New skeleton player, advice needed and apreciated!

[Muggi]

Heya folks!

So, as the title suggest, I'm a guy who have finally decided to try out Age of Sigmar (first minatures game I've tried!), and I think the start collect box for the skeleton horde looks really cool. I've heard the skeletons are all about massive numbers and regnerating themselves, which sounds really fun!

Anyway, I just wanted to hear if you guys have any advice for me once I buy the box... maybe you even think I shouldn't? I hear that deathrattle (that's the term, right?) is pretty weak right now, and isin't getting a lot of support... as much as I love me some skellies, I don't really want my first army to be useless and unsupported, you know? And if I shouldn't get the skelly box, what alternatives would you suggest?

Oh, and also, what should I get after the start box? Like, what models would be a good idea to get if I want to expand on the army I get in the box?

Thanks in advance for your help, and I really apreciate the feedback/advice!  I've joined this forum since I heard you guys are really cool about helping new players and whatnot, and as you might have seen, I kinda need the help .

-Muggi

[Thanatos Ares]

First off welcome to TGA and welcome to Death!! Skeleton Hordes can indeed be awesome. Deathrattle as a stand alone army can work but limits your options somewhat. Taking other things from Grand Alliance: Death is perfectly fine and encouraged. You'll find that Necromancers, Wight Kings, Arkhan the Mortarch and the like will really compliment your theme. Fast units such as Black Knights are also within theme. Depends what kinda list you're looking to build to be honest. A learn the ropes but not get rofl stomped or HARDCORE TOURNEY WINNING Or something in between?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Thundercake]

So the box has Arkhan in it, which is a pretty good wizard/decent melee hero.

Some things to consider, are you looking to play matched play with points, open play, narrative? If matched play or with points, how many points?

With the start collecting box you are at 540 points and 2 battle line units. Personally, if I was you. I'd get more skeletons (eventually you'll probably want at least 40) and the Wight King with axe. I'd get the skeletons because you'll need them one way or the other and the Wight King cause that model is amazing.

The wight king and skeletons will synergy well together and with Arkhan. I would also encourage you to look at the Soulblight sub-faction, Vampires are pretty good. You could also look at a necromancer.

 

Oh, and you can use http://scrollbuilder.com/ if you are trying to figure out points.

[Muggi]

8 minutes ago, Thanatos Ares said:

First off welcome to TGA and welcome to Death!! Skeleton Hordes can indeed be awesome. Deathrattle as a stand alone army can work but limits your options somewhat. Taking other things from Grand Alliance: Death is perfectly fine and encouraged. You'll find that Necromancers, Wight Kings, Arkhan the Mortarch and the like will really compliment your theme. Fast units such as Black Knights are also within theme. Depends what kinda list you're looking to build to be honest. A learn the ropes but not get rofl stomped or HARDCORE TOURNEY WINNING Or something in between?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

5 minutes ago, Thundercake said:

So the box has Arkhan in it, which is a pretty good wizard/decent melee hero.

Some things to consider, are you looking to play matched play with points, open play, narrative? If matched play or with points, how many points?

With the start collecting box you are at 540 points and 2 battle line units. Personally, if I was you. I'd get more skeletons (eventually you'll probably want at least 40) and the Wight King with axe. I'd get the skeletons because you'll need them one way or the other and the Wight King cause that model is amazing.

The wight king and skeletons will synergy well together and with Arkhan. I would also encourage you to look at the Soulblight sub-faction, Vampires are pretty good. You could also look at a necromancer.

 

Oh, and you can use http://scrollbuilder.com/ if you are trying to figure out points.

Thank you two for your replies! Iv'e looked at the wight king you suggested, and he does indeed look badass... I will defo get him!

As for what type of game I want to get into (matched, points, all that), I actually haven't considered that yet. I would certainly love to be able to make something that makes sense using the point system, since that seems to be what everyone at my local FLGS uses... but maybe I should start "small"? 

I've tried to make a list using scrollbuilder, incorporating some of the units you guys suggested: http://bit.ly/2oirIfB what do you think?

Again, thanks for the responses!

-Muggi

[Thundercake]

I think your list looks good. I think 1000 points is a good target to aim for for starting out. You can go lower and aim for 750 if you like. The only issue with your list is that it is 1020 points. Hopefully people aren't dicks at your local store, realize you are just learning and getting started and dont make a big deal over those extra 20 points when you start but they could argue that your list is over the 1k point limit.

