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Hey guys !

So I am a pretty big 40k player turned painter ( though those dice forever call to me....) and was once a casual Fantasy player/ painter , however once AoS dropped I will admit I like a lot of people had a bad taste due to having WHFB dying off.

Whilst I realize you can easily just keep playing 8th at home, since 100% of my games were in store and a lot of the Fantasy players also bailed, it really did just kill it off for me ( Not to mention the state of imbalance the books were left in ) .

However, after watching a friendly tutorial game two mates of mine were having with their small forces I was tempted to give it a crack, and the idea of painting something non-power armour / 40k for a change is very agreeable

SO ! With this in mind, I was wondering what are your favourite / most compelling selling points for the armies listed above ? I ask this because I have narrowed it down to these choices ( I love the idea of running Mannfred on Nightmare thing, but am not a fan of most of the rest of the Vamp range such as Skeletons/gouls/etc) .

It is important to note I have browsed through some of the rules though the newer stuff isn't freely available and im yet to poke down to my local store to open a book on them , so im going on points other than In-Game-Play at the moment ( and since I'd paint more than play anyway, aesthetic seems more important ).

I know ultimately it's down to personal preference, but I am pretty much at a stand still tie between Stormcast and Sylvaneth forces, with Fyreslayers and Ironjawz running very closely behind, and thought I'd see what about these ranges tipped the balance for you

So far this is what I'm thinking:

Stormcast:
- Cheap to get started ( AoS Starter set and sell Khorne side to buy more Stormcast )
- Wide selection
- Stardrake models are amazing
- From what I've read of the back story, the concept is cool : Souls taken and forged into armour to fight for Sigmar
- Models are nothing amazing but are pretty cool looking

Ironjawz:
- Very characterful models
- Maw Crusher , whilst strange looking, would be cool to paint
- Gore Grunters are pretty solid models
- Lack of range is kinda disappointing me

Fyreslayers:
- Cool looking Magmadroth
- Had this cool idea of doing blue/green flames instead of red/orange/yellow which I don't like working with much
- Might be a cool change as I haven't seen anyone at my local store have anything to do with them
- Lack of range

Sylvaneth:
- Originally discounted due to lack of range, new models coming soon fix that right up
- Freaking unreal looking models coming out
- Amazing Bug queen model coming
- Never really tried painting wood creatures and truly dislike painting brown (so I'd go for a more white wood feel)
- Never tried painting anything that looks as 'magical' or 'mythical' as these so unsure how it would go

Those are just my current initial thoughts.

What do you guys think ? What was/is it about your choice that tipped the scales for you ?

Well of course I can only speak for myself but I left the country for Sweden right after AoS came out and after some test games, events I thought I'd see where the dust settled when I got back just a few weeks ago. My obscenely huge and complete dwarf and lizardmen armies could be rebased or used in KoW or this budding 9th Age thing at the time. Then, an amazing huge group in Sweden, and...Fyreslayers appeared. Well goddamn. Yeah, they were the weakest of the range and many Fantasy slayers were better but finally, an official slayer army instead of me running Ungrim & all slayers. Plus, this is a whole new world so Fantasy slayers matter not in any comparison.

So what sold me was the range, the heroes, the WOW-POW!! of the army, the fluff potential (not really too loyal to anyone). Your list is pretty spot-on, though the BL Fyreslayers book helped expand a lot. Then I started playing them, as no one I know of played them, especially not solo-Fyreslayers. In short: they're tons of fun. If you can borrow a friend's or proxy or maybe your GW store has some you can try in-store in a game?
I have been an avid dwarf collector/player for 22 years and this was an amazing no-brainer. True, alone they have 3 units, thrice as many characters an no magic, the tunneling option though is killer. To be competitive at the UK GT level they'd need to be in a GA with other factions. Even the bat reps I've seen online fail to capture the gravitas of the slayer army. It turns heads because it's so rare and people are happy and asking to play against them.

Let me know if you have questions but I vote for my slayers and wish you happy gaming in whatever you choose. Those new Sylvaneths...wow, might have to get some just to hobby.

Sylvaneth and because I already liked the dryads and treelord, just they get new stuff now as well.

As for painting they were a nice change as the first completely organic type of army I've painted, no worrying about mechanical parts or armour or weapons (sort of) and it was a nice change to figure out how to get a look I like for them as trees. In the end it ended up being rather quick to paint them that way as well which is a plus given how many I would likely get.

