This is the top three AoS lists for the Saigon Grand Tournament 2024 that took place in Vietnam on the 3rd and 4th of August 2024. It saw 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Grand Alliance Order
Stormcast Eternals
Thunderhead Host
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 5
Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm
Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts
Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos (270)
• General
Prosecutors (280)
• Reinforced
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (170)

Regiment 1
Lord-Arcanum on Tauralon (280)
• Quicksilver Draught
• Envoy of the Heavens

Regiment 2
Knight-Arcanum (120)
Vanquishers (220)
• Reinforced
Vanquishers (220)
• Reinforced

Regiment 3
Knight-Relictor (120)
Gryph-hounds (80)

Regiment 4
Knight-Incantor (140)
Gryph-hounds (80)

Connor Irwin: Congratulations to Tran at the Saigon GT! Piloting this infantry-heavy slugger of a list to a 5-0 in a major event is no easy feat. Let’s break it down and see what the secret to his success might have been.

Tran chose the Thunderhead host formation, giving his blocks of warrior chamber infantry a +1 to hit when nearby a non-hero unit that does not share their chamber. The utility is clear as his blocks of vanquishers become much more reliable, especially when you can give them the Finest Hour treatment as well.

Starting from the bottom, the Knight-incantor is a great sacrosanct wizard proving her usefulness by making opponent summoning just a little bit harder within its unbind range and keeping that once a game unbind in her back pocket. With her is a unit of  very efficient gryph-hounds, the perfect unit to zip around and keep those warrior chamber units punching reliably.

Next there’s the Knight-Relictor and another unit of hounds. This is the cheapest priest on the roster and has a great ability to reduce ward rolls by 1 for an enemy unit within 12″ on a 2+ in the shooting phase. With the Stormcast prayer lore having access to some really strong prayers at full power with translocate and bless weapons especially, this guy puts in work all game.

Next you’ve got the knight arcanum with its manifestation tech, adding one to banish and summoning rolls. This couples really well with the knight-incantor for keeping enemy manifestations from popping up, especially after turn 1. In this regiment the two big hammers for the list reside, two reinforced units of vanquishers. These guys got a major glow up with extra damage into units with >5 models and anti-infantry rend. Now the spice comes when you combine that with a formation +1 hit and +1 wound/save from Finest Hour and maybe a bless weapons for extra attacks. Those big blocks of infantry or even cavalry terrorizing the meta don’t stand a chance.

The next formation is where things start to get more technical and niche. The Lord-Arcanum on Tauralon is a very mobile buffing piece you just don’t see every day that can support the hounds by giving them a 5+ ward to survive to screen again, or make the 20 wounds of 3+ save vanquishers a nightmare to get through. On top of that it can punish enemy wizards (especially the strong and covetted power 2 kind) who manage to get off a spell. Last on its parade of abilities is a +1 to cast for friendly wizards wholly within 12″. This couples very nicely with the knight-incantor for summoning the krondspine and makes sure the knight-incantor has a leg up. This all adds up to a strong core of 3 cast that can pump out mortal wounds across the table with lightning blast and counter the manifestation meta in an oppressive way. It’s enhancements of the daught and Envoy of Heaven on such a fast unit means it can still contribute in combat under pressure and can dish out even more 5+ wards as the hounds start to fall away.

Last on the list, we have the big man himself, Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos, reinforced prosecutors, and a unit of Longstrikes. Bastian is a strong fighter in combat but comes with a pregame move for 3 infantry units and free all-out attacking for units nearby. The former helps with early board control, and the latter really helps push through more damage from the Longstrikes and overcome the many -1 to hit debuffs out there, especially when you combine it with the Formation buff This amounts to a lot of saved CP by the end of the game for other exotic uses. Longstrikes need no introduction. The only surprise on this list is that they’re not reinforced, but there’s only so many points to go around. Last but not least, we have reinforced prosecutors. These guys are great at dropping from azyr with scions behind a unit of hounds, shooting off a screen, and charging right into an enemy shooting threat or hero and lifting it. With redeploy and covering fire really defanging the offensive use of deepstrike abilities like Scions of the Storm game-wide, prosecutors are one of the few units that can still make it work.

All these pieces add up to a surprisingly technical army with answers to a lot of what is naturally strong out in the competitive meta. I especially like that Tran makes use of sacrosanct units while he can. It takes a great general to pilot all that tech and find those wins all weekend so well done and well fought!

Nighthaunt
Death Stalkers
2000 Points
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds
Manifestation Lore – Cthonic Sorceries

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (300 Points)
• General
Bladegheist Revenants (300 Points)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Guardian of Souls (140 Points)
Bladegheist Revenants (300 Points)
• Reinforced
Bladegheist Revenants (300 Points)
• Reinforced

Regiment 2
Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180 Points)
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
• Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points)
Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points)
Hexwraiths (160 Points)

Fittsy: Nice work here by Solomon, taking 2nd place and with some interesting list building choices!

