 major
- The Age of Myth, Sigmar’s journey through the cosmos, his meeting with the Great Drake Dracothion and his exploration of the 8 Mortal Realms, his awakening of other gods, the building of civilisations and the fractious alliances that were forged;
- The Age of Chaos, brought about by the machinations of the Chaos Gods and their command of the Realm of Chaos, spitting daemon legions forth and destroying the peace that once reigned;
- The Age of Sigmar, in which vengeance against the Chaos Gods was meted out with celestial fury in the Realmgate Wars, with detailed background on Nagash’s dire plan to take back every mortal soul – which he sees as his by right. His necroquake, which has caused every dead being in the Mortal Realms to be reconnected with its essence, has led to wild, untamed magics and undeath taking hold in every realm – and thus the Soul Wars have begun…

- The Mortal background on each of the 8 Mortal Realms – Azyr, Shyish, Ashqy, Chamon, Ghur, Ghyran, Hysh, and Ulgu – details of their links, descriptions of the native civilisations that have risen and fallen, key events that have taken place and notable geological features; along with details of the Realm of Chaos, a nightmarish dimension home to the Chaos Gods and legions of terrifying hellspawn;

- Factions of the Mortal descriptions of the armies that fight in the Mortal Realms, each featuring a showcase of beautifully-painted Citadel miniatures, split into 4 sections according to their Grand Alliances;

- The Forces of a detailed overview of each of the following Order factions – Stormcast Eternals, Fyreslayers, Kharadron Overlords, Sylvaneth, Daughters of Khaine, Idoneth Deepkin, Seraphon, and The Free Peoples (an alliance of human, aelf and duardin spurred on to fight);
- The Forces of a detailed overview of each of the following Chaos factions – The Everchosen, Slaves to Darkness, Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Skaven, the various Creatures of Chaos, and Brayherds & Warherds;
- The Forces of a detailed overview of the following Death The Deathlords, Nighthaunts, Flesh-eater Courts, The Soulblight Curse, and The Necromantic Hosts;
- The Forces of a detailed overview of the following Destruction factions – Ironjawz, Bonesplitterz, Beastclaw Raiders, and The Savage Tribes (a gathering of disparate orruks, grots, ogors, troggoths and gargants ready for Waaagh!).

Rules

The second section of this book contains a wealth of new and updated rules, a veritable treasure chest of ways to play games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, each rule and each concept entirely optional making it possible to play your games the way you

- Battles in the Mortal containing the core rules, this section is about exploring the fantastical, battle-filled Mortal Realms in your tabletop games. It contains the
- The Core everything from mustering your army to deciding the victor is covered here, with easy to follow guides on the things you need to play a game, how to set them up and how to actually play – how to cast spells, use heroic abilities, move your troops, shoot, charge, fight, and test for battleshock, with illustrated examples and clear explanations of exactly how each phase works;
- An explanation of rewards and bonuses victorious armies can carry over to their next battle;
- Terrain rules, with a table featuring special statuses for scenery pieces and an explanation of how terrain can be garrisoned;
- Details of Battleplans – a set of rules that define how the battlefield is set up, where armies will be placed, objectives to be secured and the final victory conditions of your game, with an easy to follow Battleplan included as an example;
- An explanation of the workings of every Ci...

Genres: Fantasy, Games

320 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2018

About the author

Games Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been interested in the game for at least a little bit, I decided that the new edition (with a new rulebook) was the perfect time to dip my toe in. Grabbed the starter box, which came with this beautiful rulebook that I have finally managed to read.

For me, there were two things I wanted from the rulebook. The rules (obviously), and background information.

On the rules front, I think they've done a good job. The rules are VERY short, but quite easy to follow, quite easy to see how the flow of the game is, and really, they've written what looks to be a fun ruleset.

The background, however, is a mess. The early part is a very good read, but some parts of it feel cluttered and disorganized. As someone who played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy, I really wanted the background to help get me sucked into this new world, and I don't feel like it did a great job. However, it's certainly not awful- just a bit difficult to read in places.

Overall, if you're interested or curious, I think this is worth the time to read. I'm glad I did!

[Kassar Krennic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read!

