Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – Beginners Guide to Winning

A brief guide on how to win matches outside the campaign, common mistakes and how to avoid them, etc.

Guide for New Players

What Am I Reading?

A basic primer to Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, namely the primary game mode used in multiplayer and Conquest.

I don’t claim to be a pro, I just wanted to write down a quick guide on early learning steps for new players or players who haven’t played an RTS before. Some advice may apply to campaign as well but it is written assuming you did the campaign already.

So You Just Finished the Campaign, Now What?

You now have some wonderful new things to explore!

First you have conquest mode, a choose your own path series of battles to accumulate score and fighting battles with boons and banes in the form of twists.

Then you have multiplayer, in the form of ranked 1v1, casual 1v1 or 2v2.

One thing these have in common is the match format, which is typically a capture point map with resource nodes. you’ll have encountered these a few times in the campaign so they should be familiar!

How Do I Win?

You win by either decreasing your opponents score to 0, or destroy their main base building.

To reduce their score you must hold more victory points on the map than they do. If you hold all three points, their score will deplete more rapidly. If you hold one and they hold two, their score will NOT deplete, but yours will as they hold more!

I Can’t Build Anything!

No lie I had this issue as well, how was my opponent building loads of stuff and I couldn’t? You just have to capture the map nodes and then you can leave them right?

Well, yes. But that % capture zone that expands? It isn’t just to delay it being captured back!

If a resource node has a very low % under your ownership, it will produce very little to no resources! And that goes too for realmstone if you build a mine on top of it!

Your first priority should be maxing out the capture value of a resource node before you leave it. As the zone expands you should start moving your units out, they only have to be within the zone to continue the capture and in most cases it will expand only slightly slower than most units will move. By doing this you’ll continue to build that capture zone but still be moving your dudes towards the battleline.

Conversely, you can hinder your opponents by planting someone in their capture zones to shrink it. Which will reduce their resource income. Even if you don’t capture it fully, it is very annoying to have a resource node shrunk to 30 or 15% as that cuts big time into your income and you gotta move a dude over there to fix it!

The Match Just Started, What Do?

Immediately move your existing units towards objectives, depending on the map this can vary but a safe bet is to grab the resource nodes nearest your base, and as mentioned earlier try and max these out before you leave it else you’ll be resource starved!

As soon as the move order is given, jump into the unit menu and start pumping out extra dudes! Usually one maybe two. You should be close or at pop cap to ensure you have bodies for mid-map fights over objectives and resources, and you can cover more ground.

Ideally you should build faster guys so you can advance to the middle quicker, who this is depends on your faction. Sword units are typically faster than shield units, though not always.

Once resources are secure (remember to shuffle your capturing units as the zone expands! Don’t leave them twiddling their thumbs miles away from the fight! You can continue capturing so long as they are within the zone as it grow!) start duking it out over the victory points.

Okay I Got Resources Captured and We’re About to Fight in the Middle… Now What?

Depends.

If your opponent has gone all in to capture one victory point and you only sent one unit, consider either pulling them back to help elsewhere, or throw them in if you can stall the capture (but be ready to retreat them before they die!).

Once you have capture points secure, evaluate what you know of your opponents forces. If you’ve seen most of them in one spot you might be able to move your dudes off one victory point to help another. Otherwise, it can be wise to leave guys on a victory point to deter easy uncontested captures. Shield units such as Liberators are ideal for this, as they can stop an opponent capping for a decent amount of time even when outnumbered!

I Won the Initial Fighting and Have More Victory Points! Now What?

Good job, you now have two options.

Option 1: You wiped out most of your opponents army? Get aggressive, push into their resources. As mentioned earlier even just reducing their capture % will cut into their resource gain. Don’t over commit though, pull back if you reckon your guys will get hit hard by new and fresh bodies.

Option 2: Your opponent retreated? Consolidate, keep building units to pop cap, reinforce your defending units on the victory points you have. If you hold all three and your opponent pushes hard onto one point, it might be worth only putting up a token resistance and retreat rather than get your defenders wiped out or committed, you will still hold a majority!

I Lost the Initial Fighting and Have Only One or No Victory Points! Now What?

Depending on opponent positioning, either play safe and protect your resources, or exploit them over extending to one side of the map and push into their opposite side.

The game isn’t over until the clock hits 0 or your score hits 0, you have time for a come back so long as your economy is steady and on par with your opponent.

What Do I Build? What Do I Upgrade?

Rule of thumb, start saving your resources for structures as soon as you can. A structure makes it harder to capture a resources and can give a useful ability or generate resources faster.

I don’t tend to build right up to pop cap ASAP as that can leave me behind in the long run. After the initial fighting you should have 600 command available to build a command structure, put this on a node that is likely to get pushed into so you have vision and can stall them.

After that, adjust to your needs and resource availability. Don’t build tons of dudes if you’re lacking in buildings and don’t build tons of buildings if you’re lacking in dudes (Unless the enemy has been soundly beaten and you have some time to spare).