Some ways to fix the points issue are to only take 20 skeletons and 2 groups of 5 knights. This would also mean you only need to buy 4 more boxes, the two characters and box of knights and skellies.  Or just drop the necro and take 10 more skellies. That would put you 20 points under which is also OK.

I haven't played death in AOS, but I'd run those 40 skellies in blocks of 20. As you go larger, you'll probably want them in blocks of 30 so they get that 20+ buff and keep it. The list you have is a good building block for a larger list as well as you'll always probably have at least 40 skeletons either to summon or to form a base for the army.

As your list sits, its not a ton of money. The skeletons only come 10 in a box, so you will have to get 3 more boxes of them. GW really needs to release them 20 to a box like some of the other basic infantry. Though you may be able to make some out of bits. I think the Wight King and Necromancer are both good models, so even if something happens to Death, those are cool models to have.

[Bradifer]

Depends on what aspect of Warhammer you are really aiming towards the most.

If you're really into the hobby/painting aspect, let the story and aesthetics of the army be your guide.

If you're heavier into the gaming/meta-gaming aspect, You should probably play some proxy games first using DnD Models, or just literally watch people play via Youtube Battle Reports  (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLliZQodsai-jE4gDmSTy3FxjMrn4_O9uW), go to the store and watch people play, maybe try out someone's army.

You can develop your playstyle at least for a game or two before investing both your money, time, and your personal interest.

(Personally I did this with Seraphon-Lizardmen, told myself I liked them because of Dinosaurs, then once I started playing I didn't like the reliance on their troops - I preferred elite monsters etc...So then I had wasted time/money/and had to develop new interest in another army.)

I just say to try that out, because Death is quite unique with basically no shooting attacks, generally poor defense, and very specific offense. but regeneration and healing. From a gaming stand-point there's plenty of back and forth, I just think you should look at the field and make sure you stay as excited!

 

[Muggi]

Heya guys!

Thanks for the input. I will take a look at that list again to see if I can get it under 1000 somehow. I've also been watching some battlereports, as Bradifer suggested. Death looks REALLY fun, but I guess I find it a bit concerning that the three reports I've watched so far has ended with the death player losing .

And as luck would have it, my FLGS are having a sale this weekend, so now is defo the time to get into this stuff! But again, thanks for the input!

-Muggi

[Sception]

I definitely recommend going to your local store to watch a few games and chat up the players a bit before investing heavily, for a number of reasons.

The transition from the previous incarnation of warhammer to age of sigmar was, well, 'inelegant' would be putting it mildly, and a lot of existing fans were put off.  As a result, while the new game has picked up in a lot of areas, there are still many AoS deserts where the previous player communities kept playing the old game, or transitioned to other games, or just stopped playing altogether, rather than make the transition, where no new AoS communities have yet grown in their place.  No use investing in a game if nobody plays it near you.

Then there's the issue of geek hobby communities not always being populated with the best people to hang out with.  Oh, most are fine, most are great people, but a few can be elitist, exclusionary, rude, or worse, and ime there's enough of that around that it's worth exercising a bit of caution when easing into new communities.  Don't be like me when I went all gung-ho on Flames of War before realizing the only FoW/WWII historical gaming club near me was full of people who were a bit too enthusiastic about the wrong side of that particular bit of history, if you catch my drift.

All I'm saying is, you'll want to make sure you actually have people you can and want to play the game with before spending a ton of money on it.

[Muggi]

24 minutes ago, Sception said:

I definitely recommend going to your local store to watch a few games and chat up the players a bit before investing heavily, for a number of reasons.

The transition from the previous incarnation of warhammer to age of sigmar was, well, 'inelegant' would be putting it mildly, and a lot of existing fans were put off.  As a result, while the new game has picked up in a lot of areas, there are still many AoS deserts where the previous player communities kept playing the old game, or transitioned to other games, or just stopped playing altogether, rather than make the transition, where no new AoS communities have yet grown in their place.  No use investing in a game if nobody plays it near you.

