How to Start Age of Sigmar: A Beginner's Guide

Age of Sigmar can look like a fortress with no front door. There are towering hardback tomes, armies with names like the Kharadron Overlords and the Gloomspite Gitz, and a decade of storyline about gods and dead worlds. The reassuring truth is that every veteran you will ever meet began exactly where you are now, with a single box and a lot of questions. This guide breaks the hobby into plain steps so you can go from curious onlooker to confident collector at whatever pace suits you.

What Age of Sigmar Actually Is

At its core, Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a tabletop miniatures wargame. Two players assemble armies of models, deploy them across a battlefield of hills and ruins, and roll dice to resolve their clashes. It is equal parts strategy game, craft project, and shared storytelling session, all set inside a high fantasy universe of extraordinary scope.

That universe unfolds across the Mortal Realms, eight vast planes of living magic where gods walk in person, cities are lit by captured storms, and civilization is clawing its way back from near-extinction. You do not need to memorise any of it to begin, but be warned that many people arrive for the models and stay for the world. If you want the setting in full, start with What Is Age of Sigmar? and a tour of the Mortal Realms.

The hobby rests on three pillars: collecting and building the miniatures, painting them, and playing games. Some people love all three; others paint armies they never field, or field armies they barely paint. There is no correct ratio and no wrong way to enjoy it.

Choosing Your First Army

Your first real decision is which faction to collect, and the single best piece of advice is also the simplest: pick the army you find coolest. You will spend many hours with these models, so their look and personality matter far more than any tactical reputation.

A few factions are especially kind to newcomers. The Stormcast Eternals, Sigmar's lightning-forged immortals, are the poster children of the setting, with armour-plated silhouettes that are forgiving to build and paint and supported by more tutorials than any other army. For raw character, the Orruk Warclans offer brawling green-skinned warriors whose rough-and-ready aesthetic makes early painting mistakes look like honest battle damage.

If you are drawn to the eerie, the Nighthaunt are ghostly processions that reward simple, glowing colour schemes, while the Gloomspite Gitz field gleeful goblin hordes beneath a grinning moon. Players who prefer something ornate might look to the sky-faring Kharadron Overlords or the cold-blooded, starborne legions of the Seraphon. Do not agonise over the choice; most hobbyists end up with several armies, and you can always begin a second later.

What You Need to Begin

You need far less than the crowded shelves of a hobby store suggest. The easiest on-ramp is a boxed starter set, which bundles two small forces, a slim rulebook, dice, and range rulers into a single purchase, giving you everything for your first games at a friendly price.

Beyond the models, a modest toolkit covers the essentials: clippers to free parts from their plastic frames, a hobby knife to tidy them, and plastic glue to assemble them. For painting, a handful of paints, one or two decent brushes, and a pot of water will carry you a surprisingly long way. A cutting mat protects your table, and good lighting protects both your eyes and your patience.

Building and Painting

Assembling your first miniature is genuinely satisfying, and there is no prize for speed. Clip each piece free, trim the small nubs left behind, then dry-fit the parts together before you commit any glue. Plastic cement melts the surfaces into a strong bond, so a little goes a long way and steady hands beat heavy hands.

Painting is where most people fall in love with the hobby, and also where they worry most. Do not chase perfection. The reliable beginner method is three steps: undercoat the model, block in the main colours, then apply a wash, a thin dark paint that flows into the recesses and instantly adds depth and definition. That alone produces results that look great on the tabletop. Layering, highlighting, and freehand can all come later, at your own pace.

Learning to Play

A game is played in turns, with each side moving its units, casting spells, shooting, and fighting in close combat, resolving the outcomes with dice against target numbers. It reads as complicated and plays as intuitive; the sequence clicks within a battle or two.

The gentlest way to learn is a very small game with a handful of units, which teaches the core rhythm without burying you in special rules. Better still, learn beside another person. Local hobby stores and gaming clubs are full of players happy to teach a newcomer, lend terrain, and answer questions. If learning in public feels daunting, a couple of beginner battle reports online will show you the flow of a real game first.

Where to Go Next

Once you have a small painted force and a game behind you, the hobby opens in every direction. You might expand your army, learn advanced brushwork, plunge into the novels, or start a rival faction entirely. If the stories are already tugging at you, our guide on where to start reading Age of Sigmar points you to the best first books.

Above all, remember that this is a hobby measured in years, not weekends. There is no finish line and nothing to prove. Buy what excites you, paint at a pace you enjoy, play the games that make you smile, and let your corner of the Mortal Realms grow one model at a time. The storm is always calling for new heroes, and there has never been a better moment to answer.