Talk it Out: New Ogor Mawtribes Battletome

Danny
Ok let’s fill our bellies! For this review, I’m talking to a fellow Sigmar’s Pilgrims club member and our resident glutton, Andy – can you kick things off by telling us about your Mawtribes experience up until now? You’ve definitely beaten the average win-rate with them and you’ve been playing them for a fair old while right?


Andy S
Hello, yes I’ve been playing Ogors as long as I’ve been playing AoS (since 2nd ed.)! I started with a mixed army of mainly dad bods and a big angry cow but that army was really struggling so I made the switch to running a full Beastclaw list. I managed to keep my win rate around 50% but then King Kragnos got his glow up! Since then my win rate is at around 70% and I recently took second at the one-day Sigmar’s Pilgrims event, the Big Bristol Brawl.

Danny Salfield Wadeson
So obviously you won’t have got any new games in with the new book yet but from what you’ve seen on paper – what do you think, if any, are gonna be the biggest differences to how the army plays – or CAN play?
The thing on everyone’s lips of course is the Ironblasters… 2 shots at 30” for d3+3 damage – rend 2 nat or 3 with the subfaction has definitely got some portions of the community in a hot sweat

Andy S
No, yet to play the new book, trying it out next week against the new slaves which should be very fun!

Honestly I don’t think a lot has changed in how the army plays… it’s still a very similar army and fans of ogors will still love this book. For me the army still wants to be charging as they get access to so many MW’s and buffs on the charge and just as before they have access to lots of high damage attacks!

A big change I’m very happy to see is the addition of rend to the gluttons (-1) and ironguts (-2)! I think this, along with the buffs to cannons that you mentioned, as well as to leadbelchers (in the Underguts subfaction) has really helped internally balance the book and I think will lead to a lot more dad bods (carrying cannons) hitting our tabletops!


Danny Salfield Wadeson
Nice, that’s good to hear – and GW have been transparent (as of yesterday’s Metawatch) about their internal balance process, so it’s good to see it’s paying off atm. I know you’re a mammoth fan – let’s double down a bit on the kind of charges we can expect now. Stonehorns and Frosties have been been tweaked, there are new monstrous actions – the one I think is especially strong is ‘Unstoppable Charge’ for allowing a 3D6 ‘flying’ move from there, dealing mortals to stuff they pass over. What do you think the best CHARGE! combos are now – between unit/sub-faction/enhancements etc?


Andy S
Absolutely – the MVP of the last ogor book was without a doubt the Frostlord on Stonehorn (FLoSH) and if anything they have evolved with this battletome! In terms of their warscroll they now have 15 wounds on a 3+ 5+, of that wasn’t enough the new Boulderhead subfaction now gives them an extra 2 wounds. Combine this with the Rockmane Elder mount trait (-1 wound) and you’ve got a big angry cow that’s very, very, tough to kill.

For me 2 FLoSH’s is the way to go but swapping one, or including a Huskguard on Thundertusk (HoTT) as well is a really solid option at only 330 points. In Boulderhead that’s a 16 wound priest on a 4+ save with the ability to add a 5+ ward from a mount trait (another great reason to be in Boulderhead – it lets you take 3 mount traits).

The HoTT also give you access to the other new monstrous action which, although not as good at the new stonehorn one, makes all enemy units within 3” fight last on a 3+ (roll separately for each unit).


Danny Salfield Wadeson
3″ fight last – albeit on separate rolls – is not too shabby is it? You can definitely see the synergies opening up around double charging mammoths ploughing through screens and making for some interesting activation sequences.

And you you did a good job there of calling out some mount traits – what do you feel are the biggest winners and losers of the artifacts and command traits? 3e books in general have been solid in general but a few books have had one thing in each category which makes it really hard not to take it in competitive games. To me, they actually seem pretty sweetly balanced for Ogors!

Andy S
I think, as you said with some other 3e books there are a couple of command trains and artefacts that just won’t see any play my competitive players! However, there are a couple of nice options for each depending on the army you’re running.

For the Gutbusters side of the book the Gastromancer command trait lets a butcher general know the entire Gutmagic lore (Ogors actually have a super spicy spell lore). The other pick for me would be killer reputation on a Tyrant which allows you to pick a second big name and can really help you to make a tanky food general for your army. For the artefacts I love the Flask of Stonehorn Blood which now gives the bearer a 3+ ward for one phase in the game… usually I don’t like one use artefacts but this could really come in clutch!

On the Beastclaw side Touched by the Everwinter is the auto pick command trait for me! Having one FLoSH as a priest (and another with arcane tome) really plugs some huge holes the army had before. For the artefact I love Seat of Alvagr which allows a SH or TT hero to perform 2 monstrous actions. 3d6 move over the screens straight into roaring a key unit – yes please!

Danny Salfield Wadeson
Yeah I was surprised just how good the spell lore looked, especially the Butcher lore! Making RHINOX units count as Monsters for the MWs on charges (CV5) and Molten Entrails – for +1 damage to a monster’s mount on a CV6 both seem super strong. 18″ -1 hit on a 6 is also fairly mad good.

And yeah, those enhancements in general all seem pretty darn tasty to me – on paper they seem to allow a huge range of directions to buff things meaningfully in – pretty impressive.
You mentioned Boulderhead earlier – is that going to be your sub-faction of choice? Do you think the others give some different vectors of play – and either way, are there meaningful options for competitive play in there?

Andy S
Yea it’s always been a good lore but this book has brought lower casting values to some of the spells which really helps… park a butcher next to the mawpot for +1 to cast and it’s actually got some casting power.

I think Boulderhead is the go to when playing multiple stonehorns for sure… an extra 2 wounds on each monster and allowing you to take 3 mount traits is fantastic!

There are definitely other options depending on how you want to play – without a doubt you want to be in Underguts if you are running multiple cannons and units of leadbelchers as the extra -1 rend makes that one of the best builds in the game currently I think. If you want to run Gutbusters without leaning into the shooting, or even a mixed force, then I think Meatfeast is a really fun option, suddenly your units of Ogors are doing MWs on 4+ and then hitting like a truck!


Danny Salfield Wadeson
It does seem like a really viable set, which is great – 3e books in general have been pretty good, but there have def been some books with a couple of complete dud subs that only very diehard narrative fans would run!
Penultimate question here – which warscrolls do you think are the biggest winners and losers overall? Let’s forget the Gnoblars as it really seems they need to be FAQd. Anything you were disappointed didn’t get a glow up, or any units you think finally got made competitive?

From Andy’s insta – apprentice_of_sigmar

Andy S
Yea great question! Without a doubt the cannons got a huge glow up, probably the biggest in the book. So many ogor players already owned at least 1 or 2 Ironblasters and it’s great that they can finally see the tabletop! Is this the start of GW making artillery great? Probably not but it’s fun whilst it lasts haha! Gluttons and Ironguts have both also improved massively – the extra -1 rend to both units and the change to the paired weapons options for gluttons is a glow up I was really hoping for! The whole gutbusters side of the book how has a chance to be competitive!

For me, as a predominantly Beastclaw Raiders player, one of the biggest losers in the book has got to be the Stonehorn beastriders (the Thundertusk variant doesn’t deserve a mention haha)! It’s bonkers that the models still don’t have the elite keyword so they are essentially useless if they go off alone which is exactly what they should do… they took away the crossbow shot (despite the fact the model carries one) and it’s got a 4+ save and hits on 4+ with its best attack… I’ve played a few games now and I’m very unimpressed!

Danny Salfield Wadeson
Them not having the elite keyword is definitely very weird. I feel like that might be an FAQ issue – but yeah I hear you on the other things. I guess a lot of ‘current’ Ogors players are basically BCR players so this has probably caused a wave of disappointment. Like you say – foot Ogors with great rend, once per game double-fight on the choppy lads, backed up by genuine shooting gives the book some really well-rounded angles.

