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A few gaming friends and I were planning to start playing the new whfb. Unfortunately after we picked our armies, OaG,Daemons, Vampires, we discovered that it doesn't use points. Now before we buy/trade for our stuff:

Do we HAVE to follow the army lists in the warscroll pdf?

Are the lists provided balanced?

Does this mean we don't get to pick and choose what units we wanted to play with?

The only problem we have is that we don't know what to do, we didn't want to buy only specific models to play this game but if that's how we need to play then we might reconsider.

Thanks for any help with this

 Dylanj94 wrote:
A few gaming friends and I were planning to start playing the new whfb. Unfortunately after we picked our armies, OaG,Daemons, Vampires, we discovered that it doesn't use points. Now before we buy/trade for our stuff:

Did you buy all this for 8th edition or AoS?

 Dylanj94 wrote:
Do we HAVE to follow the army lists in the warscroll pdf?

Do you mean the stats of each unit? For AoS, yes. Unless you want to homebrew between yourselves.

 Dylanj94 wrote:
Are the lists provided balanced?

From what I've seen and played, they're balanced enough. Each has formations too that you could use as a guide.

 Dylanj94 wrote:
Does this mean we don't get to pick and choose what units we wanted to play with?

What's your understanding? AoS lets you play any of the Warhammer models you own.

 Dylanj94 wrote:
The only problem we have is that we don't know what to do, we didn't want to buy only specific models to play this game but if that's how we need to play then we might reconsider.

Ah, do you mean the new starter set and two new factions? You can use them or any of the older models. All the races have free warscrolls on the Games Workshop website (so AoS rules for Vampires, Daemons etc).

Do we HAVE to follow the army lists in the warscroll pdf?

no, you can mix and match any warscroll... heck you can trade with your friends... make a dogs of war list with your fav warscrolls from ANY ARMY... so but the models you like, wait for the new armies to come out and the build on those...

Are the lists provided balanced?

no such thing as lists anymore, like stated before you can mix and match any warscroll from any army/faction... I suggest you buy your fav "units"(warscrolls) and when newer armies are released focus on them.. everything will be phased out.

Does this mean we don't get to pick and choose what units we wanted to play with?

nope, pick and choose anything you want.. you can have an army of 5 giants led by as squad of eshin skaven with a orc leading them.... you have MORE choice now.

The only problem we have is that we don't know what to do, we didn't want to buy only specific models to play this game but if that's how we need to play then we might reconsider.

buy the models you like and use them in whatever army theme you want, play with scenarios, make your own scenarios, if you ever played D&D its a bit like that, make your own fun games, set goals... literally army lists do not matter, the old armies are all going to be phased out and newer models and warscrolls released so I suggest you just buy what you like and what you would enjoy painting and playing with and wait for newer stuff to pop out... I got myself a hellpit abomination and river trolls and will be getting tomb scorpion... they will all be used in one army

Thanks for any help with this

praise Jesus

No, you don't HAVE to use the formations listed at the end of each compendium. It's just that if you do, you get the associated bonuses.

To be honest, it's going to be hard to get into AoS without having played WHFB previously, as you're not going to have any idea of the relative power of units... I would honestly recommend waiting until the whole "intro campaign" deal is over when they've introduced the system/setting/factions and see if they do something to make it easier (make it more obvious which units are elite or not)

As an example (not that it applies to any of your armies), if I brought 10 Dwarf Warriors, a Runelord, and a cannon and my opponent brought 10 High Elf Phoenix Guard, 5 Ellyrian Reavers, and an Archmage... I'd lose despite the seemingly similar forces. A fairer bet would be 20 Dwarf Warriors, a cannon, an organ gun, and a Runelord for the Dwarf side, but in order to eyeball that you'd need to be familiar with the 8th edition WHFB of the units (or pick up on the AoS rules quickly, which is entirely possible)

No, you don't have to use the formations (but can do, if you wish) but obviously each unit has to come from a warscroll somewhere.

No, there aren't any points values and so there's really no way of knowing whether anything is truly balanced. I'd recommend either using formations with minimum unit sizes and/or wound count to balance your games, if you wish to do so. Alternatively, give one of the points formulas in the proposed rules section a whirl.

Ok thanks everyone for the help clarifying....

I was honestly worried when I couldn't find point costs in the warscroll things. We will probably spend a week or two looking into our armies before picking what we buy. But what I learned here will probably decide whether we play age of Sigmar or not.

Try to make armies using this document and see if it works as a balancing system for you!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3iUmocmCYCUWFRzcWdQTGcxS0U/view