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.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Idoneth Deepkin
Akhelian Beastmasters
1950/2000 Points Limit
Drops: 2

Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration

GENERALS REGIMENT
Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Sea (350)
– General
– Ancient Pride
– Delicious Morsels
Akhelian Allopex (190)
– 1x Razorshell Harpoon
Akhelian Allopex (190)
– 1x Razorshell Harpoon
Akhelian Leviadon (500)
Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (340)

REGIMENT 1
Isharann Soulscryer (120)
Namarti Reavers (130)
Namarti Reavers (130)

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.

Gloomspite Gitz
Troggherd
1990/2000 Points Limit
Drops: 2

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

If you’re a Patreon, you can view the wildcard list by simply clicking on the link below.

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Cities of Sigmar
Ironweld Guild Army
1960/2000 Points Limit
Auxiliaries: 4
Drops: 6

GENERALS REGIMENT
Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (310)
– General
Freeguild Fusiliers (240)
– Reinforced
Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk (180)
– Master of Ballistics
Ironweld Great Cannon (130)
Ironweld Great Cannon (130)

REGIMENT 1
Freeguild Marshal and Relic Envoy (130)
– 1x Master-forged Longsword
– Sacred Tome
Alchemite Warforger (110)
Freeguild Cavaliers (340)
– Reinforced
Freeguild Steelhelms (100)
Freeguild Steelhelms (100)
Freeguild Command Corps (190)

Peter Twigg: Age of Sigmar Bootcamp 1 is the first of several events run by Rob (aka TheHonestWargamer) at his venue in Nottingham, the TSN Arena. The event didn’t have any comp, and we used the terrain maps provided in the generals handbook. Playing at TSN is always a pleasure as it’s one of the  friendliest environments on the scene with gorgeous tables. It’s worth taking the results from this event with a small pinch of salt given that we were all learning the game.

The Human-based Cities of Sigmar army  I used were beautifully simple once it was set up. I usually  put the 10 Cavaliers in front as great anvil unit, and threatened an early pin with the ability to give them +3 to move with an order and 3d6 charge from a spell, and +1 save from the warforger. I would then set up a ‘castle’ of cannons and fusiliers with my support pieces spread throughout and used the steelhelms and command corps the screen off my shooting units from getting tagged.

This allows the list to project a hail of fusil/cannon fire in a 21″/27″ zone from the castle while talia and the steelhelms run about the board completing battle tactics. The real star of the show is the command corps/covering fire combo which allows me to issue the covering fire command twice, usually meaning my fusiliers and a cannon would shoot in both turns of most battle rounds. I utilized the “special assignment” honour-guard ability to give my fusiliers +1 to hit +1 to wound against units in my opponents general regiment, which was devastating in many games.

The way this list tended to win was through the overwhelming firepower of the fusiliers, whilst durable human units kept everything in place using the shield wall order to get strikes last and a 5+ ward. I actually never took a double turn for the entire event as I usually  went first in battle round one to seize the center for an easy battle tactic.

I think Cities of Sigmar have come leaps and bounds since third edition and now have some serious play if you like to play hammer-and-anvil style warhammer, utilizing many buff pieces to adapt to the scenario and and out trade your opponent.

In terms of the 4th edition ruleset, I’m really impressed with the streamlining of abilities, commands, and movement. The game has honestly felt incredibly fun and more interactive than it has ever been as a result of the new magical intervention and counter-charge commands. Manifestation were absolutely rampant through the event which i personally really enjoy as it added another layer to the game, where perhaps some players were overwhelmed by all the additional units running around the board causing havoc.The game still feel like AOS at its core  and  the armies haven’t lost any of their flavor or theme on the table in my experience. I’d honestly say get yourself out  there and play some games as soon as you can, as it was the most fun I’ve had playing AOS in a long time.

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Player Elo Changes

Final Tournament Placings