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So, I've been out of wargaming for a while, and I'm looking into Age of Sigmar.
I prefer to 'play it painted', and had just finished up my Tomb Kings army when the End Times bomb dropped.
Fast forward a few years, and I've discovered that, for all intents and purposes, TKs are dead as a faction.
So, as far as the undead are concerned, I've always preferred skeletons and ghosts over the gribblier types which led me to download the Legions of Nagash Battletome.
My question is, where do I start? I'm aware of the start collecting boxes, and plan to pick up one of the two included under Nagash's banner, but I'm not really sure where to go from there.
A couple of points- I am by no means a power gamer, and dont really plan to ever play in tournaments. Having said that, I do want to be able to give a good accounting of myself.

Given that they're still undead and skeletal for the most part, I could see one of your options being the use of proxy or count-as.

Count-as your Tomb Kings army in to their closest possible Legions of Nagash analogue. For casual games, something like that should be no issue, tournaments may be iffy in case you have any desire in playing Tomb Kings as Legions of Nagash... There also may be a lore reason that counting Tomb Kings as LoN would be considered heresy...

However, if you're up for rebasing the army you've already built and painted, and putting in some research to properly Count-As your force, I could certainly see it working. Ask around your local gaming community, if people would be A-Okay with playing vs Tomb Kings played as Legions of Nagash.

Hell, even some of the new models have a Tomb Kings like vibe going on such as Arkhan the Black, Neferata and the Morghasts so those new additions could fit right in.

I know it's not exactly what you were looking for in terms of advice, I just thought it would be an idea that may work for you.

As for starting fresh, yeah. Start collecting Boxes are fantastic. Legions of Nagash are one of the best armies right now, but there's certainly builds you can do that don't power game, by taking less optimal units in the army. The big daddy himself Nagash is cool as heck, but not suitable at all for reasonable low point games, which may be a concern if you planned to start with him.

The "Skeleton Horde" start collecting set is great, Arkhan is cool, and 10 skeletons help you build towards the unstoppable bricks of skeletons the army is known for.

Thank you. I did, however, forget to mention that I no longer have my Tomb Kings , so I would be starting fresh. I am looking at Arkhan, though. (And big N, of course, but not quite yet, for the reasons you said, as well as wanting to get my painting scheme locked down before putting color on a $100 model.)

I mean with access to Flesh-Eater Courts, Legions of Nagash, and Night Haunt, you have a LOT of options.

How competitive do you want to be? What kind of units do you want to take, and how do you see your playstyle on the battlefield? What units do you want to field?

I'd like to stay away from vamps, ghouls, and zombies. Basically, I'd want to theme it under Arkhan (and Nagash, of course), but subordinate to them would be Wight kings and Necromancers. Skeleton and malignant type units would form the bulk of the force. I would also not be averse to some Night haunt units, as well.
I took the plunge on the Skeleton Start Collecting box. I wanted to get it in before the prices go up in February.
So, with that as a baseline, where would I go from there?

 CATACLYSMUS wrote:
I'd like to stay away from vamps, ghouls, and zombies. Basically, I'd want to theme it under Arkhan (and Nagash, of course), but subordinate to them would be Wight kings and Necromancers. Skeleton and malignant type units would form the bulk of the force. I would also not be averse to some Night haunt units, as well.
I took the plunge on the Skeleton Start Collecting box. I wanted to get it in before the prices go up in February.
So, with that as a baseline, where would I go from there?

Well, Undead of all varieties rely a lot on their characters for buffs, and unfortunately, if you're avoiding Vampires, you're removing some really good supporting pieces. That said, Arkhan and Nagash are incredibly powerful (Nagash is arguably one of the top lists in AoS right now), so not necessarily the end of the world for not including Vampires.

My first recommendation would be to start playing games. 500 to 1000 points, to slowly build up your collection. There's a myriad of ways to collect and play Undead, and the style you might want to play will dictate what you take (and vice versa).

Skeletons (Ancient Spears and Shields, please) are a very solid core, with the potential for high damage output (especially once you start stacking buffs, like Vanhel's from a Necromancer). You're probably going to eventually want 40 of these.

If you're open to Nighthaunt as well, 30 Grimghast Reapers. One of the best Battleline units Undead have access to, and with Legions of Nagash, you can spend a measily Command Point to bring back the entire unit once they're destroyed. It's slowed and amazing and I love it.

You'll probably also want some quick units for objectives, so Black Knights/Hexwraiths are solid.

Otherwise, write a list (500, 1000, even 2000) of what you'd LIKE to build/collect, and we can go from there? AoS list building is as much down to personal preference and style as anything else, so it's easier if you set the starting point that we can then work off of, rather than us dictate to you how you should play the army.

Ok, sounds reasonable. Well, my start is from the box: Arkhan, 10 skellies, 5 black knights. (Great deal, I must say. Arkhan himself is around $80, IIRC.)
Now, I've zero experience with AoS, but quite a lot with 40k. Wisdom there has always dictated that you start by beefing out your troops before adding any more biggies. I figured that since I am starting with the 2nd biggest biggie in faction, I might want to add some more skellies?
I really am a fluffy player, so I would make thematic choices over 'cranked up to 11' most of the time.
2nd to that would be to emphasize the strengths inherent in the character. As in, if I were Arkhan, and I were basing my strategy off of my millenia in Khemri, what would I most likely be drawn to use?


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I have a rule question, as well. I dont have the full core rulebook, so one thing confuses me: On the table in the back of the battletome that contains points values, the entry for skeletons says (10-40), and then for points, it says 80/280. Is that a min/max, with each skeleton costing a fixed point value that is implied in the totals? I'm not so sure, because the math simply doesn't make sense.


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And yes. Spears and shields. Is there really any other option?


