It’s time for another General’s Handbook which for Age of Sigmar players is basically a second Christmas as the Generals handbook determines the matched play aspect of the game until the next handbook comes out.

First of, thank you to Games Workshop for sending Sprues and Brews a free copy of the Generals Handbook 2023-24 free for review purposes.

You can pick up your copy of the new Generals Handbook from our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money and support us at the same time.

The big change straight away is that the new generals handbook is for 12 months and not the 6 months that we have been used to for the last year or so, now we suspect that this is because there is likely a new edition of Age of Sigmar coming next year if the 3 year cycle continues. Personally I liked the 6 month cycles as it changed the matched play scene and allowed you to play / collect armies in different ways to match what the new handbook encouraged you to take and importantly if there was a bad battalion for example at least it would only be around for 6 months and not 12.

So lets get into the new Generals Handbook.

Realm Rules

The new Generals Handbook focuses around heroes that are wizards and introduces a new mechanic of primal magic that players can use to supplement and empower their wizard heroes who if they have 9 or less wounds gain the Andtorian Locus keywords. Players can now pick a hero if they go second in a battle round who if that chosen hero is a Andtorian Locus gains the ability to cast and unbind an extra spell that battle round if the chosen hero is not a Andtorian Locus then that hero gains a free command point that they can use although it does not specify when that hero losses the command point so I assume its until the end of the battle round.

The really cool realm rule for this generals handbook is the Primal Magic rule that will really add a lot to your Andtorian Locus’, the way primal magic works is both players roll a dice in the hero phase and on 4+ they gain a primal magic dice which can then be used to help cast or unbind spells. To use the primal magic dice a player rolls their magic dice to cast / unbind a spell as you normally would and then you can decide to add a primal dice by rolling another dice and adding that roll to your casting roll of your other dice.

If your casting roll including any primal magic dice includes a double 1 then your wizard suffers a primal miscast instead of a normal miscast which is a lot scarier than a normal miscast as your wizard suffers D3+3 mortal wounds, any other units within 3″ suffers D3 mortal wounds and your wizard cannot then cast any more spells that phase.

If your casting roll includes a double 6 and a primal magic dice is used then the spell is cast and cannot be unbound and both player then receive an additional primal magic dice. Primal magic dice are all lost at the end of the battle round so it’s a good idea to spend them on those important spells either to cast or unbind.

Unique Enhancements

Similarly to the previous generals handbook there are some unique enhancements this time they are called Nullstone Adornements and they are for armies that do not include any wizards which I really like as if you are playing an army that isn’t getting all the benefits of primal magic dice at least you get something and these enhancements are in addition to your normal enhancement limit meaning you get one of these for free but you can select another as an extra enhancement.

• Hand – Carved Nullstone Icon : This artefact allows your hero to unbind a spell or attempt to dispel an endless spell and if you do either you can attempt to unbind / dispel again later in that phase.
• Pouch of Nulldust : Once per game the bearer can make any casting roll of a double 1,2 or 3 an automatic miscast / primal miscast if any primal magic dice are used and you also roll a dice for each endless spell on the table on a 5+ that endless spell is automatically dispelled.
• Polished Nullstone Pebble : When the bearer is picked as the target of a spell or effects of an endless spell roll a dice on a 4+ another unit within 3″ must be picked as the target and if there is no valid target you ignore the effects of the spell / endless spell.

For me personally the Polished Nullstone Pebble is my go to pick especially for playing with my Sons of Behemet as having a 4+ ignore magic is really useful.

Realmsphere Magic

In the new generals handbook there is a unique spell lore called the Lore of the Primal Frost which is for Andtorian Locus models only which you can select instead of taking a spell from your own spell lores.

• Hoarfrost – cast on 8+ with a range of 12″ : Pick a friendly unit and roll a D3 and you can change the to hit, to wound roll or rend characteristic to match the D3 result for one of that units melee weapons so if you roll a 2 and choose the to wound roll that weapon would then wound on a 2+ pretty good.
• Rupture – cast on a 10+ with a range of 18″ : Pick an endless spell or Incarnate and that model becomes wild and cannot be controlled or bonded for the rest of the game, sadly a little too situational to put into your list in my opinion not too mention a bit of a feel bad for your opponent.
• Merciless Blizzard – cast on a 12+ with a range of 12″ : Pick an enemy unit within range and they suffer 4D6 mortal wounds but for each dice of a 1 the caster suffers D3 mortal wounds that cannot be negated, the nice thing about this spell is that the range cannot be modified and must be measured from the caster no where else.

