Learning
Rules explained for beginners
By the end of this page you'll understand the handful of core concepts that everything else in the rules builds on.
Rules checked against the
Age of Sigmar can look intimidating from the outside — lots of stats, lots of terms, a rulebook that looks thick. Spearhead strips a lot of that away. Here's what's actually going on underneath it.
It's a game of turns, phases and dice
You and your opponent take turns. Within each of your turns, there are a few distinct phases — moving, shooting, charging, fighting — and in each phase you roll dice to see what happens. I break the whole sequence down on the How a turn works page.
Every unit has a "warscroll"
A warscroll is the card (or page, in digital form) that tells you everything about a unit — how it moves, how it fights, and any special abilities it has. You'll be checking these constantly at first, and that's completely normal, not a sign you're doing something wrong.
In 4th edition, every warscroll has the same four headline numbers. Here's a made-up example unit so you know what you're looking at:
Warscroll
Example Infantry Unit
Illustrative only — not a real warscroll
- Move
- 5"
- Health
- 2
- Control
- 1
- Save
- 4+
| Weapon | Atk | Hit | Wnd | Rnd | Dmg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sword | 2 | 3+ | 4+ | 1 | 1 |
Move is how far it can go in inches. Health is how much damage each model can take. Control is how much each model counts for when holding objectives. Save is the dice roll needed to shrug off a wound.
Most things come down to comparing a number to a dice roll
Attacking, defending and most other actions work the same basic way: you roll a six-sided die, and compare the result to a number on the warscroll. Roll high enough, and the action succeeds. An attack rolls to hit, then to wound, then the target rolls its save — anything that gets through deals damage against the target's Health. This one idea covers the vast majority of what happens in a game.
You're usually trying to hold objectives, not wipe out the enemy
Most Spearhead battleplans (scenarios) are won by controlling objective markers on the battlefield, not by destroying every enemy model. Who holds an objective comes down to control score — add up the Control of your models contesting it and compare with your opponent's. In Spearhead a model only contests an objective while it's standing on it; in full-size games, models within 3" of it count. Keep that in your head during your first few games — it changes how you should be thinking about your moves.
Where to get the actual rules text
This page explains the concepts. For the precise, official rules text and the exact wording of every ability, go to the source:
- The official Warhammer Age of Sigmar rules app and free core rules PDF, published by Games Workshop
- Games Workshop's rules updates, which correct and clarify the rules a few times a year
Next: How a turn works for the phase-by-phase breakdown.