Overread Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Welcome, this thread aims to collect together resources to aid people getting started in the game as well as links to various on-site resources and references for additional help for all gamers new and old. Please feel free to add comments and content and I will strive to edit the opening posts to contain this information. The more people contribute the more we can grow this into a powerful tool for the site. Index: Getting Started Introduction to the Armies of Age of Sigmar Reference/quick help sheets for AoS and Armies Additional materials/resources/accessories. AGE OF SIGMAR! What you need to get started If possible I would strongly recommend heading down to a local Games Workshop (GW) store or to your local hobby store. Most staff are more than willing to give you info, many might have store copies of rules and battletomes for you to flip through and you might even get a demo game if you ask. All things that can help you get a real world idea of factions and armies as well as see for yourself what things look like. If you don't have a local shop hit up Facebook(FB) and the internet and see if you can find a local group. Again most clubs and groups are more than happy to take on new people and help show them the ropes - drop them an email or FB message to let them know you're coming. What is presented below is not designed to replace what I've said above, but to compliment it. A reminder and a short online introduction. The Story of Age of Sigmar: Lore: Age of Sigmar the game What you need: Ok so this might sound like a complicated setup, but its not. To get started you'll need: 1) The Rules for the game. The core rules for the game can be found in the "Big Rule Book" (BRB) which is sold on its own or also with the Age of Sigmar starting set (Nighthaunt VS Stormcast). It is also online on the Games Workshop website for free:https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Warhammer-Age-of-Sigmar-Rules Now first up you might think "wait that is only 20 pages, what's the rest of that monster book full of?" Well its more battle plans, the rules for narrative, open and matched play, a few more abilities and such; however the bulk is the lore and setting; artwork (fantastic!) and some painting/model tips. So its a general good getting started book and the lore helps you get a grip with the magical world of the game. It also contains spells and rules for the various Realms, which are an optional set of rules that you can use to add more spells and artifcats/equipment to your armies. 2) Rules for your army. Each army in the game has its own collection of rules by which they operate. On the GW store many armies have a Battletome. This is a single book (like a codex if you play Warhammer 40K) which collects together lore, alliegance abilities, spell lores, equipment, battalions and warscrolls for an entire army including skirmish and matched play points. If you are collecting an army which hasn't got its own Battletome fear not. First up the store page for each model now has a "downloads" tab under the model picture and within that you can find the warscroll for that unit. In addition the Generals Handbook 2018 contains alligance abilities and battalions for most of the remaining forces. It also has matched play points for all armies and is where GW prints out updates to the points costs for existing armies with a battletome. Another reosurce is the free Warscroll Builder on the GW website.https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/ This handy little application lets you pick an alliance and then choose the units for your army. It thus has all the points info that you require and will also add up things like command points for your force. You will still need to know the composition of things like Battalions if you want to use them, but otherwise the application works very well to let you build armies how you like and show you how much its all going to cost in points. Note at the top are two tabs for Generals Handbook 2018 and Skirmish. Skirmish is a separate game mode with its own rules and rulebook. And that is all you need to get started in Age of Sigmar! With the above you can sink your teeth into the game and get a few battles under your belt and start to learn how the game plays! I'd recommend getting some demo games to get a feel for how the game flows and how it all fits together before you start to branch out to other play documents and optional expansions to the rules. All GW stores will have staff happy to give you introduction games and most 3rd party (where they have play space) and clubs will also be more than willing to help you get started and introduce you to the game. Now there is more if you are already wanting to take it further; or you've already played a few games and want to know what the rest of the material is. 1) Maligan Sorcery. This is brand new feature that is proving very popular with many gamers. The boxed set (cheaper than a battleforce for most armies) is a one-purchase box which has the rules, warscrolls and models for a selection of "Endless Spells". These are spells so powerful that they appear as physical models on the tabletop. From huge scythes that slice through your enemies to chains that erupt from the ground to bind and stall them. The Book that comes with Maligan Sorcery includes rules for Realm artifcats and realm spells. These are not universally used but are very popular in general. MS is a recommended purchase as the spells within it can be used by any army in Age of Sigmar and the Endless spells are very popular. 