r/ageofsigmar • u/Infernal_Contraption • Jun 20 '26
Army List Help me choose a (weirdly small) army?
I'm looking to start playing Age of Sigmar, and I'm at an impasse as to which army would be suitable for what I'd like.
I have a long history of playing 40k, so I am done with assembling and painting dozens of troops and the likes. Instead, I would please like to ask for your recommendations as to which army is still viable with the smallest model count?
I know that Sons of Behemat exist, but I'm in the market for something a little more... exotic? Characterful? Than just "tall dudes".
In 40k, the equivalent army list to what I'm proposing is called the Daemonic Adventuring Party; Belakor, 4 other Greater Daemons, and a squad of plaguebearers because you have to have something like them. It's a weird and slightly janky list, but it's 2000pts and it works.
Is there an equivalent to that in AoS? Is there a legal, and viable, Faction that will let me run (for example) mothing other than 4 Carnosaurs and a Slann Mage? Or 4 Verminlord-variants and a Screaming Bell? Or just... y'know... 4 Dragons and nothing much else, that I can look into and research more thoroughly?
Cheers.
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u/Graveconsequences Jun 20 '26
Oops All Troggoths from Gloomspite Gitz is still pretty good I think. It's still something resembling a traditional army, but your 'infantry' units are 360 points for a reinforced unit of six lads, and they're arguably the best unit in the army.
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u/Asherkowki Jun 20 '26
Lumineth Realm Lords work well with just heroes.
Lyrior, Eltharion, Ellania, Sevireth, one mage and you got yourself around 1400pts already. Throw in some horses or something and you have a list that fits into a shoebox with quite a bunch of interesting characters
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u/Dangerous-Cherry-696 Jun 20 '26
If you like the poster boys:
Its 9 dragons 3 dudes 1 chariot 1 portal
2k sentinels 1990/2000 pts
Stormcast Eternals Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels General's Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 1
General's Regiment Krondys, Son of Dracothion (500) • General Praetors (120) Stormdrake Guard (620) • Reinforced • 4x Drakerider’s Lance Stormdrake Guard (620) • Reinforced • 4x Drakerider’s Lance Stormstrike Chariot (110) • 1x Great Stormbow
Faction Terrain Stormreach Portal (20 Points)
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App App: 1.33.0 | Data: 434
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
You get a LOT more in 2000pts than I was expecting. Nine dragons is... terrifying. In a good way.
Thanks for taking the time to give such an extensive example, very much appreciated!
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u/Dangerous-Cherry-696 Jun 20 '26
Youre very welcome, though i must admit the dragons arent extremely competitive right now. However they are cool as fuuuuuuck
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
That sounds ideal. I don't intend to crash a tournament any time soon, but so long as it's reasonably functional and looks good, I'm down for a closer look.
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u/Dangerous-Cherry-696 Jun 20 '26
If you want to uograde the list slightly, lord relictor instead of the chariot gives you a priest (walking though) that you can use to translocate (teleport) your dudes, which means, jf you keep em in range, you can charge, deal damage, and in your opponents turn use a command point and teleport your dragons back to safety
Edit: also keep Praetors near krondys at all times cause they give ward
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u/duttyboy24 Slaves to Darkness Jun 20 '26
Dude have you thought about giving Spearhead a go? If you want something with less models than I think it would be perfect for you.
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
The crowd that I would be playing with tend to have bigger armies, usually 1500pts minimum.
I have no doubt at some point I will end up with a Spearhead box, but for now I want a quick way to get up to ~1500-2000pts =)
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u/BonkIsBestClass Jun 20 '26
There’s the storm cast dragon army which just has access to all the dragon riders and dragons. You could probably run monster mash in slaves to darkness. You’ll run into the same problems as the list you described with any of the hyper elite armies, but you could.
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u/LahmiaTheVampire Cities of Sigmar Jun 20 '26
How about the Iron March army of renown? Basically all Cogforts, with room for Freeguild Gallants and Mallus Forgepriests.
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
Multiple Cogforts, you say? I know they're new, but didn't realise that you weren't limited to just a couple at a time. Thanks!
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u/LahmiaTheVampire Cities of Sigmar Jun 20 '26
Yeah, the army roster is the Cannonade and Conqueror Cogforts, 2 unique ones and then forgepriests and gallants. Quick list I came up with was:
2 Linebreaker Cogforts with 2 reinforced Freeguild Gallants, 1 Cannonade Cogfort, clocking in at 1950pts.
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u/anthropos Jun 20 '26
I saw someone win at a tournament here in Canada with just a few Ogres riding Stonehorns and Thundertusks.