It’s a 3 drop instead of a 2 in this case, and that’s opened up the selection of the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, taking the standard Ruler and Lightshard. I like the KoSoS as the artefact and trait bearer as he’ll be right in the thick of it to drop Lightshard for +1 attack and the opponent will have a lot of other things to worry about before focussing it down. Also, it is a sweet, sweet model!

Solomon is rocking 3 x reinforced Bladegheists. Ouch! 2 units of Dreadblades for that mean teleporting and objective stealing and a nonreinforced unit of Hexwraiths. Lady O and a Guardian of Souls are a nice combo with this Bladegheist heavy list.

In the end, Gloomspite has taken a win against them in round 1, which is pretty good for the ol’ Gits since they’re only winning about a third of the games into NH currently. After that Solomon has submarined all the way to 2nd place taking out a Maggotkin list along the way which is a tough matchup for Nighthaunt but it looks like the ridiculous number of attacks out of the Bladegheists has really worked here.

Slaves to Darkness
Godswrath Warband
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Be’lakor, the Dark Master (410)
• General
Varanguard (620)
• Reinforced
• 1x Khorne

Regiment 1
Daemon Prince (280)
• Infernal Puppet
• Deathmonger
• 1x Khorne
• 1x Wings
Chaos Spawn (60)
• 1x Khorne
Varanguard (310)
• 1x Khorne
Varanguard (310)
• 1x Khorne

Faction Terrain
Nexus Chaotica

Roland Rivera: Slaves to Darkness lists featuring Be’lakor and lots of Varanguard have been one of 4th edition’s most consistent performers, and it’s easy to see why. Varanguard are perhaps the best offensive unit in the game, and Be’lakor rounds out their arsenal by making them difficult to counterattack via his plethora of disruptive abilities. This particular list chose to double down on the Varanguard, running 12 of them in total.

It also made some interesting choices as to what support units to pair them with. A Daemon Prince offers ways for any of the Varanguard units to tap into the Eye of the Gods table before they start hitting enemy lines, and my guess is that they’ll be looking for combat buffs to make smashing through a bit smoother. That Daemon Prince is also not just a pure support piece, as they’ve decided to mark it Khorne and give it the Deathmonger trait. This means that once per game, it can charge into an opponent spit out 14 3-damage attacks with the Crit (Mortal) ability, which is fairly likely to put a hole in whatever it hits. The choice of the Chaos Spawn is purely driven by having an awkward amount of points left over.

The choice of Lore here is a good one: Primal Energy’s Emerald Lifeswarm is good at keeping models with high Health counts alive, and every model in this list has 5 Health or more. Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws also supplements this highly elite list’s board presence. That elite nature probably made the Nighthaunt matchup (which it lost to in Round 5) very uphill, but its potent combat power got it the 4 other wins. I’d take that trade any day.

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Kharadron Overlords
Aether-runners
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 2

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Aetheric Navigator (130)
• General
• Celestium Burst-grenade
• Cunning Fleetmaster
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)
• 1x Great Skyhook
Grundstok Thunderers (280)
• Reinforced
• 4x Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon
• 4x Aetheric Fumigator or Decksweeper
Skywardens (300)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (130)
Arkanaut Frigate (320)
• 1x Heavy Skyhook
Skywardens (300)
• Reinforced

Fittsy: We’ve got a really good result here with KO who are struggling a little in the current meta, and it’s with a list, which I’m really happy to see do well!

Split across the 2 regiments, we’ve got a Frigate with 2 reinforced units of Skywardens and an Ironclad hauling 10 Thunderers. 2 drops is the sensible place for KO right now… you want to have the chance to control priority… if for nothing else to stop an early double against you as that will really hurt KOs chance to get a win in most cases. It’s got the two boats providing good mobility to the whole army with some good shooting backed up by that tasty tasty Assault Boat on the Frigate giving you the fight first to the Skywardens when you charge them in with the Frigate. Don’t forget you get to use this with a Counter Charge too, which, when done well, is a massive deterrent to a charge into your troops.

It is odd not to see an admiral to buff the Ironclad or Brokk to buff the Skywardens, but the choices of Endrinmaster and Navigator really help to keep control of the game. The Navigator will be slowing enemies and speeding up the ships who already get +2 to move from Aether Runners. The Endrinmaster helps to get the Ironclad back out of combat whilst still shooting which is nice when used with a redeploy to get the Thunderers or other units to safety whilst still using the Ironclad to block enemy units. The Navigator, as general with Cunning Fleetmaster, will also get you two dice and pick one for the redeploy, which buffs up one of KO’s key interactions on the battlefield. For the artefact, we see the burst grenade that removes a ward from a unit for shooting and combat phases in one turn. This is really important into some of KO’s tough matchups but comes at the loss of a once per game auto unbind.
We are seeing a few Skywardens around but more often with Brokk. It’s a bit of a surprise pick here where the Riggers could be taken instead who could be healing up the ships and since they’re cheaper add 1 more unit of Arkanauts in who more than pull their weight and in the worst case, they’re a speed bump or distraction somewhere else on the board.

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Final Tournament Placings