New but VERY motivated...many questions inside! Please help!

[MoolkBiggestOrruk]

Hello Everyone! 

My name is Chris, but Moolk is my "REAL" name :D.  I am now enveloped in Warhammer and wonder where the hell its been my whole life and how I missed it hahaha.  Quick history of myself in Warhammer...I first found it in 2008 I believe in Warhammer Online, an MMORPG that holds a special place in my heart to this day.  It was here I was introduced to my Black Orc (Orruk?) Moolk and the culture of Orcs that proved to fascinate me as they were not simply large green humans as in other genres.  Fast forward to a couple years ago I got into Warhammer Total War and still play it to this day.  Soon after, I realized upon the opening of a Warhammer store in my neighborhood that there was an entire fantasy world and table top game behind it all.  About a year ago I began buying and painting (something I was never into before) and have since fallen in love with it.  I love painting my army, I love the lore behind the game, I love everything about it!  However, finding information about it is very difficult, as most guides are very long and not very specific and I have yet to participate in an actual table top battle.  Thus far I have only played some games about it, painted some models, read some lore, etc. 

 

So if anyone would be kind enough to answer some of my questions, you would be my hero.  And, Moolk may not smash you if we ever meet in the mean streets of the badlands. 

 

QUESTIONS:

1. I am building an Ironjawz army currently, how many models do I need in order to participate in actual table top battles? 

2. Is there a "starting place" for the lore?

3. What is a "battle report"?  Does it have anything to do with the lore, or is it random people doing table top battles?

4. How exactly is the lore portrayed and updated?  I have heard there are official pod casts that give lore updates weekly or something? Like..."What happened this week in Warhammer!".

5. Is there a nice youtube starting place for newbies like myself that anyone wants to recommend?  

 

I feel like I have a dozen more but I'm running short on time.  Any help anyone can provide and any tips anyone want to give to get me started would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Fisren]

hiya, i'm also new! (just got my first game in last weekend) I'll try to answer the easy questions.

1. Number of models is irrelevant, moreso its about the point values of each unit. Most gaming clubs start standard matched play games at 1,000 points, (some may offer 500 points to just teach newbies, depends on your local club). Point values for each models vary, but you can find the most updated point values in the "General's Handbook 2018". GW also released this "https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/" as a good starting to point to see what units you may want and their point values. 

2. You can find some of the lore in the handbook, for IJ specific lore, there's a "Battletome: Ironjawz" which has all the lore, as well as points, allegiance abilities, etc. for the Ironjawz faction. 

3. A "Battle Report" is just as it states, people reporting/recording their tabletop game.

4. (not sure about this)

5. (may have to get back to you on that) 

[Skreech Verminking]

5. I find Miniwargamimg, or the Mountain miniatures, as well as rerolling ones (was it I believe?) a rather good YouTube channel.

watching some people play a game of aos, can be very interesting, and you might learn to understand some rules with which you struggled before.

4. The latest update in lore was with the Rule book. 

I heard some of the official weekly podcast, but find them rather lacking of any lore telling.

2. The Internet is a perfect starting place for people who are interested in the lore.

But if you want to know more I believe Fisren told you already everything about it. (Just as a reminder the IJ battletome was one of the first that came here out, and because of that lacks any allegiance ability and artifacts. You can find those in the ghb, which you don’t really need right now)

[Overread]

1) It varies army to army and even within a single faction there is variation in how many models work depending on what you choose. There are general patterns though and orks tend to be a higher unit count in general. Also bare in mind low or high count doesn't always correspond to price. A larger number of models might be a lot of boxes of cheaper infantry, whilst fewer could be big expensive models. So both can add up to around the same values. 

In general I would say go read army lists and look at battle reports for an idea of what number of models people tend to take. 1000 and 2000 points are the general popular values most will work with an 1K is a good point to aim for to get started with a faction. 

Ironjawz thread on here is a good read for a general reference point and to ask questions in 
https://www.tga.community/forums/topic/18209-aos-2-ironjawz-discussion/

2) Yes and no. The Big Rule book has a big summary of much of the lore of the world from the end of the fall of the old world through to the rise of the new, its fall and then the age of sigmar. Similarly your faction Battletome will also collect together a lot of the lore of a faction, as well as details on characters and units you use. Note not every AoS faction has a Battletome at present, but GW are steadily working on getting them out bit by bit. 

Another place to get into the lore is through Black Library which publishes stories/books (in physical, ebook and audiobook) which goes into more depth on the world and major events. The lore for fantasy is broken into two parts, the Chronicles which deals with the old world that was (the old Warhammer Fantasy game) and the Age of Sigmar which is the new Realms that have formed. The two are connected and there is some cross over, but the way the old world ended generally means its very easy to treat the Age of Sigmar as nearly stand-alone so you can get into it without much trouble.

You can find a handy collected reference for both here:
https://www.tga.community/forums/topic/19571-black-library-list-for-age-of-sigmar-and-warhammer-books/

IF I were to suggest a starting point it would be the The Realmgate Wars Vol 1 (in general try to buy collected volumes if you're new as these prove the cheaper long term option and generally collect together both short stories and longer novels into blocks. A lot of the old world chronicles are being put into bigger volumes now). 

