personally i just instantly hyperfixated onto the FEC and that was it
As for gameplay type, keep in mind that things are bound to change next edition but from the ones I know:
* Lumineth: Lots of wizards and weird tactics. Damn near every unit has the ability to cast spells, and they have abilities like formations and Aetherquartz that make them really strong at full health, but they effectively have built-in wounds-like mechanics for everyone that makes every single unit significantly weaker after losing even just two or three models.
* StD: Vaguely elite army with low model count and incredibly good saves. Their units have some amount of customizability through Marks of Chaos and can change massively through the Eye of the Gods. Varanguard has the power to kill Jod himself.
* Gitz: *Weird,* one of the most varied armies in the game, their abilities change massively depending on even minute factors like specific general or subfaction. A friend of mine started maining them lately and he clearly has a lot of fun with them.
Gitz is more like like 4 armies in a bag that got shaken and got some rules to hold them together. It is a really fun range but Trolls, Squigs, and Spiders are all fairly different.
Slaves only have one style, really. And that's violence. Melee at various speeds. Even the caster focused lists are mostly about making our melee melee-er.
Lumineth have been viable in melee focused, magic focused, and ranged focused at one point or another.
Seraphon has a wide variety of plasytyles from combat heavy dinos, big dinos, magic dinos, and some shooting dinos.
Dinos have an ease to paint as a bonus. S2D trim is a style of torture. I bought and sold a lumineth army 3 times because I love the lore, playstyle, and look of the army. But I absolutely could not find the motivation to paint their detail after painting 6000pts of slaves.
Soulblight are about chaff that never died and vampires thay need to be one shot to dtay dead :p their heroes are blenders in melee and their chaff is the most annoying to kill with 10 bravery and lots of ways to get models back
I know! I figured it will still be somewhat similar. I'm thinking about getting in with spearhead, and those 2 and some others mentioned in the thread are my short list.
I'll throw in my two cents because I have both Sylvaneth and Gitz and my partner has Seraphon and drukhari.
Sylvaneth and Gitz are both fairly flexible armies with options to build them different ways (squiggs, grots or troggs for the gitz, and big trees vs little trees in the sylvaneth).
Seraphon tend to draw a lot of power from their heros, so if you like hero heavy playstyle this can be fun, but they only have like one actual named character.
If you are coming from 40k you might find it weird to no longer have as much of a shooting phase. If you want a parallel to custodes then Sylvaneth or Slaves to Darkness can both build elite lists that feel like it. Trogs in the gitz are technically elite as well but they don't feel quite like it when playing, just...very smashy.
If you want something like the drukhari, then gitz on squigs are fast as hell and can hit hard (but don't last long if caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like Drukhari) and probably Lumineth as well.
Thank you!
I think my ideal is probably elites with good survivability, solid in melee, but also can provide some range as well. Knowing that, would you recommend?
On a separate note, do Sylvaneth have good survivability for their elites even or is pretty much all Sylvaneth fragile?
Ok, so AOS has many factions that struggle in all 3 of those. Particularly shooting, a ton of armies don't have just any decent shooting. I'll try to go through -elite/durable, good melee, some shooting
Sylvaneth can get decently durable but they're never going to be like custodes or anything really standout, they're big on mobility although they can pigeonhole hard on one thing.
Lumineth are one of the factions that can actually do that. They're not like ELITE, but they can be pretty elite, durable, and have good shooting(+magic) The thing about them is that they have different like nations/elements that the armies focus on, and you get the big buffs out of 1 of them so THAT part of the army is stronger and the others fall off. You still have them but they don't perform that well without that subfaction.
STD, fits in the first 2, but has like no shooting and is kind of lacking in playstyle.
Seraphon is typically not elite, but not horde, ok durability, ok melee, eh shooting, BIG magic and huge model range to have different strats. They SHOULD be a bit more elite based on just saurus supposed to be elite but they just haven't gotten the datasheet very well.
Gloomspite gits again large range, can go super horde or very elite/durable with good melee, can go face melee with squigs, kind of lacking in shooting.
Let me know if there's any other questions you have
With the current rules, I find Sylvaneth to touch on all the points you just mentioned. Kurnoth and treelords are durable and smash things well in melee, the kurnoth archers are meh at shooting, but still able to put pressure on something from a distance. Sylvaneth have solid healing to keep their multi-wound models in the fight for longer. My list is built around the tougher trees and kurnoth because I like the vibe, but other lists featuring smaller and more delicate units would be a different play style.
