This is the top three AoS lists for the King Cheese GT that took place in the US on the 23rd and 24th of September. It involved 24 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament. Spoiler, Skaven didn’t win.
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: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Befouling Host
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS
Be’lakor (340)
The Glottkin (580)*
– Spells: Rancid Visitations
Horticulous Slimux (200)**
– General
BATTLELINE
Plaguebearers (360)*
– Plagueridden
– 3 x Icon Bearer
– 3 x Piper
Beasts of Nurgle (100)*
Beasts of Nurgle (100)*
Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
OTHER
Nurglings (100)*
TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000
Roland Rivera: It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Glottkin Nurgle list take top spot at a tournament. The units in this list are fresh off the back of receiving some points cuts, which have allowed it to pack in more bodies to great effect.
We’ll start with the 30-man blob of Plaguebearers, which are likely the Glottkin’s most common Blightkrieg partner. Because this list is in Befouling Host with a Daemon General and Horticulous Slimux, it likely racks up the contagion points needed to summon a Sloppity Bilepiper quickly, and that can combine with 30 PBs to form a wall that can anchor enemies in place and let you grind them to dust, or simply outscore them. It also has Horticulous Slimux and a cadre of Beasts of Nurgle to engage on multiple fronts and spread lots of mortal wounds and disease points around. The Glottkin themselves are a versatile presence, capable of providing damage, durability, a mobility boost, or spellcasting support as appropriate.
The controlling bent to this list is also bolstered by the presence of Be’lakor, which can put your opponent’s best unit on ice for an entire turn cycle, and some Nurglings provide a deepstriking annoyance that can help your contagion point generation. This list will likely be playing some long rounds, but there’s just something deeply satisfying about taking your opponent’s options away and watching them flail helplessly as your victory point lead grows to an insurmountable extent.
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Cabalists
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Hoarfrost, Spite-tongue Curse
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
1 x Chaos Lord (110)*
– General
– Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
– Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (240)**
– Spells: Daemonic Speed, Flaming Weapon
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
1 x Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (150)**
– Wings
– Daemonic Axe
– Spells: Binding Damnation
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown
BATTLELINE
10 x Chaos Knights (220)**
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
20 x Chaos Warriors (360)**
– Aspiring Champion
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Ensorcelled Halberd
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
9 x The Unmade (80)**
ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
OTHER
10 x Chaos Chosen (460)**
– Exalted Champion
– Icon Bearer
– Skull Drummer
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Chaos Warband
– Unified
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
Roland Rivera: In 2nd place, we have Christopher Johnson’s somewhat unusual Cabalists list. It eschews some of the classic staples of the subfaction (such as Varanguard), runs more Heroes than what we’re used to seeing in Slaves to Darkness lists, and forsakes mark versatility to feature Nurgle on all of its reinforced units. The combination of Nurgle Warriors and Nurgle Knights make for a very durable center, and while Nurgle Chosen are slow, they can still be quite potent offensively.
This list features some unusual Hero choices in the Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore and the much-maligned Daemon Prince. A Nurgle Prince with Wings has its uses, though, as he is a fast-moving, durable utility piece that can turn off Wards and make enemy units strike last. The Sorcerer Lord on Manticore also features a potent horde-thinning spell, which can combine with this list’s sheer bulk on objectives to give you the edge in scoring.
The list is rounded out by the usual suspects in a Chaos Lord as a durable General that can cast Blizzard, the mandatory Sorcerer for his potent combat buffs, and some Cultists to pressure objectives. All in all, it’s refreshing to see some nontraditional lists like this doing well, as it indicates that the recent Battlescroll changes have both improved Slaves to Darkness’ overall positioning as well as its internal balance.
Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Null Myriad
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (380)
Mortisan Ossifector (120)*
– Artefacts of Power: Gothizzar Cartouche
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard
Mortisan Soulreaper (110)*
– General
– Command Traits: Diversionary Tactics
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard
Katakros (500)**
BATTLELINE
Immortis Guard (220)**
Immortis Guard (220)**
Kavalos Deathriders (190)**
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
BEHEMOTH
Gothizzar Harvester (160)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (60)
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Walter Brock: Hello. We will be looking at my list that went 4-1. With the balance changes to OBR, some things had to change with the points increases and change to Immortis/Stalker healing.
Starting off, we have Null Myriad. It continues to be as powerful as before, blocking powerful spells and letting Bonereapers continue their march forwards. It is important to note that Katakros does not benefit from Null Myriad since he has the Mortis Praetorians keyword.
Overshadow is a different choice from the usual spellcasting savant. We will go more into this later, but where spellcasting savant is a “protect the King” kind of play style. Overshadow lets you be a bit more aggressive with your pieces since you won’t need to be protecting the general all the time.
