Monthly Archives: August 2022

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Blessed Sons, Bloodtoofs, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Ironjawz, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Seraphon, The Scarlet Doom, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Nashcon GT 2022

Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Nashcon GT that took place in the USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 32 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

The format for this event was slightly different, in that every player built two lists and chose which of their lists to use based on the opponent before the round began. To keep this article short, we’re analysing their first lists only and the opponent’s first list has been used when showing their path through the 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

Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (265)***
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Skink Starpriest (130)*
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Skink Priest (90)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*
– Artefact: Serpent God Dagger

Battleline
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
30 x Skinks (225)**
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2
5 x Saurus Guard (115)*

Units
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)***
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)***
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Horrorghast (40)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Expert Conquerors
***Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 8

Danny: Who can stop Ridge Hanna? The Season of War vet is a died in the wool Seraphon expert, and his Fangs of Sotek list is the one to beat.

We’ve covered it before, and no doubt we’ll be forced to cover it again… but on the off-chance you’re new to it, here’s how it works.

Unlike Thunder Lizard, who’re all about big beasties and Scaly Skin for the -1 damage, Fangs is all about tricksy movement and summoning. Units are able to come down from reserves near a Slann, and one unit per turn can teleport – this makes the Salamanders – free from giving up extra points since the latest GHB – a tactical nuke who can safely materialise near an enemy threat and nuke them. God forbid if they make the charge too.

Meanwhile, all the skinks have a small pre-game move for grabbing objectives, and can run away after unleashing hell on a 4+ once charged, meaning most of the time they’re incredibly hard to pin down – and with the buffs the various Skink heroes can throw out, they can end up doing serious damage too.

The reason the Slann has Arcane Tome is because of the Coalesced summoning mechanic – using up a spell slot grants an additional d3 summoning points, so the Tome allows him to rack those up and still use his super valuable normal spells into the bargain. On average, Ridge should be able to summon two more salamanders into the fray, or if, for some reason, he’s struggling with objective, a whole load more skinks.

A techy, frustrating to pin down list with some real teeth that proves Seraphon are far from a one trick-dinopony.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Bloab Rotspawned (300)*
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)

Battleline
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)***
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin

Units
3 x Plague Drones (200)***
1 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (110)*
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 143
Drops: 7

Ethan: Writing analysis of this feels a bit like cheating. For those not in the know, Tyler Emerson is one of the illustrious regular guests of Vince Venturella of Warhammer Weekly and “being considerably better than ok at painting” fame. Tyler spoke about his list on their most recent show, make sure to check it out if you’re after a more in-depth dive!

Getting to it, there are a fair few elements of this list setting it apart from the drone spam we’ve all come over time to know and resent. Blessed sons provides a nice platform for a mixed arms list employing more of Nurgle’s toolkit than we’re perhaps used to. The Lord of afflictions eschews the usual splithorn helm, sacrificing some resilience in exchange for rancid visitations, one of the best anti-horde spells in the game though, without other casting support, this is by no means consistent. The two Maggoth lords are incredibly strong pieces, providing all the usual benefits of behemoth-lords with Nurgle resilience and a small amount of spell-dom play, or great combat play. Combined these two give the list a capacity to play broadly across the map with the core of the list holding one flank while the creatively named heroes hold the other.

Plaguebearers and Blightkings form a durable core for holding objectives and placing them in Expert Conquerors makes retaking objectives a real commitment from the opponent while the Plague drones and Pusgoyles in a Bounty Hunter Battalion provide a mobile cav hammer which hits hard and takes a hit well in return. The two really interesting pieces of tech taken by Tyler in this list are the Mindstealer Sphiranx which has an ability to make enemies fight last, winning him at least one game singlehandedly, per his view. The other is his Battalions, he’s taken an “all the toys” approach to his regular units but has eschewed the usually accompanying Command Entourage/Warlord in favour of a Battle regiment to lower his drops. This isn’t going to give him priority vs anyone taking a Battle Regiment+ setup but does ensure he outdrops anyone taking the abovementioned Entourage or Warlord. Very clever decision making here.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Guardian of Souls (150)*
– Artefact: Midnight Tome
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Krulghast Cruciator (150)*
Spirit Torment (115)*
Spirit Torment (115)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist

Units
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)**
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)**
– Reinforced x 1
9 x Spirit Hosts (375)***
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Chainrasps (110)***
10 x Chainrasps (110)***
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)**

Endless Spells
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 10

Ethan: Nate Trentanelli has proven he can win with a variety of armies and so it is only fitting that he see success with current meta darling, Nighthaunt. This list relies on a central castle built around the Krulghast Cruciator and it’s aura of -1 damage. Throw in Shademist (-1 to wound) and Seal of Shyish (5+ ward save) and all of a sudden your charge-heavy, mortal wound spamming Nighthaunt units are a brick that the opponent will struggle to displace. This kind of list sees great success in the current GHB as it has the versatility to play for multiple areas of the board or, as many current battleplans demand, meet your opponent in the middle and win the brawl for objective scoring. Nate has run the increasingly prevalent triple battalion of Expert Conquerors, Bounty Hunters and Command Entourage meaning he’s capturing better than you with his durable units, hitting hard on your units designed to do the same, and has access to the tools required to build and maintain this kind of board presence.

Also worth noting in this list is the Midnight tome – Purple Sun combination, guaranteeing the purple sun will come out for the Nighthaunt. Nighthaunt don’t mind losing a ghost or two when they’re bringing back d6 + d3 per round and their unmodifiable saves form a perfect combination with the sun. Myrmournes provide a brutal capstone on this, giving an additional chance to unbind any spell or endless spell affecting the area nearby. In combination, your opponent is far less likely to affect the board state with their magic while you have utter certainty that your sun is coming out at a crucial moment, creating a brutal momentum swing.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Kastelai Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Coven Throne (290)
– General
– Command Trait: Rousing Commander
– Artefact: Fragment of the Keep
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (365)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)*
– Artefact: Grave-sand Shard
Watch Captain Halgrim (80)*

Battleline
10 x Blood Knights (390)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**

Units
5 x Black Knights (100)
5 x Black Knights (100)*
20 x Grave Guard (280)***
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 134
Drops: 11

Danny: Soulblight are slowly settling into their new competitive bracket of ‘close but no cigar’, it seems – the cool thing is, the breadth and relative internal balance of the book means that there’s plenty of variety between contenders.

This list is a nice, thematic looking balance of stuff, wrapped in Kastelai, which is edging out the others as Lineage of choice due to the strong selection of artifacts/command traits, the ability to make the excellent Blood Knights battleline, and the sub-faction trait that gives vampire units permanent, stacking buffs depending on what kind of unit they kill.

The Coven Throne is often a lynchpin of Kastelai lists, mainly due to its command ability, offering one unit +1 hit, wound _and_ save. Pretty bonkers value for 1CP although you are paying a fair whack of points for it, given it doesn’t do a huge amount else. Neferata is also starting to challenge Mannfred as Mortarch of choice due to her spell to make a unit unrendable – dicey in the current magic-dominance meta, but when it does go off, combined with the above…you can imagine the shenanigans. She’s also a decent, mobile beatstick in her own right and has a dagger with a chance to auto-kill a unit if it inflicts wounds that aren’t saved, so she’s an excellent mind-warfare pick.

Watch Captain Halgrim might look like an odd and rare pick, and he is – but he offers up to 3 skellies (and the list takes all 3, conveniently) a 4″ ‘auto-run’ for 1 CP, which is a good way of guaranteeing they get up the board together.

Outside of that is standard but useful fair – the currently ever-present 20 Graveguard brick who are also an excellent recipient of the Coven Throne’s CA, and 2 units of Black Knights who are cheap, fast, and summonable – meaning they can start in grave sites.

