Point system and matched play for Age of Sigmar: what is it?
If you are new to Age of Sigmar you might be wondering: what the heck is this “matched play” people are talking about?
Before Age of Sigmar 2.0, the matched play system was somewhat hidden away in the latest General’s Handbook. Now the rules for matched play are also described in the new Core Rulebook, while the points for each unit are now available for free in the download section of Warhammer Community.
I hope that this article can clarify the different ways of playing the game and what matched play is.
Different ways of playing
To understand what matched play is, it is important to understand how it differs from other ways of playing. By GW’s interpretation, there are few different ways of playing Age of Sigmar, although the Open play format has been discarded in this edition.
Open play
Open play is a “play how you like” style, and was the way Age of Sigmar was originally written. You and your opponent’s fun are the key and balance is something that is mostly left up to the players. This style of play resonates very badly with wargamers who want a very “competitive” game.
In the fourth edition of Age of Sigmar there’s not yet a formal Open play format with battle generators and other, but since the rules are all modular, you can decide to play any match using the ones you prefer. You don’t like Battle Tactics? They can easily be removed from your match without having to house-rule anything.
Narrative play – Path to Glory
In narrative play, the story is the big focus. Age of Sigmar 3.0 renamed it Path to Glory and introduced many new rules but more importantly, rewards to play a narrative campaign. What is even better, following examples from other Games Workshop games like Warcry, you can play your own narrative campaign without your opponent being part of it. This way you can still participate in a matched play tournament without compromising on your own personal quests.
Spearhead
Spearhead is the latest format introduced for Age of Sigmar in which you play on a much smaller table (30″ x 22″) and use the content of a single box, called indeed Spearhead box set. For many armies it is the rebranded Vanguard box, but the main concept is that you have a hero that leads a smaller army, usually another 3-5 units. You still have objectives and victory points but a card system provides an intriguing decision between scoring more points or using powerful one-off abilities.
The Spearhead game uses only the Core Rules and whatever is added in the seasonal battlepack. For more information you can consult our list of Spearhead armies here.
Matched play
In matched play, the balance and the competitive aspect takes centre stage. Each game is played within the framework of a battlepack. The core rulebook presents an example battlepack with a single battleplan, but the General’s Handbook also provides extra seasonal rules and many more battleplans.
A battleplan is the set of rules you will need to play, with details on the objective positions, deployment areas, rules for achieving victory points and twists and other things affecting the mission.
Matched play normally uses all advanced rules, but the battleplack will provide more information on which are used and which are added. Note that matched play is often associated with competitive gaming, and while most tournaments use matched play battlepacks, it is not necessarily used only in that context.
If you are not playing a narrative campaign with your friends and want just a casual game, then matched play provides the framework for an easy to set up and balanced game.
Points are revised quarterly and any unbalance is usually tacked within those updates with Games Workshop declared goal to have all armies within the 45%-55% rate of victories. This is calculated by adding all results from each faction in the supported tournaments.
We have an article on Army Composition that follows the matched play framework if you want more details.
Tournament packs
Most tournaments will use the current battlepack (as published in the current General’s Handbook) and extract a selection of battleplans for the tournament. Note that the scoring system will be the same but the overall ranking between players may vary from tournament to tournament.
For example, some may prefer giving points to the winner and the loser based on how many points separated the two, others don’t assign any point to the loser and calculate only the victories and as a tie-breaker battle tactics completed, and so on.
But some tournaments may have different rules so always consult carefully the event instructions.
Normally, Grand Tournaments are spread along 2 days and have 5 games, but there’s the big international events that can reach up to 8 games within a 3-days event. There may be a cutover date for which battletomes or armies are allowed, for example a tournament may decide that any book published by GW within 30 days from the event is not legal for that tournament (to allow players to prepare with a stable list of information).
In tournaments battle tactics and grand strategies may become even more important because, other than scoring victory points and determining the winner of that individual match, may be counted separately to distinguish players with the same victory score.
What is a normal points limit?
In matched play usually a game is played with either 1000 points or 2000 points. However, with the introduction of the Spearhead format, that is a much better setting for shorter games.
2000 points is the standard for most games, even casual games. The battlefield should be 44″ x 60″ large and contain at least 8 terrain features.
My unit does not have a pitched battle profile. Can I play with them in matched play?
In Age of Sigmar 4.0 the rules are pretty clear: if it’s not in the latest General’s Handbook or any battletome published later, then it cannot be used in matched play.
You can still use it in other game systems, but cannot be field in an official tournament. If your opponent agrees (and who would disagree?) you can still play with them.
What is effective in matched play?
As a new player, you are probably nervous that you are going to invest in something that is ‘not good’ in matched play.
Reality is that what is good and what is bad will strongly depend on the current meta (the armies that are played in the context where you play). We have an in-depth article on army building that you should consult, but you need to understand not all armies are equal and not all armies cope in the same way against all armies.
Outside of few exceptions, there is no universal answer to a problem and you need to be flexible, but most importantly, be prepared to play with your friends, not potential unbeatable armies whose list you have seen online.
Online there are different power ranking charts for the different armies playable in Age of Sigmar (for a list of all AoS armies, we keep one updated here). If you are interested in seeing how your army copes, you can consult those charts but keep them as indicative, as any new battletome or edition can drastically change the balance. The one that we prefer is from Woehammer.
But overall: try not to worry so much about being competitive from the beginning. Get some games in and you will quickly realize what works and what does not work. Figuring out what player type you are and what kind of models you like is even more important than finding out what is broken or not. And don’t be afraid to use proxies to try something out when playing with your friends casually.
