A new edition calls for new stats, we’ve incorporated player Elo ratings into our stats, so you can now see what affect the elite players have on those pesky win rates.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, Stats and Ladders and Ecksen. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
We’ve only included factions so far that have had at 20 players represent them at GT or GT+ events.
To date our database (which you can download at the end of this article), includes 1,228 matches for GT and GT+ events.
Tournaments Included
Age of Ropecon 2024
Age of Sigmar 4 Bootcamp 1
Age of Sigmar Episode 4: Greytide
Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament: Theatre of War
Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament: US Open Tacoma (GT+)
Age of Sigmar Grimnir’s Vengeance 2024
Age of Sigmar: Quoth the Skaven
Age of Sigmar: Throne of Skulls
Crossroads Carnage 2024
Guts & Glory 2024
Justice Series World Championship Qualifier
LSO Outlaw GT 2024
Pizza Brawl 4.0 – Summer Edition 2024
Southern Fried Sigmar GT
Thunderstrike GT II
Vantastic GT
GT Win Rates
Nighthaunt are very strong right out of the gate with a 67% win rate (falling 1% from last week). However, they’re player base is perhaps a little stronger when compared to the other factions such as Skaven and Stormcast (You can see this analysis in the next segment).
Likewise with Lumineth Realm-Lords and Soulblight Gravelords, a few 500+ Elo (including two 700+ rated for Lumineth) rated players are using this faction at tournaments in 4th, which would perhaps explain their inflated win rate.
Perhaps a little worrying in the bottom ranked factions is Flesh-eater Courts who have generally a higher average of Elo for the players using them, yet a poor win rate at 42%. The same can be said for Khorne as well.
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Player Elo Rating)
I’ve cross-referenced the players that have taken part in GT’s with our Elo Rating we have for that player at the beginning of that tournament.
The purpose of this is to start to get an idea of which factions the high rated players are favouring. If a faction has both a high win rate and a large number of high rated players, this could show their affect on that factions win rate.
Skaven‘s player base is made up mostly of players ranked 499 or less with only 3 players rated at 500+. This would go someway to explaining their lower win rate.
A good example here, would be to cross examine the player Elo breakdown for Soulblight Gravelords with their Win Rate. Soulblight Gravelords have a win rate of 60%, however 10 players of the 23 that played them at events have an Elo rating of 500+
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Number of Wins)
The above chart breaks down the faction popularity by the number of wins each player achieved at GT’s or GT+’s.
Interestingly, we talked earlier about how Skaven has mostly a lower rated player base, with 3 players rated 500+, have a look at the above and notice how many players managed 4 wins…
Positive Player Results
The below chart shows how many players as a % finished a GT or GT+ with a positive result (more wins than loss’s).
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The dirty tricks, guerilla style tactics, and absolute Kunnin’ of the Kruleboyz has been captured in this faction pack. These Morky Orruks are chock full of devious tools you can use to force your opponent to play the game on your terms. They sport bad saves, Crit (Mortal), debuffs, and nasty nasty tricks.
Battle Traits
The Kruleboyz employ their Dirty Tricks, a suite of Once per Turn (Army) abilities that allow them to manipulate the battlefield to their plans. They get progressively less reliable the more you use them per battle round, so choose carefully. They include giving an infantry unit Crits on 5s (Venom-Encrusted Weapons), teleporting an infantry unit to a terrain piece (Sneaky Sneakin’), shutting off a unit’s +1 damage on the charge (Lethal Surprise), and making a unit fight last (Noisy Racket). Every single one of these tricks can be game warping. Your opponent cannot reliably call battle tactics when they cannot predict where you will be or if you’re going to debuff and stab them before they get to fight you in combat. That lack of certainty makes the game so much more difficult for your opponent, and so much more fun for you. What we lack in durability, we make up for it in being able to hurt them before they hurt us, or just avoiding the fights all together.
Battle Formations
While wholly within 3” of terrain, the Kruleboy Klaw will make your units invisible to enemies outside of 12”. Your mileage may vary based on how your terrain looks on the table. If there is plenty of area terrain, you will be absolutely feasting with a terrifying anti-shooting formation. The Middul Finga will give 3 of your Boltboy or Beast-skewer units an additional 3” range to shoot in your turn. That may not seem like a lot at first, but the difference in spacing between your Boltboyz shooting 12” vs 15” makes the world of difference on the battlefield. After getting shot, a 5” move enemy will have a 10” charge towards you vs a 7” charge. We have a number of tricks to prevent the enemy from getting to us, this is just one more. Meanest Beasts will give all your companions Crit (2 Hits). If you like Birds, Lizards, and Troggs, enjoy it! Lastly, my honest favorite is Light Finga. This allows you to use the Sneaky Sneakin’ dirty trick twice per turn! The possibilities for trickery here are endless. You can’t kill what you can’t catch.
Heroic Traits
Egomaniak gives your Hero a 4+ pass off to infantry within 3”. If you have a buff piece Sludgeraker that you really want to keep safe, Egomaniak can help. Backstabba allows you to inflict mortal damage at the end of any turn based on how many of your units are in combat with a single enemy unit. It is quite thematic. It is both not particularly flashy as well as quite niche. However, there is a case for it if you want to run many small units. Slippery Skumbag gives the Hero the chance to retreat from combat on a 3+ before the fighting starts. Again, you can’t kill what you can’t catch. Slap this on a 12” flying Vulcha and watch him go.
Artefacts of Power
Eye-Biter Ash gives an enemy -1 to hit and wound for a single turn once per game. No thank you. Mork’s Eye Pebble gives you a 5+ ward aura for an entire turn as a reaction to an enemy declaring an attack. Only once per battle, but that is quite the boost in durability. The Swamp Staff will give your Swampcalla +1 power level. This makes a Swampcalla a 2 cast wizard on +1 to cast which you will absolutely find value in. If you give it to a non-wizard Hero it just gives them an unbind. Again, no thank you.
Spell Lore
Da Black Pit is going to be a horde breaker on 6s which is just fine. Mork’s Kunnin is +1 to save until your next turn. No wonder we lost Mystic Shield, the Kruleboyz TOOK IT! (Right on theme – Peter) And we will happily keep what durability we can find. Choking Mists is a -1 attacks debuff, which is quite nice. The range of wholly within 18” can be limiting, but it’s a nasty debuff nonetheless. The spells cast on 5, 6, and 7 respectively which is very doable with our Swampcalla’s innate +1 to cast.
Heroes
Gobsprakk, the Anti-Wizard wizard himself. 14 Health on a 5+ 6++ make him quite squishy. His weapons sport Anti-Wizard (+1 Rend) which makes him a funny little mage hunter. The damage he does is not why you bring him, though. He is quite fast, inflicts D3 damage on unbinds (D6 on an unbind of 10+), and has a once per game 3d6 unbind. At power level 2 with no innate bonuses, he is a worse caster than a Swampcalla Shaman with the Swamp Staff. He does however come with a spell that can inflict mortals on high health targets. Gobby absolutely has a place in your lists if you want the tasty Anti-Wizard tech.
The Swampcalla Shaman can fit comfortably in any list. His Pot-Grot token is what gives him that innate +1 to cast. Slap an extra power level on him with the Swamp Staff and he will sling spells left and right. But if he casts a 4 or less on the dice, the Pot-Grot dies and he loses his bonus to cast. If you’re like me, get that out of the way Turn 1 so you’re not disappointed later. His Foul Elixir ability allows you to give an infantry unit +1 to save, but it only lasts until the end of the turn. If you’re up against a lot of fight lasts or need to send in more than one unit, given gone of them a bit of a durability boost on a 3+ is really nice.
The Killabosses come in 3 variants all of which serve very different purposes. The Killabos on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha sits at 14 health on a 4+. He may not be the tankiest, but the opponent has to commit a fair bit to knock him down. Flying 12” makes him the perfect candidate for Slippery Skumbag, making him and absolute nuisance on the flanks. He makes redeploys for Gutrippaz automatically a 4, which is a nice sprinkle of reliability. And he has charge impact hits, doing more mortal damage with higher charge rolls. He himself does not do a boatload of damage, but he definitely does enough to make the edge of the board he controls a difficult path to tread.
The Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof is a bit bulky at 10 health on a 3+. He buffs infantry with +1 to hit while taking objectives you don’t control, and adding 3 to the control score of a unit. His tankiness and control buffs makes him a good little squad leader for objective snagging.
The Killaboss with Stabgrot will give +1 to wound to infantry when they receive All-out Attack. +1 to wound is a rare buff to come by and it does a good job at boosting up those damage numbers. He can also get a 5+ ward once per game to survive the combat phase, but he is a little buff piece that you should be keeping nice and safe anyways.
The Murknob with his Belcha-Banna is going to give a 6+ ward to all the Kruleboyz wholly within 12. A decent buff. He is also control score 5 which is not nothing.
The Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast is a very interesting piece. He is, unfortunately, a bit pillowfisted in combat. His output is not where he shines. He has his Sludgeraker Venom ability to give a non-Hero unit with a weapon that has Crit (Mortal) +1 damage. That is an immense spike in damage for your Gutrippaz or Monsta-killaz. It is not limited to once per phase so you can have multiple sludges buffing different units. It is, however, on a 2+. I have never seen more 1s rolled in critical situations than for abilities like this. Regardless, it is still a very potent buff. He can also hand out -1 to wound at the end of the turn for an enemy that he hurt but did not slay.
Swampboss Skumdrekk is simply worse than the Sludgeraker. He does not get the Sluderaker Venom ability, but instead can give a Hobgrot unit Crit (Mortal) on their melee weapons. He also picks a target and gives all your Hobgrots +1 to wound against that target. The hobgrots are simply not strong enough to warrant an entire build around them using Skumdrekk, but the list is certainly funny.
The Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth is your resident can opener. He can take damage at the start of combat to get extra Trogg attacks which are rend 2 damage 3! He heals every turn to stay topped off and has a rampage to squish an infantry model. This monster is going to be the damage piece that does not rely on Crit (Mortal).
Units
The Gutrippaz are going to be your most wound dense unit. Don’t let the 5+ save scare you as we have 2 ways to buff that, which is more than most armies. On a 3+, they are going to be -1 to be hit by any non-Hero units that target them. Their Crit (Mortal) are going to help push damage forward, and skyrocket with Sluderaker Buff.
The Monsta-Killaz sport Rend 1 and Anti-Monster (+1 rend) in addition to their Crit (Mortal). They have lots of Anti-Monstertech. They can make a monster fight last and they can shut off Monster’s rampages. They don’t get the -1 to be hit for defensiveness, but they are slightly hittier than Gutrippaz.
The Man-Skewer Boltboyz are your primary shooting output and they do a pretty good job of it. Their missile weapons have Crit (Auto-wound) and you have two options when shooting. An 18” profile with rend 2 or a 12” profile with an extra shot at rend 1. Both are damage 2 so quite a bit of damage will come out from these boyz at decent range, not to mention an innate +1 to hit if they stand still and have not been set up.
The Beast-skewer Killbow will be your premier monster silver bullet. It is 2 shots at rend 2 damage D6, Anti-Monster (Rend +1) and Crit (Auto-Wound). Any opponent running monsters will want to steer clear of this things 24” range. It rocks the same ability of +1 to hit if it stood still, but also makes the damage characteristic 6 against monsters (only for a single one of your killbows). 2 shots at rend 3 damage 6 will make any monster quake in their boots, and that is a valuable tool to have.
Hobgrot Slittaz have an 8” range shooting attack and a cheeky retreat out of combat at the end of the turn. They serve as roadblocks and that is about it.
Marshcrawla Sloggoth will hand out an aura of run and charge to your infantry units. They are all movement 5 so this can help them go screaming up the board.
Final Thoughts
I think that this Faction Pack really nails the essence of Kruleboyz. They are Kunnin’ and they fight unfairly. You force your opponent to fight unfavorable battles on your terms and prevent them from making any choices without second guessing themselves. Your dirty tricks are just that, dirty. Kunnin’, but brutal, these Morky Orruks are sure to be a force to reckon with.
The Ironjawz sport high damage and some limited movement shenanigans in their faction pack. These Gorky Orruks are here for a proper scrap, and they have the tools to bring it. They have access to some solid offensive buffs that send their damage even higher, but are quite vulnerable to debuffs as most of the damaging units are going to be hitting on 4+s. .
Battle Traits
Getting to use Mighty Destroyers to move in any hero phase (into combat if we so choose) allows us to be quite tricky with positioning. Locking down enemy cavalry that need their charge bonuses is a big boost to our defenses. The WAAAGH is the classic Orruky pedal to the metal big red button that can help crack through defensive buffs and debuffs once per game.
Battle Formations
The pigs getting bonus movement from ‘Ere we Come! feels a bit like a hat on a hat, given how fast the pigs already are. They would probably benefit from this as much as the others. The cascading +1 to hit for destroying units in Smashin’ and Bashin’ is really nice, particularly with how precious command points are. A good number of our units sport the durability to take a hit and fight back once they’ve received that benefit. If you’re a gambler, getting +1 attacks on an 8+ charge makes Ironjawz Brawl an absolute thrill ride. It is unmodified though, so no help from the WAAAGH makes this a bit unreliable, albeit very fun. Hordes of Brutes and Ardboys with 3+ saves getting 6+ wards in Weirdfist is a small boost in durability, but your Warchanters and Weirdnobs will have to stay quite close by to keep it up. This feels like a stand on circles formation rather than a run forward and smash one.
Brutal Warlords Heroic Traits
Getting impact hits from Hulking Brute is pretty underwhelming. A +1 to charge aura from Mega Bossy is quite nice, assuming you’re fielding the likes of a Megaboss who wants to be doing the charging. That aura coming off of the Maw-Krusha base will cover quite a bit of ground. The real winner feels like An’ Eye for da Fight. Consistent 4s on redeploys mean so much for denying tactics, denying charges, stealing objectives, and so on. That reliability is a valuable tool.
Da Boss’s Hoard Artefacts of Power
+10 Control score from Trophy of Skulls is really amusing and will help a more elite Ironjawz army steal points off of swarms. The 6+ ward from Armour of Gork is a bit underwhelming, but a Maw-Krusha with 18 health on a 3+6++ definitely has a place. The Amberbone Whetstone for a bit of extra rend for a Megaboss feels alright, as the poor boys are sitting at a pillowfisted rend 1 base.
Spell Lore
The spells are all cast on 6s and 7s, making them quite doable with our lack of bonuses. Bash ‘em Ladz as our unlimited spell for Crit (2 Hits) makes our volume of attacks even MORE volume, which I do love. Pair it with +1 damage and you’re off to the races. Mighty Headbutt isn’t winning any awards, but if you ever find yourself needing to kill 1 or 2 health worth of stuff that is tying you up, it will be there for you. Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork is here to whisk us away relatively reliably. The new redeploy has made teleport charges a bit more difficult, so just teleport such that you have more than 1 option for aggression and you will be a-okay.
Prayer Lore
The Warchanter beats all happen on a prayer of 4+ with a bonus on an 8+. The Killabeat is our ever sought after +1 damage, affecting 2 units with the bonus. It does, however, only last until the end of the turn, so we will have to be quite deliberate with its use (a cheeky magical intervention perhaps). The Fixin’ Beat is a D6 heal, D3+3 with the bonus. It’s not bad for keeping our heroes topped off. The Get ‘Em Beat is +1 to charge, with an extra charge die on the bonus. This one feels like it’s asking to be saved up for.
Heroes
The Big Boy himself, Gordrakk, is unfortunately lacking in some areas. Rend 1 across the board hurts. He gets Anti-Hero (+1 Rend) and Anti-Monster (+1 Rend), so he CAN get to rend 2, but he needs to be fighting very specific targets. He has a rampage to neuter enemy monsters, which is ok. He gives out an aura of +1 to hit on the WAAAGH, which is quite good. And as Megabosses do, he ramps with bonus attacks for helping destroy units. He has very specific use cases which simply aren’t available in every matchup.
The generic Megaboss on Maw-Krusha faces a similar deficit in being rend 1 across the board, but his Anti (+1 Rend) rule is infantry! He has impact hits, which double against infantry and the ability to pile 2d6. I can picture the Maw-Krusha dancing around screens, squishing them, beating up infantry hammers, and powering through to safety.
The Megaboss on Foot is quite expensive, and with the single pip of rend he is not doing a ton of damage on his own. What he does do is give Brutes +1 attacks until the start of your next turn, as well as an additional +1 attacks in the combat phase. The Brutes, Wrekkaz, and Ragerz will be feasting.
The Warchanter is our only priest (power level 1) and he can generate ritual points by slaying enemy models in combat. Nothing flashy about this warscroll. The Weirdnob is similar. He is our only wizard (power level 1) and gets +1 power level if he is near a 10+ model Ironjawz unit. They are simple support heroes propped up by our lore. The extra power level is nice, but that will require you to run at least some big units.
Zoggrok Anvilsmasha is going to hand out Crit (Mortal) to a unit. With as many attacks as we have, that is really strong. He does it on a 4+, 3+ with the tongs weapon option, rerolling if his token is alive. He only loses the token if he makes a save roll of 1, so just hide him in some obscuring and smash that anvil. His other weapon option lets him smash enemy wards in combat, but I think we know what his role is.
The Ardboy Big Boss will add 1 to Ardboy Shield bashes and allow them to roll 3 additional rally dice. Bricks of Ardboys will greatly love his support.
The Tuskboss gives out extra momentum to your other Maw-Gruntas. As that momentum adds up they will hit like absolute trucks, but as with most of our profiles it all hits on 4+s. Very vulnerable to debuffs to hit, unfortunately.
