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.
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)*
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.
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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)***
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.
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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)****
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).
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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)***
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.
I recently asked Baz Norman Jr if he’d care to comment on his list from Blood in the Snow on 14th and 15th of January. I also asked him if he’d like to give a run-down of his games as part of that.
As always Baz’s response blew me away, and I thought it deserved an article in it’s own right. So thank you once again Baz!
Peter! Thank you once again for having me on the site. I attended Mark Ward’s Blood in the Snow at Hull’s Angels Gaming Club on the 14th and 15th January 2023. This was my second two day event already of 2023.
Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine – Subfaction: Khailebron – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale (115)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Mindrazor – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Morathi-Khaine (680)* The Shadow Queen (680)*
BATTLELINE Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Blood Sisters (420)* – Gorgai
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Horrorghast (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000
I have hit the competitive scene a lot, running Daughters of Khaine (DoK) over the last year so running them again at this event was no surprise to anyone, but what might be a surprise was that it isn’t my usual list.
The list above is a slight variation to the DoK list I ran last weekend on the 7th and 8th January, where I had the absolute pleasure of playing alongside the legends that are Team England at Brotherhood III at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, on Team England’s South team.
So let’s delve into it…
SUB-FACTION – I love my manoeuvrability. I’ve said on previous posts that movement is king, and I wholeheartedly stand by this. Being able to get into positions to threaten enemy units, objectives and push for future turns is huge, so Khailebron was a staple.
GRAND STRATEGY – This list revolves around being in combat, so Bloodthirsty Zealots matched perfectly.
TRIUMPH – At 1,965pts, +1 to wound when I wanted to hit hard just worked.
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale– Having Khailebron as the sub faction doesn’t make Blood Sisters battleline, and knowing I wanted to run 15 of them meant that it would have to be the Melusai Ironscale as general. The Command Trait was a given at Zealous Orator. Who doesn’t love a 4+ rally? My Artefact of power being Arcane Tome and knowing the spell, Mind Razor. The bonding to the Krondspine provides a +1 to cast within domination range.
Morathi – because its Morathi.
BATTLELINE Witch Aelves – Two units of 10. These give a decent screen, but also with the run and charge, reroll failed battleshock test, and buckets of attacks, they can still threaten wounded units or chip wounds off when needed. Not to mention being objective grabbers whilst the rest of the army is doing the heavy lifting.
Blood Sisters – One unit of 15. Yes they’ve only got a 5+ save and the DoK 6+ ward save, but that’s where the negatives stop in my opinion. Three attacks base (+1 for the Gorgai), 3’s to hit, 3’s to wound, -1 rend, damage 1, and then the turned to crystal effect after the unit has fought for the first time in a phase. This attack profile alone is spicy, 46 attacks base from this unit. Now we add in and start tuning this unit to another level. Factor in the blood rites table, run and charge from the Ironscale, all out slaughter, mind razor and Fury of the Shadow Queen ability, this unit can suddenly end up having 61 attacks, 2’s to hit with exploding 6’s, 2’s to wound, -2 rend, and 2 damage a piece, then the crystal touch on top… not much can come away from this to be honest.
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – You’ve probably all heard about it, 480 pts that can’t be auto killed, doesn’t allow retreats, is good, but not broken as there are some easy ways around it, but is still strong, especially coupled with the units above.
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Horrorghast – I had points left over, easy to cast, can certainly help finish off units if you’ve fluffed a couple dice rolls and left a few models alive.
CORE BATTALION Battle Regiment – Works for this list, as I normally govern who takes 1st turn.
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Game 1 vs Kruleboyz / Mike Chadderton and Head-on Collision.
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Kruleboyz – Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150) 1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150) 1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (220)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un – Spells: Nasty Hex 1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** 1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Choking Mist 1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Sneaky Miasma
BATTLELINE 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Gutrippaz (160)** – Wicked Hacka 10 x Gutrippaz (160)** – Wicked Hacka
OTHER 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)** 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**
Mike (of Goonhammer fame – Peter) is a great player, we regularly converse over Twitter and I’ve had the pleasure of playing Mike before at Sheffield Slaughter 2022; one of my first bigger events. The result ended in his favour before, so he had that psychological benefit.
I deployed just over 24” away, and being a gentleman, I gave Mike turn 1.
Mike made a few little movement wiggles, buffed up his units with elixirs from the Swampcalla Shamans ready to receive the DoK threat.
My turn 1, and I moved my whole army up to threaten his position and to give him too many threats to deal with all at once if Mike got the priority for turn 2.
Turn 2 dice off. I won priority.
Taking the turn, I knew this was the opportunity I needed to hit his army hard, so I prepped for it. Mind Razored the Shadow Queen, withered key units, Black horrored a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, cast the Horrorghast and then at the end of the movement phase, teleported the 15 Blood Sisters 9” away from his Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz.
The shooting phase came and went, with a couple more wounds going onto the already wounded Gnashtoof. Big charge phase inbound. Started with Morathi who was 4” away; into the 2 Gnashtoofs. Krondspine going into a unit of Gutrippaz. 9” long bomb charge required for the Blood Sisters, needed 8 on the dice, due to the Blood Rites table, rolled a 9. Big charge phase ticked off.
The combat phase followed, having Morathi curb stomp the already wounded Gnashtoof, killing it, and making room for her to pile round into some tasty Boltboyz. I started the combat phase with the Blood Sisters to ensure maximum damage. The unit was split between the Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz, a couple of Blood Sisters went into the Vulcha, chipping 5 wounds off it, whilst the rest went into the Gutrippaz. Turned to Crystal, which is what I was wanting, all went into the Vulcha, killing it. I did take some damage from other units piling in, and with the misplay of the Horrorghast, 12” is huge! I lost 5 Blood Sisters to battleshock…. lesson here for sure lol
The dust settled from that turn and Mike calculated just over 1000pts lifted in one turn. Solid turn for me.
