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So, Age of Sigmar starts to look like its own thing with a lot of old Warhammer Fantasy models discontinued and, more importantly, new model lines and factions exclusive to the game. Then of course, comes the question. Which is your favorite faction when it comes to gameplay, fluff and model design. While we don't have much info about the upcomming Lumineth in terms of lore, we have pretty much seen a sneak peak of the entire model line or close to it so I think we can count them in for the third category.

While I don't have a lot of game experience in Age of Sigmar, I do have a lot of fun playing my Beast of Chaos army. I'm still in love with the ambush mechanic and always was a fan of movements gimmicks.

In terms of lore I will have to give it to the Flesh Eater Court. The idea of insane bretonnian-like monsters is simply hilarious and can be very creepy should you want to make your srmy lore serious.

In terms of models while there is a lot of different styles and certainly qualities in pretty much all faction (save perhapse the Fyreslayers in my personnal opinion; they really aren't my cup of tea). Iwould say that the Gloomspite Gitz have the most interesting style with creepy cartoon style that reminds me of the days of Warcraft 2 which I played abundently. The person who designed the Gobbapalooza needs a medal or something. They are simply awesome little models.


So what would you say?

I don't play (yet) and don't know the lore in any real detail, but purely in terms of models I'm most liking zeppelin dwarfs and fish elves. They show evolution of factions while still being at least vaguely attached to their stereotypical roots. They also actually reflect the amount of time that has passed since the Old World died, whereas stuff like the free cities, lizardmen, chaos and most undead just don't. They all pretty much could have been picked out of the Old World as-is and dropped into the AoS setting unchanged, which I find a little incongruous and disappointing.

Chaos. All of it. Despite misgivings with how the transition was handled and the early lore AoS has brilliantly expanded what it means to be in service to the Pantheon.

I love what they've done with the Flesh Eaters (though their naming conventions don't make sense to me) definitely an army deserving of new models. Showing them wearing remains and detritus as crowns and robes. Cavalry units that bear what they think is artistic comparisons but are actually stitched flesh cloth etc.

Chaos have had a lions share of some fantastic models in the Warcry sets. I really like the direction GW has taken with Chaos as well. They've done a lot from the early novella like the Darkoath and through to the Warcry Warbands, in terms of creating more believable mortal followers of Chaos and showing us other ways that Chaos might corrupt people without them realising it.

I think it creates a great way to show how Chaos can infect and corrupt. How people who are otherwise quite normal and not besotted with Chaos; or whom won't get vast boons of power from their Gods, might well turn to the Dark Gods. Or be tricked to follow the Dark Gods.



The Warcry bands also add so much flavour to what was once a slot mostly full of "Marauders". Now there's bands with unique flavours from almost feral Untamed Beasts to those hwo stalk the highrise skies of huge super-cities left behind from the Age of Myth. To the Unmade who are all the nightmare of Chaos to the efficient iron willed warriors of the Iron Golems.



There's still some old bits left, but chaos had had some great updates and continues to introduce some new ideas into the Great Enemy that gives it a lot more flavour than just "hurr durr I'm a mutant going to kill you". To me its brought a lot more life and personalty to the Chaos Legions outside of their generals.






That said they are not alone. Ossiarch Bonereapers are, to me, a really interesting take on the whole concept of undeath in the realms. A race of constructs in body and soul who at one want to relive part of their former lives and yet in another are capable of creating things like the catapult or gothizar; strange and unnatural creatures that are almost part machine part living. They've got personalities wrapped with a robotical view on the world. A very curious creation from GW and an army that I really do think can surprise us with what GW might release for them in the future.



Then there's Daughters of Khaine. Lithe, agile, deadly, bloody - interestingly they are at present almost as, if not more bloody than vampires in many respects. They were the first AoS army I got into after seeing the new releases they got. Whilst AoS is full of high epic modern fantasty, DoK have some really classic elements to them. Harpies, medusa - heck even the new queen in their Underworld Warband has a very "classic pinup" style to her design. To me their designs embody a lot of the traditional and classic, but mixed with a tinge of the high magic of the Mortal Realms.