2) The Generals Handbook (2018 current year). This is a book published each year which updates the other publications. It might amend point values; introduce new battleplans; change the way some abilities are worded or played and also contains aligance abilities for armies that don't have a Battletome book of their own. It's a good solid publication that builds on changes that happen to the game through the wider playtesting and evolution of the game. Well worth picking up the current years edition of this book. 3) Errata and Designers Commentaries. These are two documents released for free by GW which are used to help out players. Errata make changes where errors or stats are changed from the currently published Battletomes/Generals Handbook. Meanwhile Designers Commentaries help you understand how specific abilties or situations are supposed to resolve and be used in the game. Both are good to print out and have with you. They are included for the core rules; the malign sorcery rules; generals handbooks and all army specific rules. The Designers Commentary for the Big Rule Book also has a base-size chart which can be of great help if you've got older models or second hand ones that might be on the wrong base size or could even be on the old square bases. https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/ Note 1 Be sure to pick Age of Sigmar from the banner list, as the FAQ page lists all FAQs from the entire GW range, not just Age of Sigmar.. Note 2 Much of this might not make sense when you are just getting started so don't worry if some of it seems confusing. Having print out copies is good and most doing introduction games won't worry about much of the errata changes at that stage as you will still just be learning the rules; but if you can get a handle on it its good to have and get started with. Choosing an army help: Choosing an army can seem like a daunting task! So here are few of my own tips when it comes to choosing an army. Broadly speaking there are two extreme elements in choosing an army. Visual and Gameplay. Visual: This is all about how the army looks and will often also include its lore and background as well. This is very much a totally personal choice for each person to have. One way I find it easier to make a choice based on this is to go to the GW store and go to the various armies I am thinking of. For each army I open a single tab in my browser for every unit listed in their stor page. I do this for one army at a time (otherwise the number of tabs can get confusing). Once I've opened up a tab for every unit in a particular army I go through each tab and view the photos and 180 rotations and from that I then decide if I like or dislike models. I close any tab where I dislike a model. This will leave you with a series of open tabs that should show what specific models in an army you do like (it could be all of them or just one). This gives you an idea of how much of the army you really like and if you happen to really like only one or two big models; the whole range; lots of the infantry and basic troops etc... It can help you identify which factions you like and which you love! Note this is most often the strongest element in choosing an army for many players; especially when you are getting started. It's a lot easier to put in the time to build, paint and field armies when you really love the models. Gameplay: This encompasses two key elements. The first is how the army plays in general. This might mean if it fields a lot of units (swarmy) or if it fields only a handful of more powerful units (elite). That choice alone can be important for some as typically an elite army is going to be cheaper to get into whilst a swarmy one might be more expensive and certainly more time consuming to assemble and paint. The second part is how they play on the tabletop. Some armies are more in favour of close combat over ranged attacks; some are magic heavy and best throwing lots of spells; others might be reliant on summoning magic etc... Again this can affect what models you're going to be able to build and play with on the tabletop. The third part is the power of the army in the perception of the community and its stats. This is seeing if it wins tournaments; if it is easier to build a very strong force; if it has broken units (ergo units that are significantly more powerful than standard) etc.... Note that most people are a mix of the two extremes when it comes to a choice and there is no right choice save what is right for you and your given situation. Many people often go more visually with an army to start with and might make a more "power" based choice later in their hobby when they might swap armies (sell one buy another) or buy into a second army. Sometimes it takes experience to know if you even like magic focused or close combat focused armies; so what might be the right choice for you today might be different in a few years time. That's perfectly normal and every gamer goes through that - with many swapping back and forth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted September 30, 2018 Author Share Posted September 30, 2018 Introduction to the Armies of Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance Order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted September 30, 2018 Author Share Posted September 30, 2018 Reference/quick help sheets for AoS and Armies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted September 30, 2018 Author Share Posted September 30, 2018 Additional materials/resources/accessories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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