Of course, aside from killing stuff you need to be able to score. How do you feel about the matched play rules? I feel like the DoK book started a recent 3e trend for ‘auto-score’ BTs, and ‘Eat Your Fill’ – which is essentially have all your units in combat, and ‘Savour the Taste’ which is the opposite, have nothing in combat – are thematic but kind of ridiculously reliable and un-interactive? ‘Let Them Loose’ – complete 4 Monstrous Rampages – is also going to have a fair few ‘guaranteed opportunities’ if you’re running ‘Horns.

Andy S
I think BCR were the competitive pick for sure but most ogor players have Gutbusters (even if they were collecting dust) so most are enjoying the chance to get them back out!

Might makes right is the same (better for ogor foot hero’s now who count as 5) so the army is still capable of taking and holding objectives – more so once expert conquers disappears. With rangers to the matched play section of the book it’s truly dreadful from start to finish – not a positive word to say about it I’m afraid!

Danny Salfield Wadeson
Can you elaborate? Do you mean in the sense you don’t think they’re easy to score or you’re not happy with the ‘interest value’ of them?

Andy S
Of course! For the Grand Strategies they are terrible. Ready to plunder is just take what’s theirs reworded, On the Mawpath requires you to complete FOUR book battle tactics in a game, Sage of the Monster Hunter requires your general to kill a monster and enough grub for all needs a full mawpot at the end of the game (it must have been emptied and refilled). As much as auto complete GS such these feel like a combination of impossible and copycats… for me they’re just a waste of ink and paper!

The Battle Tactics are slightly better to be fair… still not great but I think situationally you could see yourself picking something like Avalanche of Flash (cause more than 10 MWs from charging in a turn) if you had all your big boys lined up with kragnos behind. One of the ones that require you to have all or none of your units in combat could also come into play turn 4/5 if fewer units are in the board! Again, overall I think book BTs are meh though!

Danny Salfield Wadeson
Interesting! We’ll def be seeing how they shake out in the meta very soon, as they’re a popular army and they’ll be coming out of the woodwork with the new book.

To wrap up – stick a pin in where you think they’ll land competitively. Will the combo of good ranged output and tanky, fast monsters catapult them into A tier – or do you think it’s a big internal balance improvement that will struggle to win events? Who do you think are their red match ups?

Andy S
I think they will settle nicely in the mid-tier following their FAQ, unless cannons and gnoblars remain untouched then they will probably be higher! I think we will definitely see some good player pilot them to 5-0 with 4-1 being very achievable now.

In terms of red match ups – on the BCR side I think they are still very susceptible to good shooting/magic at range so armies! I envisage the new StD book being a massive red match up for the gutbusters too having played one game against them, good saves and decent rend on certain profiles will make for a really tough game!

Danny Salfield Wadeson
Interesting, I def see them as top third, maybe better – I know the results we’ve seen so far are probably somewhat down to the surprise factor – new books with glow ups often have that kind of spike, and Gnoblars MW output is surely broken and not long for this world. But they just have all the tools- strong long range firepower that’s hard to charge (because of the 10 shots with unleash hell), fast, durable monsters with shenanigans and slower, super heavy hitting foot troops. I feel with the 5+ wards the ‘Horns have, magic isn’t too oppressive for them, but I do see them potentially struggling against large tanky infantry units.

A big thanks to Andy for his time and thoughts on Ogors – which he’ll no doubt be terrorising our club with in the very near future. Follow him on Insta at @apprentice_of_sigmar

Top Three AoS Lists for the GAF Jamboree

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GAF Jamboree that took place in the UK on 19th and 20th November. It involved 23 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

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

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
Morathi-Khaine (680)*
The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
Khainite Shadowstalkers (150)*
Shroud Queen
Blood Sisters (280)*
Gorgai
Blood Stalkers (540)*
Krone

OTHER
Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
Shryke
Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
Shryke

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Joshua: Baz gives us a different look into Daughters, with a very interesting Khailebron list.

First, let’s talk about Khailebron since this isn’t a top pick of the temples. This temple allows you to spend a command point and target a friendly unit. Remove them from the battlefield, and set them up anywhere on the battlefield 9” away from enemy units. This is very valuable in the sense that it opens up easy access to battle tactics and getting key units out of combat. This also allows the shadow stalkers to become battleline. After becoming a battleline you also get a very mobile unit for objective grabbing and back line threats.

The first thing that we take away from this list is that Morathi is still involved and we all know she is a force to be reckoned with. Now to add to her threat level you can’t lock her into combat and bog her down. She just uses the Khailebron command ability to teleport out of combat and sets herself up for another charge. Which keeps the scary mindrazor spell giving the plus 1 to damage on the charge. Or getting away to safety, stopping the clock of three wounds on the queen for turn. And for lists that already have trouble getting those three wounds a turn, now struggle even more.

Ironscale being the general allows the Blood Sisters and Blood Stalkers to become battleline. Which is a key piece to this list allowing the stalkers to get up to a 15 man unit. Throwing 30 shots 24” across the table. With morathi on the table allowing the hero phase shooting a total of 60 shots, doing mortals on sixes to hit. Ironscale also lets the Bloodsisters run and charge which increases their threat range to a staggering 24”. Add in the Horrorghast which prevents inspiring presence, units are not staying on the table for long.

To add to all the mobility this list already has, it has two units of Khinerai Heartrenders. Having these two units allow to complete a DOK book tactic, Cruel Delight. Having these two units set in reserve there is nothing your opponent can do to prevent you from completing this tactic. Which gives you an edge in a generals handbook that tactics are not easy to come by.

This list gives you the mobility to threaten the entire board, making no objective safe from your taking. Also it gives you, as the pilot the ability to control your targets a little easier. With the Rites Table giving you a Plus 1 to charge it makes those 9” charges a little easier to come by. Looking at this list it’s clear that it has many, many threats and can easily see it going 5-0 in the upcoming events.

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Allegiance: Ironjawz
Warclan: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)**
General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Mighty Waaagh! Leader
– Artefact: Destroyer
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)**
Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter – Bonded (115)**
Orruk Warchanter
Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork

Battleline
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)
Allies

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 7

Declan: With the points increase from 400 to 480 points there was clearly a hope in the AoS design studio that it would reduce it’s appearance. We can’t tell yet, but Tom doesn’t seem to mind. He’s added in a Maw Krusha and 3 Warchanters! No doubt this is so he can power up the Maw Krusha and both 6 Gore Gruntas units. This is an alpha strike army of the highest order.

Add in the Ironjawz ability – Smashing and Bashing – you’re going to need big screens to stop this one steamrollering over you. It’s very, very quick; gets to you in turn 1, and hits like a freight train.

To stop it, you need to take out the bonded Warchanter or hit the Maw Krusha when it doesn’t have finest hour or Mystic Shield on. Shooting armies will definitely have a chance here, but I’m not surprised that Tom got a 4-1.

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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
Subfaction: Ymetrica
– Grand Strategy: Alarith Aftershock
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Archmage Teclis (700)
Spells: Total Eclipse, Transporting Vortex
Avalenor (420)**
Alarith Stonemage (120)**
General
– Command Traits: Unyielding Toughness
– Artefacts of Power: Heartstone Amulet
– Spells: Crippling Vertigo, Unbreakable Stoicism
Scinari Cathallar (110)**
Spells: Etheral Blessings, Speed of Hysh

BATTLELINE
Alarith Stoneguard (240)*
Truestone Seneschal
– Paired Stratum Hammers
– Diamondpick Hammer
Alarith Stoneguard (240)*
Truestone Seneschal
– Standard Bearer
– Paired Stratum Hammers
– Stone Mallet
Vanari Bladelords (130)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Rune of Petrification (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Shrine Luminor (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Declan: Well this is different. Starts off with Teclis but then has none of the rest of the usual LRL army. Indeed in Ed’s absence I needed to look some of these units up… and that’s a great sign of an off-meta list.