Being pinned in by Morathi, Krondspine and the Blood Sisters and losing all those units made it really hard for Mike to come back so he played for points and got what could. With me winning turn 3 priority again, the nail in the coffin. We ended the game 32-5 to DoK. So that’s 1 game a piece now Mike….until next time! 😉
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Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat / Rob Anderson and Battlelines Drawn.
Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Gatebreaker (520)* – Artefacts: Amberbone Totem 1 x Gatebreaker (520)* – General – Command Traits: Monstrously Tough – Artefacts: Vial of Manticore Venom 1 x Warstomper (450)** 1 x Warstomper (450)** – Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
So no “remove from battlefield and set up again”, but I was playing into the Sons of Behemat; an army that just wants to get in your face and ‘Triple H Pedigree’ slam enemies, which, I am weirdly okay with. I screened out with Morathi-Khaine, the Shadow Queen and the Krondspine. And with the Witch Aelves on the flanks, I gave turn 1 away as before.
Rob moved his 4 big boys up to capture objectives (table quarters in this mission), capped the centre terrain piece with Desecrate and charged one of his Warstompers into a unit of Witch Aelves I had on the flank. He rightfully killed them and chipped 3 wounds off Morathi-Khaine.
My turn 1, I chose Gaining Momentum and committed to lifting the giant that had just slapped Morathi-Khaine and the Witch Aelves. Turn 1 finished, and I had lifted 2 giants.
Turn 2 priority was won by Rob, where he continued with the points increase and reducing Morathi to 6 wounds, and did enough damage to reduce the Krondspine to level 1. Another 5 points for Rob. Seeing the work that happened from the DoK turn 1, turn 2 was no different.
Game 2 finished 26-10 to DoK.
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Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.
Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Inspired
Duncan is a loyal member of the GAF gaming group and has been to several of our events run by the Warrior Lodge, and every interaction with Duncs is….how can I describe it….erm….lets just say that he is a character and a gentleman to boot, so I knew this game would be laugh regardless.
Skaven is an army that I’ve not played a lot of to be honest, and with him rocking up with two Warp Lightning Cannons and 6 Stormfiends, I knew I had to be on him asap.
No surprises here when I gave Duncs turn 1 and with me deploying out side of his shooting range, he moved some units up to cap objectives. I was surprised that he didn’t go through the Gnawholes with his 6 Stormfiends and try to shoot off the Blood Sisters turn one….maybe he knew something I didn’t…? My turn 1 was simple, move up, and prep for later turns.
Turn 2 priority went in my favour, meaning that Morathi and the Krondspine could get into position for a charge. I also teleported the Blood Sisters for a supportive charge. Dice rolls went back and forth. Duncs killing his own general and bombardier through Skaven antics finished the game 28-9 to DoK.
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Game 4 vs Hedonites of Slaanesh / James Mackenzie and The Silksteel Nests.
Allegiance: Slaanesh – Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (245)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)* Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*
Units 5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)* 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Having not played Hedonites of Slaanesh before, meant I had had to do some homework the previous evening. High manoeuvrability, lots of units, a lot of shots, buffs from Glutos, the hindrance that Sigvald can bring meant this would be new to me, not to mention the 8 available objectives.
I set up so that each of my 4 objectives, had models touching it and gave James turn 1. He was on me straight away, his Blissbarb Archers being screened by the Centigors lifted both units of Witch Aelves that were on either flank. I had to play super aggressive and hit his key units right from the get go, as I was behind on points. Morathi moved up to just behind a building, being 9” from Glutos and the Krondspine moved up ready to ‘eat’ from Centigors. Charges were made and the Warrior Lodge dice rolled well, meaning that my turn 1, Glutos was dead, the Krondspine was in combat doing its thing.
Turn 2 priority was won by James and he played big for points scoring 7 points his turn 2. Bottom of turn 2 the score was 9 to me, 12 to James…
Turn 3 priority was again won by James and he kept on racking up the points, although he was behind with model count, if he could keep scoring points though, that could see him win overall. Turn 3 finished 15 to me and 18 to James.
Turn 4 priority was won by….James again…I must have used up all my priority rolls on day 1! Again more points racking up in James’s favour finishing turn 4 on 20 to me, 24 to James.
Turn 5 priority came and went….finally in my favour. I managed to get into positions in the previous turns to eventually pin him in and lift the pesky Hedonites which were so quick. Game 4 finished 29-24 to DoK. Phew.
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Game 5 vs Sylvaneth / Peter Twigg on Won’t Back Down.
Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Harvestboon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Celestant-Prime (325)*
BATTLELINE Tree-Revenants (110)* Tree-Revenants (110)* Revenant Seekers (705)** – Revenant Soulwarden – 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer – 3 x Seeker Hornblower Spiterider Lancers (420)** – Spiterider Scion – 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer – 2 x Spiterider Hornblower
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000
A little birdy had mentioned to me that Pete wanted revenge from our last meeting from across the table where we were both on table 1, game 5. That last game was also played over Won’t Back Down so things felt similar, even if our lists were different.
Sylvaneth have historically been a challenging match up for me as they’re really nimble and I struggle to pin them down, so knew this match up would be tough, not to mention the fact that Pete had 9 Revenant Seekers and 6 Spiterider Lancers…oh and the Prime!