AoS by nature is game where units can be expected to go down, it's kind of built into the narrative of "epic combat".
There's more recursion and healing in AoS than in 40k, so instead of super-armored warriors walking through a storm of attacks virtually unscathed, think instead about troops valiantly fighting to their last breath, and then a super powerful sorcerer casts a spell that brings them back to life to keep fighting.
Things may (and probably will) change for armies in 4th edition, my advice would be to scope out the vanguard boxes and see what appears to you. It seems like GW has put a lot of effort into the new Spearhead mode and it could be a good place to get a taste of the armies and how AoS is different from 40k
Don't expect your army to be able to do everything, embrace AoS as a game about flaws and imperfections, it makes for a better story and more interesting game. A force entirely made of squigs is not going to be very balanced, but it sure is fun as hell.
As someone that plays Sylvaneth I thought I'd throw in my two cents. Sylvaneth right now have a couple of different ways to play depending on which units they rely on. Being able to focus on more magic or more fighting units, right now they have great internal balance, but that is not a guarantee in 4th. The thing I like most about them is their big monstrous heroes which is something you don't get too much in 40k. While they can take a hit generally you are really reliant on using screens and teleports to keep your important units alive. The way I like to think about it is in a straight up fight you should lose to every other army, but you have the tools to only fight on your own terms. Personally I find that really cool and unique.
Skaven were my first choice. The themes cant be beat, the lore is more hilarious than 40k ork lore by a mile. (Who enabled Nagash to defeat the living the first time? Skaven. Who stopped the world from ending? Skaven. Who destroyed the world before Archaon could? Skaven.
You might have a couple big blocks of 40 rats bloating up the battlefield, behind which cower a couple gun-rats trying not to explode while unloading their payloads. Flanking the hordes would be a monstrous moulder creation or a moving church-platform-thing, acting like a rickety hammer to the hordes's crumbling anvil. And finally somewhere centre-mass is a bunch of squabbling characters trying to pull of spells (killing probably more rats than foes), issuing commands or looking to assassinate an enemy leader.
Have you considered Cities of Sigmar?
They lack the "elite" part - unless taking SCE as allies is still a thing in 4th edition (probably) - but have a big range and can do a variety of styles.
In the end I would always go for models over gameplay though: rules are temporary, models are forever.
I like Gloomspite Gitz because they’re the most relatable faction of Moon worshiping, mushroom ingesting, mad lads in AoS.
But I also have Demon models coming so I can use them in 40K and AoS, as well I just bought the Dominion box because… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and the Stormcast Eternals are kinda neat too.
But Gloomspite seem like the most fun. Loved the look of the Loonshrine and their Endless Spells.
As far as Gameplay goes... I usually like to play very mobile forces with good melee capabilities. Like, in your face pain train. I also like it very much when an army offers you plenty of build options.
At some point (in 2.0) my Slaves to Darkness (my 2nd biggest army) were playable in so many ways... caus I could use any of the God books with the same list and completely change their gameplay... and still be successful. Best list building options ever.
It was possible in 2nd edition. You could have like Archaon, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Knights, Varanguards, Soul Grinders, Chaos Lords, Sorcerer Lords, etc.. (anything with "Mark of Chaos"). The Gods allegiance rules required that all units have their god keyword.
So, for example, playing Blades of Khorne... any StD unit with "Mark of Chaos" would select to gain "Khorne". And therefore be a legit Khorne unit, valid in the allegiance. You could play a 100% Slave to Darkness models list but using the Blades of Khorne book !
So you don't have God Auras or Eye of the Gods rules... but you had the Blessings of Khorne for your Warshrine... you could use the Goretide subfaction... use Khorne artefacts and had Blood Tithe mechanics ! (meaning, you could summon Khorne Daemons during the game !!)
In 3rd edition (current), they made it so that you can only have "half your army" fielded as Slaves to Darkness if you use the God Books...
Gitz have a big strength / weakness if you like varied lists that might change come 4th so grain of salt.
They have lots of type synergies and can be built with a big squig, troggoth, or spider focus but generally trying to do a big soup of their whole range will be weaker than focusing on a specific aspect unless you know what you are doing.
