Warhammer: Age of Sigmar to get points system for competitive play

Games Workshop have pulled an incredible New Coke move this week, announcing a new system of points values that will revolutionise Warhammer: Age of Sigmar by making it identical to every other product Games Workshop has ever released.

While Age of Sigmar sales figures are not officially available so it’s impossible to accurately judge how well the new take on Warhammer Fantasy is doing commercially, one of the biggest complaints about Age of Sigmar is that it’s almost impossible to use in competitive play due to a lack of balancing mechanics. One guy even hated it so much that he set his army on fire (we interviewed him about that).

Games Workshop announced the news on Facebook, explaining that not one but three new modes were on their way “soon”:

Open Play is probably the most similar to the way you play now, but there are new rules on the way to give you even more freedom, including the option for huge multi-player battles.

Narrative Play is as you’d expect – recreating the great stories and epic encounters from the Age of Sigmar. To help you forge your own stories within the Mortal Realms, there are also some really cool campaign rules and tools on the way as well.

Finally, Matched Play is something we know a lot of you have been keen to see. We’ve put these rules together in association with some of the world’s biggest tournament organisers, to create a new standard for balanced competitive play. And yes, it includes points values.

Tournament organisers (and competitive tournament players) have been the hardest hit by Age of Sigmar’s “as many models as you want, I guess?” take on balanced play, so it’s great to see that Games Workshop are paying attention on this front.

There are multiple competing theories as to why this has happened — Age of Sigmar isn’t selling so GW is trying to boost its popularity on the tournament scene, the whole schtick was one big marketing ploy to focus attention on the company’s sudden turnaround — but whatever the reason is, it’s being extremely warmly welcomed by many in the community.

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