This is the top three AoS lists for the Feud on the Fens 2026 that took place in the UK between the 18th and 19th of July 2026. It saw 57 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite everyone to our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Sons of Behemat Breaker Tribe General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Prayer Lore – Brodd’s Bellows Battle Tactics Cards: Blazing Onslaught and Legend of the Parch
General’s Regiment Kragnos, the End of Empires (590) • General
Regiments of Renown Da Hurtlin’ Hogz (430) Tuskboss on Maw-grunta Maw-grunta Gougers
Sylvaneth Glade Defenders General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 5 Spell Lore – Lore of the Deepwood Prayer Lore – Lore of the Spirit-Song Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Deepwood Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Alarielle the Everqueen (620) • General Gossamid Archers (130) • Aspect of Harvestboon Spite-Revenants (100) Spite-Revenants (100)
Regiment 4 Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth (290)
Faction Terrain Awakened Wyldwood
Disciples of Tzeentch Mutants and Mad Things General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of Fate Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Tzeentch Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Flanking Firestorm
General’s Regiment Lord of Change (390) • General • Devolving Aura • Fate Slicer Blue Horrors and Brimstone Horrors (240) • Reinforced Blue Horrors and Brimstone Horrors (240) • Reinforced Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (60) Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (60)
Regiment 1 Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot (140) Burning Chariot of Tzeentch (140) • Vision of Arcane Sacrifice Scourge of Aqshy: Screamers of Tzeentch (110) Scourge of Aqshy: Screamers of Tzeentch (110)
A 55% win rate make the Tallyband of Nurgle look a very strong battle formation. But the WoElo adjusted win rate drops to 47% suggesting a big part of its success is down to the quality of its players rather than the faction itself. An average WoElo of 475.8 is among the highest we’ve seen, with 9 elite players and only 3 rookies, so this is perhaps an army attracting experienced competitors.
The performance breakdown reinforces that. One-third of players are finishing on 4+ wins while only 8% fail to win a game.
Artefacts, Traits and Poxes
Nothing here screams out as a “must take”.
The Witherstave is by far the most popular artefact but actually underperforms after WoElo is taken into account (45%).
The Carrion Dirge posts an eye-catching 70% win rate, but again, once we take player skill into account we expect an average tournament player would have their success at 47%. But this is appearing on the stronger player lists, rather than the lower ranked WoElo players.
Gift of Febrile Frenzy is almost taken universally with 90% of elite players and 82% of developing (400 Elo or less) players taking it.
Among the Poxes, The Weeping Flux is the only option to outperform the faction average at 51% adjusted win rate.
Battle Tactics
This is where we can notice some important differences thanks to player skill.
Both Siege of Ashes and Blazing Onslaught have excellent raw win rates at 59%, but both fall to 43% when adjusted, indicating they’re success is down to the elite players choosing them.
At the other end, Legend of the Parch improves up to 50% adjusted win rate despite having a lower raw win rate. This could mean it may be more effective than some players realise.
Common Warscrolls
There appears to be a fairly stable core running through most lists:
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Plaguebearers
Rotigus
Rostswords
Lord of Plagues
Interestingly though, Plaguebearers and Poxbringer are the only commonly played warscoll that are currently above the faction’s adjusted average. while Putrid Blightkings and Sloven Knights both fall below.
Impactful Warscrolls
At first glance Shaman Foulhoof and Pestigors look incredible at 73% win rate. However both collapse to 37% adjusted win rate as they are primarily taken by elite players.
But the performers after adjustements are made are:
Plague Drones at 49%
Plaguebearers at 48%
Rotigus at 47%
But none of these are vastly above the faction average which possibly reinforces my thoughts that Tallyband’s strength is coming from experience rather than any overpowered warscrolls.
This is the top three AoS lists for the AoS Summer Scourge that took place in the US between the 18th and 19th of July 2026. It saw 36 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Cities of Sigmar Zealous Hordes General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 4 Wounds: 148 Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (340) • General
Regiment 1 Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120) • The Last Blade of Embergard • Stentorian General Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced • The Living City Cross (10) Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Steelhelms (90)
Regiment 3 Black Ark Fleetmaster (90) War Hydra (170) War Hydra (170) War Hydra (170)
Faction Terrain Dawner’s Triumph
Fabien Barbusse: Four of the top-performing Cities lists this weekend, two from this event and two from Tacoma, shared a very similar foundation. Three of them were built around the same core: Tahlia Vedra, a Cavalier-Marshal, two reinforced units of Cavaliers, an Alchemite Warforger and Steelhelms. Together, these units form an incredibly efficient package that does almost everything the army wants. The Cavaliers are the real stars, combining an excellent statline with Storm of Steel to deliver devastating charges, while Steelhelms provide the defensive utility the army otherwise lacks by forcing opponents to fight on your terms. Tahlia, the Marshal and the Warforger all exist to make those Cavaliers even better, layering +1 to hit and wound, additional mortals on the charge and Crit (Mortal) onto an already exceptional unit.