Units
If damage is your aim, then Brutes are your game. They are absolute blenders. Little idiots still cannot contest objectives against them and they sport a tasty 3+ save. The Wrekkaz (Anti-Infantry +1 Rend) are your infantry squishers that can run and charge. Alternatively, the Ragerz (Anti-Monster +1 Rend) are your big boy hunters. They also get run and charge with strikes-first on the charge, making them great candidates for counter charge. All these folks having the Brute keyword makes them love love love a friendly megaboss.
The Ardboys are the big units you can field, with Anti-Charge (=1 Rend) and the shield bashes for some cheeky mortal damage. Another great target for the counter charge. Their volume of attacks also make them a good target for Zoggrok’s mortal damage.
The Gore-Gruntas are Anti-Cavalry (+1 Rend), a bit of a rare rule that cements them firmly as an Anti-Cav silver bullet. Their impact hits also do bonus damage against Cav. They sit pretty at a 3+ save, making them a very interesting piece.
The Maw-Gruntawith Hakkin’ Krew gets a very cool movement rampage that allows it to move out of combat, through models, inflicting damage and gaining momentum on the way and allowing it to charge elsewhere. The Gougers go up to a 4+ save as opposed to his big brothers’ 3+s. What he does get is a Strike Last rampage that becomes more reliable with more momentum. Combat order manipulation is at an absolute premium so this is valuable.
Final Thoughts
The Ironjawz sport big damage, mobility tools, and good durability. Some problems in the current landscape include the plentiful debuffs to hit and Anti-Infantry Rend rules. Those 3+ saves don’t mean what they used to when everyone and their mother can access Anti-Infantry Rend. That being said, the damage potential is high enough to raise an eyebrow. With Counter Charge and Mighty Destroyers, you are going to have to really consider your positioning against this army.
Over the last few months, I’ve been privileged to be part of a group of contributors who have been developing a Community FAQ for Old World.
This document aims to be a tool for interested Tournament Organisers (TOs) and players. Our goal is to provide missing rules, clarify unclear rulings and explain rules where clarification is needed.
The questions answered in this document are sampled by contributing TOs and are based on questions from their player base.
This FAQ does not aim to be binding or official in any way and is made with the sole purpose of improving the flow of games. Every interested TO or local community organiser is welcome to participate in our work. If you’re interested in taking part, please join the FAQ Discord server.
To make it easier for everyone, the structure of this document follows the individual phases of the turn. Within the phases, the given FAQs are again ordered by categories (Keywords).
Remember, the document is searchable via PDF.
Contributors
How Decisions are Reached
When a question is submitted, contributors will considered whether the question needs an FAQ, or whether Games Workshop has a clear written rule, or an FAQ themselves that answers the question.
If the question is considered ambiguous the contributors will discuss the rule and the possible answers. These are then put to a vote.
If a Games Workshop FAQ is released at a later date which answers the question, the FAQ for this will be removed to avoid any potential confusion.
The PDF is laid out in a clear manner, with sections corresponding to the main rule book. Each question has a voting ID, which the committee can review in case it either needs to revisit the question or remove it from the Unofficial FAQ. References to relevant rules are also included below the question to allow the reader a reference check.
This is the top three Old World lists for Buckeye Battles GT that took place in the USA on the 29th and 30th of June. It saw 36 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three Old World 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.
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The Top Three Old World Lists
=== Luna Valentine [2496 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Kingdom of Bretonnia ===
++ Characters [1237 pts] ++
Duke [401 pts] – Hand weapon – Lance (if appropriately mounted) – Heavy armour – Shield – Royal Pegasus – Falcon-horn of Fredemund – Bedazzling Helm – Virtue of Heroism
Paladin [241 pts] – Hand weapon – Lance (if appropriately mounted) – Heavy armour – Shield – The Grail Vow – Battle Standard Bearer [War Banner] – Royal Pegasus – Gauntlet of the Duel – Gromril Great Helm – Virtue of Duty
10 Peasant Bowmen [55 pts] – Hand weapons – Longbows – Unarmoured – Skirmishers – Standard bearer
6 Mounted Knights of the Realm [165 pts] – Hand weapons – Lances – Shields – Heavy armour – First Knight (champion) – Standard bearer – Musician
6 Mounted Knights of the Realm [165 pts] – Hand weapons – Lances – Shields – Heavy armour – First Knight (champion) – Standard bearer – Musician
5 Mounted Knights of the Realm [141 pts] – Hand weapons – Lances – Shields – Heavy armour – First Knight (champion) – Standard bearer – Musician
++ Special Units [633 pts] ++
5 Pegasus Knights [289 pts] – Hand weapon – Lances – Shields – Heavy armour – Standard bearer – Musician
6 Pegasus Knights [344 pts] – Hand weapon – Lances – Shields – Heavy armour – Standard bearer – Musician
—
Luna Valentine: Howdy friends, some notes on the top lists for Buckeye. Note that Buckeye had no comp rules.
Duke on Pegasus– I tried out a pegasus duke again, mainly for the option to get two characters with 2+ armor through Dazzling Helm. Overall I didn’t care for it, he isnt tough enough to face thunder stomping monsters (as he is only monstrous cavalry), he is highly vulnerable to Killing Blow, and his damage potential isn’t enough to solo infantry blocks.
I definitely plan to swap over to a Hippogryph Duke for my next tournaments, to match up against enemy dragons/monsters and also fight against pesky Killing Blow units. One of the main reasons I still run a Duke at all, is to hold the Falcon Horn. Its definitely viable to skip this guy and spend 450 pts on something else, as long as you always bring the horn.
Paladin BSB – Absolute rockstar, he has astounding durability with T5, 2+ reroll 1s/5++, and he brings +3 combat resolution with BSB, War Banner, Vow of Duty. Grail Vow also means he never panics and Stubborn for bad combat rolls. I often run him solo in center field, next to some knights for Lone Character rule, and aim to use ‘Gauntlet of the Duel‘ to force a challenge, denying them any attacks from the front. Combined with the natural combat res, he can be a brutal front threat.
I also like to use him to supplement my Duke against enemy dragon duels, and aim for a combat res flee (especially with a knight or pegasus unit to force Outnumbered 2:1 break tests)
Prophetess: A recent addition, she buffs up the Pegasus unit with The Lady’s Wrath, and brings a terrifying Assailment with the Illusion spell+Ogre blade. Pegasus units often have trouble cracking monsters or armor targets especially if they get stuck in. She tends to solve these problems. She has the ability to voluntarily retire to keep her safe, but she is a very expensive investment. I’m not entirely convinced she is worth an entire pegasus knight unit. She does help a lot with shutting down bound spell spam against certain armies (casket, sisters of the thorn, fireball ring).
Green Knight: A powerful strategic piece, GK is great at assassinating wizards and locking down big monsters. He helps a lot with creating uncertainty in my opponents game plan, and getting into the backlines of shooting heavy armies. He is very expensive and not always reliable (I had two games where he did not appear until turn 4+), but strong enough to warrant taking.
CORE UNITS
Peasant Archers, Skirmishing: These guys are amazing. They exist mostly to protect against enemy shooting (especially the very common elf shooting), but also help to score many scenario points in tournaments. If you layer them up against one another, they can provide soft cover to each other, and are a powerful anti-shooting barrier. Against combat heavy armies, you’re better off leaving these guys in the back.
If I had realized Buckeye had no comp rules, I probably would have brought 4-5 of these.
Knights of the Realm: They’re very okay, expect very little from them. Best used to combo charge with other units for a little extra combat res, or to help a character crush a weak infantry unit. One of their best uses is pushing up in the middle (about 10-15″ away), and then fleeing incoming charges to split up an opponents line. Just remember to mark that you lose the Lady’s Blessing when you do this!
SPECIAL UNITS:
Pegasus Knights: Ah, what a wonderful unit. 360 charge direction and 20″ fly march is very hard to most armies to deal with. Far more fragile than you might imagine, and even a full flank charge with 5+ pegasus is probably not enough to crack monsters. Where they shine is constantly marching to right outside enemy charge arcs on the flank, and putting pressure on every unit around them. From there, aim for sandiwching charges or picking off weaker units first.
If you charge these in the front against most elites, you will lose. If you leave them out to be shot 2+ turns by elf shooting, you will lose. Avoid those traps and you will win. Be patient and setup winning charges (something where you should have a +3 combat res advantage on average, and no chance for the enemy to counter charge with another unit on their turn)
Counter charge also makes it possible to aggressively bully out small units, as long as you stay out of their minimum move range.
