Skaventide is heading up for pre order on Saturday the 29th June and with it the 4th Edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but one of the most exciting things about the launch box is the entirely new game mode contained with! Spearhead promises to be a way of playing quick and tightly balanced games of AOS that can be done with an hour, but does it live up to it’s promise?

In this review we’ll be checking out the Spearhead supplement Fire & Jade, learning how to play Spearhead and taking a look at all 25 different Spearhead factions available and sharing our thoughts on if this is going to be a fun alternative to full fat Age of Sigmar and how we think people are going to get into it.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free review copy of Skaventide! If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

This is the 3rd part of our Warhammer Age of Sigmar Skaventide coverage after our full Unboxing and our review of the 4th Edition Core Rules

Just below we also have video content for all of them, a battle report and a companion video to this written review – you can watch them just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s dive into the new Spearhead system through the Fire & Jade supplement

Spearhead – Fire & Jade Review and Deep Dive

So if somehow you have missed the tidal wave of Skaventide news, then the 4th Edition launch box for Warhammer Age of Sigmar goes up for pre order on Saturday in the form of the £160 Skaventide boxed set. And much like Warhammer 40,000 introduced last year with Combat Patrol, Games Workshop have created a new game based around the “start collecting” boxes known as Spearhead (Previously called Vanguard boxes).

When this was first announced, I fully expected a watered down “AOS Lite” designed around getting youngsters into the game without needing to buy an entire army. But as you’ll see as we talk things through, Spearhead is so much more and I fully expect this to become wildly popular!

In the Skaventide Box you get everything you need to play Spearhead (except for dice)

First up is a double sided board, one side representing the Realm of Life Ghyran, and the other the Realm of Fire Aqshy. These boards are the same dimensions as the Warcry boards (30″ x 22″) and have fixed objectives illustrated on them, each one representing a godbeast. I’ve seen some people complain that the objectives are in set locations, but this actually is a gameplay mechanic with one player selecting the board that they want to use – with them being in different positions, some boards will favour different armies (And each has its own card deck too – more on this later). I full expect that we will see more boards as the edition goes on, as there’s lots more realms we can visit to play Spearhead in!

Next up are 4 card decks, two identical battle tactic decks of 12 cards each, and 2 twist decks of 6 cards each for both the Realm of Life and Realm of Fire. As we’ll see later in the review, the Battle Tactic decks are a combined replacement for Battle Tactics and Command Abilities in Spearhead, and are a key part of the game mode, while the Twist deck modifies the game turn while also often offering a catch up mechanic for the underdog.

Also included in the box is a sprue containing 2 large and 2 small terrain features. You can use any as long as the 2 large pieces and the 2 small pieces are both the same size – a large and small one are placed by each player at the start of the game to create the battlefield, so feel free to go crazy and create some pieces that are themed around your armies or collection!

Also, of course, you get two full Spearheads – one for the Skaven and another for the Stormcast. These don’t use the entire contents of the box, so if you’re new to the hobby you can always aim to paint up just the spearhead elements first. As everything in the set is push fit, you’ll have your armies built and on the battlefield in no time at all!

The Spearhead Rules and the rules for all 25 factions are contained within the Jade & Fire supplement itself, which is a hardback 144 page book also included within the Skaventide box.

If you are playing Spearhead then this is the only book that you will need. This is a big difference to Warhammer 40k where the Combat Patrol rules are either found as a seperate download on Warhammer Community or as pages within the Codex. At the time of writing this I do not know if Battletomes will contain any Spearhead rules, but as ALL of the rules are contained within Jade & Fire I suspect not (However there is always the chance that current Spearheads get rotated over the life of the edition giving spearhead players more options – these could then be introduced first in Battletomes). This is a great approach as it also means that each year alongside the General’s Handbook they could publish a new Spearhead supplement focusing on two different realms, with new cards and fresh Spearheads for all factions – this wouldn’t invalidate any, but instead mean that someone with a growing collection has some variety and options for which they use.

The rules for Spearhead cover just 13 pages of the book, making it the perfect starting point for someone looking to get into Age of Sigmar, but will also be easy to pick up for AOS veterans coming back for 4th edition. It’s worth pointing out here that while Spearhead works a little different to Matched Play games of AOS, mechanically under the hood it is still running on the same core engine. All of the Core rules are used, so you’ll want to be familiar with these before diving in. In a great touch, the core Age of Sigmar rules are also contained in the back of the book so you don’t have to cart around the big hard back core book in order to look up any rules queries.

How to play Spearhead

So how do you play Spearhead? Thankfully, the game is really easy to learn – but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking any tactical depth!

Each player picks one of the 25 currently available Spearheads – these are all based around the Spearhead boxes that you can buy as a self contained “Start Collecting” box for Age of Sigmar, these cost £87.50 each (or £75 if you order them from Element Games) and generally contain a hero and a couple of other units that act as a discounted starter set for a faction (for example, the Sylvanth box contains around £137 of models, a saving of £50). If you pick up the Skaventide box, you get two ready to use Spearheads in the box – and If you’re an existing Age of Sigmar player you’ll probably have the models to use a couple of the Spearheads in your collection!

It’s worth pointing out that from a model point of view the units in a spearhead are fixed, so there’s no need to work out points values or buy other models, everyone is locked to what’s in the box – and that makes games balanced and all about the skill of the player rather than who can maths-hammer the best army!

Just like with matched play Age of Sigmar, the players then customise their army by picking Regiment Abilities (Each Spearhead has a choice of two and these range from passive abilities that last the entire game, to powerful once per game actions) and also get to pick one of 4 Enhancements that give your general a bonus, ability or power – all of these are unique to each faction and feel very much like the upgrades available in the Matched Play Age of Sigmar.

