Warhammer: Age of Sigmar has a new Spearhead box and the City of Ash is bringing new battle tactics to the tabletop!
The City of Ash is going to feature two new Spearhead forces for the Skaven and Cities of Sigmar. Along with those forces there’s also new Battle Tactic decks as well as commands and twists to check out.
The Battle Tactics are going to revolve around relics for thematic purposes so let’s get into what those will be in the City of Ash!
As experienced Spearhead commanders know, each army has a deck of battle tactics cards to draw from, each of which contains a goal to strive for and a command that can aid you. You can choose to score a battle tactic at the end of your turn for crucial victory points, or you can use the command for a one-off benefit – either way, the card is spent. Each side of the new gameboard in the City of Ash boxed set – the Shattered Crossroads or the Ashen Bastion – also has a twist deck associated with it. These add an additional rule for the battle round, which will usually be of most benefit to the player currently losing the game.
City of Ash – Battle Tactics & Twists
If you’re unfamiliar with the Battle Tactics/Command cards for Spearhead here’s a quick breakdown. You get to draw these cards and then you can select which option you want to play. So you either get to use the Battle Tactic or Command most of the time. There might be some weird ways to use both parts of the card…but that’s not the point. Anyhow, the first card up is the Material Gains / Grind Them To Dust card.
The top part of the card allows you to score VPs to further your objective goals. The Command option is a potent way to smash your foes again with a second round of fighting, but at a cost of taking some mortal damage. Depending on the situation, that could really pay off.
The next combo card is Cut off the Head / Counter-Charge. The Battle Tactic is all about killing the enemy and scoring points that way. Thankfully, there’s two ways to score it as well.
The Command option allows for a unit to use a charge ability to get into combat even if it’s not your turn to charge. That could be a nice surprise for the enemy.
Now, as far as Twists go, there’s also a few of these depending on which check you’re using. The Shattered Crossroads has a Twist of assassination. It also comes with a fun “Inconspicuous Manhole” which is totally normal and a unit is totally not hiding in there at all…
See, they aren’t hiding! They are using it as an escape route. Totally.
For the Ashen Bastion Twist, they have a bonus for taking over a large terrain feature. But the underdog gets to place a Barrel of Emberstone. That can have some explosive results …but maybe not exactly how you think.
It’s going to cause a unit to get an extra +1 to wound rolls. So hopefully they will cause their enemies to explode in a shower of gore! It’s funny because you’d think it would just explode. But instead of make the target hit harder. Are we sure that’s not warp dust…
Anyhow, all these and more will be in the new City of Ash boxed set. I’m actually looking forward to this one just for the new Spearhead board and rules. I’m not a Cities of Sigmar or Skaven player so, while the models are neat, that’s not really of interest to me personally. Still, I do like Spearhead and think these additions are nice.
Does Emberstone explode? Or maybe it just keeps embers going for a long time…
Don’t Miss:
Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, 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 and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.
Read more at this site