Returning Fantasy player

[Regulus]

Hi everyone. I haven't played any tabletop miniature games in a very long time (3rd Edition 40k.....can't remember what edition Fantasy at that time) but went looking for an unrelated gift for someone at a local comic shop and discovered they have a huge player base. Noticing my interest the owner offered to let me play some demo games, I had a good time, and here I am getting sucked back in  I actually got a good number of small games in with a few different armies as the owner and other players wanted to help me find what playstyle interested me. Of course when the general backstory was explained and I proclaimed my devotion to Nagash that helped narrow things. Anyway, I really really enjoyed the ghosts more than anything else so I'm going to start with Nighthaunt. I will probably pick up that starter box with them and the Stormcast later in the week.

Having said that, I wanted to fire off three quick noobie questions:

1. Beyond the starter box, do I need anything more than the Army Book and General's Handbook to expand into the larger game?
2. I vaguely heard about how allies work. I was just curious, if I take an allied battleline unit, does it actually count towards my required battleline minimum?
3. The box is $160 American. There are a lot of Stormcast players here and several expressed interest in buying that part of the box. What do you think is a fair price for it? I'm a gentleman and would like to be reasonable.

Thank you  I will also be getting into 40k again, as well. But first I have to figure out what army I want to play and I can't decide yet. Nighthaunt drew me in right away so I thought it was the best place to start.

[Future]

Short answer - Buy your battletome, and have someone pay you 50-70 bux, battleline only if specified.

1. Yes -- Generals Handbook, Battletome, and Malign Sorcery. Battletome is by far the most important, this is your rules. You can play the game with this + core rules PDF (core rules and realm rules are also in the core book as part of the souls wars box). GHB has 12 battleplans and rules for certain armies.

Points .. I defer to the AOS app GW makes, its great, you should immediately download it to find points and warscrolls. There is a paid warscroll builder I use that too. However, you don't have to. You can find the war scrolls and add the war scrolls to "my battle" and on my battle view the warscroll profile -- it has the current point value.

Malign Sorcery is annoyingly needed. This has the realm artifacts. Most of the time when you make a list you can say its from a realm to gain access to those artifacts, on top of the ones you can already access. If you can borrow this information from a friend for free, this might be best since the only way to get that book is to buy the kit that also contains the endless spells.

2 No unless the battalion specifically says it counts a battle line (BOC have something like this I think, could be wrong, maybe nighthaunt does too).

3. Do you want the core book? Hard to say. If you want some of the bits $80 is a bit much. Somewhere between $50-$80 is definitely reasonable.  Depending on if you want the book and how much you value it.  I'm bad at this because I also undervalue the box halves since I want the box anyway and see the split as a bonus. 

[Regulus]

Thank you. I was planning on keeping the book and just selling the Stormcast stuff. I don't mind underselling it since it's doing me a favor, just don't want to oversell

I didn't even know there was an app, thank you. I will have to take a look.

[Future]

Yeah the app is easily the best part of aos. I’m not sure why they haven’t moved 40k to a similar thing yet 

[XReN]

I found Future's answer on allied battleline question confusing so to make this clear:
No, allies does not count towards battleline requirements, but they do count towards your limits on leaders/warmachines/behemots 

 

[Regulus]

20 minutes ago, XReN said:

I found Future's answer on allied battleline question confusing so to make this clear:
No, allies does not count towards battleline requirements, but they do count towards your limits on leaders/warmachines/behemots 

 

Thank you. It was explained at the store a little strangely to me. I had better make sure to read those rules in detail before I try anything

[Overread]

Few further thoughts to help

1) One new feature of AoS is Endless Spells; these are big spells that are so powerful that they manifest as an actual model into the game itself. The Endless Sorcery boxed set contains all the current universal (any faction can use) models for Endless Spells as well as warscroll cards for each (basically the stats of the model). The book that comes with it adds to it with "realm equipment". Realm equipment is spell lores and artifacts which are optional in games if you are playing with realm rules. It basically extends the options for you to pick when equipping your leaders and mages. 

The Endless Spells are powerful enough that you have to pay points for them just a like a model, though they are all unique so you can only take one of each named Endless Spell and can only have it cast once at a time. So you could cast it every turn and summon it as much as you want, but you may only have one model of the spell on the table at any one time (per side of course). 

Realm stuff fits into two distinct categories. First is the realm your faction comes from and the second is the realm the game you are playing is set in. You can use neither, both or one or the other in a game. It's best to confirm with your opponent which setup you are using (and many clubs often have a "default" stance on it - some are totally accepting of it all others are restrictive - depends on the community choice). Neat thing is as all the realm stuff is basically just "paperwork" and not linked to models nor points you can chop and change it pretty quickly without having to change your army. 

I would leave the realm stuff out for some early games; just keep it simple for yourself to the Battletome equipment lists and spell lores. Most playing a beginner will be fine with this. 

