Overview of all the rules / books / factions out there?

[Astrella]

Hi,

so I heard apparently things have improved a lot with Age of Sigmar so the Games Workshop bug is biting again, however, I'm finding it incredibly hard to find an overview somewhere of what Factions are available, and what books contain what and which you need. Generals handbook, core book, malignant sorcery, battletomes, factions listing a realm in army lists??, there just seems to be so much out there, and well, I'm a bit lost to say the least.

[ManlyMuppet88]

In AoS you don’t actually need anything. Game rules are free on the website and models come with rules. If you’re brand new to AoS I would, however, recommend  the Getting Started magazine - https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Getting-Started-With-Age-Of-Sigmar-2018-eng - worth the price for the model alone, in my opinion. 

From there maybe the Generals handbook or the  core book, but it’s really up to you. Or just pop into a GW and ask some questions.

Also, check out the AoS website - https://ageofsigmar.com/

Hope that helps.

[kenshin620]

Well you have "The Rules" which are of course the main rulebook with the mechanics.

Generals Handbook is the "second" rulebook that contains some battle scenarios, but most importantly the "matched play" profiles (aka Points). There are also a number of Allegiances (aka factions) that are printed in GHB that show off allegiance abilities, items, and traits.

Malign Sorcery is the "3rd" rulebook that contains all sorts of rules involving magic and the magic realms. Most importantly this has the rules for Realm Artifacts (special items your heroes can take) and Endless Spells (spells that cost points and have physical models)

 

Next you have faction books, which are split into 2 categories. Grand Allegiance Books and Battletomes.

GA Books cover the ENTIRE grand allegiance in a generic list (Chaos, Order, Death, or Destruction), though they are also showing their age since they haven't been reprinted.

Battletomes are the equivalent of Fantasy Army Books and 40k Codex. These focus on a particular Allegiance that give a far more focused emphasis on using particular factions over building a GA list. Such examples include Kharadron Overlords or Nighthaunt. Do note though that Battletomes can vary much in size. The Kharadron Overlord one for example only involes the KO, a small set of units. Then you have the other extreme such as Legions of Nagash that encompass a large amount of units and even includes multiple Allegiances within the book.

 

Then finally you have Campaign and Supplement books, the most optional since they're mostly for playing with particular battlefields and events such as the Realmgate Wars or Malign Portents.

 

I think thats a rough cover of all the books.

 

If you're worried this all seems much, you can get most if not all the Warscrolls for free on GWs own website (a few may be outdated), and their Warscroll Builder includes all current point values of both units and battalions.

[EccentricCircle]

Your best bet is probably to start with the free resources.

The core rules are only 20 pages long, and are available as a free download as well as in the various soul wars sets.

Then all of the actual profiles (called Warscrolls) are available for free as well.

So you can pick a faction from the list in the webstore, and quite quickly see what units are available for it, and what they do. If it has a full Battletome then that can give you additional rules, but those aren't actually needed unless you immediately start playing very competitively. The additional rulebooks like the general's handbook and Malign sorcery are also just additional options, so aren't needed until you've got the hang of things.

The only optional rules which you might want to look at initially are the points costs (usually found in either the general's handbook, or a faction's battletome.) However these aren't actually essential.

[kenshin620]

4 hours ago, EccentricCircle said:

The only optional rules which you might want to look at initially are the points costs (usually found in either the general's handbook, or a faction's battletome.) However these aren't actually essential.

You don't even need the books for that, the free warscroll builder is already up to date with all the point costs.

[Greyshadow]

@Astrella, you are finding it hard to list all the factions as there are so many of them and I don't think a faction is actually even that precisely/consistently defined. There are 35 factions that have allegiance abilities (army rules, items, command traits) and probably close to that many again that don't. The most comprehensive list out there of all the models organised by faction is in the General's Handbook.

Note: I am interpreting the first part of your  question as how may armies are there you can choose from or what faction/allegiance can you choose.

[Wraith01]

If you just want to buy something to start with and get an idea of everything AoS,  get the Core Rulebook. Once you decide what army you're going with; invest in their Battletome and the Generals Handbook. After a few games, once you have most of your army painted, buy Malign Sorcery.