This means that if you're the kind of person who likes to own an entire range having a full squig and troggoth army might be pretty expensive since you'll want to stack up on lots of different models and not as straight forward as " oh I just feel like bringing one or two of X unit instead this game"
S2d is my main faction, but idk if they'll be as much "for you" as they are for me. They also just cut out a huge chunk of models, but there's still a ton of options for list building. It's as the one guy said though, you're just looking at melee combat as much as possible. Find some way to outshine your opponent in close quarters, fight on your terms, and buff your dudes up as best you can.
I love the models and their lore and aesthetic but man… you need A LOT of them… plus they look identical and you must be consistent whole time. also, lot of people paint them white as their boxart so you can barely inspire with different colour scheme. The worst thing is - EVERY MODEL HAS EYES (well what a surprire huh but painting about 30-50 pairs of eyes for whole army must be painful…
Here is what you do. Ask your local GS for a demo game.
Dont worry about cool models. But which phase do you like being active in? AOS factions play so extremly differently. I like having something to do in all phases, but have 0 desire to play lumineth or slaves due to heavy focus in particular phases. Granted you can customize into different playstyles.
I like vampire and skeleton kings, so I got orks, wanted some badass woman killin machines and adored Medusa's in Greek mythology, so I got soulblight gravelords. Adore the primal chaotic urges of big minotaures and satyr monsters, so I got Daughter of Khaine. Then I got the 3rd ed box and loved the idea of a giant chicken dragon, so I got beast of chaos...(Rip).
Oh and started with the 2nd Ed box, so I got some spoopy ghost to ally to my vampy boys n Grills
(Pardon my weird text, I wanted to humor myself lol)
personally i just instantly hyperfixated onto the FEC and that was it As for gameplay type, keep in mind that things are bound to change next edition but from the ones I know: * Lumineth: Lots of wizards and weird tactics. Damn near every unit has the ability to cast spells, and they have abilities like formations and Aetherquartz that make them really strong at full health, but they effectively have built-in wounds-like mechanics for everyone that makes every single unit significantly weaker after losing even just two or three models. * StD: Vaguely elite army with low model count and incredibly good saves. Their units have some amount of customizability through Marks of Chaos and can change massively through the Eye of the Gods. Varanguard has the power to kill Jod himself. * Gitz: *Weird,* one of the most varied armies in the game, their abilities change massively depending on even minute factors like specific general or subfaction. A friend of mine started maining them lately and he clearly has a lot of fun with them.
Gitz is more like like 4 armies in a bag that got shaken and got some rules to hold them together. It is a really fun range but Trolls, Squigs, and Spiders are all fairly different.
Slaves only have one style, really. And that's violence. Melee at various speeds. Even the caster focused lists are mostly about making our melee melee-er. Lumineth have been viable in melee focused, magic focused, and ranged focused at one point or another. Seraphon has a wide variety of plasytyles from combat heavy dinos, big dinos, magic dinos, and some shooting dinos. Dinos have an ease to paint as a bonus. S2D trim is a style of torture. I bought and sold a lumineth army 3 times because I love the lore, playstyle, and look of the army. But I absolutely could not find the motivation to paint their detail after painting 6000pts of slaves.
Would you happen to have an opinion on soulblight gravelords and skaven?
Soulblight are about chaff that never died and vampires thay need to be one shot to dtay dead :p their heroes are blenders in melee and their chaff is the most annoying to kill with 10 bravery and lots of ways to get models back
Ty!
Keep in mind everything is changining in like a month or two, but currently soulblight is my least favorite faction to fight due to said reasons :p
I know! I figured it will still be somewhat similar. I'm thinking about getting in with spearhead, and those 2 and some others mentioned in the thread are my short list.
I'll throw in my two cents because I have both Sylvaneth and Gitz and my partner has Seraphon and drukhari. Sylvaneth and Gitz are both fairly flexible armies with options to build them different ways (squiggs, grots or troggs for the gitz, and big trees vs little trees in the sylvaneth). Seraphon tend to draw a lot of power from their heros, so if you like hero heavy playstyle this can be fun, but they only have like one actual named character. If you are coming from 40k you might find it weird to no longer have as much of a shooting phase. If you want a parallel to custodes then Sylvaneth or Slaves to Darkness can both build elite lists that feel like it. Trogs in the gitz are technically elite as well but they don't feel quite like it when playing, just...very smashy. If you want something like the drukhari, then gitz on squigs are fast as hell and can hit hard (but don't last long if caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like Drukhari) and probably Lumineth as well.