I did my thing with deployment ensuring that the Witch Aelves were snaked (pun intended!) round the Blood Sisters at 3” just in case the Prime was to come down turn 1, and gave Pete turn 1.
Against the Odds was chosen and he moved units up to threaten, but also to take objectives for a solid 5 VP round.
My turn 1, I did some hero phase shenanigans as usual and ran the buffed Blood Sisters up so they were 5” away from the 9 Revenant Seekers and their pool of 45 wounds. There was no redeploy which I was expecting, even though I had explained the abilities at the start. Charge phase started and the Blood Sisters failed their 5” charge. CP reroll… then I rolled a 8. Here we go! Spending a CP for all out attack and burning my triumph for +1 to wound saw them lift the Revenant Seekers to the wound, nothing more nothing less…. a big dent made.
Turn 2 I got the double turn, which allowed me to move up into position again ready for another charge. The Shadow Queen failed her charge, but the Blood Sisters got another charge off, this time into the 6 Spiterider Lancers but without the Mind Razor buff. Lifting 4 of them meant that Pete could retaliate and then in his turn nip through the woods far away…. Far, far away to the other end of the board…. i.e., my deployment zone lol.
I slowly managed to take the lead with a couple of points difference but at the cost of Morathi dying and we shook hands finishing the game 26-21 to DoK.
Peter: What a result. Thanks again to Baz for sharing his tournament review. Hopefully we can get him on again in the future.
It’s always an interesting time when there’s a new season of matched play on the horizon. All the subtle reflexes, lists and tricks you’ve built up over the last 6 months are about to be obliterated by a new set of realm rules and battleplans – including points adjustments and therefore significant list changes.
Rest assured, we’re here to help you get a head start on the practical stuff you need to know ahead of Season 2 – Galletian Champions – kicking off next week. Your author has glimpsed the new rules slightly ahead of their official publication date and has played a fair few games with the new rules already (with the new Slaves to Darkness book, in fact) with his club-mates, Sigmar’s Pilgrims, who recently finished 8th at the Brotherhood Teams Event.
So read on for a few tips, insights, and general things you should start thinking about for the forthcoming season. And what a season it’s going to be – as we guessed in our Hot Takes article – it’s a fantastic new set of rules that offer a welcome reduction in book-keeping from the previous season, helping make it smoother and more accessible, while adding in some awesome new levels of depth.
Identify your Galletian Champions (aka Galley Champs, aka GCs)
Put simply, this season is all about non-unique foot heroes under 10 wounds. A number of the new battle tactics require them, and multiple battleplans will either award bonus points for objectives being controlled by a GC, or give GCs priority when contesting them (i.e. if a GC is contesting the objective, only other GCs can).
This, as you have probably surmised, means you need to have a good look at what GCs your army has available, and start re-thinking their role in your army. Traditionally, most of these kinds of heroes have been underwhelming – why take a piddly foot-slogging dude when you can take a pure chad riding a giant monster? The answer, as it turns out, is because this season tells you it’s the cooler thing to do. If you want to win.
If your army has GCs who are either strong in their own right (Ironjaws are happy here) or simply cheap and durable, or highly mobile (hence the Knight Zephyros suddenly being S tier) – you’re laughing. If, like Soulblight, all your non-unique foot heroes just kind of suck, well, have a think about how best to protect them and then get them to where they need to be! Which brings us to…
2. Pay the Ferryman
Chris de Burgh HATES this guy
Lauchon stonks.
Though it’s tempting to leave it there, I will elucidate. If you army doesn’t just happen to have a teleporting GC (or like Fyreslayers, one that can also teleport their own bodyguard…!), then you’re quite possible going to want a way to zoom a GC onto a flank objective – and this season has lots that are less reachable.
The endless spell, Lauchon – aka the Bringy Dinghy – is perfect for this. You just need your GC to be a wizard (not hard with Arcane Tome doing the rounds) and for their base to fit within 6″ of the boat, and they’re eligible for a 21”+ whatever your hero has move. Then they can score points, and on the off-chance the boat doesn’t get Dispelled, at the end of the following hero phase they can zoom right back to safety! So it’s obviously best done with a GC on the cheaper side of things as it may be a one-way trip…
He’s not the only way to get around in style however, which brings us to…
3. Tunnel Mastery
There’s also another way of getting where you want to go – and it takes the form of what I imagine will quickly become the pick of choice from the new selection of free GC enhancements you now get to choose from. There are some excellent effects and combos but Tunnel Master – which allows your GC a standard teleport (so no closer than 9” to enemy units) – is obviously tasty. In general it’s risky to chuck even a 100 pt GC onto an objective on their own, so timing will be everything here – it’s well worth thinking if your army has a good way to support this play (or bringing a Soulscream Bridge!) so that the hero can have some backup, or some way to do it early then escape if the enemy starts hunting them down.
Alternatively, if you can work out a way – like the Fyreslayer example above – that you don’t have to pick Tunnel Master, then that will open up the slot for another enhancement instead.
4. The New Drop Off
There are three new battalions in the new Season, but the two that will shake things up the most are the ones GW previewed themselves. It’s not hard to see the respective merits of each, but what we’ve realised after a few games is that you really need to plan around the potential of your opponent taking Sharpshooters. GC scoring is so important that if you don’t have a genuine bodyguard unit to protect your GC from being sniped, you are going to want something in your list to try and deal with the shooting units.
What this means for the average drops is that, in our humble prediction, the new most common drops will be 3 (battle regiment + Sworn Guard) and 4 (Battle reg + Sharpshooters). If you really think dictating turn order is really important to your list, it might mean giving up Sworn Guard.
