Age of Sigmar: Points and Handbooks

[LeSwordfish]

I played two more games in the "Dark Deeds" campaign - you can get Treasures, which mean gold (to spend on gear, new members, and replacing dead ones) and XP (to spend on team buffs and expanding your territory.) Each army starts with 12 wounds and can go up to fifteen.

First game: four-way brawl vs Stormcast Eternals (with hammers), Stormcast Eternals (with bows), and Seraphon

• Two Treasures were right in the centre of the board, so instead of going to them I swept sideways to catch the Seraphon as they were leaving.
• It was a pretty good plan, only spoiled by the arrival of a Wandering Monster pack of Ghouls, who chowed down on one of my Watch Sisters and tarpitted the rest for a few turns.
• Seriously, one of them took like an entire army's worth of shooting and DID NOT DIE.
• I also fired a few Arcane Bodkins out of the Melee at Zilli-Zilli, the Seraphon skink-priest who somehow had a 3+ save. He took a long time to kill too.
• I offered one Stormcast player a deal - if he went for the other Stormcast instead of me, I'd leave one of the two central treasures for him. He refused.
• After several extremely hairy combats in a row, I beat down the skinks with the treasure and made a dash for it - only to be caught by Leonidas, a Retributor-Prime. Illyria, my Waywatcher, stuck him in the ankle with a point-blank Damage 2 arrow, and although she got her ribs stove in with a dirty great hammer straight afterwards (three attacks, two sixes for Three Mortal Wounds each) the Lord's Bowman of the Glade Guard finished him off.
• With both treasures from the centre of the board and one of my own, I was able to make a dash off the board edge.
• Illyria and the single sister were my only casualties - Leaders always recover, and with my bounty of gold I was able to hire back the sister, hire another and two more glade guard, and even pick up full plate armor a mithril coat for Illyria, boosting her to a 2+ save!

The poor Seraphon player was wiped out, while everyone else was more or less fine. He gets to start again with a new 12-wound warband though.

Second Game: against the bow/big hammer Stormcast from before

• Killing Leonidas reduced him to Half Move for a game, so he trundled gently across the board as my elves elf all over the place to collect three treasures again.
• He kills several of me as I elf my way over to him, and then another Sister in close combat before my shooting counts and kills all of his models. Illyria takes out Leonidas again - I suspect a rivalry is building here.
• All that treasure allows me to replenish my force, and all that XP goes towards expanding me across the campaign map and putting me tied for lead with the Seraphon player.

A good couple of games! I'm going to try not to break the campaign system too badly - I've already got a 2+ on my Waywatcher and one free casualty replenishment per game - but I suspect that the games being so swingy that sooner or later I'll lose everything and have to start again.

[Requizen]

I played two more games in the "Dark Deeds" campaign - you can get Treasures, which mean gold (to spend on gear, new members, and replacing dead ones) and XP (to spend on team buffs and expanding your territory.) Each army starts with 12 wounds and can go up to fifteen.

First game: four-way brawl vs Stormcast Eternals (with hammers), Stormcast Eternals (with bows), and Seraphon

• Two Treasures were right in the centre of the board, so instead of going to them I swept sideways to catch the Seraphon as they were leaving.
• It was a pretty good plan, only spoiled by the arrival of a Wandering Monster pack of Ghouls, who chowed down on one of my Watch Sisters and tarpitted the rest for a few turns.
• Seriously, one of them took like an entire army's worth of shooting and DID NOT DIE.
• I also fired a few Arcane Bodkins out of the Melee at Zilli-Zilli, the Seraphon skink-priest who somehow had a 3+ save. He took a long time to kill too.
• I offered one Stormcast player a deal - if he went for the other Stormcast instead of me, I'd leave one of the two central treasures for him. He refused.
• After several extremely hairy combats in a row, I beat down the skinks with the treasure and made a dash for it - only to be caught by Leonidas, a Retributor-Prime. Illyria, my Waywatcher, stuck him in the ankle with a point-blank Damage 2 arrow, and although she got her ribs stove in with a dirty great hammer straight afterwards (three attacks, two sixes for Three Mortal Wounds each) the Lord's Bowman of the Glade Guard finished him off.
• With both treasures from the centre of the board and one of my own, I was able to make a dash off the board edge.
• Illyria and the single sister were my only casualties - Leaders always recover, and with my bounty of gold I was able to hire back the sister, hire another and two more glade guard, and even pick up full plate armor a mithril coat for Illyria, boosting her to a 2+ save!

