Top Three AoS Lists for the Bay Area Open 2024 GT

This is the top three AoS lists for the Bay Area Open 2024 GT that took place in the US on the 25th and 26th of January. It saw 24 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Massive thank you to Tarul who both ran the event and provided Woehammer with the comments from the players!

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Army Subfaction: Bloodlords
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)*
– Artefacts: Halo of Blood
– Prayers: Bronzed Flesh
1 x Slaughterpriest (120)*
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Prayers: Unholy Flames
– Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
1 x Bloodsecrator (130)*
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (350)**
– General
– Command Traits: Firebrand
– Artefacts: Mark of the Bloodreaper
– Prayers: Killer Instinct

BATTLELINE
30 x Bloodletters (180)**
– Bloodreaper
– 3 x Icon Bearer
– 3 x Hornblower
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
10 x Bloodreavers (90)**
– Blood Chieftain
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (90)**
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Blood Chieftain
– Reaver Blades

ARTILLERY
1 x Skull Cannon (130)

INVOCATION
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (60)
1 x Wrath-Axe (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Skull Altar (0)

OTHER
5 x Wrathmongers (150)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Congratulations to Thomas for winning the tournament with 4 wins and a draw! Thomas drew with 2nd place – Tad Baten – in his 4th game, but narrowly edged out the tournament win based on Margin of Victory differential. After the tournament, Thomas gave me an in-depth write-up on his list:

“My main goal was to get a single squad of blood letters to do an unstoppable tide of mortal wounds in theory. My subfaction – Bloodlords – lets bloodletters do mortals on a hit roll of 5+ (as opposed to native 6+) when they charge. When buffed with the Wrathmongers (+1 attack to units wholly within 8”) and the Bloodsecrator (once per game +1 to attacks boardwide), they potentially throw 120 dice, averaging 40 mortal wounds if all models get into combat. Did it happen? Hell no! Real life is way too cumbersome for that to ever happen. Did I roll a bunch of dice and do a ton of damage? Absolutely!

The key strengths of the list are the 30 bloodletters and the bloodthirster of unfettered fury. 30 bloodletters throw a ridiculous number of dice unbuffed and buffed, are hard to chunk through (60 wounds), and can resurrect to keep them fighting longer after they should be gone (rally + Herald on Bloodthrone’s prayer recovering D6 Bloodletters). Meanwhile, the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury hands out a 3D6 charge and provides a hero-phase move (Killer Instinct) through his prayer (Firebrand command trait turns him into a priest) to get the bloodletters exactly where they need to go. Once the bloodletters are done with his buffs and enemy debuffs (-1 to hit), the bloodthirster can use his prayer to cap backline objectives, pick off key targets, or stay within debuff ranges.

The key to success with Khorne is to use their insane reactions- murderlust (D6” hero phase movement) and Brass Skull Meteor (throw 8 dice – 5+ does a MW, or 3+ if the unit has 10+ models or a wounds characteristic of 10+).

The unsung heroes of the list go to the smaller units. Bloodreavers and flesh hounds are excellent chaff, capping points with Khorne’s inbuilt movement and guaranteeing easy Turn 1 surround and destroys / objective grabs with killer instinct. Meanwhile, the skull cannon at worst forces out a CP for All out Defence, but in best case clears out a screen for bloodletters to charge a juicy backline unit (thanks to the Bloodthirster’s 3D6 charge). And of course, don’t forget Khorne’s powerful invocations (hexgorger skulls and wrath axes), thrown by the slaughterpriest from the Bloodthrone to harass wizards (hexgorger skulls) and units (wrath axes) alike!

Shoutout to everyone who played at the BAO this year. Every game that I played this weekend was a great time, and I look forward to playing everyone again once 4th ed drops!”

Army Faction: Nighthaunt
– Army Subfaction: Quicksilver Dead(no wards vs harridans)
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Guardian of Souls (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
– Chill Blade
– Artefacts: Midnight Tome(auto cast endless spell OPG)
– Spells: Seal of Shyish
1 x Krulghast Cruciator (160)**
1 x Spirit Torment (120)*
1 x Kurdoss Valentian (190)**
1 x Dreadblade Harrow (110)**

BATTLELINE
20 x Chainrasps (100)*
– Dreadwarden
20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (150)*
– Slasher Crone
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (150)*
– Slasher Crone
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (150)**
– Slasher Crone
5 x Craventhrone Guard (80)**
– Craven Huntmaster
– Spectral Standard Bearer
5 x Craventhrone Guard (80)**
– Craven Huntmaster
– Spectral Standard Bearer

BEHEMOTH
1 x Black Coach (260)**
– Reaper Scythe

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Tad pulled an impressive 2nd place with his Nighthaunt list, also going 4-0-1 (W-L-D)!

Quicksilver Dead gives his 40 Dreadscythe Harridans the ability to ignore wards, allowing them to deal out a devastating amount of damage (41 attacks per 10 harridans, hitting on 3+/3+/0/1 if the enemy unit is damaged or missing a model, and of course hitting with extra rend if Nighthaunt gets those juicy unmodified 9+ charges). To help the initial chip for his harridans, he uses his MSU unit of craventhrone guard (affectionately called crossboos), gravetide, and even the Black Coach’s inbuilt 3D3 nuke/charge mortals. Like most death armies, his list is quite tanky – Kruleghast provides a tasty -1 to damage debuff aura within 12”, Nighthaunt’s passive gives ethereal (unmodifiable saves), while the spirit torment and the guardian of souls provide resurrection to the list (bringing back 3 ghosts per turn and D6 ghosts if their warscroll spell is cast, respectively).

