Age of Sigmar: Expanding the Skaven, Squigs, Stormcast, and Sylvaneth Holiday Bundles
The Red Gobbo is prepping the presents for all the kiddies; make sure you know what to ask for to grow your new holiday bundles.
The Age of Sigmar holiday bundles have been announced, and this year’s lot looks amazing. We’ve got dragons, trees, ghosts…tons of great starter forces for some of the big names in the Realms. Of course, this is ONLY the start; you’ll need a lot more if you want to expand to a full army. Here are a few quick suggestions for early buys to add to the bundles.
Before Anything Else
First and foremost, you’ll want to purchase the relevant battletome (assuming you are using the box as a launching point). The models are great, and the collections are diverse, but you still need the book to know what everything does. If you’re using this to expand an existing army, or someone else is planning to snag the tome for you, disregard this step.
Skaven
The unspoken evil of the Mortal Realms, the Skaven have seen a huge upswing in both the number of players and the number of wins. As such, it’s the perfect time to jump into the Chaos Ratmen, and this is the perfect box to start with. You get some devastating infantry pieces, a few ranged options, and one of my favorite centerpiece models in all of Age of Sigmar.
Growing from here, I’d suggest a few boxes of Stormvermin for a solid infantry line, at least one Warp Lightning Cannon to take advantage of the Bombadier, and maybe an Assassin. If you want to lay into Clan Pestilens, build the Screaming Bell as a Plague Furnace, swap the cannon for a Plague Catapult, and invest in a Verminlord.
Gloomspite Gitz (Squigs)
Just like every year before, Games Workshop wants you to buy Squigs for Christmas (seriously, they must have a backlog or something). This box gives you a perfect start for your angry mushroom force with two Colossal Squigs, a Loonboss on Giant Squig, some Boingrot Bouncers, and a Squig Herd.
You really don’t need much to make this box better just…more of what you already have. Grabbing a Loonshrine is of course essential, then triple down on the Squig Knights and Squig Herds. If you need some magic, grab a Madcap Shaman, but honestly, you’ll probably be unleashing Squiggly chaos WAY too fast to worry about magic.
Stormcast Eternals
The poster boys (and girls) of Age of Sigmar, the Stormcast Eternals are probably one of the easiest armies to get into the game with. They can do a little of everything, they’re easy to grasp, and once you’re an experienced player they are surprisingly powerful.
This is a fabulous starter set containing almost a full army in itself, and there really isn’t much that can add to it. Maybe a wizard to capitalize on your lack of magic or another dragon box, but you don’t need much. For extra munch, consider snagging Krondys to really drive the Targaryen power home.
Sylvaneth
Rounding out the seven boxes we have the Lorax’s secret army, the angry trees of the Sylvaneth. Led by the angriest of all trees herself, Drycha, this box gives you some baseline infantry power, plus a few big guys for punching. Your first buy after this box should be Alarielle, because every Sylvaneth army needs the Beetle Queen to smash in invader face. After that, a couple of boxes of the bug knights, two Awakened Wildwoods, and a Warsong Revenant should fix you up. Just watch out for fire.
Will you be snagging any of the boxes?