It’s also possible we’ll see a lot more ‘who gives a crap’ drops due to the following point…
5. 2nd Time Lucky
One of the coolest mechanics of the new season is that the player who takes the second turn gets to perform a second heroic action in their hero phase. This suddenly makes taking second in the first turn even more valuable, but that’s balanced by there now being an incentive not to take the double. And of course if you do get doubled – you can think about how that second action can keep you in the game rather than just sweating bricks.
Now, there are two new heroic actions revolving around fighting in the hero phase with your GC, potentially then followed by their Sworn Guard – which we’ll go into more detail on shortly – but we’ve found in reality they rarely actually get used. And as such, aren’t worth planning your turn priority around. However, you’ll obviously want to have them in your back pocket for when it’s important to be able to move in your turn rather than wait until the fight phase to get stuck in. The most important thing as ever will be reading the board-state, but do start thinking about whether your army can handle giving away first, as you can now potentially really punish over-reaches from your opponent.
6. Remembering Realm Rules The author is a big fan of the new realm rules, but it pays to be aware of their subtleties, and not lean too much into them for list building.
For example, the obvious, most game-changing benefit to GCs is the Key to Victory rule, meaning they can’t be targeted by ranged attacks while they stand within 1” of a friendly battleline unit, unless the attacking unit is in the aforementioned Sharpshooter battalion. Now it’s easy to mix up Battleline and Sworn Guard – so bear in mind it’s any battleline unit that can protedt your precious and flimsy GC from shooting.
Now, the new heroic actions have an obvious combination with the new rule for getting two heroic actions – bear in mind they both have to be issued from the same hero in your hero phase. The first allows GC within 3” of an enemy unit to fight, but then gains ‘fight last’ for the rest of the TURN. The second allows the Sworn Guard wholly within 6” of the GC that just fought, and is also within 3” of any enemy unit – i.e. doesn’t have to be the same one the GC fought – to also fight – with the same fight last modifier being added.
In practical terms, this hero phase fight with a unit is frankly unlikely to come off. It will be useful here and there – especially against pin lists like whoops all Nurgle flies or Beastclaw Raiders – but it’s probably a mistake to plan on it. Likewise, if you are hunting frantically through your Tome for the fightiest hero so they can get some hero phase action, just bear in mind that unless they kill that unit, they’re either going to have to stick around and try again or retreat.
Of course, if your hero has a fight first ability – this will cancel out the fight last and they will attack as normal in the fight phase – or likewise, if you have the ability (such as the new Slaves spell) to make an enemy unit fight last, you can much more safely activate this ability and still charge your GC into combat in your turn.
So there you have it – we’re super excited for the new Season and we hope you are too. Let us know in the Discord what your thoughts are once you start getting games in – and we hope these little offerings help you to get a head start on taking names at the table!
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Nottingham GT that took place in the UK on 14th and 15th January. It involved 41 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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – Season: The Reaping
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (840)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Radiant Spirit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Units 5 x Gossamid Archers (220)* 3 x Aetherwings (65)*
Mathew Davies – aka Mathmallow – is a rather good player. You don’t have to look at too many tournies to find his name in the podium, and he’s legendary for doing it with Sylvaneth – old and new!
The list is easy to parse due to the inclusion of Alarielle and her cost. The Arch-Rev is a crucial buff piece for the 6 bows due to his +1 to wound aura – and though BowNoth continue to be divisive, they do offer a TANKY source of long range chip damage. Which is handy when you’re trying to throw a base as big as Alarielle’s around and into priority targets that a small screen could otherwise stymie.
Nice to see Gossamids being used too – despite their potential to flunk and do nothing, their ability to block a charge then fly safely away after doing some MW chip damage can absolutely hard counter combat armies.
A well-deserved win to probably the best Sylvaneth player out there in a sharkpit of a GT!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Vanari Lord Regent (170)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat
Battleline 30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (150)*
Adam Mumford – another Team LIT player here and the best of the LRL players in the top 10… all 5 of them, from 2nd to 7th place, no less! Is that an LRL meta resurgence I hear…
What we’ve got here is Teclis and 40 sentinels in Helon – allowing extra shooting at close range. It’s a blast from the past but with new rules – and now Sentinel’s sunmetal weapons also work in melee. Oh, and the Rune of Petrification is difficult to dispel (with a CV of 8) MW pump that you Teclis can auto-cast in a prime spot on the board.
Adam is another fantastic player, and there’s no denying there’s a lot to keep track of in terms of buff sequencing and aura ranges. Can’t say saying this list doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies though!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Artefact: Silver Wand – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat Vanari Lord Regent (170)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
Battleline 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse – Reinforced x 1
Units 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 1
Another incredibly well-known player and a long-time LRL fan, Matthew brings…. Teclis, 40 sentinels and the Rune of Petrrification in Helon.
He brought more Wardens than Adam though! So you can’t say he copied his homework.