Joe has done well to get to 4-1 with it built around Avalenor and Stoneguard although with Teclis doing his usual heavy lifting of course.

From Games Workshop / Wahapedia

Avalenor is designed to not die – not quite in the same way as Morathi, or a Bastiladon but he can still take some damage and the 3+/3+ combat profit shows he is expected to do some work in combat. At 420 points he’s not cheap but he’s not very slow and counts as 5 on objectives as well.

Meanwhile the Stoneguard and (arguably) more defensive with a 4+ ward if contesting an objective you control with Fortitude of Faith.

Games Workshop / Wahapedia

This will give even Orruks a run for their money and makes them very survivable as anyone who has fought Pheonix Guard will attest to. If they are on an objective, not much is shifting them. Well done to Joe and thanks for getting me to look at 2 different warscrolls!

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Exalted Greater Daemon of Khorne (580)
General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
– Artefacts: Deathdealer
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)*
1 x Skarbrand (380)**
1 x Bloodsecrator (125)**
Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle
1 x Skullgrinder (90)**

BATTLELINE
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
Chieftain
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Meatripper Axe
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
Chieftain
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
Chieftain
– Reaver Blades

OTHER
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*

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

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Alice: Most Khorne lists rely on 3, sometimes 4 bloodthirsters. It’s one of the actually really good heroes in a faction that is struggling really hard. So Skarbrand and Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury are not surprising here.

What is surprising is the Exalted Greater Daemon, the Resin terror from Forgeworld. At 580 points this thing is not cheap, but it has power when your opponent is facing off against something they’ve probably never seen, let alone played against before. 20 wounds is hard to cut through, and the axe is incredible at 8 attacks at Rend -2 (rend -3 in this case, due to the command entourage’s extra artefact), Damage 3. The fun doesn’t stop there, either. It can nominate a unit in combat to be unable to retreat, able to function as an excellent tarpit. With 20 wounds it’ll be able to hang around a bit. The final perk is in the form of its command ability which lets any daemon unit pile in 6″, anywhere on the field. If your opponent thought he was being clever staying outside of 3″, it’s going to be a bad time.

Most of the roster rounding things off is pretty predictable. Bloodsecrators can help neuter enemy Wizards, and grant an extra attack to every unit within 16″.

The Skullgrinder helps support the foot troops, able to deal some mortal wounds to Enemy Heroes and Monsters on a 2+. Bloodreavers are a workhorse battleline, suitable for capturing objectives and sacrificing to opponents, while Wrathmongers can actually put in some work with their Flurry of attacks and mortal wounds on death.

Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for the Lost Legion GT

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Lost Legion GT that took place in Australia on 19th and 20th November. 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

Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
Subfaction: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADERS
Tyrant (150)*
General
– Command Traits: Killer Reputation
– Artefacts of Power: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Big Name: Fateseeker, Brawlerguts
Slaughtermaster (135)*
Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
Firebelly (130)**
Spells: Billowing Ash

BATTLELINE
Ogor Gluttons (265)*
Bellower
– Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar
– Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
Ironguts (270)*
Bellower
– Gutlord
– Rune Maw Bearer
Leadbelchers (170)*
Thunderfist

ARTILLERY
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)*
Ironblaster (170)**

OTHER
Gnoblars (100)**
Groinbiter
Gnoblars (100)**
Groinbiter

TERRAIN
1 x Great Mawpot (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Declan: I don’t know if the tournament allowed the new book, but Patrick is well prepared for it if they didn’t. 4 Ironblasters never really appeared in the UK meta, but was reasonably common in the US and has appeared in Australia. It’s a great example of how the tournament scenes are different in each country.

Why is everyone talking about Ironblasters….? Well more consistent damage is coming and the Hailshot is getting very good! Expect to see similar lists to this once the book is fully allowed at tournaments.

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Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (90)*
General
– Command Traits: Collector
– Artefacts of Power: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
Artefacts of Power: Svaregg-Stein ‘Illuminator’ Flarepistol
Arkanaut Admiral (125)**

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (90)*
Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol
Arkanaut Company (90)*
Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol
Arkanaut Company (90)**
Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol

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

OTHER
Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
Grundstok Mortar
– 2 x Honour Bearer
– 2 x Aethercannon
– 2 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 2 x Decksweeper
Grundstok Gunhauler (155)**
Drill Cannon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

Randal: There are two primary archetypes of Kharadron Overlords that have been successful this season. There is the Full Fleet list with four or more boats, and the Double Ironclad with an Anvil lists which have also seen a lot of success like this wonderful list from Luca Foerster.

Luca took this list in a slightly different direction from the typical double ironclad lists we have seen in the past, by foregoing the Krondspine or Gotrek anvil choices and instead taking a reinforced unit of Grundstok Thunderers with Special Weapons. This is extra spicy since it gives the unit an enormous amount of firepower but has limited range with most of the weapons limited to 12” or less. This list gets around that restriction by being in Zilfin which gets a hero phase move for one of the Ironclads allowing the Thunderers to jump out and pummel the enemy’s frontline. The usual suspects for heroes and battleline accompany the two heavy boats, but there is a surprise Grundstok Gunhauler which provides a little extra extra for the two big boats in the form of a 6+ ward if it is nearby.

Another surprise here is that Luca has foregone using Spell in a Bottle which is a mainstay for Kharadron Alpha-Strike lists. This is likely a concession to stay in Zilfin and still get a Navigator instead of the common double Khemist builds that we usually see.

There is not much out that wants to play against this, but the lack of mortal wounds output or Purple Sun means that after the Flarepistol and Admiral’s Special Ammunition are used there isn’t much punch left to deal with a good save army that managed to survive the opening
barrage.

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Stormkeep)
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Gardus Steel Soul (150)**
Karazai, The Scarred (550)**
Lord-Relictor (145)**
General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Artefact: Mirrorshield
– Prayer: Translocation
Lord-Castellant (155)**
Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Celestial Blades

Battleline
5 x Liberators (115)
Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
5 x Liberators (115)
Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
10 x Vanquishers (220)*
Reinforced x 1

Units
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
6 x Praetors (290)*
Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108
Drops: 9

Brett: Joel is a member of Measured Gaming (as is Pat who took first) who loves Liberators and Stormstrike Chariots (he has a battle report on youtube with 5 in a single game – against Pat). Very experienced SCE general who has been developing this list since Karazai came out. This army is about Karazai and trying to get him into battle while within range of the Praetors or Gardus (bodyguard and ward don’t stack). The Praetors, as Bounty Hunters, they are capable damage dealers, just a bit slow, with 19 attacks at Rend -1 and 2(3) Damage. The army has a few more surprises, Fulminators are efficient even in pairs and with a 5+ ward if near Gardus, hard to shift. Bounty Hunters can really help them if they are caught in combat, against GV anyway.

Vanquishers are good anti horde (3 attacks against 5 models and 4 attacks against 10 or more) all with Rend -1. The Castellan isn’t the general but still included for utility with his Lantern ability (improved saves or mortal wounds). Teamed with the Vanquishers he can make them as robust Vindicators (3+ save) while they have a much better damage profile. Hallowed Knights grants fight on death to the Liberators and Vanquishers (Redeemers). The same units benefit the most from the army being Watchful Guardians (Stormkeep). They get the benefit of Eternal Conquerors without the battalion (except they only count as 3 models on home objectives before round 3) and when successfully charged while on an objective they do mortal wounds to the attacker.

With the Relictor’s translocate and Liberators counting as 3 models you can sometimes steal an objective in Turn 4 with a unit that is hard to shift and has really strong objective control. The army has a really balanced approach with a solid mix of resilience and damage ultimately finishing only 4 points behind Luca (2nd) who he beat in the 1st round. Ultimately he lost to Pat with the revitalised Ogors and their amazing Ironblasters.