2) Nighthaunt have their own unique trio of Endless Spells as well, these are sold in their own kit and would be work picking up as well as they have their own powerful addition to your army. 

3) Check the GW website as on each product for AoS there's a rules/downloads tab which has the warscroll for that model. So you can check stats and abilites on things like the faction endless spells as well as heroes and units. 

4) The Allies system works in that you can take 1/4 of your army points and unit count as an allied unit. The Warscroll builder on the GW website helps you as it will track both counts when building your army. The models in an allies block do not count toward your Battleline requirement, though as noted they do count toward things like artilery and behemoth limits.

Note as well that when it comes to magic lores the only magic lores you can use are the ones in the army book for the army you are fielding. So if you've got the Nighthaunt book down all the wizards in your army (including allies) can only take spells from the lores in that book. Now within each book it will be noted, by key word, which types of wizard can take the spells (its normally in a little paragraph on the spell lore page). Basically this means if you take an allied wizard, chances are it won't have the right keyword on its warscroll card (those words at the bottom of the card) and thus won't be able to take any spells from your faction spell lore. So they will only have what is directly on their warscroll card.

Now if you use realm rules and set the battle in a specific realm then the allied wizards can use the realm spell lore (because that's open to all wizards in your army). Furthermore there are one or two special cases (such as Nagash) who can draw spells from other lores (I believe he's got something like he can cast any spell from the Grand Alliance including endless spells - but double check that). 

5) Night haunt are pretty modern in army terms and I think the only thing that might be in the Generals Handbook for them is an update on the price of the Battalions; however you can get that free off the Warscroll builder (its only a handful of point changes). There's nothing else specifically in that book for them, so what you'd be getting is the battleplans and the warscroll rules for some specialist types of terrain (which are not heavily used but sometimes are*). So you can likely make a saving and not grab this book (save the money and put it toward Malign Sorcery - which is a very affordable boxed set - cheaper than a getting started set)

 

 

*GW has not had good luck getting people to widely use them. It's why they've latched onto "faction specific" terrain and many new factions are getting not only their own set of Endless Spells but a unique terrain feature since it adds to the game; adds flavour to the board and also helps sell terrain for GW. Traditionally the only faction that had this was Sylvanath with their woods, but now its become a general policy for GW to release terrain features with factions. Nighthaunt missed the boat on this when their faction book and release came out; but chances are GW will return to them to give them their own in time. 

[Regulus]

Thank you, Overread. In my small games we didn't mess with Endless Spells but they did mention them and show me some of the models. They also said they're harder to dispel and you have to pay points for them like a unit. If someone dispels one can you summon it back without paying for it a second time?

I think I understand what you mean by faction terrain. One of the players had the sea elf army and had some sort of sunken ship terrain he explained grants bonuses to the army. That's an interesting feature, as well as all this realm-specific stuff you are all talking about.

I think that about does it for my newbie questions. Thanks to everyone. You've all been very helpful. I'm glad someone directed me to this forum

[Overread]

@Regulus You pay for the Endless Spell once during your army composition same as for a regular unit. You are correct in that if the spell ends or is dispelled you can cast it again; the only limit is that you may only attempt to cast it once per turn (same as any other named spell). 

[Nos]

1 hour ago, Regulus said:

Thank you, Overread. In my small games we didn't mess with Endless Spells but they did mention them and show me some of the models. They also said they're harder to dispel and you have to pay points for them like a unit. If someone dispels one can you summon it back without paying for it a second time?

I think I understand what you mean by faction terrain. One of the players had the sea elf army and had some sort of sunken ship terrain he explained grants bonuses to the army. That's an interesting feature, as well as all this realm-specific stuff you are all talking about.

I think that about does it for my newbie questions. Thanks to everyone. You've all been very helpful. I'm glad someone directed me to this forum

I’d recommend playing without Endless Spells for a few games as the best ones fundamentally change things which are quite core to the game eg movement.

Once you have the basics down you’ll be better placed to understand and utilise them 

[Avatar Rage]

I see you are dedicating yourself to the only true god, Nagash.

Unfortunately the Nighhaunt are the most Death faction to collect. Any box you get will leave you with some units that you won’t.

I would recommend getting Legions of Nagash with a Nighthaunt focus. Then once you have build up your collection, hone in on the spooky ghosts.

 

Also the AoS app a life saver.

[Regulus]

Thank you. I know Legions of Nagash and Nighthaunt have some synergy and crossover. Are all Nighthaunt units and heroes available to the Legions of Nagash?

[Tea Rex]

Hello Regulus - I can't help you with your questions I'm afraid, but you seem to be getting plenty of help with that from others (nice bunch round here).

Just wanted to drop in and welcome you back to the hobby, we probably quite similar in age I think the last time I played 40K was around 3rd edition, but I was more into WHFB back then. 

I look forward to seeing you around the forum.

All the best with your journey!