I think most new Age of Sigmar players will agree with this: Figuring out exactly what Warscroll Battalions are, where to find them and use them can be a huge pain. In this article, I have gathered everything you need to know about warscroll battalions.

PS – if you’re looking for warscrolls, the Warscroll Compendiums for older Warhammer Age of Sigmar models will live on the downloads page, and you can find all current warscrolls on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar app – which is also free! In the first battle round, add 2 to save rolls for attacks that target this model. In the second battle round, add 1 to save rolls for attacks that target this model.

Last updated: this article was updated with the release of Age of Sigmar 2.0. The latest update is the addition of the Battletome: Beasts of Chaos.

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Notice about Age of Sigmar 2.0 edition:

Be aware that because of the upcoming new edition of Age of Sigmar, everything could be subject to change. I will update this article as soon as the new edition is out and I get a chance to digest it.

Example of a Warscroll Battalion: Kunnin’ Rukk

Above we see a Warscroll Battalion found in the Bonesplitterz battletome. 1. With big fonts on the top we have the awesome title. Who would not like to be a Kunnin’ Rukk Orruk?! This also indicates that this is a battalion within the Bonesplitterz faction. 2. On the left, we have the required units that can be organised in the battalion. You need:

One Savage big Boss (no more and no less).
A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 units from either Savage Orruks or Savage Orruk Arrowboys (combined any way you like).

3. On the right, you can read the ability or extra rule that will apply to the units in the battalion. In this case: The units in the warscroll are dead sneaky. In your hero phase, you can pick one of the units from the battalion that is within 10″ of the Big Boss in the Kunnin’ Rukk battalion. That unit can do one of three things:

Move as if it was the movement phase.
Shoot as if it was the shooting phase.
Pile in and attack as if it was the combat phase.

The unit can do this for free and it can still do that action again later. Double the shooting or double the melee attacks sounds incredible, right?

What are the benefits of Battalions?

Potentially some very good abilities (that can give you some nasty synergetic combos).
You have the option to set up all the units in the battalion in one go instead of setting up one unit at a time. This will make it so you more can more easily dictate who gets the first turn.
Each warscroll battalion you include in your army will give you one extra Artefact (from your chosen allegiance or from one of the realm artefacts found in the Malign Sorcery book introduced in Aos 2.0) to use in your army.
Each warscroll battalion will give you 1 extra command point at the start of the game, that you can use to activate a command ability (you can read more about command points in the core rules for AoS 2.0 page 3)

What is required to take a Warscrsoll Battalion?

That you fill the warscroll battalion with the minimum required units.
That you pay the point cost for the battalion as stated in GH17 (if you played matched play).

Other rules regarding Battalions:

Ifyou are running an army of mixed factions (allegiance Order, Death, Chaos or Destruction) you can have battalions from many different factions.
You can include as many battalions as you can legally fit in your army. Each one will give you one extra Artefact for your army as well as one extra command at the start of the game (a single hero can only ever have one artefact).
Only units in the battalion get the bonus ability from the battalion.
Some battalions include other battalions. These still count as a Warscroll Battalion (so gives an extra Artefact and command ability).
A unit or model can only be part of one battalion. But a unit can be part of a battalion that is part of a bigger battalion (battalionception?).
Some battalions can give a spell or another ability that can be used on units outside the battalion.
All units in a battalion are considered to have the keyword stated above the title of the battalion. This is only important for mixed faction battalions. This only counts when determining allegiance ability and not in the game.
You need to take the exact warscrolls the battalion is mentioning. In some cases, other units will have a keyword that matches the name of a warscroll, but these are not interchangeable. An example: if you need to take an AuricRunefather you cannot change that with a warscroll that have that the AuricRunefatherkeyword, but does not have the name on the warscroll.
In some of the newer battletomes, the name of a unit needed in a battalion will be listed in bold. In those cases, the listed name is a keyword and not a specific unit. An example would be the Hag Queen in the Cauldron Guard of the Daughter of Khaine Battletome (see picture below). What this means is that you need to take a unit that has the HAG QUEEN keyword in that battalion, and that could be either a Hag Queen or a Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (this rule is stated on page 15 of the core rules).
Understrength units (units below their minimum size) cannot be used as part of a battalion.

Age Of Sigmar Warscrolls

Are battalions mandatory to be competitive?

The short answer is: no. The long answer is: some battalions are really good and are used a lot. A lot of the battalions went up in price with GHB17 and only a few were used competitively. A few have gone up in points and a few have gone down in points in the Generals Handbook 2018. It remains to be seen how many are good. That said most battalions will give you a nice flavourful buff and are an easy way to build an army. Also, they are a way to compound an advantage and make some pretty insane combos. There is no doubt that factions without powerful battalions are at a bit of a disadvantage. Also, going first is a major advantage and being able to make your army a one or two drop army is really good. My suggestion? Try out a battalion you have never seen used before. It will make you look like a cool hipster-player and who knows, you might break the meta! Oh and if you are starting a new army, that is never a bad idea to look at battalions that fit the models you would like anyway.

Where can I find the Battalions of the different armies?

Here I used to have a loooong list of where the different warscroll battalions where. Anno 1800 item editor torrent. But it simply got way too unwieldy to manage. Bottom line: get the newest edition of your battletome and you should get the battalions you need. Other than that, White dwarf and various supplements are where you will find battalions you can use.

Age of Sigmar’s Legions of Nagash army is set to be retired, and replaced by the upcoming Soulblight Gravelords in the game’s Grand Alliance of Death faction. The news was revealed in a comment by the official Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page yesterday, following a Warhammer Community post announcing the Soulblight’s battletome and first wave of minis will go up for pre-order this coming weekend.

Asked by one fan in a Facebook comment whether the new Soulblight Gravelords battletome will replace that of the Legions of Nagash, and whether Nagash’s army will continue, the official Age of Sigmar Facebook page responded: “Legions of Nagash is being retired, Soulblight Gravelords will be the way to go!”.

Although this is the first confirmation from Games Workshop that the Legion is being retired for the Soulblights, the news may not come as a surprise to many. There