A nicely mostly-mounted list with a few tricks up its raggedy sleeves that clearly works!

Final Tournament Placings (Top 32)

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Blades of Khorne, Chaos, Cities of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Knights Excelsior, Legion of the First Prince, living city, Order, Peter & Brett, Reapers of Vengeance, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Gateway Open 2022

Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Gateway Open that took place in USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 43 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

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Knights Excelsior (Scions of the Storm)
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord-Imperatant (175)*
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation
Knight-Incantor (125)*
– Spell: Lightning Blast

Battleline
3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)***
3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)**
5 x Vanquishers (125)**

Units
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)**
– Drakerider’s Warblade
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)***
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)***
3 x Aetherwings (65)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters
***Redemption Brotherhood

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 82
Drops: 8

Brett: A rare venture into top spot by Stormcast with an army composition that is showing a lot of promise in the current meta. A few subtleties in the construction of the list though. Firstly the Grand Strategy – that will force you to hunt down the opponents battleline. It’s a fair chance that you’d be doing that to win anyway, and an equally fair chance that the drakes (Bounty Hunters) will be doing that if any try to hide. The Magnificent Bonus from Warlord is important, Warlord is rarely used by Stormcast, but they probably benefit the most from it with their Holy Commands. The chosen 2 are amoung the best, in one turn one of the raptors are shooting in both the Hero and Shooting phase.

That gives you an effective 9 Raptors worth of shooting (one turn, 18 shots for 36 potential damage). Call for aid returns the Vanquishers the first time they are killed (recycling if you will). The heroes are the standard combination – Lord Imperatant for 7″ charges, Lord Relictor for Translocate (here with the Tome to increase utility) and the Knight Incantor for casting an a clutch dispel (one guaranteed/battle). The 7″ charge applies to any Thunderstrike unit (includes the Lord, Storm Drake and Vanquishers as well as the Annihilators) put only one unit per turn. This list is sometimes called a gambler’s list – you are banking on the 7″ charge (82% chance with reroll) otherwise you have 10 wounds with a 4+ save waiting to die.

This list is a bit low in durability with 85 wounds, mostly on a 4+ vs the normal SCE 3+. And 3 Galletian Veteran units make 28 of those wounds. The Aetherwings and Vanquishers are valuable as screens to begin with to keep the raptors safe. Later turns their mobility (Aetherwings) and damage is useful for board control and grabbing objectives. The drakes provide mobile, swingy damage – their breath weapons can hit hard or whiff horribly. Even the number of drops plays into the strategy – does your opponent make you go first? Or do they try to blunt your shooting (unlikely)? His matches were basically melee armies and the DoK armed (10 Blood Sisters) are overmatched by the Raptors.

Quite a few good players are using variants of this list, with Prime Hunters gone it should see man improvement in SCE win rates. It’s not instant win by any measure but gives you the tools to get the job done. The high drops is a nice touch, as is Horrorghast to maximise the impact on low bravery units of that long range shooting.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Living City
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Bastions of Hope
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (315)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin
Sorceress (90)*
– Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge
Gotrek Gurnisson (485)**
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Dreadspears (85)*
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
10 x Dreadspears (85)*
10 x Dreadspears (85)*

Units
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)**
– Drakerider’s Warblade
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 485 / 400
Wounds: 96
Drops: 3

Brett: Living cities with SCE based hammers was popular before Prime Hunters so no surprise they are back with the new season. Gotrek is arguably a Cities character since he hangs there between adventures. The book Grand Strategy is interesting, you need to control more terrain features than your opponent at the end of the battle. Interesting since that implies keeping the Dreadspears alive, 1 W and a 4+ save makes that “fun”. Doubly so since the Sorceress is likely taking wounds from them to empower her spells (kills a model for +2 to cast). Overall with the Tome there are 3 casters and 3 casts. Lifesurge can heal D6 wounds and Ironoak Skin makes incoming attacks -1 to wound.

The Battlemage has Wildform which you could put on Gotrek (+2 to run and charge) to make him more mobile. Otherwise the Stormdrakes or Anointed could benefit. The Stormdrakes and Gotrek are in bounty hunters (so Gotrek is rocking a 4 damage axe). Using the Anointed early might be risky but he is quite tanking particularly with Ironoak Artisan that also grants +1 to wound rolls with melee weapons, it shouldn’t apply to the mount unfortunately. A big block of Dragons to threaten any open flanks or open objectives, they can also be covered by the Anointed (and cover the Anointed). Lifesurge is very useful healing the 9 wound dragons for D6 every turn. A very mobile hard hitting block. And of course the Purple Sun for both it’s debuff and it’s board control abilities. Your opponent will normally try to avoid it as much as possible.

A dependable list, Gotrek is an interesting addition even though he suffers from a lack of mobility. It’s possible to play around him but with the Dragons and Purple Sun there isn’t that much board to play with. In this case Ryan’s opponents for the most part needed to come to him to play making it much easier to get Gotrek into combat.

Advertisements

Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
– Artefacts of Power: The Crimson Crown
Skarr Bloodwrath (105)**
Slaughterpriest (100)**
– Hackblade and Wrath-hammer
– Prayers: Blood Sacrifice
Skarbrand (380)**
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)***
– Artefacts of Power: Skullshard Mantle
Bloodsecrator (125)***

BATTLELINE
Bloodletters (220)*
Bloodletters (220)*
Bloodreavers (80)***
– Reaver Blades

OTHER
Untamed Beasts (70)***
Untamed Beasts (70)***

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Brett: Ahead of a possible new book (40k is getting new Daemons codex and Tzeentch is due soon, does that mean a new Khorne tome?). Khorne is another faction that really benefited with the end of Prime Hunters, it gives them more freedom with their Greater Daemons. Reapers of Vengence subfaction granting a Horrorghast effect (D3 extra fail battleshock) and a 3″ pile in and fight again command. Mage-Eater and Skullshatter are the mandatory trait/artefact but grant a spell deny and a 2+ spell ignore. The Crimson Crown effectively grants a free CP every round (5) that can only be used on the bearer’s warscroll ability (if they have one). In this case a 6″ pile in within 16″.

The key to Khorne in AoS are the big Daemons,, the Bloodthirsters and Skarbrand. Unusually there is no (Slaves to Darkness) Daemon Prince to affect movement/charges. Each of the Greater Daemons can do appalling levels of damage but each has an element of chance so they can also whiff horribly. The Unfettered Rage is probably the least damaging with a 12″ ranged attack and 6 melee attacks all doing D3 damage. The Insensate Range. His number of ranged attacks and to wound chance in melee degrade with wounds. Insensate Rage does D6 damage with his axe, and the number of attacks plus the Mortal Wounds (MW) caused on 6s degrade. The MW are to all units within 8″. Your best tactic against these is to get some damage in early to degrade them. Skarbrand needs to be treated differently though.

Skarbrand’s attacks increase as he degrades, and if he isn’t engaged in combat he fights next round as if he was in his lowest bracket. His main weapon is a flat 3 damage, his 8″ ranged attack is a 50% chance to inflict 1 MW for each successful attack and his Carnage 8MW. At lowest bracket it does that on a 1. Skarbrand either needs to be engaged all the time or removed early. Haven’t even mentioned the smaller heroes – Skarr can return to the field after death on a 8 (2D6) and is an anti horde fighter (either 5 attacks or the number of models within 3″), the Bloodsectator forces wizards to reroll successful casts within 16″. He also grants an additional attack to Khorne units within 16″. The Slaughter Priest is here to farm Blood Tithe points for summoning.