The poor Seraphon player was wiped out, while everyone else was more or less fine. He gets to start again with a new 12-wound warband though.

Second Game: against the bow/big hammer Stormcast from before

• Killing Leonidas reduced him to Half Move for a game, so he trundled gently across the board as my elves elf all over the place to collect three treasures again.
• He kills several of me as I elf my way over to him, and then another Sister in close combat before my shooting counts and kills all of his models. Illyria takes out Leonidas again - I suspect a rivalry is building here.
• All that treasure allows me to replenish my force, and all that XP goes towards expanding me across the campaign map and putting me tied for lead with the Seraphon player.

A good couple of games! I'm going to try not to break the campaign system too badly - I've already got a 2+ on my Waywatcher and one free casualty replenishment per game - but I suspect that the games being so swingy that sooner or later I'll lose everything and have to start again.

That sounds like a lot of fun! What system are you guys using for that, Hinterlands?

[9mm]

So I've got a ton of non-gw minis built up from D&D, but have no games to use them in. How tied to GW models is AoS? Could I use my collection in non-sanctioned games, or am I better off trying to find another game?

[Requizen]

So I've got a ton of non-gw minis built up from D&D, but have no games to use them in. How tied to GW models is AoS? Could I use my collection in non-sanctioned games, or am I better off trying to find another game?

You can use whatever you want as long as it's recognizable as what it is and your opponent is ok with it. If you go to a GW store you wouldn't be able to use them and tourneys are hit or miss. But casually sure just do whatever.

[Erloas]

So I've got a ton of non-gw minis built up from D&D, but have no games to use them in. How tied to GW models is AoS? Could I use my collection in non-sanctioned games, or am I better off trying to find another game?

I guess it would mostly depend on what you are looking for in a game.
There are a lot of board games out that would easily use other models in place of the models or tokens they come with. Quite a few too that blend the lines between table top war games and board games.
You want to use as many of the models as you can at once or maybe swap between different models each time you play?

Not knowing what you have, I would guess trying to play AoS would give you small parts to many armies but doubt you would have almost duplicates of a type of model to have a playable force.

[Requizen]

So Seraphon, an army long regarded as somewhere just above unplayable, took 4th at the largest AoS tournament in the world. Granted, it was mostly because Kroak + Balewind absolutely demolishes most Daemon armies which are prevalent right now, but still, it's refreshing to see.

In personal news, finally have enough Vanguard-Raptors to run the nasty meta Aetherstrike list. Can't wait to bring it to a competitive game and see how it does.

[Requizen]

Livestream is up! Lots of interesting info!

[Requizen]

Edit: wrong thread.

[Cheesegear]

So, I'm reading this funky fresh Kharadron Overlords book. Borderline unplayable without Arkanaut Frigates.
Basically, Dark Eldar, but for Sigmar.
I don't care. Dwarven Sky-Pirates. Lookin' like Skyrim's Dwemer. Sign me up.
Cost of a Frigate; $165 AUD.

I'm out.

Posted from phone.

[Requizen]

So, I'm reading this funky fresh Kharadron Overlords book. Borderline unplayable without Arkanaut Frigates.
Basically, Dark Eldar, but for Sigmar.
I don't care. Dwarven Sky-Pirates. Lookin' like Skyrim's Dwemer. Sign me up.
Cost of a Frigate; $165 AUD.

I'm out.

Posted from phone.

Yeah even at US prices it's hard. I wanted to get a 1000 point force just for kicks, but the ships are... prohibitive. If I was going to go all in and make it my main army, sure, but it's difficult to justify that price for a side force.

[Beelzebub1111]

Had my 4th path to glory match. It ended better than my previous 3, but I have to be more careful about overextending my champion. A 16 inch movement is nice, but it doesn't help when he's out there by himself.

