This is the top three AoS lists for Silverstream Smackdown 2 that took place in New Zealand on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Heartwood
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Warsong Revenant (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below
Treelord Ancient (330)*
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Arch-Revenant (120)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox

UNITS
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*
3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
3 x Revenant Seekers (240)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1980/2000

This solid list from Lee Wilmot is almost a who’s who of Sylvaneth mainstays. The TLA and WSR combination allows aggression from turn 1, using the free tree placement to enable maximum value Warsong bombs followed by either use of the new realmspell Teeth of Gallet, or Dwellers below for better value on horde units like Squigs or massed cultists. This hero combo works with the strike and fading Kurnoth hunters – buffed by the Spiteswarm Hive – and the revenant seekers to ensure the Sylvaneth hammer is kept healthy and outputting maximum damage while the bows sit on a back objective and pick off wounds, or soften up targets, at artillery ranges. Tree revenants sneak off to pick up objectives and provide shooting protection for the warsong and archrevenant, little scamps that they are.

This lists’ real value is in how few truly poor matchups it has, it is a one drop, can alpha decently and loves the double turn, can score 5/5 Battle tactics consistently and really gives opponents few opportunities to interact with the list on their own terms. Even against lists which push the sylvaneth for board space early, like KotET and BoC the Sylvaneth units are often durable enough to weather the early storm and punch out, or alternatively simply relocate key pieces to safer locations and return to playing the objective game. Well done to Lee on his piloting – 5 games of sylvaneth is quite exhausting and mistakes are heavily punished – he’s done excellently to manage the tournament win with a 4-1-0!

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

LEADERS
Doombull (160)*
– General
– Command Trait: Bestial Cunning
– Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Great Bray-Shaman (95)*
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage

UNITS
10 x Ungors (80)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields
20 x Ungor Raiders (230)*
6 x Bullgors (390)*
– Pairs of Axes
10 x Ungor Raiders (115)*
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)*

BEHEMOTHS
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
– Allies

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1980/2000

Brett: With the new book Beasts haven’t set the world on fire but are providing consistent results even if a little back from their recent peak. Jimmy has gone with the Ungors and a Doombull which aren’t common picks but they have their reasons. The Ungors (and Ungor Raiders) are relatively cheap and meet battleline leaving enough points for an Incarnate. That’s important. With BoC’s herdstone increasing rend on turns 2 and 4 you don’t want to commit too early. Because BoC can ambush (deploy to reserve and bring them on in the first or second round) and fade into the shadows (teleport from within 9″ of the board edge to another location 9″ from the board edge and 9″ from enemy units) they can hide very well. But to do that you need something for your opponent to focus on – the Incarnate.

They need at least 2 rounds to do that and that means you can wait until you have at least -1 rend on everything to commit. The Tzaangors can still score a Battle Tactic first round (Desecrate seems likely) while your opponent tries to deal with the Incarnate. If they don’t then he can make their life hell pretty quickly. Still the list might be a little slow without the teleport. They have access to book tactics which are pretty competitive. The Doombull’s had a bit of a glow up, one of his most useful talents is a command that allows a unit to charge in the combat phase – avoiding unleash hell. He’s a Tunnel Master (teleport) and can use his trumpet to summon Ugors (or raiders) to the cause. The Bray Shaman is along to provide exploding 6s. If anything is alive to reach -3 rend from the Bullgors or Doombull (turn 4) pretty much nothing on the opponents army is going to survive.

Only drawing to Sylvaneth and otherwise winning all of his matches is a great effort. Sylvaneth with their fire and fade, mortal wounds and desire to make you come to them is a solid counter. Otherwise an unblemished run with a new books is a great effort.

