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Let me be honest, I have zero knowledge of Age of Sigmar....

but, you guys talk like its a lot if fun.

BorderCountess mentioned something called Spearheads in another thread, and compared it to a better system than 40k's Combat Patrol.

So, I thought I would go online and look around.... and get more confused than ever.

So. What do I need to start, and what do you recommend I look at army wise?

My play style for 40k has been a history of a small number of slow moving, hard to kill, bricks that are pushed in the general direction of the enemy.

(Tanks, Wraithguard, Knights, eventually Custodes)

So, what do you say?

Small numbers of unstoppable models sounds like Ossiarchs!

https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/AoS-Death-OssiarchBonereapers-FP

Their whole thing is being basically an unstoppable army of death. Nagash's personal army and faction he created from the ground up. They are formed of the souls and bones of the dead reconstructed into perfect life forms. So any one might be the combination of many different once living creatures bones and multiple souls. An expect swordsman in life would be taken; their skills extracted from their soul and their essence woven into a new living undead creature. A few even have multiple warring souls that they can switch between - their 4 headed swords units.

This is basically Nagash's take on how to do Stormcast for an eternal army.





The other option for steady and tanky is Nurgle
https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/AoS-Chaos-MaggotkinofNurgle-FP

And if you're familiar with 40K you'll be familiar with Grandfather Nurgle and their whole rotting deal in life.




As for spearhead I've not played it, but its generally like Killteam in that its GW's introductory game format designed to be a "one and done box and play". II've no idea how well they are balanced against each other; but in general its designed to get you gaming fast and then from there grow into full AoS armies.
There's also Warcry which is smaller skirmish bands with their own unique model sets

All you need to start is the book and cards which you can find on ebay for cheap.

In terms of your army description, sons of behemat (giants) could be your choice.

For a GW game, it's widely considered to have great balance, with most games usually being decided by just a few points between the sides.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
All you need to start is the book and cards which you can find on ebay for cheap.

In terms of your army description, sons of behemat (giants) could be your choice.

For a GW game, it's widely considered to have great balance, with most games usually being decided by just a few points between the sides.

Are the AoS army cards different for Spearhead, like Combat Patrol is different than 40k?

Yeah, they're their own set of cards. It's a different game from the core game. It just uses some of the base elements of core AoS.

The usual place:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/warhammer-age-of-sigmar/
The Spearhead section is at the bottom. New army entries are there. All other armiys' Spearhead cards are after the main cards in the Faction Packs for those armies.
Spearhead Reference is in the Core Rules section.

I don't have the main AoS rulebook for this version, just the "General's Handbook 2024-25". It does not appear to have Spearhead rules in it, but the Core Rulebook does. Can anyone confirm this?

There's a set called "fire and jade", grab the rulebook, missions cards, game mat and terrain pieces from that set, which I think you can still get as a bundle, and you're all set (apart from your actual spearhead, obvs ? )

The terrain pieces are an easy project to just cobble your own, they aren't large by any means and can then match your chosen force... but if you're just diving in might be best to not go crazy, that's up to you ?

For a smaller, elite force I'd immediately think of:

Seraphon: giant dinosaur monster and some elite troops

Gargants: 3 mancrusher gargants

Slaves to darkness: might be a lot more models that he above ones, but is a tanky set


Edit: just looked, from the UK site, but the rules/cards/essentials are still a bundle you can get: https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/age-of-sigmar-fire-and-jade-gaming-pack-2024-eng?queryID=0bf0c724fbf643175ead4da0ab31b4ab

Spearhead rules are in the Core Rules download from the Warcom AoS Downloads section.

So just the starter box and the spearhead and I'm good to go?

Don't want to fall into the trap of... "oh you need one more thing."

No that's all you need. As said above, the rules you can download. You'll just need to cobble together some scenery.

Cool. Are they all pretty fun to play with?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Cool. Are they all pretty fun to play with?

