This is the top three AoS lists for the Battle in the Smokey Mountains that took place in Tennessee, USA, on the 27th and 28th of May. It involved 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Subfaction: Helon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Archmage Teclis (720)*
– General
Scinari Cathallar (120)*
– Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand
– Spells: Total Eclipse
– Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha

BATTLELINE
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)*
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Speed of Hysh
Hurakan Windchargers (140)*
– Standard Bearer
– Windspeaker Seneschal
Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– High Warden
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat

OTHER
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)*
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Solar Flare

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
1 x Rune of Petrification (60)

TERRAIN
1 x Shrine Luminor (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

As Jon and Josh both write for us on occasions and they faced each other in the last round of the competition, we thought it may be fun to have them do the write ups for each others list….

Joshua Bennett: Have you ever looked at a list and said to yourself whelp this is going to suck. That is the general feeling you get when you look across the table and see this list. If you haven’t played this list yet, don’t worry, I’m going to explain why stubbing my pinky toe in the middle of the night is more fun than playing against this.

First let’s talk about Helon. This is the very popular subfaction to take these days that allows a unit of your archers double shots if you’re within 6 of the unit you are shooting. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Except combined with speed of hysh, his units move double speed if needed to get within six and just start blasting.

This list is very balanced with the perfect screens (roo riders) that, while in combat, can pile away from you and lock you into combat for a while. Not to mention that their shots also double within six ignore wards and to very good chip damage.

Let’s not forget Teclis. This one man army god model just does what he wants. What’s a miscast? Teclis does not know what that means, as he just auto casts four spells on a 10. I don’t know about you readers. I have trouble rolling sixes to cast. He also knows all the spells in the book, which really makes him a very strong support hero.

Cathay, alongside teclis, adds yet another support, giving you the ability to shut down low bravery armies down for turns upon turns with her warscroll spell. She is also who you normally have in the tower to get you the sweet rerolls and plays to cast.

Sentinels do what sentinels do and shoot you from afar, with a little help from the plus one to cast from Teclis the power of hysh spell that allows them to do mortal wounds on fives and sixes cranks up the potential of dps to pick off your units and stay safely away from you.

This list is very good at controlling its opponent and not letting its opponents play with their toys. And in the hands of Jon Anderson well lets just say. Stubbing your pinky toe in the middle of the night is a walk in the park!

Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Pretenders
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Contorted Epitome (190)*
– General
– Command Traits: Strength of Godhood
– Artefacts: The Crown of Dark Secrets
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
1 x The Masque (140)*
1 x Sigvald (205)*

BATTLELINE
33 x Blissbarb Archers (450)*
22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)*
22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)*

OTHER
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)*
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Jon Anderson: Here today, I’m reviewing Josh Bennetts’ list that I had the pleasure of playing in the finals at the Smokey Mountain GT this past weekend.

I’m a big fan of this list. It plays similarly to a Namarti Reaver list I played in the latter part of last year. It’s deceptively hard to pilot in that you need to ensure the Seekers are able to distribute their toxin to increase the effectivity of the Archers so your threat assessment needs to be on point. Our match had a giant piece of Wildwood in the middle of the board, so we played a very cagey game. Which I believe favors the Castle.

The turn one depravity generator is the Masque, dropping her just outside of 3 and electing her to be the Euphoric Killer. I’m not usually a fan of taking first turn, but given this list is a one drop, you have almost total control over the turn 1 priority.

Josh would have beaten me, if not for an early misposition with sigvald, so I’m not expecting him to make that mistake twice. Next time we play, it’s gonna be a barn burner.

Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Oakenbrow
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
– Seasons of War: Everdusk

LEADERS
Spirit of Durthu (350)*
– General
– Command Traits: Gnarled Warrior
– Artefacts of Power: Greenwood Gladius
Arch-Revenant (120)*
Battlemage (100)*
Drycha Hamadreth (320)*
– Spells: Verdant Blessing
Treelord Ancient (330)**
– Artefacts of Power: The Vesperal Gem
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing

BATTLELINE
Treelord (230)*
Treelord (230)**
Treelord (230)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Awakened Wyldwood (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1950/2000

Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Lord Skreech Verminking (400)*
– General
Slynk Skittershank (220)*
Grey Seer (120)*
– Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm
– Spells: Skitterleap
– Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Thanquol (430)**
– 4 x Warpfire Projectors
– Spells: Skitterleap

BATTLELINE
Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
Gutter Runners (100)**

OTHER
Skittershank’s Clawpack (220)*
Gutter Runners (100)**
Gutter Runners (100)**
Gutter Runners (100)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Quicksilver Swords (60)
1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1960/2000

We’re lucky we have a fairly active discord now (closing in on 1.1k members), and it just so happened that Clay is a member! So, in his own words, here’s how his list works….

Clay Franchere: Gutter Runners and Slynk + Clawpack all deepstrike 9″ and 6″ away, respectively (but wholly within 6″ of any terrain piece) and shoot mortal wounds on 6’s. Slynk and his Clawpack are great GC assassins thanks to a small footprint, fight first, and mortals on 6’s in melee as well

I had a great day 1 going 3-0 with some difficult matchups, but day 2 against Josh’s Slaanesh marked the end with a close but hard fought game. It’s important that Gutter Runners have good target prioritization and I didn’t make the best use of them that game and a priority roll ended up closing out the game with a summoned Keeper of Secrets (hint, don’t give Slaanesh free Depravity)

I also played into my teammates’ Oakenbrow list, which I lost early on due to a fatal deployment error, making me lose Skreech turn 1 with a +5 to charge Durthu. Skaven lists are very fragile overall, so screening and understanding threat ranges on your opponents armies is more crucial than normal as you don’t quite have the ability to tank any wounds caused by mistakes

Overall, I’m a huge fan of this compared to some other lists I’ve run, and I will definitely be playing it again in the future.. but Doomwheels are calling my name

Final Tournament Placings