Going into the units. We start off with the Power Duo of Katakros and Arkhan. We have seen this combination many times before and probably still will. They complement each other very well and keep the rest of the list running at maximum efficiency. From Katakros’s Massive +1 to hit and save aura. Free commands one per turn. A body that hits incredibly hard when near enemy heroes. To Arkhan Having three casts and unbinds with +2 for each. It is an incredibly tough model that is very fast. They each cover each other weaknesses and improve each other strengths. But I could talk about these two all day if allowed, so we are going to move on.
The Ossifector here is the General. Taking diversionary tactics. A powerful 12-inch aura of -3 to charge. Diversionary tactics can make things very difficult for an opponent. Turning 3-inch charges into 6-inch charges alone can make units fail charges that were otherwise guaranteed. For the artifact, the Ossifector has the Cartouche. A 9-inch aura of +1 to wound for friendly Bonereaper unit wholly within range. This will make most units in the Army hit and wound on 2s when combined with Katakros’s Aura. Lastly is blizzard. With the balance update making it so units can not bodyguard the mortal wounds from rolling 1s on the blizzard rolls. Spell casting Savant became less appealing. No one wants to cast Blizzard and then watch the Grandstrat just go poof.
The Reaper was mostly chosen because it was the cheapest option, but it proved to be a very affective piece. Firstly, we took blizzard on the little guy. Two blizzards in the list might seem like overkill, but there’s a purpose. If the first model dies to casting blizzard. We have a second to fall back on. It also hits hard. You can easily get it up to 5 attacks, hitting and wounding on 2s with Katakros and the Ossifector and rend 3 with bludgeon.
Two units of three Immortis as opposed to one large unit of six. With the healing update it became harder to revive several Immortis guard. Splitting the units up allows for potentially reviving more Immortis. These are mostly delegated to bodyguard duty and letting the Heros do most of the work, but they can hit hard when called upon.
A single unit of Deathriders. Fast, can screen, and gives access to an easy battle tactic. These are like a Swiss army knife of units. They have an application for any situation.
The Harvester is the odd one out. No Mortek for it to bring back in the list. It has two purposes here. First is it hits REALLY hard. With bludgeon, The Ossifector and Drain Vitality it can get to an effective Rend 5. Add in hitting and wounding on 2s and Exploding 5s to hit (Empower Nadirite Weapons). Theres not much that can survive the onslaught from this thing. Its also a Monster so it can do all those monstrous actions for added utility. The battle tactic it opens becomes possible very possible once you take all the buffs into account. The second reason we take this. Is to heal extra damage left over on units. The healing Abilities from Katakros and Arkhan can only bring back models when the rest of the unit is at full health. The Harvester helps heal the Deathriders and Immortis models back to full health.
The Shrieker. Honestly in my opinion. Almost every OBR list should use this thing if possible. There are a lot of 5+ wards in the game currently. Reducing a 5+ to a 6+ helps a lot at getting the high-quality attacks Bonereapers have get through. Turning off Inspiring presence and rally can change some matchups drastically.
The Gravetide. This has one purpose and one purpose only. Kill hordes. When combined with the Shrieker this endless spell can be devastating. Rolling over Horde units and killing large chunks of them, while the Shrieker stops Inspiring Presence and make even more flee.
Most of This list fits inside a battle regiment except for Arkhan and the two small foot heros.
The foot Heros sit inside of the Acolytes detachment from the Current GHB. Helping to cast important key spells. Or help stop key spells the opponent wants to get off.
All of this ends up with four separate drops.
Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Army Subfaction: Heartwood
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Seasons of War: The Dwindling
LEADER
1 x Warsong Revenant (300)
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
1 x Treelord Ancient (330)
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing
1 x Spirit of Durthu (350)
– Artefacts: Greenwood Gladius
BATTLELINE
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (220)
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)
BEHEMOTH
1 x Treelord (230)
ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
Danny Wadeson: There’s a sense that Sylvaneth are kinda ‘figured out’ at this point – and y’know, is that such a bad thing? In the words of Radiohead, ‘no alarms and no surprises please’. But what we have here is actually a nice balance that you don’t usually see of two big hero trees and a normal Treelord – who are perennially useful for their anti-pile in tech – and a good solid choice of battleline.
Tree-revs were always good for their teleporty shenanigans and their stonks have only gone up this season due to the battle tactic ‘surround and destroy’. The fact it requires you to pick units that are already on the board makes them perfect for it, given they can then zoom off to a board edge. The following turn they’ll also contribute nicely to ‘intimidate the invaders’. Meanwhile, you have good ol’ Durthu and 6 swords tree-pathing around with the help of Spellswarm Hive putting the pressure on. It’s just a solid, compact and elite list that scores well.
It beat out some decent, tanky, and tricksy opponents, which says a lot about the tools of the list. It’s good to see the tree-peeps hanging on in there this season without any appalling jank.
Final Tournament Placings
This event used Best Coast Pairings as its TO program.
