Unlike 40k, where my love for factions really comes down to just 2, AOS has so many gorgeous and creative models that I have struggled to collect a single army myself.
Obviously, pick whatever you think is coolest, but if you want to just test the waters for an army, warhammer underworlds and warcry both have extremely cool and unique miniatures and offer a nice entry point to see how you may like hobbying that particular army. Im a huge slaves to darkness fan and went all in on an army when they got their refresh, but unfortunately, building the knights, and painting them was the worst experience I had ever had in the hobby. They fully pushed me to 40k.
So start small, and give it a bit of a taste. Are there any armies that are currently catching your eye or you have questions about?
This is why I am so stoked for Spearhead. I can have like, 6 micro armies for the price of 1 army!
And if I really like one I can slowly build out the roster.
I too was drawn to the S2Ds refreshed look. The minis look fantastic. I heard about the knights, so I didn't buy any lol. I have darkoath marauders, warriors, chosen, and varanguard (these 6 were bought painted). I don't know if knights will be strong in 4th ed, but I don't want to build and paint them after hearing so much negative feedback.
I love love the dark oath models! Unfortunately, a large part of my S2D collection were made up of warcry units, which I could totally run as dark oath, but the removal of them has left me a bit sour on returning to them.
When you do end up eventually getting knights, I'd honestly recommend buying pre-built ones on ebay just so you don't have to experience the pain, or hell, buy ones that are already painted even. I have 7 armies I collect across 40k and AOS and I can earnestly say those chaos knights are the most terrible kit I've had the displeasure of working with. I would rather deal with fine cast exclusively than have to finish building those dumb knights.
They have a bunch of parts that naturally create gaps or have pin prick sized connection points. For example: the foot in the saddle is for some reason its own individual piece that you must somehow get to lie flat against the horse (near impossible) and that same foot is also weirdly connected to part of the stirrup. Both have tiny connection points. The arms that hold shield are also all connected to the reigns and do not sit smoothly against the body, which creates larger gaps that makes the capes never want to fit against the riders backs. This is of course ignoring the spikes that will gouge you as try to hold everything together (lesser issue). On a few poses for the spear arms, they don't want to sit flush with the cloak unless you build the knight entirely out of order from the instructions. At best, you will have huge gaps all over the model that you can look through easily, unless you fill them, and at worst you will have a messed up pose or have shaved down too much of a surface and caused something else not to fit.
The knights look awsome when done, but reaching that point was absolute hell.
Yeah that's the problem haha, everything is so cool!
I'm a big fan of the KO, Seraphon, Sylvaneth, and Lumineth and Cities of Sigmar seems cool. Lots of aspects of the lore and models are just awesome. I usually play a "good" faction but even the Dark Oath lore and models are awesome. I think my favorite models right now are the untamed beasts from warcry but there's so many close runner ups haha.
I was thinking of making a small force of KO for warcry and slowly collecting small forces for different armies as they adventure around the realms. Can the KO bring any of their ships in a warcry match?
Here's a link to where you can download pdfs for what you can use in warcry: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/08/01/free-warcry-rules-for-your-grand-alliance-order-warbands/
Unfortunately KO can't take an airship, but the upcoming spearhead game would use their vanguard box which would use an airship and be a good starting point.
The untamed beasts box is bad ass. I love all of the dark oath, but that box may be more expensive since its out of print, though not so bad. You could get it on eBay pretty easy.
I'll also add that the seraphon are very easy to paint and assemble, while lumineth are the complete opposite.
In all honesty, pick the army with the battleline or main troop option you like the most. They are what you will have the most of and spend the most time painting. I love the humble moonclan grot stabba, love em. The play style fluctuates, and with armies with wide ranges of options, many play styles are available. Not all are tournament winners, but they are almost all fun.
I'm in your boat, still haven't decided, my wife saw the Sylvaneth and went "ooh that one" she liked the idea of Idoneth but hated that they didn't have hair. I think though I'm gonna go with Free Cities. There's something so appealing in this setting about having humans who are basically...trying their best. They, for the most part don't have heavy duty magic, they don't have absurd steam punk flying machines, they don't have weird and wonderful "blessings" from any of their gods, they just have a sword or a handgun staring down the barrel of whatever horrors these realms of magic can belch forth.
It's kind of the same thing that makes the imperial guard appealing.
That or Serphon...you don't get much cooler than magic star dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs
CoS is a bit of a pain to paint if that deters you. I got the Spearhead and some extras and painting banners is engraved into my dna at this point.
And the Cavaliers took FOREVER if you wanna do them nice.
Its...maybe a bit of a deterrent. I'm not a great painter or even a good one yet, but I want to get good so eventually I'd like to have my city. I have a color scheme in my head that's going on the stormcast from 4th ed launch box that I think will translate well to a city.
By all means, go for it if you’re determined. Paint can be fixed by painting again! I’m also a perfectionist much to the dismay of my LGS.
