Age of Sigmar: Battlescroll Update Has A Big Change To Wards And ‘Bodyguards’
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar just had a new Battlescroll Update. The Ward clarification has some interesting implications for Bodyguards.
Yesterday we talked about the announcement of the new Battlescroll for AoS. We touched on a few of the big themes and “in your face” changes. But we’ve had some time to process the Battlescroll and something popped up and it has to do with Wards in AoS. I was chatting with a friend of mine and he pointed out the Ward change that seems to be flying under the radar. To be fair, it’s in the Core Rules Update so you have to check that out and read that document to find it.
Did you catch the change? It’s the “…or to allocate a wound or mortal wound to a unit other than the original target” part of the change. The community has basically called those types of things a “Bodyguard” roll or save. It’s not the official term and there are many variations of this ability. However, all of those abilities are now classified as wards and are referred to as a ward roll now.
Will You Be My Bodyguard?
So why does this change matter? There’s three big things that this touches on:
- “Bodyguard” abilities are ward rolls now
- You cannot take another ward roll on either the hero or the bodyguard unit after the wound has been reallocated (it’s the one ward per wound rule see below)
- Effects that prevent ward saves also prevent “Bodyguard” abilities
See — only one ward roll can be attempted once per wound allocated unless otherwise stated by the ability.
This matters because this is probably the most clear the “Bodyguard” abilities have been. There’s zero room for questions or ambiguity here. “Bodyguard” abilities are wards. This also matters because things that improve ward rolls should also apply to these “Bodyguard” abilities. And that could be an unintended consequence.
Here’s one example from the Ossiarch Bonereapers Immortis Guard. This is their Soulbound Protectors ability from the AoS App. This is now considered a ward that is passed on a 2+. It’s a good thing there’s no way to give this save a +1 on the roll because there’s no rule about wards failing on a 1. Because that would make it a 100% success to shove the wound on to the Immortis Guard. And yeah, they can’t then get a ward for that wound…but the original target is protected. What’s that? Lode of Saturation? +1 to ward? Oh…
Anyhow, this is just a weird cornercase thing that I’m sure will never, ever come up in the real world on the tabletop. It’s not like that’s a thing people do, right?
We Must Protect Our Target
Another fun interaction is “how does this change impact things that negate a ward roll?” Things like the Kharadron Overlords “disable ward saves grenade” attack. If you want to use it to the best effect, do you use it on the Hero or the “Bodyguard” unit? The way it should work is to use it on the Hero since they are the ones technically making the ward roll to shove the wound over to the Bodyguard. The reason being is the wound has to be allocated to them first before it can be redirected. And you’re wanting to stop the redirection (which is the ward roll).
If you take nothing away from this article just remember these four points:
- “Bodyguard” abilities are ward rolls now
- You cannot take another ward on either the hero or the bodyguard unit after the wound has been reallocated
- Effects that prevent ward saves also prevent “Bodyguard” abilities
- There’s no rule that makes wards auto fail on a roll of a 1
You can call me Al.