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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)*
General
– Deathlance
– Command Trait: Aristocracy of Blood
– Artefact: Soulbound Garments
– Expertise: Martial
– Mount Trait: Foetid Miasma
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (200)*
Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (525)
Allies

Battleline
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Dire Wolves (135)*

Units
5 x Blood Knights (195)**
5 x Blood Knights (195)**
3 x Fell Bats (75)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 525 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 4

Danny: This list harks back to a brief period around the turn of editions where zombie spam + Big Drogg was a tournament winning Soulblight list. William has ditched the zombies like everyone else while Bounty Hunters is a thing (and here’s to it dying off soon) but kept Big Drogg – and why not? The guy is a source of rend 2 that Soulblight traditionally lack, and, well, he’s a gargant. They’re fast, soak up serious punishment and dish it out in turn – leaing your msu Deathrattle, speedy wolves and Fell Bats (LOVE seeing them) and the tankier 2 units of Blood Knights to head out and score.

It’s an interesting HQ selection too – Belladamma is a great buff piece but not usually taken these days, however for 200 pts she’s relatively cheap, speedy, and can cast a spell on a 6 for a 12″ aura of exploding 6s – which can help Blood Knights hit much more reliably. With her built in +1, she’s also a good Jaws caddy and being able to use the wolves as bodyguards ups her survivabillity.

Topping things off you have the always-reliable Lord on Zombie Dragon, who in Legion of Blood gains a built in horrorghast effect, and gains +1 attack on his Deathlance with Martial Expertise, while Soulbound Garments for +1 save gets him on a 2+ as standard before anything like AoD, Finest Hour – etc – making him SUPER tanky.

The one thing this list doesn’t have is access to good MWs outside of jaws, which may explain the loss to Stormcast – presumably they were able to tank the VLoZD, out-compete William on objectives and strike down Big Drogg with the usual SCE hammers. Still, a great result for an unusual list – I’m loving seeing the variation and the resurgence of top 5 SBGL lists these days after a slow start to the season!

Final Tournament Placings

AoS Meta Stats W/Ending 20th November 2022

Note: As promised, I have removed the ‘Immortal Masquerade’ results from the Woehammer Stats.

Faction Win Rates

Pre-Battlescroll

The data set is still too small to bring any meaningful information from post-battlescroll events. That being said the below shows the win rates for each faction. I expect that once we reach mid-December the numbers will be more reliable.

The above graph, compared to Warhammer Community’s Metawatch graph shows just how unreliable the data is at the moment. Anyone telling you they know what they win rates are doesn’t have a clear enough idea yet. Remember WarCom take all the results from BCP and don’t include draws. We only take GT events and split draws 50/50 between wins and losses.

Player Results by Wins

This graph has at least two purposes. Firstly it shows the faction popularity by the number of players and secondly it breaks down those players results in terms of the number of wins they achieve.

Players Achieving 5-0 Wins

Win Chance

Pre-Battlescroll

This shows the chance each faction has of achieving 5-0. This is calculated using the number of players that go 5-0 against the full number of players using that faction.

Pre-Battlescroll

Like above, this show the chance of getting 4 or more wins (including 5-0).

And finally the chance of going 3+ wins (including 5-0 and 4+).

AOS Hall of Fame

Below is a list of all the players who first achieved a 5-0 with a faction. The list is completed in date order (earliest first).

The only factions still yet to achieve 5-0 are Blades of Khorne, Gloomspite Gitz and Kruleboyz.

Player Rankings (W/Ending 20th November 2022)

These are the player rankings calculated by us at Woehammer using the method described previously. We think this method levels the playing field between those playing factions with a high win-rate and those playing with a low win-rate. Almost like a handicap system in Golf or similar sports.

Calculation Summary

Points are awarded to each player for a win or a draw. Points are calculated for each faction. To calculate a factions win score is a fairly simple process:

Take their current win rate as shown in our weekly AoS Meta article and times this by 5:

e.g. Lumineth Realm-Lords: 51.02% x 5 = 2.6

This is the expected number of wins that faction should achieve in a 5 game GT. Next divide 100 by this value to give a score for each win.

e.g. Lumineth Realm-Lords 100/2.6 = 39.2 per win.

When a player has finished their tournament multiply their result (draws are counted as 0.5) by the score.

e.g. a Lumineth player achieves 2 wins and a draw; 2.5 x 39.2 = 98 points

Current Rankings

The best four results as a total make up a player’s score.

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPE

OCEANIA

WORLD WIDE

My Database

Below is the file for all of the data we hold at Woehammer in regard to GT’s. This has everything from tournament results to player ranking calculations.

Product Review – Fortified Tower (Tabletop World)

I hear the cry of male hobbyists the world over – ‘I’m disappointed in the size of my tower’, well, if your erections just aren’t quite piercing the clouds, fear not as I have a product review for you.

I recently picked up the Fortified Tower from Croatia based Tabletop World and tried it out, so you can see if it meets your needs.

This is a five piece resin kit (three of the pieces being the flag, pole and base). The main tower consists of just two pieces, with a little bit of internal detail which might be nice for D&D etc but not enough to do too much with as you only have that level plus the roof.

This kit can also be incorporated into Tabletop Worlds Town Walls kits, these look pretty interesting but for my purposes I only wanted the singular tower.

Tabletop World states that the resin comes pre-cleaned but I didn’t want to risk it and gave the beast a good wash and brush up with some washing up liquid. I was pleased and surprised to find no bubbles or problems with the product to repair, given the material (!), I don’t know if this is their usual quality but I was very pleased. The irregular stone effect of the sculpt looks great and I think you could really put as much or as little effort as you wanted into painting this and it will reward you.

I #slapchopped up the tower very simply and it took the paint very well. I then added some spots of Dirty Down moss on the odd ledge here and there.

The kit is a bit pricey at €65, or £54.90 from Element Games. This beast is absolutely rock solid though and feels like it will last as long as if it really were made of stone. Terrain always is a bit of an investment and I can use this for the Warhammer Fantasy Watchtower scenario objective, in Age of Sigmar or even in 40k for a feudal world.

I’ve added a few pics, with a little green friend, so you can see the scale and how mine turned out

All in all, I’m a fan and might pick some more up…. I’ll let you know!

Top Three AoS Lists for 5 Alarm GT

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the 5 Alarm Grand Tournament that took place in Canada on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 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: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Morathi-Khaine (340)*
The Shadow Queen (340)*
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe

Units
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**
Reinforced x 1
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**
Reinforced x 1
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
Reinforced x 2
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 3

Peter: Joshua Bennett (who you may recognise from many a top three article featuring his own lists), has kindly joined the Woehammer team to comment on Daughters Lists.

Joshua: While this list sticks to the norm of the current meta for DOK, it does have its own tweaks that make it very interesting.

At first glance, we see what looks like the basic Zainthar Kai list. At the head of the snake army is the high queen herself, Morathi. Morathi, by herself, is a menace to most opponents. She has a cap of only three wounds a turn, which becomes a great deterrent for the alpha strikes becoming a perfect screen, where the alpha strikes are running into an unkillable duo of models. As anyone knows that has ever faced off against the shadow queen, she is not to be taken lightly in combat. Shadow queen has the potential to pick up most units. She lives up to her title as a “God Model” with the ability to tank everything with the absolute barrage of attacks with high damage and rend.