Finally we finish with the troops and summoning. Reinforced Bloodletters get +1 to hit (for 20 models in the unit), 6s do MWs, they can force rerolls on successful bravery rolls for the enemy and on a battleshock roll of 1 return D6 models to this unit. They only have 1 wound and a 5+ save so die easily. Bloodreavers are even more fragile but double up on the bonus attacks from the presence of a Bloodsectrator. Unnamed Beasts are very fragile but bring a lot of mobility and potentially grab outlying points or Battle Tactics. The Hexgorger is a nice touch, it is a prayer that is an endless spell. It inflicts a -2 to casting within 12″ and if a wizard within 8″ casts an 8, the spell fails, they forget the spell and take D6 MW. Nice.

That’s a lot to take in for a simple army that wants to get close,bash, stab, slash and generally maim you. You are best to shoot them from afar and hope for the best. When you look at his opponents though almost all of them had decent shooting (not the Skaven, those poor rats) but only one was able to use it effectively. That’s the difference between 24″ and 30″ range I suspect.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)*
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)
– General
– Command Trait: Ruinous Aura
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command
The Blue Scribes (160)*
– Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command
The Contorted Epitome (245)*
– Artefact: Fourfold Blade
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist

Battleline
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Umbral Spellportal (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 84
Drops: 3

Brett: Another hero based list with 3 combat and 2 caster heroes, all with 10″+ movement. 3 Greater Demons is fairly common, we’ve already covered The Unfettered Rage above. Otherwise, and even with the Khorne elements, this is a casting army with 7 casts. The “Masters Command” on most of the leaders lets model, if slain, fight on Death. Otherwise Be’Lakor’s warscroll spell is enfeeblement giving an opposing unit -1 to wound. That’s on top of his once a game ability to stop pretty much all actions from a unit on a 3+ in each phase. Kairos is the epitome of a caster, his key ability is everytime he casts, dispels or unbinds he can set the lowest D6 (of the 2D6 roll) to match the highest D6. To summon the Purple Sun or his warscroll spell he only needs one 4 on 2 dice.

His Oracle of Eternity is also clutch, allowing him to set the number on a dice once per battle. It doesn’t have to be his roll, there is no range and no limit on what type of roll it’s used on. That’s on top of his 3 spells. You may be wondering why there is no Cogs in this list, the Blue Scribes are why. They have a warscroll spell with a casting value (CV) of 4 that allows other wizards to reroll. They can also copy spells and ensure successful casting once per hero phase on a 2+. Kairos then summons whatever Endless Spells are needed that turn. Umbral Spellportal to extend spells range, Purple Sun for threat and Lifeswarm for healing. The Contorted Epitome is mostly a combat unit but Ghost mist is a good choice to hide it’s approach.

The Flesh Hounds are here because outside of Gargants you need battle line. They are somewhat durable (2 wounds on a 5+), fast (8″) and annoying in combat. They are expendable and of course more units can be summoned. For LoFP it’s a battleline unit based on the Chaos god they represent (Bloodletters, Horrors, Demonettes etc). Belakor can summon any of these or 6 Furies. Chose which hero based on what you need and where it on the board (the reinforcements are arriving within 12″). A very broad range of abilities that it would be hard to track and apply but that means the list plays well into almost anything. The only loss was to 2nd place, Gotrek is great into daemons and the Stormdrake block is capable of clearing anything in this list in a turn. Once the Greater Daemons start dying this list is pretty fragile.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Beasts of chaos, Big Waaagh!, Blades of Khorne, Bonesplitterz, Chaos, Cities of Sigmar, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Destruction, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Idoneth Deepkin, Ironjawz, Kharadron Overlords, Kruleboyz, Legion of the First Prince, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Meta Analysis, Nighthaunt, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter Holland, Seraphon, Skaventide, Slaves to Darkness, Sons of Behemat, Soulblight Gravelords, Stormcast Eternals, Sylvaneth, Tournaments

AoS Meta Stats (w/e 21st August 2022)

Leave a comment

A change is afoot for the Woehammer stats. We’re going more in depth. You’ll still find the tournament results for GT’s in the last week below along with links. Then there is statistic sections for the rolling four weeks stats and the current Age of Sigmar version (i.e. since the most recent update in terms of GHB or Battletome release).

Menu

Advertisements

Grand Tournaments

Northern Ireland GT – UK
32 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stDaughters of KhaineKhailebron5-0-0
2ndStormcast EternalsHammers of Sigmar4-0-1
3rdNighthauntEmerald Host4-0-1
4thFyreslayersLofnir4-0-1
5thStormcast EternalsHAmmers of Sigmar4-0-1
Northern Ireland GT

Capital City Bloodbath – Canada
43 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stFlesh-eater CourtsFeast Day5-0-1
2ndBonesplitterzIcebone5-0-1
3rdCities of SigmarHallowheart5-0-1
4thIdoneth DeepkinMor’Phann5-0-1
5thSeraphonFangs of Sotek5-0-1
Capital City Bloodbath

Gateway Open 2022 – USA
43 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stStormcast EternalsKnights Excelsior5-0-0
2ndCities of SigmarLiving City5-0-0
3rdBlades of KhorneReapers of Vengeance4-0-1
4thDaughters of KhaineZainthar Kai4-0-1
5thSons of BehematBreaker Tribe4-0-1
Gateway Open 2022

Salt Lake Open 2022 – USA
33 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stFyreslayersGreyfyrd5-0-0
2ndStormcast EternalsCelestial Warbringers4-0-1
3rdOgor MawtribesBoulderhead4-0-1
4thSons of BehematBreaker Tribe4-0-1
5thFlesh-eater CourtsBlisterskin4-0-1
Salt Lake Open 2022

Nashcon GT 2022 – USA
81 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stSeraphonFangs of Sotek5-0-0
2ndMaggotkin of NurgleBlessed Sons5-0-0
3rdNighthauntScarlet Doom4-0-1
4thBeasts of ChaosDarkwalkers4-0-1
5thLumineth Realm-LordsZaitrec4-0-1
Nashcon GT 2022

Snake Eyes – Australia
81 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stSeraphonFangs of Sotek5-0-0
2ndKharadron OverlordsBarak-Zilfin5-0-0
3rdMaggotkin of NurgleDrowned Men4-0-1
4thSylvanethGnarlroot4-0-1
5thSkaven4-0-1
Snake Eyes

Mancunian Carnage: Summer 2022 – Australia
81 Players

PositionFactionSubfactionResult
1stIronjawz5-0-0
2ndSlaves to DarknessKnights of the Empty Throne5-0-0
3rdMaggotkin of NurgleDrowned Men4-0-1
4thNighthauntScarlet Doom4-0-1
5thNighthauntEmerald Host4-0-1
Mancunian Carnage: Summer 2022
Advertisements

This Weeks Stats

The following stats are for the week ending 21st August only, essentially GT’s that took place on the 20th and 21st August.

Rolling 4 Week Stats

The rolling stats includes all GT’s since the weekend of 30th/31st July to the 20th/21st August. This covers a total of 983 players (+152 players) across 24 Grand Tournaments (+3 GT).

As the new release of the GHB takes hold it looks as though the overall effect is a positive one, although the stats are starting to shift away from the 50% mark slightly again. With Destruction once again falling.

Its not been a good week for the Kruleboyz and this is also reflected in the four weeks stats with them falling to 36.5%. Come on GW, show them some love.

Here are the rolling four weeks win rates since we began tracking this information:

Faction Stats (Version)

The below stats are for every match in a grand tournament since the release of the new General’s Handbook.

A great week for Seraphon sees them extend a lead over the Daughters of Khaine and Maggotkin of Nurgle with 7 clean sweeps to their 5.

