For metal, soak in Dettol Antiseptic, then toothbrush. Sorted my old Blood Bowl models out an absolute treat.

tigerswiftly wrote:

Nice seeing old models. I'm tempted to pick up some new stuff with a view to painting some models again. I'm a bit confused by AoS though. Downloaded the app and just browsing the rules at the moment. This video seems rather important in general. I've been trying to get much better about not wasting time.

Ah, Uncle Atom. He makes a good point.

Anyway, are you ready for the fucking nerd bomb? I'm doing it. I am running and I am jumping and I am dive bombing your pool of ignorance with my big fat body of knowledge.

How do I get into Age of Sigmar?



Age of Sigmar killed Fantasy Battles deader than the dodo. It took about 1 year or 18 months to get Age of Sigmar to any sort of respectable state, but it is a very respectable state and it is the genesis for the current edition of 40k, which is smart and well put together, and has so many ways to get into it, it might as well be an open field of murder and grimdark.

The rules of Age of Sigmar are 4 pages long, and they are free on GW's site, they are free on the app, and they come in all 3 of the starter sets, which are being mirrored in 40k in a few weeks time. The more complex rules are on each unit's Warscroll, which usually come in the box, are free in the app, or can be downloaded in PDF form from GW's site. That means you can absolutely buy a unit and a hero, find some dice and a tape measure, and start playing for free.

However, if you want to dive in to a boxed experience that's a little more organised, you'll be wanting one of the three starters: 

They are: 
Storm of Sigmar - £30

8 Khorne Boyz 5 Stormcast Goody Two-Shoes

Thunder and Blood - £50

A play mat and a box that has art on it so it can be used as terrain, 17 Good Good Metal Storm Men (including 6 winged boys, and 1 hero) and 27 Ugly Red Angry Men, including a giant horrible thing and a very nasty man with a whip

Age of Sigmar Starter Set - £75

All the models above but also a more of them, including a guy with a massive hammer on a dragon, and a man with an angry banner and also the world's angriest man.

Now all of the above sets are great for people who want to play either of those factions, and they are designed to work in parallel with GW's next best invention for new players: Start Collecting Sets. These are £50 boxes, that are usually worth about £70-90. The only two that aren't good value are the Stormcast and Bloodbound sets, because they are designed to slot into the £75 Starter Set to complete each faction. 



They usually come with a very nice big gribbly, like a Treelord or a Dragon, or a block of cavalry, and as such they are a lot of fun to collect and paint. With a like minded friend you can buy two boxes of different forces and have a fun little skirmish, if you don't care about balance. If you do, read on:

One of the most important parts of any tabletop Game is balance, and Sigmar attempts to do that by dividing itself into three play types: Open, Narrative, Matched Play. After the first year of nonsense that was unpointed Age of Sigmar, GW decided to release a book called The General's Handbook which introduced points for Matched Play. It stipulated unit sizes, points for play, new rules for matched play that stopped people overusing killer spells, and limitations to what you could field in the form of a list of Battle Line requirements. Every faction released after (and including) Sylvaneth last year has a new Army Book which is full of rules, abilities, relics, battalions, battleplans and points requirements, and you'll technically need it to get that faction to perform best in Matched Play.

In Matched Play a lot of the Start Collecting boxes are wrong. They don't have enough of certain troops to make up a squad, and the battalions that are in their boxes (rules that say when you take x,y,z you get to use some special rules) are not pointed. So that's where Open and Narrative rear their head, because you just need to agree with your pals, or with the rules of a Battleplan (the scenarios that you play on the table). It is unbalanced, but with a bit of intuition you can easily sort out fair matches, whether that be by counting wounds, still using points but ignoring the restrictions of Matched Play or by playing a Battleplan that's built around uneven odds etc.

The General's Handbook is a living document, in that it gets refreshed every so often. It's only £15, and the new one is set to release later this year, probably for £15 again. You only need it for Matched Play, but it often has a lot of cool stuff in. The new Handbook will also update points from the previous books, making it the go to standard for all balanced play. Even the latest Dwarves might get new points allocations. 

Now let's get even more granular. If you aren't into big crazy battles because of time and money, then let me present to you: 



Skirmish
This is basically a very cheap (£6!) Supplement that lets you play with small warbands. It has points and rules designed for very small warbands, usually a hero, and a few goons. It isn't very detailed, but there is a very good fan made ruleset called Hinterlands that is a good step up from Skirmish. Like most Warband games, you can start with a small force and play a campaign and add things on as you go, abilities, models, and so on. The boxes they do for these are quite cool, and new ones are coming in the next year: 



They are £40 each,but they don't really scale to Matched Play too well, but a few left over models when you buy up the next stage isn't the worst thing in the world.

On The Horizon

There's also a Path to Glory supplement coming soon, which is like a Warband campaign but bigger, where you'll start with a general and allotment of troops, and winning battles will let you role for new troops/abilities. This is a good way to get into the hobby if you have mates/a local store doing a campaign, because they'll be buying and progressing at the same rate too.