Mostly it was a process of elimination to get there, stormcast are kind of bulky and boring almost. Fyreslayers and Ironjawz are just unappealing to me.

Looking further into them now after a few games and I find the playstyle a little challenging, but thats something I like. They kind of rely on the terrain a little, though I'm learning to try to play without that crutch too just in case. Still should keep in mind the wyldwoods if you do choose them, would need at minimum 4 citadel woods if you want to use them. But, on the plus side you get to work with terrain a bit more than normal.

VeteranNoob wrote:

So what sold me was the range, the heroes, the WOW-POW!! of the army, the fluff potential (not really too loyal to anyone). Your list is pretty spot-on, though the BL Fyreslayers book helped expand a lot. Then I started playing them, as no one I know of played them, especially not solo-Fyreslayers. In short: they're tons of fun. If you can borrow a friend's or proxy or maybe your GW store has some you can try in-store in a game?
I have been an avid dwarf collector/player for 22 years and this was an amazing no-brainer. True, alone they have 3 units, thrice as many characters an no magic, the tunneling option though is killer. To be competitive at the UK GT level they'd need to be in a GA with other factions. Even the bat reps I've seen online fail to capture the gravitas of the slayer army. It turns heads because it's so rare and people are happy and asking to play against them.

Let me know if you have questions but I vote for my slayers and wish you happy gaming in whatever you choose. Those new Sylvaneths...wow, might have to get some just to hobby.

I will agree they do have a very striking appearance and very distinctive style That's really awesome that you were a Dwarf fan for many years , definitely would have been exciting seeing this awesome faction come to life ( particularly that you were gearing your army towards their flavor )

Unfortunately my local store has only the Starter set up for test games, so if it isn't stormcast or Khorne theres no chance. I am not familiar with who the players of AoS are at my store yet, but 2 are good friends/aquaintances of mine and so I have a two steady sources of game luckily. I have never seen a Fyreslayer army in my store at all whether rolling dice or on the painting table unfortunately :(

Thanks very much for your input and for the offer of advice. I think I am ok with what I know if them ( for the moment I should say ) but I will definitely keep that in mind
I will admit I am not a fan of painting the Orange/Yellow/Red fire at all, I for some reason have never taken to it. The main reason this did not deter me of course, is as someone with a vivid imagination, I know fire comes in all shades and colours I was thinking Green or even Blueish (Hades theme style) .

I know right ! Those models are so detailed :O

n0t_u wrote:

As for painting they were a nice change as the first completely organic type of army I've painted, no worrying about mechanical parts or armour or weapons (sort of) and it was a nice change to figure out how to get a look I like for them as trees. In the end it ended up being rather quick to paint them that way as well which is a plus given how many I would likely get.

Mostly it was a process of elimination to get there, stormcast are kind of bulky and boring almost. Fyreslayers and Ironjawz are just unappealing to me.

Looking further into them now after a few games and I find the playstyle a little challenging, but thats something I like. They kind of rely on the terrain a little, though I'm learning to try to play without that crutch too just in case. Still should keep in mind the wyldwoods if you do choose them, would need at minimum 4 citadel woods if you want to use them. But, on the plus side you get to work with terrain a bit more than normal.

I will admit I had that exact same thought about painting fully Organic, I haven't done this bar painting some 40k Tyranids and some Daemons but the new Sylvaneth ( even the older Treemen of the current range ) are extremely detailed and done up nicely really are striking.

That's awesome, did you use mostly washes ? Ive been hearing of someone here locally who is doing them up entirely using washes on a white spray which I'd love to see.

Yes definitely, I am currently eliminating myself and have come to these 4 options. You know you are really indecisive when you ask for balance tipping points on a subject that is meant to be entirely personal preference

Do you find them tricky to play with due to their myriad of special rules ? Or how tough/strong the units are ? I ask because when in 40k I know the stats of most armies and units ( Or if not for sure , educated guesses based on race ) but as far as Sigmar goes I will literally read one units stat line and go WOW THATS AMAZING ! Where as it may be for 40k or Fantasy standards but Sigmar is a whole new kettle of fish

Well after much research I've pretty much narrowed it down to Fyreslayers or Stormcast.