Meanwhile at the lower end of the tables factions who have gone a whole tournament with five losses…

As for the win rates of each faction since the release of the new GHB:

Beasts of Chaos cling to their top spot but the Maggotkin of Nurgle seem to be having a resurgence and are not too far off their heels. Seraphon and Bonesplitterz are falling closely behind.

Kruleboyz fall back down the table and join Flesh-eater Courts, Ogors, Bonereapers and Gloomspite in the sub 45% win rate.

In terms of faction popularity:

By rights, each faction should have an equal share of the player base, however we know this will not be the case due to either the appeal of the miniatures or the rules for the factions. Here we can see the most popular factions are Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Sylvaneth, Daughters of Khaine, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Seraphon and Skaven.

Chance of going 5-0

Currently it would appear that Seraphon players have the highest chance of going 5-0 at an even.

Advertisements

Age of Sigmar, Danny & Peter, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Woehammer International TTS Tournament – Round 1

Leave a comment

The first round has been drawn. Unfortunately there have been two drop outs since the draw, no matter! It leaves an opportunity for an exhibition match!

Alice Lirette v Kieron Bailey

For those who aren’t aware, Alice is a writer for Goonhammer. Alice went to the BWG: Summer Slaughter and claimed two wins and three losses, but that was with Ossiarch Bonereapers – a faction in desperate need of an update.

This time around Alice is playing as Daughters of Khaine with Morathi and a Krondspine forming the backbone of her list.

Kieron joined Woehammer last month and is in competition with Mike Chadderton (also of Goonhammer fame) to see who can get to 5-0 with Kruleboyz first.

Alice Lirette

Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
The Shadow Queen (680)*
Morathi-Khaine (680)*
Bloodwrack Medusa (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Shadow Stone
– Spell: Mindrazor
– Bonding: Krondspine

UNITS
Blood Sisters (280)*
Blood Sisters (280)*
Witch Aelves (115)*

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine (400)*

ENDLESS SPELLS
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total Points: 1,995/2,000

Kieron Bailey

Faction: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triump: Inspired

LEADERS
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker (315)*
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Spell: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman (105)**
– Spell: Nasty Hex
Swampcalla Shaman (105)**
– Spell: Sneaky Miasma

UNITS
Gutrippaz (180)*
– Wicked Hacka
Gutrippaz (180)*
– Wicked Hacka
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
Man-Skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced Once
Man-Skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced Once
Man-Skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced Once
Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70)**

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total Points: 1,995/2,000

Peter: A one drop list will mean that Alice will be choosing who goes first in the first battle round, my guess being that she would allow Kieron to take the first and hope to have the double going into turn 2.

You may write-off the Kruleboyz at first glance, but they have a lot of screening that can be use to block the Krondspine and Morathi. Meanwhile the Man-skewers can pick wounds off at range.

Danny: I would say Alice has two options depending on how Kieron deploys – Morathi/s + Krondspine can potentially make a T1 charge, no shooting needed if Kboyz deploy and screen well, it would make sense to let them go first as moving will reduce the Boltboyz range and make her charges easier.

For Kieron it will be absolutely key to deploy in such a wayas to either bait the T1 charge and start doing those wounds to Morathi from chip damage/UH, because Kboyz can melt fast to her if he doesn’t keep her tied up with stuff. If Kieron gets given first first he will want to keep turtled up, do what he can to get on objectives and force Alice to split up to start scoring – getting those 3 wounds on Morathi every damn turn either way will be crucial.

How to Watch

The good news is you can find out how the game goes yourself. It’ll be streamed live on our Discord channel today at 5pm BST/12pm EST, why not join us and watch along.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Drowned Men, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kharadron Overlords, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter & Brett, Petrifex Elite, Seraphon, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Snake Eyes Grand Tournament

Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Snake Eyes Grand tournament that took place in Australia on 20th and 21st August. It involved 62 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

Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: The Astromatrix
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*
– Artefact: Serpent God Dagger
Skink Starpriest (130)**
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Engine of the Gods (265)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Starborne
– Spell: Bind Endless Spell
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
30 x Skinks (225)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

Units
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)**
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)**
– Allies- Bonded to Slann Starmaster

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 92
Drops: 5

Danny: After the stampede of dominance that Thunder Lizards enjoyed last season, Fangs of Sotek are quickly making an argument for the premier Seraphon sub-faction, given their ability to play the mission more effectively with summoning, teleporting, and that sweet parting shot (Unleash Hell, then run away on a 4+) from skink blobs.

By now, dear reader, you are probably au fait with how Seraphon work in general. This list is pretty generic as Sotek goes, with the big 30 skink blob front and centre that can put out serious pain once buffed with re-rolling 1s from the Starpriest – and god help you if the Engine gets Curse of for 6s to hit do mortals. With +enough (ok, fine, technically it’s +4 between Asterism, Astrolith, warscroll bonus and Krondspine) to easily get the Sun off, those skinks might also be putting out 60 shots with rend 1.

Everything else is general Seraphon goodstuff. On average the list summons 2.5 new salamander packs across the game too. Who needs damage reduction??

Advertisements

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Spend Shares to Make Shares
– Triumphs: lol nope

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (90)*
– Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Aether-Khemist (90)*
– General
– Command Trait: Collector
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Units
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155)*
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon
6 x Skywardens (210)*
– 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns
– 2x Skyhooks
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)
– Main Gun: Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word

Endless Spells & Invocations
Warp Lightning Vortex (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 2

Danny: Continuing their quite frankly unforeseen renaissance despite a shrivelled old Tome, KO narrowly miss out on winning a big event but get the 5-0 – and they haven’t even taken purple sun.

This list does however pack the standard warp vortex in a bottle and doubles down on the big shooty boats, also bringing along the rarely seen Skywardens for versatile mixed phase play. Double aether-khemists provide broad utility – a -1 to hit aura, a targeted re-roll wounds of 1 ability, and a cost efficient platform for artefacts and Battle Regiment requirements.

I have to give this list props for remaining ‘pure’ – personally, I have nothing against allying in or making use of the Krondspine, but to go 5-0 with KO, without Krondy or the Purple Sun speaks to a huge amount of skill and is, frankly, a flex. Going up against DoK – an army with a huge weakness to sustained ranged fire – probably helped, but that takes nothing away from this achievement. Kudos to Alex!

Advertisements

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (300)
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)
Lord of Afflictions (210)
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations

Battleline
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)*
– 2x Dolorous Tocsin
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**

Units
3 x Nurglings (105)
3 x Plague Drones (200)*
10 x Gors (70)**
– Gor-Blades & Beastshields

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 9

Danny: Nurgle going nowhere. Although, compared to the previous season, the fly pin spam has fallen off somewhat in favour of Gally Vet Blightkings, flies (aka Blightlords) are still buzzin’. This list packs a bunch, but to its credit avoids pure spam by investing in two of the big bois for durable, dual phase (magic/melee) threats that also pump out the….utility. It also takes Nurlings, which will always earn a shout out.

Allying in a unit of gors is a nice touch – and it makes sense, for 70 points (so cheap!) the list gains access to 10 wounds of…well, not much – but they’re so cheap! And for such an elite army, having a throw-away, objective grabbing unit to squeeze rot-juice from those remaining few points is a good shout, and clearly did the job here, with a loss coming along to 2nd place KO.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Mortisan Soulmason (115)***
– General
– Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefact: Godbone Armour
– Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality
Mortisan Soulmason (115)***
– Artefact: Gothizzar Cartouche
– Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (450)***

Battleline
10 x Mortek Guard (140)**
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
10 x Mortek Guard (140)**
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
10 x Mortek Guard (140)**
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

Units
4 x Morghast Harbingers (360)*
– Spirit Halberds
– Reinforced x 1
4 x Morghast Harbingers (360)*
– Spirit Halberds
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Morghast Harbingers (180)*
– Spirit Halberds

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 122
Drops: 9

Danny: Bonereapers are currently forced to reckon with a season of missions that don’t really respect how their army rules work – especially their lack of command abilities – but recent points adjustments and additional battleline options have given them a shot in the arm (well, bone) to tide them over until their 3e reimagining.