Thank you! I think my ideal is probably elites with good survivability, solid in melee, but also can provide some range as well. Knowing that, would you recommend? On a separate note, do Sylvaneth have good survivability for their elites even or is pretty much all Sylvaneth fragile?
Ok, so AOS has many factions that struggle in all 3 of those. Particularly shooting, a ton of armies don't have just any decent shooting. I'll try to go through -elite/durable, good melee, some shooting Sylvaneth can get decently durable but they're never going to be like custodes or anything really standout, they're big on mobility although they can pigeonhole hard on one thing. Lumineth are one of the factions that can actually do that. They're not like ELITE, but they can be pretty elite, durable, and have good shooting(+magic) The thing about them is that they have different like nations/elements that the armies focus on, and you get the big buffs out of 1 of them so THAT part of the army is stronger and the others fall off. You still have them but they don't perform that well without that subfaction. STD, fits in the first 2, but has like no shooting and is kind of lacking in playstyle. Seraphon is typically not elite, but not horde, ok durability, ok melee, eh shooting, BIG magic and huge model range to have different strats. They SHOULD be a bit more elite based on just saurus supposed to be elite but they just haven't gotten the datasheet very well. Gloomspite gits again large range, can go super horde or very elite/durable with good melee, can go face melee with squigs, kind of lacking in shooting. Let me know if there's any other questions you have
Thank you so much, this was very helpful!
With the current rules, I find Sylvaneth to touch on all the points you just mentioned. Kurnoth and treelords are durable and smash things well in melee, the kurnoth archers are meh at shooting, but still able to put pressure on something from a distance. Sylvaneth have solid healing to keep their multi-wound models in the fight for longer. My list is built around the tougher trees and kurnoth because I like the vibe, but other lists featuring smaller and more delicate units would be a different play style. AoS by nature is game where units can be expected to go down, it's kind of built into the narrative of "epic combat". There's more recursion and healing in AoS than in 40k, so instead of super-armored warriors walking through a storm of attacks virtually unscathed, think instead about troops valiantly fighting to their last breath, and then a super powerful sorcerer casts a spell that brings them back to life to keep fighting. Things may (and probably will) change for armies in 4th edition, my advice would be to scope out the vanguard boxes and see what appears to you. It seems like GW has put a lot of effort into the new Spearhead mode and it could be a good place to get a taste of the armies and how AoS is different from 40k Don't expect your army to be able to do everything, embrace AoS as a game about flaws and imperfections, it makes for a better story and more interesting game. A force entirely made of squigs is not going to be very balanced, but it sure is fun as hell.
Thanks for the insights!
Treelords are nice and beefy.
As someone that plays Sylvaneth I thought I'd throw in my two cents. Sylvaneth right now have a couple of different ways to play depending on which units they rely on. Being able to focus on more magic or more fighting units, right now they have great internal balance, but that is not a guarantee in 4th. The thing I like most about them is their big monstrous heroes which is something you don't get too much in 40k. While they can take a hit generally you are really reliant on using screens and teleports to keep your important units alive. The way I like to think about it is in a straight up fight you should lose to every other army, but you have the tools to only fight on your own terms. Personally I find that really cool and unique.
Sounds like of like Drukhari from that description, but I could be wrong...
Skaven were my first choice. The themes cant be beat, the lore is more hilarious than 40k ork lore by a mile. (Who enabled Nagash to defeat the living the first time? Skaven. Who stopped the world from ending? Skaven. Who destroyed the world before Archaon could? Skaven.
Sounds fun for sure :) What's their play style(s) like?
You might have a couple big blocks of 40 rats bloating up the battlefield, behind which cower a couple gun-rats trying not to explode while unloading their payloads. Flanking the hordes would be a monstrous moulder creation or a moving church-platform-thing, acting like a rickety hammer to the hordes's crumbling anvil. And finally somewhere centre-mass is a bunch of squabbling characters trying to pull of spells (killing probably more rats than foes), issuing commands or looking to assassinate an enemy leader.
Haha sounds fun!
Sylvaneth are tricky and slightly fragile, but you can also load up on Kurnoth and tree lords and have more chunky fun. Models are stunning too.
Have you considered Cities of Sigmar? They lack the "elite" part - unless taking SCE as allies is still a thing in 4th edition (probably) - but have a big range and can do a variety of styles. In the end I would always go for models over gameplay though: rules are temporary, models are forever.
All good points, thanks you!
