This is the Top Three AoS Lists Ragnarok the World Goes Dark event that took place in England, UK on 16th and 17th July. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, 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.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Lord Kroak (430)*
1 x Skink Starpriest (130)*
– Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration
– Spells: Bind Endless Spell
1 x Engine of the Gods (265)**
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Artefacts: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
– Prayers: Curse
1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)**
1 x Skink Priest (90)**
– Prayers: Heal

BATTLELINE
5 x Saurus Guard (115)*
5 x Saurus Knights (110)*
– Saurus Knight Alpha
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws
5 x Saurus Knights (110)*
– Saurus Knight Alpha
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws

BEHEMOTH
1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)
1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (70)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Realmshaper Engine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Drops: 5

Brett: Thunder Lizards with Lord Kroak, Engine of the Gods and Bastiladons has been a very reliable since AoS2.0 so no surprise here. This list ignores AoS3 and even the new season completely to still produce a very strong performance. One change with the new season though is the return of endless spells to the list. For the cost of a Saurus unit you can both increase the reliability of your spells (decrease the flow of time with the Chronomantic Cogs) and increase range with Spellportal. Use the Starpriest to cast Cogs and then Lord Kroak can bring out the Portal if he needs to and cast another 3 spells. He also brings 4 unbinds, there are a total of 7 in this list, even with Teclis you are going to struggle in the hero phase. The list just meshes and has a lot of synergies down to the Astrolith providing +1 to cast and a 6+ ward which works on mortal wounds. The plan is to use the Saurus to take objectives, carry out actions and use the Bastilidon’s and Engine of the Gods to carry out ranged attacks. The Engine might even summon a few Saurus Warriors just to make things a bit harder. The Bastilidon’s 1+ save is a nightmare unless you have consistent Mortal Wound output, Stormstrike Chariots and Goregruntas with the impact hits are amoung the better options. For most armies their mortal wounds are from spells, we already covered how hard this list makes that.

Looking at the match ups this wasn’t an easy road with 2 DoK lists, Idoneth and Beasts. The first 3 lists all feature a lot of shooting (Reavers, Blood Sisters and Judicators) but none of it high quality or pushing out Mortals. The Idoneth “fog” wouldn’t have helped them because Seraphon shooting is short range and they will force you to come to them anyway. Even hordes aren’t effective into this sort of list. The Solar Engines and the Engine of the Gods are delivering upwards of 20 damage into high save units with Kroak having access to a lot of damaging spells. 5/0 is a great result and just goes to show how good this list really is.

Allegiance: Skaven
– Mortal Realm: Ulgu
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Thanquol on Boneripper (415)
– 4 Warpfire Projectors
– Lore of Ruin: Scorch
Verminlord Deceiver (405)*
– General
– Command Trait: Devious Adversary
– Artefact: Shadow Magnet Trinket
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!

UNITS
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
5 x Gutter Runners (105)*
6 x Stormfiends (640)*
– 2x Windlaunchers
– 2x Ratling Cannons
– 2x Shock Gauntlets
– Reinforced x 1

ENDLESS SPELLS
Lauchon the Soulseeker (30)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 113
Drops: 2Comments

Brett: New book and new rules sees the rats clamber back up onto the top table. I think it’s great, they are a crazy army with some great, if old, models. This list really needs some more Rat Swarms though for the ambience. Skaven, as is fitting for suriviors from the end times, have an amazing number of warscrolls although only the highlights are here. Undoubtedly for good reason this is really a hero hammer list disquised in a horde army. Thanquol and the Deceiver are almost half of the cost of the list. There is a very neat combo in this list, the Deceiver, can cast 2 spells including a teleport within 6″ for a model with 13 wounds or less. And flaming weapon. So he can teleport himself very close, then cast flaming weapon and now has 6 attacks, hitting on 3+ and wounding on 2+ with R-3, D3 if he can make a 6″ charge. Usually he will have 5 shooting attacks as well. Very nasty. Lauchon the Soulseeker can do the same thing with Thanquol with the major advantage that they can still carry out a normal or run move afterwards. The combination of traits/artefacts the Verminlord is carrying give him 8 attacks if he is near a unit that hasn’t activated. With Flaming Weapon this creates a very flexible nightmare for your opponent that is very difficult to screen Both of the big heros can be almost anywhere on the battlefield. The Purple Sun is here for threat, -1 to save rolls and that risk of it eating something important. Can’t overstate the usefulness of the Purple Sun at the moment. Especially in a list with large units with low rend like the clan rats. The Purple Sun can give their 21 attacks R-1. Clanrats are mostly for screening and objectives, Gutter Runners for forward deploy and Stormfiends. Stormfiends continue to be a very nasty unit with loads of rend in both their ranged and melee attacks. Not forgetting the Bombadier for the crazy Doom Rocket and Warp Lightning.

