This is the top three AoS lists for Summer Lodge 2024 that took place in the UK on the 17th and 18th of August 2024. It saw 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Lumineth Realm-lords
Hurakan Temple
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind (350)
• General
Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (240)
Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (240)

Regiment 1
Scinari Calligrave (150)
• Masterful Tactician
• Silver Wand
Vanari Auralan Wardens (140)
Vanari Auralan Wardens (140)

Regiment 2
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)
• Reinforced
Ydrilan Riverblades (140)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor

Roland Rivera: This list does two things at a very high level: shoot and move around the board. These are very valuable things to be good at in 4th edition AoS, as most armies are not as good at either doing these things or addressing them as they used to be.

Sevireth and 2 Spirits of the Wind take up a large amount of this list’s points budget, and they are extremely useful pieces thanks to their versatility. Their extremely high movement speed allows them to pick off foot Heroes and perform surgical strikes, while the Hurakan Facet of War ability allows them to retreat to safety. This high mobility also makes them excellent at completing Battle Tactics such as Take the Flanks and Take their Land. This makes for a unit that many opponents cannot ignore, but will struggle to properly answer.

The rest of this list is dedicated to a reinforced block of Sentinels (a much more static shooting battery that offers great volume), a unit of Riverblades (skirmishing units par excellence), and 2 units of Wardens (to hold the line). Of course, no discussion of Lumineth is complete without talking about their magic, and the Scinari Calligrave is a potent piece here, as it guarantees you at least one manifestation per turn. Ellania and Ellathor rounds the list out as a potent caster that can offer some late-game melee punch in a pinch. This list has a consistent, effective gameplan, as demonstrated by its victory in this tournament.

Nighthaunt
Death Stalkers
2000 Points
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Reikenor the Grimhailer (210 Points)
• General
Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points)
Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points)
Hexwraiths (320 Points)
• Reinforced
Lord Executioner (150 Points)
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
• Lightshard of the Harvest Moon

Regiment 1
Awlrach the Drowner (160 Points)
Bladegheist Revenants (300 Points)
• Reinforced
Craventhrone Guard (200 Points)
• Reinforced
Hexwraiths (320 Points)
• Reinforced

Fittsy: Sam has taken a list with a good smattering of the best of the best options available at the moment. Death Stalkers, 2 drops, Morbid is generally what we’re seeing.

The make up of the 2 regiments is a bit different than I’d personally go for where I like to stack the hard to deal with Hexwraiths in the General’s regiment and get the Dreadblades out into the other. However, the way Sam has done this can make it very hard for the opponent to knock off General’s regiments since the Dreadblades can generally teleport away from most threats. Sam’s taken a loss against Lumineth Hurakan Temple in round 2 which is a very tricky army to deal with when piloted well but has then gone on to knock down a Gitz and SBGL army with 3 consecutive wins to finish 4-1 and take out 2nd place.

Awlrach is not an auto-include but pairs really well with the Bladegheists for bringing them in outside of 7” with his teleport ability. It’s also a nice little way to get the Craventhrone somewhere where the opponent hasn’t expected them to pop up. Congrats to Sam on his 2nd place here.

Lumineth Realm-lords
Hurakan Temple
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind (350)
• General
Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (240)
Hurakan Windchargers (340)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)
Vanari Auralan Wardens (280)
• Reinforced
Vanari Dawnriders (210)

Regiment 2
Scinari Calligrave (150)
• Masterful Tactician
• Silver Wand

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor

Roland Rivera: This list is very similar to the one that took 1st place above, but it eschews going all-in on shooting and mobility in favor of a bit more melee punch. Lumineth’s early success in 4th edition was driven by Vanari-heavy lists presenting a headache for most armies in melee, and this list has not forgotten that.

Sevireth and a Spirit of the Wind are here to provided highly mobile surgical strikes and easy battle tactics by using their high movement and the Hurakan Facet of War ability to dart in and out of danger, but they are joined by a reinforced unit of Windchargers and a unit of Sentinels, which provide increased shooting volume at the expense of movement. On the melee front, a reinforced unit of Wardens and a unit of Dawnriders give this list some frontal board presence.

On the magic front, the Calligrave is a Lumineth mainstay for its ability to spit out manifestations, and Ellania and Ellathor open up access to the entire roster while also providing a potent double caster that can fight in the midgame if needed.

Overall, the list feels like it’s spread a bit more thin than its 1st-place counterpart (which may have cost it the match against the Nighthaunt player that took 2nd), but the quality of the units being used is so high that it was still a strong contender, and achieved a strong result.

Sons of Behemat
Breaker Tribe

Kragnos, the End of Empires (680)
[General]
– 1 x Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (500)
[Monstrously Tough]

Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (500)
[Glowy Lantern]
– 1 x Mancrusher Gargant (160)
– 1 x Mancrusher Gargant (160)

Peter: I’m always grateful when our good friends from Plastic Craic join us for some commentary. Plus, Pete gets to talk about one of his favourite factions.

Pete Atkinson: They’re not exactly setting the world alight, are they?  Early AOS4 is an absolute bloodbath, and Giants are just sitting ducks to a lot of the powerhouse armies prowling top tables.  Nighthaunt and Slaves can pop a couple of Megas a turn and when I faced them at a GT last weekend with my Ogors, we were in the comical position where my opponent had two Megas on an objective and still got outcapped.  Competitively speaking, Sons are barely fit for purpose currently and it’s sad to see.

So what are we gonna do about it?  There’s a few options: personally I chucked in the towel and started playing Ogors and Kruleboyz instead; others have seen some success by taking their chances with SOB as a balls-to-the-wall combat army (especially in Brodd’s Stomp Army of Renown); and then we have Thomas Waller, who’s spent a third of his points on Not Gargants and done pretty well with it. 

It’s a rare Gargants list that doesn’t feature King Brodd these days, but the way the points land here means Thomas has 3x big threats and two skirmishing units.  Those Aleguzzlers will fill a role comparable to cavalry in the army, running around scoring battle tactics, bullying soft targets and taking isolated objectives.  They still die laughably easily, but structurally it works for the list.

Breakers Tribe gives a 6+ ward when two Megas are nearby, and in this case it’s telegraphing that the two Gatebreakers will be running a buddy system in most cases.  I’m not sure why their rend was nerfed down to Rend 2 base: after you’ve thrown a tiny handful of dice hitting on 4s, it’s somewhat disappointing whenever an opponent jags a couple of 5+ saves and leaves you with nothing to show for it at all.  It’s not that rare for Gatebreakers to do zero damage in a combat phase which is honestly pretty sad for a 500-point combat unit, but at least you can just Nope out of the whole sequence and throw your fate behind a 4+ Pulverising Strike roll.  I still get a little tingle in my balls every time I roll that dice, and it’s one of the main reasons to persevere with Sons currently.  Two Gatebreakers in every list.

In terms of Tech, Glowy Lantern gives you access to Manifestations (chosen at the table), and the Heroic Trait puts one of those Gatebreakers on 40 wounds with that 6+ ward.  So Kraggy has you charging on 3D6, you’ve got Wards on all your good units and they can all bang out a whole bunch of pain on a good day.  Meanwhile Thing 1 and Thing 2 run around and score a few VPs, or get absolutely massacred before they have the opportunity, depending on how easily distracted your opponent is.  With this army you’re reliant on both good matchups and good dice, but it looks absolutely baller on the table and will give you a lot exciting moments in every game.  If you want to run your Megas right now and you’re a Kragnos guy, you could certainly do a lot worse than replicating Thomas’s list.  Well done mate.

Final Tournament Placings