=== Shannon Powell [2500 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Ogre Kingdoms ===
++ Characters [735 pts] ++
Slaughtermaster [345 pts] – Hand weapon – Level 4 Wizard – General – Halfling Cookbook – Ruby Ring of Ruin – Biting Blade – Beastkiller – Battle Magic
Bruiser [390 pts] – Great weapon – Light armour – Battle Standard Bearer [Cannibal Totem] – Thundertusk – Armour of Meteoric Iron – Talisman of Protection – Deathcheater
++ Core Units [630 pts] ++
7 Iron Guts [333 pts] – Hand Weapons – Great Weapons – Heavy Armour – Look-out Gnoblar (Standard bearer) – Veteran – Gutlord [Daemon-Slayer Scars] – Standard bearer – Bellower (musician)
Luna Valentine: Pretty standard ogres. The terror scars adds some extra leadership threat when he charges. The Bull units were all deployed 1×3 in marching formation for redirecting. The lack of a traditional General means a lot of units are relying on leadership 7 to get them through terror/restraint tests, or rerolling 7’s for panic. The giants are a nice anchor early/mid game, though they tend to run out of wounds by late game.
The Bruiser BSB uses a clever combination of items+banners to get a reliable triple 5+ save, which made it quite durable to cannons/high quality attacks. The two cannons and wizard run solo, can be a substantial threat over 6 turns. Mournfangs absolutely slap, and are definitely the highlight of the list (along with the obligatory double iron blasters).
=== Vampire Counts [2588 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Vampire Counts ===
++ Characters [1249 pts] ++
Master Necromancer [425 pts] – Hand weapon – Level 4 Wizard – General – Mortis Engine – Sceptre Of De Noirot – Crown Of The Damned – Necromancy
Necromantic Acolyte [120 pts] – Hand weapon – Level 2 Wizard – On foot – Ruby Ring of Ruin – Necromancy
Vampire Thrall [170 pts] – Lance (when mounted) – No armour – Battle Standard Bearer – Nightmare – Biting Blade – Charmed Shield – The Accursed Armour – Dark Magic
Wight Lord [44 pts] – Great Weapon – Heavy armour – On foot
Vampire Count [490 pts] – Hand weapon – No armour – Zombie Dragon – Sword Of Kings – Talisman of Protection – Dark Acolyte – Dark Magic
++ Core Units [719 pts] ++
6 Dire Wolves [48 pts] – Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons)
6 Dire Wolves [48 pts] – Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons)
27 Grave Guard [457 pts] – Great weapons (replace shields) – Heavy armour – Shield – Drilled (0-1 per 1000pts) – Implacable Defence (0-1 per 1000pts) – Seneschal – Standard bearer [Standard Of Hellish Vigour]
26 Zombies [83 pts] – Hand weapon – Standard bearer
26 Zombies [83 pts] – Hand weapon – Standard bearer
++ Rare Units [620 pts] ++
7 Blood Knights [415 pts] – Hand weapons – Lances – Iron-Shod Hooves – Full plate armour – Shield – Barding – Drilled – Kastellan [Lord Of The Night] – Standard bearer [Drakenhof Banner] – Musician
Peter Holland: Although this is list is showing as over the points limit, we can’t be certain that there wasn’t some error when copying this list onto New Recruit, or whether if this is the list submitted, whether it was caught by the TO and changed before the tournament began.
Luna Valentine: Unfortunately, I haven’t had the pleasure to play with Ryan yet, so these are guesses. He was able to leapfrog Phil after Phil and I had our draw game 5.
Mortis Necro- Screams, 18″ bubble of +1 move is nutty. Double invocation scepter and the 4++ crown makes it insanely durable, though the stupidity checks mean it will probably hang close to the BSB (or sit behind zombies and not worry about stupidity moves)
Vamp on Zombie Dragon- Sword of kings for extra kb potential and 5++ for durability. Personally, I think the sword is overrated and would prefer a lance/ogre blade. Dark Acolyte for extra regen potential.
Vamp BSB– this dude assumedly hangs with the blood knights. +1 toughness armor is good, but it seems wasted on a t4 thrall, especially hanging in an already strong unit.
Wight Lord– barebones, obviously there to unlock grave guard core
I don’t love the grave guard infantry, but with Banner of Hellish Vigour (reserve move) they can at least push up on their own. I would guess he has them away from the Mortis, being an anchor for the other side?
The rest of the list is pretty standard, a mega block of blood knights and a Terrorgheist. The blood knights are very hard to shift with traditional attacks, and with four invocations of Nehek in the list & 5+++ from Drakenhof, they can tank through most lists. Folks who aren’t ready for the counter charge potential and insane durability will lose very badly.
This seems like a list that might struggle against some monster mash TK or Brett flying circus, but it definitely earned a top 3 spot, and was very nicely painted!
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I’ve been playing Tzeentch on and off for about 18 months, drawn to the spells, summoning and shenanigans this faction is known for. I was originally hoping to go with a Kairos and Lord of Change list, but when the 3rd edition battletome came out, there wasn’t really any reason to start the battle with 2 of these big birds. I say start, because my most successful lists were those from the Guild of Summoners, with the gimme battle tactic to go along with the gimme Grand Strategy. Grand Strategies are gone, Guild of Summoners are gone but there might be a viable reason to have that Kairos and Lord of Change build from the start.
Who are the Disciples of Tzeentch?
An excellent question and one for which the answer is always changing. Tzeentch is one of the four original Chaos Gods, focused on change and manipulation of his own servants and those of others. These subtleties put him at odds with Khorne, with the latter’s hatred of sorcery consolidating the enmity between these two factions. It is never clear exactly what Tzeentch’s end goals are as their machinations are as likely to have their worshippers be defeated at the right time and place as to march to victory after victory. The only consolation is that it is ‘All as planned’.
There are two factions within the Disciples of Tzeentch that vie for their master’s favour: Daemons and the Arcanites. Daemons are the stuff of magic itself given form, with the ability to twist and shape raw chaos to their will, resulting in magic spells or blasts of wyrdflame to ignite their foes. Arcanites are the mortal followers of Tzeentch, including the mutated Tzaangor and the Kairic Acolytes who use magic to reshape their own bodies.
Why play the Disciples of Tzeentch?
Disciples of Tzeentch is a faction that heavily relies on magic, not necessarily for damage dealing directly, but to further their subtle plans for victory on the battle field. They do not have the raw combat power of a Destruction army nor do they have the ranged prowess of many Order factions. What they do have is a range of tools that can be selected to take on a variety of challenges and, Tzeentch willing, come out on top.
Battle Traits
Masters of Destiny
One of the Disciples of Tzeentch’s most notorious ability, Destiny Dice, returns in 4th edition. In the deployment phase, you roll 9 dice and can use the outcome of these dice to use instead of a dice roll. These can include casting rolls and charging rolls, though you do need to spend 2 of these dice to do so. These can be hugely influential, guaranteeing a charge when really needed (though not a counter-charge), making a 6+ save to an attack that could wipe out a key piece or making sure an important attack wounds its intended target. 4th edition sees an interesting change to this mechanic because while there is (almost) no way of returning Destiny Dice, which was very straightforward in 3rd, there is also no need to hoard dice in order to get the Grand Strategy at the end of the game.
Conflagration of Tzeentch
The defining ability of the index for Tzeentch is the ability to light an enemy unit up, literally. If a weapon with the Wyrdflame weapon ability does damage, that unit is now burning. There are also a couple of ways of adding burning in the combat phase too. Importantly, only one unit per phase can have the burning debuff added. Potentially, you could cast a Wyrdflame spell in your opponent’s turn; shoot them with a Wyrdflame weapon with Covering Fire; fight them with your combat source of burning and then do all of that again in your turn for 6 potential units per battle round. Realistically, if you could get 3 units burning, that’s good going.
Burning Wyrdflame
So what does the Wyrdflame do? At the end of every turn, on a D3 roll of a 2 or 3, a unit takes that much damage but on a 1, they manage to put themselves out and are no longer burning. Yes, it’s only D3, but that could be enough to swing an objective or complete a battle tactic. If you do manage to get a good spread of burning going, these could all add up. If you take the Wyrdflame Host battle formation, you are probably better off choosing NOT to activate the D3 roll so as to keep the debuff applied.
Quenching the Flames
In addition, Wyrdflame shuts down any healing, with the healing ‘quenching the flames’ instead. This would shut down the prodigious Soulblight healing as well as making Rally a 1cp – please put me out, I’m on fire command ability.
Battle Formations
Tzaangor Coven
Screeching Warflock is a passive that means that every time a friendly Warflock (anything Tzaangor related) uses Rally, you roll an extra 3 dice. Obviously the more Tzaangor you take, the better this is, but you can expect to be able to bring back 2-3 normal Tzaangor, but the extra 3 dice pushes you up the point at which you’ve been a little unlucky not to being a Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc or Skyfire back. The Enlightened on Disc aren’t what they were, but they’re still a good unit and with access to this recursion, can be quite a tricky one to get rid of.
