Starter army(need help)

[bigpaul0909]

Hey im very new to AoS, as in i walked into a warhammer store, was pushed toward a SCE battletomb and soul wars box(i didnt buy the soulwars box, i did buy the tomb just from him for answering my questions i had for 30mins...).  Anyway i have NEVER played a tabletop game except dnd and i enjoy painting minis, which had me stumble across AoS, and then in turn having me walk into a store.  So I read through the SCE battletomb, they dont seem like they are for me but it did give me a brief explanation of some other factions and (without every playing a game)general rules for the game.  So i dont quite understand how to build an army or to make it viable.  I was told online to pick a army that fits you and visually you want to play, so here it is, I love the look of untamed beasts and Slaves of Darkness.  I see they are in the same faction so could you guide me in the right direction to making a melee focused 2000pt army with those? is this viable? is it at least semi competitive to play in my local store?  I like these models and these "hero" on GW website so id love to figure out how this could work.

 

Start Collecting! Slaves To Darkness Collection

Slaves to Darkness Untamed Beasts

Darkoath Chieftain

Darkoath Warqueen Marakarr Blood-sky

Chaos Sorcerer Lord

TLDR:Id like help to build a melee focused army with SoD and UB with some cool heros, never played AOS no idea if this is even viable, i just would like some guidance before buying 300$ worth of plastic, and i dont want to go back to the warhamer store without more info as last time i felt i was just pushed into buying things i didnt want to even look at.

[Overread]

A few thoughts to help you along

1) Slaves to Darkness just got a shiny brand new battletome (their first for AoS) and thus they are currently enjoying some much awaited revival. So they are going to be pretty popular and thus there should be lots of info floating about for them, it might change a bit here and there due to how comparatively new they are in terms of getting a Battletome (prior to this they were very unpopular because they were one of the weakest forces)

2) You've approached it right in going for what you like the visual look of; you'll spend hours building and painting as well as gaming so having models that you like the look of is important for many people. 

3) Do have a look at Warcry - its a shorter, faster game than AoS and its popular in many regions. You can use your Untamed Beasts in it and its a nice way to fill a halfhour of a gaming session if you've not got a major game going on. 

4) Untamed Beasts are basically very light armour shock troops - designed to move fast and hit hard, but have very little armour so they will fall apart fairly fast under focused attacks. Like most of the Warcry sourced models; they are cheap to field on the table (in terms of points) so can be taken in larger groups to help increase their chances of surviving to make it into combat. 

5) You want the Slaves to Darkness Battletome to help you along. I'd also recommend getting the game rules. You can get the "Big Rule Book", however more than half of that is lore and photos, which are fantastic, but not all that useful during the game itself. Instead GW has published a very handy Gaming Book which has all the rules plus some from the expansions as well https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Age-Of-Sigmar-Gaming-Book-EN-2019 its also cheaper and more practically sized than the Big Rule book. 

6) You should have a pretty sold core with what you're looking to get - leaders, wizard, core troops and untamed beasts. With building armies you have to basically have the minimum number of battleline units (varies on the point value for the game) and a leader. After that you can take whatever you want up to the limits for the point value. The Warscroll Builder on the GW website can help you a lot with this. 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/

Pick the points value in the top right corner (click it to change). I'd suggest starting with 1000 points for early games. 

Then pick Chaos as the Grand Alliance; Slaves to Darkness as the Allegiance and then Slaves to Darkness as the army to pick from and away you go. The app will show you the limits and unit types.

 

Your group might play "Meeting Engagements" which are a slight modification of the core rules designed for 1000 point battles. The app has a tab for that and the rule book I linked too I "think" has them (they came in one of the generals handbook releases and I believe the yare in the smaller book, I've yet to pick up a copy). Meeting engagements are setup a little differently, so you might find it easier to stick to a basic regular pitched battle with 1K points. 

[readercolin]

Here is my first suggestion:

Don't buy 2000 points at once.  No if's, no and's, no buts, don't buy 2000 points.  Unless you know FROM EXPERIENCE that you like painting and playing enough that you know you will build and paint 2000 points, that much plastic is going to be intimidating, and it will sap your motivation, and you won't be able to finish your army.

Instead, aim for 500(ish) points to start, and then if you decide that you like it expand the army from there.  For reference, that Slaves to Darkness start collecting comes in at 630 points (you can easily look up what the points totals are and how to make an army by going to https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/ which will allow you to "build" your army and tells you what your points are/battleline/etc).  In this case, I would recommend getting the start collecting and then decide if you still like modeling after that is done being built.

All this being said, if you like the looks of those models and you buy the AoS untamed beasts rather than the warcry ones (difference, warcry comes with the warcry rules and cards, AoS version comes with 2 sets of the models) that comes in at 1060 points.  So if those are models that you like, then just get those models and start painting, then work from there to figure out what models work ok at 1000 points and how you like to play and expand that direction.  Taking that army out with 1 unit of untamed beasts on the board and the other not in play, you can run ravagers and use a command point to bring that second unit on to the board later in the game.

[bigpaul0909]

wow thank you guys for the great info! It is exactly what i was looking for.  The only issue i see with the warhammer army builder is when i select heros and things it has drop downs with weapons and mark choices which i dont understand yet(i get the weapon would be im guessing what i choose to build him with) but im still not grasping marks and such but i will with time, at least for now it seems like the best way for em to start would be buy a new starter box and get to building then try that out in a mock game? with however many points it comes to.  Then expand with the untamed beasts and extra heros.

[Overread]

Sounds like a good plan, and yes thinks like Marks will make more sense once you get a hold of the Slaves to Darkness Battletome and have a read; it will give you the story of the race as well as the materials to build a proper army list and fill in all those little confusing gaps and understandings on things like Marks. 

[#SteveJames]

Some really great advice on here already, after you've got an idea of what you would like to do it worth trying a few demo games at your local store. 

There's lots of clubs about too and it's a brilliant welcoming community lots of people willing to show you how to play. 

[zilberfrid]

Slaves to Darkness are a very diverse army, you chose well. All the advice here seems good.

If you don't like the shop you were at (and sending someone home with a battletome instead of models is weird), order online, you can get 15% off most things.

For paint, I like the Vallejo starter gaming colours, kislev flesh (or other more natural flesh colour), some Nuln oil, fleshshade and earthshade and dark grey and light grey (or white) primer.

Though a good case could be made for contrasts and metals.

[bigpaul0909]

On 1/3/2020 at 5:58 PM, zilberfrid said:

Slaves to Darkness are a very diverse army, you chose well. All the advice here seems good.

If you don't like the shop you were at (and sending someone home with a battletome instead of models is weird), order online, you can get 15% off most things.

For paint, I like the Vallejo starter gaming colours, kislev flesh (or other more natural flesh colour), some Nuln oil, fleshshade and earthshade and dark grey and light grey (or white) primer.

Though a good case could be made for contrasts and metals.

Thanks! im not new to painting, i found this game from painting dnd models, as far as the store, everyone was very nice and welcoming but i was for sure pushed into the purchase even when i waked in saying i wanted to try warcry as a start into tabletop gaming.  I was told warcry doesnt have a huge population of players at this store and i should try AoS but then was just pushed into soul wars for its value.   I liked the store and ill go back but i plan on purchasing my items online now.