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The title says it all. My friends have finally gotten me to cave and check out AoS. After picking up the generals handbook and giving it a quick read through I'm actually pretty into the idea of giving a go. I'm just looking for general advice and tips on starting a death army

Currently depends on which way you intend to play.

I'm assuming you want to run matched play and points.

So you need to figure out which battleline units are aesthetically pleasing and you want to run.

I was looking at Death with Mannfred, but decided to continue with Order and Seraphon. I believe hex wraiths to be vastly superior unless you happen to have a tomb king army...

So play style ideas, what you want to paint, and if you want to run an elite army are all things we need to know!

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Currently depends on which way you intend to play.

I'm assuming you want to run matched play and points.

So you need to figure out which battleline units are aesthetically pleasing and you want to run.

I was looking at Death with Mannfred, but decided to continue with Order and Seraphon. I believe hex wraiths to be vastly superior unless you happen to have a tomb king army...

So play style ideas, what you want to paint, and if you want to run an elite army are all things we need to know!

I know the local gaming club prefers using points now that they've been released.

As far as what I find aesthetically pleasing is lots of skeletons dragging across the table with a few elite choices. This is really my first adventure out of 40k so I'm still a bit clueless

I would highly recommend getting one of the Death start collecting boxes (probably skeleton horde) and doing a few sample games with that. Then use borrowed/proxied miniatures to try out different things until you get a feel for where you want to go in terms of expanding your army.

Deathrattle units of skeletons can get a ton of support from various area's, the Wight King can provide a standard that gives them an extra 6+ save against dying, along with giving them extra attacks for their weapons.

Then you've got the Necromancers who can give them a bigger pile in and attack twice, as well as being one of the few models in the entire game being able to send wounds to nearby death units if they get hit.

Not to mention that Skeletons have a few elite choices with Grave Guard and Black Knights

Historically, Vampire Counts/"Death", focused on a Hammer and Anvil style of approach. Large bricks of disposable fodder with scary heroes and hammer units. It can still be played this way. Skeletons and zombies are cheap, and can even be a threat themselves if properly supported. The new wrinkle introduced by the GHB is how summoning works. Most things in the army can be summoned, so it offers a lot of flexability and tactical play, as you can choose what you bring in on the fly.

Some general tips that I have learned from my games so far for any army.

1. You want your general to have as many wounds as possible. Command Abilities are huge in this game, even if it's just using inspiring presence on a brick of skeletons/zombies. He needs wounds to keep him from being sniped out by shooting.

2. Shooting is powerful, as it lets these units deal damage twice in one turn, and to snipe individual units. Death isn't great in this regard, so you will need either speed or summoning to take these guys out before their action economy starts piling up.

3. Age of Sigmar is all about maximizing your armies synergies. Death has quite a few of them. Study them, figure out how they work together, and use them as force multipliers. Battalion formations are included in this, though some are more worth their points than other.

4. Play the mission. Other armies may have harder and stronger units than yours. Ogres and Sig-Marines may be able to plow over anything infront of them, but they are elite armies and can't be everywhere at once. You only have to tie them down long enough to get the lead and hold it. Fast units and summoning can help you out a ton here, as well as our disposable fodder.

Other than that, any specific models/army types that caught your eye?

Bonzai wrote:
Historically, Vampire Counts/"Death", focused on a Hammer and Anvil style of approach. Large bricks of disposable fodder with scary heroes and hammer units. It can still be played this way. Skeletons and zombies are cheap, and can even be a threat themselves if properly supported. The new wrinkle introduced by the GHB is how summoning works. Most things in the army can be summoned, so it offers a lot of flexability and tactical play, as you can choose what you bring in on the fly.

Some general tips that I have learned from my games so far for any army.

1. You want your general to have as many wounds as possible. Command Abilities are huge in this game, even if it's just using inspiring presence on a brick of skeletons/zombies. He needs wounds to keep him from being sniped out by shooting.

2. Shooting is powerful, as it lets these units deal damage twice in one turn, and to snipe individual units. Death isn't great in this regard, so you will need either speed or summoning to take these guys out before their action economy starts piling up.

3. Age of Sigmar is all about maximizing your armies synergies. Death has quite a few of them. Study them, figure out how they work together, and use them as force multipliers. Battalion formations are included in this, though some are more worth their points than other.

4. Play the mission. Other armies may have harder and stronger units than yours. Ogres and Sig-Marines may be able to plow over anything infront of them, but they are elite armies and can't be everywhere at once. You only have to tie them down long enough to get the lead and hold it. Fast units and summoning can help you out a ton here, as well as our disposable fodder.

Other than that, any specific models/army types that caught your eye?

Thanks for the tips all will be taken into consideration. My ideal army would be lots of skeletons or zombies(or both) slogging around and being summoned with a decent General. Manfred and Nagash were immediate draws to this army so army builds surrounded around them...if that's viable...is ideal to me

If you like idea of zombies/ skeletons being summoned. I highly recommend the skeletal horde getting started box.

Regardless of which aspect of Death you decide to go with, the Start Collecting boxes are definitely the way to go. You can build 1,000 points for around $200 or so if you get 2x Start Collecting boxes + maybe another unit or two to add in.

Jordancw90 wrote:
Thanks for the tips all will be taken into consideration. My ideal army would be lots of skeletons or zombies(or both) slogging around and being summoned with a decent General. Manfred and Nagash were immediate draws to this army so army builds surrounded around them...if that's viable...is ideal to me

In most games "Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament" is a better choice for summoning under the Pitched Battle Rules than Nagash mostly because he costs 560 points less but has much of the same summoning bonuses.
Nagash is so expensive at 900pt that he can't be taken in a 1000pt game since you need at least 120pt to fill your battleline requirements with Deaths cheapest battleline units that cost 60pt each.