This list sticks close to the tried and tested formula of Katakros, who pumps out a variety of buffs, and two good-value Soulmasons as Artefact holders – notably the ‘Gothizzar Cartouche’ which is an aura of +1 to wound, likely aimed at making the Harbingers blend – with All out Attack in the mix their halberds reach 3 attacks 2/2/-2/3. Nasty!

in the meantime, MSU Mortek Guard never go out of style in Petrifex Elite, proving one of the game’s premier anvils who, especially if Empower Nadirite goes off, can also surprise folks with their output.

This is the new wave of Bonereapers, and though their tome is still a little ossified (I see what you did there – Peter), recent FAQs have meant they can reach the heady heights of top 10s – now the gauntlet is down for someone to take down a tourney before they get updated – In the meantime, Zagarelos has made a damn fine effort.

Final Tournament Placings

For the full results visit Tabletop.to

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Danny & Peter, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Destruction, emerald Host, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Hammers of Sigmar, Khailebron, Nighthaunt, Order, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Northern Ireland GT

1 Comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the the Northern Ireland GT that took place in the UK on 20th and 21st August. It involved 32 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

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Morathi-Khaine (340)**
The Shadow Queen (340)**
Melusai Ironscale (115)**
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
– Bonded: Incarnate

UNITS
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Strategists

Total: 1965 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 74
Drops: 7

Danny: DoK weren’t bad before their 3e book by any means, but they’d settled into a ‘Morathi and the (15) bow sneks’ rut. It took a short while for the dust to settle after their new tome, but they’re now starting to go 5-0 and win tournaments here and there – and, thankfully – with a variety of lists.

Although, to be fair, this one didn’t get the memo. The double reinforced bow snek still does the business, with Wendel opting for a Krondspine to double up with Morathi as super durable objective bullies/screens – in the ‘Spine’s case, the pinning effect will help the bow-blob safe while they rain down hurt, and the 2 units of witch aelves run around scoring. Or – because this list opts for Khailebron – teleport around.

I call this the ‘pin and pun-cushion’ strategy.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Lord-Castellant (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– Prayer: Translocation
Runelord (95)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
– Allies

UNITS
5 x Liberators (115)***
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Liberators (115)***
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)***
3 x Aetherwings (65)*
10 x Protectors (450)**
– 4x Starsoul Maces
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)**
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters
***Expert Conquerors
Holy Command: Call for Aid
Holy Command: Unleash Thy Hatred

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 109
Drops: 11

Danny: Love that this list took a thematic route through the tournament, crusading successfully against the forces of chaos and death – only losing out to a ‘friendly’ scrap against a rival Stormhost.

This list probably qualifies as ‘shootcast’, packing in 6 Longstrikes – despite the recent FAQ stripping reinforced units of the double shoot – and a unit of Judicators. That’s backed up with a Protector blob, who absolutely slap, but are slow. This static, slow core is counterbalanced by Scions of Storm and a chariot, plus the Relictor whose teleport is still clutch to allow for mobility and objective play. And in this season, where Expert Conqs. are often at the mercy of Bounty Hunters, Liberators with +1 save from the Castellant provide a super durable, objective-stealing and mission playing battleline.

A considered list that clearly plays well into the current season and meta.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Emerald Host
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)*
– Lore of the Underworlds: Spectral Tether
Guardian of Souls (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Midnight Tome
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
– Bonded to Incarnate
Krulghast Cruciator (150)*

UNITS
20 x Grimghast Reapers (320)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Hexwraiths (160)*
5 x Hexwraiths (160)*
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)*
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)*
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies
Mortalis Terminexus (85)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 71
Drops: 1

Danny: Nighthaunt have not so far been the shrieking, impossible horror that some predicted, but they’re definitely an army you have to have a plan for now.

With the -1 damage aura from the Krulghast combined with ethereal (NH saves can’t be modified -/+), plus their targeted +1 to ward saves, they’re surprisingly tanky for a bunch of spooky sheets. Throw a Krondspine into the mix, all wrapped up in a battle regiment, factor in the NH army trait to re-set up a few units in deployment and you have a tight package that is highly reactive to the mission and opponent – all crucial tools for success at the moment.

The rest of the core units are general NH goodstuff – Hexwraiths for mobility and mw impact hits, Banshees for shutting down magic and the mostly-usual 20 blob of Grimghasts for an eye-watering number of rend 1 attacks and objective thievery, and you have yourself a truly spoopy list.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Option: Gloomspite Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Skragrott, The Loonking (230)
– General
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)*
– Moon-cutta
– Artefact: Spiteful Prodder

UNITS
20 x Stabbas (150)
– Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
– 3x Barbed Nets
– x Moonclan Flag Bearers
– 1x Badmoon Icon Bearers
20 x Stabbas (150)
– Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
– 3x Barbed Nets
– 1x Badmoon Icon Bearers
24 x Squig Herd (320)
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
10 x Squig Hoppers (180)*
10 x Squig Hoppers (180)*
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (290)
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Sporesplatta Fanatics (135)
Mork’s Mighty Mushroom (40)
Scuttletide (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Vanguard

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 179
Drops: 10

Peter: I love lists like this, six different units rather than finding the most efficient and spamming it.

James has gone for Stabbas rather than Shootas for his battleline as there a little more durable than their shooting counterparts with a +1 save while having more than 10 models. They’re cheap and make perfect blocking units, gumming up the board in vital locations.

The Squig herd puts out a reasonable amount of damage with 20 squigs able to produce an average damage output of 13.2 before saves. On top of that when squigs are removed they’ll cause mortals on 4+ to the nearest unit.

The Squig Hoppers (Squig Cavalry) cause mortal wounds to models they hop over as well as having the damage output similar to the Herd. These move at 3D6 and so could potentially have a threat range of 30″! The Loonboss has been included to remove the randomness of this movement however, giving the Hoppers a flat 12″ move while within range of the Loonboss.

Meanwhile the rockgut Troggoths can soak up damage with their 5+ ward save and regeneration in the hero phase.

Skragrott is a 2 cast and unbind character with +1 to his casting attempts.

Unfortunately, where Gitz fall down is in their lack of synergy between units meaning most units are pretty much independent most of the time. Hopefully this will change with their new book. Either way, this is a fun little army that looks great to play with and against. Almost makes me want to play Gitz…

Final Tournament Placings

Black Library, Declan Walters, Games Workshop

Book Review – Double Eagle

Leave a comment

A Sabbat’s World Novel by Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett has made a new warzone with the Sabbat Worlds in his Gaunt’s Ghost series and he returns to the same series, but with aerial combat in Double Eagle.

Black Library

From the book:

While the Space Marines and Imperial Guard rule the battlefields of the Sabbat Worlds, the skies belong to the Imperial Navy. On Enothis, the enemy are threatening to halt the Imperial advance. Daemonic forces push into Imperial territory, thousands of refugees flee across the deserts and an infamous Chaos-tainted pilot, Khrel Kas Obarkon, rules the sky, his skill in the cockpit matched only by his kill tally. The ace pilots of the Phantine Twentieth Fighter Corps are the Imperium’s only hope for victory.

Have you ever wondered what the Battle of Britain would look like but set in the Warhammer 40k universe. Well have no fear, Dan Abnett has thought about it as well and he brings you the answer!

