This is the Top Three AoS lists for the ‘Ere We Go Again Ladz’ that took place in the USA on the 14th and 15th of January. It involved 24 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: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hallowed Knights
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Gardus Steel Soul (150)*
1 x Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Scintillating Trail
– Spells: Celestial Blades

BATTLELINE
5 x Vanquishers (110)*
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)**
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)**
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Lance

OTHER
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)*
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Daniel is known as an exceptional Stormcast player, and we’re lucky enough to have him as a member of our Discord community. You may know Daniel from his awesome YouTube channel; The Stormkeep. They focus on Stormcast tactics and lists and give great reviews of GW releases such as the new General’s Handbook. Daniel kindly agreed to give us a rundown on how his list works.

Daniel Gomez: The list clearly revolves around Stormdrake Guard. More specifically, it takes advantage of their high amount of attacks and the unique mix of characteristics the unit has. The attacks and mortal wound output are easy to see, but the important thing about Dragons is the monster keyword, fly, 3” coherency/attack range (fangs and talons), and that reinforced it is a 4 model 9 wound unit. Monster is more important than ever. You can block everything from important command abilities such as Fyreslayers fighting first against you after charging them, down to the mundane AoD effective counting as rend or removing the option of AoA as a psuedo -1 to hit buff.

Fly combined with the 3” coherency and 12” move is so important for them to take up the offensive/defensive control space they need, as well as hopping over large terrain. They’re really unwieldy models, and the unit wouldn’t work at all without all of these. The oblong base also allows you to do some pile in tricks and “slide” beside an enemy unit to reach a juicier target in the back. 3” reach is another awesome and under-appreciated trait that even makes it so charging a dragon from the side as long as those bases are touching they can reach across and help hit a problematic unit. Directly across each base is just under 3”. This can bait opponents into charging, thinking they’ll only take a bit of damage back by flanking them. Only to realize the rend 2 attacks can still assist and deal some damage.

Stormdrakes are also 9 wounds, which doesn’t seem too important until you see the limit to qualify for cover and wyldwoods from terrain is 9 wounds. Combined with AoD and a mystic shield, you can hit a 0+ effective save easily. Being a 4 model unit also opens up a very good chance of rallying and during the tournament I rallied a dragon twice, one of those times giving me huge momentum to finish the tough job of shoving Alarith LRL off the middle objective in a 3-objective plan. I pretty much highlight the Stormdrakes here because they are the make or break of the list. It’s really a Death Star list, and even including the points inefficient Knight Draconis was acceptable as it allowed for hero phase breath once per game to free me up to move to the next target.

The raptors were there for a similar purpose just to be that extra bit of very consistent damage to help the dragons continue conquering. Add in a complimentarily fast support all-rounder support piece like the Stormstrike Chariot (and I will say this has been my favorite SCE list so far). Gone are the mindless push across the board and win turn 1 dragons. This list takes a more methodical approach, and I hope to keep bringing a similar list into the next season.

Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Starborne
– Army Subfaction: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (155)***
– Artefacts: Serpent God Dagger
1 x Skink Starpriest (130)***
– Spells: Hand of Glory
1 x Slann Starmaster (285)***
– General
– Command Traits: Arcane Might
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Stellar Tempest
1 x Skink Priest (120)***
– Prayers: Curse

BATTLELINE
30 x Skinks (225)*
– Boltspitter and Moonstone Club
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

OTHER
8 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)**
3 x Kroxigor (150)**
3 x Kroxigor (150)**
8 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)***

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Expert Conquerors
**Bounty Hunters
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Seraphon will always struggle to lose the ‘OP’ label, but honestly we’ve not seen them pop up so much in recent months, and here we see darn near as unusual a variant as possible while still being competitive.

The high value core remains as ever the Astrolith Bearer (for boosting the Slann’s spell range and offering a ward bubble), the Starpriest for his re roll 1s to hit spell and ability to give something mortals on 6s to wound – most likely the big skink blob in this case – and the Priest with Curse to make that skink blob able to annihilate anything through weight of attacks and fishing for mortals.

And yes, lots of skinks, because this is Fangs of Sotek. But where this list goes wonderfully skewiff is the 2×3 units of Kroxigor! The monsters that time forgot! Their warscroll is thoroughly unimpressive and honestly I’d love to see the way in which Sean used them – my best guess is as Skink screens/counter punchers, given they’re fast enough to keep up, relatively tanky (4 wounds on a 4+) and get +1 to hit while near the skinkeroos.

