Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I've been thinking of taking the plunge into AoS for a while now and after picking up the General's Handbook at the weekend have been wondering how (as a gamer on a budget ) I can put together a decent 2k army.

Looking through the Start Collecting sets it occurred to me that there are a lot of options with the 3 released so far for Death Alliance:

Deathrattle gives you -
Arkhan OR Mannfred OR Neferata
10x Skeleton Warriors
5x Black Knights OR Hexwraiths

Malignants gives you -
Mortis Engine OR Coven Throne
5x Black Knights OR Hexwraiths
3x Spirit Hosts

Flesh-eater Courts gives you -
Terrorgheist (alone or with Ghoul King) OR Zombie Dragon (alone or with Ghoul King or with Vampire Lord)
10x Crypt Ghouls
3x Crypt Flayers OR Crypt Horrors OR Vargheists


Depending on what you take these three boxes give between 1520 and 1940 points including 2x Battleline units (the skellies and ghouls) and 3 Behemoths (with between 1 and all 3 of these counting as Leaders), so at least 1 extra Battleline unit is required to make a legal 2k list.


So, the idea I had was a Lahmian theme building the options as Neferata, Black Knights, Coven Throne, Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon and Vargheists. This rocks in at 1840 giving me enough points to get a larger unit of 20 skellies to complete the force (and crucially even at full RRP the whole lot comes in under £200 and with only 59 models even I might stand a chance of getting it painted before retirement ).

Would this be any good? Is there an alternative theme I could go with? Over to you oh knowledgeable ones...

I think... If you are to buy 3 different start collecting boxes, you'd be beter off by buying Vlagorescu's horde box and a start collecting box.

You'll have a more themed army AND all units will interact better in that force.

I think the difference in cost is like €15... and to me that makes a lot more sense.

I can only agree with Elmir.
Get the King Vlagorescu's Ghoulish Host and the Flesh-Eater Court Start Collecting box, and you have a good sized army with good synergy at a pretty nice price.

King Vlagorescu's Ghoulish Host has 1200 points in the box with just the models as shown. Each of the kits is a full kit so you have quite a few options and then you can build one of several battalions from it.

What I'm saying is you could probably pad it out past 1200 points.

Having used it, its synergy is amazing. And the fluff is some of the best I think they've done.

The mortis engine gives you 3 vampire lords, 3 banshee and a necromancer, if you're into characters

If you don't play at a GW store and can use models from other companies, check out the undead line for Kings of War from Mantic Games. A lot cheaper, and in some cases, better sculpts!

Thanks for the replies

jSewell - I actually play KoW already and have a Mantic Ogre army, I personally just prefer the GW aesthetic for undead but I agree they do some nice stuff!

killerdou - Cheers, I figured you could probably make some bonus characters from the Mortis Engine/Coven Throne kit (although I'm not sure I fancy making convincing charactes from 3 laying down vampires

Elmir/Spiky Norman/Dr_Keenbean - I know Flesh-Eater Courts are getting a lot of love at the minute but of all the Death models the only ones I like less are Zombies. I wouldn't mind some in the list but I don't fancy a whole army of them, sorry


What would be the pros/cons of my original idea?
Neferata
Coven Throne
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon
3x Vargheists
3x Spirit Hosts
10x Black Knights
20x Skeleton Warriors
10x Skeleton Warriors
10x Crypt Ghouls

Also, what alternative armies could be made using those three sets (plus extras)?

If you know how to magnetise, it can be done for the mortarchs btw. Mine are completely interchangable.

So far, I've found black knights... underwhelming. I haven't played with hexwraiths yet, but my black knights are left on the sideline more often than not. Looking at the hexwraith's superior save (with ethereal), flying and higher attack count, it does seem better (despite not being able to ressurent)

A vampire lord on zombie dragon as your general with red thirst and a tomb blade can be an insane beatstick.

I haven't used Black Knights, but I've used TK Skeleton Horsemen, which fill the same niche. I can only agree with Elmir - they have not impressed me whatsoever. The only use I've found for them is as a tarpit, and usually I just leave them out of my lists.

I think you would be better off building them as 10x Hexwraiths, leaving the Ghouls out of the list and splitting the 20x Skeleton Warriors into two groups of 10x Skeleton Warriors.

In my experience, 20x Skeleton Warriors is just the wrong number anyway. If you build them with hand weapons, you want the units to be small (10x), because you will not be able to get any more than that into attacking range anyway. 10x Skeleton Warriors with hand weapons make good screening units and objective campers. On the other hand, if you want to arm them with spears you want to maximize your number of attacks, which means you need at least 25-30x. That way, you have some redundancy, so that you can lose a bunch of models and still get the 20x bonus attacks.

With my suggested changes you'll still end up neatly at 2000 points.