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Excepting archers... which no longer exist... F ing End Times...

 CATACLYSMUS wrote:
I have a rule question, as well. I dont have the full core rulebook, so one thing confuses me: On the table in the back of the battletome that contains points values, the entry for skeletons says (10-40), and then for points, it says 80/280. Is that a min/max, with each skeleton costing a fixed point value that is implied in the totals? I'm not so sure, because the math simply doesn't make sense.

So when it says 10-40, your minimum size unit is 10 models, maximum is 40. The unit minimum also dictates the increments you expand the unit in and pay points for. You do not have to take the full 10 incremental models, but you still have to pay the points for it. Where it says 80/280 points (or whatever the actual value is), the first is for the incremental units. So every 10 skeletons (or up to) costs 80 points. The second value is the points cost for a maximum sized unit. Some units do get a discount for being taken at max size. In this case, 40 skeletons costs 280 points, which makes the points-per-model cost 7 points, not 8.

Note that you cannot buy individual models, only increments. If you take a unit of 11 Skeletons, you pay 160 points. If you take 39 skeletons, you pay 320 points.

Ok, sounds reasonable. Well, my start is from the box: Arkhan, 10 skellies, 5 black knights. (Great deal, I must say. Arkhan himself is around $80, IIRC.)
Now, I've zero experience with AoS, but quite a lot with 40k. Wisdom there has always dictated that you start by beefing out your troops before adding any more biggies. I figured that since I am starting with the 2nd biggest biggie in faction, I might want to add some more skellies?
I really am a fluffy player, so I would make thematic choices over 'cranked up to 11' most of the time.
2nd to that would be to emphasize the strengths inherent in the character. As in, if I were Arkhan, and I were basing my strategy off of my millenia in Khemri, what would I most likely be drawn to use?

If you're taking Arkhan, you'll probably want to run the army as the Legion of Sacrament, to take advantage of it's Allegiance Abilities. Arkhan will be your general, so you don't have to worry about which Command Trait to pick.

You'll probably want to take a Necromancer as well. The Vanhel's Danse spell (allows a unit to pile in and attack twice) will be pretty clutch on your block of 40 Skeletons. Could probably count as a Tomb Priest.

And a Wight King will work in place of a Vampire Lord, as they have the Lord of Bones command ability to boost a unit's attacks by +1 (it does only work on Deathrattle units, but thankfully that's Skeletons, Grave Guard, and Black Knights!). Could probably count as a Tomb Prince?

A unit of Grave Guard could be good as a thematic substitute for Tomb Guard, and Morghast could make good Ushabti substitutes.

I would probably also take the Deathmarch Battalion to reduce your drops, and nab you an extra Artefact and CP to start. Plus the Battalion gives you an extra movement boost to the bulk of your army when they're near your Wight King, which will be great for getting onto objectives.

A decent starting list might look something like this:

Legion of Sacrament
- Mortal Realm (Ulgu)

Arkhan the Black
- General
- Lore of the Dead (Fading Vigour)

Wight King with Black Axe
- Artefact (Azyrbane Standard)

Necromancer
- Lore of the Dead (Overwhelming Dread)
- Artefact (Talisman of the Watcher)

40 Skeleton Warriors
- Spears and Shields

10 Skeleton Warriors
- Spears and Shields

10 Skeleton Warriors
- Spears and Shields

30 Grave Guard
- Great Wight Blades

2 Morghast Harbingers
- Spirit Halberds

5 Black Knights

Deathmarch Battalion

Total: 1910/2000 pts
Command Points: 2

Being under 2000 points isn't a bad thing, because ever 50 points you're under nets you an extra Command Point. Also, if you're army is less points (even by 1) than your opponent, you can pick a Triumph, which is like a once-per-battle buff to a unit, which is pretty neat. But there's room for you to play around with if you want to add an Endless Spell or something.

The above is a pretty balanced army (I think), although as you play games, you might want to tweak what you bring to suit your style.

Ok, that sounds like a decent goal to reach for. A couple of questions:
1. After looking at the tome, it seems that the Wight king can either have the sword and mount, OR the axe and armor. Is that correct?
2. I noticed in your list that you have 1 unit of 40 skeletons, and 2 of 10. Is the idea to A. Satisfy the Batallion requirements while B. Having a decent sized horde to do work as well as C. Save points for fancier stuff?


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Also (NOOB ALERT!) What does Mortal Realm-Ulgu mean?

 CATACLYSMUS wrote:
Ok, that sounds like a decent goal to reach for. A couple of questions:
1. After looking at the tome, it seems that the Wight king can either have the sword and mount, OR the axe and armor. Is that correct?

That's correct. The reason I chose the Black Axe version is because his Barrow Armour makes him moderately more durable, and his Black Axe has the potential to just auto-slay a model. The odds are low, especially with only rend -1, but just the potential tickles me, and I love it.

2. I noticed in your list that you have 1 unit of 40 skeletons, and 2 of 10. Is the idea to A. Satisfy the Batallion requirements while B. Having a decent sized horde to do work as well as C. Save points for fancier stuff?

Essentially. With units like this, you're usually either going to take the minimum, or the maximum. And particularly in AoS, you'd rather have one big horde to throw all your buffs on, than to try and split it protecting two units. This way you satisfy the Battalion requirements, you satisfy the number of Battleline units you need (minimum 3 at 2000 pts), and you save points for the rest of the army.

Also (NOOB ALERT!) What does Mortal Realm-Ulgu mean?

When building your list, you have the option to pick one of the (I think it's 7 or 8?) mortal realms. When you do so, you can pick artefacts from your Battletome, as well as from that particular mortal realm (but you can't mix and match)

Ok, cool. I suppose I'd need the main book to take advantage of that?

I believe you need the Malign Sorcery book.