This is the top three AoS lists for Guts & Glory 2024 that took place in the US on the 20th and 21st of July. It saw 36 players in teams of 3 vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Plague Cyst
2000 Points
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Malignance
Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Great Unclean One (480 Points)
• General
• Grandfather’s Blessing
• The Witherstave
Plaguebearers (140 Points)
Pusgoyle Blightlords (250 Points)
Putrid Blightkings (200 Points)
Regiment 1
Orghotts Daemonspew (340 Points)
Lord of Blights (170 Points)
Putrid Blightkings (200 Points)
Putrid Blightkings (200 Points)
Faction Terrain
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Roland Rivera: The winning list for this tournament cuts an imposing profile – A Great Unclean One, Orghotts Daemonspew, and 15 Putrid Blightkings are a lot of meat for any opposing armies to fight through, doubly so when bringing them down results in mortal damage being spat in your face (as is the case for Orghotts and the Blightkings). This means that this list will make a strong bid for the middle of the board, with few armies in the game being capable of taking it from them.
Bringing these units down is made even more daunting by some of the support pieces. A Lord of Blights makes Blightkings pricklier when charged, the Witherstave can impose strikes-last when the Great Unclean One is charged, and the Grandfather’s Blessing is a potent source of healing. A unit of Plaguebearers and some Pusgoyle Blightlords round things out with a screen and a bit of mobility.
Beyond the unit choices, the choice of manifestation lore is an interesting one. I find the Chronomantic Cogs to be an interesting utility piece for this list, as it offers rerolls on charges when you want to go on the offensive or -1 to hit the Great Unclean One to make it even harder to kill. While it is worth noting that this list’s undefeated path did not include any of the armies considered to be the meta’s heavy hitters, it still shows how Nurgle is a force to be reckoned with and very capable of fighting its way to top tables.
Grand Alliance Chaos
Blades of Khorne
Khornate Legion
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 3
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Mighty Lord of Khorne (160)
• General
• Firebrand
Skullreapers (440)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (470)
• Ar’gath, The Kind of Blades
Bloodletters (200)
Bloodletters (200)
Skulltaker (160)
Regiment 2
Slaughterpriest (160)
Bloodreavers (100)
Bloodreavers (100)
Roland Rivera: Khorne has stumbled out of the blocks in the new edition, but results like this one indicate that players may be finding their footing with the army. This list has an interesting mix of Daemon and Mortal units, the concept aided by the collaborative abilities of the Khornate Legion Battle Formation, which allows Mortals and Daemons to fight in rapid succession.
The main sources of offensive power in this army are the Skullreapers and the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage. While they are pretty different from each other in terms of appearance and basic unit profile, they are both potent sources of mortal damage. These are supported by units of Bloodletters (who also feature the Crit(Mortal) ability), Bloodreavers, and a Slaughterpriest. The latter two in particular mainly serve as sources for the precious Blood Tithe resource which drives access to Khorne’s more powerful allegiance abilities.
While the inclusions of Skulltaker and the Mighty Lord of Khorne might seem odd at first, there’s a bit of method to what initially looks like madness. The Mighty Lord of Khorne can be a Priest via the Firebrand trait, which lowers the opportunity cost of his selection, and features a bonus to charge rolls for the Mortals in the list. Skulltaker is just the highest expression of the Hero assassin concept, is a potential source of bonus Blood Tithe if he can fulfill his function of killing Heroes, and importantly does not require his own Regiment. While I frankly would not have made these selections, I can see the logic behind them.
All in all, it is heartening to see a Khorne list do well, and while some of the choices in the list may seem unorthodox, the fact that this list has succeeded and some of the more consensus choices have struggled gives some food for thought.
Skaven
Fleshmeld Menagerie
2000 Points
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Ruin
Prayer Lore – Noxious Prayers
Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Thanquol on Boneripper (360 Points)
• General
Rat Ogors (340 Points)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Verminlord Warbringer (360 Points)
• Warpstone Charm
• Scurry Away
Clanrats (160 Points)
Clanrats (160 Points)
Regiment 2
Master Moulder (100 Points)
Stormfiends (260 Points)
• 1 Grinderfists
• 1 Doomflayer Gauntlets
• 1 Clubbing Blows and Warpfire Projectors
Stormfiends (260 Points)
• 1 Grinderfists
• 1 Doomflayer Gauntlets
• 1 Clubbing Blows and Warpfire Projectors
Faction Terrain
Gnawhole
Keegan Graves: So the whole idea behind this list was to test if full melee skaven has legs, turns out it definitely does! The Moulder subfaction is definitely my go-to for a melee list right now. The buffs are powerful and consistent enough to be worth trying every turn. I also have enough casts to make use of the new manifestations, as well as my potent strike last spell, which is invaluable in a full melee army. I ran the cogs to try and leverage the -1 to hit on the verminlord and thanquol to help give them some extra durability, which ended up working out. It’s great protection into shooting, which I did play a decent amount of.
The real power of the list comes from the stormfiends and the rat ogors. The rat ogors are a fast melee piece that I can combine with the gnawhole to alpha strike and kill big pieces like alarielle. The stormfiends deepstrike independent of gnawholes and can come out in opponents turn, which lines them up perfectly to receive some Moulder buffs and then charge into combat in my following turn.
The list also has a large amount of good chip damage between thanquols shooting and spell casting, and the shooting from all the Moulder units. The shooting may be short ranged but it has weight of dice and good rend so it’s great for sniping heroes or monsters.
Lastly, I think the verminlord warbringer is still playable for sure. He’s fast, and relatively cheap for a monster hero. He does great damage with all out attack and I got some good use out of his execute rampage into stormcast and Sylvaneth, both of which have big monsters.
Overall, I think skaven definitely has good tools for 4th edition. We can get great value off of power through, magical intervention, and the endless spells. The tactics so far seem to be easy enough for us as I was scoring 4-5 most every game. The new rules system is super fun and I can’t wait to go to more events!
Final Tournament Placings