3) A Battle report can vary depending on the author, but what they are is a summary of the results of a game which people have played in the real world. If you read them from the White Dwarf magazine they can focus on the narrative/lore of the fight; whilst online they might just summaries what was taken and who won; or could go into a full break down of what exactly happens in each step. There's also battle reports on youtube which can, again, be summaries; a step by step or even a full video of the entire game. 
Sometimes GW does big campaigns - like Malign Portents - which collect results from player battles in their stores on certain dates and which are used to create bits of the lore and events that take place. In general though most of the lore of fights is what people write themselves. 

4) I mostly covered this in point 2, though you can also get snippets of lore from the White Dwarf Magazine. The podcasts and such normally tend to regurgitate those reference points already mentioned (Battle tomes, rule book, Black Library and White Dwarf). A lot of it goes around in circles to reinforce itself. There are also some decent websites out there which collect up a lot of the lore in summaries can be a good reference point (I'm sure others will suggest some links) 

5) Not one that I use often; for Ironjawz I'd just type them into youtube and see what lands - battle reports, painting, conversions, armies etc... use key words to refine the search and see what you find. 

[Nin Win]

Also, lots of people even with established armies are often working on side projects, possible allies to their army and generally painting things they like the look of, so you might also be able to start with very, very few points.  I find that if I want to start a skirmish campaign and grow from 250 to 500 or so, someone is usually in the painting stage of a new project and is more than happy to grow and play through Skirmish, possibly into Path to Glory and then 1000 point games.

[wieebenholz]

Hey Moolk,

1. I am building an Ironjawz army currently, how many models do I need in order to participate in actual table top battles? 

As the folks above me already told you it depends. Where i live the Hobby Store usually has events each week that are suited for new players. So if you'd like to get into a few battles,  i recommend you ask in your local hobby store if there are any such events in the store or near you and if so, how many models/points you should bring.
Im sure they will be more than happy to help you find the right number of units/"points".
Also normally there are people in the stores that are just waiting to play with people like you, so just go in there and tell them you want to play a game but dont have that many models yet (so they only use half their army against you and its fair).

2. Is there a "starting place" for the lore?

There is the "old world" (which we had from the start of warhammer til about 2(?) years ago (which is also the world in which the warhammer mmo and the total war warhammer games take place).  The Old world lore you will find in old editions of the rule book. (just google "warhammer 8. Edition rulebook" for example) and loads of the old army books (each army/faction had their own rule books, that also summarized/gave a broad/general picture of their lore). Then there are also the Black Library books. Anything that says "old world" or "chronicles" in the description means its lore about the old world.

This old world has basically "ended" during a cataclysmic series of events during the "end times". (Any Black Library Book with "End Times" in its name, will tell this story).

And now we have the Age of Sigmar. Age of Sigmar lore can be found in the "Core Book", as well as in the current Army/Faction Books and in the Black Library.

3. What is a "battle report"?  Does it have anything to do with the lore, or is it random people doing table top battles?

A battle report is like an after action report by one or more of the players that fought in a battle. It can be very tactical or very narrative driven (i like the narrative ones more). You can find good examples in the white dwarf magazine (monthly episodes). And on youtube i very much enjoy the new channel "rerolling ones" and "miniwargaming" is also decent.

4. How exactly is the lore portrayed and updated?  I have heard there are official pod casts that give lore updates weekly or something? Like..."What happened this week in Warhammer!".

There is no podcast that updates the lore. The lore is written by Games Workshop, but some podcasts talk about the lore.  The "Garagehammer" podcast for example is very lore intense.
Basically Games Workshops pays loads of authors to write new lore via Black Library Books and Army Books, sometimes they also have huge gaming campaigns where people (you and me) in the hobby stores play games and then upload what happened in these games to a platform, what than happened in these games becomes part of the lore. (So you kind of get the opportunity to "write" the lore yourself by participating in such campaigns).

5. Is there a nice youtube starting place for newbies like myself that anyone wants to recommend?

For general warhammer i recommend "miniwargaming" and "rerolling ones".
For painting i recommend "vince venturella", "doctor fausts painting clinic", "victor ques", "the terrain tutor" and ofc the official "warhammer" channel itself.
(there are loads of other good channels too).

[MoolkBiggestOrruk]

Thanks so much guys I really appreciate the informative reponses!!!!  You guys are awesome!  Great forum so far hahaha.  

[Mikeymajq]

I see all of these have already been answered ( I believe?) but I'd like to chime in and say the youtube channel 2+ tough is great for lore videos.

And I found playing a few 500 pts battles and then slowly progressing was a great way to learn the game and your warscrolls

 

[Overread]

By the way as you're keen on lore stuff this thread might be of interest; its where people have written bits of lore and story that surround their own army. Nothing official of course, but it gives an idea how to take the lore and adapt it to your own army. 

 

[MoolkBiggestOrruk]

Oh snap that seems awesome!  Yea I am absolutely going to read that after class.