For me the stand out spell is Hoarfrost which I think has the most use and is the easiest to cast especially with primal magic dice, Merciless Blizzard has some potential but a bad roll and your wizard could take more damage then the target unit so for me its not a good choice and sadly Rupture for me is just too situational for me to take it over any other spell.

Command Traits

If your general has the Andtorian Locus keywords you can select a trait from the following list.

• Shamen of the Chilled Lands : Your general knows all the spells form the lore of primal frost.
• Eye of the Blizzard : If this general is on the battlefield in your hero phase roll a dice and on a 5+ you gain a primal magic dice.
• Chilled to the Bone : Once per battle, if your general suffers a miscast or a primal miscast then you can roll a dice and on a 3+ you ignore the miscast / primal miscast.
• Eater of Magic : Each time your general unbinds a spell you can roll a dice and on a 5+ the enemy wizard casting the spell no longer knows that spell and can’t cast it for the rest of the game.

With the exception of shaman of the chilled lands I think these command traits are all pretty good but they depend on the other command traits your faction has access to and ultimately who your general is but I could see some armies like Lumineth or Disciples of Tzeentch taking one of these command traits.

Core Battalions

There are two core battalions in the new generals handbook the first focuses on Andtorian Locus models and the other focuses on hunting down models with the Wizard keyword.

• Andtorian Acolytes : 2-3 Hero models with less then 10 wounds that do not have mounts, if two models from this battalion are on the battlefield at the start of your hero phase then roll a dice and on a 3+ you gain a primal magic dice.
• Wizard – Finders of Andtor : 1 Hero with less than 10 wounds and no mount, 1-2 units with a wounds characteristic of less than 4 that are not leaders, artillery or behemoths and 0-1 behemoth model that is not a leader which is quite a lot for this battalion. Units in this battalion get +1 attack with one of their melee weapons when attacking a Wizard model but must put all of their attacks into that model. Wizard models cannot be included in this battalion.

I really like the Andtorian Acolytes battalion as it really plays into the wizard theme of this generals handbook and getting more primal magic dice really opens up those high casting spells for wizards that do not normally get any bonuses.

Grand Strategies

There are six grand strategies in the new generals handbook.

• Control the Nexus : Have 2 or more wizard models within 6″ of the centre of the battlefield at the end of the game.
• Spellcasting Savant : If your general is a Andtorian Locus model and survives until the end of the game.
• Slaughter of Sorcery : If there are no wizard models alive at the end of the game.
• Barren Icecape : Your opponent has no models with an artefact of power on the battlefield and no enemy unit within 6″ of the centre of the battlefield at the end of the game.
• Overshadow : Kill all your opponents battleline units form their starting army and have a friendly battleline unit left alive at the end of the game.
• Magic Made Manifest : End the game with 2 or more endless spells or Incarnate models that are controlled or bonded to friendly models.

Like all grand strategies there are some that a pretty easy to do and some that are very hard to do and because they all award the same amount of victory points for completing you are going to always pick the one that is easiest for you to do, for me I am probably going to be playing Ossiarch Bonereapers for the majority of the lifespan of this handbook so for me I really like Overshadow as my battleline units can be very survivable and also hard hitting. The difficulty of these grand strategies will make them more important as they are hard to do your opponent might not be able to complete theirs and completing yours will make a big difference to your games so overall I actually like these a lot.

Battle Tactics

• Intimidate the Invaders : Have more friendly units outside of your territory than you have in your territory.
• Reprisal : Kill an enemy unit that has previously killed your general.
• Endless Expropriation : Pick an enemy model that is either bonded to an Incarnate or controlling and endless spell and either kill the model or make the endless spell / Incarnate wild.
• Magical Dominance : Cast a spell with a friendly wizard and none of your spells are unbound that turn.
• Magical Mayhem : Kill an enemy unit with a spell or endless spell.
• Bait and Trap : Have 2 units retreat in the same turn that 2 other units made a charge move.
• Led into the Maelstrom : Have a friendly hero and battleline unit charge into combat and have one of those units within 3″ of enemy units at the end of the turn.
• Surround and Destroy : Pick 3 friendly units and if all 3 of these units are within 6″ of a different battlefield edge and 2 of those units are not in your territory you complete this battle tactic.

