Lord Graves Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Hey everyone! It has been over a year since I have played a AoS game. It seems it is pretty much dead in Reno, NV. But I might be moving to Vegas or SoCal in the next year or two and I was wondering what the state of the game is like currently. I've been keeping tabs on Warhammer 40k but I have not found a decent channel that does quality AoS batreps, though I have not looked into it too much tbh. So, how is it? Are armies that rush to assault dominating? How are more ranged focused armies? I know objectives are important and that moving to them is also important. It looks like there has not been as many updates or releases for AoS as 40k over the last year, most likely due to the new 40k edition. Are the armies balanced between codex and non codex armies? I want to thank everyone that shares their opinions. Edit: I'm looking to start back up with Deathrattle or Soul Blight as my faction if that adds anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikout Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 I don't think any one type of army is dominating. Board control, movement, shooting, magic and combat are all important. In terms of factions Tzeentch is very strong because it can do all of those things and has a very strong special rule. This year we have gained a good defensive army (nurgle), a good magic army (legions of Nagash), a good combat army (daughters of Khaine) and an army with some unusual rules (Deepkin) so it will interesting to see how the scene develops over the next few months. The armies with battletomes do tend to do better, but people have had a lot of success with mixed order and chaos lists. I fully expect Tzeentch to get a bit of a nerf with the next generals handbook, but generally I think aos is in pretty good shape with lots of competitive options. As for death, there is a new battletome coming in a couple of months which should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageBoss Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Not going to get into the overall subject as I am short on time. But if you are interested in Deathrattle and Soulblight, pick up the new Legions of Nagash book. It lets you use all the Death subfactions (except Tomb Kings and Flesh Eater Courts) mixed together under 1 banner in 1 of 4 different ways, and with much improved rules (spell lores, grave sites to "deepstrike" and replenish your units, 24 different traits and 24 different artifacts to choose from, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 Thank you! Glad to hear AoS is doing well. Gonna have to give this some more thought so I can pick the best faction for me to start with visually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qaz Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 13 hours ago, Lord Graves said: Hey everyone! It has been over a year since I have played a AoS game. It seems it is pretty much dead in Reno, NV. But I might be moving to Vegas or SoCal in the next year or two and I was wondering what the state of the game is like currently. I've been keeping tabs on Warhammer 40k but I have not found a decent channel that does quality AoS batreps, though I have not looked into it too much tbh. So, how is it? Are armies that rush to assault dominating? How are more ranged focused armies? I know objectives are important and that moving to them is also important. It looks like there has not been as many updates or releases for AoS as 40k over the last year, most likely due to the new 40k edition. Are the armies balanced between codex and non codex armies? I want to thank everyone that shares their opinions. Edit: I'm looking to start back up with Deathrattle or Soul Blight as my faction if that adds anything. Battletome armies tend to do better but grand alliance Order and Destruction have good builds too. There are certainly underused/weak allegainces and units. On the other hand, there are not anything dominating as far as I can tell, other than my local's DoK player who is on 10 game winning streak. A range focused army will probably go out of favour if the new Deepkin becomes prevalent. I don't think they are overpowered since things like Stardrake and tzeentch arcanites will keep them in check. If anything, the most overpowered thing is the Balewind Vortex and that is a summon that any wizard can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svnvaldez Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 2x the players play 40k around here but AOS is alive and well in Socal. San Diego is the biggest hub thanks to At Ease and Frontline gamings/ITC presence. I'm in the OC and its well worth the drive for events. Small local GT drew 30 this weekend, last one day RTT at At Ease had 20 players and LVO had 93. Socal Open is the next large GT and is ran by the LVO guys. Order and Chaos are dominate currently and there are incentives to play 90 battleline under GH2. I perfered GH1 but GH3 is not to far out. New battletomes are always better than old... but the LoN battletome just came out so you have good death options. Balewind is dumb and I hope it gets removed from the game. Imo AOS is a semi balanced game with beautiful models and cool guys playing it. Decent builds are out there for all 4 factions and there are certainly quality soul blight and death rattle builds (Under GH2 big unit of skeleton and graveguard are probably mandatory but I expect a swing away from hordes in GH3 so don't waste to much money on giant units if