Age of Sigmar: Will Heroes Rule The Battlefield In 3.0?
Age of Sigmar has some big benefits for heroes on the tabletop and we’re going to cover why they could become a lot more important in 3.0.
In Warhammer: Age of Sigmar 2.0, heroes had a place on the tabletop. They were your casters and your commanders. And a few of them were even massive combat junkies that could smash the enemies lines into dust. Heroes made an impact and in 3.0, things are looking even better for them. But I’m not just talking about the BIG guys (Morathi, Archaon, Nagash, etc). Even your smaller heroes with less than 9 wounds are going to be a lot better off in the new edition.
I Need A Hero
The first thing you might be thinking of that is going to help out the Heroes on the tabletop are the new Heroic Actions. And yes, that’s a big part of it. Having the option to recover wounds, attempt to unbind a spell, step up and get some command points, or even go for that game-winning swing is all great. But that’s are just some of the surface level additions in the new edition.
Another quite obvious change is how Command Point are going to work. Now that units can only receive 1 command a phase and heroes can only issue one per phase, you’re going to want heroes around to help pad your spheres of influence. For the most part, this hasn’t changed a TON but it is a good reason to bring an extra hero.
I’ll Charge That Unit
This is where we start getting into some of the hidden benefits of heroes now – specifically those with less than 9 wounds. In Matched Play, units are going to be smaller (in general). That’s a really GOOD thing for heroes. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. Most Heroes are units of a single-model. It’s a lot easier to get an advantageous position with a single model vs a full unit. Heroes will be able to hit one flank of a unit and not worry about getting hit back by the full brunt of a unit.
Let’s say you’ve got a hero with 9 wounds and he’s charging a unit of 10 models and they are all single wounds. On paper, that’s 9 wounds vs 10 wounds so it’s really not that big of a difference. But on the tabletop, you’ve got a lot more wound density with that hero. Plus, Heroes typically have impact hits or better armor or other abilities that make-up for their lack of physical numbers.
Heroes are also useful for pinning enemy units at the pile in step…
The point is that you’re going to be able to charge those smaller units now and not worry about getting that hero killed if they are unsupported. You only have to engage with 1 model from the unit to get ALL your attacks vs the 10 man unit that needs to pile-in to your hero to get ALL their attacks. This is a pretty big shift from 2.0 and I don’t think folks are really thinking about the impact that it can make.
Smaller heroes are going to be more survivable and will be able to go head-first into units that might not have been able to deal with in previous editions. This goes double for some of your bigger heroes however. One example I’ve often used with newer players is a Great Unclean One vs 20 Chaos Warriors. In 2.0, that Great Unclean One had a chance to win that fight but those Chaos Warriors could drag it down if a round went in their favor.
But now? With the hero boosts alone the GUO has a better shot now. Couple that with the fact that 20 man units might not be as common in the new edition (or in some cases not even possible) and that GUO is sitting pretty. Previously, you’d probably want another unit in there to tip the scales and now you might not need it.
Heroes in 3.0 aren’t invincible. They are going to be very versatile and you might want to consider taking an extra one or two in your lists (especially now that everyone is going to have to rework their armies anyhow).
What do you think? A return to Herohammer? No change at all? Or somewhere in the middle?
