Age of Sigmar: Points and Handbooks

[RagingBluMunky]

Thanks for the warning on matched play scenarios, I was wondering what would work.

I don't have the general's handbook and am planning on waiting for the new one to come out. Do the current rules cover taking artefacts for characters? Can you choose at the beginning, or are they gotten as rewards later?

Beastclaws: I know they are quite a strong army, but is there anything in particular that they should be disallowed?

[Beelzebub1111]

They are simply too unbalanced for the scale of a Path to Glory game. Sure you don't start with any other units, but 6 mortal wounds on a ranged attack on a single 2+. or Half damage from all attacks, and ugodly ammount of attacks. and on the second round of the game, they can have two of them. It's really unfair compared to what everyone else gets.

In the path to glory book there's scenarios specifically make it so the guy that takes all upgrades aren't at a complete disadvantage compared to the guy that takes all units, but even with that the stonehorn and thundertusk will consistently dominate everything.

We played where you get your allegiance abilities and artifacts as in matched play but that is optional. Match you either select a unit to gain (stronger units cost a glory point), or roll on the upgrade table for your general or one of your units.

[Name_Here]

Picked up the deepkin book because those are some amazing models. Unfortunately I have no idea what goes into making an army in AoS and didn’t pick up the general rule book. Any quick rules about how to put together an army I should keep in mind as I fall in love with giant angry sea turtles and guys riding sharks?

[Requizen]

Picked up the deepkin book because those are some amazing models. Unfortunately I have no idea what goes into making an army in AoS and didn’t pick up the general rule book. Any quick rules about how to put together an army I should keep in mind as I fall in love with giant angry sea turtles and guys riding sharks?

Depends how you want to play. There are three forms of play: Open, Narrative, and Matched. Open Play is just bring whatever you want and throw dice. Narrative is generally for themed armies in interesting scenarios - one side holding a fortification while the other attacks, that sort of thing.

Matched is the traditional Tabletop style of play. There are points for models and army building guidelines, and for those you'll need to purchase The General's Handbook (wait until the 30th when the newest one comes out). Though I don't think the Deepkin have changed that much from the points in their current book, so you can probably use those points as a good starting shape of your army.

Long story short for list building, there's a minimum and maximum number on Leader models (Heroes), a maximum number of War Machine and Behemoth models (for Deepkin I think it's just the Turtle), and a minimum number of Battleline models. The point section in the back of the book tells you which units have which role. Units with no role can be taken as many as you want as long as you meet the minimums for your army.

1000 points and 2000 points are the most common point levels, with 2000 being the general tournament and pick up game standard, though most people have a 1000 list as well. For 1000 points, you need 1 Leader and 2 Battleline, and can have up to 3 additional Leader and up to 2 War Machines and up to 2 Behemoths. For 2000 points, min is 1 Leader and 3 Battleline, max is 5 more Leaders and 4 each of War Machines/Behemoths. One of those Leaders will be your General, as well.

For Deepkin, you've got choices. Most of the Leaders are good, so you can pick the one you like. Also, if you take the King as your General, the Eels become Battleline, so you don't have to take only Thralls (not that Thralls are bad). A good starting point would probably be a King and a box of Thralls, and then choice of more Thralls or Eels. That'll get you minimum requirements for a 1000 point army, King + Thralls + Eels = 520 or 540 depending on which Eel version you take. Then, you can start adding what looks good or seems like it would work.

You also get to place the Gloomtide Shipwreck for free as an Idoneth army, so consider picking one up. They really help out your army and can mess up opposing forces.

Are you interested in competitive play at all? I could chat a bit about what are the "legit" builds, but I know not everyone cares about that sort of thing.

[RagingBluMunky]

It depends on if you are going to be playing matched play or narrative/open play.

In matched play you need a certain number of Battleline units for your list to be legal. At the start, only Namarti Thralls are battle line, but if an Akhelion King is your general, then the Eel knights are also Battleline. If you take a wizard as your general (I don't think there's a specific one) then Namarti Reavers are Battleline instead of the eels. Note that this doesn't limit what you can take, you just need a minimum number of these units.

Open play is just 'bring what you want', and what your opponent is willing to face. Be warned that this goes both ways.

Narrative play is also unrestricted, but meant for telling stories, like 'a Namarti scouting force gets ambushed and has to hold out for reinforcements, etc.

Apologies if that wasn't very helpful, and double apologies if I got anything wrong.

Edit: Eshin'd

[Beelzebub1111]

I have a friendly game this sunday coming up. A new player is bringing skeletons. That's as far as I know. I'm bringing my Warherds. For my beast allies I have an option of 30 gors and a bray shaman, or a beastlord and 20 bestigors. Which do you recommend?

[Requizen]

I have a friendly game this sunday coming up. A new player is bringing skeletons. That's as far as I know. I'm bringing my Warherds. For my beast allies I have an option of 30 gors and a bray shaman, or a beastlord and 20 bestigors. Which do you recommend?