After the tournament, I asked Tad what made his list special- here are his thoughts:

“The army is built to do battle tactics and score well on primary. The artefact midnight tome scores magical dominance, the coach and harrow easily secure the surround and destroy, and the inclusion of the Black Coach provides an easy Nighthaunt battle tactic as well. Now, I just have to do 2 of the following – bait and trap, led into the maelstrom, or intimidate the invaders- to easily score 5 battle tactics every game.

Killing is not necessarily the primary focus of the list, which does have the downside of the grand strategy (Overshadow requires for all enemy battleline to be killed), which can make certain matchups more difficult to make up the point differential.

The reach buff of harridans (2” now!) and their ignore ward with buckets of dice is very flexible. People struggle to math-hammer vs nighthaunt, making target priority and splitting attacks a fun mini game forcing opponents into bad decisions.

With regards to unit selection, the crossboos are cheap screens that proc damage to trigger the harridan’s +1/+1 bloodlust and power up the coach (5 models dying or fleeing gives it a 4++ ward). Coach’s impact hits further help proc harridans’ bonus and is an insane anvil when powered up to an unmodifiable 4+ save and 4++ ward as many of my opponents saw.”

Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts
– Army Subfaction: Gristlegore
– Grand Strategy: Expand the Kingdom
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Ushoran (460)
– Spells: Deranged Transformation
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (420)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of the Menagerie
– Artefacts: The Grim Garland
– Mount Traits: Venerated Zombie Dragon
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King (120)*
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard

BATTLELINE
20 x Crypt Ghouls (160)*
20 x Crypt Ghouls (160)*
1 x Royal Zombie Dragon (240)*
1 x Royal Zombie Dragon (240)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)

TERRAIN
1 x Charnel Throne (0)

OTHER
3 x Morbheg Knights (150)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Rounding out our top 3 is Michael Burch, rocking his Flesh-eater Courts Gristlegore list for an impressive 4 victories and only 1 defeat to the tournament winner, Thomas.

Gristlegore is FEC’s monster mash subfaction, making Zombie Dragons battleline. Zombie Dragons are fearsome threats, having a strong melee profile, inbuilt deepstrike, and anti-inspiration (i.e. forced battleshock tests in the battleshock phase within 3”). Most importantly, the Abhorrent Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon’s command trait – Master of the Menagerie – lets any FEC abhorrent revive a ZD at half-HP (once per Zombie Dragon) by spending 6 noble deeds (FEC heroes get 1 noble deed per prayer/spell cast or 1 damage allocated to an enemy unit by melee attacks). Since Usharon and the AGKoZD both fight and cast spells, you better be ready for the dragons to make a surprise secondary appearance. Coupled with the Defenders of the Realm delusion – +1 to save for FEC units contesting objectives they control – Zombie Dragons become surprisingly fast hanvils and a massive headache for their opponents.

Here are Michael’s thoughts on the list:

“Being a monster-focused list, the GKoZD is the closest thing to a lynchpin. His mount trait (+1 to the hit of monsters, both shooting and melee), command trait (revive monsters with FEC’s summon loyal guard battle trait) and the Grim Garland artefact (-2 to the bravery of units within 9”, stacking with Usharon’s -1 to bravery and the bloodcurling shriek monstrous action for ANOTHER -2 to bravery) synergize really well with the list. FEC dragons have some of the best shooting – D6 attacks of 2/3/1/3 or 3/3/1/3 (depending on the mount trait buff) make dragons not only deadly in combat but also a very dangerous unit at range as well. Their deepstrike and 14” movement opens a lot of options to outflank my opponents too.

We can’t forget Usharon either. Being able to pick a secondary delusion really balances the list, allowing me to switch between +1 to wound vs monsters for monster matchups (Sons of Behemat) or simply allowing me to get +1 to run and charge to increase my threat range. Mix together his combat ability to make units fight last coupled with GKoZD’s -1 to bravery and the dragons turning off the Inspiring Presence command (auto-pass battleshock) makes even bravery 10 units start to shake in their boots when the bravery check is needed!

Ghouls fill in what the list needs – a screen and objective holders so that my monsters can do what they do best – fight and harass.

Morbheg knights are handy flex units with the ability to turn off unleash hell and also have fast movement (12”) to play a key role in accomplishing battle tactics and objective grabbing.

Lastly, the ghoul king on foot had some fun tech. You could use his inbuilt hero phase 3D6 charge spell to lock down opponents that would otherwise redeploy or unleash hell. Worst comes to worst, he’s always a potent Blizzard Wizard¹”

¹@Michael: I just learned that apparently you can’t cast Blizzard if you moved earlier in the phase

Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Army Subfaction: Dreadwood
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
– Seasons of War: The Reaping

LEADER
1 x Branchwych (100)*
– Spells: Hoarfrost, Verdant Blessing
1 x Branchwych (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Artefacts: The Vesperal Gem
– Spells: Verdurous Harmony, Verdant Blessing
1 x Belthanos (360)**

BATTLELINE
15 x Spite-Revenants (80)**
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**

BEHEMOTH
1 x Treelord (230)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Awakened Wyldwood (0)

OTHER
3 x Spiterider Lancers (180)
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (210)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)