While the rules are fun, I'm here for the lore so I am basing this score upon that. If you've seen my recent reviews for the Realmgate Wars series of campaign books, you will know that I am re-reading the AoS lore from the very start. Upon finishing all the 1st edition books and supplements, I moved on to this rulebook, I was looking forward to it as I remember it being quite good. And it's just as great as I remember :)

The book is filled with hundreds of pages of amazing art and unique, interesting lore all about the Age of Sigmar universe. We get a history of the setting, from the moment Sigmar awoke to the dark days of the Necroquake, that also serves as a good recap of everything that happened during the Realmgate Wars. We also get to see what has been happening in the post-Storm of Sigmar era. Cities are being founded, countries, kingdoms and nations formed and civilisation in general is slowly returning to the Mortal Realms. The book also goes into great detail about the Necroquake and Soul Wars, although the part about the actual war is rather small since the big parts of the Soul Wars happened later in 2nd edition.

On top of this, the book also gives you a very detailed, fascinating breakdown of every major Realm, from Ghyran to Ulgu, Azyr to the Realm of Chaos, you get to see it all. Much of the information in this section is very intriguing and it was this book, all those years ago, that first got me so interested in Ulgu and the mysterious events unfolding within that unknowable Realm.

Once you get through that, you're onto the final section of the lore which is a brief, but useful, breakdown of every major faction in the setting (by the time of 2nd edition). While I know all the faction's fairly well, this was still an enjoyable part of the book that would be very useful if you've never read the lore of AoS before.

All in all, this is a brilliant book that you should 100% read if you've an interest in Age of Sigmar! It's a great repository of information that gives you a great understanding of AoS.

[Eliran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have followed the Age of Sigmar(AOS) setting since it's beginning back in 2015. I have quite enjoyed most of the publications, especially the campaign books. They all have the reputed GW quality, being great meaty tomes with lots of content and fantastic artwork. The Age of Sigmar 2.0 Rulebook is no exception, carrying on this great precedence.
A great chunk of this book is dedicated to establishing the lore and background of the Age of Sigmar setting, something that was woefully lacking back in the system's early days. The lack of an origin story wasn't too bothering for me, but the first story arc of AOS dove straight into the Realmgate Wars campaign, leaving very little to set up this new game, diving straight into the action. This book ties in the events of all the initial campaign books and gives snippets of the goings on of the different factions and grand alliances within the game. Establishing a detailed yet loose cosmology for the different magical realms was also excellent, along with wonderful images of the beautifully painted Citadel miniatures. You as the player have an idea what these magical domains are and how they behave, but are given lots of leeway in order to create and "roleplay" out whatever you want.
The gaming aspect is also well executed in this book. Gone is the 4 page fold out of the AOS rule set, being expanded into 18 pages, but still keeping the simplicity that AOS is known for.
Following in the same vein as the General's Handbook, this book explains the 3 main ways to play: Open, Narrative and Matched play. Each variant caters to different players and this book gives players the tools to craft whatever games you want to play. Open is the most relaxed form of play, following how AOS initially began, with players simply throwing down whatever models they want to play with. Narrative has a bit more structure, based around the narrative within the AOS lore: perhaps you want to re-enact events from an AOS novel, or the events based off your favorite characters from the lore? Have at it! Matched play is what most players maybe used to, coming from other gaming systems: in this format, all units have point values and different battlefield roles. Armies are built to adhere to certain point limits to ensure as matched and balanced play as possible.
Overall, this book is excellent. Combined with the rich lore preceding the rules, players are given much freedom in however they want to craft their Age of Sigmar games in the perilous and magical Mortal Realms.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the rules are available online, this is more something for people with an interest in the lore. It's interesting stuff, but a lot of it feels like a massive info-dump, and of course the races are all detailed but not entirely so that you'll go for the battle tomes as well.

That being said, the artwork is great, as well as the pictures depicting games using the models, and over all it's a very well put together book.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any Age Of Sigmar readers!

If like me you've read the End Times books and have started the new AOS series your probably wondering how we went from then now. This book explains exactly what happened after the End Times and also sets the scene going forward.

Great companion novel, a must read 👌🏻🙌🏻🙏🏻

[Robert Brightwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The game rules are good. The background material is really not well written. I found it very repetitive and difficult to follow. It seems like it was written by a team of writers with little in the way of cooperation.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I'm an active player of Age of Sigmar, I'm also a fan of the lore, and this kind of material helps a lot to understand a little bit each part of the many races and cultures and their motivations.

For the hobby and the ways to play the game, I think it is just a reaffirmation.

[Eric Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good core Rulebook. Essential for playing the game. Fleshes our some details of the Mortal Realms for the novels but certainly not essential for the fiction.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the fluff! I look forward to playing.

[Bart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork, interesting descriptions of each faction, definitely work of art.