I think most new Age of Sigmar players will agree with this: Figuring out exactly what Warscroll Battalions are, where to find them and use them can be a huge pain. In this article, I have gathered everything you need to know about warscroll battalions.
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Last updated: this article was updated with the release of Age of Sigmar 2.0. The latest update is the addition of the Battletome: Beasts of Chaos.
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Notice about Age of Sigmar 2.0 edition:
Be aware that because of the upcoming new edition of Age of Sigmar, everything could be subject to change. I will update this article as soon as the new edition is out and I get a chance to digest it.
Example of a Warscroll Battalion: Kunnin’ Rukk
Above we see a Warscroll Battalion found in the Bonesplitterz battletome. 1. With big fonts on the top we have the awesome title. Who would not like to be a Kunnin’ Rukk Orruk?! This also indicates that this is a battalion within the Bonesplitterz faction. 2. On the left, we have the required units that can be organised in the battalion. You need:
- One Savage big Boss (no more and no less).
- A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 units from either Savage Orruks or Savage Orruk Arrowboys (combined any way you like).
3. On the right, you can read the ability or extra rule that will apply to the units in the battalion. In this case: The units in the warscroll are dead sneaky. In your hero phase, you can pick one of the units from the battalion that is within 10″ of the Big Boss in the Kunnin’ Rukk battalion. That unit can do one of three things:
- Move as if it was the movement phase.
- Shoot as if it was the shooting phase.
- Pile in and attack as if it was the combat phase.
The unit can do this for free and it can still do that action again later. Double the shooting or double the melee attacks sounds incredible, right?
What are the benefits of Battalions?
- Potentially some very good abilities (that can give you some nasty synergetic combos).
- You have the option to set up all the units in the battalion in one go instead of setting up one unit at a time. This will make it so you more can more easily dictate who gets the first turn.
- Each warscroll battalion you include in your army will give you one extra Artefact (from your chosen allegiance or from one of the realm artefacts found in the Malign Sorcery book introduced in Aos 2.0) to use in your army.
- Each warscroll battalion will give you 1 extra command point at the start of the game, that you can use to activate a command ability (you can read more about command points in the core rules for AoS 2.0 page 3)
What is required to take a Warscrsoll Battalion?
- That you fill the warscroll battalion with the minimum required units.
- That you pay the point cost for the battalion as stated in GH17 (if you played matched play).
Other rules regarding Battalions:
If you are running an army of mixed factions (allegiance Order, Death, Chaos or Destruction) you can have battalions from many different factions.- You can include as many battalions as you can legally fit in your army. Each one will give you one extra Artefact for your army as well as one extra command at the start of the game (a single hero can only ever have one artefact).
- Only units in the battalion get the bonus ability from the battalion.
- Some battalions include other battalions. These still count as a Warscroll Battalion (so gives an extra Artefact and command ability).
- A unit or model can only be part of one battalion. But a unit can be part of a battalion that is part of a bigger battalion (
battalionception ?). - Some battalions can give a spell or another ability that can be used on units outside the battalion.
- All units in a battalion are considered to have the keyword stated above the title of the battalion. This is only important for mixed faction battalions. This only counts when determining allegiance ability and not in the game.
- You need to take the exact warscrolls the battalion is mentioning. In some cases, other units will have a keyword that matches the name of a warscroll, but these are not interchangeable. An example: if you need to take an Auric
Runefather you cannot change that with a warscroll that have that the AuricRunefather keyword, but does not have the name on the warscroll. - In some of the newer battletomes, the name of a unit needed in a battalion will be listed in bold. In those cases, the listed name is a keyword and not a specific unit. An example would be the Hag Queen in the Cauldron Guard of the Daughter of Khaine Battletome (see picture below). What this means is that you need to take a unit that has the HAG QUEEN keyword in that battalion, and that could be either a Hag Queen or a Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (this rule is stated on page 15 of the core rules).
- Understrength units (units below their minimum size) cannot be used as part of a battalion.
Are battalions mandatory to be competitive?