Gors with a bray shaman are great for capturing points, though. Unfortunately so are warhounds. I did make an error in selecting pile-in order. If I chose my bullgors instead of the cygor I wouldn't have tabled and would have won.

I did get a doombull for my advancement, so that's a plus.

[Tome]

Thinking of getting back into AoS using my old Tzeentch WoC army.

Looking at what's been released since I like the look of the Ogrite Thaumaturge and Kairic Acolytes. Not quite sure how I'd go about putting things together. Is a shooty/casty army possibly for tzeentch? Are there any good guides to them?

[Drasius]

Thinking of getting back into AoS using my old Tzeentch WoC army.

Looking at what's been released since I like the look of the Ogrite Thaumaturge and Kairic Acolytes. Not quite sure how I'd go about putting things together. Is a shooty/casty army possibly for tzeentch? Are there any good guides to them?

If my local is anything to go by, "Buy skyfires, win games" should roughly sum it up.

[Beelzebub1111]

Depending on the format (path to glory in my case) it's Lord of Change, beacon of sorcery, chain summon more lords of change

[Requizen]

Thinking of getting back into AoS using my old Tzeentch WoC army.

Looking at what's been released since I like the look of the Ogrite Thaumaturge and Kairic Acolytes. Not quite sure how I'd go about putting things together. Is a shooty/casty army possibly for tzeentch? Are there any good guides to them?

Shooty/casty is what Tzeentch does best. Honestly while Drasius is right and Skyfires are super OP at the moment (well, not a unit or two, but spamming them yes), the rest of the book is really good as well. We had a guy here smash a 3 rounder with all Daemons using the Changehost Battalion, and another guy do well with a big blob of Chaos Warriors all buffed up by various spells.

What kind of stuff do you have or are looking to buy? There's a lot of flexibility in Tzeentch.

[Tome]

Shooty/casty is what Tzeentc does best. Honestly while Drasius is right and Skyfires are super OP at the moment (well, not a unit or two, but spamming them yes), the rest of the book is really good as well. We had a guy here smash a 3 rounder with all Daemons using the Changehost Battalion, and another guy do well with a big blob of Chaos Warriors all buffed up by various spells.

What kind of stuff do you have or are looking to buy? There's a lot of flexibility in Tzeentch.

Well the Ogroid Thaumaturge is at the top of my list. That model is gorgeous.

I'd prefer to focus on mortal units, since I really like the new fluff for kairic acolytes, but it looks like all the battalions want some sort of Tzaangors unfortunately. I might have to convert some suitable Tzaangor counts-as.

I do still have all my old Warriors of Chaos which I'll probably be using for the bulk of my army for the time being. Not sure how well the warriors and knights will hold up against the new stuff. The Chaos Warshrine is something I'd love to keep using, but again I don't know how well it works in a Tzeentch Army. I'd also love to keep my converted sorcerer lord in use as well.

I do like fast shooty things, which is exactly what Skyfires are, but I don't like Tzaangors so I suspect I'll need to find something to convert and use in their place.

I probably won't be grabbing many daemons, unless they're super vital to making things work. Maybe a unit of each eventually, since if I understand the rules for summoning right you don't have to declare what you're using your reinforcements points for until you actually summon something and the flexibility could be nice.

I also have a dragon, if there's any that can be fielded in a tzeentch army.

[RagingBluMunky]

I don't know everything about chaos, but I'll do my best to help.

Chaos knights and warriors will still be fairly potent, warriors are on par with Stormcasts (2 wounds, 3s/4s to hit/wound). Knights can still be quite scary, in my opinion, especially when charging with spears.

The warshrine is good in my opinion, decently fighty (6 attacks with 2 damage), allows everything in 9" to ignore wounds on a 6, and a shrine dedicated to tzeentch (which gives it the tzeentch keyword) can give a mortal tzeentch unit the ability to reroll all failed saves.

The thaumaturge also looks quite strong.

The games workshop has all the rules for these units as free PDFs, if you didn't know, just go the their page in the website and look under the downloads tab.

[Tome]

So would something like this be a decent list? Are there any obvious newbie mistakes?