For my remaining points, I went with three War Hydras and a Fleetmaster to unlock them. Their job was simple: hold objectives, be annoying and operate independently without needing Orders, which gave the rest of the army a lot more flexibility.
The fact that all three were modelled as goose hydras was also a major strategic consideration.
Cities of Sigmar Zealous Hordes General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Wounds: 141 Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane Prayer Lore – Scriptures of Sigmar Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate\ Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (340) • General Gate Gargants (320) Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced • The Living City Cross (10) Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120) • The Last Blade of Embergard • Stentorian General Regiment 1 Alchemite Warforger (130) Freeguild Steelhelms (90) Ironweld Great Cannon (140) Freeguild Steelhelms (90)
Regiment 2 Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk (160)
Faction Terrain Dawner’s Triumph
Fabien Barbusse: Bram kept the same core package but swapped the Hydras for Gate Gargants, an Ironweld Great Cannon and a Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk, creating a much stronger castle with a versatile mix of shooting, melee damage and utility.
That package carried him to a 4-1 finish, with his only loss coming in the final round against my list. It also showed how important battleplans are. On more compact maps, I’d actually give this version a slight edge over mine. However, the final was played on What’s Yours is Ours, where the objectives are much more spread out. The heavier castle package made it harder to split threats across both deployment zones, and a deployment mistake was punished heavily.
After the event, we talked through the game and the list. For the next iteration, the plan is to replace that package with Erasmus, reinforced Fusiliers and a Freeguild Command Corps. It keeps much of the ranged pressure while improving the list’s board control and scoring options, especially on the more spread-out battleplans.
Soulblight Gravelords Bacchanal of Blood General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Wounds: 135 Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Grave Battle Tactic Cards: Burning for Vengeance, Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (410) • General Wight Lord on Skeletal Steed (110) Barrow Knights (380) • Reinforced Barrow Guard (260) • Reinforced • The Never-Dead (10) Barrow Guard (260) • Reinforced
This is the top three AoS lists for Ironweld that took place in the US between the 11th and 12th of 2026. It saw 53 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Cities of Sigmar Zealous Hordes General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Wounds: 152 Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane Prayer Lore – Scriptures of Sigmar Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Burning for Vengeance
General’s Regiment Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (340) • General Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120) • The Last Blade of Embergard • Beloved Leader Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Fusiliers (240) • Reinforced
Regiment 2 Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (120) Freeguild Gallants (130)
Faction Terrain Dawner’s Triumph
Fabien Barbusse: Four of the top-performing Cities lists this weekend, two from this event and two from Summer Scourge, shared a very similar foundation. Three of them were built around the same core: Tahlia Vedra, a Cavalier-Marshal, two reinforced units of Cavaliers, an Alchemite Warforger and Steelhelms. Together, these units form an incredibly efficient package that does almost everything the army wants. The Cavaliers are the real stars, combining an excellent statline with *Storm of Steel* to deliver devastating charges, while Steelhelms provide the defensive utility the army otherwise lacks by forcing opponents to fight on your terms. Tahlia, the Marshal and the Warforger all exist to make those Cavaliers even better, layering +1 to hit and wound, additional mortals on the charge and Crit (Mortal) onto an already exceptional unit.
For his remaining points, Dyl opted for reinforced Fusiliers alongside Jorvan Kreel, Grenadiers and Gallants. The Fusiliers provide ranged pressure and a durable screen, while Jorvan’s movement tricks let the infantry be exactly where they’re needed. Combined with several cheap units, the package gives the list excellent flexibility for both primary and battle tactic scoring.
Congratulations to Dyl on another tournament victory.
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Wounds: 135 Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned Manifestation Lore – Twilit Sorceries Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Burning for Vengeance
General’s Regiment Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120) • General Chaos Chosen (500) • Reinforced • The Dread Banner Chaos Warriors (Scourge of Aqshy) (400) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Daemon Prince (230) • Trophy Rack • Pledged to Nurgle • Rune of Murder • Deathmonger Chaos Knights (240) Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (130)
Regiments of Renown The Curse-Steel Battery (380)
Faction Terrain Nexus Chaotica
Roland Rivera: Slaves to Darkness looks poised to make a strong showing this season between the changes in the July Battlescroll and the new additions in Scourge of Aqshy. This list showcases some of those additions in triumphant fashion.
