What I Learnt Playing Age of Sigmar Spearhead at Warhammer World

In this video I'll be sharing my thoughts on the new Age of Sigmar Spearhead game format having been lucky enough to play it at Warhammer World this past weekend!
I attended the Age of Sigmar Realms Re-Forged event at Warhammer World and tried out not only Age of Sigmar 4 but the new Spearhead format as well. Having never played AoS before, I came away from event extremely excited for what's to come and I wanted to share my experience with you now about Spearhead which I honestly think could be a game changer, not only as an entry point into Age of Sigmar, but a fun and quick standalone format.
Spearhead is a format that has been designed to be able to pick up a current Spearhead or Vanguard box and be able to jump into a small and balanced game with these miniatures. Which is honestly the biggest selling point here. Spearhead feels like its own standalone game, rather than just the entry point into Age of sigmar. It’s engaging, quick to set up and play and with all the different factions, cards and two boards it certainly has some longevity to it. Honestly this is a significant improvement to the combat patrol format in 40k, which certainly feels more like an afterthought compared to spearhead. This game I can see having their own tournaments/game nights fairly easily and one that I know I’d be excited to jump into going forward.
Let me know in the comments section below what you have made of AoS 4 and the spearhead format so far. Is this a game you’d like to jump into yourself come release? I’d love to know.
Plus if you have any Spearhead questions, pop them down below and I’ll do my best to answer any that I can.
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Timestamps for the Age of Sigmar Spearhead breakdown can be found here so you can skip to the ones you're most interested in.
00:00 - Warhammer World Spearhead Event
00:46 - Spearhead Format
01:51 - Spearhead Rules
02:29 - Spearhead Warscrolls
03:46 - Spearhead Board
06:34 - Spearhead Battle Tactics Cards and Command Abilities
08:51 - Spearhead Game Duration
09:52 - My Final Impressions
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Music used:
"Clash Defiant" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
#spearhead #ageofsigmar #gamesworkshop #warhammercommunity #vanguard

[@metalor696]

Warcry has been good way for me to scratch the itch of wanting to paint up and play some different models without having to build an entire army.

[@TheCommandPhase]

100% and some of those kits are phenomenal! I had to buy the wildercorps hunters but the fyreslayer warcry box is top notch! Do you have a favourite?

[@metalor696]

@@TheCommandPhase those doggos are awesome! I really love gloomspite but the Gorger Mawpack has to be one of my favourites so far. Just started painting the vulkyn flameseekers too 🤩

[@TheCommandPhase]

@metalor696 Awesome - I’d love to see them once they’re done!

[@TheBugB]

I loved the mini battle report

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you, I needed to come up with a way to explain what was going on visually without being able to film anything on the day. Glad it came across well 👍

[@TabletopTitans]

Great overview, definitely excited for Spearhead!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you so much for watching and commenting - really means a lot to me! Glad you enjoyed the video. Are you guys going to be covering any of Spearhead/AoS 4 on the channel going forward?

[@dal3553]

Quite keen on this. I run 4 round Combat Patrol events and enjoy the format. This looks a great next step.

[@TheCommandPhase]

That's awesome that you do that - how have you found the changes to the boxes impacting the format? I think if Spearhead is successful, which I certianly believe it will be, I can definitely see GW doing something similar for comabt patrol in the future. Maybe not in 10th but certainly for the next edition.

[@dal3553]

@TheCommandPhase Ah cheers. The concept appeals to me. It makes a good day. Good fun and gets a mix of 2k event players and new starters. So I make the prizes a bit random rather than based on places so everyone has incentive. I still collect points to evenly pair players for better games. The last event of ~20ppl locally had only 5 points separating the top 8. So it was actually quite close. The Vanguard nids were popular and did quite well, but not OTT. I think it went Nids, Old tau and a marine variant for top 3.

[@dal3553]

@TheCommandPhase and yeah. From what I am seeing it looks like there would be good opportunity to carry some of the aspects to CP.

[@SurfaceDweller]

These videos are excellent!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you so much, glad to hear you enjoyed them!

[@WePaintMinis]

Excellent video as always, Mark! I am very hyped with Spearhead and playing against each other is something we need to organise in the future.

