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12 Apr 24

How Battle Traits and Battle

Formations Shape Your Army in
#NewAoS

The way you build your armies has changed in the new edition of Warhammer Age of
Sigmar, and these changes can a!ect everything else in the game, from the priority roll
to your command point economy. We’ve talked about regiments – individual heroes

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 and their retinues of units – and now it’s time to look at the primary rules that govern
your army – Battle Traits and Battle Formations.

Battle Traits

Battle Traits are a series of widespread abilities that are unique to your army. Some of
these will feel similar to existing army rules, but they’ve all been tightened up and
codified to work with the new ability system.

For instance, the Stormcast Eternals have four di!erent Battle Trait abilities that apply
to the army as a whole. While heroic actions are gone, many of those ideas live on, and
Their Finest Hour continues to power up a Stormcast Eternals unit for a turn at a time.

Scions of the Storm returns as a way to blast your gleaming silver warriors into the

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 thick of battle on bolts of lightning, and it now applies to all Stormcast Eternal armies,
rather than needing to pick between this ability and the territory-holding prowess of
the Stormkeeps. As a movement phase ability, it’s paired with a deployment ability
called The Celestial Realm, allowing you to keep your units in High Azyr before battle.

Some Battle Trait abilities may be commands with an associated cost, such as
Heavens-sent. This powerful once-per-battle ability can return a destroyed unit to the
battlefield at half-strength, ready to smash aside the enemies of Sigmar once again.

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 Battle Formations

You will also pick a Battle Formation when constructing your army. These work like
subfactions of old, and exemplify the way a specific force might do battle or represent
the specific tactics it employs – but they’re no longer tied to a particular colour scheme
or location in the world, encouraging players to express their creativity and craft their
own creations.

Each Faction Pack – the decks of cards released alongside the new edition – contains
four Battle Formations, so you can lean into particular strategies and experiment with
new army options from the start.

Take the Thunderhead Host, which prioritises mixing and matching units from the
various Chambers with its Synchronised Strikes passive ability, empowering Warrior

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 Chamber units in combat while they are within 12” of a unit from members of a
di!erent Chamber.

Stormdrake Guard, Dracothian Guard, and other warriors and heroes of the Extremis
Chamber often battle within a Lightning Echelon, their Oncoming Storm ability
conferring one unit per turn the Strikes-first e!ect in combat on a roll of 3+. This kind
of flexibility extends across the Factions, and we’ll be seeing more of what they can do
when we come to the Faction Focuses next month.

Next week, we’ll be digging into the guts of the combat phase, and brushing up on the

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 pious and the profane as we examine the spell casting and prayers in the new edition
of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

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 More to Explore

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 Keep Reading

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04 Apr 23

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