Allegiance: TZEENTCH

LEADERS
Curseling - 140
-General
-Trait: Arcane Sacrifice
-Spell: Treacherous Bond

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch - 160
-Spell: Treason of Tzeentch
-Artefact: Phantasmal Weapons

Ogroid Thaumaturge - 160
-Spell: Infusion Arcanum
-Artefact: Daemonheart

Chaos Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch - 140
-Spell: Arcane Suggestion

Magister - 120
-Spell: Glimpse the Future

BATTLELINE
Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (9) - 180
-Chaos Halberds
-Chaos Runeshields

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (9) - 180
-Chaos Hand Weapons
-Chaos Runeshields

Kairic Acolytes (18) - 280

BEHEMOTHS
Chaos Warshrine of Tzeentch - 200

UNITS
Chaos Chosen of Tzeentch (5) - 160

Chaos Chosen of Tzeentch (5) - 160

BATTALIONS
Fatesworn Warband - 120

TOTAL 2000

[RagingBluMunky]

I don't know what all the spells do, but it looks good to me. My only suggestion Would be to combine the acolytes into one unit, they're fragile and having more than 10 in a unit will boost their bravery when they have to take battleshock tests. I would also probably split the warriors into 2 units of 10. That's just my opinion though, it should still be the same amount of points though, so unless you need a certain number of acolyte units, you can just play around with it until you find what works for you.

[Requizen]

Yeah seems pretty good for Mortals, they don't have as much oomph as Tzaangors or Daemons but you still have good options there. 60 Reinforcement points isn't really that much, maybe drop the Knights and Spawn for two more units of Acolytes? Knights are a bit underwhelming unless you're running a big unit of them or multiple units of Cavalry in general, I am of the opinion that a unit by itself is just a distraction at best. I'd probably want more shooting and bodies on the field, especially since you have the Warshrine to give them 6+/6++(shields)/6+++(Warshrine).

[Tome]

Hmm, would Chosen perform better than Knights? I was thinking that I might need the mobility more. Alternatively, I could also bring a Chaos Lord or Fatemaster instead. In fact switching out the Knights would let me upgrade the spawn to one of those or even to a second unit of Chosen. (Though I only have one more Leader slot open.)

The reinforcement points are mostly for dropping my second Spawn in wherever needed.

Not sure where to go for more shooting, other than more acolytes and a unit of Skyfires, both of which are on the future purchases list.

I'll split the Warriors and merge the Acolytes. Between the Warshrine and Sorcerer Lord they're probably going to be rerolling their saves anyway.

Wait, do multiple 'ignore wounds on a roll of 6' style abilities stack? Because both the Warshrine and the battalion hand that out, on top of the 5+ to ignore mortal wounds that Warriors get. Do I get to use all of them if more than one applies?

[Drasius]

Hmm, would Chosen perform better than Knights? I was thinking that I might need the mobility more.

The reinforcement points are mostly for dropping my second Spawn in wherever needed.

Not sure where to go for more shooting, other than more acolytes and a unit of Skyfires, both of which are on the future purchases list.

I'll split the Warriors and merge the Acolytes. Between the Warshrine and Sorcerer Lord they're probably going to be rerolling their saves anyway.

Wait, do multiple 'ignore wounds on a roll of 6' style abilities stack? Because both the Warshrine and the battalion hand that out, on top of the 5+ to ignore mortal wounds that Warriors get. Do I get to use all of them if more than one applies?

Yes, that's one of the keys to AoS as far as I can tell. You either stack "ignores wounds" rolls, stack "-ve to hit" modifiers, stack + to hit modifiers (usually with a related [x] on a 6 to hit since rolling a 5 on the dice with a +1 to hit will trigger an ability that activates on 6's ie bloodletters mortal wounds on 6's to hit) or just spew out mortal wounds like they're going out of style. But yeah, you either combo stuff, throw buckets of mortal wounds or lose.

[Tome]

Iiiiiiinteresting.

I've revised the list a little based on this advice. Mostly switching about the acolytes and warriors, and trading the knights+spawn for two units of chosen.

[Cheesegear]

But yeah, you either combo stuff, throw buckets of mortal wounds or lose.

You forgot ignoring Battleshock. Inspiring Presence only goes so far.

[Drasius]

You forgot ignoring Battleshock. Inspiring Presence only goes so far.

