How to build an army in Age of Sigmar can seem confusing and daunting for beginners. This guide will go through all the information that you need to build your army in matched play in Age of Sigmar 4.0.
If you want to know more about the different ways to play Age of Sigmar (open, narrative and matched play) you can refer to our matched play article where we go in details on that stuff. That article also goes into details on exactly what “matched play” means. This guide is specific to matched play army building.
A note on rules in Age of Sigmar 4.0: In this and other articles, we take an in-depth look at how Age of Sigmar 4.0 is played. In doing this, we often refer to the Core Rules of the game. Those rules are available as a free download from the Age of Sigmar website here.
How Battlepacks function in Age of Sigmar 4.0
The first and most important thing to familiarise yourself with in Age of Sigmar 4.0 is the concept of battlepack. You can consider a battlepack as a collection of rules to play, providing you with information on which armies are allowed, which special rules are applied, what terrain to use and, of course, battleplans (the missions you play each game).
In the fourth edition, all rules are modular, so each battlepack will provide which modules are used and, if required, add or replace some. The main source of these for Matched Play is the General’s Handbook which is usually a yearly publication. For example, the first one for this edition, the 2024/25 Battlepack, includes, other than the Core Rules, all Advanced Rules (Commands, Terrain, Magic, Army Composition, Command Models and Battle Tactics) and adds the Season Rule Honour Guard.
Another example would be the Fire and Jade Battlepack for Spearhead where only the Core Rules are used.
So, once you have determined which Battlepack you are going to use, is time to create your army. For this guide, we will be following the Army Composition module as printed in the main book. Remember, this is a module of the Advanced Rules, so the battlepack may tell you which army composition rules to follow.
Step-by-step: how to build an army in Age of Sigmar 4.0 for Matched Play
We are going to go into detail on everything further down below, but this is the quick rundown on how to build a legal list for Age of Sigmar 4.0 matched play, using the main Army Composition module:
- Determine the points limit for the game (standard games are either 1000 or 2000 points).
- Pick a faction and a battle formation.
- Form Regiments. You will need at least one led by your General.
- Add auxiliares and faction terrain.
- Add enhancements for your army and units.
- Pick the lores
If you want a digital tool to help, you can use Warscroll Builder or the new Games Workshop app (the first list is free).
Pick your faction and battle formation
When selecting an army, you need to choose one of the Age of Sigmar factions. All units need to belong to that faction, with some notable exceptions.
Each faction is associated with a Battle Profile that is a table now available for free on Warhammer Community few days after the release of each battletome. It describes all units available, their size, point cost and notes.
The notable difference from previous editions is that battlefield roles are gone. Now, each hero leads a regiment (more on this below) and determines which type of units can go with them.
For example, looking at the Kharadron’s list above, while an Arkanaut Admiral can take any unit from the entire roster plus a bonus hero called Guild Officer, Drekki Flynt cannot take some Skyvessels like the Ironclad or the Gunhauler, while all other heroes are limited to a single Skyvessel.
When choosing a faction, you can decide if you want to play their standard profile, or any Army of Renown available to them. These provide a different take on the same army with some restrictions in list building in favour of some different rulesets. These are mostly fun armies rather than being extremely competitive (so far at least).
The battle formations are faction rules that favour a certain type of unit or playstyle. You can choose only one, and that will most likely direct you towards a particular type of build for your list.
If you want more information on armies of renown and faction rules, you can read more in our article. If you want to know which factions are currently legal in Age of Sigmar 4.0, please refer to our Age of Sigmar Army Overview.
Form Regiments
If you were familiar with battlefield roles and all restrictions in place when they were used: those are all gone. The army composition is now much more streamlined (on paper, in reality things like the meta and battle tactics will cause much discussion on what can be really done).
The first thing you need is a hero that will lead your army, called general. If you are listing special named heroes with the keyword Warmaster, like Archaon, Teclis or Nagash, you’ll have to select your general between them.
Each hero you take forms a regiment and represents a single drop, which means that all units within a regiment are deployed all at once. As the first player to finish deployment chooses who starts the game first, it is sometimes beneficial to have the lowest amount of drops.
Each regiment can take up to 3 non-hero units, except the general that can take up to 4. Some armies have what is nicknamed “bonus hero”, i.e. a hero that can be taken in another hero’s regiment. Some regiments have a mandatory choice other than the main hero, and some a limit of how many units of a certain type can be included.
When picking a unit, if its minimum size is greater than 1, you can reinforce it, meaning you can take twice as many models (and the cost of the unit will also double). Some units are identified as Unique, and of those there can only be one in each army.
