Best points to start with ?

[SolarBur]

Hi all. 

Best points to start an army with is my first question of the new year. I've always started at 500pts kept it really small and just used that to play a few games, never really expanding upon an army further than that. For the new year i wanted to try to change that, and i don't think that 500pts is a good way to get to grips and learn a little about an army that someone would like to learn how to play. What would be a good amount of points to aim for, in terms of building, painting, and learning ? 

I feel 2k is a bit much for just beginning and starting out. Any thoughts ? 

 

[Aexae]

1500 is the sweetspot imho. Makes great fun at that size and you start to feel synergies. So for the "real" AoS experience i advise building one force to that size.

(I havent played bigger yet but really enjoy those Games)

[Warboss Gorbolg]

I think that 1k is another good level.  Most armies can get a couple of heroes (say a caster and melee) and 3-4 units at that level, which means one can include a decent amount of unit variety.  1250 could be another good one to build to.  Some behemoths will also fit reasonably well.

[Banglesprout]

We've been playing some "Speed hammer" tournaments in my local GW  which has been great fun, and a really good way to start playing the game or a new faction.

In 40k we've been playing 500 points which I think it's a great size for giving an interesting game and also being a size that's fairy easy to build and paint in a couple of weeks.

In AoS however I think armies tend to be smaller for the same points cost so we're trying out 750 points. It's still small enough to be doable in a couple of weeks but large enough to have interesting games. Do a couple of those, say one a month, and you've hit 1500 points. Round up to 2000 in your final month.

Of course the balance of the game and different units and factions varies as the size of the game changes so if you want to get a good feel for matched play you'll want to play at around that unofficial-but-universal 2000 points range.

But you should be able to get some good insights into the game at plus or minus 500 points -ish from that.

[bsharitt]

Yeah, 500 point is okay for a first couple of games to get the basic mechanics down, but you're not going to learn much about how your army works at that level, and probably not much below 1000 points. You can start to learn a bit more about the "personality" of your faction at 1000 points, but even then there's going to be some wonkyness unless you're playing very tight scenarios that work well for 1000 points. Agree with @Aexae that 1500 points is the sweet spot where things will really start to click.

Usually what I'll do is build an army to 1000 points to get a feel for it, and some time I'll leave it there if I'm not too enamored with it, or if there's not really anything satisfying hobby-wise to add to it. If I do like the army, I'll bump it up to 1600 points, that way it's playable as "pure" army at 1500, but I can add allies for 2000 point games. If I really like it and there's a enough stuff to add, I'll keep adding until it gets to 2000 points or more on its own.

[SolarBur]

thanks for all the responses so far everyone. 

sorry that i typed this before grabbing a little sleep, i realised i didn't mention the army i got over the christmas period which i probably should have done. I picked up beastclaw raiders, cause i couldn't tear myself away from playing destruction. ogres have been something i kept going back to in fantasy, so i'm giving it a change of sorts for sigmar. 

So with the army in mind, what points should i be aiming for to get a good grasp of basics with this low model count army ? 

[Aexae]

For pure BCR I´d aim for at least 1k points. Thats what i am doing, because otherwise you have VERY little models and no pure Battleline options really (Pure BCR at 500 Points would be 2x2 Mournfang and Icebrow Hunter and Frostsaber) its doable but still very limited. And thanks for giving me the push to paint a little today

[SolarBur]

1 hour ago, Aexae said:

For pure BCR I´d aim for at least 1k points. Thats what i am doing, because otherwise you have VERY little models and no pure Battleline options really (Pure BCR at 500 Points would be 2x2 Mournfang and Icebrow Hunter and Frostsaber) its doable but still very limited. And thanks for giving me the push to paint a little today

How did i give you a little push ? 

Yeah 1k is what i had in mind, i just wanted to get other peoples thoughts on starter armies because this is the first one i'm trying to take seriously ^^;;

Not tournament seriously, but hobby seriously

[Uveron]

Personaly my advice is that for games of vangard size (750-1250) should be done on a 4' by 4' table. Keeps units close and gets the feeling of the larger games! 

[chord]

IF you must use points I'd say 1K points on a 6x4 for the most fun.

[S133arcanite]

BCR are the ultimate elite army, as well as things like soulblight and the like