We’ll start with Scourge of Aqshy Chaos Warriors. For a nominal points increase over the standard variety, you get quite a few benefits. A 6+ Ward when you have any amount of Fury combines with the Nurgle pledge to get you a big block of wounds with a 3+ save backed up by a 5+ Ward, which is a formidable nut to crack. On top of that, any additional Fury you gather over the course of the game makes them even better in combat, making them both a worthy running mate to the classic Dread Banner-bearing reinforced Chosen unit, and an excellent choice to shove into the middle of the board to take and hold any central objectives.
Next up is the Daemon Prince. Not only was he the beneficiary of a recent points cut, but the Despoilers Battle Formation was altered into giving him additional utility by enabling him to hand out his pledge at end of turn, thus accelerating the process of getting your units ready for combat. In addition to these changes, Scourge of Aqshy brought him a delightful piece of gear in the Rune of Murder, which combines with the Deathmonger Heroic Trait to make the Prince spit out a truly terrifying amount of offense on a once-per-game basis (12 attacks, with fight twice!). At 10 health, with a 3+ save backed up by a 5+ Ward thanks to the Nurgle pledge, he also boasts an impressive defensive profile. All in all, this Daemon Prince is officially the menace the lore always told us he could be.
Of course, being a potent combat army is only one piece of the puzzle in creating a successful army – being able to reliably score Battle Tactics is crucial. To aid in that endeavor, this list employed the Curse-Steel Battery Regiment of Renown. The shooting damage from the Helsmiths of Hashut artillery pieces make Blazing Onslaught much easier to score, and the pressure from being shot at will force enemy units to face your potent melee infantry blocks. Overall, this list had a strong showing, and I expect it to be an ongoing theme this season.
Neil Addleman: Right out of the gate with a Slaves to Darkness 5-0 in the first week of the new GHB, you love to see it. This list focuses on two powerhouse infantry units with a couple supporting pieces including a regiment of renown.
A Chaos Sorcerer Lord leads a reinforced unit of Chaos Chosen and Scourge of Aqshy Chaos Warriors. Chosen are a tried and true mega-hammer for this army, with their fight twice ability and the ability to gain a 5+ ward from the Sorcerer. While the new seasonal warriors improve with your fury level. First gaining a 6+ ward, then anti-charge, then at seven fury they gain strike first as long as they haven’t charged, making them a great anvil on any center objective. Especially if you mark them Nurgle to turn that 6+ ward into a 5+ one. With objectives being more tightly packed this GHB, marching two powerful bricks down the board is shaping up to be a solid plan.
A Nurgle Marked Daemon Prince leads the second regiment, and he has both the artefact and the heroic trait in this list. With the Nurgle mark he has 10 health on a 3+/5+ so he won’t be dying to random shooting, and can also be protected with Look Out Sir or Obscuring. With the new Despoilers Formation update he can also mark those Warriors Nurgle turn one and allow you to still mark the Chosen or Knights Khorne, helping your pledge economy. But the artefact and heroic trait combo also turn him into a strong secondary threat. The new Rune of Murder once per game allows you to double his attacks (for a mere d3 mortals taken) and Deathmonger lets you once per game fight twice. So you are looking at 12 damage 3 attacks with crit (mortal) two times for a single turn. If you pick your target well he can take an important piece of the table with ease, and he also uses fury dice well with those damage 3 attacks at end of turn.
In his regiment is a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount paired with 5 Chaos Knights to give the list some speed to hit a flank or a side objective. A tried and true combo that can punch above it’s point cost pretty easily. The speed of these and the Daemon Prince also helps with Burning for Vengeance step one.
To top off the list you have The Curse-Steel Battery Regiment of Renown. This gives you a second cast to the list, as well as two artillery pieces. Not only does this provide ranged pressure to hopefully prevent your opponent from playing too defensively, but it can also shut down commands to stop important redeploys and allow your Chosen to get in and carve their units up. Shooting phase damage also makes Blazing Onslaught step one easier. And they can always high roll and take out a hero monster once in a while.
Overall, this list has multiple hammers on a 3+ save and possible 5+ wards that can brawl in the middle exceptionally well while two cannons fire from the backline to wreck all the opponents plans. And I am sure he enjoyed some thrilling combats with that juiced up Daemon Prince.