you don't like the models). Facehammer is the best podcast by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 Perfect! Thank you so much! Really looking forward to getting more into AoS and going to tournaments. I'm still not positive where I want to go with my army choice. But the models on the entire line of AoS are really nice so it is going to be a tough decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svnvaldez Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 I would always recommend just picking GA you like the most and start buying a variety of kits. Meta shifts with each battletome so it’s good to have a variety of models to choose from... That way when a new release comes out for your GA you just need to pick up a few models and be right back in it with a non optimized but competitive list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 52 minutes ago, svnvaldez said: I would always recommend just picking GA you like the most and start buying a variety of kits. Meta shifts with each battletome so it’s good to have a variety of models to choose from... That way when a new release comes out for your GA you just need to pick up a few models and be right back in it with a non optimized but competitive list. Good call. Gonna have to give it some thought. I still have a few months before I start building and painting. Need to finish up my Salamanders and Sisters of Battle first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamose Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 While I can't speak to SoCal I will say this about my local scene. I've witnessed something I never thought would happen. AoS is going strong with prolly a dozen players and more joining...and 40k is pretty much dead. Its the damnedest thing. Perhaps 40k will pick up soon but right now AoS is king. Suffice to say AoS is doing quite well in many places, from what I gather. It seems to have a more relaxed, dare I say mature, fan base than 40k. It certainly does not seem to suffer from the perpetual salt mine of a community, self-inflicted insistence on mono-builds, and fatalistic doom-mongering that characterizes the online 40k community. I see and hear about a variety of armies being played. There seem to be some Grand Alliances with more variety in their toolbox but every GA has options for fun, fluffy, and strong lists. If Death is your thing then you picked a good time. Pick up Legions of Nagash and you'll be set.. I'd also recommend Malign Portents unless you really only prefer strict tournament style play. There's also some updates coming for magic in AoS but nothing certain yet and the prophesied new Death Battletome sometime soon. I hope you find a great a community in your home and convert lots of new peoples to the worship of the Great Necromancer! PS: Check out Guerilla Miniatures Gaming and Miniwargaming for some good AoS batreps. That's where I watch most of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 43 minutes ago, Kamose said: Sweet! Thank you Kamose! I'm not entirely sure that I'm going with Death. I know I posted that initially. I really love how strong the vampire knights are and like zombies. I've fantasized about running an all zombie army for years. Deathrattle also seems like a lot of fun. But I'm also looking into things like Swifthawk Agents, Sylvaneth, Bonesplitterz, Brayherds (Mostly for the goatmen and not the Minotaurs.. I just don't like GW's Minotaur minis. Also I will check both those sites out! I want to watch a bunch of batreps before deciding on an army. It took me almost a year to decide on Salamanders and Sisters of Battle. lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamose Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 3 minutes ago, Lord Graves said: (Mostly for the goatmen and not the Minotaurs.. I just don't like GW's Minotaur minis. You don't like GW Minotaurs?! Whaaaaaaaat?! How could anyone not like GW Minotaurs? Inconceivable! On a related note, I have a friend who plays Bonesplittaz and they're a fun army to paint and play. Anyone on here will tell you horror stories of Cunnin' Ruk armies, but they are decent as an infantry horde and have lots of magic as well. I painted most of them and there's lots of opportunities to free-hand tribal patterns and war paint all over the models. Downsides are painting lots of (naked) infantry and no monsters but still lots of fun. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 1 hour ago, Kamose said: You don't like GW Minotaurs?! Whaaaaaaaat?! How could anyone not like GW Minotaurs? Inconceivable! On a related note, I have a friend who plays Bonesplittaz and they're a fun army to paint and play. Anyone on here will tell you horror stories of Cunnin' Ruk armies, but they are decent as an infantry horde and have lots of magic as well. I painted most of them and there's lots of opportunities to free-hand tribal patterns and war paint all over the models. Downsides are painting lots of (naked) infantry and no monsters but still lots of fun. Best of luck! Yeah... Just not a fan of the GW Minotaurs. But there is a ton of stuff I'm looking at right now for sure. The Cunnin' Ruk is spoken of like a horror story in the Destruction forums lol! I understand how it can be so good but it is not very fluffy imho. Orc(k)s want to get stuck in and bash heads in my mind. I know that people love playing against 40k Orks. Is it the same with AoS, if you're not using the Cunnin' Ruk? Edit: Lol! Well I went ahead and purchased Legions of Nagash. I want to start