Age of Sigmar: Melee Changes And The New Combat Phase

Games Workshop has made major changes to the Combat Phase. Timing and profiles have been changed for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.

Get ready for a new Combat Phase in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar because it’s not just the new combat range that’s changed. Melee is taking the spotlight in this game and GW is making changes the Combat Phase in particular. Let’s get into these changes.

via Warhammer Community

“The melee is the core element of the game, and the rules for fighting at close quarters have been tuned for the new edition to make these conflicts feel more epic than ever before.”

Combat Phase – New Timing And Tweaks

Combat Sequence and Abilities

One of the big changes in the new edition is how the timing of abilities have been completely changed. There is no longer a “start of phase” or an “end of phase” instead, GW has rejiggered the abilities themselves. Now, the abilities are determined by active player first, then their opponent, and then the fighting happens.

“The Combat Phase has one significant difference to other phases: after both players have resolved any of their other abilities for this phase, they then take it in turns to activate units to use FIGHT abilities, starting with the active player. Strikes-first and strikes-last effects are still very much in the mix, occurring on either side of the standard fight timings. “

Players will still alternate using the Fight abilities like they do currently, but when it comes specific unit abilities, the timing has changed. Things like Shield Bash or Crystal Touch will happen before the Fight ability.

That means players will be declaring and using their all their respective unit abilities before declaring Fight abilities. This is going to make the timing of choosing which units get All-Out Attack/Defense cleaner for sure. Additionally, units can no longer make shooting attacks if they are in combat unless they have the Shoot in Combat ability.

Pile-in Moves

Pile-in Moves also changed a bit. Now, the unit committing the pile-in move will choose a target unit the are piling-in to. Each model must end no further from the specific target unit now. Additionally, if they were in combat with other units, they still have to remain in combat of them, too.

This is a subtle tweak but impactful. Also, because of the Fight ability, a unit that charged but somehow found itself out of combat before they activated can still make a pile-in move. You’ll get that extra movement for a successful charge even if you’re out of combat just like you can in the current edition.

Fight Tweaks In Combat

There’s a few terminology changes that have been made in the new edition:

I’m using a screenshot instead of a quote to show that I didn’t leave out a word here. “Unmodified rolls of a 6 are now critical hits” — it doesn’t say  “to hit” or “to wound” in this case. It also doesn’t say “to save” but the implication is we’re talking about offensive rolls here and not defense. Still, this was an updated we say in 40k first, so it’s not a new idea for GW. I’m sure the full rule will spell it out.

Anyhow, what Critical Hits will do is trigger additional effects on attacks. That’s all we need to know for now. Additionally, mortal wounds has been changed to mortal damage. This is likely to help keep all the same terminology from the profile updates (ie, wounds being changed to health).

Rend has also gotten changed in the new edition. It’s no longer listed as a negative modifier — so no “Rend -1” now. Also, GW has said that “rend has been reduced throughout the game.” We’ll see how long that stays in effect in this edition. Furthermore, “save stacking” has been reduced down because positive modifiers to save profiles has been capped at +1.

Allocating Damage

One big change I’m glad to see is how damage allocation has been streamlined. No longer will you need to track which specific model has taken the damage. Now, it’s based on the health stat of the models in the unit.

“Instead of allocating damage points to a model in a unit, damage points are now allocated to the unit as a whole. When the total of damage points allocated to a unit equals the Health characteristic of that unit, the commanding player removes a model from that unit, but they must stay in coherency.”

Now you can just keep track of any “floating” damage on the unit and pull models as needed. As long as you’re still in coherency, you’re good to go.

Coherency Range

Speaking of Coherency, the range has been updated to 1/2″ now. That means every model in the unit must be within at least 1/2″ of at least one model in the unit. If the unit has seven or more models, then each model must be in coherency of at least TWO models in the unit. Coherency is still measured horizontally as well.

Retreating

Battleshock is going away as many folks have noted the lack of the Bravery stat. However, that doesn’t mean units pulling out of combat is gone. Instead, we’ve got a new Retreat rule.

Now when a unit retreats from combat they will take D3 mortal damage. I like this slight tweak as there is now a cost to leaving combat.

Unit Examples And Combat Roles

With a lot of these changes you might be wondering what makes units different in combat. Well, it’s really their combat role and how their melee weapons function. GW has made sure that each unit has abilities for combat and that’s going to make a huge difference on the tabletop.

For example, a unit of Vidictors with Spears makes for a truly deadly shield wall to charge into. Now, they have Hold the Shieldwall which is a 4+ roll for them to gain strike-first. Additionally they also get a new “Anti-charge (+1 Rend)” to their attacks. Considering they come with 1 Rend innately, I’m starting to question GW’s previous statement about rend being reduced throughout the game…

On the flip side, we’ve got Kroxigors who are going to SMASH through enemies lines and are particularly well suited to killing hordes of infantry. Again, against infantry, they have an additional +1 Rend thanks to their weapon ability. That puts them at Rend 2. Without other save boosts, that seems pretty good!

Combat Phase Thoughts

This is our first real look at the changes to the Combat Phase. There are things I like — such as the timing changes and damage allocation. And there are some things I’m a little concerned about like rend and saves. I also appreciated the fact that GW has come out to say that melee is THE core mechanic for AoS. I can’t wait to see how combat will actually work out on the tabletop in the upcoming edition for myself!

That’s a lot of changes coming to combat. What do you think of them overall?

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and Austinite for 15+ years, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.

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