Bring on the snakes! 15 blood stalkers have always and still remain to be a powerful force to deal with in the DOK list. At 30 shots, hitting on three’s, wounding on three’s, doing mortals on sixes to hit, makes stalkers a threat against any list. Add the fact that they are also shooting in the hero phase, bringing the total number of shots to 60 at a range of 24”. With all of these attacks, this unit should be feared by all. To add to the terror of the Stalkers, their melee loving counter parts, the blood sisters, are also added to this list. Two 10 man units bring each of these death ball units to 30 attacks, hitting and wounding on threes, followed by an extremely powerful turned to crystal ability. This ability allows the unit to roll a dice for each model in their unit and each 2+ inflicting a mortal wound to the selected unit an inch away from it. In this list, the blood sisters are placed in the bounty hunters battalion, which brings the damage of each attack against Galletian Veterans units, a minimum of 2 damage. But it doesn’t stop there, when the ever daunting Shadow queen is in combat within 18” of these blood soaked sisters, the sisters attacks increase to four attacks each, which gives the sisters even more power to pick their opponents units up.

So I know what you’re thinking! I am just going to stay away from this army of blood driven blood elves. This may be harder to do than you think. This is because the Shadow queen is moving 14” and the melee snakes are moving 8”. Also you must keep in mind that the Melusai is in the list as well and serves more than just a pretty face. She allows the Sisters to be able to run and charge, increasing the threat of the slithering blood crazed sisters to the potential of a 14” move bringing them into a more manageable charge range.

Wait, look in the sky! That’s right, a unit of heartrenders are circling above the battlefield waiting for the right moment to strike. This unit can deploy off the board and be placed on the table 9” away from an enemy model. In the shooting phase they each shoot an enemy within 12” of them and then move 6”. Normally we see two of these units in a list because that allows DOK players to use the Battletomb tactic Cruel Delight. This single unit still has its uses. It keeps a constant threat to the backfield objectives. Also this unit can make a great screen for the remaining army. With this units very speedy movement of 14” it can bounce back and forth between objectives causing their opponents a massive headache of leaving models on all objectives. Also with the Grand strategy of take what’s theirs the late game deepstrike can give you edge needed to gain that three extra points.

The other obstacle opponents face while playing this list, is that you must pick up entire units. Because thanks to the Command trait Zealous Order bringing models back from the dead is much easier than normal. This command trait allows the general to bring back friendly models back on a four plus rally compared to the normal six.

Overall this list hasthe range, and the face-to-face killing power to take on most lists, and I can see why it did so well at this tournament.

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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch
Subfaction: Guild of Summoners
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Curseling (180)*
Spells: Shield of Fate
Fluxmaster (170)*
Artefacts of Power: Pyrofyre Stave
– Spells: Unchecked Mutation
Lord of Change (400)*
Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery
– Artefacts of Power: The Eternal Shroud
– Spells: Ghost-mist
Kairos Fateweaver (435)***
Spells: Tzeentch’s Firestorm
Tzaangor Shaman (135)***
Spells: Glimpse the Future
Magister (120)***
General
– Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Arcane Suggestion

BATTLELINE
Kairic Acolytes (120)**
Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
– Scroll of the Dark Arts
– Vulcharc
– 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield
Kairic Acolytes (120)**
Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
Kairic Acolytes (120)***
Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (50)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Kieron: A super interesting list for my first time reviewing a Disciples of Tzeentch top three list. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Guild of Summoners is relatively low down in the sub-faction hierarchy but Nic has clearly made this work well for him. Conventional wisdom would also suggest that Master of Destiny is a no-brainer Grand Strategy (have Destiny Dice equal to 9 or more at the end of the battle) but Nic has again bucked the trend with Defend What’s Ours. Where the power comes from in this list can be broken down into Destiny Dice, Fate Points and Battle Tactics.

Let’s start with Destiny Dice, or cheaty dice as some less charitable (and non-Tzeentch players might call them). Nic would roll 9 at the start of the game and the Eternal Shroud would allow new dice to be rolled on a 5+ whenever they are used. The Tzaangor Shaman can lurk at the back of the board (see battle tactics below) generating a new one with Glimpse the Future which will be supporting Kairos who is generating one per turn if you have less than 9. This means that over the course of the game, there should be in the region of 20 dice that the Tzeentch player will know ahead of time, allowing them to be super aggressive or defensive as the game demands.

Next up is fate points and if you thought 20 was a lot of a resource to generate then you haven’t seen anything yet! If Tzeentch go first and all the possible spells go off they will have: 1 from Burning Sigil; 2 from The Curseling; at least 1 and probably 3 from Fluxmaster (theoretically 10, but if you roll 9/9 5+s against me I’m probably conceding or calling a TO!); 2 from the Lord of Change; 3 from Kairos; 1 from Shaman; 3 from Magister; 1 from each Kairic unit making around 15-18 in Turn 1. And what do we do with those points I hear you ask? You summon another Lord of Change for only 9 points and bank the other points for the next turn. Next turn you will have another two casts meaning that you will have more than enough to summon another Lord of Change 18 fate points! At this point you would be facing over 1600pts of prime Tzeentch Turkey that are giving each other (and nearby heroes) +4 to cast. Diminishing returns from this point in as there won’t be enough spells for them all to cast, so probably just bring in 20 pinks a turn instead! If the Tzeentch player is not locked down quickly, they could summon 1500pts by turn 5 (EDIT: Thanks to Tasteless for getting me to go back and not blah, blah , blah the sub-faction ability: Guild of Summoners can ONLY summon Magic Chickens, meaning that a 5 turn game could actually see 2000pts of summoning and Nic possibly in need of kidney to donate to fund the 7 Lords of Change that could be on the board at this point…).

This is all well and good, but if you don’t score points then you don’t win and this is also a list that really wants to use book battle tactics! Call for Change is extremely straightforward as you just need to summon a Lord of Change; the Tzaangor Shaman is an excellent choice for Reckless Abandon, where you need to complete a charge move with a mortal unit more than 18″ away from all enemy units; Ninefold Dismantlement needs you to kill a unit with 9 models or a hero/monster with a wounds characteristic of 9 or more and Tide of Anarchy needs you to take an objective off your enemy with 9 or more models. To truly flex on your opponent, Kairos could even go for Mass Conjuration by casting 3 or more spells for a full 5/5 Tzeentch tactics.

Congrats to Nic for doing fantastically well with some more off-meta choices, demonstrating the internal balance of the Disciples of Tzeentch book.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (90)*
General
– Command Trait: Collector
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Aether-Khemist (90)**
Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
Artefact: Svaregg-Stein Illuminator Flarepistol
Gotrek Gurnisson (485)**

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

Units
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)**
Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)**
Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Ebullient Buoyancy Aid

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

Peter: Another new member of the team today. Randal Brasher, who some may remember from General Speaking, has agreed to join us to comment on KO, Cities and Stormcast lists.

Randal: Oh boy, here we go! Karl is no stranger to Kharadron Overlords this season and has found 5-0 and 4-1 success with both Double Ironclads and Whole Fleet lists, but the one constant has been his inclusion of Purple Sun. This list leans in on the power of the Endless Spell even more than his previous winning lists by overloading an Ironclad with heroes, Arkanauts, and some spicy Grundstock Thunderers then using the Zilfin Hero Phase move alongside Ebullient Bouyancy Aid. After moving the murder boat across the board it wants to unleash the Purple Sun then leverage the once per game effects of the Flare Pistol (full rerolls in the shooting phase) and the Admiral’s Special Ammunition for either additional rend or eliminating a ward save. It is a very high volume of shots at very high rend, more than enough to cripple most elite armies or clear the flank of a horde army. If the opponent somehow manages to survive the barrage in any condition to fight, they get a facefull of Gotrek.

A bit of tech in this list is to use the Great Sky Cannon over the more synergistic and higher damage Volley Cannon. It lets the boat play the objective game and still contribute some shooting after it unleashes its payload due to the superior range. This list is going to play very well into elite armies or high save armies but it has a serious issue with ranged mortal wounds as its loss to Disciples of Tzeentch shows. Armies with a lot of summoning, such as Beasts of Chaos or Nurgle, might also give it some problems. However, into a metagame of Giants, Daughters of Khaine, Sylvaneth, and Seraphon it is a monster of a metabreaker.