The Phantine Twentieth are a strange breed, being part of the Imperial Army (Astra Militarum) and not the Navy, because the world they come from has very little land and lots of sky! Of course there are rivalries with the Navy and with the local airforce and transfers between the three groups as planes are shot down, pilots are stranded and rescued, and others are promoted.

It’s a fast moving, well designed story with a few story lines but not too many as to be confusing. Abnett has also avoided the temptation to mention the Ghosts, as an aerial wing would not be concerned about a unit they have no link to. The combat is well described and you can imagine you are in the middle of the combat or watching an old WWII film.

Great fun, and definitely recommended if you like Gaunt. It’s also a great introduction into the Sabbat Worlds if you’re not sure you can commit to the entire Ghost’s series.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

— Declan & Eeyore

Check out the full list of Book Reviews we’ve done on Woehammer here

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hagg Nar, Hammers of Sigmar, Idoneth Deepkin, Ionrach, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Peter & Brett, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Age of Sigmar, Match Play Event (Warhammer World)

1 Comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Age of Sigmar, Matched Play Event that took place in Nottingham, England on 13 and 14 August. It involved 74 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament at Warhammer World.

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

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
Leaders
Lord of Afflictions (210)**
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
– Incubatch
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)
Morbidex Twiceborn (320)
Bloab Rotspawned (300)**
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Lord of Afflictions (210)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
– Incubatch
Units
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
– 1 x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
– 1 x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
– 1 x Dolorous Tocsin
Terrain
Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent Additional Enhancements Artefact

Brett: A different approach to a lot of recent Maggotkin armies with a lot of heroes and minimum battleline. It forces you to use your heroes to complete battle tactics because this army but who cares with double Lord’s of Affliction. Morbidex, Orghotts and Bloab are all Monsters, with the Arcane Tome there are only 2 casts/dispells. There isn’t some amazing synergy here except that everything is as mobile as Nighthaunt but has 8 wounds. Nothing is dying easily and they are producing mortal wounds (MW) and disease points (for more MW). All of the Blightlords are in bounty hunters doubling their potential damage and making them hard to manage with GV.

All of that might not convey how horrific this army is. Bloab, Orghutts and Morbix have a top bracket of 5 or 6 wounds and a 5+ ward giving them 18 effective wounds. Until you get them out of that bracket they have 5 attacks at rend -2 with 3 damage and 3 to 7 damage 2 attacks. They are devastating in combat as well as their MW production forcing you to try to avoid them. With 3 monsters and 5 Leaders over all as well as the Blightlords themselves there isn’t a lot of room to score without engaging them.

That makes this a great army, you are forced to make a least bad choice and hope you can get in and out before they concentrate forces. None of his opponents could really afford to trade, Idoneth shooting probably had the best chance but it’s hard to stay out of charge range there to. Beast’s high rend would be useful but they wouldn’t stay alive long enough, Orks and Ogres are devastating on the change but when hit back by these monsters they would lose too many models. Solid work in assembling such an army and the all or nothing approach which paid off here.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Hagg Nar
– Mortal Realm: Ulgu
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Leaders
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe
Morathi-Khaine (340)*
The Shadow Queen (340)* Battleline
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Blood Sisters (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives Units
5 x Doomfire Warlocks (145)*
– Spell1: Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
9 x Khainite Shadowstalkers (150)*
Avatar of Khaine (155)* Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 102
Drops: 1

Brett: Solid implementation of one of the stronger books at the moment. 1 drop army in Hagg Nar – they will determine priority most of the time and have +1 to charge in the first round. Avatar of Khaine to providing +1 to wound for the Witch Aelves, Melusai is rallying the fallen on a 4+ and denying her opponents rally within 9″. Blood Stalkers for their ranged support and Sisters to do the stabbing (as well as Morathi). That’s a solid core to control a couple of objectives and destroy units that attempt to reclaim giving you 2 or 3 battle tactics. Unusually James chose against Heartrenders going with Doomfire Locks and Shadowstalkers. Doomfire Warlocks are expensive but their speed lets them threaten anywhere that isn’t well defending as well as their spell casting.

Shadowstalkers seem undervalued in the current meta, they can teleport, for free, anywhere 9″ from the enemy. This is similar to Heartrenders deep striking except they can repeat it, the 2 units are similar in cost and the Shadowstalkers are slightly harder to kill. I think it could be a better solution although they lack the ranged attacks of the Heartrenders. Not surprisingly Seraphon and Maggotkin were harder to score against but the Legion of the First Prince list caused the most issues. Be’Lakor and an Incarnate is a lot to deal with for anybody and reliably clearing 10 Plaguebringers is tough. Good work taking second.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin
– Enclave: Ionrach
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Isharann Soulscryer (150)
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Akhelian King (250)
– General
– Bladed Polearm
– Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline
6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (390)**
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Namarti Reavers (340)
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)
Units
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 3

Brett: 3rd and 4th tied in round 3 and overall had very similar scores so I’ve included both. Only 2 heroes, Soulscryer (priest) and the Akhelian King without a lot of casting (Arcane Tome/Flaming Weapon is a nice touch though). The King is built for output but also a little tanky, useful when you only have 7 wounds. Polearm for -3 rend and 3 damage on the charge, buffed with Flaming Weapon and an additional 2 attacks per enemy unit within 3″. He’s begging to be charged into the middle of something he probably won’t survive.

This a very mobile Idoneth army with the 6 Morrsarr Eels and 4 Allopexes (in pairs). Morrsarr and Ishlaen were much more common with the previous book (where Thralls were really terrible) but aren’t commonly seen now. They are still a tanky mobile unit that can keep up with the King and receive his hit buff as can the Allopexes. That lets you make a mobile death castle particularly from round 2. Idoneth are really deadly if they get the 2/3 double, 3 drops probably means first turn to his opponent. Forcing your opponent to go first and Creeping Mist (can’t be targetted outside 12″ on low tide) is a popular tactic for Idoneth. Even vampires struggle in the mists apparently.

Outside of his 3rd opponent the remaining armies were melee focused, they will play poorly into Idoneth where they can get close enough to fire without fear of return fire. With the Morsarr and even Allopex to screen the Reavers it’s an uphill battle. More so if they can garrison terrain (including the boat). Really well played taking 3rd in this field and an even this big.

Advertisements

Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Holy Command: Call For Aid
Leaders
Knight-Draconis (300)
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Thunderous Presence
– Spells: Celestial Blades
Lord-Castellant (155)**
Battleline
1 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Lance
Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Warblade
Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Warblade
Liberators (115)**
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
Endless Spell
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Vanguard

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Brett: I mentioned elsewhere that Dragon spam is slowly returning with the end of prime hunters. This army is a good example with 8 dragons including the dreaded reinforced block. With the Lord Castellant for a +1 to saving throws (Saving on 2s for free) and a Purple Sun for good measure. With only the one cast and no buffs to spell casting it’s sometimes questionable if Stormcast (SCE) should take it. But, as Martin has done, taking Master of Magic is reasonable for SCE because their own traits aren’t super strong, this still only gives a 59% chance of success. However Celestial Blades (+1 to wound) is significant and if it was on the Lance equipped block of 4 on the charge (-2 rend, 2 damage).

It’s quite a clever army with a small block of Galletian Veterans to provide look out sir and hold an objective in the rear and varied weapon choices on the Drakes. Drakes aren’t great damage dealers but if their breath weapon works that can be amazing. They are durable in combat with 9 wounds saving on a 3 making it hard to clear them. The Knight Draconis gives one unit, once per battle, a chance to shoot in the hero phase meaning double shooting. I imagine the Reavers may have had a rough time on the wrong end of a double shooting dragon 4 pack. With their speed and durabilty it’s hard to stop the Dragon’s scoring a number of Battle Tactics and the Knight Draconis has a fair chance of succeding with This One’s Mine.