Wyrdflame Host
Mutagenic Inferno is another passive that subtracts 1 from wound rolls made by attacks from Burning units. The utility of this one will be determined by how hard you choose to lean into the Wyrdflame mechanic. Choosing Pinks as your screens, choosing the Lore of Change (see below) and even your artifact choice can make the enemy significantly debuffed, throwing off the expectations your opponent may have from that hammer unit that has just charged you.
Arcanite Cabal
Another passive, Sinister Counter-hexes, allows you to add 1 to unbinding rolls for friendly Arcanite units and, if successful, that unit can immediately use Magical Intervention without a CP being spent. Again, economies of scale will be important here, although taking Kairos alongside a Curseling is quite a potent anti-magic duo. The only potential downside is that if you face off against a faction without magic…you have wasted your battle formation choice.
Change Host
The only battle formation with an active ability allows you to remove a Daemon unit from combat on a 3+ and set it up again but still in combat with the enemy units it was in combat with. I may be missing something huge here, but there aren’t really any Daemon units that you want in full on combat and even if you do, why would you want to essentially do a fancy pile in with them and only on a 3+. All the other battle formations seem to offer a lot more.
Heroic Traits
Cult Demagogue
Similar, but different is how I would describe Cult Demagogue. The downside is that if you roll a double (that is not a miscast) then you only get +3 to cast instead of the cast not being able to be unbound. The upside is that, if you have a two cast wizard, it works on both casts. With Destiny Dice being the best way of getting that double on the cast and Destiny Dice being less commonplace, this is probably an overall positive change.
Illusionist
Amazing on a first-read, until you see the word ‘wholly’. It is -1 to hit while units are ‘wholly’ within a unit’s combat range, i.e. 3”. I was initially very excited until I remembered how to read as, sadly, most of anything you’ll want to protect with this has a base size of greater than 3” or a footprint larger than this. There’s still some play with it and it is not just shooting but combat too, so maybe a Curseling or a Ogroid Thaumaturge might get a little extra survivability with this.
Nexus of Fate
Roll a dice in Your Hero Phase an replace one of the Destiny Dice with the roll. With the loss of battleshock as a phase, there isn’t a lot of use for Destiny Dice of 1, so this may help make these a bit more useful. If Destiny Dice are key to your plan, this is a good one to pick and, if you don’t want to risk getting losing a good Destiny Dice…you still have good Destiny Dice!
Artefacts
Ambition’s End
An artefact that is itself lacking in ambition as it can do D3 damage to a wizard the bearer is in combat with and subtracts 1 from casting rolls for the rest of the battle. Rest of the battle is great, but better to just kill the wizard and not be able to cast for the rest of the battle. Hard pass.
Nine-eyed Tome
Adding 1 to casting and banishment rolls is always good and consistently so. Combine the Curseling, Arcanite Cabal and Kairos with this artefact and the Curseling could have +3 to unbind, which is not to be sniffed at and then could immediately cast back with +2 to cast. Solid artefact and likely to be the default pick.
Wyrdflame Blade
If you are going all in on Wyrdflame, this artefact can allow an enemy unit to receive the Burning keyword if any damage points are put through. Don’t put this on an Ogroid as they can already add Burning in combat, but if a Curseling has it, they can add Burning in each of the three main phases of the game.
Spell Lore
Lore of Change
Tzeentch has the choice of two spell lores, with one great spell in each, one decent spell in each and one spell that you would never choose if you didn’t get the other spells with it.
The great spell for the Lore of Change is Fold Reality, which gives Tzeentch a teleport, something they were lacking for all of 3rd – Ephilim the Unknowable’s spell does not count! It goes off on a 7, but with Kairos nearby and/or casting it, it’s a pretty reliable spell and movement is always great. While units set up this turn cannot score tactics such as Take their Land or Take the Flanks, putting a hammer unit within 9” and being able to guarantee a charge with Destiny Dice is pretty good. Typically, about two months after I put all my Enlightened on Foot on discs!
The good spell is Bolt of Tzeentch, which is a straightforward D3 damage spell with an 18” range and a generous casting value of 6. Crucially, it has the unlimited keyword, so can be cast by every wizard and it is Wyrdflame, so you will want this spell if you are focusing on Burning.
Transformed to Spawn is the meh spell and that is being kind. 12” range is really short and you might be able to bring a Spawn in, that you still have to pay for. Spawns are pretty awful, so why you would want to pay for one to use with this spell, I do not know. Bring in a Manifestation instead, which is much better than a Spawn AND free!
Lore of Fate
Shield of Fate is the best spell in probably both lores as it gives the target a 5+ ward AND -1 to hit (if you have 4 or more Destiny Dice), both of which last until the start of your next turn. This is a great spell and a good candidate to be cast in your opponent’s hero phase using Magical Intervention. Lasting for potentially two player turns is also fairly uncommon, adding to the value of this spell.
The okay spell, good would be going too far, is Infernal Gateway, which is a 12” range damaging spell, where you roll the number of dice equivalent to the number of Destiny Dice you have (minimum 4), which each 4+ being a mortal wound. If there was a way of getting dice back (without running out entirely first) this would be good, potentially great. As it is, it is a good spell for the start of the game that either requires you to not use your Destiny Dice or to get gradually less effective as time goes on.
Glimpse the Future asks you to put aside your Destiny Dice of 6 and then gamble with the others. This could be a great way of getting out of a sticky situation and getting something usable to play with, but it only give you an actual dice back once you have none left at all. And if you don’t have any left at all, Infernal Gateway is toothless and Shield of Fate is only the 5+ ward. Not a good spell.
Despite Shield of Fate being so good, the utility of teleporting and the ability to maximise Burning units means that the Lore of Change gets my vote unless you have something very particular in mind, for example, assassinating a 5 wound character with the Changeling and a lucky dice roll T1.
Manifestation Lore
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch
The first of two static manifestations is the Burning Sigil of Tzeentch, which goes off on a 5 and needs to be placed wholly within 12” of the caster. Every movement phase it is on the board, you roll 2 dice and choose one outcome to apply to all units with 9”, friendly and otherwise, ranging from reducing move, subtracting from hit or wound rolls or, causing D3 damage, but making that unit angry and adding 1 to their attacks characteristic. As it is a static manifestation it can be placed within 9” of the enemy and even into their combat ranges. Potentially this could shut down counter-charges, but will cost the Sigil as it only has a 5+ save and a 6+ ward with 6 health.
Daemonic Simulacrum
The good news is if the Daemonic Simulacrum hits a Slann, it will have 7 attacks, 4s/3s, rend -2 for D3 damage, which gives it a pretty good chance of eating the frog. Into anything else, it’s just 4s/3s, rend -1 for D3. It is a manifestation with a 9” move so it does need to be set up outside 9” of the enemy and 12” of the caster. However, if you choose the Lore of Change, a caster could potentially teleport close enough to an enemy wizard that they can put the Simulacrum down within 9” and then use Destiny Dice to guarantee a charge as they do have the Disciples of Tzeentch keyword. With pretty much everyone taking a wizard to get access to manifestations, this is worth a look.
Tome of Eyes
The second static and third manifestation is similar, but different, just like the Cult Demagogue heroic trait. Instead of just a +1 to cast, Tzeentch generals can choose to add 1 or 2 to the casting roll for a wizard (and it can be multiple) within the combat range of the Tome, and then roll the number of dice equivalent to the buff i.e. for +2, you roll 2 dice. For each 1 or 2, allocate 1 damage point to the caster. What’s great about this and the timing of various abilities is that you can cause 2 damage to a unit and then rally them, practically guaranteeing they are back at full health. In this way, you can see the 1cp as adding +2 to cast. Put Kairos nearby and that’s +3 to cast.
Krondspine Incarnate
It’s also worth mentioning here that if you do take Kairos (and you probably will want to) then Kairos’ Mastery of Magic passive means that you only need to roll one 4 on 2d6 to summon the Incarnate. This still works on your opponent’s turn as he gives the +1 to cast to himself too.
Units
This won’t be an exhaustive list, but one that looks to highlight the units that will probably become the core of your army with one or two reasons why you might want to choose them.
Kairos Fateweaver
The biggest of the big birds has several things going for him. He retains Mastery of Magic, which makes the lowest D6 of a casting roll the same as the highest D6, so a roll of a 1 and a 6 turns into 2 6s. Added to his Beacon of Sorcery ability to give +1 to casting AND unbinding, you’ve just cast something on a 13. Bonuses to unbinding are very uncommon, so it makes him a very potent wizard and a Wizard (3) at that. He also has one of the most powerful spells from 3rd edition as his warscroll spell, Arcane Suggestion. While it does go off on an 8, with Mastery of Magic this is going off 75% of the time and allows you to choose one of the following debuffs: the target cannot use commands; subtract 1 from hit and wound rolls; subtract 1 from save rolls.