Like Ossiarchs they are a smaller army and one that I greatly look forward to GW fleshing out with more options and variety. Perhaps seeing new kinds of warrioress for the battlefield; or shadow beasts summoned from the depths of the Shadow Realm.




I've got to say that I also love how GW hasn't focused on a single faction in the AoS lore. Sure Stormcast get a lot more focus, but by and large they've kept much of the material open to any race. I think this creates a much more engaging lore where there aren't the typical "Boogyman" factions like Orks, Chaos and Undead were in the Old World. Ergo factions which were predominantly in the lore to be enemies of the heroic factions. Instead in the Mortal Realms GW has really aimed to introduce us to all the races and to keep them all competing for story slots of their own.


Of course I'd say there's two armies in AoS at present that don't yet live up to their stories. Flesheaters and Cities of Sigmar. Flesheaters have some great models, but need far more and some more hints of their duel personalities and their madness that is going on with them, perhaps in a slightly more overt way for a few models.
Cities, meanwhile need a huge steam-punk injection. Keep the classic, but also give them some of this steam power that features so heavily in the lore and yeton the tabletop only appears in the form of the Steam Tank.

I love ogres. I know they are a fantasy army but their rules in aos are so full of character and the most important part they are nearly the same as they were in fantasy.

Really, they just feel the same to play. Many other armies lost totally their feel. But ogres? Na


Also, chaos and khorne, yeah, no need to explain why.

As much as I like all the supercharged nature of Age of Sigmar, my favorite faction/army is one that is made of almost entirely out of WHFB units. I like the Slaves to Darkness/Chaos Mortals of Age of Sigmar. I like the idea that the Age of Chaos has almost undone civilization back to the stone age for most mortals. The idea of primitive peoples worshiping the Chaos gods either indirectly, unknowingly or just a facet is very interesting. The paradoxically one of the surest ways to survive is to travel the Path to Glory which has no good ending really.

For my army. I like to call them the Defenders of the Mortal Realms as a mockery to the usual white knight moniker. Because, in many ways, Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights are those to serve as those the defend humanity so they may exploit them. I like the idea that Stormcast Eternals are a sort of booyman that parents tell their children scary stories about and cause entire tribes to fear thunderstorms.

Rules-wise, I kinda want my army to be a little more Ironjaws. Warriors and Knights feel a little limp wristed to me. I don't know, they seem to work pretty well as an attrition army so far. I also would like a better Warrior/Knight Damned Legion as I really don't think any of the current ones quite fit. I use Ravagers which feels a lot more Marauder than Warrior/Knight. The spoiler below is a pretty common army I run when playing. Note, the Warcry Cultists are for Rally the Tribes, the Spawn. Daemon Prince and Furies are for Eye of the Gods. I also think that was for a 2,500pt game.

Honestly I'm a fan of most of the forces save for the various undead & Stormcast.
Currently I play;

*Blades of Khorne/Slaves to Darkness
Khorne was the 1st of my armies I dusted off late 2018/early 19. Simple to play, & I always love fielding my hoards of Bloodletters, Juggernauts, & Fleshhounds. And then GW went & made me some awesome new mortal models & the Khorne endless spells. I really like the various cults from Slaves.

*Cities of Sigmar
I like this faction for its sheer flexibility. It also allows me to field my classic Dark Elf army, most of my Dwarves, & my ages old Dogs of War army. And I can, to a degree, field my Wood Elves.

*Beasts of Chaos
This is the force I've been playing most recently. 1) I really like their summoning mechanic. 2) Every single model/unit in my ages old Beastmen army is present & playable in the current tome (unlike my DE who lost their bolt throwers, my WE who lost their basic archers & Orion, my Dwarves who lost their arty!, or my Empire/DoW who for "reasons" lost their horse mounted general)
All I had to do was add a Herdstone & a box of endless spells.

*Gloomspite Gitz
I love what Gw did with this faction. Fantastic models. Fun rules. Zarbag & Gits, the Goblinpalooza, the Squigs/squig riders, Mangler Squigs, the endless spells. The FW Squigs. The terrain piece.
And the spider riders & trogs aren't bad either.