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you 🙂 we certainly will get that game in, although someone needs to stop me buying more spearhead/vanguard boxes. I’ve got Fyreslayers and Flesh-Eater Courts sitting in a shopping basket after selling off some of my 40K pile of potential that I’ve had for 9+ months and haven’t touched.

[@WePaintMinis]

@@TheCommandPhase Oh dear! I can't bare part with my stuff as it's all kitbash potential haha! But fair play to you haha

[@Never_heart]

I am glad I found your channel. I have been considering trying AoS for the first time. I was looking at the OBR spearhead as a cheaper starter kit. And until this video I didn't realize the spearhead kit was designed for a specific gamemode

[@TheCommandPhase]

I'll be going into it in more detail soon on the channel in terms of rules and such. But yeah GW have done a great job with this, taking the already made vanguard and spearhead boxes and balancing them out for this game type. Honestly the perfect way to get in, learn the core rules and command abilities available to you in a good standalone format. If you do end up grabbing that box, I hope you have a great time building, painting and playing them!

[@nevilovermann797]

Cool video, thank you! I'm super hyped for 4th ed. I was a fantasy Batlles player back in junior high but that was a looong time ago. I got back into things with 10th ed 40k and have been eyeing Sigmar since. It looks amazingly cool!

[@TheCommandPhase]

I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed when the edition does come out. The models from the new skaventide set look even better in real life and it feels pretty easy to get into which is always a plus! Which faction did you jump back into the hobby with for 40K?

[@nevilovermann797]

@@TheCommandPhase I went a little cracy and bought a bunch of stuff from a bunch of factions. My two main ones are Votann and mechanicus. But I also have combat patrols for Necrons, Aeldari, Orks and the two that comes in the Ultimate Starter. Oh, and I've bought a LOT of KillTeam and Warcry. I'm currently building the "Heart of Ghur". I'm having a lot of fun building and painting, mostly. Hopefully I'll get more playing done in the coming months.

[@TheCommandPhase]

Oh awesome - lots to get stuck into!

[@brushhammerdice4438]

Really cool video. Good explanations too. Go on with this kind of videos!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you so much, really glad you enjoyed it. I’m planning on doing more for AoS 4 as I’m very excited for it.

[@brownbearwargaming]

Really excited for this format

[@TheCommandPhase]

You and me both! Currently getting a Seraphon Spearhead painted up ready for release. Do you have a faction you're looking to play?

[@brownbearwargaming]

@@TheCommandPhase Yes...Orruk Warclans Spearhead all painted up ready to go.....plus as a Warhammer Hero I am awaiting to be gifted the Cities of Sigmar box in November at the awards night!🐻

[@TheCommandPhase]

Awesome and congratulations on the award!

[@brownbearwargaming]

@@TheCommandPhase cheers dude...very unexpected but very grateful

[@blkjet117]

I was just starting to get into Combat Patrol, when this Skaventide Box was revealed. All I can say is that I'm in. I got the Seraphon vanguard box just for the cool factor. Planning on a Slaves to Darkness with lava bases. I can only hope that Combat Control gets the same kind if attention.

[@TheCommandPhase]

Those are some great picks and love the sound of those lava bases - you’ll have to show me them on the channel’s discord when you’ve done them as it would be great to see them! I’d love to see the same level of game come to 40K as I think it could really open up that part of the market and give beginners a much more fun entry point into the game.

[@badnamebob]

Very well done man, have a like and sub!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you very much, really appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed it 👍

[@CreatorGatorYT]

Thanks for making this!

[@TheCommandPhase]

You’re more than welcome - hope you found it helpful 👍

[@CreatorGatorYT]

@@TheCommandPhase Yep! I'm very excited for Spearhead!!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Which faction are you planning on playing?

[@CreatorGatorYT]

@@TheCommandPhase Both SCE, Seraphon, and Gargants!

[@TheCommandPhase]

Nice choices!

[@crucialrage]

GJ 👍

[@TheCommandPhase]

Thank you 👍

[@TheBugB]

I’m real excited for AoS 4th edition and spearhead

[@TheCommandPhase]

That’s great to hear! I was before the event, but after trying them both out my excitement really jumped to another level. I’d potentially say I’m more excited for this than I was 10th edition.

