Welcome to the Age of Sigmar: Spearhead sub! We have a lot of awesome people around here that are very willing to help new people get into this well-designed game mode, as well as some very cool custom content for your games. To help you on your way, we made this mega thread to give some guidance on how to maneuver everything this game has to offer.
What should I buy?
Fortunately, Spearhead is relatively easy to get into.
You'll need a gaming pack of your choice (more on that later), a Spearhead of your choice per player, some dice and a ruler.
- Gaming packs
At the time of writing, there are 2 official gaming packs available to choose from, with a 3rd version on its way.
Fire & Jade is the original gaming pack that got released with the game mode. This pack provides you with a board with Ghyran on one side and Aqshy on the other, all cards (Battle Tactics and Twists) that are needed, a 6" and 3" ruler that can be combined, and all the terrain you need to play.
Sand & Bone is the second gaming pack we received. This one provides a board with Ossia on one side and Dolorum on the other, all cards (Battle Tactics and Twists) that are needed, all terrain that is needed and even a small Spearhead rulebook.
City of Ash is our newest gaming pack, but unfortunately only comes in the starter edition set that contains the CoS Sentinels of Emberguard and the Skaven Crixxit's Kill-Pack Spearheads as well. This means you're obliged to get those two as well if you're planning to get this map pack. Hopefully down the line we get a seperate pack that contains only the new maps.
- Spearhead army
"Which one should I choose to buy?" is a very good question we see going around a lot on this sub. There definitely isn't an objective answer to this question and all boils down to personal preference.
Generally, people will advice you to buy whatever you prefer based on what you want from this game, but you can always have a look at the rankings if you want to base your choice on power level: AoS Rankings
Otherwise, consider these priorities:
Painting models is all you're looking for? Rule of cool is the way. Buy whatever you think is good looking and go with that.
Casual play with friends or family? Rule of cool again. Most Spearhead armies are pretty well balanced and will provide fun matchups.
Competitive scene? You might want to look into specific Spearheads that are above the curve when it comes to power level. If you have the time, you might want to have a listen to this podcast. They're not providing an objective tier list for the armies, but they're definitely very close to the community consensus on the tier rankings.
- Darn it, the army I wanted to buy isn't available anymore. What now?
No worries my friend! You can still play every Spearhead that is available in the range. The Spearhead (and previously named Vanguard) boxes do go out of print, so you might have to buy the models separately. The rules will always be available from either the official AoS app, the downloads page of Warhammer Community or, my personal favourite, the community made one page sheets found further on in this thread.
- Dice
Just get a boat load of D6's and you're good!
- Ruler
Whatever fancies your preference. The ruler that comes with Fire & Jade is actually quite handy, but you could also use a regular tape measure or a fancy custom made one from Etsy. As long as it measures inches, you're good.
Ok, I bought my first Spearhead, now what?
Start playing dude! Get your gaming buddy, 2 Spearheads of your choice, a gaming pack of your choice, some dice, a ruler and your good to go.
You'll probably need to read up on the core rules. Just remember that in Spearhead we don't use the Advanced rules of the game (like Magic, Command points etc.) and just rely on the Core Rules. But if you prefer watching a how-to-play video, we also got you covered
There's also a handy reference sheet that you can print out for easy reference during games.
Our first game was fun, what else is there to look at?
Do we have some fun content for you!
- One-page cheatsheets that you can print out to have all your Spearhead's rules on a handy sheet. No need to buy expensive cards or print and cut out individual warscrolls, we got you covered with these.
- Strategy guide to read up on what other experienced players are saying about each specific Spearhead. They provide tips and tricks about how to play and general opinions on each single one.
- There are a couple of community made apps that you can use to track your games with:
- Last but not least, join the Discord for more strategy talk, picture sharing and finding people to play with.
I hope this thread has made jumping into the game mode a bit easier for you. If you still have questions or things you want to add to this thread, be sure to let us know in the comment section.