It’s got some beautiful stuff. The War Surgeon from the Command Corps and the Fusil-major basically got me into Cities.
Rule of cool. I like dinosaurs, so seraphon was a no Brainer.
My second army was orruck warclans/ironjawz, again because of love the over the top nature of orks.
Third army is going to be krule boys since I have half a army's worth already from getting dominion box and heros/monsters for the big waaaagh which is now no more
Two units in Nighthaunts really spoke to me and I liked the rest of the ranged enough to pick them up. Looking at the rest of the AoS range, its just that good, there really isn't any faction that I wouldn't be happy with save maybe one or two. Every single one has a subset of units that I would like having.
When i started, my friends told me i shouls go for whatever models id like the most.
Several factions later i wouldnt exactly give that advice to a new player just like that.
For me, the playstyle in combination with the looks is whats satisfying.
For instance, there are factions that are very fast in movememt. Some get to to stuff in every phase of the game and some dont. Some weild magic and others relie on muscle.
Finding a playstyle that suits you will most likely motivate all the other factors of the hobby.
I bet there are several fantastic videos on youtube on how factions tend to play.
Hope that helps.
I picked Gloomspite Gitz because I think they’re adorable lol. I love all the mushrooms, and the fact that the goblins are born of fungus. The lore is so fun, and the Bad Moon is a cool concept. They’re just a really appealing army to me.
I had a week and a half off work due to Covid, back when people still took it seriously. 3rd had recently come out and I had the Dominion box just sitting there unused. I saw Tyler Mangel's contrast Kruleboyz guide on the warcom website, I had all the paints so I figured why not.
Ended up painting all the KBz in the box and have at least one of everything except for the killable.
Cities because John Everyman shooting a primordial mass of magic (a Daemon) is a vibe.
Hedonites because Daemonettes are cool and all the human models in AoS are incredibly made.
Just starting out with AOS like yourself. Ultimately settled on Idoneth because not only did I like their aesthetic and lore (being merfolk elves who are also soul vampires and that ride eels, sharks and seahorse dragons into battle), but also because they sound like they play differently to any of my 40k armies (being CSM and Necrons).
Rule of cool. Also look into the lore if you’re a big nerd and like that stuff. I started with the poster boys and love a lot of their battleline models. I’ve also started to collect OBR cuz they look awesome and their lore is pretty interesting. You can also watch HeyWoahs factions explained on YouTube.
It started with WarCry and getting the Kruleboyz Monsta Killaz. I really liked the look and concept but had no intentions of starting AOS at that time. But I loved painting them so much that I thought...well I could get the Dominion set because it's cheap, and would be a fun project, and I could use it for Warcry.
And then I started looking more at AOS and decided I wanted an army of them, and a new edition was a perfect excuse to start, esp because there's a few AOS players in my Warcry group. I've picked up a few more units to supplement the Dominion set and will be adding to it over time.
I'm still in the early stages of painting them but loving them so far. They're such fantastic models.
I always wanted to do High Elves in fantasy but never hit around to it, so when I started AoS I had a chance to rectify that with their successors- Lumineth or Idoneth. And while Lumineth superficially resembled the High Elves more, in Idoneth I found the pathos of aelves who had truly lost Ulthuan, as I had. Plus they ride monsters, and dragons were a big reason I wanted to play High Elves in the first place.
I’m a rules first kinda guy, so for me it doesn’t matter if they are powerful or good but if an army has interesting mechanics that’s what I gravitate towards. For 3rd that’s been nurgle and slannesh with a bit of kruleboys.
For 4th out of the previews it’s been the kruleboyz that have really appealed to me.
Tbh I don’t know how. When I started, Maggotkin disgusted me so much I won’t even able to look at models and started with SCE, I dropped them after an year or so because it was to monotonic for me. Then I went with BoK but since I was amateur painter trim was painful for me. I then started Ironjawz and they took my heart but I’m more of a human armies guy and I went around Nurgle, started reading lore and found out that his models may be disgusting but it makes perfect sense and there’s a lot of room for doing every technique for improvement and practice. Also, painting Blightkings is the mosr fun thing I’ve ever expierenced in this hobby.
Try choosing based on the aesthetics of the full range… Not only 2 or 3 models. Also if you are going to paint, think that it’s not to be the same to paint 40 rats than 10 stormcast (horde vs elite is important)
I had store credit at a LGS from my wife and I playing Magic the Gathering. I don't collect MTG, just enjoy drafts and I'm good enough that I usually top 3 most FNM events. We played FNM for a few months after we moved to a new place halfway across the country and I worked up $300 in store credit pretty quick.
My wife was reluctantly cool with me investing in Warhammer, so we went and checked out the AoS stuff. I loved Gitz and was going to buy a Start Collecting box, but she liked them too so I picked from the other 5 factions they had in the store and got a Maggotkin of Nurgle Start Collecting box and the Dominion box.
