The Quest of Champions is a series of UK two day tournaments involving four heats and one final. The top 12 from each heat being invited to the final. Heat 2 saw 40 players fighting it out for those top 12 spots.
1st Dan Bradshaw – Beasts of Chaos
Dan won all five games with Beasts of Chaos! Let’s just take that in for a second… incredible play. Along the way he beat our very own Rhys and his Flesh-eater Courts/Gristlegore list, then Beasts of Chaos/Gavespawn in Round 2, Big Waaagh! in Round 3, Seraphon/Thunder Lizard in Round 4 and 2021 Leicester GT winner Mike Stewart and his Seraphon/Thunder Lizard list in Round 5.
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Allherd
– Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Dominator
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Artefact: Blade of the Desecrator
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline
10 x Ungors (70)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (70)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields
6 x Dragon Ogors (250)**
– 4x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 2x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 1
Units
20 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (350)*
– 8x Savage Greatblade
– 12 x Savage Blade & Arcanite Shield
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Cockatrice (95)*
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)*
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Hunters of the Heartlands
Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 173
Drops: 4
Declan: Dan has been playing AoS for a long time on the UK scene and his twitter handle has shown his love for Beasts of Chaos for almost that long… so he was always going to be someone who was going to dive straight back in when the good White Dwarf update was issued. He has the Dragon Ogre Shaggoth as General who hurts himself to generate summoning points, and then uses the Monstrous Rampage ability to gain another 1 (or D3) summoning points each player turn. So the summoning points rack up and the ambush gives Dan more models than those above – likely being nearer 200 wounds.
The Tzaangor are an interesting choice and not one I have seen in other lists who tend to play around Bullgors. Obviously the additional rend here is the real ‘secret’ and the army is monstrous from turn 3 onwards with all units having additional 2 rend.
Dan beat Mike on top table game 5 – never an easy feat; which only adds to the success. Great to see Beasts of Chaos now be playable.
2nd Fabian Quinn – Seraphon
Fabian won 4 games and drew 1. Beating Slaves to Darkness/Knights of the Empty Throne in round 1, Soulblight Gravelords/Vyrkos Dynasty in round 2, Stormcast Eternals/Living City in round 3 and Big Waaah! in round 4 before drawing against Seraphon/Thunder Lizard in round 5.
Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Beast Master
– Triumphs:
LEADERS
Slann Starmaster (265)****
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration – Spell: Stellar Tempest
Stegadon with Skink Chief (305)****
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices – Weapon: Skystreak Bow
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
Engine of the Gods (265)**
– Artefact: Cloak of Feathers
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Skink Starpriest (130)****
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Skink Priest (80)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Priest (80)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Guidance
UNITS
30 x Skinks (225)***
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
10 x Skinks (75)***
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
BEHEMOTHS
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*
CORE BATTALIONS
*Alpha-Beast Pack
**Warlord
***Hunters of the Heartlands
****Command Entourage – Magnificent
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact
Artefact
Declan: Fabian has gone with the Seraphon, and this is a vicious army. Seraphon have a great book which many options available. I’m taking a little credit for Fabian’s success as I played him in his first competitive game at The Honest Wargame… and lost!!
But in all seriousness this has all it needs. The 30 Skinks can get to 6 buffs in a turn and it makes them monsters, who scare even my Maw Krusha. And the Bastilidons shoot a crazy amount of damage, with one shooting twice for a single command point. Amazing value. Added to that their remarkable save all, for 250 points and it doesn’t matter that they are prime targets. Not many armies can kill one, let alone two.
Seraphon have been good for 2 years with a book most armies would kill for and Fabian takes advantage of this and his knowledge of the game to consistently finish high!
3rd Mike Stewart – Seraphon
Mike managed four wins and a single loss. Beating Idoneth Deepkin/Nautilar in round 1, Ironjawz/Ironsunz in round 2, Stormcast Kharadron Overlords/Barak Zilfin in round 3, Seraphon/Thunder Lizard in round 4 and losing against first place Dan with his Beasts of Chaos/Allherd list in round 5.
Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Beast Master
– Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders
Engine of the Gods (265)*
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Slann Starmaster (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Skink Priest (80)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Priest (80)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
Units
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
Behemoths
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)**
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 2
Declan: And… Seraphon again. Mike is the number one player in the UK mostly with Seraphon and he can pivot to anything the meta can throw at him. Only losing out in the last game in a close match with Dan’s non-standard new-look Beastmen.
Mike’s Seraphon is similar to Fabian’s but he has retained the 2 x 2 Salamanders – the disadvantage is that they now give up 1 victory point if you can kill them, the good thing is that the warscroll is still exceptionally strong. I’ve lost whole units of Brutes to 2 of them shooting, then charging – their melee profile is almost as good as the ranged.
The Thunder Lizards ability here is key as well. -1 Damage to all attacks (excluding mortal wounds), means the army needs a lot more damage to kill for most of the armies in the meta at the moment – affecting all monsters, Ironjawz (Warchanter) & Sons of Behemat (etc). It even negates the special rule of the Namarti Thralls from IdK when they attack the monsters (+1 damage is wounds over 3). Having a book that already invalidates one of the big benefits of a new book is crazy-good.
Well done to all in the top 3, and a quick shoutout to my club – Age of Chumps. There were 6 of us there finishing 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 1-4, 1-4, 1-4. But Chrissie came away with Best Sports, which is the greatest award !!
Final Tournament Placings