The short answer is: no. The long answer is: some battalions are really good and are used a lot. A lot of the battalions went up in price with GHB17 and only a few were used competitively. A few have gone up in points and a few have gone down in points in the Generals Handbook 2018. It remains to be seen how many are good. That said most battalions will give you a nice flavourful buff and are an easy way to build an army. Also, they are a way to compound an advantage and make some pretty insane combos. There is no doubt that factions without powerful battalions are at a bit of a disadvantage. Also, going first is a major advantage and being able to make your army a one or two drop army is really good. My suggestion? Try out a battalion you have never seen used before. It will make you look like a cool hipster-player and who knows, you might break the meta! Oh and if you are starting a new army, that is never a bad idea to look at battalions that fit the models you would like anyway.
Where can I find the Battalions of the different armies?
Here I used to have a loooong list of where the different warscroll battalions where. But it simply got way too unwieldy to manage. Bottom line: get the newest edition of your battletome and you should get the battalions you need. Other than that, White dwarf and various supplements are where you will find battalions you can use.
Age Of Sigmar Warscroll Builder
I believe I've stated enough that I tend towards lore before anything else. I'm interested even more so interested into how the lore is represented in the game. This does not just apply to making sure characters that appear in the lore are models you can play as, but what lore you can gain through the model's rules.That said, the warscrolls are obviously the place where you can find that mixture of lore with rules. So each time I look at a model, I'll be looking at it's warscroll to see what lore we can pull off the abilities, as well as looking at the abilities themselves.
So let's see what the Starter Set has to offer:
Lord-Celestant on Dracoth
What can we learns about the Lord-Celestant from his warscroll? Firstly, he is the consummate battle leader, and most likely the pick of General when used in battle. The warscroll itself states they lead Stormhosts into battle and that combine with his Command Ability to make units around him ignore Battleshock tests helps solidify that.
He's not afraid to get in and do damage himself though, he's skilled, shown from the low target numbers for hitting and wounding. If he charges, he gets extra attacks, showing that he doesn't sit back and watch others fight for him.
His mount, the Dracoth, is a fierce fighter too. Not only does it have the ability to breath lightning upon the battlefield, but it's attacks are vicious, with the ability to do a staggering amount of damage on a high attack roll, as if it knows how to dig those teeth and claws into the weak points of an enemy.
Lord-Relictor
The Lord-Relictor are an interesting part of the Eternal armies. Their armor and reliquary are decked out in icons of death and their abilities seem to stem the Realm of Shyish itself. While an average hand-to-hand fighter, the Relictor's abilities with his Reliquary are his main draw.
He can both heal or harm those around him, either calling down a lightning storm or using the powers of the Realm of Death to get the Eternals back on their feet. It's called out quite explicitly in the fiction that a deal with Shyish and the purple magical energies from that realm are behind this magic which leads one to wonder what deals were struck to make that happen.
Prosecuters
Prosecutors are most certainly the fastest units in the Starter set, not just because of their increased movement, but because of their increase charge. They both get another D6 roll and can have a max of 18' on a charge. On top of that, they spawned magical hammers that they can either throw or use hand-to-hand. They are very much the Eternal's strikers. They can move in, striking as they go, charge in to strike, then move back out to another target.
Retributors
Age Of Sigmar Warscrolls Pdf
The heavy troops of the Eternals, their two-handed hammers are designed just to hit hard. Not only does each attack do 2 damage, but on a 6 to-hit, they do 2 Mortal Wounds, called Blast to Ashes. It's mentioned that their hammers are imbued with ensorcelled sigmarite that allows them to chanel the energy of storms then release them. This is certainly reflected in their attacks.Liberators
Finally, we have the Liberators, the rank and file troops of the Eternals. While they are mostly regular troops, they have a few pieces of lore we can get from it. One, the Sigmarite Shields allowed re-rolls on 1 to Save, showing their superior construction to take hits. Also, there is the Lay Low the Tyrants ability, allowing them to better at hitting units with 5 or more Wounds. This shows that their training is meant to take down heavy hitters and important players of their enemies. While they can take out rank and file troops, their expertise is against specific important enemies, not masses of troops.