For buildings I typically run either two command one realm stone, or two realmstone one command. Depends how my resources look and what I need.

Upgrades are case by case, some good stand outs are upgrades to T1 units to give them more longevity and bang for buck. Followed by upgrades to your hero.

Your main base should be upgraded when you can (Especially T1->T2, should be done as soon as you can) but don’t start an upgrade if: You have retreated dudes that need healing, or it is under attack. The base WILL NOT heal or attack during an upgrade, so I try to slip it in between fights.

Node buildings tend to be upgraded last. Prioritise based on your needs.

General Tips and Tricks

• Retreat is better than death in 90% of cases, it costs far less resources (and time) to retreat a battered unit and heal it to full than to recruit anew. Be mindful though if your unit will die outright before it is safe, else you will waste command on the retreat. (Be mindful of upgrading your base if you have recently retreated units, they won’t heal until the upgrade is done!)
• Where possible, use charge to engage with units that have it. It is cheap, causes a stun and a big chunk of damage, in many cases it can tip an unfavourable match up of units in your favour. Especially if you can hit it multiple times from multiple units.
• Be certain with what unit attacks what. Once they engage in melee, you can’t pull them out. You can exploit this to your advantage by tangling an opponent unit with cheap chaff, keeping them away from more important fights. A T1 unit occupying a T3 unit for any amount of time is a win even if the T1 gets wiped out.
• The rock paper scissors of unit roles is not be all end all. Some units push this a bit. Liberators are a Shield unit, so they do take more damage from Sword units. However, Liberators are very durable especially after an upgrade and their ability. They can survive an onslaught even against a Sword unit for quite some time (particularly more fragile sword units). Similarly, high tier units will tend to crush lower tier units regardless of type. Ranged can still shoot shield units as it is free damage and the quicker that speedbump is wiped out or retreats, the better. And so on. Learn the ins and outs of units to understand when you can push past the rock-paper-scissors mechanic.
• Better safe than sorry. If in doubt, play defensive and consolidate your ground. Particularly if you have the upper hand it can be best to reinforce your territory rather than play aggressive if you don’t know what your opponent is up to. (But keep a faster unit on hand to sneakly capture an unguarded victory point or resource node when the fighting starts, if you can this could distract your opponent or punish them for not dealing with it and focusing too much on the fighting).

Advanced Tips, Faction Specific Tips, Etc

Stormcast Eternals

• Liberators are slow but very tough, put one unit on a victory point and, provided you have stone to spare on their ability, they can stall a capture even if grossly outnumbered for longer than you think.
• Your vanguard units are faster than liberators, as well as your hero, send them out to the furthest out of the way nodes when the match starts, use your Liberator unit to capture something closer to the frontline.
• Longstrike Raptors have immense range, but the damage is lower. They aren’t necessarily a direct upgrade over hunters who get Rapid Fire and more damage baseline. Keep that in mind when picking their upgrade.
• Prosecutors are very strong and mobile, but very vulnerable to ranged while flying. Avoid getting shot down with them if you can help it, though their charge ability from the air is nasty and can deal significant damage to a ranged unit before they finish the job.

Kruelboyz

Don’t play them enough, see comments for tips from other players!

Disciples of Tzeentch

Don’t play them enough, see comments for tips from other players!

Nighthaunt

Don’t play them enough, see comments for tips from other players!

Fighting Each Faction

Stormcast Eternals

Expensive, slow, but very sturdy and very good individually. What do you expect? Exploit the limited mobility and harass them at multiple points to split their forces up, try to wipe out their units where possible as it hurts the wallet when they have to build new units especially outside T1. Prosecutors are their most mobile and one of their hardest hitting units, but are EXTREMELY vulnerable to ranged units, especially while flying ballista type weapons will kill one of their models -every- hit.

Kruelboyz

Cheaper with good speed and damage, more reliant on abilities. As you engage watch for abilities being lobbed out and try to evade them as they can turn a fight quite badly. Their ranged units have very good range and the ballista is especially potent. be mindful of swamp damaging AoE ability. Invest in anti-monster upgrades where you have them as they make up a bulk of their power in the late-game. And get used to using your revealing abilities… you do have a revealing ability on a unit, don’t you?

Nighthaunt

Fast, deadly, and seemingly very durable… but if you break the shield they start losing models left and right. Hitting with abilities before an engagement (Even just a charge) will massively help, getting the shield down means they will start melting rapidly. Beware units that can silence and stop you using abilities, these are very nasty but have less value if you force an engagement.

Disciples of Tzeentch

Nasty, nasty ranged damage. Throw cheap melee fodder to eat their barrages, use mobility, stealth, whatever you got to tie up their ranged units. Tzaangors are exceptionally tough, especially with the defensive upgrade and a hero unit nearby. If you want to kill them quickly you WILL need to use abilities here. Don’t be a cheapskate, it is worth the cost if it means wiping their stuff out. Flamers are a priority target as they do immense damage and can fire in a 360 while moving.