Hi guys, I am planning to organize an introductory match at my local with my friend group. Some of them have played WFB. I played it pretty hard but haven't played AOS more than 4 times, despite knowing the rules pretty good. My intention is to play some sort of "narrative" game with the minis I own, to avoid paperhammer and making the game more attractive. However, I need some help with balancing the "armies", and even the battleplan. That is why I am here asking for your more experienced help or even ideas/brainstorming for narrative part. The list of minis: 1 Carnosaur 1 Bastiladon (3 potentially, just need to glue them) 1 Stegadon with the Engine of the Gods 1 Skink priest 3 Razordon 3 Terradon 11 Skinks 100 Skinks on square bases The bad guys: 1 Great Unclean One 1 Bloodthirster 1 Lord of Change The idea is we can play this between 3-4 players, so my initial idea is they could each play as a demon... What do you think about it? Greetings!! inakue
My suggestion is to balance it in their favor, by playing into their wheelhouse. I once charged a whole unit of Ferox Cav through Cygnar Cover Fire templates just to give a new player the thrill of their army performing at maximum carnage. Different game, obviously, and different folks. If your opponents are experienced gamers, maybe you need to be more subtle.
A fun narrative scenario could be to use the engine of the gods as an objective\set piece where their goal is to destroy it\stop it from summoning\casting within a set number of turns. Then you could defend it with the rest of your army using mainly skinks to let them get a high body count while still providing a challenge with some of the bigger dinos.
I looked for the value poins: SERAPHON: 1180p 1 Carnosaur 1 Bastiladon 1 Stegadon with the Engine of the Gods 1 Skink priest 3 Razordon 3 Terradon 10 Skinks DAEMONS: 990p 1 Great Unclean One 340p 1 Bloodthirster 270p 1 Lord of Change 380p Do you guys think the Daemons can delete the seraphon army? I am thinking of making the seraphon keep the battle X turns, until the allies come to combat...
if you're looking at pts value and you want to have balanced armies… do you really need the terradons? Anyway, i have an issue. If each player use a Daemon, the risk is obvious: in the moment you kill one of them (let's say the bloodthirster, the one that is going to represent the most immediate threat), what that player will do for the rest of the game? the idea is very nice, but i doubt it is balanced for an introductive game.
Yeah as @Killer Angel says you probably couldn't treat this as an actual match. It would be more like you are DMing a combat scenario for them.
I might look at dropping the bastiladon and adding 10 more skinks. This would bring the points closer to equal, and it would help give the demons an edge. The biggest risk right now is the bastiladon deleting 1 demon off the board in the first turn or two with it's increased demon slaying power. I think Salacious has the right idea. DM the situation to teach them the ropes, and try to keep it close, but in their favor.
My advice would be to give each of them 5-10 skinks to fight, then let them each charge into combat against a monster each, but after you have shot them with some of them (alternatively, let them attack eachother's demons with the skinks). There's basically no way to do this in a perfect, balanced way, but it might feel more exciting than a tutorial if they controlled eachother's enemies in combat, or if after fighting the skinks, they fought eachother. More competitive, more investment. Alternatively, give them the Carnosaur, Engine, and Bastiladon to fight as a team, then let them beat eachother up.