Just to reassure you, I can tell you that 2 of the remaining 3 LRL lists went Alarith with Teclis, loads of Stoneguard and Avalenor. So, it wasn’t all Sentinels…
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Grimscuttle Tribes – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (220)**** – Trev the Troggboss – General – Command Trait: Alpha Trogg – Artefact: Glowy Howitz Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)**** – Freddie the Fungoid – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Madcap Shaman (80)**** – Madcap Max – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)* – The Celestant Slime – Allies
Battleline 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (290)*** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (290)*** – Reinforced x 1 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (155)** 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (155)**
Units 5 x Spider Riders (90)* 3 x Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70)* 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)**** – Drummer Dave
Behemoths Skitterstrand Arachnarok (160)* – Big Bert & Nipper
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20) – Steve the Swamp Trogg Mork’s Mighty Mushroom (40) – Marv the Misunderstood
Gitz Top 10 should be the headline for Nottingham. Not only running a credible 9th but taking down giants on the way, even running win, loss, and draw against LRL is a very credible effort. Troggoths (Trolls) are the answer, boosting the Gitz with a solid, regenerative punch. Backed by both a Breakaboss and a Sloggoth, both of which are also Troggoths. The Dankboss can give either reroll 1s to hit as well as the other Troggoths. The Marshcrawler gives +1 to hit to friendly units wholly within 18”. All of those Rockguts hit on 2s with -2 rend and 3 damage, that’s how giants die. Just as important, Dominic left some room for some very fast units that can be scoring (old GHB) around the outside and even a couple of casters. While not reliable if Ithcy nuisance goes off it’s potentially a game changer making a key piece fight last. And if they get bored (after getting the extra command point), they can always throw in the Burning Head or Mork’s lunch (mighty mushroom) for some mortals.
Lots of threats in the list with some great mobility, nothing is too resilient if focused but what do you focus on? And as the results show if you can’t lift key units quickly they can focus solid killing power including enough to drop Gargants in a turn. The loss to an LRL shooting list (see 3rd place above) is expected for such a melee focused army but still a very credible showing. It will be interesting to see where their new book places them and whether it boosts the Troggoths or the little Gitz.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Blood in the Snow that took place in the UK on 14th and 15 January. It involved 30 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: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale (115)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Mindrazor – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Morathi-Khaine (680)* The Shadow Queen (680)*
BATTLELINE Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Blood Sisters (420)* – Gorgai
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Horrorghast (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000
EDIT: You would think that I – a DoK main – would not get Blood Stalkers and Sisters mixed up – but there’s an interesting case study in assumptions tricking your brain into reading things wrong! To be fair, it doesn’t really change much but either way, my bad – commentary amended accordingly (less Pin-Cushion and more Pins-Needles)
Baz Norman is one of those names you really don’t want to see on your pairings sheet – and he’s ending the old season on another high here with a list that, with the forthcoming points changes and GC rules, is likely dead from here on.
Essentially it’s a riff on the good old fashioned pin-and-cushion list, with two timed-unkillable giant bases in Morathi and Spinedog to back you up while 15 Stab charge in behind them with their huge MW output. I call it, the ‘Pins-and-Needles’ list!
That’s it really. It’s done the business before, it’s done it here again and in the new season this list will be nearly 100 pts dearer and have only the one useful Galley Champ – so hopefully we’ll see DoK lists getting a mix up at least!
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Harvestboon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Celestant-Prime (325)*
BATTLELINE Tree-Revenants (110)* Tree-Revenants (110)* Revenant Seekers (705)** – Revenant Soulwarden – 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer – 3 x Seeker Hornblower Spiterider Lancers (420)** – Spiterider Scion – 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer – 2 x Spiterider Hornblower
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000
Peter Twigg here showing that Sylvaneth are starting to put some deep roots down – and that’s before their forthcoming points cuts.
It’s a nasty list – tripling down on Revenant Seekers, those bastards tricky flying cavalry who can feel nigh on indestructible by dint of healing up after they kill something and their ability to bring a model back by themselves – including one of their own. They’re backed up by Lancers – the less tanky but killier ones, all wrapped up in Harvestboon for the pre-game move (for EACH flying-cav unit) of 12″. The threat projection is obvious – you’re likely to start turn 1 swatting more bugs than you’d find at an al fresco jam tasting in August.
Then, just to make your life truly miserable, there’s a Celestant Prime.
The list has the speed to take down tanky targets like SCE and Slaves in the first two games, and also has the recursion and mobility to deal with DoK, losing only to Baz. Another list that may suffer in the new season due to lack of scoring GCs but honestly, when you can just pin and kill everything in the first battle-round, does it matter?
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)
Points: 1,955/2,000
Elite in that special Orc way, Mawcrusha with 3 Warchanters for lots of Violent Fury (+1 damage), 12 pigs and a token 5 Ardboyz. And the Krondspine. It produces a quadruple threat, all hammers list that can be all Alpha strike but has some potential to play for a double if you hold it back until Turn 2/3. The change to -2 Rend boosted Goregruntas a lot and blocks of 6 can remove most threats in a turn. Even better they will usually (being 30 wounds) tie up whatever they charged for a 2nd round where the unreinforced unit can be taken out in 1 turn. This is a multi drop army (2 artefacts) so it probably isn’t going to get first turn unless their opponent thinks they can delay outside of 25”+, the threat range of the Goregruntas with Mighty Destroyers and Get ‘em beat.
But wait there’s more – Get ‘em beat on a Goregrunta unit with the Green Hand of Gork is a very good sniping tactic. You drop outside of 9” (no redeploy) with a 3D6 charge or better than 50% chance of making the charge. Then there’s the Krondspine, a handy addition to Ironjawz who are lagging a little in the win rate. Quadrulple threats with the potential to remove units quickly and restrict your scoring. But at the same time if the opponent is too mobile or spreads then other army lacks the units to pursue. If they Orks get to dictate play you are in trouble but they are vulnerable to mortal wounds (or spells really) and archers. And with so few units it’s hard to score Battle Tactics. High risk high reward list for a High risk high reward army – very orkish.