I thought that was a given, just like fearless or pseudo-fearless in 40k?

[Tome]

Had my first game at 1000 points on Saturday.

I was up against an equally new player running Soulblight (I think). We rolled up battleplan with three objectives that could only be claimed by heroes in the midfield, which favoured me pretty heavily, since I had three heroes to his one.

I went first, advancing my daemon prince and ogroid thaumaturge up the left and right flanks respectively, the chaos warriors following behind. This turned out to be a mistake, as the warriors were thus too far away to join the melee when he charged a unit of blood knights into each hero and then got two turns in a row - that mechanic is stupid, by the way. My daemon prince held up pretty easily but the ogroid required a fair few destiny dice to survive on 1 wound. It probably helped that he charged his coven throne into the daemon prince as well which put it within pile in range of my warriors for his second turn.

The warriors, incidentally, then proved themselves to be incredibly resilient by absorbing the throne's attacks for the next three turns, giving my daemon prince time to chew through his attackers and extricate himself from the combat. I then sent him into the midfield to handle a pack of vargheists that had remained impotent due to poor charge rolls. Since I decided to put daemonic power on him instead of the warriors this turn he ended up wiping them out in a single turn. Turns out re-rolls to hit and wound work better on models with decent attacks. Unfortunately I 'd moved my sorcerer lord in to take control over the point my daemon prince had been sitting on only for throne to roll unexpectedly well, wipe out the remaining warriors, charge and kill the sorcerer lord on the final turn.

The ogroid managed to cling to life long enough on the left flank for my warriors to finally get in and help and, using the last of my non-1s destiny dice, finish off the blood knights in time for the warriors to charge those vargheists - not that in mattered to the prince.

The game ended in my favour at 9 -1.

I learned a few things from this game.

Warriors attacks aren't going to do much against anything durable. The offensive boost from daemonic power would have been much better on my daemon pronce from the first turn, particularly since he'll likely see combat first.They are tanky though, and I should use them with that in mind.

Daemonic power is amazing, particularly on units that are already killy, and I should assume my sorcerer lord is casting it every turn. Other good spells should go to casters with less usel innates.

My thaumaturge is tough and killy, but his save is a bit low. He could really use a bodyguard unit for backup. What I should have done was keep him back a bit, wrapped in the warrior unit.

[Requizen]

Warriors attacks aren't going to do much against anything durable. The offensive boost from daemonic power would have been much better on my daemon pronce from the first turn, particularly since he'll likely see combat first.They are tanky though, and I should use them with that in mind.

Yeah, Warriors are more of a meatgrinder Battleline - they'll generally wear down enemy units over a couple turns, but don't expect them to blend everything you point them at. Daemonic Power on Warriors is good at giving them rerolls to save, making them super durable, and the little extra damage output is just a bonus.

Daemonic power is amazing, particularly on units that are already killy, and I should assume my sorcerer lord is casting it every turn. Other good spells should go to casters with less usel innates.

Yep, it's a solid go-to spell that will always be worth casting.

My thaumaturge is tough and killy, but his save is a bit low. He could really use a bodyguard unit for backup. What I should have done was keep him back a bit, wrapped in the warrior unit.

Well, Blood Knights are a tough first opponent. Generally considered amongst the very strong Death units, only held back by high cost and only being Battleline in pure Vampire armies.

The Thaumaturge in my experience is best used hanging out with your infantry, while big hitters like Princes and Greater Daemons go off solo. He can support your lines and swing in alongside them for that extra punch.

Sounds like it was a good game! It's always solid to learn new things as you go forward.

[AGow95]

So has anyone tried AoS Skirmish? What is it exactly? New mordheim? Or more like expanded path to glory rules?

[Cheesegear]

So has anyone tried AoS Skirmish?

No-one has played it. This week is pre-orders, not release.

[Requizen]

So has anyone tried AoS Skirmish? What is it exactly? New mordheim? Or more like expanded path to glory rules?

More like Mordheim than Path to Glory I guess. It's basic AoS rules but every unit size is minimum 1 model instead and only certain models have points (Renown). Use the same rules as AoS for Hero/Move/Shoot/Combat.