Each army can have a maximum of 5 regiments, of which maximum one can be a Regiment of Renown. Those are special pre-built regiments with their own rules and point cost. They belong to a different faction and is the exception to the rule that all units need to belong to the same faction. Some special units, like Neave’s Blacktalons, are a Regiment of Renown that can be used in all Order factions.
Auxiliares and faction terrain
If you need to take units without the constrain of the regiments, you can add them as an Auxiliary unit. You can have as many of them as you want, but the player with the least amount will get an extra command point each battle round. This is a high incentive to never use auxiliares.
Not all armies have access to faction terrain and only few have more than one, but if they do, this is the moment where you pick which one you want to include in your list for free. Note that only 1 can be included in the army.
Add enhancements
Each faction has a set of enhancements available to choose from. Those can be of different types, like heroic traits and artefacts of power, which are the main ones present in the indexes published with the launch of the fourth edition.
Heroic Traits can now be used by any hero (not just your general) but all enhancements follow the rule that they cannot be given to Unique units.
You can only pick one enhancement per type available to your faction, and, even if there are abilities that allow you to take more than one, you cannot give to a unit more than one enhancement of the same type and you can’t pick the same enhancement more than once.
Pick lores
Finally another big change in Age of Sigmar 4.0 involves magic. Each army is allowed to pick a spell lore, a prayer lore and a manifestation lore.
A spell lore is a collection of spells that any wizard in the army can cast. It usually involves a spell with the unlimited keyword that can be used by multiple wizards in the same phase.
Similarly, a prayer lore is used by all priests in the army, with the same unlimited option.
A manifestation lore is instead a collection of endless spells or invocations that can be summoned by the wizard/priest. Each lore is completely free to take so this is a great way to add some manifestations to your roster. You can read more about them in our article.
Note that you can pick a lore even if you don’t have anyone who can use it, although if your army has a wizard or a priest available, would be a good idea to bring them along.
Battle Tactics in Age of Sigmar 4.0
While it is not strictly part of the army composition, you’ll need to know which battle tactics are relevant in the battlepack you are playing. A portion of your unit will need to be able to complete these, while the others get objectives or hinder your opponent from completing theirs.
For example, if you need a unit to hold the centre of the battlefield, you need to be sure they will be able to withstand the concentrated fire unleashed by your adversary the following turn. While if you need to get to the borders of the battlefield, you’ll need fast units or means to teleport units around.
Sharing your army list with your opponent
Once your list is ready, be prepared to share it with your opponent before the match. In friendly matches at your local game store or between friends, ensure they are readable and include everything mentioned above.
You can use tools like Warscroll Builder from Warhammer Community website, or the new AoS app to have a nicely formatted list.
Tournaments may dictate the way you write your list, as they need to easily be validated to ensure you are compliant with the rules and that your opponent can easily see what you are bringing to the table.
Another important tool you can use is AoS Reminders, that presents a nice list of all rules/abilities and whatsoever that you need to remember related to the army list you built. It has not been updated to AoS 4.0 yet.
Some useful tips and tricks for list building in Age of Sigmar 4.0
List building in itself is an exercise that many wargamers learn to love more than the game itself. A good strategy is to not only fill in the slots as described above but also to use troops that will be able to counter-attack your opponent.
The first thing to understand is that there is no single army that can win every single match effortlessly, and this is good for the balance of the game. If the rules in a new battletome gets exploited with some strategies Games Workshop hasn’t caught in the development of the book, an FAQ a few weeks after the book in question, or the quarterly released matched play update, should correct the situation.
Even when you hear about a super competitive list or army, it is not necessarily the strongest thing you are going to encounter. So here we introduce the concept of meta. Meta is short for metagaming which can have different meanings, but in this context, we refer to the strategies (and armies) most adopted in the environment where you play. If you are just a group of friends at your local club that plays casually, you are most likely not going to see the top armies, therefore preparing to counter one of those, it may hinder you more than it helps you.
Tip number 1: know your meta, and prepare to face that, not potential threats you’ll never encounter.
And how do you prepare yourself for that? First you need to consider the role of the different units. Note that these terms are not referred to in your battletome, but many wargamers will refer to them. If you want to know which of your army units can occupy these roles, you will need to read the specific army guides (we have one for every army released) or listen to relevant podcasts. For example The Honest Wargamer prepares periodically a Faction Reaction show worth your time.
The first concept is the anvil. This is a unit that can be placed on top of an objective and withstand what your enemy is going to throw at it without wavering too much. We are talking about units with high saves (3+ or better), high wounds, maybe an after-save ward. Those units are useful to maintain control of an objective.