I would have liked to see how this list against the eventual winner. The only loss was to the eventual third. This list would struggle to produce enough wounds to deal with a Krondspine while it could easily absorb a lot of this list and make itself stronger. All in all a great list with plenty of rat craziness to go around.

Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos
– Subfaction: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Traits: Unravelling Aura
– Spells: Hailstorm
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Spells: Vicious Stranglethorns
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
Tzaangor Shaman (135)*
– Spells: Vicious Stranglethorns

BATTLELINE
Gors (70)*
– Banner Bearer
– Brayhorn
– Gor Blade and Beastshield
Dragon Ogors (250)*
– Draconic War-glaive
Gors (70)*
– Banner Bearer
– Brayhorn
– Gor Blade and Beastshield

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*

OTHER
Ungor Raiders (80)*
– Brayhorn
– Banner Bearer
Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (360)**
Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (360)**

TERRAIN
1 x Herdstone (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000C

Brett: Another list with a recent glowup, White Dwarf this time, adding to the year of Chaos. A great 4/0 run here placing third but also beating second place in his run up. Joseph’s only loss was to our winner, the Seraphon. The Herdstone gives everything (except the Incarnate) R-1 for turns 1 and 2 and then R-2 for the rest of the game. Almost half of the list is the 2 bounty hunter lists but their mobility, number of attacks and the increasing rend with the +1 Damage would have made it very hard to hold objectives. And that’s before they make an extra model run. Given the design of the list I think the intention was to funnel units towards the Kronspine using Vicious Stranglethorns on terrain and making the opponent to play around it. The list provides a lot of screening and control with most of the killing being between the Krondpine and the Tzaangors. The gors also serve as a great target for Primordial Call.

The match up into the Seraphone is interesting because for once the Krondspine would struggle. The Bastildons aren’t vulnerable unless they are off their top bracket because there is no mortal wound output. And Kroak could afford to keep feeding endless spells towards it to reduce it’s level. Thunderlizard is probably the worst night mare for Incarnates in the game.

Allegiance: Legion of Azgorh
– Grand Strategy: No
Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders Bull Centaur Taur’ruk (175)***
– General
– Command Trait: Grotesque
– Artefact: Armour of Bazherak the Cruel Daemonsmith (110)***
– Darkforged Weapon
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate Daemonsmith (110)***
– Darkforged Weapon

Battleline 20 x Infernal Guard Fireglaives (220)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Infernal Guard Fireglaives (110)**
10 x Infernal Guard Fireglaives (110)**

Units
6 x K’Daai Fireborn (300)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x K’Daai Fireborn (150)*
3 x K’Daai Fireborn (150)*
3 x Bull Centaur Renders (195)
1 x Skullcracker War Engine (215)

Artillery Magma Cannon (150)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Command
Entourage – Magnificent

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 12

Brett: Not a lot I can say about this list, there is so little recent performance information on Dwarves. I think any of the fantasy factions would struggle in the modern meta given the shift to Save stacking and high rend weapons. You would have an advantage because most people won’t know your abilities. Limited shooting (apart from the big guns), poor saves, no rend (K’Daai in particular) and slow; the poor Dwarves and their Daemon allies were outgunned.

It’s great that someone is so committed to their faction that they are willing to take the risk and bring something so different to a large tournament. AoS3 is in a great place at the moment because, while there are some factions that do a little better than others (Thunder Lizard and DoK) there is a broad church of factions and ways within each of the factions that can take wins. It’s a really consistent broad meta. Even the approach with each of the lists on the podium is so different, 2 with endless spells but covering 4 different spells and one with an incarnate. They would all play very differently and take different tactics to counter.

Final Tournament Placings