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Allegiance: Slaanesh – Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (245)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)* Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*
Units 5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)* 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Peter published these meta stats earlier this week, and according to it the Hedonites are…. *searches through list*… sleeping in. Apparently they are sick in bed with a terrible case of old book-itis, and would prefer not to have to have their names added to anything, thankyouverymuch.
In reality, Slaanesh is in a tough spot right now. They are stuck with Hero-hammer being the best way to field their most effective units while dealing with a GHB that rewards armies with good troops. They want to kill their opponents, but if they do it too well they break their own summoning mechanic. They want to get their heroes stuck in, but on a good day Sigvald is still going to fold under the weight of a decent opponent (there is only so much a 3+ save and 4+ ward can do when you’re starting out with 6 wounds).
All that said, what this list seems to want is to place as many threats on the board in as many places as possible. Blissbarb archers aren’t going to stand up to dedicated fire, but are fast enough to place bodies where you need them, potentially stealing an objective right out from under their opponent. The Seekers, Hellstriders, and Centigors are also present to make use of those relatively fast movement speeds to tie up and harass their opponents. The heroes waver between support (Glutos) and damage (Sigvald), both of which can very effectively support the other.
I expect once the new GHB is released and adopted by more tournaments we will see drastically different list-building styles from Hedonites. Whether those modified lists will see top 3s remains to be seen.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter that took place in the China on 14th and 15 January. It involved 20 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: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADERS Engine of the Gods (285)* – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration – Mount Traits: Beastmaster – Prayers: Curse Celestant-Prime (325)* Lord Kroak (450)* Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spells: Hand of Glory
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Saurus units riding the crest of Seraphon power? Seraphon claiming number one with an Engine of the Gods and Kroak isn’t new. But Saurus Knights and Razordons in Thunder Lizard? It looks like Thunder Lizard was taken for double cosmic engine rolls and the Fusil of Conflagration. Thunder Lizard really boosts the power of an Engine and with Kroak can push out a lot of mortals. This is mostly a short range/melee army though, with the Engine’s 8” range working really well with the 9” range of curse. The Razordon’s bring 18” range (12D6 shots), but are most useful if the enemy gets close where they can both unleash hell and shoot at the end of the charge phase. Essentially, Seraphon Leadbelchers, you can’t leave them, but you can’t charge them.
The Saurus Knights are usually left at home, they don’t accept buffs as well as Skinks but this army is playing heavily into their Predatory-Fighter (+1 attack for Jaws attacks) and Scaly Skin (-1 damage). And they aren’t GVs. Combined with additional damage on the charge and the potential mortals on 6s, the double unit is pretty scary. A big part of the list, though, is the Celestant Prime – arguable if he is worth the cost in Seraphon, but it worked here. His guaranteed charge and damage profile is effective at removing key pieces like MawCrushas, Durthu, or Warsong Revenant. With Kroak shutting down spells it’s not hard to see why Sylvaneth struggled, the same for Skaven. Neither do well with Mortals. Damage reduction limits some of the impact of Ironjawz and the limited rend, but large number of attacks counters Nighthaunt. The army still has Seraphon’s ability to score while countering a lot of the unique abilities of his opponents army. It’s a really well thought out counter list.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Season: The Dwindling – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arch-Revenant (120)* – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing Treelord Ancient (360)* – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony
OTHER Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)* Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Vengeful Skullroot (60) 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Gladewyrm (50)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Nikola here has brought a fairly standard Gnarlroot magic build here, with the Treelord Ancient and Warsong Rev combo for putting down a set of trees early doors with the Ancient for Warsong to use Spellsinger to cast his nasty AoE through.
It’s backed up by a compliment of reinforced Sword ‘Noth – a less popular choice than scythes because of their lesser rend – but a more balanced one overall, I think, due to their potential for MW output against targets who scoff at even 3 rend (such as Nighthaunt for example).
Happily for me, an endless spell enjoyer, the list packs all three Sylvaneth specific ones, and why not? They allo have fantastic utility and get be got off nicely in Gnarlroot with the ‘3d6 pick best 2’ to cast and re-roll from The Dwindling. Not only are they some of the best looking faction specific spells but they really do give the army a lot of options – horrorghast effects, healing, charge bonuses and more – love to see it!
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Type: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy – Take what’s theirs
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Demonic speed
Varanguard (290)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Fellspear
BATTLELINE Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Splintered Fang (100)* The Unmade (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)*
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
OTHER Ogroid Theridons (190)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Great Axes
BATTALIONS Battle Regiment* Overlords of Chaos**
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Great to see a good run out with the new Slaves book! Although, less happy to see Spinedog – and do bear in mind that the new focus on foot heroes in the forthcoming season will likely mean a list such as this has to change in some big ways.
In the meantime though, it leans into the the obvious highlights of the new book – triple Varanguard in Khorne with lances for that sweet rend 3 charge in one unit, and two units of Ensorcelled Weapons for fast chaff/lower armour targets. With each unit able to fight twice, that’s potentially a lot of pressure coming at you early.
Andy also leans into a bevvy of tech cultists, which is a fantastic section of the new book. Splintered Fang for reliable MW output, The Unmade for running up and turning off Redeploy to help those Varanguard make their charges and not end up in no-man’s land, and double Corvus Cabal for deepstriking and scoring battle tactics. Note – in the new season we lose Barge – so one unit of Corvus for Desecrate is probably going to be the new jam.
It’s interesting that he’s packed in some Theridons – to be fair, they’re a cost effective if not at all durable counter-punch, so why not?
