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Starting an elite AoS army


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Hello,

I would like to start (well really start!) an AOS army. I would like this army to have a few figurines on the table, to be very elitist. For the moment I hesitate between the Stormcast and the Ossiarch. I have begun with a Seraphon's army (the two starting collectors) but, after having tried to make some rosters, I doubt it is possible to make a non populous army out of it. And I don't like the endless spamming of the same unit. I have to add I'm a beginner in AoS.

Your opinions would help me a lot to finally be able to start an army that suits me perfectly.

Thank you in advance.

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For Ogors you can get by fits 3 start collecting as well.

 

what do you from it game wise? Ossiarchs can be very strong and more of an attritional warfare kind of force. While stormcast are more ‘tricky’ to play. Teleporting units, starting off the table. 

also something to consider is that, and it’s guessing by me, stormcast might get a new tome relatively soon. As they have fallen behind a bit. 
Stormcast are definitely good enough for friendly games. But if you play with people who enjoy squeezing every last competitive drop out of the game, bonereapers is the saver choice. 

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2 hours ago, Sternacht said:

Hello,

I would like to start (well really start!) an AOS army. I would like this army to have a few figurines on the table, to be very elitist. For the moment I hesitate between the Stormcast and the Ossiarch. I have begun with a Seraphon's army (the two starting collectors) but, after having tried to make some rosters, I doubt it is possible to make a non populous army out of it. And I don't like the endless spamming of the same unit. I have to add I'm a beginner in AoS.

Your opinions would help me a lot to finally be able to start an army that suits me perfectly.

Thank you in advance.

ossiarch aren't really an elite army. Their bread and butter resolves around mortem guard, which are horde units. Stormcast are quite elite, but also quite a long way behind in the current meta.

I'm biased, but Idoneth deepkin are a good elite army. They are off the pace with the current meta, but less so than stormcast.

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25 minutes ago, Sternacht said:

Yes, true! I forgot about them. Can you tell me a bit about their play style, more close combat? range?
Thanks

Idoneth are a close combat army based around fast cavalry strikes that have high damage and high reliability. You also have access to deepstrike (the ability to set up your units other than in your deployment zone mid game).

Most effective strategies rely on charging lots of morsarr guard either on the back end of turn 2 or turn 3.

Key units are:

Morrsarr Guard 

Ishrann Soulscryer 

Volturnos High King of the Deep

Eidolon of Mathlann Aspect of the Storm

An example list might look like...

Volturnous 

Eidolon

Soulscryer 

Morsarr x 6

Morsarr x 6

Morsarr x 3

Morsarr x 3

 

 

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Another faction to consider - assuming the aesthetic appeals to you- is Ironjawz. They're probably one of the most user-friendly armies for someone starting in AoS. An exclusively melee faction with a small but mostly very effective unit list (Brutes have kind of lost their place in the current meta), they're pretty straightforward but they also have enough stuff to be interesting, tactical, and very gratifying to play.

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30 minutes ago, OkayestDM said:

Another faction to consider - assuming the aesthetic appeals to you- is Ironjawz. They're probably one of the most user-friendly armies for someone starting in AoS. An exclusively melee faction with a small but mostly very effective unit list (Brutes have kind of lost their place in the current meta), they're pretty straightforward but they also have enough stuff to be interesting, tactical, and very gratifying to play.

I would also say Ironjawz, if you like the style. An army of Brutes and Goregruntas with some HQ to lead, would be low model count and from just a few kits. 

They were my first AoS army and while I don't play a lot to comment on that side of things, they've been really fun to build and paint. 

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6 hours ago, Sternacht said:

I don't really like the Ogors figures (tastes, you know...) that's why I didn't think about them.
Thx for your advices.

Fair enough. 
Another angle would be to choose the army (and models) that you think look best. and make that into an elite army. Because that’s possible with most factions. 
for example I could see a ‘comet focussed’ stormcast army that would look great, had a nice playstyle and is elite. maybe;

lord celestant on star drake, celestant prime, and the lord arcanum on dracoline with the comet endless spell. That would give you three sources that make it comets. Add 3 evocators on dracoline for a fierce cavalry charge. 
And the remaining points into 3x5 sequitors for holding objectives. 21 models. Although one very big one 🐲

but Again you can do similar things for most factions. So what’s your absolute top three models? 