I like the Gors and Bray Shaman more. Gives utility via magic and more bodies, imo, but I'm not super familiar with the armies.

[Cheesegear]

I'm trying to decide between Seraphon and Khorne for 2nd Ed.

[9mm]

I'm trying to decide between Seraphon and Khorne for 2nd Ed.

I'd go Seraphon, because battleline skinks.

[Requizen]

Both get a lot out of the new rules. Seraphon get all the new magic stuff and summoning, obviously. Knights and Guard have gone down as well, which is really nice for non-summoning builds. Engines will be so good now that the "summon X unit" results are no longer useless, and they were already solid picks.

Khorne's summoning is a bit less useful, since it uses Blood Tithe and you're likely just using those points for other effects. But getting to stack their fantastic Command Abilities is dope. If you ally in a Wizard, summoning a Palisade in front of your Banner means it's basically unkillable by most of the game, which is awesome. And Hounds got a nice boost by the increased Dispel range, so they're going to be super useful as big magic area denial threats.

Dunno, both are nice. I'm partial to Seraphon aesthetically and playstyle wise since they interact with more phases, but Khorne is really cool and has lots of options.

[Beelzebub1111]

I like the Gors and Bray Shaman more. Gives utility via magic and more bodies, imo, but I'm not super familiar with the armies.

The 20 bestigors have a 1 higher save, base 2 attacks each, and rend -1. +1 to hit against Totems and Units with banners.
The 30 gors have reroll 1s to hit for 2 weapons, base 1 attack each with a 1/6 chance for two attacks each (1/3 if there are 20+ in the unit or near a brayherd hero, 1/2 if both), no rend and lower bravery.
Both can run and charge and get +1 to run and pile in.

The bray shaman will add 3" to the Gor's movement, but his unique spell is utterly useless and with the 2e nerfs to mystic shield and arcane bolt all he'd be doing is boosting movement. I don't really need unbinding either because my cygor gets 2 per round and inflicts a mortal wound and heals himself on a pass.

The Beastlord's command ability probably won't be used (will use Doombull's +1 to wound for warherd in most situations) but he's at least capable of killing something, bu if he does and the bestigors are still alive, it might be worth to give them another +1 to hit, run and charge.

It's a shame that I can't use Bullgor Stampede battalion anymore that was the best.

[Tome]

The bray shaman will add 3" to the Gor's movement, but his unique spell is utterly useless and with the 2e nerfs to mystic shield and arcane bolt all he'd be doing is boosting movement. I don't really need unbinding either because my cygor gets 2 per round and inflicts a mortal wound and heals himself on a pass.

If you're using 2e rules you get access to the realm lore, so hopefully something decent for the shaman in there?

[LeSwordfish]

I won my first two games of AoS: a devastating victory against beastmen (I'm not sure if he was going easy on me or not but I was able to easily mob his units one at a time and heal any casualties: I finished the game one unit if ten skeletons down) and a skin-of-my-teeth victory against Sylvaneth, where a spirit of Durthu just mulched unit after unit of skeletons so fast i couldn't bring them back quick enough to do anything but cling to objectives and weep. The game ended with four skeletons alive against most of an entire forest.

A few lessons learned:

• Neferata is... maybe not all that tough? With only eleven wounds, other things in her weight category can outdamage her easily. I might have to make a point of giving her spells to heal and protect herself. Or maybe not let her be charged by a spirit of Durthu, who knows?
• I really do have to stick with the Deathmarch: that extra 4" of movement really makes the difference
• The Orb of Enchantment is similarly must-have: just straight up shutting down an enemy hero can really neuter a co-ordinated attack.

[RagingBluMunky]

You have a point with neferata, but I've found her ignore rend spell dramatically increases the survivability of just about everything.

I once cast that and mystic shield on a unit of black knights, and they once held up a carnosaur and unit of temple guard for about 3-4 turns. Then my morghast archai came in and...
Wiffed horribly. They killed it, but barely.

[LeSwordfish]

Ignore rend is good - I used it on my Wight King and he tanked a whole load of trees with swords solo - but it also prevents positive bonuses, so doesn't stack with the current Mystic Shield, or with the +1 from their shields. Theres not much I see that's got better than a 4+ without modifiers (though I guess any buff, applied to a unit of twenty grave guard, will earn its keep). What's more, its a generic Shyish relic, so going forward any hero can have it - i think it might be neat for a vampire lord on zombie dragon, who has a natural 3+ and can mystic shield himself.

[RagingBluMunky]

I was talking about Neferata's spell Dark Mist. It specifically says it ignores the rend of weapons, and says nothing about preventing bonuses. Though I may have missed an FAQ.

On a related note: can named characters take artefacts, or subfaction abilities? I know that they can't take different command traits.

