A Small but Brain-Melting 1500-Point AoS Battle
We managed to get in a small Age of Sigmar game this week, and even though it was “just” a 1500-point battle, it definitely gave our brains a proper workout.
Michał summed it up best right after the game: a 1500-point format split between two armies from different alliances is a bit weird… but honestly? It was still a lot of fun.
Learning the bigger game
A big theme of the evening was simple: there is a lot to remember.
Stas said it felt a bit slow at times, but for a very understandable reason — we still don’t know all the rules well enough yet. You could already see that Michał is moving around the system more smoothly, but even he admitted that memory is not exactly a superpower here. In true post-game fashion, there was also immediate regret over forgotten rules and missed abilities — including the now legendary forgotten bell.
That’s probably the most relatable part of learning a new system. Not losing models. Not bad dice. Just that moment after the game when you suddenly remember the one thing you absolutely should have used.
Spearhead helps. A lot.
One of the more interesting takeaways from the discussion after the game was how much Spearhead helps when moving into larger AoS battles.
According to Michał, once you’ve played enough Spearhead, switching to a bigger format is much easier because the core instincts are already there. You still need to learn the extra layers, of course, but at least movement, flow, and some basic reactions start becoming automatic.
And honestly, that tracks with how we felt after this game. It was mentally heavy, but not in a hopeless way. More in a “okay, one more round and this starts making sense” way.
Ender described it perfectly: one round was enough to start seeing what connects to what — now it’s “just” a matter of rereading things a few times and actually remembering them during play.
The real enemy: edge cases
As always with a learning game, a lot of the post-battle talk wasn’t really about who won or lost, but about all the little rules questions that come up during play:
- can this unit see that target or not?
- can it shoot here or not?
- how exactly does this interaction work?
Classic stuff.
We ended up with the very familiar feeling that we really need to sit down properly with the core rules and the General’s Handbook 2025, because a lot of these situations would feel much better if we had more confidence in the answers.
There was also some very on-brand hobby-tech brainstorming about feeding the rules into an AI assistant for quick questions mid-game. Which, to be fair, sounds extremely tempting when everyone is tired and trying to remember line of sight wording.
The hobby spiral after the battle
Of course, no game night is complete without immediately derailing into new army ideas.
After the battle, the conversation rapidly shifted into browsing models, proxies, and possible future Spearheads. Michał found some very nice OPR proxy sculpts, especially for units he was considering printing, and from there it turned into the usual escalating chain reaction:
- maybe print a few more jezails,
- maybe use some proxies,
- maybe start Nurgle,
- maybe Slaves to Darkness,
- maybe finish Khorne,
- maybe Cities of Sigmar,
- maybe goblins,
- maybe giants,
- maybe… all of them.
A completely normal and healthy hobby response.
A few of the proxy finds were genuinely gorgeous, and honestly we get it. Sometimes one cool sculpt is all it takes to start mentally assembling a whole new project.
There was also some discussion about piecing together Spearheads from proxies, old models, or whatever we have lying around. Which is probably the most realistic way to approach this, because apparently every single faction starts looking attractive once you’ve had a fun game.
And yes, goblins also entered the chat.
Final thoughts
This wasn’t a polished tournament game. It was a learning battle, a bit awkward in format, occasionally slow, and full of rules lookups and forgotten tricks.
And it was great.
That’s kind of the charm of these early games. You can feel the system starting to click, even if it still fights back a little. We’re already seeing that the more we play, the faster and smoother it will get — whether that’s more Spearhead or more small full-size battles.
Big thanks again to everyone involved for the game and the post-game hobby spiral. That was a proper mini battle report in the best possible sense: a little chaotic, very educational, and dangerously inspiring for future projects.