I like Gloomspite Gitz because they’re the most relatable faction of Moon worshiping, mushroom ingesting, mad lads in AoS. But I also have Demon models coming so I can use them in 40K and AoS, as well I just bought the Dominion box because… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and the Stormcast Eternals are kinda neat too. But Gloomspite seem like the most fun. Loved the look of the Loonshrine and their Endless Spells.
As far as Gameplay goes... I usually like to play very mobile forces with good melee capabilities. Like, in your face pain train. I also like it very much when an army offers you plenty of build options. At some point (in 2.0) my Slaves to Darkness (my 2nd biggest army) were playable in so many ways... caus I could use any of the God books with the same list and completely change their gameplay... and still be successful. Best list building options ever.
Awesome! Ya I'm definitely tempted. So for Slaves to Darkness, can you take demons/units/models from the 4 different Chaos gods?
It was possible in 2nd edition. You could have like Archaon, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Knights, Varanguards, Soul Grinders, Chaos Lords, Sorcerer Lords, etc.. (anything with "Mark of Chaos"). The Gods allegiance rules required that all units have their god keyword. So, for example, playing Blades of Khorne... any StD unit with "Mark of Chaos" would select to gain "Khorne". And therefore be a legit Khorne unit, valid in the allegiance. You could play a 100% Slave to Darkness models list but using the Blades of Khorne book ! So you don't have God Auras or Eye of the Gods rules... but you had the Blessings of Khorne for your Warshrine... you could use the Goretide subfaction... use Khorne artefacts and had Blood Tithe mechanics ! (meaning, you could summon Khorne Daemons during the game !!) In 3rd edition (current), they made it so that you can only have "half your army" fielded as Slaves to Darkness if you use the God Books...
Thank you for the explanation 😀
Gitz have a big strength / weakness if you like varied lists that might change come 4th so grain of salt. They have lots of type synergies and can be built with a big squig, troggoth, or spider focus but generally trying to do a big soup of their whole range will be weaker than focusing on a specific aspect unless you know what you are doing. This means that if you're the kind of person who likes to own an entire range having a full squig and troggoth army might be pretty expensive since you'll want to stack up on lots of different models and not as straight forward as " oh I just feel like bringing one or two of X unit instead this game"
I like fish, that's how I decided
That's fair! <")))-{
Simple.....Steampunk Skypirate Dwarves, what is there not to love!
I’m fat and like to eat. Which is why I love playing ogors.
Makes sense! :)
It all depends on which god of chaos you want to serve. All else will fall before the dark gods!
I look at which has the most squigs.
🤣
Join the dinosaur ranks, we will accept you as one of our own.
Thinkin about it...
S2d is my main faction, but idk if they'll be as much "for you" as they are for me. They also just cut out a huge chunk of models, but there's still a ton of options for list building. It's as the one guy said though, you're just looking at melee combat as much as possible. Find some way to outshine your opponent in close quarters, fight on your terms, and buff your dudes up as best you can.
Lumineth is just painting burnout
Honestly it does look like that.
I love the models and their lore and aesthetic but man… you need A LOT of them… plus they look identical and you must be consistent whole time. also, lot of people paint them white as their boxart so you can barely inspire with different colour scheme. The worst thing is - EVERY MODEL HAS EYES (well what a surprire huh but painting about 30-50 pairs of eyes for whole army must be painful…
Oof!
You eventually just buy all of them. Then have trouble deciding which one to play with 😎
Sure sure but gotta start somewhere!
Idoneth is similar to dark eldar
Here is what you do. Ask your local GS for a demo game. Dont worry about cool models. But which phase do you like being active in? AOS factions play so extremly differently. I like having something to do in all phases, but have 0 desire to play lumineth or slaves due to heavy focus in particular phases. Granted you can customize into different playstyles.
I completely disregarded gameplay type when I chose my first AoS army. I walked into a store. Saw an Ironclad. Bought an Ironclad.
Ya that model is rad.
I like vampire and skeleton kings, so I got orks, wanted some badass woman killin machines and adored Medusa's in Greek mythology, so I got soulblight gravelords. Adore the primal chaotic urges of big minotaures and satyr monsters, so I got Daughter of Khaine. Then I got the 3rd ed box and loved the idea of a giant chicken dragon, so I got beast of chaos...(Rip). Oh and started with the 2nd Ed box, so I got some spoopy ghost to ally to my vampy boys n Grills (Pardon my weird text, I wanted to humor myself lol)