The Best Way To Start Playing Age of Sigmar?

By Juan Lopez | June 24th, 2017 | Categories: Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop, Product Review, Tabletop Gaming Products, Videos

Games Workshop has released a new starter box set for Age of Sigmar: Thunder and Blood. Is this the best way to start playing games in the mortal realms?

The Thunder and Blood Starter Box is going to be a great starter kit for players new to Age of Sigmar or the Warhammer hobby in general. It is priced at $80 and provides a decent amount of miniatures for a starter set with 44 miniatures, a play mat, paint guides, and more. Be sure to check out our Unboxing and Review vid below for the complete breakdown of this starter box.

The miniatures come on six sprues and are cast in a gold/ochre color for Stormcast and red for Khorne. They can be painted or left as is if the player is new and wants to quickly dive into a match to learn and become familiar with the game. What the box does not contain are HQs such as Vandus Hammerhand or Korghos Kul. The container holding the sprues and accessories is also a terrain piece that is used in conjunction with the place mat and sort of emulates the existing AoS terrain kits.

Now, the play mat that is included was once teased as possibly being vinyl (at GAMA ’17). Instead, it is made of just normal poster material and is double sided. One side is iconic clockwork Stormcast in design and the other is more of a desolate, Chaos-inspired wasteland. Another great piece of this box set is the 96 page book included that will aid a new player that is fresh to Age of Sigmar or the Warhammer hobby get started.

Lore, paint guides from basing to technical details, starter rules, and warscrolls make up the contents.

Thunder & Blood: A Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Starter Set: $80

It is a time of madness and horror. The Mortal Realms writhe in the grip of the Chaos Gods, whose murderous champions fight furiously to extinguish the last lights of hope. But above, the heavens roar and the sky itself is rent by searing bolts – the Stormcast Eternals, glorious warriors of celestial light, have arrived to turn back the tide of Khorne’s murderous Bloodbound. The war has begun in earnest.

Thunder and Blood is the perfect starter set , containing everything you need to start playing games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It contains 44 Easy To Build miniatures from both the Khorne Bloodbound and Stormcast Eternals armies, supplied in red and gold plastic – these are a great introduction to the wider world of Citadel miniatures as a whole. Included:

– 2 units of 5 Liberators each armed with Warhammers and Sigmarite Shields, including a Liberator-Prime;
– 3 Prosecutors armed with Celestial Hammers, including a Prosecutor-Prime;
– 3 Retributors armed with Lightning Hammers, including a Retributor-Prime;
– 1 Lord Relictor armed with Relic Hammer;
– 2 units of 10 Bloodreavers each armed with Reaver Blades, including a Chieftain and Icon Bearer;
– 5 Blood Warriors armed with Goreaxes and Gorefists, including a Chaos Champion;
– 1 Khorgorath;
– 1 Bloodstoker armed with Torture Blade and Blood Whip.

Of course, you’ll need rules and guidance in order to play games with your new miniatures – included is a 96-page softback book, packed with background and essential information on painting and playing:

– An easy to follow guide to setting up and playing games of Warhammer Age Of Sigmar, including the basic rules of movement, spellcasting and attacking, with notes and annotations explaining exactly how each phase works;
– 4 Battleplans – these are scenarios that feature the included miniatures, with special instructions for setting them up, each re-creating a specific battle from the rich history of the struggle to dominate the Mortal Realms – these increase in scale from the initial few miniatures to finally fielding every one of the 44 included, easing you into larger and larger battles;
– 8 Warscrolls – these contain the rules for individual miniatures, explaining how far they move, how strong their attacks are and any special abilities they may have;
– Overview and background of the Age of Sigmar, with guides to the Mortal Realms and a history of the battles between Chaos and Order that are tearing them apart;
– Simple, easy to follow guides (4 steps each!) to painting a Stormcast Eternals Liberator and a Khorne Bloodbound Blood Warrior;
– Uniform guides to 6 Stormcast Eternals and 6 Khorne Bloodbound factions – these are designed to be inspirational rather than necessarily followed to the letter, making your collection unique;
– Guides to and explanations of the various types of Citadel brushes – what they’re used for, and how to take care of them;
– Guides to the various techniques used to paint miniatures – undercoating, basecoating, shading, drybrushing, layering and glazing are covered, with explanations of each technique and practical examples showing you their effects on; – Methods for creating evocative bases for your miniatures to stand on;
– An explanation of Technical paints, and their use in creating special effects like blood and rust;

It also contains a double-sided gaming mat, representing different areas of the Mortal Realms, 6 dice, a measuring stick, a rules reference card and a Stormcast Eternals transfer sheet: even the internal box tray doubles up as a scenery piece!