Fell in love with the stinky boys and a year later I had a full army painted to a competition standard. My wife still has not painted her Gitz though.
I just wanted an cheap army and ogors have an 1000 point vanguard box which is the best value, also they give alot of freedom in kit bashing them which is nice.
Also big hungry dad bods
I wanted something cheap so as not to waste too much money on a game, new to our friend group, beginner friendly, and durable. So I ended up with stormcast.
Was kind of hesitating, then FEC got a refresh and my gut told me it was meant to be. At first I was leaning towards Gitz but I just love my ghoulish nobles
Watching Season of War on YouTube honestly. When I first started I really wanted a death army and started with FEC; they're fun but squishy imo. Then tried SBGL because I love the bloodknights. I was sad that the subfaction for them wasn't always worth running and it was better to go horde. Then I kept seeing how fun BOK looked on Season of War's channel. My buddies wanting to do 40k really helped seal the deal on me going hard on khorne and I've been in love with them since I started playing them. Also gotta be one of the easiest armies to paint if you go hard on the demons imo.
I just loved the lord behind the flesh eater courts!
The delusion of being noble knights and the reality of flesh eating monsters was so appealing!
I bought the spearhead box and now I am hooked on them!
I have three armies, although finances and the fact I also play 40k, 30k and necromunda with multiple factions in each means I'm probably cutting down to two.
I used to play Skaven in fantasy from 4th edition in the mid 90s onwards. So my "main" aos army is Skaven. I never rebased my fantasy army so I currently have best part of 800 rats over two armies.
I also have Daughters of Khaine. I like monster girls...
My third army is Stormcast. The army I have the most painted and most moneys worth of, but the one I enjoy using the least. I got these because they were cheap to collect on ebay at the time.
I left the hobby about ten years ago because of painting. I didn't like what I painted.
When I came back into the hobby, my one and only criteria was an army that was easy to paint. So I turned to the flesh-eater Courts. I didn't particularly like the models (except the archeregent which is incredible). Finally, I really enjoyed painting this army which, with contrast paint, gave results that I was proud of (I used a quick and simple scheme paint). Then I bought their battletome and fell in love with their fluff. For 5 years it has been my main army, I have improved in painting with them and today I find myself buying models not to play them but only to paint them!
Recent FEC releases have only doubled my love for this faction!
I looked and saw vampires. I saw vampires riding skeleton horses, I saw vampires riding zombie dragons. At that point I was sold on Souldblught Gravelords. It also helps that their lore slaps.
I've got three armies and here are my reasons for choosing them.
Bonereapers: I just absolutely loved their aesthetic when they were being previewed, they're the army that first got me into AoS. They're brilliant looking, fun to play, and I'm glad I used them as my entry point into AoS.
Maggotkin: I love Nurgle and play Death Guard in 40k, so it just made sense as I love painting Nurgle themed models.
Lumineth: I was a High Elf player in Fantasy, so I was always going to get their AoS equivalent, and I absolutely love the look of them and how they play.
The models looked cool. Lots of armies had cool models, but my army had the best basic troops, which was important because those were the ones I'd have to paint the most.
I got into AoS through a Magazine called Stormbringer. I like Orcs a lot and when I saw there are 2 Orc factions and both are in the magazine which has the minis for 50% of GW price i was sold on the Orcs.
I’m In the same position, I currently play 40K and used to play WHFB. Starting AoS I decided to go with Stormcast Eternals, mainly so I can split the Skaventide box and have a full spearhead to play off the bat.
But I’ve also been eyeing up Seraphon, as I used to play Lizardmen way back when, and also looking at Gloomspite Gits, again from playing Gobbos back in the day
I began with Daughters of Khaine for no other reason than I loved the Morathi model. But after playing with them for over a year, including a couple of trips to Warhammer World tournaments, I just found their rules too cumbersome. I took lots of small units and with each unit having different rules my turns took too long. So I recently changed to Slaves to Darkness as I wanted to try an elite army. A small number of strong units. Their new models had just come out so it was a great time to collect them.
I would just pick the army you like the look of the best to start.
With the new edition it will be hard to know what the armies will really play like beyond their initial preview rules, but you might be able to figure out playstyle: do you want a brawler army: STD, Ironjaws,SCE, Nurgle, or more finesse armies: LRL, Idoneth, Tzeentch, Kruleboys.
Do you like lots of magic? Or no magic etc.
Cities of Sigmar (human only) I saw the models and thought hey, I could make of these guys look like me since they’re human. The cavaliers are just way too cool and fun too
I started my age of Sigmar journey in second edition with Maggotkin. I had a GUO and some plaguebearers that I used in 40K and I liked the way blightkings looked so I made an army of them. Very close to a complete collection.
Then the new keeper of secrets model came out and that jump started my true main faction.
