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Hi dakkanauts,

So I'm stuck in the house for the foreseeable with my kids (...yay) and we thought we'd try to figure out AoS. The kids have got the first few issues of Mortal Realms, and I play so have piles of daemons kicking about. Without wanting to sound ridiculous, where's a good place to start in terms of balanced forces against one another? Realistically it'll be mostly my eldest (with Nighthaunts) versus myself. He's picked up the Grimhaler for himself along with all the MR issues thus far. Thanks, oh mighty dakka, for your wisdom!
Papa bless,
Graven

Well the game has a core system to help try and make balanced forces. While it is far from perfect, that's probably where you should start: the points system! Two armies that add up to the same point value are theoretically balanced. Of course, there are loads of caveats to that - most obviously that the strength of an army is largely based on synergies, so whether you have units that synergise well will have a huge impact on army strength.

The game is typically played using 1000 to 2000 points, and starts to break down a bit the further you stray from that, above or below. There are also restrictions on numbers of certain unit types, and minimums of other unit types, that vary with points limit, which I can go into more about if you like.

Official sources for points are the army's respective Battletomes, updated yearly in the General's Handbook. Being the internet, there are of course other ways to find this information.

Thanks bud, that's super helpful for starters.
We have:
Nighthaunts
22 Chainrasps
8 banshees
4 glaivewraith stalkers
Briar Queen + thorns
Tomb Banshee
Reiknor the Grimhailer

Sigmarites
8 eternals
2 castigators
Zandria azure bolt

Nurgle
21 plaguebearers
6 Nurglings
Sloppity Bilepiper
Spoilpox Scrivener
Poxbringer
Greater Daemon of nurgle (oldhammer, because METAL \m/ )
Couple of plague fly things?! I dunno.

I can build nurgle stuff from.bits and GS, so assume that can be built to requirements

We had planned to go to GW on Monday, but clearly that's a no-go, hence the need for dakkabenkenobi...

And thanks!
Graven

Ok so the first thing that will be a bit frustrating for you here is that in Sigmar, points values are given for multiple of models in a unit, not individual models.

As an example, Stormcast Dequitors come in multiples of 5, and 5 costs 130pts. While you can of course simply calculate how much each model would be worth, strictly by the rules you cant take a number other than this multiple. Or rather, you have to pay the full points even if you have less models. So 5 Sequitors is 130, 10 is 260. If you only bring 8 you still have to pay 260.

Same deal with the Chainrasps. They are 80pts for 10. So 20 is 160pt, and if you want to bring your full 22 you have to pay 240pts because that is the next multiple.

Ok so 20 chainrasps, and for our purposes we count the castigators as eternals I guess?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Ok so 20 chainrasps, and for our purposes we count the castigators as eternals I guess?

Could do yeah, Castigators are minimum 3 anyway.

Eternals is the faction name, the ones you got from Mortal Realms will be Sequitors.

Okay. So 2x5 Sequitors with Xandria azurebolt. That's the wee fella sorted, tbh his attention span for the game beyond a skirmish will be limited anyway
2x10 chainrasps and ... A leader. I wonder whether it's converting a couple of chainrasps up into "boss" things. It's that or Kitbash another 8 lol.
And then there's ...

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Okay. So 2x5 Sequitors with Xandria azurebolt. That's the wee fella sorted, tbh his attention span for the game beyond a skirmish will be limited anyway
2x10 chainrasps and ... A leader. I wonder whether it's converting a couple of chainrasps up into "boss" things. It's that or Kitbash another 8 lol.
And then there's ...

Ok so that little Stormcast force is 400pts exactly. (2x130 + 140 for a Knight Incantor)

You're only on 160pts for Nighthaunt, so quite a way to go. Also, most Nighthaunt heroes synergise really well with Chainrasps and I think have the potential to overwhelm that Stormcast force fairly easily. Their best starting heroes are Guardian of Souls and Spirit Torment though, and at 120pts each that would take you to 400pts.

I dont know Chaos very well, so dont have advice of the top of my head there and would need to do a little research.

That's all most useful, thanks.

Ok, so a Spirit Torment looks like a chainrasps but with a mask, padlocks and keys, and a guardian of souls has a mask and lantern with smoke coming from it?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
That's all most useful, thanks.

Ok, so a Spirit Torment looks like a chainrasps but with a mask, padlocks and keys, and a guardian of souls has a mask and lantern with smoke coming from it?

Yup, basically!

Spirit Torment makes the Rasps more killy, and Guardian of Souls can bring them back to life.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also note there are some Stormcast and Nighthaunt heroes due in upcoming Mortal Realms issues. I believe its 19 and 20. Though I believe their releases are getting pushed back due to GW halting production.

I had a look, seems as if post issue 12 (ie from next week) it's on hiatus.

We're going to stick an extra chainrasp on a 32 and 40 for now

Suppose I better figure out how to serve Papa ...

Forbidden Planet are still delivering Mortal Realms, so once Hachette run out of bits from GW, they're stuck, but for a while, you might be able to get more Nighthaunt from there.

Getting up to 40 Chainrasps would be a good starting point for an army, but is a bit of a balls-ache to get ready.

Fifty wrote:Forbidden Planet are still delivering Mortal Realms, so once Hachette run out of bits from GW, they're stuck, but for a while, you might be able to get more Nighthaunt from there.

Getting up to 40 Chainrasps would be a good starting point for an army, but is a bit of a balls-ache to get ready.

I'll keep an eye out for sure. Dunno when we're even being let out of the house again though...

Morning! I have more questions!
Firstly, though, thanks for the input, it's been invaluable.
These are Nurgley, so I apologise in advance:

Is there any reason not to take wings on a Daemon Prince?

Currently, I have
Sloppity Bilepiper
Spoilpox Scrivener
20 Plaguebearers
2x 3 Nurglings

Oh, and this:

I use him as a melee armiger in my DG.


I have 3 unbuilt fly drone things, 2 Daemon Princes (well 1 40k, and 1 oldhammer GUO), and the bodies of 5 Blightkings. Would that all be logical to build next?

And... then?

If your kid has never played before, have you played through the first basic scenarios in the Mortal Realms magazine? If so, ignore me, but if not, it might be a nice simple place to start to begin getting them used to the rules rather than starting with a larger force?

Yeah we've worked out way through those but a valid suggestion. We have the pdf AoS rulebook so our scenarios are limited somewhat also