An interesting list that took down what I would imagine are some fairly green match ups, losing only to Nikola’s Sylvaneth, who are quickly proving to be a red matchup for the new chaos bois! Andy – be a hero and take 2nd place next time, without Spinedog! My commenting fingers are ready.
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
BATTLELINE Skryre Acolytes (75)* Skryre Acolytes (75)* Stormfiends (960)* – 3 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour
OTHER Warp-Grinder (65)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50) 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Skaven is one of those armies that I love to see pop up in these lists. Much like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
In this case, we get nearly half of the points of the list dumped into one 9-rat unit of Stormfiends with a weapon load-out that punishes at 24″, ruins days at 12″, and ruins lives within 3″. Combining their damage output with the additional wounds of Warpstone-laced Armor allows them to absorb the mortal wounds they will ultimately take when one of the two nearby Warlocks casts More-more-more Warp Power! Stormfiends absolutely love the ability to land those 9 Windlauncher shots at 3+/2+/-3/D3, 9D6 Ratling Cannons at 2+/2+/-1/1, and 12 Shock Gauntlets at 2+/2+/-1/2.
We also get to see two endless spells that will be standards for the new battletome. The bonuses to mobility brought into play by Lauchon and the Soulscream Bridge makes scoring first and second turn battle tactics easier, since it allows those foot heroes (who might normally have a hard time moving more than 9″ in a turn) to jump across the board to claim objectives. Thanquol’s casting bonus allows him to be a very expensive, but reliable taxi driver, with the ability to cast Skitterleap and one of the two endless spells in the same turn, throwing both of the Galletian champions wherever the they need to be.
We’ve probably only got a couple more weeks of stats to do for this Handbook before the next one gets released and the tournament scene starts in earnest once more.
The second part of this season has been sorter than the first, with a few of the factions still not meeting our requisite 20 players to have their stats published. Although like I said earlier, there’s still a couple more weeks….
Those factions that have not yet had 20 players:
Legion of the First Prince (5 Players)
Bonesplitterz (7 Players)
Big Waaagh! (10 Players)
Hedonites of Slaanesh (15 Players)
Ossiarch Bonereapers (18 Players)
Win Rates
There’s been a few big results for Beasts of Chaos players this week, this has seen their win rate increase from 59.26% up to 62.07%. This means the margin between the top and bottom factions has grown to 26.57% (62.07% – 35.50%).
As a result this has shown that perhaps the external balance hasn’t been as great in the second half of the season as the first:
Either way you look at this, it has definitely been Beasts of Chaos‘ Handbook!
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.
As always the entry army Stormcast Eternals, proves to be the most popular faction, leading Sylvaneth and a newly revitalised Ogor Mawtribes.
Players Achieving 5-0 Wins
Although Beasts of Chaos have the highest win rate, this has not translated into the number of 5-0 results. Ogor Mawtribes and Disciples of Tzeentch are joint top here, with 5 a piece.
Win Chance
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.
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 (At a Singles Event). The list is completed in date order (earliest first).
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
UK & IRELAND
EUROPE
OCEANIA
SCANDINAVIA
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.
Following on from Danny and Phil’s excellent chat about the new Slaves to Darkness Battletome, we thought it would be great to give you an option for a beginners army based on the new Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness.
Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness
This new boxed set priced at £85 through Games Workshop comes with 17 models in total to give you an (almost) complete beginners army. I say almost, the total points in this set amounts to 680 points.
Included in the box you have:
1x Chaos Lord (115 points)
10x Chaos Warriors (220 points)
5x Chaos Knights (230 points)
1x Gorebeast Chariot (115 points)
But we want a full 1,000 point army that we can start playing with, so to add to the above I’d possibly look at buying a Chaos Sorcerer Lord, a Darkoath Warqueen and a set of Darkoath Savagers.
What will it all cost?
Battletome: Slaves to Darkness £32.50
Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness £85
Darkoath Warqueen £21
Darkoath Savagers £35
That’s total of £173.50 at Games Workshop prices for everything you need to play at 1,000 points with Slaves to Darkness.
You can of course get these cheaper through your local retailers. Element Games in the UK offer between 15-25% off on these prices. Why not use our affiliate link below to start your army today?
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The List
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Host of the Everchosen
LEADERS Chaos Lord (115) – General – Mark of Nurgle – Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel – Command Trait: Death Dealer – Artefact: Hellfire Sword(Reaperblade) Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120) – Mark of Nurgle – Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Darkoath Warqueen (100)
BATTLELINE 10x Chaos Warriors (220) – Mark of Nurgle – Murderous Weapons – Retinue 5x Chaos Knights (230) – Mark of Nurgle – Cursed Flail – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon 10x Darkoath Savagers (100)
OTHER 1x Gorebeast Chariot (115) – Mark of Khorne – Lashing Whip & Chaos War-Flail
TOTAL POINTS: 1000/1000
This army is tough! and it has fast elements which can also pin units in place while you bring your Chaos Warriors and Darkoath Savagers to bear. We’ve gone for Host of the Everchosen as our subfaction, this will allow us to bring back slain models on 5+ instead of 6+ with our rally ability. This only applies to the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights, but these two units with the Mark of Nurgle are already going to be blighters to shift anyway, this will just make it even harder for our oppposition!
How it could play
Chaos Lord
Our general for this particular list. He’s tough and hits like a hammer. Giving him the Mark of Nurgle means the enemy have to subtract 1 from their wound rolls that target him when using melee weapons. It also gives him the ability to use the Command Ability: Bestow Contagion. This will allow our other Nurgle Marked units (Chaos Warriors and Knights) a chance to cause D3 mortal wounds to enemy units within 3″ on a 3+.