[@TheBugB]

My plan is to buy the 4th edition launch box

[@TheCommandPhase]

You won’t be disappointed - the models look even better in person than they do in the videos. The physical scale of them and the eavy metal paint jobs I saw in the display cabinet really brought them to life!

[@danenders2089]

Very excited about Spearhead, but still surprised about the board size. I was expecting a 44x30. Do we know how terrain works? Is it only ever going to be those 4 pieces or does the game allow for more/different pieces to be placed?

[@TheCommandPhase]

Although the board was certainly smaller than I expected - at least in my game there was still plenty of models left at the end of turn two for the remaining two games. That and we've seen recursion/units coming in later on in the game too so it may not feel too bad once we've all played games. In terms of the terrain, I'd guess these are the only 4 pieces, although I'm sure you could substitute them off for different ones if you wanted to. There was a tactical objective to hold your own or the opponents large terrain piece (the wall in the case of the set) but bar that I'm sure you could experiment if you wanted to. Plus they could always expand further down the line with more terrain options/rules in future updates. Hopefully before release we will see a bit more infomation on the game in regards to this - but the terrain rules we had are written up in the video.

[@danenders2089]

@@TheCommandPhaseyeah hoping we see some terrain variety / flexibility with future releases. I feel like Spearhead is going to have a lot of staying power if they do it right! Good to know about the size not making things too kill-y / one sided though!

[@marekkrolak4082]

Hi It looks nice, but I think there are some things that are out of balance 1.the battlefield seems too small 2, a lot of terrain is needed to reduce the speed of the units of the player who has the initiative first 3. Too many references to Warcry and this is a simple skirmish 4. lack of an element of tactics and strategy

[@orkman198]

Im new to warhammer, anybody know if you will be able to buy the board+ cards etc later for speerhead seperately or if you will have to buy the skaventide box to get it. I just bought the ossiarch box and dont want to be forced to buy the skaventide box with 2 armies i dont want just to get the set up for speerhead matches

[@TheCommandPhase]

I would imagine they would create a spearhead box at launch with the essentials for people to pick up. That being said, if you didn’t want to wait for GW to make their own one, I’m sure there will be plenty of people breaking up the boxes on eBay that’ll be selling these parts off alongside the rulebook separately too. Nice choice with the ossiarch btw- great looking models!

[@earnestwanderer2471]

I was so focused on the small size of the playing area that I honestly hadn’t considered this aspect. I think I saw that the rules and war scrolls for the different factions would be available on warcomm but you’d still need the board itself, the cards and probably the little terrain pieces. Maybe I haven’t been paying close enough attention but I don’t have GW has made this clear.

[@orkman198]

@@TheCommandPhase yeah thats why i asked, as i dont know how gw handled this kind of stuff in the past... i dont know if they did seperate boxes with such stuff (terrain,cards ..) in the past after the main release

[@earnestwanderer2471]

This is really confusing to me. It’s not really clear how you’re going to be able to get started with Spearhead without buying the 4th ed launch box. It’s all well and good to say you and your friend each buy a Spearhead box and get stuck in. But the Spearhead boxes aren’t going to have the spearhead wars scrolls or the twist and battle tactics cards, nor the game board and terrain pieces.

[@TheCommandPhase]

So we haven't been told as of yet what starter boxes they are going to make once launch has happened. For example with 10th edition 40k we had Leviathan as the launch box and then we have a variety of starter sets which came a little later on. This I will imagine will provide us with the board, terrain and cards as a separate box for spearheead. There is of course the ebay route to buy just the components you need from the box as many people will be buying them and splitting the contents if you didn't want to wait/wanted these accessories cheaper. As for the rules for each box they did state in a warhammer community article in the footnote that "These rules will also be available free online, shortly after the release of the launch set" - hopefully that helps answer your questions.

[@JasonPoley]

the sound fx are really annoying. two often & high in the mix.

[@TheCommandPhase]

I'll take that into consideration for future videos

[@Son0fAggression]

So it's just the same garbage as the big one? 🤮

[@Fpsdood]

perfect step up from warcry

[@TheCommandPhase]

100% it's a great way to get into the bigger game and get a feel of the units, with some really fun gameplay - although I do like the warcry warbands as they've brought out some incredible models in that system.