Long time Warhammer player returning - what should I start with?

[Skabnoze]

So I have played Warhammer Fantasy since the days of 4th edition, and I pretty much blew off Age of Sigmar when it came out due mainly to simply blowing the old world to smithereens like Alderaan and also the poor initial format the game launched in.  But, I will admit that it seems that they have done a good job of turning the game into a pretty good product and I love my Orcs and Gobbos way too much to let them languish in the garage.  I also have to say that I really like what I see in regards to big monsters being generally interesting, useful, plentiful, and not game overpowering.  It is always good to see when a game does a good job of incorporating center-piece kits without ruining the gameplay.

So, the question I pose to everyone is where would you recommend that I start in regards to something fun to get back to the table?  I am not expecting to be super tournament competitive.  I have played Orcs & Goblins (and mainly Goblins) through multiple editions because I like the green bozos and not because I thought they would give me the best chance of victory.  I am not blind to good and bad choices in army lists throughout each edition - but I am also ultimately here to have fun first and foremost.

So I pulled my stuff out a week ago and here is the rough catalogue of what I have in various states of assembly (I will be rebasing and rebuilding a number of things for this edition):

Savage Orcs:

Wurrzag on foot x2

Shaman on boar

shaman on foot x2

Savage Orc boar boys x10

savage orcs 2-weapon x35

savage orcs bows x25

savage orcs unassembled x15

Big Stabba x5

 

Forest Goblins

Boss on Giant Spider x1

Arachnarok x2

spider riders x40

forest goblins on foot (metal and plastic) ~100ish

 

Black Orcs

Grimgor x2

Black Orcs (metal and plastic) ~80ish

 

Common Orcs

Orc Boyz (various weapons)  ~185

Forgeworld characters x1

Azhag the Slaughterer x2 (old and new version)

Shaman x3 (I may convert the crazy guy holding the skull in the air into a Savage Orc)

Boss on Boar x1

Boar Boyz x15

Boss with Banner x1

Boar Chariot x6

 

Common Goblins

Doom Diver old x5

Doom Diver new x2

Rock Lobba x3

Spear Chukka x8

Wolf Riders x15

Groms Chariot x1

Gobbo Chariot x2

Gobbos on foot x 80

Nasty Skulkers x3

Pump Wagons x4 (these are conversions for my Night Goblins)

 

Night Goblins

Skarsnik & Gobbla x2  (old and new)

Bosses 10+ (I really like Night Goblins...)

Shaman 6+

Night Goblins 500+ (not going to bother counting - I have a lot)

Fanatics ~25+

Squigs x40

Squig Herders ~25

Squig Hoppers x25

Mangler Squig x4

Colossal Squig x2 (one is the forgeworld and another was an in-progress conversion I plan to resume soon)

 

Other stuff

Giants x3

River Trolls x9

Stone Trolls x6

Common Trolls x3

 

I don't mind adding more stuff - and I plan to collect the new releases eventually.  But I figure I can probably toss together something fun to get me back going again with what I already have.

[Malakree]

1 hour ago, Skabnoze said:

Black Orcs

Grimgor x2

Black Orcs (metal and plastic) ~80ish

So black orcs are now Ironjawz Ardboys. Grimgor is a Greenskinz Warboss IIRC.

Honestly I would say you have 4 options based on what you've got there.

• Bonesplitterz - Savage Orruks - The most competitive of the options but also based around kunnin rukk/rolling so many dice each turn you and your opponent lose the will to live.
• GA: Destruction - Everything - This is basically take whatever you feel like and don't worry about synergies etc. This is basically old Orcs+Goblins but you can also include any ogre kingdoms etc.
• GA: Orruks - I separate this out because you are aiming to take advantage of the various Orruk synergies. Using the Orruk Warboss on Wyvern for his Waaagh! Shamans, Weirdnobs any Bonesplitterz you feel like to really build around the Big Waagh!
• GA: Grots - Same as above but for the Little Waagh! this is slightly different because you don't have the same level of synergies that the orruks do, it's more a general theme. Generally this includes a Gitmob Shaman + 60 Archers, Gitmob Artillery, a Spiderfang package all built around the moonclan core. 

Realistically you have enough models to run anything other than Ironjawz or Ogors I list the 3 (and general GA) because they boil it down to some good core armies which form a solid starting point to explore and learn from.

[BrownDog]

I would suggest buying General's Handbook 2017, not only for battle plans but also the Destruction Army Rules in the back

[Solaris]

Wow, that is some collection! Currently, I'd go for a Bonesplitterz build (Savage Orcs), since they are currently the most competitive and complete faction in our Grand Alliance, with full allegiance abilities and a spell lore. For your 15 unbuilt boys, I'd build 5 as archers, 5 with shields, another Big Stabba team and then put shields onto 5 of your boys with dual weapons. That will leave you with 30 Arrowboys, 30 Morboys, 10 Savage Orruks and 6 Big Stabbas, which is nice because they are bought in groups of 10, 10, 10 and 2 respectively. Depending on how your boarboys are equipped, they go under different unit entries. If they have shields, they are Savage Boarboys, and if they have dual weapons they are Savage Boarboy Maniaks. I'd also look to get a Savage Big Boss, which would round out your collection.