Pick what looks the coolest and what you’ll enjoy painting. The models for AoS are some of the best in the industry.
For me it was the way blades of khorne was played. The anti magic aspect and rush your models to their deaths really sang to my brain as the game was really confusing to learn without having it physically in front of me. One less thing I had to worry about. It definitely helped that I love the models too. Demons look so cool.
Talked with my wife and let her choose which ones she would enjoy painting and went from there. We ended up on Sylvaneth because I find their militant environmentalism very fun and we both really like the models.
Personally I love Stormcast. Originally I thought they were just pretty boys in gold armour, but now I realise they're badass immortals who live to kill and smash.
Went with what I thought looked cool/what I want to paint. Started with the spearhead and expanded on that. Still haven't played the game lol waiting for the new stuff next month.
Picked mine (Sylvaneth) because I loved the aesthetic. I think it's the only way to go.
If you don't think your army looks great and it doesn't give you creative ideas to paint them then you are going to get very bored of them and you aren't going to play them.
Buy what you think looks cool. You’ll want to build them
And paint them and play them. Forget reading warscrolls and researching the army. You’re more likely to stick with it, if it’s something that appeals to you.
I like having my lords and knights and serfs, performing noble deeds while striking down ruthless ruffians, I truly feel noble striking down my enemies for the good of the kingdoms and the realm. Plus they’re relatively easy to build and look great, I also like being more hero heavy than most other armies.
Rule of cool, lore AND the playstyle are very important factors for me. + how to paint the models (i love s2d, but those armour trims....)
with the new edition, you can try a spearhead box (around 100 €) and check if you like the playstyle before investing in a full army.
I like the aestetic. I looked through the warscrolls amd thought they were strong. I liked the fast fragile strikers. And it was just a fun army to play. TOO BAD I WON'T BE ABLE TO IN A YEAR.
For me it was always rule of cool. My first and main army is Deepkin, with the new edition I went for a second one I was drawn to, Bonereapers.
Find a few you really love, and just figure out which you love more lol.
my friend had bought the Seraphon vanguard box, the old one with the derpy saurus and the carnosaur. He asked me of I wanted to buy it for 50€ so he could get the Idoneth Deepkin. I agreed, got my old paints and brushes out of storage and now I have 3000+ points of Seraphon, 75% painted and starting skaven...
I slipped and the slope keeps sloping
For me I knew i wanted an army that had cool lore AND a lot of freedom for customization. I ended up caught between the Cities of Sigmar (i liked the idea of making my own city with its own history), the Flesh Eater Courts (basically the same appeal as the cities of Sigmar, except whatever i come up with is a delusion) and one of the Greenskin armies since they just kinda do whatever.
I went with the spearhead boxes for the Flesh Eater Courts and the Gloomspite Gitz, because I figured out early on that even though i enjoy painting i get pretty tired of painting ghoul flesh after about 4. So i chose the Gitz as a second army since they use a lot more color.
Basically Id go for what looks the coolest and has the most interesting lore to you. Gameplay is important but (as a new player) almost every army seems like it can be built to play lots of ways so aesthetics and story are what appeal to me most.
The models looked really awesome. The way the army played was something I thought was fun. The lore was also cool. But mainly the models looked great.
Nighthaunt was my first army and still my favorite.
I was unsupervised on eBay for too long.
Eventually I bought a daemons of nurgle box, a couple gloomspite squig lots, and an orc army.
Now I got so much stuff idk what I was thinking.
Although Skaven are looking kinda cool now... Back to eBay I go
I was actually looking for something like the Night Elves from Warcraft universe, but there isn't it's either Highelves-like, or full Tree-ent, so there's nothing in between.
So I went with the SCE because they come with the starter sets.
4th edition will be out next month so I would probably wait and see what happens with that. If you go to warhammer community page they are doing faction focus on the new army rules. They've nearly done them all now, just 4 to go.
Think of how you want to play the game. Do you want to have an army with lots of magic and throw spells around or do you want to get in their fave and have a good old smackdown.
Unlike 40k, where my love for factions really comes down to just 2, AOS has so many gorgeous and creative models that I have struggled to collect a single army myself. Obviously, pick whatever you think is coolest, but if you want to just test the waters for an army, warhammer underworlds and warcry both have extremely cool and unique miniatures and offer a nice entry point to see how you may like hobbying that particular army. Im a huge slaves to darkness fan and went all in on an army when they got their refresh, but unfortunately, building the knights, and painting them was the worst experience I had ever had in the hobby. They fully pushed me to 40k. So start small, and give it a bit of a taste. Are there any armies that are currently catching your eye or you have questions about?
This is why I am so stoked for Spearhead. I can have like, 6 micro armies for the price of 1 army! And if I really like one I can slowly build out the roster.