Allegiance: Skaven
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

LEADERS
Verminlord Corruptor (350)*
– General
– Command Trait: Devious Adversary
– Artefact: Blade of Corruption
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Grey Seer (120)*
– Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy
Master Moulder (90)*
– Artefact: Rabid Crown
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

UNITS
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
– 1 x Standard Bearers
– 1 x Standard Bell Ringers
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade
– 1 x Standard Bearers
– 1 x Standard Bell Ringers
6 x Rat Ogors (420)
10 x Gutter Runners (200)**
10 x Gutter Runners (200)**

BEHEMOTHS
Hell Pit Abomination (210)
Hell Pit Abomination (210)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Galletian Sharpshooters

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 2000/2000

We’re honoured to have Skaven aficionado and all-around top bloke Kieren Coates join our team. Kieren is well known on the tournament circuit down under and has featured in past editions of our top three. Who better to talk about the ratmen than him?!

Kieren Coates: A classic mixed arms MSU list with the unique twist of no clan Skryre, the list features 6 independently operating threats able to choke up the board while dealing surprisingly large amounts of damage.

Opting against the 1 drop race, the list has no issues in being forced to go first with 6 rat ogres able to hop through a gnawhole with death frenzy, mystic shield, +1 to wound and +3 to charge, leaving it with an impressive 82% chance to land its charge with one reroll.

If youre able to piece through 36 wounds of pure rat meat, that will fight on death to trade back you may just be unlucky enough for the Master Moulder to roll a 3+ upon the units death to bring the whole pack back to life again for round 2

Even beyond the alpha rat ogres, there is still 20 gutter runners skirmishing with ranged mortals, 2 hell pits ready to clear out any hordes or MSU which are not able to piece through 14 wounds in one swing, one of which is likely to get a mutation for 16 wounds at a 4+ save. at only 210 points, it’s incredibly efficient, and when it dies for some unfortunate souls, it has a 1/3 chance to come back to life with D6 wounds ready to swing again.

If you do manage to hit through respawning, death frenzied rate ogres, skirmished gutter runners and horde clearing hell pits, you still have to deal with the big boss which is the verminlord corruptor with the blade of corruption, 2D6 + 2 attacks (with command trait), often hitting at 2’s, 2’s, -2 rend, 2 damage with 6’s to wound being a whopping rend 3 damage 6. Did I mention he has another horde clearing spell to back up the two hell pits?

Once youre through all of that the real humble MVP of skaven, 40 clanrats for 200 points holding the objectives still need to be dealt with, healing D3 clanrats per pack in every battleshock phase.

Overall it’s lots of melle power with chance to revive, horde clearing power and MSU skirmish combined that many lists cant manage to crack through – well done to Locky

Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin
– Enclave: Nautilar
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Sokatra, Leviadon Keeper (140)*
Isharann Tidecaster
– Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Allopleuron The Turtle Emperor (250)*
Akhelian King
– General
– Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury
– Bladed Polearm
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

UNITS
Turtle Trappers (170)*
10 x Namarti Reavers

BEHEMOTHS
Archelon the Ancient (460)*
Akhelian Leviadon
– Mount Trait: Ancient
– Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar)
Carbonemys the Cleaver (460)*
Akhelian Leviadon
– Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar)
Definitely also a Turtle (480)*
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
– Allies

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1990/2000

Monster mash hasn’t been the soup of the day for a couple seasons, so it’s nice to see a few heavies make their way back into the Idoneth’s menu. The turtles are going to be very heavy hitters, especially in Nautilar where they count as batteline and get a monstrous action increasing the rend on two of their weapon profiles to -3. Ancient is present to get some extra durability out of the first turtle, but both are there to absorb damage and dish it back out.

The third “turtle” is a krondspine. The addition of the Arcane tome means that the incarnate can be bonded to either the King or the Tidecaster, depending on what the match requires. The lack of druability on Idoneth’s heroes also opens up the option of getting the Incarnate as afar away from the friendly units as possible then just shrugging your shoulders when the bonded hero eventually dies.

Past there the list is self-explanatory. The King does King things. The Tidecaster casts some tides (Steed of, specifically). The reavers fill out the last battleline slot, and act as a decent harassing unit, with the ability to make good use of the turtles’ auras.

Final Tournament Placings