Is the core book required to play the game?

[vorathian]

Is the core book required to play the game? or for matched play do you only need the GHB2018 and Malign sorcery? If I have to buy 3 books to properly play the game that seems a tad excessive.

[GM_Monkey]

You don't need any of them to play the game.

The core rules are free to download from the GW website. The Core book is just a nice addition with history and some extra battleplans as well as general allegiance abilities and realm ablilities

The points values for match play are available from the warscroll builder on the website. The GHB 2018 is just good for additional battleplans and the more specific allegiance abilities

Malign sorcery is only  needed if you want endless spells or to use the realm spells.

 

So no you don't need to buy anything however to get the complete experience you can buy all of it.

[Mark Williams]

There are missions in the book that tournaments will use for matched play. I don’t know if you can get them for free or not.

[Mephisto]

I'm going to paraphrase my friend when he got me into AOS at the end of last year/beginning of this one. "There are no secrets in AOS." 

This isn't Magic the Gathering where most information is hidden. A game where your cards are in sleeves and your hand is hidden. Where your deck has a mysterious side board that the opponent actually SHOULDN'T KNOW if you're doing it right. In AOS, you show up to a game with a print off of your army list (especially at a tournament) and hand it to your opponent. You joke and laugh about some spicy combos or cool units you have. The TO has you download a Tournament Pack that tells you the rules of their tournament and the stipulations of list building, rules interpretations, and outlines the rounds/missions. 

To that end, GW made a promise. You're already investing tons of money and time into buying and building an army, you shouldn't have to pay for the rules as well. That's an extra plank in the barrier to entry of an already pricey past-time. It's why GW said they'd never make you pay for the rules too. That's why Warscrolls can be downloaded from their site (even the ones for Endless Spells) along with the 18 pages of rules. It's actually quite awesome. What you pay for when you buy a book, isn't "to be able to play." You're paying to support GW and thank them monetarily. You're paying for some fluff, flavor, and filler. In a way you're paying for convenience of cracking open a book (not to mention if you buy the digital copy for your AOS App to just... make things run smooth).

I've been around competitive gaming all my life. From Quake to Magic the Gathering and even a stint as a shoutcaster for Fighters and (siiiigh) LOL, and I think this direct and honest approach from GW's rules availability to player lists being a shared experience is part of what makes AOS so great compared to those other things.

[rokapoke]

On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 4:53 PM, GM_Monkey said:

The points values for match play are available from the warscroll builder on the website. The GHB 2018 is just good for additional battleplans and the more specific allegiance abilities.

Just to tack one thing on here... if you intend to play Matched Play, you should consider the GHB essentially required as it is the only place to officially find the army building rules that are specific to Matched Play. I know a lot of people just rely on getting the information through other sources, but the first-hand info is in the General's Handbook.

[Overread]

I would also say that whilst Malign isn't required, the Endless Spells are likely going to become mainstream in most places. The Realm spells and artifacts are a bit more debated and the realm system itself as well; so that might be hit and miss; but the Endless spells themselves I think are here to stay. GW is even pushing them by having faction specific Endless spells which suggests this is a long term effect not just a short term one. 

So of anything I would say the Malign Sorcery box is most certainly worth getting for access to the Endless spells. Don't forget you get the book, Warscrolls (which are where the rules are) and the models for less than the price of a getting started kit. So its very affordable by this hobby's standards. 

 

 

[AaronWilson]

There is also 6 battle plans in the core rulebook, which if you're rolling how to determine your battleplan from the GBH you could play  .

[Mark Williams]

I found out yesterday that the rules for endless spells are in book as well, and not in the free pdf 

[AaronWilson]

The rules for endless spells are in the Malign Sorcery book. 

[Overread]

To be honest the rules for Endless Spells are very simple and short. What you pay for in the boxed set is more for the models themselves and the warscrolls which have the rules on them for the spells; interestingly the rules are not printed in the Sorcery book - the book is most fluff and painting and a bit of rules as well as the stats for all the realm artifacts and spells. 

It does create a neat divide in that it clearly encourages the active use of Endless Spells whilst having realm stuff just to one side as it were.