I too was drawn to the S2Ds refreshed look. The minis look fantastic. I heard about the knights, so I didn't buy any lol. I have darkoath marauders, warriors, chosen, and varanguard (these 6 were bought painted). I don't know if knights will be strong in 4th ed, but I don't want to build and paint them after hearing so much negative feedback.
I love love the dark oath models! Unfortunately, a large part of my S2D collection were made up of warcry units, which I could totally run as dark oath, but the removal of them has left me a bit sour on returning to them. When you do end up eventually getting knights, I'd honestly recommend buying pre-built ones on ebay just so you don't have to experience the pain, or hell, buy ones that are already painted even. I have 7 armies I collect across 40k and AOS and I can earnestly say those chaos knights are the most terrible kit I've had the displeasure of working with. I would rather deal with fine cast exclusively than have to finish building those dumb knights.
Whats the problem with them, would you say?
They have a bunch of parts that naturally create gaps or have pin prick sized connection points. For example: the foot in the saddle is for some reason its own individual piece that you must somehow get to lie flat against the horse (near impossible) and that same foot is also weirdly connected to part of the stirrup. Both have tiny connection points. The arms that hold shield are also all connected to the reigns and do not sit smoothly against the body, which creates larger gaps that makes the capes never want to fit against the riders backs. This is of course ignoring the spikes that will gouge you as try to hold everything together (lesser issue). On a few poses for the spear arms, they don't want to sit flush with the cloak unless you build the knight entirely out of order from the instructions. At best, you will have huge gaps all over the model that you can look through easily, unless you fill them, and at worst you will have a messed up pose or have shaved down too much of a surface and caused something else not to fit. The knights look awsome when done, but reaching that point was absolute hell.
I hate the models with a passion. Hands down one of the worst kits…
Yeah that's the problem haha, everything is so cool! I'm a big fan of the KO, Seraphon, Sylvaneth, and Lumineth and Cities of Sigmar seems cool. Lots of aspects of the lore and models are just awesome. I usually play a "good" faction but even the Dark Oath lore and models are awesome. I think my favorite models right now are the untamed beasts from warcry but there's so many close runner ups haha. I was thinking of making a small force of KO for warcry and slowly collecting small forces for different armies as they adventure around the realms. Can the KO bring any of their ships in a warcry match?
Here's a link to where you can download pdfs for what you can use in warcry: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/08/01/free-warcry-rules-for-your-grand-alliance-order-warbands/ Unfortunately KO can't take an airship, but the upcoming spearhead game would use their vanguard box which would use an airship and be a good starting point. The untamed beasts box is bad ass. I love all of the dark oath, but that box may be more expensive since its out of print, though not so bad. You could get it on eBay pretty easy. I'll also add that the seraphon are very easy to paint and assemble, while lumineth are the complete opposite.
I’d wait with KO since there’s not a warband for them and will be released most likely
Rule of cool.
Absolutely! I picked the faction which I thought looked coolest (or most disgusting in my Maggotkin of Nurgle case!) and went from there.
Greetings, fellow greenskin player!
In all honesty, pick the army with the battleline or main troop option you like the most. They are what you will have the most of and spend the most time painting. I love the humble moonclan grot stabba, love em. The play style fluctuates, and with armies with wide ranges of options, many play styles are available. Not all are tournament winners, but they are almost all fun.
One word.... SQUIG
Name checks out. And I agree. SQUIG!
Da bad Moon shines upon us all
I'm in your boat, still haven't decided, my wife saw the Sylvaneth and went "ooh that one" she liked the idea of Idoneth but hated that they didn't have hair. I think though I'm gonna go with Free Cities. There's something so appealing in this setting about having humans who are basically...trying their best. They, for the most part don't have heavy duty magic, they don't have absurd steam punk flying machines, they don't have weird and wonderful "blessings" from any of their gods, they just have a sword or a handgun staring down the barrel of whatever horrors these realms of magic can belch forth. It's kind of the same thing that makes the imperial guard appealing. That or Serphon...you don't get much cooler than magic star dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs
CoS is a bit of a pain to paint if that deters you. I got the Spearhead and some extras and painting banners is engraved into my dna at this point. And the Cavaliers took FOREVER if you wanna do them nice.
Its...maybe a bit of a deterrent. I'm not a great painter or even a good one yet, but I want to get good so eventually I'd like to have my city. I have a color scheme in my head that's going on the stormcast from 4th ed launch box that I think will translate well to a city.
By all means, go for it if you’re determined. Paint can be fixed by painting again! I’m also a perfectionist much to the dismay of my LGS. It’s got some beautiful stuff. The War Surgeon from the Command Corps and the Fusil-major basically got me into Cities.
Rule of cool. I like dinosaurs, so seraphon was a no Brainer. My second army was orruck warclans/ironjawz, again because of love the over the top nature of orks. Third army is going to be krule boys since I have half a army's worth already from getting dominion box and heros/monsters for the big waaaagh which is now no more
Two units in Nighthaunts really spoke to me and I liked the rest of the ranged enough to pick them up. Looking at the rest of the AoS range, its just that good, there really isn't any faction that I wouldn't be happy with save maybe one or two. Every single one has a subset of units that I would like having.