However, this combination of abilities is overshadowed by his Oracle of Eternity ability. Kairos can, once per battle, do one of two things. Either choose a battle tactic that has already been completed OR choose two battle tactics you can try to achieve without burning that second tactic. This is huge. Scoring 5 battle tactics is really hard to do in 4th so being able to double up on Take the Flanks with 200 points of Screamers for 8 points is a great position to be in. In my opinion, this is the path to victory for Tzeentch: score all 5 tactics and hold 2 objectives all game for 40 points (in most cases). Debuff the enemy sufficiently that they drop a couple of tactics and don’t take objectives and that should be enough to win.
Lord of Change
In the introduction I mentioned that I wanted to have the opportunity to run both of these units in the same list and Disciples of Tzeentch have followed the pattern for Chaos that the named Greater Daemon has abilities that fit the lore and then the unnamed ones largely do the same thing – return units in lieu of summoning. For one Destiny Dice (so this is what those 1s and 2s can be used for) a Lord of Change can return a Daemon unit at half strength, wholly within 12” and outside of 9” of the enemy. The best candidates for this are probably 20 Pink Horrors or 6 Flamers. The slightly lesser big bird also throws out a -1 to hit debuff when targeting Daemon units in combat wholly within 12”. Couple this with the Wyrdflame debuff if you choose Wyrdflame Host and your opponent will be at -1 to hit AND wound, and potentially unable to do anything about it because of Arcane Sacrifice from Kairos. It has lost access to the Mastery of Magic ability, so casting is a little harder, but if you take the Nine-Eyed Tome, cast the Tome of Eyes and are wholly within 12” of Kairos, that’s +4 to casting rolls. The spell, Tzeentch’s Firestorm is fine, generally doing D3 mortals, with the potential to spike for more, but it is unique and it does have Wyrdflame to add this debuff. What also has Wyrdflame is the Rod of Sorcery, which is the option you want to take on the LoC, with 2D6 shots at 18”, 3s/3s, rend -1 and 1 damage.
Changecaster
While the Herald on Disc has gone to Legends, the Changecaster is a plastic model, so survives! The first of two reasons you would want to take these are for 3 extra dice when rallying when wholly within 12”. From 9 dice (appropriately), it’s reasonable to expect 4 health back, which could be two Pink Horrors or two Flamers. Flamers are particularly interesting as they shouldn’t really be in combat, so rallying in both turns to get 4 back for 2cp feels pretty decent. The second reason is that you can add 1 to hit rolls that target a Burning enemy unit when the Burning enemy unit is within 12”. While there aren’t really any Daemon units that can take advantage of this (though Screamers would help) it would also apply to any variety of Tzaangor you might be able to throw in, who are more dangerous in combat.
The Curseling
For 170 points, The Curseling is a good investment of points as a 2-cast wizard that cannot always be targeted as he is a foot hero of only 6 health. He also has a 3+ save, so is relatively tanky for a Tzeentch hero. His ranged attack crucially has the Wyrdflame keyword for its D6 attacks and his melee profile, while a little underwhelming, can potentially do 15 damage at rend -2. His other ability, Disrupter of the Arcane, allows him to reduce the power level of a wizard by 1, to a minimum of 0, until the next Tzeentch turn. It is only on a 4+, but with the Arcanite Cabal battle formation and Kairos’ +1 to unbinds, the odds are that spell is being stopped. With Arcanite Cabal, The Curseling would then immediately be able to cast a spell without spending a command point. Finally, to get another phase where Wyrdflame could be added, the Wyrdflame Blade is probably best on The Curseling if you are taking it.
Ogroid Thaumaturge
A quick mention for the other ‘combat’ hero as a decent ranged attack has been added, though sadly without the Wyrdflame keyword, but the Ogroid’s combat attacks do add Burning. While 3 attacks, 4s and 2s is a little swingy, if the Ogroid has lost any health (and not just in that phase or turn), he gets +1 to hit and wound. On the charge, the Great Horns and Cloven Hooves also do 3 damage. There is also the staff in combat that would be 3s and 2s for D3 if damaged.
Tzaangor Shaman
The final hero that I’m going to take a look at here as it features in one of my lists below is the Tzaangor Shaman. Being only a Wizard (1) it isn’t going to dominate the hero phase nor does it have its own warscroll spell. What it can do is to give a Tzaangor unit on foot run and charge, which can be really handy on Enlightened on Foot, one of the more efficient warscrolls of the index. The other ability synergises well with the Tzaangor Coven battle formation as it can bring up to 3 models back to a unit. If you can get this off in range of some Enlightened on Disc, that could be 170 points this is bringing back to your army AND it can be done by multiple Shamans AND at the end of every turn.
Pink Horrors
Pinks are significantly different to what they were in 3rd. They can split, but only if they join a nearby blues and brims unit that has taken enough casualties for the extra blues to fit in the unit and not take over its starting strength. And if you combine the points cost for pinks and blues at their current value then they are the same cost (260pts) as pinks were at the end of 3rd. Pinks on their own, however, are only 140pts and they do have 20 wounds in a unit of 10 instead of just the 10 and they have a 6+ ward as standard. So they can be a bit of a tarpit, as 40 wounds in a reinforced unit is not nothing, particularly if you choose the Lore of Fate and add Shield of Fate. Set the unit attacking you on fire with their Wyrdflame attacks and throw in All out Defence, 40 wounds on a 5+ save, 5+ ward and -1 to hit and wound is actually quite survivable. If a melee hammer does come over and kill them all, on a 4+ you can inflict 1 mortal damage on a target that is in combat with them…then bring half back with a Lord of Change!
Flamers of Tzeentch
A reinforced unit of 6 has 18 attacks, 3s/4s, -1 against infantry for D3 damage and +1 to wound against targets that are already burning, which could be decent. They are, however only 12 wounds on a 5+ save, 6+ ward, so will go down quite quickly. On the bright side, if a Changecaster uses the rally command on this unit then you’re probably bringing 2-3 back. They’re also quite fast too, with 9” move, so they can potentially hide somewhere relatively safe before accelerating forward to shoot (and then probably die!)
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch
While we’re talking about setting stuff on fire, a quick mention for the Burning Chariot as for 20 points more than 3 flamers, you get 4 Wyrdflame shots at 16” instead of 12” and 12 attacks (admittedly pretty poor ones!) in combat. However, if you were to take the Chariot, it would be for its ability to give the Burning keyword to an enemy that it moved over in Your movement phase on a 3+. Probably a few too many hoops to jump through for me, but worth mentioning as another source of Burning.
Screamers of Tzeentch
With the Beast keyword, these will not be able to snatch anything but an uncontested objective, but they still do have some uses. They are only 100 points, with a 5+ save and 6+ ward with 3 health, so they are not entirely trivial to get rid of and their 14” move can be really handy for Seize the Centre, Take the Flanks and Take their Land. If you have Kairos in your list then they could score one of these twice, making a 200 point investment for 2 units good sense and worth including in most lists.
Tzaangors
From the heady heights of Hoarfrost-induced murder at the end of 3rd, Tzaangor have take a bit of a fall from grace. They now only have 2 attacks, 4s/3s, rend -1 for 1 damage, but do get Crit (2 Hits) if the unit is wholly within enemy territory…if they live that long or Reality if Folded to teleport them across the board. A unit of 20 is only 300 points though and, in a Tzaangor Coven with Shaman support, those 40 wounds could hang around a bit.
Tzaangor Enlightened on Foot
Point-for-point, this is as efficient as it gets for Tzeentch as for only 10 points more than their speedier brothers on disc, you get twice the number of spear attacks AND they have kept the shut down commands ability that all Enlightened had in 3rd – albeit on a 3+ and only when charging. Compared to 10 standard Tzaangor, they are only 2 fewer wounds and they’re on a 4+ save rather than a 5+. Their problem always used to be the delivery mechanism you would use to get them into combat and with Fold Reality as a spell plus Destiny Dice to guarantee a charge this is no longer a problem. If you’re starting a Tzeentch army for 4th and you’re into goats, 6 boxes of these will only be 540 points of models for the most efficient ¼ of your army. In fact, you could practically create a whole army just using this kit…
Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc
Much faster than their footslogging kin, they also have a couple of D3 damage disc attacks too. They are also damage 3 when the Tzeentch player goes second OR is the underdog. Having at least one unit to zoom around the board assassinating choice targets is definitely a build option particularly when coupled with…
Tzaangor Skyfires
The same speed and defensive profile of the Enlightened above, but with two 18” bow attacks that ignore any modifiers to hit and to wound. A unit of 3 can do the same skirmishing job of 3 Screamers, while still being able to do some damage at range. Where they truly shine, however, is that they give +1 to hit rolls made by friendly Warflock units that attack the unit the Skyfires did damage too. There is no limitation on how many times this is used, so two Skyfire units patrolling the flanks could mark targets for their melee cousins, bringing the Enlightened on Disc up to 3s and 3s on their 3 damage spears.
Sample Lists
For the sample lists, I’ve brought a Daemon variant and an Arcanite one.