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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
Army Type: Invaders
– Army Subfaction: The Lurid Haze
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Synessa (260)*
General
1 x Sigvald (205)*
General
1 x Be’lakor (360)*

BATTLELINE
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)*
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)*
5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*

BEHEMOTH
1 x Chimera (200)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

OTHER
10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)*
10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Alice: Slaanesh is struggling badly at the moment, but it’s not entirely without merit. There’s a few units that manage to succeed despite their own faction dragging them down, and Invaders manages to pull itself up to something quite usable, if a bit fiddly.

Invaders allows you to have 3 Generals who need to remain 12″ apart from each other. This is largely fine with this composition, because Be’lakor operates well as the main general leading the force to shut down the major threats while Synessa hangs back and casts spells and Sigvald attempts to do character assassinations. If any do die, its a free CP.

Blissbarb Archers are one of the few stand out units in Slaanesh. While they may not get mortal wounds on 6s like some armies, they get a decent number of Rend -1 shots and can run and shoot. Twinsouls make a solid hammer and anvil, depending on what you need in any given situation. Rounding it out, the Chimera is an interesting ally, giving them the mortal wound support they really need while being a solid beat stick to boot.

Final Tournament Placings

Woehammer Hits 1,000,000

Declan: Do you know what you were doing back in the days of Summer 2021; well Peter and I were talking about posting a few blog items about Warhammer. Peter had a website – Woehammer.com – which he was using for bits and pieces and would occasionally provide some YouTube coverage. And I – being my usual self – couldn’t bring myself to restart a website, but had some ideas for articles I wanted to run.

So we launched with much no fanfare in 2021, we launched in July 2021 with articles on Path to Glory Troggoths and Kruleboyz. We followed up in August with Peter’s first look at the Combat patrols – Adeptus Sororitas – and my look at news! (Mainly Warhammer+ being launched)

Things were slow in 2021, but then Peter published the first of the ‘Top Three’ series and we started getting more readers, followers and likes. I followed this up with Chris Tomlin’s Blackout event in December ’21 and it was clear we had a popular series.

Peter: How times change! Those first few months I remember being over the moon when we were receiving over a hundred views a day. My first few articles were all about aspects I was interested in, the History of Games Workshop and an entire series on A Life in Wargames where I focused on one individual who had made a contribution to our hobby.

As Declan says, December was a massive turning point, the Top Three’s you know and love started to become more regular although it wouldn’t be until April that they took on the form you see now on an almost daily basis.

2022

Declan: Roll on 2022 and things have got a little crazy, with each month breaking expectations of where we would finish. We’ve now (as of Sunday 20th November) passed 1,000,000 views for the year. An achievement we would never have thought possible — thank you too all our readers.

Woehammer Views, thank you all!

We’ve added commentary to the Top Three’s to try to explain how the armies work – or to admit it when we don’t! We have seen Seraphon rule the roost at the beginning of the year, and then Beasts accelerate with the White Dwarf release and then Maggotkin of Nurgle take over the world with Flies. It’s been a lot of fun!

Stats, Stats, Stats

Declan: Peter has even taken the data and details from the Top Three and started to generate Player stats and ranking details which are proving popular with our readers. His unique take on the ranking with players getting more points for over-performing with lower tier armies is trying to encourage players to take different armies. Remember not everyone can go 5-0 at a tournament!

Not Just Top Three Articles

Declan: We don’t just do Top Three Articles either, Woehammer is packed with insight into warscrolls (like Rippas!), armies (like Peter’s superb Ork article), book reviews (including Dominion), and even the odd ‘off the wall’ article; the latest being a superb piece by Edmund – ‘How to Leak…’

Peter: More recently as well, we’ve started our new series of ‘General Speaking’ where we interview top players around the world on their thought process around list building and tournament approach.

Patreon

Declan: Some of our loyal readers take loyalty and kindness one step further and contribute via our Patreon. Whilst we know not everyone can do this, we really appreciate the support from the Patreon gang. It’s especially fun to hear from them on article ideas, which we shamelessly steal and use for our own nefarious purposes. Thank you to them all.

If you would like to join them and support the website in this way, then you can do so on the link below.

A Team of Writers

Declan: As we continue to grow we’ve copied stolen an idea from Goonhammer and got some more writers on board. This allows us to ensure a regular output but also to keep up the quality of the content. So thank you to Peter (CEO Woe), me (Declan), Brett, Danny, Ethan, Patrick, Dave, Edmund, Kieron, Xander, Matt, Lehann, Aron, David, & Tom. We’ve even got some new writers coming on board soon – so look out for the new voices.

There’s also a large group behind us that give us ideas for articles, play games with us, or join us for chats on Discord & WhatsApp.

What’s Next

Declan: As we finish 2022, we are looking forward to 2023 and there’ll be more of the same for our readers to enjoy, but expect more new writers, return of some of the writers not heard from often and Peter trying to keep us all going – it’s worse than herding cats.

Personally, I’ve got less time for tournaments in 2023 but more time for articles and other hobby so expect more from me as well including Hobby Updates, our own Woehammer take on news, and looks at non-Games Workshop games and other systems.

Peter: I’ve tonnes of idea on my mind that I want to get around to seeing through. Those on our Discord will know of my Warscroll Stat cards showing the average damage output of various units and their resilience. I’m also considering adding a narrative element to the reporting of the top three stats. I’ve also one or two ideas forming for our readers to join in to reduce their pile of shame next potential year.

Also, we’re running our first ever GT event next year at Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry on the weekend of the 13th and 14th May. If you want to join us why not jump on Eventbrite and book your ticket? The marvellous Dice and Ducks YouTubers will also be there covering the games live.

Giveaway

Peter: As a thank you to everyone, we’re also giving away one Vanguard or Combat Patrol of the winners choice. To enter, all you need to do is join our Discord and post in the Giveaway channel which Vanguard or Combat Patrol box you would like to receive as a prize. The draw will be carried out on Friday.

Thank you!

All that’s left is to say thank you for joining us on the ride so far, let us know if there’s anything you want to see, or see more of. And finally if you want to support the site you can sign-up on Patreon, or shop via our Element Games affiliate link this Christmas period. Happy 2022 everyone!

That’s all for now – see you at the next milestone!

— Declan & Peter

Tournament Review: War in the Heartlands

By Phil Marshall

My list

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)*
General
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
– Artefact: Grasping Plate
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)**
Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

Battleline
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (215)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

How it works

Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind. The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport). The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine. As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.

Game 1 vs Ben Godbold – Slaves to Darkness – Silksteel Nests – Win 32-10

Ben’s List

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
Army Type: Despoilers
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (225)**
Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Artefacts of Power: Helm of Many Eyes
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)**
General
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Command Traits: Paragon of Ruin
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
– Artefacts of Power: Doombringer Blade
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spells: Mask of Darkness
Bloodsecrator (125)***
Sigvald (205)***

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (340)*
Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield
Chaos Marauders (180)*
Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Barbarian Axe and Darkwood Shield
Untamed Beasts (70)***
Mark of Chaos: Khorne
Untamed Beasts (70)***
Mark of Chaos: Khorne

OTHER
Varanguard (280)*
Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Fellspear and Warpsteel Shield
Iron Golems (75)***
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Iron Golems (75)***
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

This game was relatively straight forward, it was a honed Slaves to Darkness list against a variety of different slaves units in the Mark of Khorne. If you are familiar with slaves to darkness over the last two season you will know Tzeentch looks to keep your stuff alive. It was Ben’s first ever tournament and got unlucky pairing this round 1. Ben sent 3 Varanguard, Sigvald, Chaos lord on Karkadrak and khorne Deamon Prince into my general who had all their buffs up. At the end of combat, I had taken zero damage and everything that had gone against it had died, with the Varanguard using their once per game ability to pile in and fight twice. At the end of turn 3, Ben had lost all of units and I had lost 6 iron golems.

