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What are the cheapest armies? I am thinking of cash cost. And they need to be playable, not awfull.

Are the sigmarites or the night haunts ok?

SCE and Nighthaunt are OK, FEC are cheap (just buy start collecting boxes) and overpowered so there's that.

Stormcast Eternals are your quintessential starter army - low model count, durable, relatively inexpensive. Each SC box has 600+ points and it's more like 1400 points if you double up on them (because some under-strength units become full strength).

Nighthaunts are decent and full of shenanigans (ignore Rend and get what amounts to Feel No Pain rolls, plus more) but you get substantially fewer points for the money and there's no Start Collecting for them yet.

But you could build 2 functional 1000 point armies from Soul Wars + Tempest of Souls + Storm Strike for the cost of a single army from most other factions and neither army will be bad, just not top tier.

Sigmar and NH are accessible through starters and some cheap kits.

FEC is probably the cheapest non-starter army. You get around 700 points in one Start Collecting regardless of whether you make the Ghoul king on a dragon or not.

Are not FEC a very limited codex with only a few unit entries?

Also, would it not be cheaper with SCE and Nighthaunt as I would need a rulebook and other things?

You can get about 2,500pts out of three SC! Slaanesh Daemon boxes and three Daemonette boxes, apparently.

That's about $440 CAD, not including taxes. I have no idea how much they retail for in... Norway?

The problem with that (as much as Slaanesh is my favorite) is that Slaanesh basically NEEDS a KoS or two. Which are $140 a pop in the USA. Our SC boxes are $90. So we’re talking $450 for 3 SCs and 2 KoSs. Throw in the book, and it’s almost $500. Get it at 20% discount online and still $400.

SM and NH is both viable but quite different playstyles.
NH for the moust part relies a fair bit on synergys, SM not so mutch. kinda pointlessto have an army if you feel you dont like its mechanics.

and you can buy 2nd hand for even lower prices. (Finn.no er ett ok sted og holde øye med, alltids noen som skal kvitte seg med sine minis)

If you are okay with non-GW figures, try Creature Caster. Demons of Ecstasy specifically. There are some large ones at $59 US, and the newest is $109. While I have not purchased I have seen them painted, as one of the most hardcore 40k gamer bought several and painted them up. They are fine sculpts and paint up well.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
The problem with that (as much as Slaanesh is my favorite) is that Slaanesh basically NEEDS a KoS or two. Which are $140 a pop in the USA. Our SC boxes are $90. So we’re talking $450 for 3 SCs and 2 KoSs. Throw in the book, and it’s almost $500. Get it at 20% discount online and still $400.

 Niiai wrote:
Are not FEC a very limited codex with only a few unit entries?

Yeah but you buy the book and 4x Start Collecting and you have a tier 1 army.

well you have a tier 1 army until the new ghb. We don't know what they will look like when point adjustments come by.

 auticus wrote:
well you have a tier 1 army until the new ghb. We don't know what they will look like when point adjustments come by.

That's a great point. Best not to buy into anything right before the balance patch that's due later this month.

 Niiai wrote:
Are not FEC a very limited codex with only a few unit entries?

Also, would it not be cheaper with SCE and Nighthaunt as I would need a rulebook and other things?

Well you'll always want your Battletome and the main rulebook, so I wouldn't even factor these into the calculation. You can get the Rulebook in Soul Wars if you go Nighthaunt or SCE, and that's something, but you'll still want the Battletome.

 Niiai wrote:
Are not FEC a very limited codex with only a few unit entries?

Also, would it not be cheaper with SCE and Nighthaunt as I would need a rulebook and other things?

It maybe doesn't have a huge selection of model, but it is open for different armies.

You can go Morgaunt and aim for a lot of Crypt Ghouls(I am currently running this one) or you can go for some other court like Gristlegore that allows you run nothing but dragons. Then you can focus on a heavy Crypt Flayer or Horror army as well.

Now, it may not have the breath of available models such as Blades of Khorne, but often with larger model selections you will end up getting more redundancy with some units being very sub-par; a problem that has haunted GW games since time immemorial.

However, I am going to echo the sentiment of others here and say that you should probably wait for GHB2019 before making a choice. You never know what curveballs GW throws with these.

How do the stormcasts from the starter sets fair against the good armies in AoS?

Karol wrote:
How do the stormcasts from the starter sets fair against the good armies in AoS?

They were doing ok around the start of the new year. They have been going down a bit as of late, but that is probably because of the current power spikes.

For those interested in pure stats I do recommend looking at the Honest Wargamer. They are tracking tourney circuits and army winrates as well as post up lists being used.

https://thehonestwargamer.com/aos-stats-4th-june-2019/

thank you very much. There aren't many people playing AoS around here, so it is hard to get any reliable info.

All of this will change weith the new general handbook though?

Is this like chapter aprived in 40K?

 Niiai wrote:
All of this will change weith the new general handbook though?

Is this like chapter aprived in 40K?

Yes. Points updates for everyone.

How long is the new book legal?

they release a ghb once a year. so once a year they change up points which shuffles around who is the powergamer tier and who is not. I'd wait until GHB drops before you drop money on anything right now, if you are looking to tournament.

well GHB is mainly points changes yes, but its effect changes how the game and armies playes as prooven over the years.

if you just want one single army that can stand the years, you want one that wont be dramaticly changed depending on what suprises comes with the GHB.
stormcast is that army. it aint elite nor is it horde, yet has a few moves agasint horde and summon armies.

if you are in doubt, wait. ghb19 should come in july.

Seems like SCE are designed to be the space marine equivalent that will always get updated, always get the lions share of the background, and will be in all the starter sets. So it seems like the obvious choice if you do not care about aesthetics or storyline.

TBF points changes won't make FEC non-viable because there are multiple other factors that make them OP. Points won't change feeding frenzy or summoning.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
TBF points changes won't make FEC non-viable because there are multiple other factors that make them OP. Points won't change feeding frenzy or summoning.

FF is tricky but every army has a faction gimmick. You can't point IDK tides or Khorne summoning either. But FEC summoning can totally be costed accurately since it's pretty much just a bundle of two units.

Of course feeding frenzy is a faction gimmick, it's still totally overpowered. You are right on summoning, but GW staunchly refuses to bake that into units beyond a few that are so infrequent they could just be errors, so I think it is safe to assume that summoning will remain something GW does not assign points to for the next GHB.

The new Sylvaneth book, for example, has a branchwraith at 80 points. Her spell summons a 100-point unit.

That was what people wanted. Free stuff. As much free stuff as they can get on the table.

 Niiai wrote:

Is this like chapter aprived in 40K?

The other way around. GHB was first.

 auticus wrote:
That was what people wanted. Free stuff. As much free stuff as they can get on the table.

That is what some people wanted, yes.

Seemed like it was the vocal majority. Everywhere it was discussed, going against free stuff was shouted down.