An Unexpectedly New Player Needs Held Dividing His Haul!

[bindonblood]

Hey Guys,

I’ve just unexpectedly bought a huge amount of AoS stuff really, really cheaply second hand along with some other wargaming items.   My initial thoughts were to sell it on, but I'm so impressed by the models up close, and with several friends raving about the system, I've decided to start playing.  Despite war gaming for 20 years, I’m a total AoS noob.  Can anyone help me sort of what’s worth keeping and what’s not; I like to minimise the amount of hobby items I have in my to-do pile to keep me sane and to my partner happy! 

I've attached two pictures of the books that came with the lot, 1 to sell on Ebay and 1 to keep...  Have I sorted them out correctly?  

It came with 2 unpainted armies; Khorne and Orcs (photos attached).   The question is which one I should keep and which needs to be sold (I'll never get around to painting both)? 

Really I should play the game and see which one I like, but with little time, little space and too many other projects one has to go straight away.  Regarding the Khorne Force, I already have a World Eaters 40K force including a lovely Forge World Greater Demon, and I think the models are ace, and are relatively quick to paint, but there is less of them.  There appears to be more orcs (a larger force but more to paint!), and again the models are incredible but they are split between two factions so I assume they are less competitive to play using the combined destruction rules?  For both forces, are the units competitive or has the person just bought the models for the usual GW cool factor?  How would both Armies play?  In other game systems I like to have a single powerful unit as a sledge hammer and then use cheap units as an anvil... Mostly important, which Army will require less painting to get a good amount of points on the table?… My painting mountain is currently massive!

Thanks for your help guys,

[DrJekyll325]

Looks like about 1000 points worth of Ironjawz already built there (if you build a third Gore-Grunta).  Sounds like a good start to me!

Do you intend to build it up to a standard 2000-point tournament force at some point, or just stick with the smaller games?

[Thundercake]

The orks would probably be easier to sell for more money since a bunch of them are still NIB. The Khorne stuff looks like starter set things with some other bits. Both are gonna be the kind of armies that run at your opponent and beat their face in. Not a ton of range with either. The big monster dude for Khorne has some range and the savage boys could be built with bows.

You may want to have a go at the warscroll builder app on the warhammer-community page and see which of them gets you closer to 2k points and if both or either would be matched play with what you already have.

[bindonblood]

Thanks guys. Having slept on it I think I’m going to keep the orcs (sorry oruks! As I’d rather build the models myself  because I have high standards on the mound lines etc.

Was I right on the books I am keeping?

 

 

[DrJekyll325]

Yeah, although you may find that the GHB 2017 might be worth hanging on to for additional battleplans and such.

Right there with you on the mould lines!

[bindonblood]

Thanks - I’ll add it to the keep pile. Although, I’ve decided to keep the Khorne too until I’ve played a few games. I just need to paint a couple of 40k Kill teams and properly paint and base the ruins (in a way they can be used for AoS too) and then the Oruks will be my next project.

[Nin Win]

The Skirmish and Path to Glory campaigns are a great way to paint and play with an ever increasing group of painted guys.  And it looks like you have two armies as well.  If you can find other local people who are new, they can be a great way to get started.  Don't be afraid of changing things around as well.  The "renown" in Skirmish is just points divided number of models in the unit divided by 5.  So you can play with any AoS model not just the ones with renown points listed.

Also, don't be afraid to just take what you have painted for Path to Glory.  While you don't want to be always choosing the strongest thing and painting that so your force will be the best, if you just paint what you think is cool and then play with that, it'll be great.

The Malign Sorcery book also has some cool Skirmish and Path to Glory content.

[Ben]

It looks like you have a great start in AoS!  Just pick a few models you really like the look of and get stuck in. 

[bindonblood]

Thanks Guys, really useful.  So I take it I can flog the models in Malign Sorcery that aren't related to the Armies that I use?

[Kramer]

10 minutes ago, bindonblood said:

Thanks Guys, really useful.  So I take it I can flog the models in Malign Sorcery that aren't related to the Armies that I use?

All spells in de box are available to all wizards as far is i know. It just a case of getting a gnoblar or orruk wizard  

[bindonblood]

Good job that two came with the Oruks then! Am I ever going to ever conceivably ever be in a position to play both, or should I get rid of one to buy something else?  

[Baron Wastelands]

Magic is quite big at the moment, in part due to Endless spells (the models in Malign sorcery, which any army with a wizard can use). So you might want 2. 

As a more general point, the answers to all your questions are in the books you have - and in not too many pages; I think I’d start with the actual game rules, which are only a few pages of the large core book - but you don’t even need to do that to build an army. If you are thinking about matched play (competitive, balanced play with points and army limits, restrictions, etc.)  then read the bits in the general’s handbook first about matched play army construction.