Finally, there will be a new game out later this year called Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, which is an X-Wing style hex grid battler with small Warbands that are snap to fit. So far they've announced Stormcast, Bloodbount and Skellingtons as factions, but more will be announced I am sure. Think of it like Blood Bowl, without the ball.



Hopefully that is as comprehensive as you can get for this stuff. You can apply much the same to 40k, but remember that new 40k is slightly more complex and has a bit of a price premium in comparison to AoS which is probably the cheapest Wargame they've done. The philosophy and culture they are fostering is much better. It's easy to sum up: they want people involved in the Hobby, and the game system needs to be in service of that. That means super massive armies as the only way of play are a thing of the past. 

They are openly supporting supplements that involve you buying less to get into the game than before, because it's a daunting hobby with a high entry point in a time when people's wages don't stretch. Sure, there are premiums on their paint and tools, but I think they still have some of the best modelling teams in the world, and their style is singular and iconic. Instead of pushing people away with rigid, inflexible rulesets, £50 rule books and £30 codexes that either get changed in 6 months or remain woefully broken for 18 months, they've shifted to a modular unit card style system which means broken armies can be fixed quicker as they are agnostic of Core Rules. 

As a kid who loved the hobby and got priced out over the years, it's lovely to see it back on form, easy to access, delightful to paint, and most importantly, fun to play. 

If you ever need any advice with what to buy, especially as specific armies in AoS aren't as updated as others, just shoot me a line.

EDIT: BOXED BONUS

Totally forgot to mention their Boxed Games. Currently there are

GORECHOSEN - £35

Four Khorne Champions murder each other in a room. Has some expensive models in it, so it's quite good value. Can easily transfer into a Skirmish Warband.

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower - £95

Fifty odd models in this box, essentially a group of Order Heroes go into a dungeon to get fucked up by Tzeench. The Tzeench forces make a perfect starter set to get into an army, or a Skirmish Warband. The game is supposed to be a lot of fun too, and it also works with...

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - £90

Similar to the Silver Tower, except you need a dungeon masters as there is no monster AI deck. Different heroes this time, and instead of a diverse cast of villains, you have a set of Nurgle Blightkings, a set of Khorne Bloodbound, and a set of Tzeench Acolytes which makes a great base for a mixed chaos force or the start of an army for any of them, plus you get a game to boot. 

Both of the above bxoes have supplementary hero/villain packs which make for great painting projects if you want.

Also final bonus: out of stock now, but if you don't like Stormcast or Bloodbound then Spire of Dawn is Skaven vs High Elves, for £50.

Right I think that is everything. Oh wait. Last thing. If you want to get stuff cheaper, just go to Element Games or Dark Sphere. I can vouch for both.

I am very serious about Warhammer

Lovely. That's better than I could manage in an hour!

Haha, I am not bad, but it takes me fucking hours. I wish I'd never picked Dwarves, the fiddly bastards.

This is the last progress picture I have, but I've done more since.

The thought of doing 10 more makes me want to melt them all on a big fire. Why I ever picked YELLOW i'll never know. Never paint yellow.

Eyes and wallet have already started to wander to the Death Guard Marines from the new Dark Imperium Box...

Fyreslayers appeal. #dwarfbros

Great post, btw. Looks like the box sets can be picked up a bit cheaper now too (£10 or thereabout off).

Nothing is really catching my fancy other than the Fyreslayers. Skypunk Dwarves are nice in many respects but I don't like their helmets/faces. Fyreslayer lore is godly too - Always loved Grimnir and... what? They are literally hunting gold fragments imbued with his essence to embed into their skin? Glorious.

Coming around to the Kharadron boys now. Might just pick up the models and fluff I like.

That tzeentch model is insane.

I'm going to Tempy's house to force him to chat Age of Sigmar on We're not Wizards. 5 hour special. Coming soon.

What's my best bet regarding brushes, modelling tools? Think I'm going to order some stuff later and whilst I'm fine to spend a bit, I'd prefer to save pennies if there are good alternatives for glue, brushes, etc.

Army Painter stuff comes recommended. I think the GW brushes are ok but I got myself a Windsor and Newton 000 and 00 sable brushes and they really are excellent for details.

As for sizes i'd recommend: Medium Shade, Medium Drybrush, Medium Base, Medium Layer, Small Layer. You could conceivably paint anything but the largest monsters and the smallest details with those.

Army painter files are great, and you'll want an exacto knife or small modelling knife, plastic glue (preferably with a metal needle nozzle) and some sprue clippers. You can probably get all of that for under £12 if you get Army Painter/P3/other third party stuff.

Undercoating with spray cans is 100% the best way of doing it, accept NO substitute.

Yer man Duncan on Warhammer TV will get you more than up and ready. His tutorials are excellent, even the ones that aren't for models you are interested in will be full of smart tips. Thin coats. THIN COATS. THIN COATS.

Nope, sorry.

Tempy. Now I'm having thoughts about which race to buy. Thoughts! Dammit.

oh no