This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Midwest Bash Grand Tournament event that took place in Missouri, USA on 16th and 17th July. It involved 32 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs

Leaders
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (325)*
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos (300)*
Knight-Relictor (140)*
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Prayer: Translocation
Lord-Castellant (155)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Celestial Blades

Battleline
10 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (400)**
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Liberators (115)**
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Liberators (115)***
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons

Units
10 x Protectors (450)***
– 4x Starsoul Maces
– Reinforced x 1

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

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid
Holy Command: Unleash Thy Hatred

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 8

Brett: A strong return to hero hammer, and after a year of experimenting it’s probably the best way to play Stormcast Eternals (SCE), with a very hero heavy list taking first. The list isn’t without it’s tricks however. Using a Knight Relictor vs a Lord Relictor, an uncommon choice, but when you are staying close to a particular unit – the judicators – the 6″ prayer range isn’t important. The model is more available and importantly saved the 5 points needed to make the list work. Bastian hits very hard (D4) and once per turn can inflict mortal wounds on a unit by rolling D6 against their wound characteristic, on a 6 inflicting a mortal wound. Into a Mega Gargant that’s an average of 6MW per turn. Anyone that plays 40k will recognise the Terminator block at the heart of the list, 10 Protectors. With half the models having Glaives they have +1 to save and can easily receive +1 to hit. As bounty hunters they receive a +1 to damage (D2 against Galletian Veterans). They are also inflicting 4D3 mortal wounds 80% of the time.

The Lord Castellan either stays with the Protectors (+1 to hit and +1 to Save) or the Liberators making the Liberators save on 2s with a 6+ ward near objectives. And Call for Aid means that there are 15 Liberators not 10 in this list. Even placing the judicators into Eternal Conquerors plays a roll, they will count as 30 models on objectives and attacking them exposes you to Unleash Hell. Usually they have the Relictor to translocate them to the rear, a real late game objective threat. The Celestant-Prime is a hero deleter, the trickiest part is whether to use him Turn 2 or 3. Usually in that turn Orrery will guarantee a successful charge. Without his shooting and arriving turn 3 that’s an average of 12wounds into the hero of his choice. Like Bastian he has a 4+ ward.

A very balanced list that deserves to go 5/0 it’s only real weakness is mobility. The combination of Scions and Steadfast March help a lot there as well. It was a very low scoring victory (65) indicating that board control and forcing the opponent off their game was a major part of the victory. In other words a very good general won using this list.

Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Krondys (600)*
– Spells: Thundershock
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Traits: High Priest
– Artefacts: Mirrorshield
– Prayers: Translocation

BATTLELINE
1 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)*
Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)*
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
Dracothian Guard Desolators (220)**

ENDLESS SPELL
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

OTHER
Stormstrike Chariot (165)*
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear
Stormstrike Chariot (165)**
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Brett: Another SCE list doing well, it’s only loss was to the eventual winner. In contrast to our first list this has brought some needed mobility. Interesting choices of Dracothian’s here; Tempestor’s (ranged) and Desolators (axe murderers). Tempestor’s will have an average of 4 hits from their 3 ranged attacks on top of their Dracothian’s breath attack. On top of that by using a unit of 2 for the Desolators they will almost always have an extra 2 attacks. Stormstrike Chariots are very mobile, hard to kill and their impact mortals make them dangerous to most opponents. Along with the Dracothian’s we have the Purple Sun and Krondys. The Purple sun is difficult to cast but Krondys gets a +3 to cast at his top profile making the Sun a CV of 5 and probably on the board from Turn 1. Importantly this list has 4 denies which is a big part of the current meta.