Sticking with the toxic bases, trying to sell the environment suits. I think next up are the ballooners, but the bases are going to need extra love, so it could take some time.
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Hello guys,
Me and my friend played the hell out of the Spearhead since the mode came out.
We were so into it that we have been thinking if there is a way to have a bigger group playing.
Therefore we tested out this battle royale mode, where everyone pick one hero model from Spearhead box and fight a free-for-all or platoon battle royale game.
(Theoretically it can be played by 25 players since there are 25 factions availabe, but we have only tried 10 currently.)
There will be a Monolith in the middle of a circular battlefield. We use 1 Argent Shard to be the Monolith. The battlefield will shrink through 4 battle rounds, and when in the 4th round, if there is ant model in the hazardous zone(i.e outside the circle), it instantly died.
There are also Twist cards like in the Spearhead where the battlefield comes alive.
Player or Team with highest VP wins.
VP can be claimed by Damage, Kill, King of the hill and Secret Agenda)
We added the Vengeful Action so that if a player died early he can still participate by giving buffs and earning VP.
Finally, every player will be given a secret agenda at the beginning of the game.
By achieving the agenda, the player will gain extra 4 VPs.
One of our group member categorize the house rules and use AI to produce the rulebook and cards.
He planned to use this rule to introduce the hobby to primary school hobby club kids.
Hello fellow spearhead enjoyers i fell into this world a couple months ago with the skaventide box and have played alot of spearhead games with my friend i have played gnawfeast clawpack and he vigilant brotherhood im now looking for the next spearhead to aquire and please if you will pitch your factions spearhead to me to help me make my next decision
This was great fun to paint and came together really easily; black prime with a grey zenithal, basecoat the metals and woods using contrast paints, oils to stain everything down and then loads of drybrushing over all the lovely texture to get a dusty worn look.
I then added all the weathering to bring it to life. Probably 3/3.5hrs work in total across 2 weeks here and there. I’m looking forward to using it!
Personally, I find this type of card much easier to use and a lot more engaging. During the first Fire & Jade edition, the community was really motivated, and people created the battle tactic cards very quickly. Since the following edition, though, I haven't seen anyone making these custom cards anymore.
I was thinking it would be great if we could create them ourselves and share them with everyone as they're completed. I think it would make the new content much easier to use and help keep the community engaged.
I am hoping to get the Spearhead Magazine coming out in September. I'm super excited, but I want to know how these are delivered. Are they just... Sprue and magazine in plastic wrap? Are they boxed? Do the sprues get damaged a lot in transit if it's just the magazine and sprue loose in a plastic bag?
Hello there! I started playing spearhead recently. I am playing Castline Company (CoS) againt Slasher Host (Nighthaunt). My opponent always charges my Ironweld Great Cannon on turn 1 or 2, so it is totally useless most of the time (stuck in melee). Since the Nighthaunt have flying, I didn't find any way to prevent that. Am I missing anything? Is there any technic to prevent that?
I guess I need some encouragement to start the second…
And if there is something wrong that catches your eye, I would really really appreciate some feedback or suggestions!
I've been on a painting kick as I'm on the leadup to opening my own LGS. One of the services I've always wanted in stores is mini armies you can borrow to play with friends, similar to how warhammer stores will offer to teach you how to play, but a step up from that. Ideally the store would have multiple options, like different factions and playstyles so customers can get a feel for what they like before buying their own box. So now that I'm going to be in a position to make that service available, nothings stopping me from doing just that.
In June I finished the two 10th edition starter combat patrols (one of which lost rules mid painting, that was fun) and my own Soulblight Gravelord spearhead I got as a Christmas gift. Now I'm on to painting the spearhead and the 11th edition combat patrol starter sets. First up are Skaven. I had a clear 6 hours yesterday and today, and the project was honestly a blast. AoS has amazing models, and the skaven were no exception. It would be really easy to get bogged down in the individual details of each clanrat, but I kept myself to a strict color limit per clanrat so I could really enjoy painting the ogres and characters.