You could make lists like:
Wurrgog Prophet 140 (Wurrzag)
Maniak Weirdnob 120 (shaman on boar) 
Wardokk 100 (shaman on foot)
Savage Big Boss 120
30 Arroboys 360
10 Savage Orruks 120
20 Morboys 240 (savage orcs with 2 weapons)
10 Boarboy Maniaks 320 (boars with 2 weapons)
6 Big Stabbas 300
Battalion: Kunnin Rukk 160

or:
Wurrgog Prophet 140
Maniak Weirdnob 120
Wardokk 100
Wardokk 100
Savage Big Boss 120
30 Arroboys 360
10 Savage Orruks 120
20 Morboys 240
10 Boarboys 240 (boars with weapon and shield)
6 Big Stabbas 300
Battalion: Kunnin Rukk 160

These are both decently competitive builds, with a lot of tools and synergies at their disposal to keep gameplay interesting. The use of 30 Arrowboys (and the Kunnin Rukk) indeed requires you to roll a lot of dice, but it's honestly not too bad. Coming from a TK background, I am used to rolling 120 Skeleton attacks where rolls of 3+ generate extra attacks... So for me, the 90 Arrowboy dice aren't an issue.

By assembling your 15 Orruks somewhat differentely, you could also go down the less competitive and more crazy route of playing a magic heavy Drakkfoot Warclan Bonesplitterz army. By adding another 2 Wardokks to your collection, it could look something like this:

Wurrgog Prophet 140
Wardokk 100
Wardokk 100
Wardokk 100
Wardokk 100
10 Morboys 120
10 Morboys 120
10 Boarboy Maniaks 320
20 Arrowboys 240
6 Big Stabbas 300

This list is overall much less competitive, and is more of a wild and crazy wild card. With 5 wizards you get access to almost the entire Bonesplitterz spell lore, which has a lot of awesome spells in it.

Either way you go, you can also experiment a lot with allies due to your collection. At any point level, you can assign 20% of your total points to allies (so 400 pts in 2000 pt battles). Bonesplitterz can ally Greenskinz (normal orcs), Ironjawz (black orcs), Moonclan Grots (night gobbos), Troggoths (trolls) and Gargants (giants) among others, so you have one heck of a lot of options to bring into your Bonesplitterz army without losing the awesome allegiance, should you want to.

Cheers, and welcome to AoS!

[Skabnoze]

5 hours ago, BrownDog said:

I would suggest buying General's Handbook 2017, not only for battle plans but also the Destruction Army Rules in the back

I have the 2017 Generals Handbook.  I also bought the BoneSplitterz and Iron Jaws book. 

[Skabnoze]

I left a few Night Goblin stuff off of the list.  Mainly the 4 bosses on Giant Squigs that I have.

I added up some quick points and it looks like I have over 2000 points of pure squigs (before you drop in herders...).  I noticed in the 2017 handbook that if you play Moonclan that squigs and hoppers can be battleline.

Are pure or mostly squig lists fun?  I have always had a major soft spot for the little murder-balls.

Also is the squig gobba any good?  I love the model and have been wanting to get one, but the rules seem really poor when I read them.  Maybe it is just my inexperience and I can’t see their use?

[Solaris]

10 minutes ago, Skabnoze said:

I added up some quick points and it looks like I have over 2000 points of pure squigs (before you drop in herders...).  I noticed in the 2017 handbook that if you play Moonclan that squigs and hoppers can be battleline.

Are pure or mostly squig lists fun?  I have always had a major soft spot for the little murder-balls.

Never heard of anyone running that, why don't you try it out and let us know?

[Richelieu]

26 minutes ago, Skabnoze said:

Are pure or mostly squig lists fun?  I have always had a major soft spot for the little murder-balls.

Squigs occasionally pop up unexpectedly in tournaments and do ok.  I think they're cool and you'd have fun playing them.  I also have a hunch that goblins (grots) will be the next battle tome.

[Hyperion]

Squigs won a GT heat last year.  You can do some fun stuff with them, they are now under moonclan allegiance. 

Moonclan (night goblins) maybe getting a battletome (army book) in the near future.  You have enough of them to run any type of list .  They are a very fun army to play and I’ve not had anyone complain when I pull mine out. 

 

[Skabnoze]

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a bunch of resin bases to rework both my Night Goblins and my Savage orcs.  I got a bunch of the Night Goblin stuff and I am still waiting for the Savage Orc bases - so it looks like I will be working on Moonclan first.  I will probably start working on squigs and squig hoppers first.  Back in 8th edition I was in the process of modelling all of my Night Goblins with fungus cavern bases - so mushrooms, stalagmites, rock formations, etc.  I plan to keep this theme but start reworking things onto round bases.

And I now see why the Squig Gobba is useful.  It seems that in the app I had an old cached version of the warscroll and they have since changed it.  The one I previous was looking at had d3 shots, at 4d6 range, and had to remain stationary.  That thing was awful, but the new one looks quite good - which is nice since it is one of the only Night Goblin models made over the last 25 years that I do not own and I think it looks great.  So now I have a reason to get one.  

For all the good features that the app has there seem to be a number of really amateur design features as well.  It is quite obnoxious that it does not either auto-update or alert me to the case when the rules for a unit that I have downloaded have been updated.  I just have to somehow know it - and then the delete/redownload feature is somewhat hidden as well.  It's free so I can't complain too much, but as a Software Engineer that won't stop me from scratching my head as to how something was built with some truly boneheaded ideas...