Edited by Kramer
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17 minutes ago, Kramer said:

a ‘comet focussed’ stormcast army that would look great, had a nice playstyle and is elite. maybe;

lord celestant on star drake, celestant prime, and the lord arcanum on dracoline with the comet endless spell. That would give you three sources that make it comets. Add 3-6 evocators on dracoline for a fierce cavalry charge. 
And the remaining points into sequitors for holding objectives.

I really like your idea!! Really. Thx for the advice, I think you're right. The most important is to have something we enjoy collecting, painting and playing.

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5 minutes ago, Sternacht said:

I really like your idea!! Really. Thx for the advice, I think you're right. The most important is to have something we enjoy collecting, painting and playing.

And preferably all in one faction 😂

but what’s your top three models right now? 
For me right now it would probably be the dracoline models, they have really caught my fancy this week.
Close second for the Eisenhower model, don’t know why but that one model is likely to spark a 10 man fully converted great sword unit. 
And lastly the conversion someone did on this site off the chosen axes warband. That was what the old slayer models would be if they were designed now. 

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45 minutes ago, Sternacht said:

I really like your idea!! Really. Thx for the advice, I think you're right. The most important is to have something we enjoy collecting, painting and playing.

If you like the idea of the "comet list" come and take a look at the Starcast thread too, it's based exactly on this! (and yes, it's a list with 21 models and potentially two Stardrakes :) )

 

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If I ever get another army after Seraphon it would be trolls. All trolls.

Although really I'm sitting on my hands hoping for vampires and hoping they're ALL vampires and elite small model count. Cuz they're the best of the best of the undead. but...idk dare to dream.

If they ever come out odds are they'll be some horde army or something with like thralls for battleline -_-

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1 hour ago, Ravinsild said:

f they ever come out odds are they'll be some horde army or something with like thralls for battleline -_-

Surely they do a blood knight sos version that can be battleline. At least that’s my expectation. 

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If you fancy Sylvaneth you can take 3 x 5 Revs or Spites then fill out with a combination of Kurnoth Hunters, Tree Monsters and Alarielle. Surprisingly degree of variety and mechanics available within those options.

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Yeah, people are over-looking Sylvaneth and how deadly their elites are.

Also OP you said you had Seraphon. They can ally with Stormcasts as fellow celestial beings and now Sylvaneth due to both being creatures in-tune with the realms. So you could always make a triple threat combined army that way as you slowly expand out and see which "S" faction you prefer. :)

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On 6/25/2020 at 8:22 AM, Sternacht said:

Hello,

I would like to start (well really start!) an AOS army. I would like this army to have a few figurines on the table, to be very elitist. For the moment I hesitate between the Stormcast and the Ossiarch. I have begun with a Seraphon's army (the two starting collectors) but, after having tried to make some rosters, I doubt it is possible to make a non populous army out of it. And I don't like the endless spamming of the same unit. I have to add I'm a beginner in AoS.

Your opinions would help me a lot to finally be able to start an army that suits me perfectly.

Thank you in advance.

Hi,

 

this topic is the one I most often thought about in my life of AoS. To give you a few ideas (some of them were already mentioned):

Ogors – but you don´t like the models.

Flesh Eater Courts can build almost the same concept (huge beasts and lots of medium infantry), which had their day 1-2 years back. Don´t know how good they are right now. Personally I like the look of these models. You can build it by using nothing but Start Collectings and 1-2 single characters.

The same Start Collecting box (Flesheater Courts) can be used to run a low model Legion of Nagash army or at least is able to give you the base for it. Well, you can´t use the small ghouls, but it´s still a good deal. Gamewise I´m not sure though.

Kharadromn Overlords now allow for some ships and Thunderers as Battleline, therefore a low model army is quite easy to build. Lots of shooting and high mobility, I feel it´s the AoS version of Dark Eldar. Can also be based on Start Collecting boxes.

