Warhammer Age of Sigmar Spearhead Sand & Bone Gaming Pack
Hark! Oh Great Lord of Death! Ye who breathes in the stillness of dread Dolorum, ye who exhales the constant toil of mighty Ossia, I call upon ye! Craven despoilers march across Shyish, seeking that which will stay buried only because ye willed it so! They must be punished for their transgressions, oh King of Quiet Sands, for their hubris will taint thy crypts and tombs and sepulchers of yore! To err in the eyes of Nagash is to commit the ultimate sin; for one is stripped bare of mortal pretenses when ye scrying gaze falls upon them.
All are bound to the grave, and all will find themselves embraced by death. I ask that ye allow thy servant to expedite the journey of these interlopers into ye arms….
Greetings, ghouls and ghosts! This is Necromancer Sergio, arisen from the dead to speak about the Spearhead: Sand & Bone Gaming Pack! This review will encompass the materials provided in the box, review the changes made for this year’s Spearhead games and to recommend further reading about this cherished game mode. Onwards we march! Lest we keep the dead waiting…
Contents
The Sand & Bone Gaming Pack contains the following…
- 1x Sand & Bone Supplement Book
- Double Sided Cardboard Gaming Mat (30” by 22.4”)
- 12x Twist cards (Dolorum and Ossia)
- 24x Tactic/Command Cards (2x Copies of Each Card)
- 6x Terrain Pieces
- 2x Small Terrain (Wall and Fence)
- 2x Large Terrain (Wall and Fence)
- 1x Crypt of Blood
- 1x Icon of Nulahmia
This pack gives you everything you need to play Spearhead games with the new Sand & Bone ruleset. The terrain has been modified from the larger ruins that were in the prior Fire and Jade pack to horizontal walls and fences, which make setup very quick and easy. There are no surprises here, merely a continuation of the high standard of quality from the previous seasonal pack.
(Please note that this review will not encompass the basics of the Spearhead game mode. Instead, read this introductory document here! Also, this Gaming Pack does not contain any playable Spearhead factions within it, so it is not a full game without additional materials.)
Terrain
I'd like to give a special mention here to the terrain, which is repurposed from the defunct Warcry: Crypt of Blood. The walls and fences are cast in one piece, which makes snipping them out of the frame and getting them set up on the table as simple as possible. The Crypt of Blood and Icon of Nulahmia are multipart terrain, but their gaps are cleverly hidden on the sides of the coffin and along Neferata’s ridiculous mitre, so even without gap-filling, the assembly takes less than fifteen minutes overall.
In game, the special mystical terrain pieces (Crypt of Blood and Icon of Nulahmia) have special abilities and deployments associated with them, with the Crypt being placed in the center of the battlefield whenever any diagonal deployment is chosen and the Icon being specific to a Dolorum twist card. The Icon is rather trite, as it offers a potential boost in control score, if you roll high, versus a potential reduction of control score… which is always wanted if you aren’t controlling an objective you contest. Much more interestingly is the Crypt of Blood, which tempts both players in the combat phase with a single dice roll. If you roll a 4+, or a 3+ if you’re the underdog, a unit of your choosing within 6” of the Crypt gains +1 to hit in combat. But if you fail, that unit instantly suffers D3 mortal damage! A fun mechanic that will not decide games on its own, but will certainly be remembered for its black eyes and boons of great power, depending on the whims of the dice.
Cards and Gameplay Changes
Scoring three cards per turn is out, grinding down your opponent for scraps is in! In seriousness, the scorable tactics this time around are much more specific than last time, with an emphasis placed on strong reactionary commands that tempt even stalwart players into using their cards instead of holding onto them round after round. Even the dead recognize the value in a clean slate! For example, the card with the Counter-charge command is paired against the Dig Two Graves tactic, which asks that you kill enemy models in your territory and in your opponent's. This is a highly matchup-dependent tactic, (good luck killing two Mancrusher Gargants in one turn, let alone on opposite ends of the map) but the potential disruption is paired against how lucrative a good Counter-charge will be. Risk and reward abound aplenty in these cards, which makes for a very interesting experience.
Conclusion and Further Information
The Sand & Bone Gaming Pack is a wonderful addition to any Spearhead player’s collection, as it remixes and shifts the outlying mechanics of the game mode without changing the fundamentals that make the game fun. If you have not purchased a Spearhead yet, feel free to check out my guide to all of the different boxes here!
The Sand & Bone Gaming Pack is available now from our webstore.
