This is the top three lists for Top Three AoS Lists for River City Rumble that took place in the United States between the 4th and 5th of October 2025. It saw 24 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Flesh-eater Courts | Royal Menagerie
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Madness
Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries
Battle Tactics Cards: Intercept and Recover and Restless Energy
General’s Regiment
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (360)
• General
• Revered Monstrosity
• The Grisly Pennant
• Stronger in Madness
Royal Terrorgheist (230)
Royal Terrorgheist (230)
Royal Terrorgheist (230)
Royal Terrorgheist (230)
Regiment 1
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (350)
High Falconer Felgryn (120)
Royal Zombie Dragon (240)
Faction Terrain
Charnel Throne (10)
Senshi: I have to congratulate Dylan Gill for his 1st place finish at River City Rumble with this monstrous list. But what are the keys to victory with such a particular setup? Let’s take a look.
First and foremost, the centerpiece of the list is the Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist and its powerful trait combination. With Stronger in Madness, he can ignore all weapon abilities in combat, and thanks to The Grisly Pennant, he can impose a -1 to hit on an enemy unit in melee. That same artefact also grants other friendly units +1 to hit against the targeted enemy. The warscroll ability Ferocious Hunger and the monstrous trait Revered Monstrosity give the Ghoul King and other friendly monsters +1 to hit with their companion weapons.
All of this, combined with their own warscroll ability, the Delusion, and the Feeding Frenzy battle trait—which provides a flurry of extra attacks—creates the massive damage output this list brings to the battlefield.
The Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon, meanwhile, offers the mobility needed to spread that damage quickly, granting Run and Charge to all monsters wholly within 12″.
Finally, High Falconer Felgryn adds another useful Delusion: subtracting 10 from the control scores of enemy units engaged in combat with friendly monsters. Additionally, you can garrison the Charnel Throne to add 1d6″ to the Royal Zombie Dragon’s teleport set-up.
The Manifestation Lore Aetherwrought Machineries is a logical pick, especially when Chronomantic Cogs subtract 1 from hit rolls against both Abhorrant Ghoul Kings. The other manifestations are also highly reliable.
Once again, congratulations on the victory and on crafting such a tech-heavy list!
Kharadron Overlords | Pioneers and Scavengers
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Battle Tactics Cards: Attuned to Ghyran and Master The Paths
General’s Regiment
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (150)
• General
Arkanaut Company (180)
• Reinforced
Arkanaut Ironclad (460)
Regiment 1
Codewright (80)
• Celestium Burst Grenade
Arkanaut Frigate (300)
• Gruksson Wide-bore Cylinders
Skywardens (260)
• Reinforced
Vongrim Salvagers (240)
• Reinforced
Regiment 2
Arkanaut Admiral (140)
• Combat Grafter
Scourge of Ghyran Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
Faction Terrain
Zontari Endrin Dock (20)
Fittsy: This is a variant on one of the pretty common lists styles for KO bringing both the big ships but choosing to forgo the potential big first turn for a list that can fight through all 5 turns effectively We see a few of the elements kept who have had points increases (Endrinmaster, Soggy Gunhauler, Balloon fellas). They went up because they were good and they’re still good even if they are a bit more expensive. The Soggy Gunhauler is a good piece still for lists like this with the potential to drop down from the skies, shoot, move d6, and then maybe even charge to potentially take an objective in the backfield, tag, or even threaten a little buff hero.
The Ironclad happily wanders around using the buffs from the Admiral and the retreat and shoot from the Endrinmaster.
We’ve got two interesting choices in the Battle Formation, which is the 6+ ward for the 1 unit of Vongrim and Attuned to Ghyran, which we don’t see often for KO. I’ve been thinking about taking it myself too to try out… If the opponent moves into the middle, that can set up a nice turn for the KO player, otherwise with the clad, 2 heroes, and Arkanauts it can be a good position to move up to and hold.
This list is a good pivot and an excellent performance with the new battlescroll!
Soulblight Gravelords
Deathmarch
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 4
Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Grave
Battle Tactic Cards: Master The Paths, Scouting Force
General’s Regiment
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (450)
• General
Vargheists (120)
Vargheists (120)
Regiment 1
Wight King (90)
Barrow Guard (300)
• Reinforced
Deathrattle Skeletons (90)
Deathrattle Skeletons (90)
Regiment 2
Wight King (90)
Barrow Guard (300)
• Reinforced
Regiment 3
Wight Lord on Skeletal Steed (130)
• Immortal Ego
• Amulet of Graves
Barrow Knights (210)
Faction Terrain
Cursed Sepulchre
Craig Smith: The first thing I noted from Andrew’s fantastic list that he piloted to a superb 4-1 for a 3rd place finish was that it was a Soulblight list that wasn’t using Bacchanal of Blood! A rare sight, some might say, but secretly I’ve been longing to see a Deathmarch list do well, and now we have it. With wins against Maggotkin (Plague Cyst), FEC (Knightly Echelon), a Soulblight mirror but into Bacchanal, and Khorne (Murderhost), Andrew only ended up losing out to FEC (Royal Menagerie).
So let’s break down what makes the list. To start with there’s the mortals it dishes out – Barrow Guard, Wight Kings, Wight Lord on Steed, and the Barrow Knights all dish them. Two reinforced bricks of Barrow Guard, both accompanied by a Wight King for the 4+/5+ saves, will do an impressive amount of damage on the charge – 41 attacks hitting on 2’s (if chained after the WK), wounding on 3’s with rend 2 damage 1 and with crit mortals. No need for All Out Attack here, and there’s 2 units of them. Although it’s only rend 2 against smaller units, a block of 20 has a good change of being bigger than most things it’s going to face in those armies. So that’s base each turn, then if you can keep Mannfred alive long enough to proc his Sword of Unholy Power, he’s giving those Barrow Guard an extra attach EACH, if they stay within 12” of him. 61 attacks on that profile – bonkers! Maybe even 122 if you can keep both blocks with him up the centre. There’s your hammers right there.
In this formation, I’d see the Vargheists as scoring units, either tactics or objectives, or stick Intercept & Recover tokens on them and fly them all over the place away from the enemy. They can do some work in a pinch, but unreinforced and without the benefit of the +1 to wound on the charge from Bacchanal, I’d probably be keeping them out of combat, largely.
The Barrow Knights here with the mounted Wight Lord are give you an excellent anvil unit and with decent base sizes, they can block or tie up a reasonably sized unit with their 4+/5+ saves and ability to return 1 model per turn at the end of any turn, it can take a lot to chew through them. Not only that but on the initial charge they’re on +1 damage and with 11 attacks on 4+, 3+ rend 1 (unlikely they’ll outnumber whatever they go into so no rend 2), damage 2 and crit mortals, they can hurt. They’d technically benefit from Manfred’s +1 attack as well, but I know I’d rather be looking for that on the Barrow Guard. Immortal Ego is a smart choice for the mounted Wight Lord – being able to re-roll 1 hit and 1 wound roll is nice, but particularly getting to roll 1 save roll could be the difference that stops him from dying, thereby maintaining the 5+ ward for both him and the knights.
I’ve often considered msu Deathrattle Skeletons and never found the points for them but at 90 points now, and with 5 coming back once they die, they can be simple screens, or pop them out on an objective miles away from your opponents after they’ve died, and they’re incredibly annoying to deal with for very little points. If the worst came to the worst, you could always use a Wight Lord to give one of them crit 2 hits on a 3+, probably unlikely you’ll have them anywhere near each other though!
All in all, a really good showing from Andrew. Big congrats, and here’s hoping we see more Deathmarch!
Final Tournament Placings
