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So i had taken quite a long break from mini-gaming in general, due to complete loss of interest. Mostly 40k caused this, other reasons i wont get into here. So please dont flame me for this post.

My question is, how close AoS actually is to 40k? I've never really looked into it, and to me with how open the force building can be from looking at rules and such, it seems VERY open to what you can take. A friend is gonna hook me up with some Death stuff, not a huge amount and i have a little to add to it. Pretty much the skeleton horde start collecting box and 2 boxes of archai. Is it ok to pick and piece from different books? Or should i pick and battletome and stick to one. I dont want to be hyper competitive, that was what turned me off from the hobby in general.

On picking things from different army books...
Each army belongs to a faction - order, chaos, death, destruction, etc. Each army will note wich other armies or factions it can ally with. Then, depending upon how many pts you're playing with, there's a chart that tells you how many pts you can spend on "allies". For ex; In a 2k pt army you can only field 400 pts of allies.

They are similar systems now since AoS uses the same base and movement system.

Within the game there are 4 grand alliances. Death, Destruction, Order and Chaos. Within each of those are the armies/factions that form the Grand Alliance.

Each faction has its own Battletome, within which are the allegiance abilities (abilities that the models in that tome get that are universal to the army); equipment, points, model rules (warscrolls) lore, painting etc.. There's also a table on the last page which lists their point costs and also any factions that they make take as allies.

As noted above, in AoS allies are limited to 1/4 points and model count. This means that you can take them, but you're limited on which armies you can pick from (and some cannot take any allies) and also how much of them you can take. In addition allied models (unless its a special situation that states it) won't get allegiance bonuses. Some factions do allow them and this is mostly within Chaos when some units can take marks and the like.


In addition to that within the core rules and the new rules mini book that GW is publishing (there's a rules minibooklet in every duel army pack which has the core rules; but there's also now a minibook version of the rules which adds up several other sources of rules into one small easy to use book - the bulk of the Big Rule book is artwork and lore); there are allegiance abilities for Grand Alliance Armies. These can take any model within the specific Grand Alliance. At present they are generally a bit weaker/less optimal than taking regular armies.


Asa result whilst there is a lot of options to take what you want within AoS there are enough limits and checks that its an optional choice and not required for competitive play. Ergo they've worked hard to avoid the "soup army" issue that 40K has often suffered from (mostly with regard to the Imperial side of things).





Note that each Battletome army often has several sub-faction armies within it. These can also be like full mini-armies within the book with their own separate allegiance abiltiies and limits on what they can take. Note that many of these might have official paint schemes; however in the practical real world of gaming most do not force paints to define army choice in this regard (I've heard of a few events which have but by and large people don't care*)

Death has the Legions of Nagash (which you'll be building into with the choices you've outlined). Which is a bit of a motley of death units. So you see them cross over into other more "pure" death armies. However the Legion has limits and isn't the same as a Grand Alliance army

*and in a purely practical sense most gamers don't even know the official schemes once you leave the scheme that GW uses in their majority of marketing. Heck Daughters of Khaine schemes are basically all just a few shades different of pink/red.

awesome, thank you both for the replies i didnt see that in what i read and im pretty sure my buddies didnt know of that either

Just to note there are currently a few armies still in need of an update.

Seraphon, Khadoran Overlords and Tzeentch all have battletomes, but they are much older and mostly lack all of what I said above. They were very early in AoS and mostly just have the warscrolls (which are also now out of date). GW has been releasing a Battletome practically every month so far and so those three should be updated within the early part of 2020.

Slaves to Darkness are also without a Tome and never had one; however they are getting one this December along with a new s tart collecting set.


All the other armies have up to date 2.0 Battletomes.

The base gameplay is mostly the same between AoS and 40k but there are differences. There is no Toughness in AoS, instead you have a flat to-hit and to-wound depending on what weapon is being used. AoS has a Command Phase which takes place before Movement and is when you can cast spells or use certain abilities. 40k has Stratagems which simply don't exist in AoS.

Points in 40k are based on per-model and wargear while in AoS its in "blocks" and wargear has no point cost. Some units in AoS get a "hoard bonus" where you get a small discount if you take a max sized unit.

Army formation in AoS is based on battle field roll (Leader, Battleline, Artiliary, ect.), your point level, and your Faction/Alliance choice. In 40k you have different Formations that have pre-set requirements on units that unlocks Command Points (this pairs up with the Stratagem system). Closest thing that AoS has is Battalions which can give a free Command Point to start with and another Relic as well as any other bonuses.

Minimum you need is the Core rule book which there is a new smaller soft-back, and a Battletome (sounds like you would want Legions of Nagash but I'm not overly familiar with Death). The Generals Handbook has updated points, some missions, and some fun Narrative stuff.

Well this may sound terrible, but i am so glad stratagems dont exist in AoS. I'm actually super looking forward to this now, i did find a better website than the first couple i went to after you all answered some questions for me. I really appreciate it

Stratagems have their own negatives and bonuses when it comes from a gameplay and balancing standpoint. However, I can't say that AoS is entirely free of Stratagems.

Instead of Stratagems, AoS has Command Abilities. There are far less Command Abilities, with about 5-6 Generic Command Abilities that any faction can use. Then, further Command Abilities will be found on a units Warscroll, mostly found on Hero units and only those Heroes can use that ability. And then, some Sub-factions within a codex will have one unique Command Ability avalible if you use that sub-faction.

These don't tend to be as spammable or straight "become super strong" buttons, but are still used often such as Run 6" or Auto-pass Bravery Checks. And as well, you have much less Command Points than you get in 40k/

New to AoS but its a simplier game to pick up compared to 40K. I'm only playing it at warband skimirsh scale, but I'd guess that AoS is better suited to large scale games than 40K, especially with the alliances.

If you want large scale 40K games you end up with dreadnoughts, tanks and Knights within the same race, but with AoS you go as far as a large monster and then add a second race to build an alliance. Thats not to say you can't have team-ups within 40K, but it seems better implemented in AoS.

Besides being streamlined, I actually enjoy the AoS story which is easier to digest and get into. If the story of 40K is "World at War" then AoS is "Thundercats".

Oh, the model range not only looks bloomin awesome but is sometimes better priced than the 40K range. For example, a Primaris Captain feels quite expensive at £22.50, but a Lord Aquilor riding a Gryph-charger at £25 is pretty decent value for GW.

Well i will say this, after years of ignoring it.... you are right. I do like the AoS model line better than 40k

Vakruz wrote:
Well i will say this, after years of ignoring it.... you are right. I do like the AoS model line better than 40k

Yes. The AoS minis in my opinion are much better than what is on offer with 40K. Perhaps it is because 40K is rife with Marineception and they spend a ton of effort updating eight different chapter codexes to give you more dudes with giant pauldrons and power backpacks instead of some interesting aliens.