[Beelzebub1111]

I won my first two games of AoS: a devastating victory against beastmen (I'm not sure if he was going easy on me or not but I was able to easily mob his units one at a time and heal any casualties: I finished the game one unit if ten skeletons down)[/LIST]

No, that sounds about right...

[Tome]

On a related note: can named characters take artefacts, or subfaction abilities? I know that they can't take different command traits.

They cannot take artifacts. They do get the army's allegiance abilities though.

[LeSwordfish]

I was talking about Neferata's spell Dark Mist. It specifically says it ignores the rend of weapons, and says nothing about preventing bonuses. Though I may have missed an FAQ.

On a related note: can named characters take artefacts, or subfaction abilities? I know that they can't take different command traits.

Until your next hero phase, that unit
can fly and you must ignore modifiers (positive or
negative) when making save rolls for the unit.

The above is what my PDF says: I'm away from my book but believe it says the same thing.

EDIT: The FAQ doesn't mention that ability, but does expand the aura of free movement in the Deathmarch to 12". Neat.

[RagingBluMunky]

My book is the old Death Grand Alliance book, so yours is right. The funny thing is, I double-checked myself on the free PDF on the GW store site, so that's out of date too.

[Requizen]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/...-and-spectres/

Poster boys and Ghosts get books next preorder! Those endless spells look nice, and the units are top notch. Can't wait! I have a tournament at the end of July so this'll be legal, can't imagine I'll get too many practice games in in the 2-3 weeks leading up :P

[Tome]

I will be a tad miffed if the faction specific endless spells end up making the generic ones pointless.

[Requizen]

I will be a tad miffed if the faction specific endless spells end up making the generic ones pointless.

Yeah hopefully it'll have some balance. Would suck if the Stormcast dias is just "Balewind but better".

[RagingBluMunky]

At a guess from their blurb it will be a balewind vortex, except it grants an extra unbinding rather than an extra casting. Maybe with some extra movement, don't know if you can move on a balewind

[Beelzebub1111]

The warherd experienced a sweeping victory over the forces of Akharn. A unit of bullgors dealt 22 damage to akharn in a single attack for round 2. I flattened his necromancers before he could reach his grave sites. The bestigors seemed unkillable. But MVP of the game had to be the Cygor who was on point for all his unbinding rolls. 30" dispel helps so much.

[Requizen]

The warherd experienced a sweeping victory over the forces of Akharn. A unit of bullgors dealt 22 damage to akharn in a single attack for round 2. I flattened his necromancers before he could reach his grave sites. The bestigors seemed unkillable. But MVP of the game had to be the Cygor who was on point for all his unbinding rolls. 30" dispel helps so much.

Nice! Warherds are absolutely insane if they get to their target, cool to see them doing their thing against dusty skeletons

https://www.warhammer-community.com/...mepage-post-4/

Nighthaunt named Heroes have their Warscrolls up. All of them look quite good, Olynder can be quite the MW bomb if she gets to you, and the Craven King is gonna be SO ANNOYING with stealing Command Points. And both can hide with Look Out Sir now, so -1 to be shot with Ethereal = ugh.

[LeSwordfish]

And both can hide with Look Out Sir now, so -1 to be shot with Ethereal = ugh.

Interestingly, I noticed that neither the Coven Throne or Bloodseeker Palanquin has the <Monster> keyword, while both are <Hero>s so both benefit from LOS and can take the "Makes You Ethereal" Shyishian relic (which I suspect is going to be top three in the book), for Ethereal, -1 to hit, and double-digit wounds.

[Requizen]

Interestingly, I noticed that neither the Coven Throne or Bloodseeker Palanquin has the <Monster> keyword, while both are <Hero>s so both benefit from LOS and can take the "Makes You Ethereal" Shyishian relic (which I suspect is going to be top three in the book), for Ethereal, -1 to hit, and double-digit wounds.

Oh man, I thought it had the same "wounds characteristic" requirement that it does in 40k, that's actually quite a big deal.

[RagingBluMunky]

So, how is everyone planning on adapting to the new edition? What realms will you hails from, are you planning on converting any models to make use of the new artefacts (a
lord celestant with a bow, etc.)

I'm personally planning a shyish Ork army. My mega boss will be weilding a morghast's cleaver, the hand should be just the perfect size. It'll be mostly Brutes and Bonesplitters, though I may grab a generic warboss as his command ability effects all orks, unlike Savage big bosses and mega bosses.

[Beelzebub1111]

Nice! Warherds are absolutely insane if they get to their target, cool to see them doing their thing against dusty skeletons

It's insane that they bullgors and cygors are getting a point reduction. That +1 to charge for each unit within 12 inches is insane. the bravery bonus basically makes them fearless as well.

I'm still kind of miffed about how the brayherd losing all their characters, but what are you going to do?