The second type is the hammer. These are units that can deal a lot of damage. They are not necessarily resistant, hence they usually need to hit fast and first. They are useful for taking control of an objective by getting rid of any resistance encountered.
Another term that you are may hear is that of a deathstar. This is a unit that can deal an absurd amount of damage if you apply the right buffs to it (via spells or abilities), but it costs a lot of points and usually requires a lot of effort to create and maintain.
Their nemesis is what is commonly called chaff: inexpensive units you can strategically sacrifice to delay an opponent from grabbing objectives. These can also be used to run towards an abandoned objective, increase the body count on one to alter the balance, and so on.
Almost every army has chaff, the other roles may not be available so easily. You need to learn the strength and weaknesses of your army and understand what you can use for different purposes.
A new role born in this edition that Vince from Warhammer Weekly nicknames “prospectors” are those units able to move fast, teleport or use other means to obtain as many battle tactics as possible. An example is the Nighthaunt unit Dreadblade Harrow that at the very beginning of the fourth edition was able to be anywhere it was required securing 8/12 points per game.
Tip number 2: learn which roles your units can perform. You need objective grabbers, objective holders and units to delay the units you cannot cope with.
An important aspect of playing matched play is that it is an objective-based game with a currency, called victory points, that determines the winner. Usually who obtains more objectives at the end of the game is the winner but it is not always this way as the battle tactics grant 40% of the maximum points you can get in a match.
Therefore you will need units which favour counter-play. For example units able to move in your opponent’s turn to make them fail a battle tactic, one able to counter-charge easily, or one that can improve the return-fire, all abilities used off-turn.
Be also attentive of what your meta brings to the table. In this season, many units obtain specific bonuses against certain type of units, like Cavalry or Infantry. If your meta is full of Hexwraiths or Vanguards, having a unit with bonuses against them would help. Equally, having a unit with good saves and bonuses when it gets charged, is pretty good to hold objectives.
Tip number 3: study the battleplan accurately and determine which objectives you can comfortably control and ignore the others.
The player with the least points at the beginning of a battle round is called underdog and will have some advantage in that battle round. Having less points could be not that bad. For example, it may not be worth to sacrifice an important unit just to obtain one extra objective.
Battle tactics in this edition are tougher, so when you are committing be sure, because a mistake may cause one or more of your units to be out of position for several turns.
Tip number 4: screen appropriately your most important units
This is valid for many things, including shooting and magic. Screening units are placed between your core units and your opponent. Normally this would be enough, but in the fourth edition each unit has a combat range of 3″, which combined with a 3″ pile-in move may allow an enemy unit to jump 6″ behind your screening unit directly towards what you were trying to protect.
To avoid this, ensure that you use terrain features effectively and remember the 6″ rule for your key units. Also, when summoning Manifestations without a move characteristic, remember that the opponent can teleport close to them as they do not count as units at that stage, charge them when an easier roll, then pile in around it and hit the units up to 3″ behind the manifestation.
Tip number 5: is that hero really worth a drop?
This is something specific to this edition and that would need to be considered carefully. Some armies may just ignore this point, and depending on the meta or future battle tactics, this problem may be reduced.
If you are not going to finish deploying before your opponent, remember that you don’t need to deploy a single regiment at a time, but can decide to deploy each unit individually so that you can place them in the best position to counteract where your opponent placed theirs.
Therefore, when choosing a hero, you’ll need to think if the utility or power it brings is worth an extra drop. For example, a power-house like Archaon is welcome in most lists, a melee hero with limited damage output? It may be considered if they can be a “bonus hero” in another hero’s regiment.
To understand which heroes to enlist it’s easy: do they bring bonuses that you cannot find anywhere else in the army? For example, are they the only priest and you have access to good prayers? Are they the only mean to teleport units in an otherwise slow army? Do they provide bonus to hit in an army otherwise stuck with a 4+?
They could also be hammers or anvils, i.e. heroes that can hold objectives or take them by doing so much damage your opponent will struggle to counter.
If the hero cannot answer positively to any of these questions, then it’s ready to be shelved until the next warscroll or meta change. Unless they are a “bonus hero” and they can do a niche job to help a specific unit you have plenty of.
Other resources for building an Age of Sigmar army
If you need some inspiration for lists, AoS Shorts does an amazing job of collecting lists from all over the world with tournament results, while down at the The Honest Wargamer you can find list submissions created by other gamers.
Another important source of information for the reviewed factions can be found in Goonhammer, keep an eye there too as they do some amazing guides.
If you are a fan of statistics, you can compare your different weapon profiles using Statshammer tool.
