Force Construction Flowchart

[Sleboda]

Hey all,

I am finding that the simple, enjoyable rules from AoS Year One have given way to a much more complex, scattered (over several books, boxed sets, and FAQs), and convoluted system.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the various ways to field models, but I keep going "awww, hell, I will just take a bunch of stuff and hope it is within the rules."

That's not a good feeling.

To combat this, I was thinking of making an infographic or flowchart to walk me through the process.  Before I do, though, I thought I'd check to see if someone here already has done this. 

So ... has anyone? 

[Requizen]

If you are playing Open Play, nothing has changed. Take whatever and call it a day.

If you're playing Matched, it's still super easy. It's all in the General's Handbook.

1. Decide on your point level. Look at the chart on page 107 to tell you your restrictions.
   • If you're not playing 1000, 2000, or 2500 then you and your opponent decide which game type restriction to use.
2. Pick a Grand Alliance. Only models from that Grand Alliance can be taken in your army.
3. There are four unit types you need to worry about: Leader, Battleline, Behemoth, and Artillery. These are found in the Pitched Battle Profile section. A model can have multiple or none of these unit types.
4. Pick at least one Leader. 
5. Pick the minimum amount of Battleline units you need, found on the chart.
6. Once that's taken care of, take whatever else you want. Just don't go over any of the limits on the chart (max number of Leaders, Behemoths, or Artillery) 
   • Just remember that if a model is both a Leader and Behemoth, it counts towards both restrictions
7. Pick a model to be your General. Often this is a character, but it can technically be any model in your army. Many characters have abilities that they can only use when they are Generals, though.

That's it, you now have a legal army! Below are some optional things to take into account if you want to get more into it:

1. Allegiances are defined when you finish a list and all models in your army have the same Keyword (found at the bottom of their warscrolls in the Keyword section). Your army may qualify for multiple Allegiances, but can only pick one.
   • For example, if you chose all Nighthaunt models (Cairn Wraiths, Spirit Hosts, Hexwraiths, Mourngul, etc), you can look on each Warscroll and see that they all share the following Keywords: Death and Nighthaunt.
   • You can look in the Pitched Battle Profile section (starting on page 128) to see if there are any modifiers for your army if you have a given Allegiance. For the above example, you see that since everything has Nighthaunt, you can choose that as your Allegiance and make your Spirit Hosts Battleline, therefore fulfilling the minimum requirements laid out in the first section.
2. Your get Allegiance Abilities for having an Allegiance. You will automatically have the Allegiance of your Grand Alliance (since everything in GA: Chaos has the Chaos keyword), or you can use the Allegiance Abilities of your chosen Allegiance from above.
   • If the Allegiance you have chosen does not have Allegiance Abilities, you can always take the ones of your Grand Alliance. So, following the above example, you've taken Nighthaunt Allegiance, but they don't have Abilities, so you take the Death Allegiance Abilities.
   • The ones for each Grand Alliance are found on page 156. Armies that have Allegiance Abilities of their own (currently only Sylvaneth, Beastclaw Raiders, and Bonesplittaz, soon to be Tzeentch) will be in their Battletome. 
   • There are three parts to Allegiance Abilities: the Battletrait (blanket effect to your whole army), the Command Traits (a bonus to your General that only is in effect while he lives), and Artifacts (a boost you can give to Hero models in your army, one per army unless you take a Battalion).
3. Battalions are groupings of specific models that get bonuses. To bring a Battalion, follow these steps:
   • Choose the Battalion you want to bring, and make sure it has points in the Pitched Battle Profile section. Battalions with no points cannot be used.
   • Include all the required models from that Battalion in your army. These models still affect the restrictions from the first part, so Battleline units in the Battalion will count towards your minimum, and Behemoths in the Battalion will count towards the max you are allowed (don't go over!).
   • Pay the points for those models as normal, and then pay the points for the Battalion. Now, those models will gain the bonus found on the Battalion Warscroll. 
   • For example, here is one you can get free from GW: The Skyborne Slayers. If you include the requisite models in your army, you can pay an extra 140 points to gain the bonus found on that Warscroll. The models are (at minimum) 1020 points, and then the Battalion is 140 points, so you would be at 1160 points to run The Skyborne Slayers at a minimum. This will give you 1 Leader (meeting the minimum, but also counting towards the maximum) and giving you 4 Battleline units (also meeting that minimum). 

Hope this helps!

[Sleboda]

It does.  It's the optional stuff that makes it tough.