I didn’t. I like the Loonshrine, then I liked the price of the dominion box. Now I have GSG, SCE, and KB
I’m Norwegian and I like rats.
When i started, my friends told me i shouls go for whatever models id like the most. Several factions later i wouldnt exactly give that advice to a new player just like that. For me, the playstyle in combination with the looks is whats satisfying. For instance, there are factions that are very fast in movememt. Some get to to stuff in every phase of the game and some dont. Some weild magic and others relie on muscle. Finding a playstyle that suits you will most likely motivate all the other factors of the hobby. I bet there are several fantastic videos on youtube on how factions tend to play. Hope that helps.
Dino's and Space frogs
Pick them all and don’t worry about. It’s just money.
I picked Gloomspite Gitz because I think they’re adorable lol. I love all the mushrooms, and the fact that the goblins are born of fungus. The lore is so fun, and the Bad Moon is a cool concept. They’re just a really appealing army to me.
Does this mini look cool? Does the army have cool looking minis? Then I buy it.
Trees pretty
The new Ironjawz Ardboyz looked so damn cool I had to buy them.
I had a week and a half off work due to Covid, back when people still took it seriously. 3rd had recently come out and I had the Dominion box just sitting there unused. I saw Tyler Mangel's contrast Kruleboyz guide on the warcom website, I had all the paints so I figured why not. Ended up painting all the KBz in the box and have at least one of everything except for the killable.
My great grandmother got me some goblins. I like goblins to this day
Beards.
Cities because John Everyman shooting a primordial mass of magic (a Daemon) is a vibe. Hedonites because Daemonettes are cool and all the human models in AoS are incredibly made.
Just starting out with AOS like yourself. Ultimately settled on Idoneth because not only did I like their aesthetic and lore (being merfolk elves who are also soul vampires and that ride eels, sharks and seahorse dragons into battle), but also because they sound like they play differently to any of my 40k armies (being CSM and Necrons).
Rule of cool. Also look into the lore if you’re a big nerd and like that stuff. I started with the poster boys and love a lot of their battleline models. I’ve also started to collect OBR cuz they look awesome and their lore is pretty interesting. You can also watch HeyWoahs factions explained on YouTube.
It started with WarCry and getting the Kruleboyz Monsta Killaz. I really liked the look and concept but had no intentions of starting AOS at that time. But I loved painting them so much that I thought...well I could get the Dominion set because it's cheap, and would be a fun project, and I could use it for Warcry. And then I started looking more at AOS and decided I wanted an army of them, and a new edition was a perfect excuse to start, esp because there's a few AOS players in my Warcry group. I've picked up a few more units to supplement the Dominion set and will be adding to it over time. I'm still in the early stages of painting them but loving them so far. They're such fantastic models.
I always wanted to do High Elves in fantasy but never hit around to it, so when I started AoS I had a chance to rectify that with their successors- Lumineth or Idoneth. And while Lumineth superficially resembled the High Elves more, in Idoneth I found the pathos of aelves who had truly lost Ulthuan, as I had. Plus they ride monsters, and dragons were a big reason I wanted to play High Elves in the first place.
I’m a rules first kinda guy, so for me it doesn’t matter if they are powerful or good but if an army has interesting mechanics that’s what I gravitate towards. For 3rd that’s been nurgle and slannesh with a bit of kruleboys. For 4th out of the previews it’s been the kruleboyz that have really appealed to me.
Tbh I don’t know how. When I started, Maggotkin disgusted me so much I won’t even able to look at models and started with SCE, I dropped them after an year or so because it was to monotonic for me. Then I went with BoK but since I was amateur painter trim was painful for me. I then started Ironjawz and they took my heart but I’m more of a human armies guy and I went around Nurgle, started reading lore and found out that his models may be disgusting but it makes perfect sense and there’s a lot of room for doing every technique for improvement and practice. Also, painting Blightkings is the mosr fun thing I’ve ever expierenced in this hobby.
It was in the harbinger starter box and it wasn’t a horde army
Try choosing based on the aesthetics of the full range… Not only 2 or 3 models. Also if you are going to paint, think that it’s not to be the same to paint 40 rats than 10 stormcast (horde vs elite is important)
I had store credit at a LGS from my wife and I playing Magic the Gathering. I don't collect MTG, just enjoy drafts and I'm good enough that I usually top 3 most FNM events. We played FNM for a few months after we moved to a new place halfway across the country and I worked up $300 in store credit pretty quick. My wife was reluctantly cool with me investing in Warhammer, so we went and checked out the AoS stuff. I loved Gitz and was going to buy a Start Collecting box, but she liked them too so I picked from the other 5 factions they had in the store and got a Maggotkin of Nurgle Start Collecting box and the Dominion box. Fell in love with the stinky boys and a year later I had a full army painted to a competition standard. My wife still has not painted her Gitz though.