*Fyreslayers & the Kharodon Overlords
I've loved dwarf armies ever since I began playing way back in 3rd ed. Admittedly my preference is ranks of weapon & shield backed up by cannon and catapult..... But small detachments of barely clothed slayers & dwarves flying about in steampunk-esque sky ships aren't unwelcome. I particularly like the background & lore of the Overlords. The Slayers? I find them a bit limited, but I love the models.

*I've also got a Skaven army from many editions ago that I've yet to pull out of storage.

My favorite of these? The Gloomspite Gitz.

Kharadrons and Idoneth for me. They're the only faction that doesn't have a 'but' for me out of the new ones with their fluff and they look good bar some characters.

Nighthaunt.

Best new army by a long shot for me... Dynamic, but still elegant and simple models.

They have been given weak rules though... but at least they are still fun to play against as well.

Fish people. Just wished they had focused soly on the namarti reavers style.

I'm a chaos player. Have always been a chaos player. Particularly warriors of chaos.

I'm a Beastmen player, so i'm always going to say them, yes i have other armies (like IDK, CoS, Goblins) but i don't love them, IDK was b.c i wanted a new shiny army, bad idea, Goblins b.c i had them as a 2nd army from back in the day, and CoS just for trying to get 1st at events. But my 1 and true love is Beastmen, i love the looks, the play style, and the fluff. So for me Beastmen is a win, win ,win.

Luckily for me, beastmen also had new sculpts not to long ago, along with Underworlds, and are a popular army, so i think they will stay forever.

 auticus wrote:
I'm a chaos player. Have always been a chaos player. Particularly warriors of chaos.

Same. I started WHFB as an Empire player, but I quickly went chaos and never looked back. Slaanesh has always been my personal favorite though (due to the bovine KoS recently retired), then Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle (In that order). Archaon is easily my favorite character and I have each of his renditions worked into my StD army.

Soulblight for me, a relic from first edition AoS that makes blood knights into battleline troops. I've always been a vampire counts player but this faction distilled the army into only my favourite bits, vampire knights without all the required chaff. It has inspired me to build a counts-as-chaos-warriors vampire army in fantasy which I might bring over as slaves to darkness in AoS myself if GW doesn't do anything cool with soulblight.

Skaven, because at my heart I know I'm a 40k player. And Skaven is the army where I can still pretend I'm in space, gunning down aliens with a wall of guns. Also I feel they're one of GW's most unique factions, back before IDK and Lumineth were really a thing. All their failings and quirks appeal to me from an aesthetic stand-point. "What if we had rampant technological progress, without OSHA?"

Seraphon are space aliens using old Necron technology, you could play them hahahaha.

PS, Skavin using nids rules works out really well, so does seraphon if you are in an area that allows proxy armies.

 Thadin wrote:
Skaven, because at my heart I know I'm a 40k player. And Skaven is the army where I can still pretend I'm in space, gunning down aliens with a wall of guns. Also I feel they're one of GW's most unique factions, back before IDK and Lumineth were really a thing. All their failings and quirks appeal to me from an aesthetic stand-point. "What if we had rampant technological progress, without OSHA?"

You could also try Karadron Overlord. All their units have range weapon and their "monsters" are flyin ships arrmed with cannons.

The design of KO do not interest me one bit. And, with currently three AoS armies and a fourth on the way whenever Lumineth come out, I'm pretty fine with the number of armies I've got.

Sylvaneth and the Wood Elves/Wanderers.
Big trees with big swords are extremely awesome.
Riding stags is super cool. So are Sisters of the Watch with their magic bows and arrows.

Really hope that both factions get some love.

So Cities, particularly Living City, is what I play.
That's mostly based on aesthetics, but I like the ambush/movement stuff. I wish some of the rules worked out a bit better (Like Sisters of the Thorn can't cast their unique spell on Sylvaneth units), and the command abilities/auras were a bit less restrictive.