with SoulBlight and run Blood Knights, Bat Swarms and all that jazz. Looks like it will be a ton of fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamierk Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 I'm curious about this myself, i'm dabling in getting back into AoS. What i really want to ask is, are there currently builds going around that are so strong that an average player doesn't really have a game? I don't mind not winning games against strong lists and good players, thats as it should be. I just don't want to have too many games against gun lines that can evaporate your army without anything you can do, or mortal wound spam (i have bad memories of the old bloodletter bomb). Are these relatively in check these days? I always though AoS could go either way depending on how strong they allowed those builds to become. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamose Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 AoS Orks love gettin' stuck in just as much! They have quite the herd of pigs to get them there even faster! Orks are, I think, fun because they seem pretty straightforward. They just wanna crump the humies! But they have sneaky tricks up their sleeves that can really blindside you (in a fun way!) if you're not prepared. The sneaky tricks is what really makes the Bonesplittaz stand out. Magic is not really a strong point for Ironjawz and they tend more towards the brutal side of things. To be fair they are very good at it. I've lost a few games against them because I had a decisive upper hand....and then the Maw Krusha' hit my lines and everyone died. Bonesplittaz have more variety in magic and easier access to casters and so can be tricker. Makes the games really fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamose Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 11 minutes ago, jamierk said: I'm curious about this myself, i'm dabling in getting back into AoS. What i really want to ask is, are there currently builds going around that are so strong that an average player doesn't really have a game? I don't mind not winning games against strong lists and good players, thats as it should be. I just don't want to have too many games against gun lines that can evaporate your army without anything you can do, or mortal wound spam (i have bad memories of the old bloodletter bomb). Are these relatively in check these days? I always though AoS could go either way depending on how strong they allowed those builds to become. In my experience and from what I've read AoS seems to have less of an issue with these types of lists than 8th ed. 40k. The variety of lists seems to have improved over time as well. However my experience with the top tier lists is rather limited since I don't play in many tourneys and my own local scene is friendly and laid back. I'm sure there are others that could elucidate at great length about the worst you can expect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tittliewinks22 Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 59 minutes ago, jamierk said: I'm curious about this myself, i'm dabling in getting back into AoS. What i really want to ask is, are there currently builds going around that are so strong that an average player doesn't really have a game? I don't mind not winning games against strong lists and good players, thats as it should be. I just don't want to have too many games against gun lines that can evaporate your army without anything you can do, or mortal wound spam (i have bad memories of the old bloodletter bomb). Are these relatively in check these days? I always though AoS could go either way depending on how strong they allowed those builds to become. The most recent big tournament had a pretty diverse top 3. Nurgle with mortals and demons, stormcast that had a little bit of everything it seemed, and a Kharadron clown car. There certainly are armies capable of gun lining, but the mobility in this game and some of the more defensive strategies keep it in check from what I can see. Alpha strike lists do exsist too, the aforementioned Kharadron list or something like Kroaknado are possible, but they roll over usually if they fail to do enough hurt on the "go" turn. I believe Age of Sigmar is shifting closer to a rock paper scissors style game with each new release being a decent counter for some of the previous, but weak to others, which makes room for an allcomers list to really shine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamierk Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 That’s really nice to hear. I think the people that play it are generally a credit to the game and the whole reason it has been successful. I hope the GW keeps up with the support they deserve :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageBoss Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 3 hours ago, Lord Graves said: Yeah... Just not a fan of the GW Minotaurs. But there is a ton of stuff I'm looking at right now for sure. The Cunnin' Ruk is spoken of like a horror story in the Destruction forums lol! I understand how it can be so good but it is not very fluffy imho. Orc(k)s want to get stuck in and bash heads in my mind. I know that people love playing against 40k Orks. Is it the same with AoS, if you're not using the Cunnin' Ruk? Edit: Lol! Well I went ahead and purchased Legions of Nagash. I want to start with SoulBlight and run Blood Knights, Bat Swarms and all that jazz. Looks like it will be a ton of fun! Check out Legion of Blood when