Top Three AoS Lists for Emerald City Open 2

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Emerald City Open 2 (Electric Boogaloo) that took place in Puyallup (Tacoma), USA on 27th and 28th August. It involved 41 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game/2 day tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Hagg Nar
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Indomitable Leaders
Melusai Ironscale (115)**
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
Hag Queen (110)**
– Prayer: Martyr’s Sacrifice
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (270)**
– Prayer: Blessing of Khaine
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
High Gladiatrix (90)*
– Artefact: Crown of Woe Battleline
30 x Witch Aelves (345)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Sisters of Slaughter (135)*
– Barbed Whips and Sacrificial Knives
10 x Sisters of Slaughter (135)*
– Barbed Whips and Sacrificial Knives
10 x Blood Sisters (280)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Blood Sisters (280)***
– Reinforced x 1 Units
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)* Endless Spells & Invocations
Heart of Fury (45) Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Expert Conquerors Additional Enhancements
Prayer Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 130
Drops: 6

Brett: Daughters of Khaine (DoK) small heroes list this time, a solid alternative to Morathi focused on the big block of Witch Aelves. (Going to go with the Honest Wargammer here and call this a Death Ball not the more common, 40k derived Death Star). In a spell heavy meta this army doesn’t have any Wizards but there are 2 priests (they can unbind endless spells of course). Both have Curse (1MW on a hit roll of 6, Answer Value (AV) 4), and otherwise provide reroll on the ward roll (Blessing of Khaine) or inflicts MW on a 5+ after a model dies (Martyrs Sacrifice). They can also summon the Heart of Fury which usually reduces multi damage weapons by 1 damage but on a 6 does that and adds an attack to units within 12″.

The combination of 3 Battleline units does open a battle tactic not often seen right now (Clash of Arms) Situationally they can use Witchbrew on a unit to advance the Blood Rites Table (Hagg Nar already advances them one, giving +1 to charge in the first round). The Hag Queen on Cauldron buffs the prayer rolls of the other Hag Queen and improves the saves by 1 for units within range on a degrading profile. The High Gladiatrix can grants + 1 to wound and -1 rend to both types of battleline unit and is a solid combat unit, as is the Melusai although her best ability is to grant run and charge to a unit.

Each game will be different but the key play her is to get the Witch Aelves into combat as quickly as possible through a combination of additional movement and run and charge with the High Gladiatrix and The Hag Queen on Blood Cauldron close. 90 attacks, hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s, -1 rend averaging 50 hits before saves, with Curse they’d average 15 MWs on top. Nice.

The list has a lot of flexibility through commiting the heroes (other than the Melusai) to combat. Sisters of Slaughter to hold objectives and for board control and Blood Sisters for even more of both (they are Expert Conquerors and count as 3 on objectives). Death Ball with wings?.The Heartrenders are on hand for deep strike, battle tactics and objective games. They will use their fire and fade ability at least once. Not much to say about his opponents, 2 x Nighthaunt, mostly MSU, 2 x Gitz lists (Shootas and a Troggoth list) and Seraphon skinks list. Everything is dying too fast to heal, and while the priests can be blocked by the Seraphon priests it’s not as certain as their magic counters.

Lots of units and hard to keep track of but that means lots of tools and a very difficult list to counter, unless you can stand back and shoot. Scores weren’t amazing through the weekend (until the last round) but very solid.

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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Army Subfaction: Hosts Arcanum
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired Leader 1 x Kairos Fateweaver (435)*
– Spells: Unchecked Mutation 1 x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (145)*
– Spells: Bolt of Tzeentch
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Tzaangor Shaman (135)*
– General
– Artefacts: The Fanged Circlet
– Spells: Arcane Suggestion Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)*
– Kairic Adept
– Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
– Scroll of Dark Arts
– Vulcharc
– 3 x Cursed Glaive 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)*
– Kairic Adept
– Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
– Scroll of Dark Arts
– Vulcharc
– 3 x Cursed Glaive 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (100)* Behemoth 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)* Endless Spell 1 x Umbral Spell portal (70) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40) Other 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (360)* Core Battalions *Battle Regiment TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Brett: Old book Tzeetch with a last podium before the new book hits? Probably not, there will be a couple of weeks before the new book hits the shelves and a little while longer until the FAQ, Tzeetch remains pretty strong. Appropriately for a Tzeetch list this leans heavily on spell casting, not just their own but endless spells and aggro endless spells (Incarnate) as well. Interesting take with so many mortals given the composition of the new battlebox. All of the heroes are wizards, 5 casts in total. Kairos has some interesting warscroll abilities. Beyond replacing a D6 once a battle and a nasty spell that can do 6 MW (top bracket) he can set the lowest D6 to match the highest every time he casts.

The chosen spells are damage spells except Arcane Suggestion, either D3 + D3 if any models are slain (Unchecked Mutation), D6 MW (Bolt of Tzeetch). Arcane Suggestion is more fun with 3 possible outcomes (D3 MW, -1 to hit and wound rolls or -1 to save rolls, you pick). While the wizards are within 18″ of Kairos he knows there spells as well. With the Spell Portal that means he can drop a Bolt of Tzeetch into your back field. Kairos is also the likely choice to cast Purple Sun and with Cogs dropped before hand they probably won’t miss many (any) of their spells. With Bolt of Tzeetch, Kairos can guarantee 6 MW if it’s important – that’s enough to take out most foot heroes. And eat an endless spell per turn (bye Purple Sun)

There is a lot to keep track of with Tzeetch armies including Destiny Dice (affect rolls with dice that are rolled at the start of a game), Faith points (summoning currency) and Agenda’s. What’s important to remember is that they can change their dice and summon additional forces pretty easily. Even the troops are complicated. Kairic Acolytes are all casters, they only know one spell but it grants -1 rend to their ranged attack. They cause mortal wounds to Wizards near them regardless of the outcome of the spell and have a 6+ ward. Screamers move 16″ and can travel over opponents trailing MW (on a 5+) in their wake. The Tzaangor Enlightened are very fast (16″ move) with a lot of attacks they are capable of dealing reasonable damage.

They are also quite likely to achieve an agenda or two on the way and improve their stats. The incarnate is a worthwhile inclusion, giving a substantial boost to combat capability. However it costs as much as a 2nd Lord of Change or a block of Pink and a block of Blue horrors. Which is better depends on your play style. Matt faced some very tough lists and did well not to drop more games. He lost to a Seraphon list with 2 reinforced salamander packs, that’s a lot of damage that this list doesn’t have an easy answer to. It will be interesting to see where Tzeetch goes with the new book.