Game 2 vs Michael Lowis – Beasts of Chaos – Won’t Back Down – Win 28-17

His List

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*
General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Beastlord (95)**
Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
Artefact: The Knowing Eye
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage

Battleline
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Ungors (65)*
Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
Mauls & Half-Shields

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)***
Reinforced x 1
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)***
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)***
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**
1 x Cockatrice (110)**

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 167
Drops: 14

Beasts of Chaos is usually a very bad match up for my list due to the board control that they can obtain through summoning as well as the amount of rend that they get on turn 3. There is only one way to play this match up and that is aggressive, you need to do as much damage as you can by turn 3 and see how you can stay in the game. I decided that I would screen out all the board edge of my territory to ensure nothing could be summoned behind me and let my Varanguard focus on heading down the middle of the table. I managed to get the double one into turn which allowed me to clear screens turn 1 and then get both units of VG with even stacks – both +2 to their saves. My General managed to tag 12 enlightened and 30 tzaangor meaning I had them locked where I needed them. In the two subsequent combat phases, I managed to take all of this off at the expense of 3 Varanguard across both units. At this point, I had the board control and was up on points with easy battle tactics left to do.

Game 3 vs Max Barton – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Prize of Gallet – Win 22-15

His List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Lord of Blights (150)*
General
– Command Trait: Infernal Conduit
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)*

Battleline
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
1x Dolorous Tocsin
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (500)*
2x Dolorous Tocsin
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 117
Drops: 1

So we had a Team England face off to finish day one. This game was a chess match for the first 1.5 turns with staying out of threat ranges and not really engaging each other. I had won priority from 1 into 2 and gave it to Max to allow me the opportunity at the double turn 2 into 3, which I did. In my turn 2 my general burnt their once per game fight twice and managed to take off 4 flies. With the double I decided to risk it and mask of darkness my general down the board and risk the 9 inch charge, knowing if I make it the bulk of Max’s army is locked in combat the rest of the game. We made the charge and there went any chance of Max being able to do require damage. The all fly nurgle list is so reliant on the impact hits to damage to the Varanguard.

Game 4 vs Marc Brookes – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Nidus Paths – Loss 24-25

His List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
Subfaction: Blessed Sons
-Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
-Triumphs:

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (320)
Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Great Unclean One (495)
General
-Plague Fall & Massive Bilesword
-Command Trait Nurgling infestation
-Artefact The Witherstave
-Universal Spell Lore Flaming Weapon
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)
Gutrot Spume (170)
Morbidex Twiceborn (320)

Battleline
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors

Total: 2000/2000
Reinforced Units: 0/4
Allies: 0/400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 8

Again this was a very cagey game for the first 1.5 turns. I was looking for an opportunity to pin bloab, great unclean one, Orghotts and Morbidex. This came in my turn 2 and despite having all my save stacks, the mortal wound out put was obnoxious, the great unclean ones version of the stomp 4 MWs, stomp D3 MWs, disease with the witherstave being on a 3+ and ward saves of a 6 doing a MW back to me. Kept them locked for long enough but the game was very close and slowly away from me. I had to play for the double 4 into 5 to have a chance at winning the game but at the same time risk losing if I don’t get priority. So what was required, if I complete my grand strat I win, 3 Varanguard go into 10 rotmire creed, fighting twice, failed to kill them, grand strat failed. Nurgle final turn had to kill my warshrine with Gutrot Spume with 7 wounds left, couldn’t make a save and lost by 1VP.

Game 5 vs Sam Barker – Stormcast Eternals – Close the Chest – Win 32-22

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


LEADERS
Knight-Draconis
(300)
Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic – Celestine Hammer
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Mount Trait: Scintillating Trail
– Spell: Celestial Blades


UNITS
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators
(460)*
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Holy Command: Steadfast March

TOTAL: 1940/2000
WOUNDS: 89
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 1/4
DROPS: 5

This match up again is usually pretty dicey for the Slaves to Darkness as all it takes is the dragons to spike on their breath, unfortunately for Sam he rolled terribly for these. I knew it was bad but I thought I would take every opportunity granted to me. Sam made a bit of a misplay by bringing down his fulminators turn 1 to try and take of my screens for the dragons to captalise on later in the game. I decided to put +2 save onto my non general unit with all re-roll hits and wounds, masked them down the board to try and take off the storm drake and then auto ran my general to be with 6” of his fulminators and opted to not re-deploy. I made the charge with my non general unit of Varanguard killing the stormdrake and then piled in 6” into fulminators taking them all off as well. I won prior and gave it away looking for a better double later on. My turn 2 I managed to take off the remaining four dragons and he was left with Knight Draconis. I failed to win another priority which meant I was chasing Draconis around the board for 3 turns till he finally succumbed in turn 5.

General Speaking – Jeremy Veysseire

Following on from our conversations with Randal Brasher and Baz Norman Jr, we’re back in North America this week and talking to Jeremy Veysseire.

Jeremy has appeared in so many top three list articles over the last year I’ve lost count of his GT wins and podiums!

Jeremy Veysseire – The Stats

Jeremy receiving the 2019 ITC Champion award

Events: 6
Wins: 29
Losses: 2
Win Rate: 93.5%
Current World Woehammer Ranking: 3rd
Current North America Woehammer Ranking: 2nd
Current US Woehammer Ranking: 2nd

Thank you for agreeing to the interview Jeremy! Those who follow Woehammer’s Top Three Lists are used to seeing your name at on the podium many times a year! But what we want is how did this all begin? When did you start playing Warhammer and when did you start playing competitively?

Thanks for having me on first off. and to get right into it with your question. I was 9 years old (so 28 years ago) when I got my first boxset of Warhammer miniature boxset (the Lizardmen and Brettonian one) and it was a bribe from my parents when we moved from Paris France to Palo Alto California as I did not want to leave my entire extended family and didn’t really want to move to a country that I barely understood the language. My grandfather is a collector of Napoleonic & World Wars miniatures and I hung out a lot with him watching him assemble and paint them so I guess they thought it would be a good bribe but little did they know it would dictate so much of my life going forward haha.

I started playing competitively after I graduated from University and moved to Portland Oregon, I had an income from my new job and noticed that that the Pacific Northwest that I lived in had a vibrant Warhammer tournament scene as I got back into the hobby full time after University. Of course for me those days were mostly Warhammer 40,000 as this was the days of 5th edition and it culminated in my first ever east Coast GT being Nova Open. I ended up 3rd there with Sisters of Battle at the onset of 6th edition. Eventually Frontline Gaming started their own event called Bay Area Open which then created the proto circuit now known as ITC and I was hooked. While I never won ITC for 40k, I did get close a few years running. When 8th edition dropped for 40k, I remember going to the first GT in the US with Index Harlequin and losing only to a Blood Angel army that had nothing but Flyers/Planes and thats when I saw the writing on the wall for me and 40k. And its also when the first General’s Handbook came out which gave AOS the structure it needed for me to become a full convert. I swapped to it and never looked back.

Jeremy’s KO pounce on another unsuspecting victim

A fellow convert! Did your experience of list building and competitive play in 40k transfer over to Age of Sigmar?

To an extent, at the time the game systems were fairly different in how you would achieve a win. Most 40k players I believe look at the double turn potential in AoS as the primary different reason for that but in my experience, the games approach the win condition very differently. I started out in competitive AoS with Ironjawz and got my ass handed to me by 1.0 Tzeentch over and over and while that army at the time was just this powerhouse of just straight ability to remove your models off the table, I noticed that all my losses were always because I kept trying to feeling like I had to kill the threats that killed my army which is usually at the time a good 40k tactic but in AoS it turns out doing that meant I was always giving my opponent the ability to maximize his output versus making him have to take risky position to get into effect while retaining superior board state.