Overall there is quite a nice mix of battle tactics some are very easy to do like Bait and Trap but once again some are very hard to do, Endless Expropriation is soo situational that most armies will default to their battletomes battle tactics which will have a big impact on what armies will do well in the game.

Battleplans

There are 12 new battle plans for this generals handbook which is great to see and reading through them they are very different to what we have seen before. For the most part the battle plans follow the score a point for controlling 1 objective, 2 points for battle tactics and 3 points for grand strategies and then depending on the battleplan you score more points for controlling more objectives or killing wizards etc…

• Geomantic Pulse : There are 4 objectives along the central line and whoever goes second in the battle round picks one to the pulse which gives you more if you control the pulse.
• Nexus Collapse : There are 6 objectives on the board and whoever as the least amount of victory points after determining who goes first that round can choose to remove up to 2 of those objectives.
• Lines of Communication : There are 3 objectives along the central line and whoever goes second in the battle round can pick a phase of the game i.e. the hero phase and every time their opponent uses a command ability in that phase roll a dice and on a 3+ it costs an extra command point to use that command ability.
• Every Step is Forward : There are 4 objectives in this mission and the big gimmick is that units that charge add 1 to the number of models they count as for controling objectives while units that retreat cannot contest objectives at all that turn.
• Limited Resources : This battleplan has 6 objectives and each player can only control each objective once per game but can still contest objectives to stop your opponent from scoring which makes this mission very interesting.
• Spring the Trap : There are 3 objectives along the central line and each player places D3 unit into reserve ( roll once for both players not each player ) and with the confined deployment zones you can bring units on in your opponents half of the board.
• Fountains of Frost : There are 6 objectives in this mission and any Andtorian Locus models count as 10 models for objective scoring with a possibility that each objective might throw out some mortal wounds if 3 or more units are nearby.
• The Icefields : This mission is pretty basic there are 6 objectives that are focused around the centre of the board and the mission is just to control more, the unique part of this mission is any unit that runs automatically suffers D3 mortal wounds and for each roll of a 1 when making a charge roll that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
• Power Flux : This mission is one of my favourite new missions which focuses on 4 objectives that come in in pairs of which whoever goes second in a battle round can choose which pair is activated and only objectives that are activated can be scored, there are also extra points if you have an Andtorian Locus model contesting an objective or kill a wizard model.
• The Frigid Zephyr : This mission seems a bit silly and is probably my least favourite as models are not visible if they are more than 12″ apart meaning shooting armies will not like this mission at all this lasts until a player ( whoever goes second in that round ) rolls a 7+, adding the round number to the dice roll.
• No Forward Without Risk : This mission is again a nice basic mission with 5 objectives the only special thing about this mission is that wizard models explode when they die doing D3 mortal wounds to units nearby.
• Towers of the Tundra : Both players in this mission pick a terrain piece in their territory and that terrain piece becomes a wizard tower which has the arcane special rule and can be garrisoned and gives you bonus points if you have garrisoned yours and your opponent has no models garrisoning theirs.

Overall I really like these new battle plans which offer a variety of different play styles without penalising players too much for not having any Andtorian Locus’.

Conclusion

So first off we have this generals handbook for 12 months now which at first I was a bit concerned because if this handbook is not good we have it for a whole year, thankfully for me this handbook is pretty good and I can’t wait to start playing some games with the new missions so having the same handbook for a whole year is fine for me and how often I play.

The realm rules are fun but not stupidly good either the primal magical dice is a cool mechanic but I do feel it might make certain wizards that are already good at casting spells like Nagash for example even better which I feel if only Andtorian locus models could use primal magical dice it would rebalance magic when playing against those powerful wizards.

The enhancements are okay but I still feel most armies will still use enhancements from their own battletomes, the Polished Nullstone Pebble is interesting for ignoring spells but can only be taken if your army has no wizard models so how often it will get used i’m not sure. The grand strategies and battle tactics suffer from the same problem that the previous ones did which is some are easy to do and reward players the same amount of points that the harder ones do and armies with good battle tactics can for the most part just ignore them.

The missions are the stand out part of the new generals handbook for me as all 12 battleplans are new and for the most part are all good and I feel don’t really hurt armies that much apart form shooting armies in the The Frigid Zephyr battle plan but lets face it shooting armies probably need toning down sometimes, the battle plans seem unique and fun which is really good for the longevity of this generals handbook.

Once again thank you to Games Workshop for sending Sprues and Brews a free copy of the Generals Handbook 2023-24 free for review purposes.