Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop that simulates battles between armies by using miniature figurines. Games are typically played on a relatively flat surface such as a dining table, bespoke gaming table, or an area of floor. The playing area is often decorated with models and materials representing buildings and terrain. Players take turns taking a range of actions with their models: moving, charging, shooting ranged weapons, fighting, and casting magical spells; the outcomes of which are generally determined by dice rolls. Besides the game itself, a large part of "Age of Sigmar" is dedicated to the hobby of collecting, assembling and painting the miniature figurines from the game.
Whereas some wargames recreate historical warfare, "Age of Sigmar" has a fantasy theme heavily inspired by the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and Michael Moorcock. Player's armies fight with medieval-era weaponry and cast magical spells, and the warriors are a mixture of humans and fantasy creatures such as elves, dwarves, and orks.
"Age of Sigmar" is the spiritual successor to the discontinued game "Warhammer" (specifically "Warhammer Fantasy Battle"), after the setting was discontinued in 2015. Due to this, the game contains many of the same characters, themes, and models as its predecessor. 
Editions.
The first edition of "Age of Sigmar" in 2015 replaced "Warhammer Fantasy Battle". The initial release of "AoS" did not include point values for individual units; these were added later. Summoning new units used the same mechanics as spellcasting and required the dedication of "reinforcement points" for each summonable unit.
The second edition of "AoS" was released in 2018 following the "Malign Portents" event. It brought multiple significant changes to the rules, notably an overhaul of the summoning system, the elimination of "reinforcement points", and the introduction of "endless spells".
Setting.
The Mortal Realms.
"Age of Sigmar" is set in the Mortal Realms, a system of eight interconnected realms spawned from the Winds of Magic. The second edition brought with it rules for each of the realms, adding spells, artefacts, and realm characteristics.
Gameplay.
"Age of Sigmar" emphasises the narrative aspect of the wargaming experience, encouraging the play of story-driven scenarios, recreation of battles from lore, and player-created stories. The ruleset is designed to make the game easy to learn but hard to master. Basic rules of play are simple and quick to understand, but more advanced mechanics can be found in unit-specific "Warscrolls" that detail more rules and stats of the individual unit. The art of the game lies in understanding how your units work together and exploiting synergies to use them as a cohesive army. The rules and Warscrolls are free, and can be downloaded from the Games Workshop website or viewed in the "Age of Sigmar" app.
"Age of Sigmar" has three different modes of play. Of these, Matched Play includes points total for different units and specific points limits for army building (1,000, 2,000, and 2,500 points). In this mode of play, there are Army Composition rules that change depending on the point level being played, and the base rules are modified to allow for balanced play. A Matched Play game also requires a minimum number of Battleline rank-and-file units, and imposes a limit on the number of Heroes and Behemoths that can be fielded. 
In addition to Matched Play, Open Play represents an "anything goes" game style, while Narrative Play focuses on recreating historical battles and scenarios. The latter often adds additional rules specific to the setting or event, such as dangerous terrain, a meteor shower, or movement restrictions.
To play any of the game modes, two or more players assemble armies beforehand. The battlefield and its terrain is set up on an appropriate surface, and dice are rolled to determine turn order. The players play in turns, with a round consisting of one turn per player. Combat is resolved through a series of dice rolls: a hit roll and wound roll from the attacker, and a save roll from the defender. If both the hit and wound rolls pass and the save roll fails, then damage is allocated. Mortal Wounds do not require dice rolls and are allocated directly.
The first part of a player's turn, the Hero Phase, is when spells are cast and command abilities are activated. Wizard units can usually cast one of three spells: the offensive Arcane Bolt, the defensive Mystic Shield, and a third spell unique to that unit. Command abilities, on the other hand, require a Hero on the battlefield with that ability, and use Command Points for activation. The second phase is the Movement Phase, in which units are moved across the battlefield; the player may choose to make them run, which makes them incapable of shooting or charging in the following phases. The Shooting Phase resolves all the missile attacks possible for the current player, then the Charge Phase gets melee units within range of attacking. The Combat Phase starts with units piling in, then attacking with all their melee weapons. The player whose turn it is attacks first, then the defending player fights with another unit; the players continue taking turns until all units capable of attacking have done so. The final Battleshock Phase tests the morale of depleted units; failed Battleshock rolls cause further models to flee a unit.
Factions.
There are four main super-factions in "Age of Sigmar", called Grand Alliances, united by common goals. Armies can be built solely from individual factions (e.g. a Stormcast Eternals army) or include a limited number of allies from related factions within the alliance (e.g. a Stormcast Eternals army with 200 points of Seraphon allies). An army consisting of multiple factions within the same Alliance (e.g. Stormcast Eternals, Seraphon, and Sylvaneth) has allegiance to that particular Grand Alliance but not to any of the individual factions. Factions usually synergise best with their own units, and faction-specific armies receive bonuses and additional rules that are not available to mixed Grand Alliance armies.
Factions in bold have received dedicated battletomes
Order.
Order is primarily opposed to Chaos, and its factions are united by a common desire to maintain civilisation, art, and learning, or preserve natural or divine holdings. Despite this shared goal, each faction more or less pursues its own agenda - sometimes to the detriment of the others.
Chaos.
Fueled by the base desires and actions of mortals, Chaos seek to dominate the Mortal Realms. They serve the Four Chaos Gods. Before Sigmar's retaliation in the Age of Sigmar, they had conquered seven of the eight Mortal Realms, beginning the Age of Chaos. The faction is lead overall by Archaon the Everchosen, the greatest champion of all four gods. 
Death.
Opposed to Chaos and more or less allied with Order when against Chaos, Death wishes to rule all the realms for themselves. The most homogeneous faction, it is entirely ruled by Nagash, the self-proclaimed God of Death. 
Destruction.
Unpredictable and opportunistic, Destruction factions fight for their survival, for their own self-interest, or just for the love of a good fight. Their patron god is Gorkamorka, who is worshipped in different guises by each faction.
Reception.
Criticism.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar was widely criticised by the fanbase upon release for effectively nullifying many core rules of its predecessor, Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With the advent of the game's Second Edition, reception towards the game has improved drastically, with it being cited by PC Gamer as being "close to its former glory".
Accolades.
"Realm War" was nominated for "Best Mobile Game" at the Develop:Star Awards, and for "Best Strategy Game" at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards, while "Champions" was nominated for "Best Social Game".