My reasons :

Stormcast:
- Cheap to get into ( Starter set keep half sell half )
- Decent looking models
- Huge range

Fyreslayers:
- I've made up my own custom scheme which I love and fixes my hate of painting lava colours ( going for alternative fire colours)
- Allows painting of flesh rather than just metal on metal
- Small range, however I'm sure it'll expand in the future
- Interesting rule set

At this stage im leaning slightly towards the Fyreslayers, but not 100% sold yet.

I'd side with Fyreslayers. Stormcast feel just like Space Marines in fantasy to me.

I went with rats and daemons, because I like swarming and wanted to play nurgle and slaanesh without the humany bits

I'd say Sylvaneth if only because they will have a battletome that's the primer for all future releases...

And by that I mean that it's the first battletome written with the general's handbook in mind. So it'll feel more like a "complete" army with it's own magic items and spells. I'm hoping they will upgrade the other armies with that as well, but I'm not betting any money on that.

No love for the Orruks? I too am contemplating getting into AoS after being a long time 40K player. I used to play Orks and had to sell the army many years ago. I've pined for the greenskins ever since but can't bring myself to rebuy 40K Orks (don't want to have to repaint so many of the same models AGAIN). At least with Orruks, they are a different look compared to their 40k bretheren, and dat Maw Crusher!!!!

Man, this is making me start to buckle on my Orruk and Sylvaneth WANT resolve

On the orruks, rumor is that the next AoS release is Bonesplittaz (based on some key differences in the GH from their current names/warscrolls.) So if you go Orruks, your options are probably about to expand

For me it's Sylvaneths. I do have a thing for elves, and woodland creatures, and I always loved the "new" dryads, since they came out back in late 6th edition.
The treeman/Durthu kit has been one of my favorite ones, and now that I can play it with even more tree-creatures, I'm more than happy. Plus, Alarielle and Drycha are awesome.

I have ironjawz. If you want a low Orc model count then they are your boys. Ran a 1k point game last weekend. 30 ardboyz 5 brutes the war chanter and a mega boss. Formation for 40 points is if you loose a ardboyz squad and your chanter is alive in hero phase you summon another 10man unit. Gives its nice unending hordes feel with elite models. They have great armor all at least 2 wounds and they punched in a khorne demon army's face. While o range options they are one of the best melee army's. And as a or player it's fun to finally have a low model count

Sylvaneth are the winners for me, and I'm starting an army of them this month.

But the Ironjawz almost did it and in the end what stopped me is the lack of variety in the units. If the release had been more fleshed out like the Sylvaneth, I might have went there instead.

wow, im surprised to see fyreslayers so low on the list.
they have some great models and some cool fluff.

I love stormcast but given your criteria I would have placed them last simply due to the resemblance to space marines.

orruks are great but I definitely agree on the weak showing for different models.

having said all of that, the syvaneth are definitely shaping up to be very cool.

I do think fyreslayers have lots of potential though and that's what I voted for.

str00dles1 wrote:
I have ironjawz. If you want a low Orc model count then they are your boys. Ran a 1k point game last weekend. 30 ardboyz 5 brutes the war chanter and a mega boss. Formation for 40 points is if you loose a ardboyz squad and your chanter is alive in hero phase you summon another 10man unit. Gives its nice unending hordes feel with elite models. They have great armor all at least 2 wounds and they punched in a khorne demon army's face. While o range options they are one of the best melee army's. And as a or player it's fun to finally have a low model count

A low-model count Orc army that is effective????? Oh man you just made it really hard to resist for me....

 ClassicCarraway wrote:

str00dles1 wrote:
I have ironjawz. If you want a low Orc model count then they are your boys. Ran a 1k point game last weekend. 30 ardboyz 5 brutes the war chanter and a mega boss. Formation for 40 points is if you loose a ardboyz squad and your chanter is alive in hero phase you summon another 10man unit. Gives its nice unending hordes feel with elite models. They have great armor all at least 2 wounds and they punched in a khorne demon army's face. While o range options they are one of the best melee army's. And as a or player it's fun to finally have a low model count

A low-model count Orc army that is effective????? Oh man you just made it really hard to resist for me....

They only melee but they melee very well.