Disciples of Tzeentch – Daemons
Wyrdflame Host
Kairos Fateweaver 440
[General]
– 1 x Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch 140
– 20 x Pink Horrors 280
– 20 x Pink Horrors 280
Lord of Change 360
[Nine-Eyed Tome]
[Illusionist]
– 6 x Flamers of Tzeentch 240
– 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch 100
– 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch 100
Lore of Fate
Manifestations of Tzeentch
1940/2000pts
2 drops
This list is trying to debuff as much of the enemy as it can with Wyrdflame while scoring 5 tactics, manipulated by Kairos. The choice between Lore of Change for the D3 Wyrdflame spell and teleport and Lore of Fate and the 5+ ward and -1 to hit was tough, but getting the extra resilience for the pinks won out in the end. Each Tzeentch movement phase, one unit of Daemons can potentially come back at half strength, so up to 500pts or so of recursion available in this list if the Lord of Change’s illusionist ability keeps him alive.
Disciples of Tzeentch – Arcanites
Tzaangor Coven
Tzaangor Shaman 160
[General]
– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened 180
– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened 180
– 20 x Tzaangors 300
– 20 x Tzaangors 300
Tzaangor Shaman 160
– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch 340
– 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires 170
– 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires 170
Lore of Change
Krondspine Incarnate
1960/2000pts
2 drops
This list doesn’t have access to the -1 to wound debuff or Kairos’ Oracle of Eternity, but it does have access to lots of rally rolls and 2 Shaman to potentially bring 6 models back per turn. The 5+ ward, -1 to hit spell would be great on the 20 Tzaangor blocks, but the teleport of the Enlightened of Foot is probably more important to try to eliminate threats instead of surviving them. With only two casts and no bonuses in this list, the Krondspine is the choice of manifestation to get rid of any enemy manifestations while the goats kill the actual enemy.
A new edition calls for new stats, we’ve incorporated player Elo ratings into our stats, so you can now see what affect the elite players have on those pesky win rates.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, Stats and Ladders and Ecksen. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
We’ve only included factions so far that have had at 20 players represent them at GT or GT+ events.
To date our database (which you can download at the end of this article), includes 1,228 matches for GT and GT+ events.
Tournaments Included
Age of Ropecon 2024
Age of Sigmar 4 Bootcamp 1
Age of Sigmar Episode 4: Greytide
Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament: Theatre of War
Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament: US Open Tacoma (GT+)
Age of Sigmar Grimnir’s Vengeance 2024
Age of Sigmar: Quoth the Skaven
Crossroads Carnage 2024
Guts & Glory 2024
Justice Series World Championship Qualifier
LSO Outlaw GT 2024
Pizza Brawl 4.0 – Summer Edition 2024
Southern Fried Sigmar GT
Thunderstrike GT II
Vantastic GT
GT Win Rates
Nighthaunt are very strong right out of the gate with a 68% win rate. However, they’re player base is perhaps a little stronger when compared to the other factions such as Skaven and Stormcast. You can see this analysis in the next segment.
Likewise with Lumineth Realm-Lords and Soulblight Gravelords, a few 500+ Elo (including two 700+ rated for Lumineth) rated players are using this faction at tournaments in 4th, which would perhaps explain their inflated win rate.
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Player Elo Rating)
I’ve cross-referenced the players that have taken part in GT’s with our Elo Rating we have for that player at the beginning of that tournament.
The purpose of this is to start to get an idea of which factions the high rated players are favouring. If a faction has both a high win rate and a large number of high rated players, this could show their affect on that factions win rate.
Skaven‘s player base is made up mostly of players ranked 499 or less with only 3 players rated at 500+. This would go someway to explaining their lower win rate.
A good example here, would be to cross examine the player Elo breakdown for Soulblight Gravelords with their Win Rate. Soulblight Gravelords have a win rate of 62%, however 10 players of the 22 that played them at events have an Elo rating of 500+
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Number of Wins)
The above chart breaks down the faction popularity by the number of wins each player achieved at GT’s or GT+’s.
Interestingly, we talked earlier about how Skaven has mostly a lower rated player base, with 3 players rated 500+, have a look at the above and notice how many players managed 4 wins…
Positive Player Results
The below chart shows how many players as a % finished a GT or GT+ with a positive result (more wins than loss’s).
So wow… this month ended up looking a lot different than I expected… I managed a whole zero models finished within June. For the slow grow, I cheated and did finish a Khemist a couple of days late. My first game of 4th also got postponed into July (using what we know of the new edition). Thinking back… I realise this didn’t mean I was getting a bit of hobbying done with prepping another 7 Endrinriggers (1 with Volley gun for the bloody Spearhead) and getting started on my Endrinmaster with balloon. I also did sit down and do a Necromunda conversion. That’s life though, sometimes there’s just other stuff you need to do or want to do… it was a busy month, and July looks a lot better for getting games in and expanding my Kharadron forces.
If you haven’t already, check out May’s article here!
Khemist
A few things didn’t really work out… may come and back and do some touch ups. I was trying out a few new things with the gun, the condenser vial at the top, and some of the dials. More or less happy with the thing that looked a bit like some sort of condenser but it’s rougher than I had planned. Another model done is another model ready for the tabletop so that part is good. Need to keep going though if I want to have enough to roll with in 4th Ed.
Bonus Necromunda Model
I just wanted to put it in here… see if you can spot the Kharadron parts I used to spice up this conversion 😊
1st game of 4th
I got in my first game of 4th as we had seen enough warscrolls to put together 1100 points each and most of the rules were in the wild by the time we got around to play… here and there we didn’t have the answers but it seems like we got most of it right.
I was going to write something about how much cover impacted my shooting but that’s because we played it wrong. Yes, it will still have more of an effect because we’ll see a lot more obscuring terrain but we won’t be getting -1s every time we shoot because a bit of the unit is in cover.
Hiding in the corner is legitimate if you’re playing KO 😉
The weight of shooting from KO feels strong but partially due to reduced saves and survivability in general for all armies. Managed to take down the Stonehorn in my 1st turn and could knock off a few foot ogors too.
Strike first with 6 Riggers was nice, can see the impact of getting 12 into combat (and giving them a bit more survivability beyond just 12 wounds on a 4+ save)… I look forward to suprising opponents with this especially on the potential counter charge.
Sorry Stonehorn and Gluttons… you had to be taken down in the name of profit / winning.
On the other hand, a massive counter-charge with a double 6 the Gorgers meant that my Arks and Thunderers copped a pounding. This is going to be a really tough part of the game to play with but more importantly for KO I think will be playing against it well!
Ouch! The threat ranges got a lot bigger for all units!
We called it at the end of round 1 with just a few Ogors left on the table!
Onwards into July
Well… I guess my plans look pretty similar to June, just a month later. I will have more time so I do hope to finish at least 1 more unit, if not already 2. I’m starting to feel torn towards building up 2 different lists which might be dangerous if I try to paint all of them bit by bit… I’ll try and stick to the Frigate, 6 more ‘Riggers, and 5 more Thunderers plan to at least have a sensible-ish 2000 pts army ready (ignoring that I now have way too many heroes ready but that feels like it’s always the way).
You can see my KO Faction Review here which gives you a lot of my thoughts about the new rules and I already have some dates planned for some games. I’ll be joining a Spearhead league too which I’m considering trying to win (I feel like I may have a competitiveness problem :P). I’ll be back soon with July’s update (especially since it’s almost end of July when this is going live anyway).
Get out there, fight some good battles and remember to have fun doing it!
This is the top three AoS lists for Age of Sigmar 4 Bootcamp 1 that took place in the UK on the 13th and 14th of July. It saw 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.
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Jon Anderson: At the dawn of a new edition, fresh out of the gate we have Hazel Moon and her Idoneth Deepkin army. Taking them to a 4-1 finish, she brought a strategic balance of units tailored to capitalize on the index prowess and its tendency to use hit-and-run tactics to great effect. Leading her army in the General role is the Eidolon of Mathlann Aspect of the Sea and she paired it with the Ancient Pride Heroic Trait with some Delicious Morsels so that she can feed the goodest of boys and keep them healthy.
Flanking the Eidolon on both sides are two Akhelian Allopexes armed with Razorshell Harpoons, providing valuable ranged support and harassment capabilities. These units are crucial for applying pressure from a distance and disrupting enemy positioning downfield. Alongside them stands the aquatic battle barge himself, the Akhelian Leviadon. A centerpiece of the army known for its resilience and ability to control the battlefield with its massive presence and devastating attacks, it’s newly equipped ward save clearly paid dividends. In complement to these heavy hitters, the Isharann Soulscryer and her regiment played a pivotal role in enhancing the army’s mobility and strategic flexibility. Despite having their range nerfed a bit, the Namarti Reavers pair perfectly with the new battle traits for the Deepkin and the Soulscryer ensures precise deployment and movement across the battlefield. Allowing the Reavers to deploy deeper into the board enables ideal setup for battle tactic completion as well as potential backcap scenarios where you can sneak away an opponent’s home objective.