2 units of reinforced Salamanders round things off, projecting serious threats in both the shooting and melee phases.

This list gets hit pretty hard with the new points, but as it stands it’s a pleasingly balanced Fangs list – and while I’m not sure Kroxigor are some overlooked, stealth-value meta pick, I still love seeing them get use. Here’s hoping the new book gives them some love and allows for even more variation in Seraphon list-building.

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

LEADER
1 x Celestant-Prime (325)*
1 x Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Traits: Shock and Awe
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Celestial Blades
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Battlemage (100)*
1 x Lord-Imperatant (175)****

BATTLELINE
5 x Vanquishers (110)**
– Vanquisher-Prime
5 x Liberators (115)**
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)***
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)***

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

OTHER
3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)***
– Annihilator-Prime
3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)****

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters
****Vanguard

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

A different take on Stomrcast to Danniel’s bringing mobility through magic. This army counts on throwing multiple threats down and forcing you to either screen and spread or castle and remove threats as they arrive. The added wrinkle here is the Fulminator/Relictor/Battlemage combo that can easily see Fulminators hit anything that is isolated. The weakness is it’s hard to concentrate your force, and the MSU Fulminators/Annihilators at 12/9 wounds are one shots. Your opponent is likely to pick them up the turn after they are down. And 7” charges are still only a 58% chance without a reroll (Fulminators). You really want to try to shut down the 2nd turn when you are likely to get Fulminators, Annihilators, and the Celestant Prime all arriving.

With so many drops Tim is giving the first round activation away to most opponents, most opponents are probably going to give him first turn any way to avoid the 1/2 double that could be very nasty. That would make for an interesting battle against the Seraphon army. Letting the Seraphon go first and letting them buff those skinks is a bad idea. As it happened, the Seraphon was Tim’s only loss. There is nothing critical in that list for any of his big hitters to challenge, and small units of Skinks are great screens. They are very similar lists in their equivalent factions (multiple mobile small unit).

Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)***
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)****
– Spells: Call da Moon
Madcap Shamans (80)****
– Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet
– Spells: Itchy Nuisance
Dankhold Troggboss (220)****
– General
– Command Traits: Mighty Blow
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Flaming Weapon

BATTLELINE
Fellwater Troggoths (155)
Shootas (120)**
Shootas (120)**
Stabbas (140)**
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
– Stabba and Moon Shield
– 3 x Barbed Net
Rockgut Troggoths (145)***
Rockgut Troggoths (145)***
Rockgut Troggoths (145)***

OTHER
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)****

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Scuttletide (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Vanguard
****Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

I was so impressed to see a Gitz army go 4-1 at an event and be in a tournament winning position after Round 4 that I contacted Chris directly to ask him about the tactics he used. In my eyes, with such an out of date Battletome, this was such an exceptional performance it deserved the top spot! (No offense, Daniel!)

Chris Kennedy: My overall goal is to flood the board and give people bad choices and trades. I run my army in layers depending on the opponents. The 2 units of shootas are for sitting back and holding objectives. I normally set them in a corner on an objective each and forget about. Most people ignore them until they need to take the objective. The -1 to hit within 2 inches goes a long way in keeping them alive.

The rockguts work as hammer and anvils. Normally, having one unit out front to take a charge, then itchy Nuisance (fight last spell) and Moonface Mommet (-1 armor save) the unit on my turn to wipe big treats. I also keep the Rockguts in a Vanguard, so if I get off Hand of Gork (teleport spell), I can reroll the charge. Rockguts aren’t elite and have no leader.

My boingrots are used to flank and are in Bounty Hunters. They can effectively clear screens or shooters with doing mortals on the charge. Left alone behind enemy lines, they wreak havoc. The 4 plus save is as tanky as gitz gets, so they take time for the opponent to clear.

The Shamans sit back safely behind the shrine with long range Spells. A teleport, a line of sight table wide 3d damn to one target and scuttletide. I use those to either pick off heroes or shooters. Scuttletide can also be used to charge block because it does 1 mortal for every 5 up on 6 dice when you end a move or charge within 6 of it.

Last I have the Dankhold Troggboss and Marshcrawla that tow the back line. The marchcrawla tries to keep as many units under its 18-inch bubble as possible, giving everyone +1 to hit in melee, and the Dankhold gives out reroll 1s to hit for Troggoth units within 18. He also can hit pretty hard in melee if needed but pretty squishy.

Final Tournament Placings