Warhammer Age of Sigmar Buyer's Guide

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is more than a miniatures game: it’s a hobby about collecting, building, painting, and playing. With so many products available, it can be intimating to start. Don’t worry, this guide to Age of Sigmar (3rd Edition) is for you.

1. Knowing your objective

Start by asking yourself these questions. Do you intend to play with your Warhammer models or just paint them? Do you want simple rules to play with friends and family or do you want to get into a deep strategic game at your local store? If you still don’t know the answer, grab the Getting Started booklet to feed your thoughts. It comes with two free models! Or why not dive directly into the big rulebook?

If your goal is to paint highly detailed models without playing, you’ll be missing some fun, but it’s totally fine. Just grab any Warhammer model that suits your taste and head to our Citadel Painting Guide! It’s that easy. If you need a suggestion, Golden Goblin Games recommend the following paint sets. Two of them come with a few models, a brush, paints, and are a great way to get into the hobby.

If you intend to play home with friends or family, Open Play might be for you. It’s a format where you and your opponent(s) put any models of your liking on the table and fight using the basic rules of Age of Sigmar. You can mix models from different teams and use your judgment to determine if the fight will be fair or not.

If that sounds like your alley, you should consider the starter sets that come in three sizes: Warrior (small size), Harbinger (medium size), or Extremis (big size). Each of these sets contain 2 armies with dice, ruler, and rules. Their value is extremely good for their price. One box and you are good to go!

If you are aiming to play Age of Sigmar at your local game store, you will soon find out about Matched Play. It’s the format used for tournaments. In Matched Play, strict rules cover army size and army composition to ensure a fair fight. Your rich opponent cannot field the 2000 models of his collection against the 20 models of your first boxed set. That is army size. You cannot create an army only made of heroes or an army only made of soldiers. That is army composition. If this format is for you, keep reading before buying anything.

2. Choosing your faction

Age of Sigmar offers more than 20 factions to choose from such as the heroic Stormcast Eternals, the dreaded Nighthaunt, the brutal Orruk Warclans, or the bloodthirsty Blades of Khorne. Each of these factions fall under one of the 4 Great Alliances: Order, Death, Destruction, or Chaos. Factions from the same Alliance can be mixed, but factions from different alliances with never fight together.

Pick an army that you like and purchase its Battletome. The first half of the book covers the story of your faction and tips on how to paint the models, the second half covers allegiance abilities and Warscrolls. Warscrolls are the sheets that describe the characteristics of each unit (movement, wounds, bravery, save, weapons, etc.). Study them to know each unit's abilities and pay attention to the 'Leader' and 'Battleline' keywords found at the bottom of some warscrolls.

Below are a few examples of Battletomes. Check the full list here.

3. Building your roster

The composition of your army depends on the size of the battle you will fight. You and your opponent have to agree on how many points you will field.

In a game of 1,000 points, you will need at least 1 Leader, but no more than 3, and you will need at least 2 or more Battlelines (think of them as soldiers). Everything else is optional (artillery, behemoths, allies). The Pitched Battle Chart below sums it up.

Points	750	1,000	1,500	2,000	3,000
Leaders	1-2	1-3	1-4	1-6	1-8
Battleline	1+	2+	2+	3+	4+
Behemoths	0-1	0-2	0-3	0-4	0-6
Artillery	0-1	0-2	0-3	0-4	0-6
Spells & Invocations	0-1	0-2	0-2	0-3	0-4
Other Units	Any number	Any number	Any number	Any number	Any number
Allied Units (pts)	< 100	< 200	< 300	< 400	< 600

 

How do you know how many points a unit is worth and what type of unit it is? There are a few ways.

• Warcroll Builder. It's a free online tool hosted by Games Workshop. Great to use with a desktop computer.
• General's Handbook. A book released once per year with an updated list of points for all factions.
• Battletome. At the end of each Battletome is a point list for that specific faction.

4. Purchasing your army

Finally! At this stage you should have chosen a faction and drafted your army roster, making sure your army has a few Leaders and the required number of Battlelines. It is now time to pick the real boxes and assemble your troops. If you are not sure where to begin, the Start Collecting boxed sets give you a solid base. Most of them provide 500 to 600 points of units, a leader and a battleline. All you need is to add a few smaller boxes to reach 1,000 points!

Below are a few examples of Start Collecting boxes available at Golden Goblin Games. Check the full list here.

5. Example

You like the look of Steam-Punk dwarves and already purchased a Start Collecting! Kharadron Overlords. You now want to build a 1,000 points army.

Checking Warcroll Builder, you write down which units are included in your Start Collecting and what role they fill. You have:

• 1 x Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (Leader, 105 pts)
• 5 x Grundstok Thunderers (135 pts)
• 3 x Skywardens (115 pts)
• 1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155 pts)

That's 510 points. You are half-way there. The big problem is the absence of Battlelines in that box and you need at least two for your army to be valid. You do some research and add:

• 10 x Arkanaut Company (Battleline, 100 pts)
• 10 x Arkanaut Company (Battleline, 100 pts)

Your army now has the minimum number of Leader and Battleline, but you are 290 points short of 1,000. You decide to add a beefier Leader to be your General and another small leader to buff your troops.

• 1 x Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (Leader, 190 pts)
• 1 x Aetheric Navigator (Leader, 95 pts)

That's 995 points. You are ready for Matched Play! We are not saying this is a good army, but it's a valid one. Do some reading, watch some videos, and play some games! Time will tell.

 

Last updated: July 2021.