The Fire and Jade box gives you the board, terrain and cards. The can download the rules for free.

I have enjoyed Spearhead, although most of my AoS is 2K Generals Handbook games. The cards for Spearhead are fun and help keep the games fresh. They seem to have put a lot of work into balancing the various Spearheads, perhaps more than the main game at launch!

There are various considerations into deciding which Spearhead forces are the best to start with. I think that the Seraphon one is quite good. I don’t play them, but the units are strait-forward and can be a good base for a Matched Play army later on.

Do you have a local AoS Spearhead scene?

Unknown, I'm moving to a new area in March... most of the places I've found talk about AoS or 40k, but seem to mainly (according to their posted schedules) appear to be ccg spots.

There is a Warhammer store within spitting distance... but from the photos I've seen, it looks pretty tiny.

PS that's why I'm trying to learn about the different systems, I'll play what's available.

At the risk of sounding like a GW rep, an option is the Ultimate Starter Edition. For 260 CAD you get the Spearhead board, cards and terrain plus two Spearheads: Stormcast and Skaven. These are all new sculpts.

Downside would be if you had no interest in either armies, but on the other hand you have a complete package and could let another new player use half for learning games.

TangoTwoBravo wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a GW rep, an option is the Ultimate Starter Edition. For 260 CAD you get the Spearhead board, cards and terrain plus two Spearheads: Stormcast and Skaven. These are all new sculpts.

Downside would be if you had no interest in either armies, but on the other hand you have a complete package and could let another new player use half for learning games.

Stormcast are the guys who look like Custodes? If so, worse comes to worse they could be Bits for my 40k force.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

TangoTwoBravo wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a GW rep, an option is the Ultimate Starter Edition. For 260 CAD you get the Spearhead board, cards and terrain plus two Spearheads: Stormcast and Skaven. These are all new sculpts.

Downside would be if you had no interest in either armies, but on the other hand you have a complete package and could let another new player use half for learning games.

Stormcast are the guys who look like Custodes? If so, worse comes to worse they could be Bits for my 40k force.

A couple members from my gaming group have indeed used converted Stormcast models for Custodes.

The new Stormcast and Skaven models are good sculpts (in my opinion).

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

TangoTwoBravo wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a GW rep, an option is the Ultimate Starter Edition. For 260 CAD you get the Spearhead board, cards and terrain plus two Spearheads: Stormcast and Skaven. These are all new sculpts.

Downside would be if you had no interest in either armies, but on the other hand you have a complete package and could let another new player use half for learning games.

Stormcast are the guys who look like Custodes? If so, worse comes to worse they could be Bits for my 40k force.

I find that Stormcast play more similarly to 40K Grey Knights with their teleportation shenanigans. They're pretty cool in Spearhead if you use the Skaventide one.

I do have almost 5K points of Stormcast so I may be a bit biased

If you are looking for slow and steady, but with the ability to absolutely crump the enemy when you get there while shrugging off incoming fire, the new Ironjawz Spearhead just dropped (https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/sneak-peek-ironjawz-bigmob-spearhead/).

Might become my new favourite Spearhead (at least for now) and for someone just starting, there is not a huge amount of rules you need to keep in your head while you play - but just enough to keep your opponent off-balance.

Also, not that many models to paint

MongooseMatt wrote:
If you are looking for slow and steady, but with the ability to absolutely crump the enemy when you get there while shrugging off incoming fire, the new Ironjawz Spearhead just dropped (https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/sneak-peek-ironjawz-bigmob-spearhead/).

Might become my new favourite Spearhead (at least for now) and for someone just starting, there is not a huge amount of rules you need to keep in your head while you play - but just enough to keep your opponent off-balance.

Also, not that many models to paint

Small model counts are quite the enticement.

The same goes for ease of rules.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:


Small model counts are quite the enticement.

The same goes for ease of rules.

Then I think I would say either the Ironjawz, Sons of Behemat, or possibly the Seraphon or Ogor Mawtribes