What’s cool about this is that these “upgrades” are actually picked at the start of the game, so you can tailor based on what your opponent has brought to battle too.

So how does the game work?

First of all the players will roll off to determine the attacker and the defender – And there’s pros and cons to both roles – the Attacker gets to choose who takes the first turn, which is massive in Age of Sigmar, but the defender gets to not just deploy second (In Spearhead you deploy you entire army at one, which allows them to react to where the attacker has placed their units), but also gets to choose which side of the board is used (Each has different layouts and each has a different deck of twist cards) After playing a few games and once you get to know which twists are in which Realm you’ll start to favour a specific side that suits your army. The Defender also gets to pick if the territories are split lengthways down the board, or if they are diagonal – again, there’s pros and cons here and each will favour different forces.

The players also take turns each placing a large and small terrain piece in their territory – these can’t go on objectives, but you can use them to create cover and make things difficult for your opponent (There’s battle tactic cards related to controlling these – so again after a few games you’ll think about how you can hinder your opponent with them)

Games only last 4 turns, and in our practice games the entire game has lasted between 45 mins and an hour, making things run at a fair pace which is perfect for a quick game in a lunch break or for fitting lots of games in on a games night.

Each battle round a twist card is drawn that does something, and often helps the underdog (The player with the least points) – this may cause a specific objective to be worth more points, or perhaps heal units near a chosen objective. There’s 6 cards for each deck and they differ across Fire and Life, so again you’ll find the deck that suits you more.

At the start of each battle round each player also draws 3 battle tactic cards which are kept secret from their opponent – these cards are split into two sections. The top half has a battle tactic you are trying to do (Which nicely mirror the Matched Play ones) such as get a unit on a short edge, or have at least 2 units fight and not have one destroyed for example. These can be scored on your turn and are worth a victory point each, in addition to getting one VP for controlling 1 objective, 1 for controlling 2 and 1 for controlling more than your opponent. This gives you opportunity to score through either objective play, battle tactics or both. Once scored your card is discarded and then at the start of the next battle round you draw back up to three cards. Each deck has 12 cards, so in a perfect game you would be able to score all 12…

However there are a few spanners thrown in the works. Firstly if you ever opt to take a “double turn” then you are not allowed to draw any cards that battle round – So if you went last in turn 1, then won the roll off in turn 2 then if you opted to go first you’d be giving up the potential at fresh cards to score more points.

Secondly, there are no command points in Spearhead, instead each battle tactic card also has a Command printed on it that can be spent at the expense of losing that battle tactic card. This is a great touch – want to give a unit a 5+ ward save? Sure, but if you do then you give up the chance of scoring that battle tactic. This makes games exciting and tense as you both have the same deck, so with a bit of deduction you can start to work out what cards they are holding, and try and throw something at them to draw out a card they could otherwise score.

Because of this, I really think that Spearhead is going to be popular not just as a gateway into Age of Sigmar, but as a full fledged game that people will enjoy playing as an alternative to AOS. The cost of entry is really reasonable, as is the option to pick up other Spearheads if you want to give them a go. In a genius more this also means that if you fancy collecting a new Age of Sigmar army, but want to test the water then you can pick up a Spearhead and give them a go – while some rules are a little different across AOS and Spearhead for balance reasons, the core feeling of each army still exists – Sylvaneth strike and fade, dancing from terrain to terrain while bringing back dead models, while the Gloomspite Gitz gain different bonus based on the position of the moon or the Nighthaunt ignore rend and force units to strike last as they are scared to death…

Some armies are balanced in different ways, those with more powerful units may only be able to deploy them on the battle field in the 3rd battle round, making it a matter of weathering the storm until they arrive, while other horde armies may be able to recycle slain units, bring them back the following turn as a fresh wave.

25 Spearheads are included which covers all currently available Spearheads (Except for the Beasts of Chaos who are being phased out of the game to take up retirement in Warhammer The Old World), in addition to this the 2 new Spearheads in the Skaventide box are included plus a Spearhead allowing you to use 3 Mancrusher Gargants for the Sons of Behemat. The entire Spearhead rules for each Spearhead cover just 4 pages, and these will also be available in the downloadable and physical Faction Packs for each army too!

Summary

So what do I think of Spearhead, and is it a worthy addition to Warhammer Age of Sigmar? I’ve been very impressed with 4th edition, but it feels that a lot of love and energy has gone into making Spearhead something very special too. This isn’t a throw away game mode just designed at getting youngsters into the game, instead this is a balanced and tactical fast paced skirmish game with surprising depth that also works as a great way of introducing new blood to the game. I’m already digging through piles of boxes to dig out units to paint up to complete Spearheads, and I can see lots of people picking up a force just to paint for Spearhead – which is something I never felt the urge to with Combat Patrol.

As it is based on the core Age of Sigmar rules, and shares so much DNA through profiles and card based Battle Tactics & Commands, it also works as a great springboard for people who want to get into matched play while still existing as very much it’s own thing.

As we get older our free time seems to evaporate and gone are the days when we can spend an entire weekend having a 4 player 4000 point battle – but with Spearhead I can now easily fit a quick game of AOS in after work in 45 mins without having to set up an entire board and put aside multiple hours to play it through. Not to mention the fact that the Spearhead board fits nicely onto a coffee table so you can even play it while sat on the sofa!

4th Edition is a new golden age for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but Spearhead is the thing that might just turn the heads of people who’ve never travelled to the Mortal Realms before.

Skaventide is up for pre order Saturday 29th June and is released Saturday 13th July

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes.