This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Season of War Grand Tournament that took place in Ontario, Canada on 6th and 7th August. It involved 65 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. The tournament was hosted and organised by Seaon of War, you can find out more on their youtube channel.

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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)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Meteoric Javelins 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)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 8

Brett: Seraphon but, interestingly, not Thunderlizard. The Seraphon book hasn’t been brought up to 3rd Edition standard yet but remains one of the best and most complete battletomes. We haven’t seen a lot of Skinks at the top recently but maybe Eternal Conquerors will bring them back into the light.

Lots of heroes starting with the Saurus Astrolith Bearer, buffing casting and providing a ward within 12″ his Celestial Conjuration Point (CCP) generation is probably amount the most powerful ability. CCP let you summon units, if you have more than 6 you can summon. A Slann General and Astrolith together give 2D3 CCP a turn making at least 6 CCP a turn feasible. That’s 10 Skinks as a minimum. The Starmaster is a nasty wizard with an inbuilt Spell Portal, 3 casts, +1 to cast/dispel/unbind and unlimited range on his dispel/unbind. Both his warscroll spell (Comet’s Call) and Stellar Tempest deal MW. His command trait allows 1 reroll for a cast/dispel/unbind in each hero phase (2 per turn). He’s built to get both the Purple Sun and Gnashing Jaws out on command and make if difficult to get your spells off.

Supporting him are another wizard and a priest, granting another 2 dispel/unbind attempts as well on top of their casts. The Starpriest is granting rerolls for hit rolls of 1 to a unit. The army has a range of offensive options, the salamander hunting packs with high quality attacks for targets with good saves, the Bastilidon for a little of everything. And the large Skink pack for removing low wound, poor save blobs. Having the 2 loadouts on the Skinks is an interesting play, 2 of the units are ideal for screening or taking objectives (where they count as 30) and the other for damage. With curse the 30 strong unit is on average able to produce MW. Special mention to the Purple Sun (MVP this season so far) and Gnashing Jaws.

Gnashing Jaws is a really strong choice now we are seeing a lot of armies with really strong but slow infantry (Fyreslayers, Kurnoth, Stormcast, Maggotkin). The potential MW output into a unit with a move of 4″ is eye watering. Something to remember is it can affect your foot heroes. This army is really set up to deal with hordes with massed 1 damage attacks but can, with a combination of spells/abilities and some stronger units pivot.

The range of lists taken down in the event shows the flexibility and balance of the army as well as the great generalship. More than just winning each round Ridge scored well in every round to secure the win over Rueben. A head to head between them would be interesting.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
Tribe: Taker Tribe
Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble
Triumph: Inspired

Leader/Battleline
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525pts)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Flaming Weapon
Kraken-Eater Mega-Gargant (490pts)*
– General
– Glowy Lantern
– Very Acquisitive
– Krakenskin Sandals

Battleline
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Warstompa Mega-Gargant (470pts)*

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

Total: 1,995pts

Brett: Another strong showing from the Sons, this time with the less popular Mancrushers in the army as well. The army build is quite clever, creating 2 wizards in an army with next to no magic but still maintaining key artefacts. With endless sells on the rampage Wizards and Priests are almost mandatory inclusions now for the dispel/unbind. The text for Glowy Lantern is pretty cool too, apparently this is a smart Kraken-Eater.

No Montrously Tough here but Flaming Weapon on the Gatebreaker takes the flail to flat 4 damage. Even on his bottom profile that +1 damage is still making a difference with -3 Rend. The Kraken Eater is both well equipped with Very Acquisitive giving both the extra artefact and allows equipping 2. The second is Krakenskin Sandals making the his stomp a more reliable. Bosses of the Stomp provides the 3rd artefact which is on the Gate Breaker. The Mancrushers being in Bounty Hunters is potentially a solid move, it doubles their effect on Galetian Veterans of course.

Mancrushers are typically more vunerable to ranged attackes with their lower wound counts. Pity no one really brought that many, the Thunder Lizard Seraphon list having the most. It goes to show that in a spell heavy infantry meta, even with the risk of a Purple Sun, the giants have a place. The weakening of some shooting (SCE) will help that and they were never bad, so after 6 months we might start to see quite a few back on tables. It will be interesting to see what effect there is on the meta if there are more Sons on the table. To state the obvious, a very effective army with interesting choices that double down on it’s anti infantry roll. Congratulations on 5/0 in a tight field. A head to head between Reuben and Ridge would be quite a spectacle.

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Inspired

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

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

Endless Spells
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

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

Brett: More familar territory here with a Nighthaunt Scarlet Doom army still it has it’s own quirks similar to the armies we’ve already looked at. From the Grand Strat (Fight or Flight – no enemies within 6″ of any NH unit contesting an objective) to the block of Spirit Hosts there are nuiances to the list. If you are going first the Grand Strat seems easy since NH can always fall back but with 10 drops going second is more likely. Inspired is a good choice for NH since battleshock isn’t really a thing for them.

4 reasonably standard heroes, providing damage reduction, spells and healing for multiple units. Master of Magic is particularly good with the Purple Sun allowing rerolls of a crucial spell. The unit selection is more interesting in this army. Spirit Hosts took a hit from 2nd to 3rd edition losing their MW on 6s ability for a body guard effect. With 3 wounds though a block of 9 is going to be tanky especially with Spirit Hosts to return a model every turn. The Myrmourn are here as stabby spell stealers, very useful in the Endless Spell era we are currently enjoying. The Chainrasps are really only here to meet battleline, they will probably provide some screening or more likely backline objective holding but will evaporate if pushed too hard.

The Bladegheist are here as the damage dealers, doing mortal wounds on the charge to fall back and charge again. Worse of course they get an extra attack and as bounty hunters are doing 2 damage into your GV units. I think people are getting a handle on Bladegheists now, you need to make sure you understand their threat range or try to remove them with shooting. They are devestating if they can hit you in full formation with the current rules meaning all will hit you most of the time. His only loss was against a Maggotkin list with 3 Lords and 12 Blightlords. With the Blightlords the Bladegheist wouldn’t get additional damage and the Maggotkin army would have superior magic. Their MW output and “shooting” would have been effective at blunting the NH.

Still don’t under estimate Bladegheist, putting down Sons in the first round and then the Hog spam in the last should give an idea of the damage potential. Nate’s first round match against Oliver from Season of War is now up on the Season of War website for anyone interested. Having watched it I am amazed at how tanky the Spirit Hosts turned out to be, great move.

Allegiance: Bonesplitterz
– Warclan: Icebone
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Maniak Weirdnob (100)*
– Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Savage Big Boss (65)*
– General
– Command Trait: Great Hunter
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
4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)***
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)*
10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)***
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Spell

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 181
Drops: 14

Brett: Wow where do I even start with this list, 181 wounds and 40 little pigs with more small heroes than most nations can handle. This list is making maximum use of Icebone’s MW on 6s to hit with melee weapon. Grand Strategy is to control a piece of terrain at the end of the battle. 3 casts from the Prophet and Shaman, including the Shaman is a great idea given the chance the Prophet will blow himself up. They concentrate on winding up their crazy mates with their spells.

The Savage Big Bosses have an ability to let another unit with 3″ of an enemy, wholly within 12″, fight immediately after this unit. That’s why there are so many, they are slow but they can fairly easily do 24, 2 damage attacks before letting so the Big Stabbas hit you (or more likely a small boar unit). With so many boars this is a solid tactic letting you concentrate a small castle of pain near an objective and the boars go wide. Combined with the Prophet lifting his mask and the Big Stabbas getting into combat this is enough damage to down a Gargant.

The boarboys and Maniacs are always going to be best on the charge so you want to make sure that isn’t an option first round. And I haven’t mentioned it but there is a reason for the 2 wizards, Purple Sun to eat something important. No shame in drawing against Maggotkin who could outlast most of the charges and blunt them with disease points. His only loss was to our 2nd place Gargants, again understandalbe because you are relying on swingy units to drop them.

Final Tournament Placings