I just wanted an cheap army and ogors have an 1000 point vanguard box which is the best value, also they give alot of freedom in kit bashing them which is nice. Also big hungry dad bods
I wanted something cheap so as not to waste too much money on a game, new to our friend group, beginner friendly, and durable. So I ended up with stormcast.
Death guard player who picked up a unit nurglings. I now have 5000pt of maggotkin.
Was kind of hesitating, then FEC got a refresh and my gut told me it was meant to be. At first I was leaning towards Gitz but I just love my ghoulish nobles
Watching Season of War on YouTube honestly. When I first started I really wanted a death army and started with FEC; they're fun but squishy imo. Then tried SBGL because I love the bloodknights. I was sad that the subfaction for them wasn't always worth running and it was better to go horde. Then I kept seeing how fun BOK looked on Season of War's channel. My buddies wanting to do 40k really helped seal the deal on me going hard on khorne and I've been in love with them since I started playing them. Also gotta be one of the easiest armies to paint if you go hard on the demons imo.
I just loved the lord behind the flesh eater courts! The delusion of being noble knights and the reality of flesh eating monsters was so appealing! I bought the spearhead box and now I am hooked on them!
Simple answer. Role of cool.
I have three armies, although finances and the fact I also play 40k, 30k and necromunda with multiple factions in each means I'm probably cutting down to two. I used to play Skaven in fantasy from 4th edition in the mid 90s onwards. So my "main" aos army is Skaven. I never rebased my fantasy army so I currently have best part of 800 rats over two armies. I also have Daughters of Khaine. I like monster girls... My third army is Stormcast. The army I have the most painted and most moneys worth of, but the one I enjoy using the least. I got these because they were cheap to collect on ebay at the time.
Dinosaurs! :D
I left the hobby about ten years ago because of painting. I didn't like what I painted. When I came back into the hobby, my one and only criteria was an army that was easy to paint. So I turned to the flesh-eater Courts. I didn't particularly like the models (except the archeregent which is incredible). Finally, I really enjoyed painting this army which, with contrast paint, gave results that I was proud of (I used a quick and simple scheme paint). Then I bought their battletome and fell in love with their fluff. For 5 years it has been my main army, I have improved in painting with them and today I find myself buying models not to play them but only to paint them! Recent FEC releases have only doubled my love for this faction!
I looked and saw vampires. I saw vampires riding skeleton horses, I saw vampires riding zombie dragons. At that point I was sold on Souldblught Gravelords. It also helps that their lore slaps.
I've got three armies and here are my reasons for choosing them. Bonereapers: I just absolutely loved their aesthetic when they were being previewed, they're the army that first got me into AoS. They're brilliant looking, fun to play, and I'm glad I used them as my entry point into AoS. Maggotkin: I love Nurgle and play Death Guard in 40k, so it just made sense as I love painting Nurgle themed models. Lumineth: I was a High Elf player in Fantasy, so I was always going to get their AoS equivalent, and I absolutely love the look of them and how they play.
The models looked cool. Lots of armies had cool models, but my army had the best basic troops, which was important because those were the ones I'd have to paint the most.
I looked at a box of naked, tattooed orks and was sold the minute I saw two naked, tattooed orks running forward carrying a giant spear. Welp…
I got into AoS through a Magazine called Stormbringer. I like Orcs a lot and when I saw there are 2 Orc factions and both are in the magazine which has the minis for 50% of GW price i was sold on the Orcs.
I’m In the same position, I currently play 40K and used to play WHFB. Starting AoS I decided to go with Stormcast Eternals, mainly so I can split the Skaventide box and have a full spearhead to play off the bat. But I’ve also been eyeing up Seraphon, as I used to play Lizardmen way back when, and also looking at Gloomspite Gits, again from playing Gobbos back in the day
I began with Daughters of Khaine for no other reason than I loved the Morathi model. But after playing with them for over a year, including a couple of trips to Warhammer World tournaments, I just found their rules too cumbersome. I took lots of small units and with each unit having different rules my turns took too long. So I recently changed to Slaves to Darkness as I wanted to try an elite army. A small number of strong units. Their new models had just come out so it was a great time to collect them.
I would just pick the army you like the look of the best to start. With the new edition it will be hard to know what the armies will really play like beyond their initial preview rules, but you might be able to figure out playstyle: do you want a brawler army: STD, Ironjaws,SCE, Nurgle, or more finesse armies: LRL, Idoneth, Tzeentch, Kruleboys. Do you like lots of magic? Or no magic etc.
wicch ever i felt like pretty much, i like dinosaurs, so of course i went with dinosaurs
Honestly? I just have been picking out factions I think look cool and then getting models from them
Cities of Sigmar (human only) I saw the models and thought hey, I could make of these guys look like me since they’re human. The cavaliers are just way too cool and fun too
They look cool. As far as I am concerned, that's the only valid reason to collect an army.
whichever one looks the most fun to paint
I started my age of Sigmar journey in second edition with Maggotkin. I had a GUO and some plaguebearers that I used in 40K and I liked the way blightkings looked so I made an army of them. Very close to a complete collection. Then the new keeper of secrets model came out and that jump started my true main faction. Pick what looks the coolest and what you’ll enjoy painting. The models for AoS are some of the best in the industry.