No Holy Command is included on the list but Thunderbolt Volley is likely, given the unreinforced unit of Judicators. All up a very different list to the winner with a lot of mobility but few units so a focus on killing your opponents. The lists he faced in this run up were interesting but ultimately until the last round very exposed to this combination of mobility and Mortal Wounds. Wound output into that Protector brisk wouldn’t have been enough. Well done on the 4/1 result.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Taker Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Tame the Land
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)*
– General
– Command Trait: Monstrously Tough
– Artefact: Krakenskin Sandals
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)**
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact)
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)**
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)*
– Artefact: Glowy Lantern
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 4

Brett: Stompy boys are back, well they never really went away, they aren’t as common or as dominate as they were late last year but they are still dangerous. 4 big boys that count as 20 models on objectives means the list can win the objective game without moving very far. The combination of Trait and Artefact on the General make him a hard target (20) with a very nasty stomp attack. All of the artefacts in Taker Tribe increase or do damage and this is one of the better ones. The match ups are very interesting but a combination of limited wound output (Nighthaunt and Idoneth) and durability (Nighthaunt, DoK and Idoneth) would have made it hard to compete.

Bladegheist could do a lot of wounds on the charge but are very vunerable to the low number of high damage attacks including the ranged attacks the Gargants put out. You can’t heal back 10/12 models a turn easily. The same is true for all one wound troop choices which affects the impact of Namarti or Blood Sisters/Aelves. Allopexes won’t do a lot into a Gargant either with their relatively low attack count and wounds, they will tend to bounce and get smashed. Match ups into Morathi would have been interesting given her damage per turn limit and defeating a SCE army with 9 Vanguard Raptors is solid. It shows the impact of the changes from the new season that limits the use of Thuderbolt Volley. 9 x D2 shots per turn isn’t terrifying a Sons army.

A solid performance with a previous favourite showing they are still a good meta choice in the new season.

Allegiance: Tzeentch
– Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch (235)*
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Kairos Fateweaver (435)*
– Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch
Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (145)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Fate: Glimpse the Future
The Blue Scribes (160)*
– Lore of Change: Treason of Tzeentch
Tzaangor Shaman (135)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spell Hunters
– Artefact: The Fanged Circlet
– Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate

Battleline
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**
– 1x Pair of Cursed Blades
– 6x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
– 3x Cursed Glaives
3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (100)**
20 x Tzaangors (350)**
– 4x Pair of Savage Blade
– 8x Savage Greatblade
– 8x Savage Blade & Arcanite Shield
– Reinforced x 1

Units
3 x Tzaangor Skyfires (190)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)
Umbral Spellportal (70)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 107
Drops: 9

Brett: Fair play to Cody, his army went 4/1 with a book that is on the wane at the moment and did so with an interesting mix of units. No horrors and a lot of heroes all of whom are casters. That’s 7 casts and 7 denies a turn. That also gives a lot of Wizards to accompany the Tzaangors (Ornate Totems) giving mortal wounds on a 4. Running the Tzaangors as a 20 block in Expert Conquerors gives you a lot of bodies for objective control and maintains Savagery Unleashed. Save stacking, hit buffing and leadership shenanigans are what Tzeentch is all about and this army takes that to the limit. Very hard to play but very hard to play against because you have to know the army to understand what to deal with first.

The low scores suggest that Cody had issues scoring early with only one unit to really contest objectives, otherwise you are trying to out-kill the opponent. Depending on initiative (including deciding proving grounds) it can be hard to score consistently in the early turns, or before your opponent runs out of models. His only loss was to an army well outside the top 10 but almost perfectly able to counter Tzeentch. They could limit the range of any spells in the first 2 rounds and Allopexes/Namarti could make short work of the troops.

Tricky to make this list work and it demonstrates the difficulties in scoring well in the new season without a lot of mobility and flexibility. At the same time the sort of MSU lists that flexibility encourages won’t succeed against a list like this.

A few things at play in this tournament that are unusual. The podium is dominated by a few factions that have faded in more recent times. A full 1/4 of the lists in this tournament were Stormcast. Stormcast play well into Stormcast. Stormcast is relatively low in damage output something Bastian and Krondys can take advantage of. There was also a team tournament the day before which might have reflected in the players present. Overall though the lists and placings continue to show that there is good balance, even if at times it doesn’t feel like it, in AoS 3. The game currently lets good generals shine (and Maggotkin float, they aren’t shiny).

Final Tournament Placings