Warhammer Age of Sigmar is Games Workshop’s fantasy mass-battle game, set in the sprawling Mortal Realms. Like its sci-fi cousin, it runs on fistfuls of six-sided dice passed through a short chain of rolls — but it layers on its own flavour with rend, battleshock and a shared pool of command points.
What dice Age of Sigmar uses
Age of Sigmar uses six-sided dice almost exclusively. Results are written as target numbers — “3+”, “4+” and so on — meaning “roll that number or higher on a d6 to pass”. A weapon’s Attacks value sets how many dice you roll, and some effects use a d6 for variable results. Because everything is a d6, the whole game is a matter of stacking and denying small percentage edges.
The attack sequence
When a unit attacks in the shooting or combat phase, each attacking model’s weapon makes its Attacks, and every attack runs the same chain:
| Step | What you roll |
|---|---|
| 1. Hit roll | Roll a d6 per attack against the weapon’s to-hit value (e.g. 3+). Passes become hits. |
| 2. Wound roll | For each hit, roll a d6 against the weapon’s to-wound value. Passes become wounds. |
| 3. Save roll | The defender rolls a d6 per wound against their Save, worsened by the weapon’s Rend (e.g. Rend −1 turns a 4+ save into a 5+). A failed save lets the wound through. |
| 4. Damage | Each unsaved wound inflicts the weapon’s Damage, removing models as their Wounds are used up. |
Rend is the key lever here: it degrades the enemy’s armour save, so high-Rend weapons are how you crack heavily armoured units that would otherwise shrug off ordinary attacks.
Battleshock
Age of Sigmar’s morale mechanic is battleshock. After the fighting, units that have taken casualties may be forced to take a battleshock test — roll a d6, add wounds suffered, and compare to the unit’s Bravery. Fail and the unit suffers — models can flee or the unit becomes shaken and less effective — so grinding an enemy down does more than remove models: it can break what remains. (The precise consequences have varied between editions, so check your current core rules.)
Command points and the hero phase
Each turn generates command points, spent on command abilities such as All-out Attack (better hitting), All-out Defence (better saving), Rally (recover models) or Redeploy. Many are issued by Heroes, who also cast spells and carry auras that buff nearby units. Managing these points — and protecting the Heroes who unlock them — is central to the game.
How a turn plays out
A battle round is split into two turns, one per player, and crucially the priority roll at the start of each round decides who goes first — the same player can sometimes act at the end of one round and the start of the next, a “double turn” that can be devastating. A turn runs through its phases — hero, movement, shooting, charge, combat — scoring victory points for holding objectives. The game is won on objectives and victory points, not simply on destroying the enemy.
Winning and effective strategy
- Objectives win games. Like most modern Warhammer, victory is scored on the map. Position to claim and hold objectives even at the cost of casualties; a smaller force standing on the right ground beats a bigger one that wandered off.
- Sequence your combats. In the combat phase players alternate activating units, so choosing which unit fights when is a real skill — strike first with a hammer to thin an enemy before it can swing back, or activate a durable unit to bait the opponent.
- Buff before you strike. Hero auras, spells and command abilities layer up. A unit under All-out Attack, a to-hit buff and a mystic shield is worth several unbuffed units — concentrate those buffs on your hammer.
- Bring Rend to armour. Massed low-Rend attacks bounce off elite saves. Keep some high-Rend or high-Damage weapons to answer the enemy’s toughest units.
- Respect the double turn. Deploy and move so that losing the next priority roll won’t let your opponent act twice in a row and wipe an exposed unit. Never over-extend into a possible double turn.
Beginner tips and common mistakes
- “4+” means 4 or higher. Lower targets are better; a 2+ save fails only on a 1.
- Only carry the dice that passed. Hits go to the wound roll, wounds to the save — don’t re-roll the whole handful at each step.
- Don’t ignore Rend. Forgetting to apply it to the defender’s save quietly cheats one side; apply it every time.
- Play the mission. Charging headlong into the biggest enemy unit feels heroic and usually loses on points. Score objectives.
- Protect your Heroes. They unlock command abilities, spells and buffs; lose them early and your whole army gets weaker.
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