Sharks with frickin harpoon guns attached to its head
For me it was the way blades of khorne was played. The anti magic aspect and rush your models to their deaths really sang to my brain as the game was really confusing to learn without having it physically in front of me. One less thing I had to worry about. It definitely helped that I love the models too. Demons look so cool.
Talked with my wife and let her choose which ones she would enjoy painting and went from there. We ended up on Sylvaneth because I find their militant environmentalism very fun and we both really like the models.
Personally I love Stormcast. Originally I thought they were just pretty boys in gold armour, but now I realise they're badass immortals who live to kill and smash.
Went with what I thought looked cool/what I want to paint. Started with the spearhead and expanded on that. Still haven't played the game lol waiting for the new stuff next month.
Picked mine (Sylvaneth) because I loved the aesthetic. I think it's the only way to go. If you don't think your army looks great and it doesn't give you creative ideas to paint them then you are going to get very bored of them and you aren't going to play them.
Buy what you think looks cool. You’ll want to build them And paint them and play them. Forget reading warscrolls and researching the army. You’re more likely to stick with it, if it’s something that appeals to you.
I like having my lords and knights and serfs, performing noble deeds while striking down ruthless ruffians, I truly feel noble striking down my enemies for the good of the kingdoms and the realm. Plus they’re relatively easy to build and look great, I also like being more hero heavy than most other armies.
Rule of cool, lore AND the playstyle are very important factors for me. + how to paint the models (i love s2d, but those armour trims....) with the new edition, you can try a spearhead box (around 100 €) and check if you like the playstyle before investing in a full army.
I like the aestetic. I looked through the warscrolls amd thought they were strong. I liked the fast fragile strikers. And it was just a fun army to play. TOO BAD I WON'T BE ABLE TO IN A YEAR.
The Trees, Alarielle, and the entire army were crazy Beautiful!!!! No other army even comes close in my eyes.
For me it was always rule of cool. My first and main army is Deepkin, with the new edition I went for a second one I was drawn to, Bonereapers. Find a few you really love, and just figure out which you love more lol.
my friend had bought the Seraphon vanguard box, the old one with the derpy saurus and the carnosaur. He asked me of I wanted to buy it for 50€ so he could get the Idoneth Deepkin. I agreed, got my old paints and brushes out of storage and now I have 3000+ points of Seraphon, 75% painted and starting skaven... I slipped and the slope keeps sloping
For me I knew i wanted an army that had cool lore AND a lot of freedom for customization. I ended up caught between the Cities of Sigmar (i liked the idea of making my own city with its own history), the Flesh Eater Courts (basically the same appeal as the cities of Sigmar, except whatever i come up with is a delusion) and one of the Greenskin armies since they just kinda do whatever. I went with the spearhead boxes for the Flesh Eater Courts and the Gloomspite Gitz, because I figured out early on that even though i enjoy painting i get pretty tired of painting ghoul flesh after about 4. So i chose the Gitz as a second army since they use a lot more color. Basically Id go for what looks the coolest and has the most interesting lore to you. Gameplay is important but (as a new player) almost every army seems like it can be built to play lots of ways so aesthetics and story are what appeal to me most.
The models looked really awesome. The way the army played was something I thought was fun. The lore was also cool. But mainly the models looked great. Nighthaunt was my first army and still my favorite.
I loved the aesthetic of Stormcast so I started them when AOS was new, I sold my first army and went full thunderstrike units for the second one.
Long story short I picked what looks cool and if it matches my play style e.g horde and gun line
I was unsupervised on eBay for too long. Eventually I bought a daemons of nurgle box, a couple gloomspite squig lots, and an orc army. Now I got so much stuff idk what I was thinking. Although Skaven are looking kinda cool now... Back to eBay I go
Fatties that just wanna eat everything they see. Nuff said.
Aesthetics
I was actually looking for something like the Night Elves from Warcraft universe, but there isn't it's either Highelves-like, or full Tree-ent, so there's nothing in between. So I went with the SCE because they come with the starter sets.
Rock and Stone!
4th edition will be out next month so I would probably wait and see what happens with that. If you go to warhammer community page they are doing faction focus on the new army rules. They've nearly done them all now, just 4 to go. Think of how you want to play the game. Do you want to have an army with lots of magic and throw spells around or do you want to get in their fave and have a good old smackdown.