Newbie seeks clarity on army building

[MiniJunkie]

Hi guys,

I don't know if I'm just slow at math or slow in general, but I seem to have trouble absorbing the army construction rules for AoS. Specifically I'm talking about the points based Match Play system.

 

Let's say I want to build a 1K army, and eventually work up to 2K.

 

I like the look and concept of Flesh Eater Courts. I'm thinking about getting the small army deal they had or the Start collecting box.

 

BUT I also have some other undead models from the past that I might like to include, like Blood Knights.

 

So when I build this army....do I look at the entire Death list in the compendium and just make sure I'm taking the right number of leaders, Battleline units and so forth?  Like could I have one Battleline that is ghouls and another that is totally different like skeletons?

 

If I do that, do I then just take the add-ons (command traits? I forget what they are called - sorry, I'm at work lol) from the general Death list?

 

Essentially then making a generic undead army as opposed to Flesh Eater Courts? And that's totally legal for Pitched Battles, Tournies etc?  Are there drawbacks to this approach if in fact it's ok to do this?

[ElectricPaladin]

3 minutes ago, MiniJunkie said:

So when I build this army....do I look at the entire Death list in the compendium and just make sure I'm taking the right number of leaders, Battleline units and so forth?  Like could I have one Battleline that is ghouls and another that is totally different like skeletons?

Yes.

The only thing to keep in mind is that some sub-allegiances unlock certain special qualities. For example - if you have all Nighthaunts, you can take spirit hosts as battleline, or if you have all Deathrattle, you can take black knights as battleline. Etc. For some other armies, these sub-allegiances also have unique command traits, artefacts, and even a spell lore (ie. an extra spell that every wizard in the faction gets in addition to their listed spells) which are unlocked by army composition in the same way... but so far, Death hasn't got any of those.

At present, the only thing that could be unlocked by a pure Flesh Eaters army is taking a crypt haunter/infernal courtier as your general to unlock crypt horrors/flayers as battleline, which you can only do inside of the Flesh Eaters allegiance.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Most of the Death factions are a bit sparse on options, so the only way to run them is via running Death as a whole, rather than the individual sub-factions. (For example Deadwalkers have no Heroes, Deathmages have no Battleline,  and Soulblight only get the woefully-expensive Blood Knights as Battleline.)

For Flesh Eaters you can make quite competent lists only within their selection though. I recommend getting their dedicated book if you haven't already, it's slightly different and has some good capabilities for play.

[MiniJunkie]

Ok awesome, thanks EP!

[MiniJunkie]

Just now, CoffeeGrunt said:

Most of the Death factions are a bit sparse on options, so the only way to run them is via running Death as a whole, rather than the individual sub-factions. (For example Deadwalkers have no Heroes, Deathmages have no Battleline,  and Soulblight only get the woefully-expensive Blood Knights as Battleline.)

For Flesh Eaters you can make quite competent lists only within their selection though. I recommend getting their dedicated book if you haven't already, it's slightly different and has some good capabilities for play.

I think part of what holds me back in that regard is I don't love the basic ghoul models (the bent over poses). And then if I wanted to use the bigger creatures it would be prohibitively expensive for models ($).

[Oppenheimer]

Unfortunately GW knows people love big impressive models and have priced them accordingly. 

[Sarkazim]

What I did is I went and looked at just the Battleline units (including the allegiance specific ones) and picked my favorite out of those, as opposed to just picking a faction.  Then I looked at the other models available.  

Once that was done, just start with 3 units of the Battleline I had chosen to have bases covered for all the way up to 2k.  After that the idea was build the rest of the army that I had chosen with whatever else I liked, adding more Battleline as needed.  

In my case, I went with an allegiance that only has 2 scrolls available so I just bought more of the same, which is fine because I like the models.  While I'm enjoying my army both model and game wise, if I had to do it all over again I'd look at having at least 3 different units.  Not an issue if you're just going with a general alliance mix.  Most of the specific ones have at least 3 options as well.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Mantic Ghouls are quite nice, and might be more like what you're looking for.

[ElectricPaladin]

Oy. So much GW cynicism. The zombie dragon/terrorgheist kit is worth every penny. You'll get it when you get it - and if you don't get it, you can still compete! I've seen hordes of ghouls take down some pretty impressive enemy models, to the point that when I see a single big bad on the table, that's what I send a blob of 30 ghouls at.

I totally get what it's like to want something and not be able to afford it... but come on. We're all here because we love the game. Let's keep it positive. The price is what it is.

Now, if you don't like the ghouls, that's a bigger problem! I've seen some folks be successful using Brettonian and third party bodies with ghoulish bits thrown in (a head here, a bone club instead of a sword there) to represent sort of a hybrid image of ghouls, part what they imagine themselves to be, part what they really are. But that's a lot of work and probably more expensive in the long run, since you're going to be relying a lot on bits sellers.

Honestly... as much as I love the Flesh Eaters, if you don't like ghouls, don't buy into them. A single ghoul king on foot and a two-to-three increment strong unit of crypt horrors is a plenty good module to slip into another Death list that's relying on something you like better. Remember that the ghoul king is a Death Hero, so the skeleton self-buff works when he's nearby! Add in a necromancer for Vanhel's and something scary to draw fire and give you a good command ability (remember that Bravery 10 = Inspiring Presence is a waste of time), like a zombie dragon vamp lord, a mortarch (I recommend Neferata), or whatever, and you've got a pretty cool list!

[MiniJunkie]

Just to clarify, I only meant "buying lots of Crypt Horrors to fill Battleline requirement would be pricey". I absolutely don't mind paying GW price for the monsters etc.

I agree Mantic and others have good proxies but I think I want to stay "GW Store legal".

[ElectricPaladin]

4 minutes ago, MiniJunkie said:

Just to clarify, I only meant "buying lots of Crypt Horrors to fill Battleline requirement would be pricey". I absolutely don't mind paying GW price for the monsters etc.

Oh, yeah. That would definitely be a very expensive army to build!

[deynon]

I don't think so much costly. Thanks to the battalions you have access o a lot of miniatures and having quite a big moneysaving.  Moreover you can always you some reseller to access to some store. At the end you can gain quite a lot. 

Anyway if someone prefer otehr models as models I sincerly dont' think there should be problems. I was used to bring some "personalizations of units blocks that sometimes incuded also other trademark models even in official GW stores and always only received compliments. I'ts also to say that it was not something thought to keep money low (that was on zombie and skeletons mass with fillers).

Anyway sincerly I find GW ghouls quite handsome (can it be said about some models whose bg is to eat the dead?^^). Anyway first you have t like your own army so n problems I think if you respect the dimensions