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My friends and I are thinking about starting AoS, now that the Generals Handbook is out. We got the book and read through the "matched play"-area. There are still a few questions open though...

1) If I understand right, taking a warscroll batallion will not only force me to take the listed models/units, but I also need to pay some additional points.

2) I can theoretically freely mix and match units from all the lists, but I get magic items/command benefits if I choose the same allegiance (Chaos or Order for instance).

3) Also if I use only units from say "slaves to darkness"-list, i get an additional bonus. In this case I could use Chaos Knights / Marauder Horsemen as battleline-troops.

So far we think to understand correctly. But...

4) Would the army from 3) also benefit from the bonusses from 2) ? They still are all chaos, but the book says you have to choose an allegiance, and your army can only use one.

5) How do the compendium-lists work (the points-lists for old, oop models). If I would not use the slaves to darkness list, but the old "Warriors of Chaos"-list, are they still chaos-allegiance? And could I include a hellcannon in the slaves to darkness list, or would I lose allegiance benefits then? (Also, the "warriors of chaos"-list doesnt have a single battleline unit and clearly isnt meant to be played alone.)

Questions may seem dumb, but we want to be sure before we start

1. You pay for both the units and the formation yes.

2. Yes you can freely mix. But you still need the 3 required battleline units.

3. Yes. You get the bonus of having those as battle line troops as long as everything is from Slaves of Darkness faction.

4 Yes. It's Allegiance Chaos and their factions is Slaves to Darkness.

5. Not sure about Legacy lists. As they aren't included in the Chaos Grand Alliance book.

Thanks for the clarification.

I guess we'll just let the 2 players who want to use legacy lists still use the grand alliance bonusses. I think it's pretty clear that legacy dwarves are still order-aligned.

Just another small question. We will start with 1000 points, and I consider running the "ruinbringer warband", which will basically mean I will basically have:

Lord on Demonic Mount
2 x 5 Chaos Knights
1 x 5 Marauder Horsemen
1 x Chariot
1 x Gorebeast
... 100 points left for 5 more marauders or 1 gorebeast

The question is if this army is a good starting point. I always liked my vikings fast and hard, but I didnt play WHFB for at least 5 years now. I dont want to paint em up just to lose all my battles because of the low model count.

You can't mix across the Grand Alliances in a pitched battle as per the GHB.

The compendium warscrolls all still have a grand alliance keyword (for example Dwarf Miners have the "order" keyword).

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:

4 Yes. It's Allegiance Chaos and their factions is Slaves to Darkness.

Actually, this is incorrect. When you take Slaves to Darkness as your Allegiance, they cease to benefit from the Grand Alliance: Chaos Allegiance as your army can ONLY have one allegiance. Its why you can not take say... Destruction stuff when your Allegiance is Beast Riders.

drek wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:

4 Yes. It's Allegiance Chaos and their factions is Slaves to Darkness.

Actually, this is incorrect. When you take Slaves to Darkness as your Allegiance, they cease to benefit from the Grand Alliance: Chaos Allegiance as your army can ONLY have one allegiance. Its why you can not take say... Destruction stuff when your Allegiance is Beast Riders.

Sorry, but you're wrong according to the General's Handbook FAQ. For example, an army with the 'Ironjawz' allegiance can still use the allegiance abilities from the 'Destruction' grand Alliance.

Yeah, they basically erratad it, (and for the better IMO, going single faction is already a massive nerf in most cases.)

A few points on Compendium lists:

Yes, taking a hellcannon in a slaves to darkness list loses you the slaves to darkness allegiance.

The reason that many compeniums lack battleline units is that those units have gotten new warscrolls and belong to one of the new factions. For example, chaos warriors used to be part of the warriors of chaos list until they were rebranded as part of the slaves to darkness list.

Basically, many units from the old compendiums have gotten new warscrolls as part of a new faction, and are therefore no longer in the compendium list. Only the new warscrolls are pointed.

 Ghaz wrote:

drek wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:

4 Yes. It's Allegiance Chaos and their factions is Slaves to Darkness.

Actually, this is incorrect. When you take Slaves to Darkness as your Allegiance, they cease to benefit from the Grand Alliance: Chaos Allegiance as your army can ONLY have one allegiance. Its why you can not take say... Destruction stuff when your Allegiance is Beast Riders.

Sorry, but you're wrong according to the General's Handbook FAQ. For example, an army with the 'Ironjawz' allegiance can still use the allegiance abilities from the 'Destruction' grand Alliance.

Sorry, I might just be being thick here, but I can't see anything that says this In that FAQ. Would you mind explaining how you came to this understanding so I don't screw myself in later games

"You can choose to take either the allegiance abilities for the allegiance your army belongs to, or the allegiance abilities for the Grand Alliance your army belongs to."

Bottom of the first page, left column.

Page 106 – Pitched Battles, Picking Your Army
Change the last paragraph to read:
‘Once you have picked your army, record the details of it on a piece of paper (your army roster). The roster must include the units in your army, details of the upgrades they have, the army’s allegiance, and must say which model in the army will be the army general.
If your army includes any units that are given keywords when they are set up, such as units with a Mark of Chaos, then these must be chosen and written down when
the unit is added to the roster. You must record the allegiance abilities for your army when the battle begins, before setting up your rst unit. You can choose to take either the allegiance abilities for the allegiance your army belongs to, or the allegiance abilities for the Grand Alliance your army belongs to.

I was confused about all that as well, but they have answered it on the AoS facebook a couple of times (that I've seen).

While declaring your allegiance is an actual step, and it gets you either faction benefits or grand alliance benefits, you can still take a single subfaction in order to get modified battleline units.

The gist is that those two are separate 'checks' during building your army and fielding it, so the declaring your allegiance part only really matters if you have options other than grand alliance.

So this means I can build my army using chaos knights as battleline, and still take that shiny magic item, right?

Mickmann wrote:
So this means I can build my army using chaos knights as battleline, and still take that shiny magic item, right?

Yes, but no hellcannon :p

I can live with that. As soon as me reach 2000 pts i plan to include some regular core units

My hellcannon can wait till that day

My bad on not seeing that on the FAQ but...

The FAQ specifically says Abilities and does not mention items. Are we interpreting the items as part of the abilities list?

I would say yes. There are 3 parts to an allegiance ability; the Battle Trait, the Command Traits and the Artefacts.

Im just going to hijack this thread for a quick question:

what is a battle line?
i cant find that info in the book.

I bought the hand book a few days ago but no models yet just to see if aos could inntrest me.
So far by quick reading the different ways to play aos, it does.

Look in the army points section. In the description it should read "Battleline Unit" .

Basically troops choices and they have to make up a certain number of choices with matched play.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Look in the army points section. In the description it should read "Battleline Unit" .

Basically troops choices and they have to make up a certain number of choices with matched play.

thanks, made it clearer now.

You bet!