Horde lists might present a problem but one unit can spread to cover almost half the board. SBGL didn’t stop Martin. One issue with this approach is scoring and Martin’s scores were at the lower end. Lets hope we don’t see a return to only Dragon lists but they still look amazing, 4 and a draw is still an amazing result.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Bonesplitterz, Cities of Sigmar, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Feast Day, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Hallowheart, Icebone, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Capital City Bloodbath – Age of Sigmar Champs

3 Comments

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Capital City Bloodbat that took place in Ontario, Canada on 20th and 21st August. It involved 43 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

Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Court of Delusion – The Feast Day
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Dark Acolyte – Deranged Transformation
King of the Krondspine (245)*
Abhorrant Archregent
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)*
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Lore of Madness: Blood Feast

Battleline
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)**
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)**
– Reinforced x 2

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 83
Drops: 3

Brett: Carl (Season of War) is back and with a different army as well. Jordan took 4th with his slippery eels as well. This time Carl’s running Flesh Eater Courts reminding everyone there is more to death than Nighthaunt (or maybe Soulblight). No Grand Court listed, that avoids the mandatory trait and artefact common to 2nd edition book subfaction but they can still take a delusion – Feeding Frenzy. This command grants a second pile in and fight to a unit, very useful on the Flayers or Terrorgheist. The Archregent and Ghoul King are wizards with 3 casts/dispel but as senior officers of the court they can also muster (summon) units. Both the Archregent and the Infernal can muster or return Flayers or Horrors as can the Ghoul King. The Archregent can also bring in cryptghouls (Galletian Veterans) and Courtiers.

All of this adds up to the listed army being on the start. The Flayers will be hard to remove, 9 with 4 wounds is enough to survive most attacks and they can grow back. Chronomatic Cogs to ensure rerolls, the spells that they use tend to increase the number of attacks, grant fly or mortal wounds. The warscroll spells are good enough that you want access to them most of the time. Apart from the Infernal Courtier/Flayer connection important aura’s are large (18″ reroll 1s for Grypt Ghouls). They can spread a little to cover an objective with certain death. But their ability so summon Galletian Veterans anywhere on the map that isn’t occupied they play into this season really well. The army has 3 full hammers between the Ghoul King, Incarnate and Flayers.

And they are very mobile, particularly when everything can be made to fly so terrain is irrelevant. One loss to a very strong Witch Aelve army – 50 stabby ladies and the High Gladitrix is hard to punch through and they hit very hard. Otherwise they’ve taken down strong combat and magic armies as well as Gargants. Amazing effort with what is currently seen as one of the weakest factions in the game. More than anything I think this shows the level of balance in Age of Sigmar (and what a good general can do). Shout out to Karl Turbide for the very interesting Ironjawz list Carl played in Round 2.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Bonesplitterz
– Warclan: Icebone
– Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones!
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Savage Big Boss (65)*
– General
– Command Trait: Great Hunter
Maniak Weirdnob (100)*
– Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Savage Big Boss (65)**
Savage Big Boss (65)**
Savage Big Boss (65)**

Battleline
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)**
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)**
– Stikkas

Units
5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)***
5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)***
4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)***
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Warlord
***Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Spell

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 191
Drops: 19

Brett: Ah the cunning orcs. No one in their right mind would just run at you and throw their bodies at you to kill you. So they’ll never suspect that’s our cunning plan. 19 drops, count ’em, 19. They get a turn whenever you want them to. Do you want them to go first with a pregame move? Icebone does Mortal Wounds on 6s based on the damage characteristic across the army. Big Stabbas are strong (and there are a lot), 6 high quality attacks hit and wounding on 3s per pair is great. Running the fairly cheap Maniacs backed by the standard Boarboy is another great idea, making it easier to hunt down Galletian Veterans where ever they are.

Not strong on objectives so their preference is always to charge into an enemy for the +1. With the double Warlord the army has an extra spell and artefact. Glowing Tatooz to improve his Ward to 4 (+2 to ward casts) making lifting his stare much less of a risk.

His warscroll has a useful spell into hordes as well. 3 casts but both casters have the same spells, one to force fight last (very bad against Bonesplitterz) and the other to grant +1 to run and charge. The Savage Big Bosses bring 6 attacks and allows another unit within 12″. With 4 Savage Big Bosses they can either spread out or concentrate and maximise their chance to remove something. His only loss was to Oliver (3rd) who brought a lot of shooting and casting which would quickly wear down teh Bonesplitterz. I think we will continue to see versions of this army for most of this season. They are a fun army, who doesn’t want semi naked greenskins running across the field at you.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knight-Incantor general adjudant(125)*
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Ignite Weapons
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battlemage on Griffon (255)*
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds
– Lore of Whitefire: Elemental Cyclone
Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Crystal Aegis
– Lore of Whitefire: Roaming Wildfire
Freeguild General (100)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds
– Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand

Battleline
10 x Dreadspears (85)*
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)*
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)*
– Reinforced x 2

Units
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
5 x Drakespawn Knights (120)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 126
Drops: 2

Brett: Very spell heavy army (from Hallowheart so that’s to be expected) back with a lot of shooting and some thin screens. 4 Heroes that in Hallowheart all (even the SCE and the non caster with Arcane Tome) have 2 spells. Hallowheart grants the ablity for a cast to give themselves D3 mortal wounds and add that to their casting roll, most of their spells are CV5 or 6 to begin with so this is mostly useful in getting the Purple Sun out but useful for any clutch spells and in early turns no reason not to do it. The Knight Incantor still has a once per game dispell/deny and ignite weapons grants +1 to wound, most likely on the Crossbow men (wounding on 2s). Between the Wildfire Lore and their warscrolls the wizards have access to 5 damaging spells, 3 that are AoE.

The General can increase ward saves against magic and heal wounds (also useful if you take wounds on say the Hurricanum to boost casting). The crossbows need to be more than 3″ from enemy units and not have moved to receive an extra attack if there are more than 10 models – so 61 attacks. No rend but if they are wounding on 2s weight of dice is an issue. Horrorghast helps because even if you only kill enough to force a battleshock, they are losing an extra D3 models if they fail. Against MSU units that can be devestating. Both Fulminators and Drakespawn Knights are nasty, particularly on the charge, in this army they can be given Wildform (Mage on Griffon) for +2 to run and charge. They could use the Soulscream and then only have a effective 7″ charge into something important.

Most of this army is going to be a big castle with a lot of buffs and reach. There aren’t a lot of screens so there is a chance something can reach the casters/crossbowmen. If you are close then the Crossbowmen really drop in effiency. Against FEC (a really close game – only 2 points) I wonder about the impact of FEC summoning, particuarly of units outside of the shooting range. In the end this is a spell casting army with limited mobility (4 really mobile units but 2 of them will struggle solo) so it’s dependant on the dice. A gambler’s army, really fun to play with and against.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Option: Jaws of Mork
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)*
– General
– Moonclan Stabba
– Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder
– Artefact: Syari Screamersquig
Madcap Shaman (80)**
– Lore of the Moonclans: Squig Lure
Madcap Shaman (80)**
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork

Battleline
20 x Shootas (140)***
– 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers
20 x Shootas (140)***
– 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers
20 x Shootas (140)***
– 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers

Units
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)**
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)**
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)**
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)**
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)**
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Mork’s Mighty Mushroom (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
***Expert Conquerors

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 150 / 400
Wounds: 186
Drops: 6

Brett: 186 wounds of Madness. Watch your army be swarmed and overwhelmed by funny little creatures with Slittas. This is the Jaws of Mork White Dwarf army right down to the option use of a General with a Squig. This isn’t a Tome Celestial but an older 2nd Edition buff. Lots of cheap Shootas in units just big enough to qualify for the +1 to hit. Jaws of Mork has a command ability to return (on a 4+) a slain squig unit at half strength near the Loonshrine. On top of that we have the Marshcrawla to buff nearby units of Bounder’s melee attacks to make sure they do something and attract attention.