Eventually, I transitioned to 1.0 Fyreslayer which grew from my experience early and I was luckily blessed with a new tome when 2.0 dropped and it greatly rewarded that type of approach to the game. Age of Sigmar is a game that rewards board positioning more than anything, be it you are a super shooty or super melee army. If you choose to be super shooty or fighty, at the end of the day winning the game wasn’t so much about waht you could kill but where you could kill it. Had a really good year with 2.0 Fyreslayer, I think I had a 95% winning rate with them in 5 Roung GTs, went to the final at LVO against pre nerf 2.0 Slaanesh and the game was pretty close, but with that finish at LVO it assured me my first place finish in ITC and best Fyreslayers.

I do want to point out to the audience, that I do not think AoS or 40k is better than one or the other. I played both competitively for a long time and still play 40k today a bit but I personally prefer AoS (who knows now that Leagues of Votann is out, yes I am a Dwarf guy. Ungrim Ironfist is one of my favorite characters from the old world) because the game currently is one of the best its ever been. I will say that I find that the experience and skills I have learned from AoS today have translated very well into the games of 40k I do play and as the games keep moving towards a rule singularity like they are maybe one day being a great player at one also means being great at the other, who knows.

You mentioned your win rate of 95%. By my calculations you’re at 93.5% this season after 6 GT’s. That’s insane! 29 wins and just 2 losses. What’s they key around your army lists to give you such success? How do you go about constructing a tournament winning list?

Honestly, the percentage is a point of pride but also I fully admit its a bit silly. Fyreslayers in 2.0 were perfectly designed for that edition and nowadays I am more going into the hobby with a bit less severity. I think I played probably close to 300 games in and outside of tournaments with 2.0 Fyreslayers and I believe I won more coin flips than my opponents when the game came down to that in 2.0. Today, I am playing KO, Legion of Blood, NoMorathi DoK, 6 Grimwrath and Gotrek FS and taking a lot more of what I think is cool and interesting but still follows some core design philosophy with how 3.0 Winning dynamism works.

KO is just good nowadays because so many Battle Tactics in Season 2 of 3.0 reward you for killing things without always being on max primary points, Legion Of Blood is an army that can just punish aggressive armies and dictate the rules of engagement in the center of the board while still scoring BT, NoMorathi does the same but with more punch and arguably less durability/attrition play and then there is my Gotrek and Grimwrath list which is more of an army this about trying something different. Honestly, I took it for the NOVA invitational because I wanted play something that was fun and since the event was single elim and that I would be playing potentially be playing 15 games at NOVA (4 games at the invitational, potentially 8 at the GT and 3 at the RTT) and the weekend before I just had a 5 round GT so 20 games in 1 week but man did that backfire. I ended up winning the invitational with it and making it to round 6 of the GT with NoMorathi and played all 3 RTT games with NoMorathi so 18 games, I had hit Warhammer Fatigue. But back to the original topic at hand, why play that Grimwrath and Gotrek list outside of fun, it is honestly pretty good in the current format because it has a lot of diversified threats and the fight of death gives you the ability to get any value out of them and the double activations gives you trade up value plus the ability to activate at the end of the combat vs strike last means you can use that toolkit to lock up units into combats and rob them of their plan to do what they wanted with them the following turn.

I struggle with 3 games over a weekend, 20 in one week must be a huge ask. Do you have any methods for keeping your focus?

Oh god, well I have methods that I should apply more often than not ahahah. When I was younger, getting drunk day 1 and sleeping only 4 hours the night of, was no issue with focus and play but now as I get older, I notice that method is really not helping anymore. Nowadays, while I still drink (Scotch Single Malt preferably, thanks) during my games if we are allowed, I do have more reservation about how much. I try to drink a lot water nowadays on and off the table and try to sleep 7-8 hours during the event and most importantly go into the event with zero to little sleep debt. When I “coach” newer tournament players, I try to educate them about tournament fatigue. The idea that there is no way you can play all of these games at max mental acuity and physical one as well especially when the game is so social; as in people aren’t just there to game, they want comradery, they want to share moments with new strangers/friends over our ridiculous game.
The way to deal with it is in 2 ways, at the table and off the table, at the table there is always the rule of have as much fun as you are afforded be it your own personal energy level and what is your opponent energy level but make sure you don’t tunnel on the bad things that happen and same for the good things, never lose focus on scoring points and don’t seek some personal vendetta on a unit you feel deserves to die, etc… Just have fun, score points and try to do it without having to kill things at the table. When you can do that effectively well, then you can start adding the new complexity to that and that is: How can you do that now and next turn with the decisions you are making now, and keep moving the time horizons as you get more comfortable with that. The off the table is really about people’s own preference but as I mentioned earlier that knowing what your limit is very important. While its important to win don’t forget to have fun, god I sound a like a lame Dad.

No! That’s great advice that I think many of us forget mid game. You must face many new players who have recognised your name on the tournament circuit, have you found that this recognition affects their game judgement? I guess what I’m trying to say is, do mind games come into it very often?

Yes, I had a few events where people recognize me and yes there is sometimes some self defeatism that happens at the table but I often remind my opponents especially the newer ones on how to go about either defeating a combo of mine or how to approach the game with of course as many mulligans as they want to take as long as we have not moved too far into the game. The issue is that some players either rise to the moment or fold perhaps because they don’t trust that I would give away pointers to my detriment or because they want to prove me wrong. I fully recognize its pretty condescending for someone to approach a table and offer up advice in a competitive environment as if they know that empowerment of their opponent is somehow not able to beat the cocky player. But the reality is that I play so many games where I am trying to coach people outside of events that I find that I just revert to that. I get a lot more value out of a game where my opponent grows in skill during the game as much as me facing a challenging new paradigm. Most folks forget that top players can suffer from impostor syndrome and my way of tackling it is by trying to maximize my opportunities into playing what I consider good or better players than I. I too want to become better than what I am today and elevating everyone’s game even mine is an important reason why I go to competitive events.

Regarding mind games, I do not try to engage into it too much but I know some folks I play regularly who joke that I own real estate in their mind. My type of mind games is maybe playing or designing armies which are maybe a bit off meta I guess. I do love the call out videos and the bit of jabbing that happens here stateside between the teams and players because its just good ol fun but I know some folks could consider them a form of mind game. I think the only mind games that end up affecting players is they one they give power to. I have seen it, folks who approach a game versus Bill Souza and just give up before the first roll happens and it breaks my heart. That player would have gotten so much more value from the game against Bill in growth and learning if he went about it with a winning attitude and heck people like me and Bill can lose. Queue: “If it bleeds, we can kill it”

If you could give advice to new tournament players what would it be?

Outside of making sure you give yourself the proper expectation how mentally tiring and how its hard to keep the same level of play after 5 games and a night out, my biggest advice to new players is to come to an event with achievable goals. Some players like a ratio of wins to losses but I prefer more of things related to the game such as: “Not dropping a Battle Tactic.” or “Sequencing combat activations correctly” or “Did I always make sure to pile in advantageously?”. I find that while everyone wants to go to events for games and the overall communal experience, its also nice to go for a more personal reason such as making sure you are getting some growth out of it. I personally attend tournaments to hope to play against certain players as a way to learn how to improve my game in those situations. Finally, tournaments are fun but you will always get what you put into them; meaning that if you choose to go there for just games, you will get that, if you go to improve your games, you will get that and if you go there to have fun, you will have fun and if you are transparent and obvious about those things, you will find that people will put the same energy into the game.

Jeremy, it’s been a pleasure speaking to you, thank you. All the best for the remainder of the season!