You will for example discover:

a) that units are bought in chunks (so boar boys can be taken in multiples of 5, so as a unit of 5, or 10, etc). I point this out because gore gruntas (the two big pig riders you have) come in threes, so if you don’t have another one you’re not showing, those aren’t going to be useful to you in matched play (still fine in narrative or open play, of course, but I’m assuming you’re principally interested in having a legal matched play army).

b) that if you want an ironjawz list, the bonesplitters (savage orcs + boar riders) that you have would have to be taken as allies, which is 20% of your list max. So plan what you want - you have about 1400 point of ironjawz (not counting the gore gruntas) and about 500 points of bonesplitters, so while you could play a 2000 destruction general list, you will lose out on specific ironjawz abilities unless you trim your bonesplitters units and bolster your ironjawz. However, you could keep the flexibility to go to 2500 points, which is fairly easily done by adding a mawkrusha (big ridden monster that is a must-have imo in an ironjawz list).

Your khorne on the other hand is all from the same faction. You have about 1500 points, I think (guessing at some blurs!). All playable - you may find that the 10 bloodletters (alien-like demons) either need to be a much bigger unit or go, but try them and see. If you’ve decided to keep both, my advice is: build the boxed brutes and ‘ard Boyz, remove the two gore gruntas and leave the 2 bonesplitters boxes NIB for now, then grab a friend and play both armies against each other a couple of times, as they will be fairly well balanced ( ironjawz has a slight upper hand, I think, given the models you have, but not too unbalancing). After a couple of games using core rules and war scrolls, introduce allegiance abilities, command abilities and artefacts from the general’s handbook. 

After all that, and only then, open Malign sorcery!

[bindonblood]

22 hours ago, Baron Wastelands said:

Magic is quite big at the moment, in part due to Endless spells (the models in Malign sorcery, which any army with a wizard can use). So you might want 2. 

As a more general point, the answers to all your questions are in the books you have - and in not too many pages; I think I’d start with the actual game rules, which are only a few pages of the large core book - but you don’t even need to do that to build an army. If you are thinking about matched play (competitive, balanced play with points and army limits, restrictions, etc.)  then read the bits in the general’s handbook first about matched play army construction.

You will for example discover:

a) that units are bought in chunks (so boar boys can be taken in multiples of 5, so as a unit of 5, or 10, etc). I point this out because gore gruntas (the two big pig riders you have) come in threes, so if you don’t have another one you’re not showing, those aren’t going to be useful to you in matched play (still fine in narrative or open play, of course, but I’m assuming you’re principally interested in having a legal matched play army).

b) that if you want an ironjawz list, the bonesplitters (savage orcs + boar riders) that you have would have to be taken as allies, which is 20% of your list max. So plan what you want - you have about 1400 point of ironjawz (not counting the gore gruntas) and about 500 points of bonesplitters, so while you could play a 2000 destruction general list, you will lose out on specific ironjawz abilities unless you trim your bonesplitters units and bolster your ironjawz. However, you could keep the flexibility to go to 2500 points, which is fairly easily done by adding a mawkrusha (big ridden monster that is a must-have imo in an ironjawz list).

Your khorne on the other hand is all from the same faction. You have about 1500 points, I think (guessing at some blurs!). All playable - you may find that the 10 bloodletters (alien-like demons) either need to be a much bigger unit or go, but try them and see. If you’ve decided to keep both, my advice is: build the boxed brutes and ‘ard Boyz, remove the two gore gruntas and leave the 2 bonesplitters boxes NIB for now, then grab a friend and play both armies against each other a couple of times, as they will be fairly well balanced ( ironjawz has a slight upper hand, I think, given the models you have, but not too unbalancing). After a couple of games using core rules and war scrolls, introduce allegiance abilities, command abilities and artefacts from the general’s handbook. 

After all that, and only then, open Malign sorcery!

Thanks Baron - this is brilliant advice. I may get rid of one of the orruk wizards anyway as the previous owner has bought the same model and there isn’t a huge scope for modifying it due to how the cast is posed. I guess I can sell it and buy a third (single) goregrunta of EBay - I’ve no idea what the previous owner has done with the third one!

 

Keeping both in the short-term seems immensely sensible given I only paid a mere £60 for all this stuff.... Ridicious I know! Although, keeping the Khorne long-term does gives me the opportunity to make better use of my Forgeworld Bloodthirster (their best ever model)... 

My first game is scheduled for next month when an old friend comes down for a weekend of gaming.  Just a 28mm scale of La Haye Saint to finishing paInting, some Normandy bocage to construct; then some Kill Team terrain to base and paint and then I can finally start this stuff (which has made my plastic mountain considerably larger).