you get the book. If you choose that as your allegiance, all your Blood Knights and Vampire Lords get an extra attack on every melee weapon (including mounts), and all your units (Vampire or not) give -1 Bravery to nearby enemy units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 1 minute ago, AverageBoss said: Check out Legion of Blood when you get the book. If you choose that as your allegiance, all your Blood Knights and Vampire Lords get an extra attack on every melee weapon (including mounts), and all your units (Vampire or not) give -1 Bravery to nearby enemy units. I got LoN and will most likely buy all the books over time. I still have a few months to go before I have to decide for sure but I really like Mist Form and Swift Death. Then after I build up my vampires I'll be looking to build up a skeletal army then afterward a massive zombie horde. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlasticCraic Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 15 hours ago, Qaz said: Battletome armies tend to do better but grand alliance Order and Destruction have good builds too. There are certainly underused/weak allegainces and units. On the other hand, there are not anything dominating as far as I can tell, other than my local's DoK player who is on 10 game winning streak. A range focused army will probably go out of favour if the new Deepkin becomes prevalent. I don't think they are overpowered since things like Stardrake and tzeentch arcanites will keep them in check. If anything, the most overpowered thing is the Balewind Vortex and that is a summon that any wizard can do. Interesting to note that you cite GA Destruction as having good builds...can I ask what builds you've seen being run successfully? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qaz Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 5 hours ago, PlasticCraic said: Interesting to note that you cite GA Destruction as having good builds...can I ask what builds you've seen being run successfully? Said it relative to other GA allegiances where you don't really see Chaos or Death GA Allegiance (because they don't need to use it). The only things I've played against here locally are: Squigs-fanatics-night gobbos, spiderfangs, and BCR+arrow boys. Didn't always win even though I play KO zilfin or fyreslayers. No , these are not top tier tournament games. 8 hours ago, Lord Graves said: I got LoN and will most likely buy all the books over time. I still have a few months to go before I have to decide for sure but I really like Mist Form and Swift Death. Then after I build up my vampires I'll be looking to build up a skeletal army then afterward a massive zombie horde. Nice, always fun and frightening to fight the undying legions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Lyons Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 12 hours ago, jamierk said: I'm curious about this myself, i'm dabling in getting back into AoS. What i really want to ask is, are there currently builds going around that are so strong that an average player doesn't really have a game? I don't mind not winning games against strong lists and good players, thats as it should be. I just don't want to have too many games against gun lines that can evaporate your army without anything you can do, or mortal wound spam (i have bad memories of the old bloodletter bomb). Are these relatively in check these days? I always though AoS could go either way depending on how strong they allowed those builds to become. The most concerning thing you would need to look out for is the Kharadron Overlords "Clown Car", which loads 95% of its army into a ship, finishes dropping before most other players (so it decides first turn), then it gets to redeploy where it wants. It then dumps out that army, often 9" off of your line and will delete most of your strategic pieces with shooting. It is a brutal experience if you aren't prepared or deploy appropriately, and even then the game will get decided in the first turn or two. Other than this list, most other things are pretty balanced and have strong rock-paper-scissors options. Regarding recommendations for shows, while it isn't battlereports, I highly recommend you check out Warhammer Weekly. It is a weekly Youtube livestream show that I co-host where we talk about all things related to the game including news, army books, current meta, etc. It is a great way to catch up on what is going on in the AoS world, especially if you've been out of it for a bit. The back catalogue of shows can help you brush up on specific topics you might be interested in, such as the Legions of Nagash book, the current meta, etc. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Graves Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 1 hour ago, Thomas Lyons said: The most concerning thing you would need to look out for is the Kharadron Overlords "Clown Car", which loads 95% of its army into a ship. Pretty sure this will be a lot more of a risk if they update the who goes first rule like they did with 40k. Still really interesting. I'll check out the show and see what I can see. Thank you for all the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thebiggesthat Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 I'd check out The Honest Wargamer if you want some unbiased podcast/twitch content, I really like 2Ps in a pod podcast as well. Hard 6 are another good group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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