In terms of opponents, Hazel played against a diverse array including Khorne, Slaanesh, Nighthaunt, Cities of Sigmar, and Seraphon. She showcased the index’s adaptability and resilience masterfully. Despite encountering challenges, particularly against Cities of Sigmar faction, her Deepkin’s synergy and tactical finesse enabled them to emerge victorious in most encounters. This list showcases that while the Deepkin range may be limited on warscrolls, an adept pilot can both compete and succeed using its newfound strength and diverse tactical approach to the GHB and its mission layout.
Spell Lore – Lore of the Clammy Dank Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy
GENERALS REGIMENT Kragnos, the End of Empires (680) – General Rockgut Troggoths (170) Spider Riders (110) Spider Riders (110)
REGIMENT 1 Trugg, the Troggoth King (360) Dankhold Troggboss (220) – Loontouched – The Clammy Cowl Rockgut Troggoths (170) Rockgut Troggoths (170)
Gabriel Fisher: A crushing stampede of Troggs coming directly up the board to smash you in the face with a big centaur god friend (and throw in some gribbly ladz for da scorin’).
In all seriousness, this is a dangerous charge list that has the capability to interact with every phase of the game and get up the board and into you fast.
The battle formation: Troggherd If you are bringing a list of Troggs, it’s gonna be the Troggherd! A simple formation with a straightforward but massive buff, if a Trogg unit fights It heals d3. Effectively doubling the amount of healing you get per turn on every unit, to include Troggoth heroes.
Breaking down the heroes:
1) Kragnos (the GOAT…also a goat): Reasonably priced for his insane damage output and superlative buffing abilities. He has the capability to roll up the board like a missile and kill anything you put in front of him, particularly monsters. In an edition that looks to be shaping up to have many centerpieces this alone would make him an interesting take ; however he also provides an incredible amount of mobility to an otherwise lumbering army moving largely on a 6″ by granting a 3d6 charge to three units wholly within 12”. Whatever you want dead, he will kill. Wherever you wanna be, he’ll get some troggs there.
2) Trugg: Big lad, bigger buffs. A fantastic hammer, anvil, and buff piece for a Trogg army. He hits hard, natively hitting one of his weapon profiles on a 3+ (very good for a monster) and a mighty 4 dmg at 4 attacks. Not to mention the antlers. Relentlessly durable at a 4+ save ( 3+ save under da wonderful light da greatest bad moon), and healing a guaranteed d6+d3 health every turn (the d3 being if he fought) as long as he doesn’t die in a single activation he will be around all game. With the staying power to be there all game you can focus his abilities on buffing the gaggle of rocky gitz following him, able to gift them with bonus attacks,rend and saves vs shooting if you roll well. A massive (both literally and figuratively) force multiplier.
3) Dankhold Troggboss: Smarta’ den you fink (given both loontouched and clammy cowl). Another decent fighter and tank similar to Trugg with some key benefits the way Matthew built him. This guy is largely made off of the artefacts and enhancements Matthew outfitted him with. Loontouched allows you to participate in the magic game without having to add another drop to get a wizard that might die or do nothing else for your list’s main goal. Troggs. The clammy cowl adds a nice -1 to be hit, making a tanky model that is likely to heal d6+d3 every turn be even harder to lay lasting damage on. As a final cherry on top, he adds an attack to every troggoth on a 3 up. That includes Trugg.
Units: Troggs: IT’S ALL OF THE LIST. Well, most of it anyway.
It’s probably one of the single best warscrolls to come out of the index. They are durable with 5 health a piece on a 4+ save naturally with a nice 5++ ward. Under the light of the bad moon they get a bonus of 1 to their save, however this list doesn’t have good old skraggy or the bad moon manifestation so it’s not something you’ll be able to rely upon. They hit hard with 2 attacks a piece 4+/2+ 2 and dmg 3. This is further modified by trugg or the dankhold, giving them plus 1 attack each, or a bonus attack from the dankhold and an additional rend from trugg. So what’s the downside? They are not particularly fast at a 6″ and no run and charge. How do you fix it? 3d6 Kragnos charge baby. Threatening big blocks of durable damage at 18″ in both your and THE OPPONENT’S turn with the counter charge command.
Spider Riders: the glue (or webbing) that holds the list together. Spiders overall took some crippling changes from 3.0 to 4.0 with the loss of abilities, subfaction support, and an entire hero. So why are you seeing them in a list? Battle tactics. These guys are here to score and score big. With a 10″ move and the ability to move over terrain as if flying, they can get up over and through the board fast. Putting a big meaty 10 control on an objective with five bodies. They also let you score flanks or board edges securing terrain. These guys are a needed tech unit in an army that is largely unwieldy outside of charges. At 110 points, they are a solid investment a lot of non squig players will consider.
Spell lore: clammy dank Some useful utility in a minus -1 hit for units within twelve around the Troggboss or possibly some mortals if you have nothing better to cast.
Manifestation: Primal What’s better than healing 2d3 on every Trogg unit a turn? Healing another flat three every movement phase on a unit. The head and jaws can provide some extra damage, but this list has plenty of that. I’m guessing life swarm was the spell that stayed on the board and made life annoying for other players.
How does it play? I’ll keep this section short because I didn’t pilot it, nor would I as well as Matthew. Move up the board and make sure you connect with as large a portion of your opponents army as possible. Hit hard and then weather the return. You have a great save tons of health and some ward saves. Heal when you fight back, when you start the turn, and at the end of your movement phase. You might as well be a doctor with the healing that’s happening at the table. Then, use your cheap fast Spiders to score while the opponent focuses on not being ground to paste under your hooves/feet.
What it’ll struggle against: As seen above in the 4-1 game results, the army is going to struggle into things that don’t care about rend, can move fast, and avoid being locked up. As well as things that can get out fast, kill your scoring units and dump a bunch of damage out in a single turn. It’s no real surprise that a death stalkers nighthaunt army pulled out the win, as the mobility and damage is very good.
Soulblight Gravelords Bacchanal of Blood 2000 Points Limit Drops: 2
GENERALS REGIMENT Prince Vhordrai (480) – General Blood Knights (460) – Reinforced Vargheists (160)
REGIMENT 1 Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (230) Dire Wolves (280) – Reinforced Dire Wolves (280) – Reinforced Kritza, the Rat Prince (110)
Daniel Bean: Soulblight Gravelords: too many dogs.
At first glance, the new soulblight gravelords are solid, perhaps a little better than the last edition, where I felt they were very much the benchmark army.
Recursion is strong in Aos4, and SBGL are no exception, allowing you to return models to units and return units at half strength (but now for an increasingly rare command point)
Objectives are now much smaller, meaning hordes of bases with good wounds can really block your opponents from even getting on the objectives – who needs high OC scores when you’re the only one there? This is where the I feel the Dire Wolves came into their own, they are on nice big bases with 2 Health (previously wounds) each, meaning a block of 20 is hard to shift, I only lost 2 units in the entire event and then of course returned them at half strength! They can now run and charge, meaning you can auto-run 6 for a huge threat range and block your opponents from even getting across the board, bogged down in 40 health on a 5+ save, 6+ ward!
Belladama is essential, allowing the downside of the Dire Wolves being that they are Beasts – this means for the unit their maximum score of OC is 1 total (ever) – until of course Belladama casts a spell, adding a rend to up to 3 dire wolf units and making them ‘not beasts’ for an OC of 20.
Kritzka is a bit of a meme – his ability to fall back on a 2+ before combat is quite good tech, and Belladama makes him +3 OC wholey within 18″, but im not sure he makes the cut for next time.
Prince Vhordai and the Blood Knights are great fun, huge damage on the charge and certainly the hammer the anvil of wolves needs – however Vhordai’s ability to perminantly buff a unit of non-monster <Vampires> wholey within 12″ is more situational than it would seem, I didn’t manage to achieve this for the entire event due to where units needed to be, and also the bloodknights hitting what needed to die rather than the small MSU unit that would be an easy kill – the ability is amazingly thematic and I love the idea of them all floating down from the Crimson Keep – but rules wise it almost feels like a trap, at least for now
Vargheists are amazing, good damage, and on a 3+ can teleport before movement (so if they fail, they still move 12″!) – certainly a glass hammer on 5+ 6+ward, but I feel the damage they do, and the teleport makes one unit almost guaranteed in my future lists
Overall I’m loving 4th edition, my favorite standout part has to be the streamlining of rules that triggered on a dice role, now an ability to do, say, D6 mortal wounds (such as Vhordai’s bite on the charge) now is one dice role, and on a 4+ does ‘that many’ mortal wounds.
Going forward I think Manfred is a big cornerstone of soulblight lists and so he will be gracing my painting table coming up, as will some regular deadwalker zombies as they will do a simular job to the wolves but with a less risky OC value
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