Sylvaneth can be succesfully run in low model armies. It´s the same here as with all other elite armies: monsters and medium infantry. They can easily summon in units to give you numbers if the needs arise.

Trolls (Gloomspite Gitz) might be something for you. Lots of different monsters, cool looking and hard hitting battleline. What´s not to love here?

Gloomspite Gitz can also field an army of squig riding gitz in different shapes. Though model count is >40 I think.

Ironjawz based on Gore Gruntas is one hell of a fast moving, hard hitting force. I believe it´s one of the best low model count armies out there right now. Or you head for some Rogue Idol (forgeworld) which significantly lowers your model count without loosing competetiveness.

Maggotkin of Nurgle offer a low model count concept based on Blightkings (either the flootslogging ones or the mounted ones). Add a GUO and your model count firther decreases. Although they got some additional rules in a recent publication (wrath of the everchosen?), I guess nobody would call them competetive right now. Their battletome is really old and I think we will see a new one within a year. Best part: really great modelling opprtunities, the boxed sets are full of bits. If you like to see such an army in action, I´d advice

 

Blades of Khorne: there is one rather succesful build that consists of 3-4 greater Daemons of Khorne (Bloodthirsters / Skarbrand) and Fleshhounds as battleline. It´s on of the elite lists that regularly ended top 10 in large tournaments last year. Khorne offers some more opportunities to run rather low model count armies (Khorgoraths, Soul Grinders, all cavalry armies, Chariots,...). It´s really up to you here.

Beasts of Chaos can be run as a pure Minotaurs army (well, with some support pieces). Some say Trolls are batter at it, but Minos give you the opportunity to be fielded in 5 (yes, FIVE) different battletomes! No other model collection allows for such diverse army building. Well, Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights do the same. :)

Slaanesh. If you like, you can go with 3x 5 Chaoswarriors / Seekers and fill the rest with heroes (greater Daemons). Got nerved, but I guess it will still be good to ok.

Fireslayers. Yes, they can be build rather elitish. Either you go for their best troops and run 3x 20 of them (yes, that´s still elite IMO) or you go grazy and run a bunch of heroes mounted on monsters.

Skaven might offer some monster +X builds as others do. There are subfactions which allow for medium infantry to be battleline.

Tzeentch: You can have Flamers as battleline if you like to. These are some of the best shooters in the game, very low model count, high damage output. I think it´s the new definition of glass cannon. IMO it´s the only elite build that is based on shooting and magic. All other builds are rather melee centric.

Similar things can be done in Legion of Chaos Ascendant (see Wrath the Everchosen book), but you need some kind of 3x 10 battleline here.

Slaves to Darkness offer one of the stronger builds ringht now: Archaon, a Sorcerer on Manticore and some Varanguard / Knights as batlleline. You can find plenty of battlereports on youtube to see how that army works.

Idoneth Deepkin were already named by other members.

Cities of sigmar allow for a rather elitish build based on Phoenix Guard as battleline. These are not the most elitish troops you can field in all of AoS, but they´re pretty strong as battleline. In addition, CoS offer lots of monsters to decrease model count and they´re basically 5 armies in one book, which means pretty wide army construction possibilities. You can even include some of the other armies mentioned here: Stormcast Eternals, Kharadron Overlords and/or Sylvaneth.

 

Well, that´s it. Did you like the story? :D

Edited by Hannibal
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As they haven't gotten a mention yet, the new army on the block - Lumineth Realm-lords - can certainly pull off an elite style army! You can either build around Teclis, some heroes and a strong core of infantry, or you can lean into the Alarith (i.e. mountain spirits) side of the army and take two or more of the bull spirits and a core of tanky Stoneguard. Both sides are really tough, the former having an emphasis on magic and the other on combat, each with bespoke rules and synergies designed to greatly complement their already decent survivability. Unfortunately, the majority of the range is unavailable until further notice, with many expecting them to drop sometime in August. 

Edited by Jaskier
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