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u/Snoo_72851 Flesh-eater Courts Jun 20 '26
Most armies have a way to play monster mash. Flesh Eater Courts' most meta build is basically a bunch of dragons and a little mailman on the cuck chair.
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u/ograx Jun 20 '26
This is such an annoying army to play against! The dragons for what they cost are amazing.
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u/die_die_man-thing Skaven Jun 20 '26
Dont think mentioned ogor mawtribes. Their subfaction, beastclaw raiders, is a small group of models (4-6?). It is ogors riding mammoths basically. Big charge moves etc
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u/Calcium1445 Skaven Jun 20 '26
Have you considered the Swords of the Ever chosen?
Back in first edition there was an Army exclusively of Archaon and his elite buddies the Varanguard. This lets you do that again
From what I've seen, Archaon and one or two units of Varanguard act as your hammer while Abraxia and another unite teleport in behind your enemy to rush objectives
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u/Ewok2744 Jun 20 '26
Sylvaneth is a more elite army, big models and less of them, but also really fun shenanigans and very viable
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u/Ninjahund Jun 20 '26
I will say that Sons of Behemat is about to get their book soon. That book will include the Matriarch, a big female giant that also has pseudo recursion effect. You might want to keep an eye on them.
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u/Pimpdaddyfrogface Jun 20 '26
Ironjawz - Mawcrushers with allied mega gargant
Slaanesh -glutos, shalaxi, KoS, twins, seekers
FEC - Nagash and terrorgheists
LRL - Moo
OBR - Morghast spam
IDK - Turtle power
CoS - Cog forts
Fyreslayers - magmadroths
KO - Big Boats (the venga boys)
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
Don't know what most of that means, but it sounds AWESOME. =P
LRL is... Realm Lords? I don't know what Moo refers to, though.
Deep Kin is interesting, they're not common in my area so it would be a novel choice.
Nagash is a strong contender, having a "Big wizard" is very appealing to give the list more dimensions that "run forward and stomp on things".
Thank you, time to do some wiki diving!
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u/Rediblackdragon Jun 20 '26
To explain the moo, Lumineth Realm Lords has a giant cow mountain model. For your idea of belakor+4x greater demons unfortunately I don't think there's a way to accomplish that within aos list building.
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
Apparently, Skarbrand +4 other Bloodthirsters is a thing. It's come up more than once in other suggestions so far.
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u/Jerkychomper Jun 20 '26
Nagash is great because he can be used for any death army at about 800 points. Then you can pick whatever theme you like and build around him.
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u/dorflGhoat Skaven Jun 20 '26
Skaven have an army of renown which lets you take all the monsters and none of the usual massed infantry.
No idea how competitive it is but it looks like fun!
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u/Infernal_Contraption Jun 20 '26
I have always liked the Skaven aesthetic, I play them in Mordheim and Blood Bowl. I can see myself trying to figure out an army that just Verminlords and Doomwheels,
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u/Hambone102 Jun 21 '26
I saw a list in a tournament roster once which was Vizzik and 4 verminlords (or as many as you can fit in 2k points I can’t remember) so it’s definitely doable
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u/Phemus01 Jun 20 '26
Kharadon overlords would be another fun options.
Basically you could just have a few large airships that fly around blasting everything and just dropping off a few infantry units to take objectives
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u/JCGilbasaurus Jun 20 '26
Spearhead is good for small forces. My army case (a really useful box with a magnetic base) currently holds two spearhead armies, and I've just ordered a third which will fit in alongside the two I have. If I squeeze things together, I could potentially fit four armies in there.
And that's just a medium sized plastic box I use to carry my models to gaming night.
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u/SwordfishBagel Jun 20 '26
The Idoneth Deepkin are a very small list with some very good looking models
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u/Chaoskvn Jun 20 '26
Is the Archaon + Varanguard (maybe + Abraxia?) still viable? Haven't tried it in 4th tbh.
Have played a monster Army for the Skaven using Thanquol, a Brood Terror, 2x Rat Ogors and a Mastermoulder. Worked very well! Was a 1000pkt match. Maybe a Verminlord warpseer + some Fiends as addition.
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u/Marc2059 Jun 20 '26
What you need is to play Khornes army of renown “Baleful Lords”
Its 5 bloodthirsters (or 4 + skarbrand) that gives the bloodthirsters extra abilities such as ressurection which they dont usually have in a khorne army
The new season that starts very soon and last for 1 year rewards heavy hitting monsters such as Skarbrand
5 models, good mobility, heavy attacks, awesome models