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Hey everyone, hope you guys can point me in the right direction.

Recently I opened a new store and while I've always been into Warhammer 40K, I've had some desire to get into AoS and grow a community for it as well as 40K as it isn't exactly a large community where I'm at from what I've seen in Massachusetts. I haven't posted in the local gaming section yet as I'm waiting for things to come in so we have mats and terrain for people to play on before we announce it there, but I figured I could ask here to get started.

What I'd like to do is start up a league for the store, but I'm not too familiar with AoS, so I'd need to learn the systems, but more importantly I was wondering if the Vanguard boxes are similar enough to the Combat Patrol boxes where players can run them against each other and have reasonably enjoyable games. I was hoping to start the league with each player getting one of those, or bringing the units for one of those if they already have them, and then growing their collection over time with prize support to help players grow out their army at various intervals as the league continues.

Would this be a good idea, or should I choose a different option for players starting out?

There is no specific game mode for Vanguard boxes like Combat Patrol has in the latest edition of 40k, and the points costs can vary quite a bit between boxes.

There's no real easy way to get a true "one box solution" for starting people small with AoS, which is a pretty big weakness.

Luckily the points and army builder are all free on the Warhammer Community site so it's pretty easy to make a 500 point list or whatever and figure out what 3-6 boxes you need to start an army for a grow league. A little more daunting than buying a single discount box, of course.

Good to know.

Is there anything out there that quickly lays out a comparison of point discrepancies between Vanguard boxes or would I have to figure that out on my end using an army builder?

I'm really trying to make this as frictionless as possible as I want to attract people who have never played or collected miniatures before but might be interested. I figure using the Vanguard boxes and then offering people the option to include an extra pre-selected kit for some of the weaker boxes to bring them into line with the stronger ones would be a more digestible solution than asking them to build a list from scratch or giving them a handful of boxes to pick up. Ideally the sale would be a Vanguard box and an intro hobby kit (paints, brushes, tools bundled) and that's it to start off with a price point of under two hundred USD.

I'm also planning to make the league free but still offer prize support as part of the effort to draw in new players. It hasn't been finalized but I'd probably have some kind of prize for the top player (if I play in it, it would exclude me, such that if I'm the top player it goes to the next person down) and then potentially a smaller prize for that's more subjective to help boost a player a little if they started with a weaker army and are falling behind but still displaying great sportsmanship and the like.

This page has a nice table with the costs, savings, # of units, # of models, and points that can be built from a box.

https://ageofminiatures.com/age-of-sigmar-start-collecting-boxes/

Awesome, that's very helpful and looks like the range in points is roughly 500-800 so it should be possible to bring them in line without too much difficulty.

You mentioned the points are free on the community site, I'm assuming it's similar to 40K in that you get the points and general rules free, but you need the battle tomes for all of the stratagems and sub factions, right? If so, is that recommended for a new player as the game doesn't function without that, or would it be best to play with the basic rules for the first couple of games using the free data? The Combat Patrols for 40K in the new edition have simplified rules for players for example.  

 Techpriest_ wrote:
Awesome, that's very helpful and looks like the range in points is roughly 500-800 so it should be possible to bring them in line without too much difficulty.

You mentioned the points are free on the community site, I'm assuming it's similar to 40K in that you get the points and general rules free, but you need the battle tomes for all of the stratagems and sub factions, right? If so, is that recommended for a new player as the game doesn't function without that, or would it be best to play with the basic rules for the first couple of games using the free data? The Combat Patrols for 40K in the new edition have simplified rules for players for example.  

You can build AoS army lists here for free: https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/

The rules are all in the AoS Smartphone app. The only things missing are faction specific special rules and such. I would discard them for beginners games anyway. The Warscrolls (meaning unit rules) are complicated enough.