In the game I mentioned above, I was against 50 blood letters 6 skull crushers and the herald on the chariot. I lost 1 brute and 4 ardboyz that game while nearly killing all of his army by turn 3

Waaagh forever

Must be hard going against a ranged army though. My main regret for the Ironjawz is how slow Brutes are.

Stormcast was number 1 for me, as soon as I saw the prosecutors I knew they were on to something special. I've always wanted to do a daemons of order army, and the stormcast look nearly spot on for what was described in the 40k fluff. Half avenging angel, half knight in shining armor, 100% up in chaos's grill. My one concern was that I didn't know if I'd like painting the gold armor, but with almost half of my army painted I'm kind of in love with it now. The GW paints and instructions make it very easy to get great results even at a middling level of skill like I have. The smooth mirror like finish of Auric Gold Armor and vibrant blue of the heraldry are really quite striking together.

 Haechi wrote:
Must be hard going against a ranged army though. My main regret for the Ironjawz is how slow Brutes are.

Have you seen the Rampaging Destroyers battle trait for armies with the 'Destruction' allegiance?

Uh, no more bonesplitterz please. Thats a slightly offensive bunch that should have been left with the brettonians qnd tomb kings imo

Treepeople because they get the newest dex all others will be based off of. They got range melee and amazing heroes, so are the best suited for the new rule book. Iron jawz have 4 units.... No range they are ment only to be in the big destro book only. So the only units being hit for two turns are gruntas maybe boss on drake.

As stated they get the extra d6 movement in hero phase so range armires are not a problem. Plus they all have multi wound, good armor (lots of range has crappy rending) and goregruntas are fast

str00dles1 wrote:
As stated they get the extra d6 movement in hero phase so range armires are not a problem. Plus they all have multi wound, good armor (lots of range has crappy rending) and goregruntas are fast

thats what I said running ironjawz is pointless you need to run a destro armys. Ironjawz as a stand alone are near worthless. Slow as hell no shooting.

Destro as a whole maybe better but he never said destro he said iron jawz.

OgreChubbs wrote:

str00dles1 wrote:
As stated they get the extra d6 movement in hero phase so range armires are not a problem. Plus they all have multi wound, good armor (lots of range has crappy rending) and goregruntas are fast

thats what I said running ironjawz is pointless you need to run a destro armys. Ironjawz as a stand alone are near worthless. Slow as hell no shooting.

Destro as a whole maybe better but he never said destro he said iron jawz.

Ironjawz are a Destruction army.

 Ghaz wrote:

OgreChubbs wrote:

str00dles1 wrote:
As stated they get the extra d6 movement in hero phase so range armires are not a problem. Plus they all have multi wound, good armor (lots of range has crappy rending) and goregruntas are fast

thats what I said running ironjawz is pointless you need to run a destro armys. Ironjawz as a stand alone are near worthless. Slow as hell no shooting.

Destro as a whole maybe better but he never said destro he said iron jawz.

Ironjawz are a Destruction army.

I think the difference here is with Alliegiences; if you want to have Brutes and Boarz as Battleline, then you can't take the destruction alliegence. You can just take a bunch of 'ard boyz though, so meh.

'Ard Boyz are only Battleline for the Ironjawz allegiance.

 Swampmist wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:

OgreChubbs wrote:

str00dles1 wrote:
As stated they get the extra d6 movement in hero phase so range armires are not a problem. Plus they all have multi wound, good armor (lots of range has crappy rending) and goregruntas are fast

thats what I said running ironjawz is pointless you need to run a destro armys. Ironjawz as a stand alone are near worthless. Slow as hell no shooting.

Destro as a whole maybe better but he never said destro he said iron jawz.

Ironjawz are a Destruction army.

I think the difference here is with Alliegiences; if you want to have Brutes and Boarz as Battleline, then you can't take the destruction alliegence. You can just take a bunch of 'ard boyz though, so meh.

Exactly I do not want no damn cross breeds, I want iron jawz the book I bought. I do not want to play 1 of 4 factions. Ogres with orcs...just ewww.

 Ghaz wrote:
'Ard Boyz are only Battleline for the Ironjawz allegiance.

...huh, must have missread that. Welp, then yeah you can't have the destruction bonus with an all Ironjawz army.

 Ghaz wrote:
'Ard Boyz are only Battleline for the Ironjawz allegiance.

ardboys gruntas and brutes are battleine with ironjaw alligance.