Seraphon is also a contender. They are cool and fun. I liked the idea that the were kind of Order Daemons, beaming down from space to wreck some chaos day. The new lore is pretty good too. Wish there was an City option that could bring them in.

I cannot and will not say anything nice about Wanderers in Age of Sigmar. The army was gutted twice.

First when AoS initially dropped(and no, that's not actually referring to the loss of the Tree Spirits. This is strictly speaking about models. We lost anything in resin or metal that wasn't currently in stock at their warehouses and the Glade Riders) and then again when Cities of Sigmar performed the coup de grace(removing all the heroes except for the Nomad Prince and the Glade Guard) on what was the theme and flavor for the army.



With that out of the way, Idoneth and Bonereapers have both been interesting new additions to the lore.

Daughters. They're the dark elves actually given something other than a 2d lol look how edgy and evil we are personalities.

I actually liked them more as Dark Elves. Maybe that's just because I liked Hellebron more than Morathi.

Alot of them are really interesting - especially when you get a more in depth look at the lore through the nobels etc.

The K Overlords are a good new evolution of the Dwarfs
The Daughters of Khaine have some great lore and model elements - really enjoy the Scourge in fiction.
Emjoy the Sylvaneth and the deepkin

but I still remain a Vampire lover at heart so Soulblight/Legion of Blood under Neferata.

 Mr Morden wrote:
but I still remain a Vampire lover at heart so Soulblight/Legion of Blood under Neferata.

I do intend to pivot my Bretonnians there. I was starting an army of them right before they got the axe (I made the mistake of getting into fantasy two months before End Times). I don't see a lot of fan of Mannfred's legion (or Mannfred himself) though... poor dude.

You could actually do a pretty good Bretonnian army using Ossiarch Bonereapers, if you're wanting to play "counts as".

Lore wise I love FEC.
Just the way it’s been done is perfect.

Hands down favourite and always will be is clan moulder.
Always loved skaven and moulder especially.
Just a shame they are terrible on the table :/

 Kanluwen wrote:
You could actually do a pretty good Bretonnian army using Ossiarch Bonereapers, if you're wanting to play "counts as".

I think Bretonnian knights (with some replacement shields and banner) fit much better the aesthetic of Blood Knights than those of the Kavalos Death Riders.

Overall Cities of Sigmar, because thematically and model wise it's the last bastions of the old Humans/Dwarfs/Elves holding the line and/or trying to carve out a slice of the Mortal Realms for themselves. When I collected WHFB my only true army were Dwarfs, but I had lots of Empire/Helves/Welves/Delves/Bretonnians from half-started projects, so being able to slap them together into one functional and fluffy army without having to spend anymore money on AoS than the rulebooks is great.

I do actually like the Flesh-Eater Courts lore a lot and, like so many others, it's probably my favourite of AoS'.

Kharadrons look fantastic.

Jackal90 wrote:
Hands down favourite and always will be is clan moulder.
Always loved skaven and moulder especially.
Just a shame they are terrible on the table :/

My main problem with Skaven (and one of the reason why I prefer the Beast of Chaos to them) is the fact that many of their models are aged and don't look good anymore. There is a lot of work to do in there to refresh they battleline and optional units. The heroes are fairly good and the monsters and war machines are still looking good. Moulders certainly deserve refreshed Rat-Ogres and giant rats :p.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Arbitrator wrote:
Overall Cities of Sigmar, because thematically and model wise it's the last bastions of the old Humans/Dwarfs/Elves holding the line and/or trying to carve out a slice of the Mortal Realms for themselves. When I collected WHFB my only true army were Dwarfs, but I had lots of Empire/Helves/Welves/Delves/Bretonnians from half-started projects, so being able to slap them together into one functional and fluffy army without having to spend anymore money on AoS than the rulebooks is great.

I wonder what is going to happen to the old High Elves models still used by the City of Sigmar with the comming of the Lumineth. I suppose they will slowly lose shed models until they are left with a smaller, but tighter core of elf, humans and dwarves mixed together.

I am feeling exited for these sons of behemot giant faction being teased.