2 casters to castle with the Shootas (expert conquerors to really control objectives), they are bringing a teleport and an ability to run and charge for 3 units. The plan is to buff up 3 bounders and run then charge them into your face. Returning squigs and a genuine horde are hard to deal with unless you have horde killing abilities. FEC does and also plays into low bravery units really well (you will have many running squigs) and Fangs of Sotek Seraphon have better heavy hitting units with big screens of cheap tradeable Skinks. Their spell casting would have limited the effectiveness of things like the Purple Sun. I really like that this is a 6 drop list (madness) – those are long drops. A crazy off meta list that performed really well, horde Gitz are meant to make a come back.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Big Waaagh!, Chaos, Destruction, Dracothion's Tail, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts

Top Three AoS Lists for Old Town Throwdown, Summer Smash

Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Age of Sigmar, Summer Smash that took place in Irvine, California, USA on 13 and 14 August. It involved 79 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. With more than 50 players and only 2 days/5 rounds the top 3 didn’t meet each other so no real meta comparisons are possible. But the event being determined by points alone gives a really good comparison between the Generals (aka the Hand of God).

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: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
Leaders
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (240)*
– General
– Command Traits: Supa Sneaky
– Artefacts of Power: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)****
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)****
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline
Orruk Ardboys (85)*
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– Ardboy Boss
– Waaagh! Drummer
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
Orruk Ardboys (255)***
– Ardboy Boss
– 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– 3 x Waaagh! Drummer
– 6 x Orruk-forged Shield
Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– Ardboy Boss
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– Ardboy Boss
– Waaagh! Drummer
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
Units
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)**
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Morgok’s Krushas (90)**
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)****
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)****
Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters
***Expert Conquerors
****Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1960/2000

Brett: It’s been a while since an Orruk army has been at the top of the podium and it’s fantastic to see a Big Waagh army at number one in such a big tournament. He’s done it by adding in Mortal Wound output (Wurrgog and Bolt Boyz) with range (Bolt Boyz again). That’s cost him the Mawcrusha but the Corpse-rippa moves almost as fast and is still very good in combat. Additionally having the Warchanter and Wurrgog means at the start of every turn the army is generating D6+3 Waagh points. That will make getting into combat and hitting harder that much easier. The list is centred on the Ardboyz in both MSU and a double reinforced contingent. All have as many shields as possible improving their save. Near a Warchanter they are rallying on a 4+ as well.

They only move 4″ but the Shaman can (might not but you have to allow for it) drop either the Gore Gruntas or the big block of ardboyz into your back area. The Boltboyz are hard to get to through shields, only long range shooting would threaten them, only the Skaven had much access to that. Aaron certainly didn’t win the tournament through his list building, this would have taken careful considered play to win but he took down meta lists with an off meta choice and should be congratulated.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (300)
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)*
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Shield of Growths
Gutrot Spume (170)*
Battleline
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)***
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)***
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters
Additional Enhancements
Triumph
Total: 1920 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 115
Drops: 8

Brett: Another Nurgle army in the top 3, they are having a lot of success in the current meta with or without Galletian Veterans. I think this list is a good example of why, there are a few really good warscrolls and the book is well enough balanced to allow multiple options in both heroes and troops. Lots of deployment tricks in this army. Firstly Drowned Men giving an 8″ pregame move to the Blightlords. The Blightkings and Gutrot Spume can be placed in reserve at the start of the game as well. Bloab is relatively common in current armies, mortal wounds, combat wizard and debuffs to units within 7″. That’s all enemy units within 7″.

We aren’t seeing Orghotts a lot lately but apart from being a strong combat hero he has a free command point a turn to spend on Mortal units (Blightkings). A lot of thought went into this army including adapting to a lack of mobility on the Blightkings and redundancy in the heroes. The army doesn’t have a lot of spells or denies and might be vulnerable there. Still it’s proven that it is flexible and effective taking out Sons of Behemat (DPS check) while being effective into horde armies (Soulblight) and rend cancelling (Nighthaunt). Great work going 5/0.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (325)**
– Allies
Lord Kroak (430)**
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
Engine of the Gods (265)***
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Hand of Glory
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline
5 x Saurus Guard (115)*
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
Behemoths
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***
Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Linebreaker
Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Total: 2000 / 2000

Brett: Last of the 5/0 lists and we have Seraphon, Thunder Lizard. Lord Kroak will dominate the casting supported by the Astrolith and even the Engine with Arcane Tome. Kroak is an amazing piece, all up this list has 7 casts/unbinds and reroll from Cogs. The Skinks and Saurus are really here as screens and for opportunistic objective play. They can always summon more skinks. The Bastiladons are the main damage dealer in the army which really wants you to get close for the melee attacks and pile the magic on. The Bastiladon wing is averaging 9 MW from the Ark every turn, if that’s concentrated it’s a major headache. The Ark is really good for dealing with Nighthaunt 1 damage model (no rend and a lot of dice).

Mass mortal wounds and lots of low quality attacks really plays into the Horrorghast. Even losing one or two models could be enough to see an MSU flee or even a large block of NH vanish to moral. And other than Mortal Wounds the Bastiladon with the 1+ save is a real problem. Scarlet Doom NH should have had the least problems but they would have been playing without magic so not able to return models. Overall a really solid difficult to deal with army but may struggle to succour battle tactics and score with only a few trading pieces (unless the Engine really fires well).

Advertisements

Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Subfaction: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Inspired
Leaders
Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)*
– Artefacts of Power: Gnoblar Blast Keg
– Mount Traits: Metalcruncher
Tyrant (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Mass of Scars
– Big Name: Fateseeker
– Artefacts of Power: Gruesome Trophy Rack
Butcher (135)*
– Cleaver
– Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
Battleline
Ironguts (235)**
– Bellower
– Rune Maw Bearer
– Gutlord
Leadbelchers (180)**
– Thunderfist
Leadbelchers (180)**
– Thunderfist
Artillery
Ironblaster (130)
Ironblaster (130)
Ironblaster (130)
Other
Gnoblars (100)
– Groinbiter
Gnoblars (200)*
– Groinbiter
Terrain
1 x Great Mawpot (0)
Core battalions
*Warlord
– Magnificent
**Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Brett: The last list for the event is a faction we don’t see a lot – Ogor Mawtribes. Mawtribes is probably a anti meta choice and Underguts shooting list even more so. Underguts gives an extra 6″ range but this is a really swingy old world faction. Leadbelchers have to roll for the number of their ranged attacks (D3 and D6 if they don’t move), The Ironguts have a single long range shot that does D6 damage, and Gnoblars to die aimlessly. Ogor’s are a heap of fun, just not reliable. With only one caster and cast this isn’t a magic army. Everything in the army, even the Butcher has combat capability, it’s hard to close and not take damage unless you can wipe a unit. The Butcher needs to stay back (5+ save) but almost everything except the Gnoblar are 4 wounds with a 4+ save.

That’s a bit of a break point, with 32 effective wounds you need serious strikes to be sure of destroying the unit. If you don’t then they can hit back very hard and your unit is open to be charged by another Ogor. 13th in a large tournament is an awesome effort. NH turning off rend impacts Ogor better quality attacks and Maggotkin mortal wound production are both big impacts to the Ogors. I suspect the shooting from this list was a bit of a surprise to most.

Final Tournament Placings