Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Beginner Set Review

boardgamequest.com:

I’ll admit to not being the biggest Games Workshop expert out there, having mainly dabbled in their Warhammer 40k Universe. But fellow BGQ reviewer and all-around good guy George is probably the biggest Warhammer: Age of Sigmar addict I know. He’s constantly telling me how much better Sigmar is than 40k. Whatever! Scifi > Fantasy. Everyone knows that.

But, lest it be said that I don’t have an open mind, when the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Beginners Set showed up from Games Workshop, I figured this was a good chance to try out the system and see what makes it tick.

This Beginner’s Set comes with a 30-page handbook, plastic ruler, 20 Clanrat miniatures, and 5 Stormcast Eternal minis. Before you can play, you first need to assemble the miniatures. But as daunting as that sounds, Games Workshop has gotten miniature assembly down to a science, and these pushfit minis were a breeze to assemble (no glue required). When it comes to gaming minis, Games Workshop is still in a tier all to themselves.

The basics of Age of Sigmar (at least in this Beginner’s Set) is that you have a team of warriors trying to control 5 objectives on them map. On your turn, you can activate each of your units. They can take a move action and a combat action.

There are 3 different types of movement and each is handled using a range ruler. A standard move is up to your unit’s listed speed, but cannot end in combat. You can also run, which adds a 6-sided die (d6) to your speed, but you can’t runif you are already in combat (and can’t run into combat). The final move is a charge, which means that instead of your combat speed, you roll 2d6 and move that far, but must end in combat.

In combat, your unit rolls a d6 equal to its attack stack (1 for Clanrats, 2 for Stormcast). Rolling a 4+ for Clanrats, 3+ for Stormcasts will be a hit. For each hit, the defender can make a save roll. A 6+ saves a Clanrat and a 3+ saves a Stormcast. Any hits not saved-against will kill the unit.

At the end of your turn, if