We’ve got Death Dealer as our Command Trait, and this will allow our General to fight for a second time in the fight phase once per battle. Admittedly it’s with the Strike-last effect, but even so, well worth having.
With Chaos Lords you’re also allowed to choose a retinue which you can pass wounds off to on a 3+ (the reasons for this shown in the Chaos Warriors section), for this I’ve chosen the Chaos Warriors, as really he should be sticking to them like glue throughout the game. The other benefit from being retinue is they can fight immediately after our Chaos Lord if they haven’t fought yet. Essentially giving you two fight activations for the price of one!
As an artefact, I’ve gone for Hellfire Sword, which will allow our Reaperblade to cause two mortal wounds for each hit roll of 6.
Giving him the Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel does mean that the damage output is slightly better than that of the Daemonbound Flail when you also take into account the mortal wounds caused by Hellfire Sword:
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Reaperblade
2
2
2
2
2
2
Daemonbound Steel
1
1
1
1
1
0
TOTAL
3
3
3
3
3
2
Daemonbound War-Flail
2
2
2
2
2
2
Average Damage after Saves
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Chaos Sorcerer Lord
This lovely fellow is a good buff to your forces. He’s a single cast and single unbind wizard which isn’t anything to write home about, but what he does provide is his spell Daemonic Power. With a casting value of 6 and a range of 18″ it should be fairly easy to cast each turn, and when you do you’ll be able to give ANY of your other units in this list +1 to hit and +1 to wound for their melee attacks. That’s nothing to be sniffed at!
As well as this he can give a 6+ ward to one of your other units in this list until the next hero phase. Hopefully you’re starting to see the tankiness of those Chaos Warriors now with their Mark of Nurgle (-1 to wound them) and a 5+ Ward Save against mortals and 6+ Ward against everything else.
Darkoath Warqueen
I absolutely love this model, which is mainly why I’ve chosen it (never discount rule of cool!). Like the Chaos Lord, this unit can allow the Darkoath Savagers to fight immediately after herself (as long as they haven’t already fought), another twofer!
She has an ability where if issuing the inspiring presence command while inside the enemy territory she can give it up to 2 Darkoath or Cultist units. We only have one for this list, but perhaps consider buying one of those awesome Warcry warbands when you look to expand to 2k?
Chaos Warriors
The first of our three battleline units. Keep these near your Chaos Lord so that they can benefit from the Retinue rule and fight immediately after the Chaos Lord in the fight phase.
With a 3+ save, a 5+ ward against mortals and a 6+ ward against everything else using the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Oracular Visions, AND the ability to have slain models return from the rally command on 5+, this unit is going to take A LOT of punishment before it goes away! In fact they would need an average of 72 damage from zero rend weapons to be allocated to them before saves, for the enemy to have a chance of destroying them.
By getting the Chaos Sorcerer Lord to cast Daemonic Power on them as well you’ll soon see their average damage output after saves is not to be ignored:
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Murderous Weapons
14
14
12
10
7
5
Murderous Weapons (Enemy Territory)*
21
21
18
14
11
7
*Chaos Warriors gain +1 attack while wholly within enemy territory
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Darkoath Savagers
Another unit I absolutely love. These guys have an added benefit of causing mortal wounds on hit rolls of 6 when in combat. This is the perfect unit to try and take objectives with, because if you manage to claim one previously held by the enemy then this unit will get a 5+ ward save until the end of the game. They won’t stand up to much punishment though, so if you’re going to commit them make sure you can win!
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Darkoath Weapons
8
7
4
4
1
1
Average Damage Output after Saves
Chaos Knights
Another tanky unit. They also benefit from the 5+ ward save against mortal wounds. We’re also giving them Mark of Nurgle (who is Mark anyway?) so the enemy is at -1 on their to wound rolls.
These guys are quick as well, we’ve given our Chaos Sorcerer Lord the spell Daemonic Speed. This will allow to roll 3D6 for their charge rolls when within 18″.
We’ve also chosen to give these chaps The Eroding Icon Ensorcelled Banner, this will worsen the rend of melee weapons used against them by 1, making them even harder to kill!
You’ll want these guys quickly claiming objectives and tying up units you want to hold in place ready for your Chaos Warriors to pummel.
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Cursed Land (Charging)
8
8
8
6
6
4
Cursed Lane*
4
4
3
3
2
1
Cursed Flail*
3
2
2
1
1
0
Trampling Hooves*
3
2
2
1
1
0
TOTAL*
10
8
7
5
4
1
Average Damage Output
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Gorebeast Chariot
Another flanker unit for our army. We’ve given this the Mark of Khorne which allows us to add 1 to the attacks of its melee weapons when it charges.
Don’t forget that at the end of the combat phase it can make a normal move even if still within 3″ of the enemy. If it does so, it can cross across models with wound characteristics of 4 or less as though it can fly. If you do so, pick a unit that this model passed over and roll a dice, on 3+ that enemy suffers D6 mortal wounds! You’ll probably do an average of 3 or 4 mortal wounds… And it only costs 115 points! Bargain!
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Lashing Whip
1
0
0
0
0
0
Chaos War-Flail
3
2
2
1
1
0
Crushing Fists
2
2
2
2
0
0
TOTAL
6
4
4
3
1
0
Average Damage Output
Where to go next?
Everything in this book looks cool and you certainly couldn’t go wrong by possibly buying a second Vanguard box! If not, have a look at the Varanguard and Chosen, both heavy hitting units if that’s what you like. There’s also a certain bloke named Archaon…
