Top Three AoS Lists from the New Zealand Masters

The New Zealand Masters took place in… New Zealand on 28th and 29th May. It involved 31 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

Allegiance: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Beast Master
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ruinous Aura
– Artefact: Armour of the Pact
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*
– Sword
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
The Blue Scribes (135)*
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command

Battleline
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)*
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*
10 x Plaguebearers (150)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Umbral Spellportal (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 3

Danny: Legion are taking a lot of 1st places in recent weeks – sure they have a high skill floor and ceiling, but once you crack the code it looks like the First Prince has a super broad suite of tools at his disposal.

By now you know what Be’lakor does – let’s think about why he’s so good in the current meta. Partly it’s the ability to shut down a high scoring, beat-stick monster or giant scary unit like Blightlord blobs, or Kroak. The summoning is just excellent for scoring potential and allows tremendous flexibility and peace of mind when sending existing units to score near threats. There’s not much unusual about this list – Kairos for guaranteed magic funs, a Bloodthirster for skull hunting and the other usual chaos best hit. Aos Stats Centre has Legion as the best performing army in the game right now, and it’s not hard to see why!

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Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Bloodtoofs
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Hulking Brute
– Artefact: Destroyer
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat

Battleline
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas

Units
3 x Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 141
Drops: 1

Danny: The classic ‘woops all feral hogs’ list has fallen from favour due to… I wouldn’t call it power creep as I think 3e books have been wonderfully balanced on the whole… but certainly tools have appeared to deal with this kind of pressure list. Especially since with their big old b….ases, hogs in such numbers can actually be quite hard to manoeuvre around the board. Still, feels nostalgic to see it back on the podium! It does however make you realise how much Orruks are suffering from new book syndrome – Big Waagh is doing well but mono-Ironjaws really only have this build to fall back on.

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Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Big Yellers
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (315)**
– General
– Command Trait: Egomaniak
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)*
– Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma
Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (240)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex

Battleline
10 x Gutrippaz (180)**
10 x Gutrippaz (180)**
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*

Units
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**

Artillery
Beast-skewer Killbow (130)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 2

Danny: Speaking of first book syndrome, it’s always nice to see Kruleboyz eking out some wins, especially when they bring Big Bird (the un-named version) for a fast moving, decently killy utility piece that can issue two of the same command ability – probably AoD – and prevent the 2x 10 Gutrippaz on show here from losing more than 1 model to battleshock.

18 Boltboyz do what Kruleboyz do best (which isn’t being kunnin’ apparently) – pumping out egregious numbers of MWs on 5+, which will never go out of style. They probably clustered around the Sludegraker for the extra damage, possibly often walking up for only 12″ but double the shots – with the hobgrotz interacting with Egomaniak to keep the Sludgey safe from harm with a 10 wound bodyguard unit. Interesting to see a single Killbow, which are tremendously swingy on their own but can do mad spike damage – here’s hoping it rolled a few hot damage rolls!