This is the top three AoS lists for the Throne of Skulls that took place in the UK on the 27th and 28th of July. It saw 68 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Regiment 1
Zogrot Hexgaze
King Brogg, General 520 points
Thugg Skullsplitter
Gate-Breaker Mega-Gargant 500 points
Heroic Trait: Furious Temper
Skarn the Brutal
Mancrusher Gargant 160 points
Drakk the Kunning
Mancrusher Gargant 160 points
Regiment 2
Morgut Bonecaster
Kraken-Eater Mega-Gargant 470 points
Artifact of Power: Glowy Lanter
Ghaz the Stabba
Mancrusher Gargant 160 points
Manifestation Lore:
Da Idol of Gork
Krondpine Incarnate
Peter: Our guest writer today requires no introduction, only to say the man is a living legend and to check out his awesome YouTube channel here!
Anthony Magro (AoS Coach): Firstly, you’re a legend Michael for naming your heroes. Everybody should name their heroes on their army list! Be like Michael!
Let’s talk about Michael’s take Sons of Behemat. This list has my preferred build of 3 Mega-Gargants and 3 solo Mancrushers due to battleplans having up to 8 objectives and the current battle tactics not being favourable to a 4 big boy build. King Brodd is a staple in almost every SoB list thanks to the Power of Behemat prayer, durability with 40 wounds, and strong damage profile. Put a CP aside every turn to cast Magical Intervention on Brodd to ensure you’re hitting that chanting value of 5 each battle round. Speaking of magic, Sons don’t have a native wizard so the Glowy Lantern artefact selection gives you access to 1 manifestation lore that you can summon as if you were a wizard. The Krondspine is a great choice for an army that only has 1 summon per turn to bring on another combat threat, however; Morbid Conjuration and Primal would equally bring value to a Sons army.
The Gate-Breaker is your highest damage dealer which only gets better with the Furious Temper trait for extra attacks once per battle. The rarely seen Kraken-Eater returns from 3e hiatus as a utility piece thanks to its solid shooting, melee, unique rules like kicking objectives around the table (and potentially changing their value) and auto-slaying models when stuffed in the net. If this was my list I would have had the Warstomper in the Kraken-Eaters slot, especially with the hindsight of 2x Nighthaunt match ups at this event because it gains extra attacks on the Boulderclub for every 5 models in the target unit… but Michael went 5-0, so I’ll sit down, shut up, and applaud. The 3 solo Mancrushers are a nice choice because they do enough damage, can run and charge while wholly within 12″ of a Mega-Gargant, will help you score Take the Flanks and Seize the Centre, and can be left on objectives without overcommitting.
The key to getting the most out of Sons isn’t building into ultimate combat damage (though running Kragnos and the 3D6 charge aura ability is definitely fun) but playing smart with board control, using those big bases to block off objectives, using your large health characteristics to overpower your enemies, and praying to your dice gods that they bless your attack sequences. Michael’s leveraged his strengths and come out on top against some of the top meta picks right now.
Disciples of Tzeentch
Wyrdflame Host
2000 Points
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Change
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Kairos Fateweaver (440 Points)
• General
Blue Horrors and Brimstone Horrors (240 Points)
• Reinforced
Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (60 Points)
Flamers of Tzeentch (240 Points)
• Reinforced
Screamers of Tzeentch (100 Points)
Regiment 1
Lord of Change (360 Points)
• 1 Rod of Sorcery
• Illusionist
• Nine-eyed Tome
Pink Horrors (280 Points)
• Reinforced
Screamers of Tzeentch (100 Points)
The Changeling (160 Points)
Dalton Kahle: He utilizes what makes tzeentch strong, all the minuses to hit from the Lord of Change make his horrors a nightmare to move off objectives, and then if you do destroy them, the lord of change brings them back and they just keep adding to the blue horrors. All this is happening while the changling is doing his movement shenanigans, and the screamers are moving around to capture the edge objectives and pick off smaller units. The flamers are there to throw out a good number of shots that do d3 damage and combined with Kairos’ innate spell, can have rend and take out priority targets. All of this is in addition to the spell slinging happening from Kairos, the LoC, and the Changling, doing a lot of damage, debuffs, endless spells, and summoning the spawn back if it dies. All of this makes a good control list that is hard to shift off objectives and what you kill can come back at half strength with the LoC’s ability.
Nighthaunt
Death Stalkers
2000 Points
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds
Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180 Points)
• General
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
• Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points)
Hexwraiths (160 Points)
Hexwraiths (320 Points)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Reikenor the Grimhailer (210 Points)
Cairn Wraith (130 Points)
Grimghast Reapers (140 Points)
Grimghast Reapers (140 Points)
Regiment 2
Guardian of Souls (140 Points)
Bladegheist Revenants (150 Points)
Glaivewraith Stalkers (160 Points)
• Reinforced
Glaivewraith Stalkers (80 Points)
Fittsy: Focussing a bit on the differences to a lot of the other NH lists you see floating around these days (pun intended)… We see a start with 3 drops instead of 2 to get a Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed who makes a good bearer for the Ruler of the Spectral Hosts and Lightshard of the Harvest Moon (return half a unit OPB and +1 attack for all within 12 OPB).
It’s nice to see the Grimghast Reapers and Cairn Wraith combo seeing some time on the field. The Cairn Wraith adds a nice +1 attack to the Grimghasts within 12 if it is in combat. This is a quite nice choice that works defensively as an alternative to Bladegheists. The Bladegheists don’t need a supporting piece though and points per damage come out on top most of the time but this choice has worked for Philip. It’s great to see Cairn Wraiths back on the table as one of the OG staples of Nighthaunt.
With a potential two casts from Reikenor and 1 from the Guardian of Souls, there is some sense to taking the Krondspine over the Morbid for the manifestation. There’s also a good bonus in this army, which has quite a few units as the Krondspine can easily get out of the way of the relatively many units in this army, letting them roam around and charge. The Krondspine also nicely can do away with the opponents Endless Spells keeping the board cleaner.
Last but not least, we see not 1 unit of Glaivewraith Stalkers just because the points fit, but we’ve got a reinforced unit. Good on ya Philip for flexing and bringing the poor old horsey boys out to play and taking a 3rd with them!
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Final Tournament Placings