Then there's the issue of geek hobby communities not always being populated with the best people to hang out with.  Oh, most are fine, most are great people, but a few can be elitist, exclusionary, rude, or worse, and ime there's enough of that around that it's worth exercising a bit of caution when easing into new communities.  Don't be like me when I went all gung-ho on Flames of War before realizing the only FoW/WWII historical gaming club near me was full of people who were a bit too enthusiastic about the wrong side of that particular bit of history, if you catch my drift.

All I'm saying is, you'll want to make sure you actually have people you can and want to play the game with before spending a ton of money on it.

Hey man, thanks for weighing in on the thread. Yeah, making sure there is someone to play with was also a concern for me, so I've been "lurking" for a few months down in the shop when I was playing DnD and we took our break between encounters and such. There are atleast five regulars who play every monday, from what I've seen, and I know two of them personally (one of them is in my DnD group).

An update; I've bought the skeleton horde box, 3 x boxes of skellies, a necromancer and a wight king. They didn't have anymore black knights, due to the sale and all that, so this is what I managed to snag at a 30% discount. I think I'm going to have some fun with this, putting the figures together was one of the things I enjoyed the most from Bloodbowl (2016).

[Sception]

That is a very nice start, at a very nice discount.  In terms of options on what you bought, I'd recommend spears on the skellies (though the difference isn't so huge that you need to worry about it if you prefer hand weapons aesthetically).  Any of the mortarchs are good (Arkhan is the weakest right now, but he's also a hundred points cheaper so it evens out, and he's the mostly likely to see significant boosts in the future if we ever see changes to the rules of three, the way summoning works, or the introduction of new spell lores he could crib from).  Between black knights and hexwraiths, the wraiths are generally better, imo, but neither is exactly the bees knees, so again if you have aesthetic preferences between the two then feel free to follow them.  I wouldn't feel compelled to get more any time soon is all I'm saying.

Oh, you play bloodbowl?  There's rules online for various undead teams.  Not the best team rules, but a lot of fun.  I'm currently running one in the local league, using my regular AoS models, with wight kings standing in for mummies (I have mummies, but prefer my WK models), and they're doing well.

[Muggi]

56 minutes ago, Sception said:

That is a very nice start, at a very nice discount.  In terms of options on what you bought, I'd recommend spears on the skellies (though the difference isn't so huge that you need to worry about it if you prefer hand weapons aesthetically).  Any of the mortarchs are good (Arkhan is the weakest right now, but he's also a hundred points cheaper so it evens out, and he's the mostly likely to see significant boosts in the future if we ever see changes to the rules of three, the way summoning works, or the introduction of new spell lores he could crib from).  Between black knights and hexwraiths, the wraiths are generally better, imo, but neither is exactly the bees knees, so again if you have aesthetic preferences between the two then feel free to follow them.  I wouldn't feel compelled to get more any time soon is all I'm saying.

Oh, you play bloodbowl?  There's rules online for various undead teams.  Not the best team rules, but a lot of fun.  I'm currently running one in the local league, using my regular AoS models, with wight kings standing in for mummies (I have mummies, but prefer my WK models), and they're doing well.

Alrighty, gonna go with the spears! Yea, I played a bit of Bloodbowl in our local league (as the orc "Da Stompin Krew!"), but had to drop it due to scheduling issues between me and my work. Hoping to get involved with that again during the summer.

But... undead Bloodbowl team?! Sounds realllllly fun! Defo looking into that!

[Praecautus]

I am helping one of my sons friends with a similar project.

One thing to note is you have a lot of left over bits from the start collecting box that you can make use of.

If you made the black knights then you have the hex wraith bodies, so pick up some skeleton horses from eBay for a few quid and you can build them. In addition if you have arkhan glued on them you have the bits for mannfred and neferata spare. Again eBay a big horse and stick mannfred on it and hey presto vampire lord on nightmare, neferata can be put on a horse too but is a bit trickier.

[Sception]

With a little conversion work, you can also re-pose mannfred to put him on foot:

Although if you do so it becomes pretty obvious that the mortarchs are in an entirey different scale than regular Warhammer / AoS infantry, as he'd fully twice as tall as a regular skeleton - noticeably huge even compared to other heroes:

Spoiler

 

 

[Thundercake]

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun! I second the don't buy anymore at the moment. I'd build and start painting what you have. Play a few games and make sure you enjoy the army before investing more.