Kruleboyz Kruleboyz Klaw General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 5 Spell Lore – Lore of the Swamp Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Gorkamorka Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Burning for Vengeance
General’s Regiment Kragnos, the End of Empires (580) • General Man-skewer Boltboyz (200) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (120) • Swamp Staff
Regiment 2 Swampboss Skumdrekk (150) Hobgrot Slittaz (140) • Reinforced Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (130) • Slippery Skumbag
Regiment 3 Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork (240)
Regiments of Renown Da Hurtlin’ Hogz (430) Tuskboss on Maw-grunta Maw-grunta Gougers
Faction Terrain Skaregob Totem
Connor Irwin: Another strong showing for competitive kruleboyz has some interesting surprises. Let’s break it down.The Klaw formation turns on obscuring out to 12″ for units wholly within 3″ of terrain. Shielding the KB monsters from a lot of shooting hate in some metas. Blazing onslaught and burning for vengeance tactics take advantage of teleporting tricks and monster/wizard smashing tools like kragnos and gobbsprak. I think it’s important to point out what’s missing from this list: gutrippas and monsta-killaz! The faction’s two combat infantry bedrock units for the last…forever? Are taking a turn on the bench and do not seem to have been terribly missed based on the results. Wild!
The generals regiment has kragnos and a reinforced boltboyz unit for a hammer and scalpel combo, while the swampcalla with +1 power from the swamp staff probably sits atop the skaregob totem as long as possible to push out +1 to trick rolls, buffing spells. and maybe his +1 save potion.
Regiment 3 has a newly immerged skumdrekk and 20 hobgrots that (when appropriately buffed) are similar in many ways to gutrippas, but cheaper and with more control and better synergy with their nearby monster-jocky boss. It’s a suddenly popular combo that’s been a matter of discussion all edition and finally getting traction this season. Love to see it. The real dark horse here is the OG Gnashtoof, whose 12″ aura of +1 to hit for KB units (ie kragnos) when contesting uncontrolled objectives at 130 points is well worth the price.
The wizard-hater-in-chief gobsprakk is priced well for his ability to threaten wizards (and especially infantry wizards someone might park on a place of power to farm fury all game), and should be a popular pick this season.
Lastly the ironjawz maw-grunta RoR is out there with kraggy getting into the mix and hopefully handing out fight last on offense and burning rage dice. It’s a strong combo with kraggy’s d6 charge boost aura and opens up the kruleboyz general to pile on damage in multiple engagements both offensively and defensively with dirty trick fight last.
Congrats to Adam for crawling out of the swampy depths of the army WR% rankings with a great performance.
Maggotkin of Nurgle Tallyband of Nurgle General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Lore of Malignance Prayer Lore – Benedictions of Sickness Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment The Glottkin (470) • General Pusgoyle Blightlords (380) • Reinforced Sloven Knights (180)
Regiment 1 Belga the Cystwitch (130)
Regiment 2 Festus the Leechlord (290) Plaguebearers (130)
Regiment 3 Lord of Blights (140) • Overpowering Stench • The Witherstave Scourge of Aqshy: Putrid Blightkings (280) • Reinforced Faction Terrain Feculent Gnarlmaw
We’ve updated the method of calculating the Elo ratings into our Age of Sigmar stats, this includes an attempt to reflect both the tournament strength and the faction strength.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, , Ecksen, ChampionshipHub, Milarki, Mini Headquarters, Tabletop Herald and Longshanks. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
For patrons, you’ll be able to download and play with the database as well (which includes all the lists and stats for all the factions).
As always, if you’re struggling to read a chart, you should be able to right click and then either view or download the image.
Tournaments Included (Using December Battlescroll)
I’ve added in a colour code to show the rough age of the rules the faction is using.
As always, these are global stats from various sources around the internet.
Factions by Average Elo
I’ve included this one to show the rankings of factions by their average Elo.
Estimated Win Rates if the Player Skill Levels were Equal
What I’m trying to do here is work out what the win rates would be if the skill levels of all the players were the same (Yes, I realise this is nearly impossible to calculate – But I’m playing around here).
How it works is by calculating the average Elo of all the players that have had matches since the July battlescroll dropped. This worked out as 411.1. I then calculated how much difference there was between a factions average Elo shown in our original win rate graph to this overall average. The difference between these two figures was then turned into a percentage difference over/under the 411.1 elo. I then increased or decreased their win rate by this percentage (But this isn’t as simple as deducting or adding the percentage different to the win rate – you have to work out for instance what 4% may be of say 53% and then apply that. For Example – 10% of 40% is 4%)
Win Rates by Release Date
This chart shows the win rates for all the battletomes released within certain periods of time (every 6 months since 4th edition release).
This should show whether Battletomes are generally stronger the later they are released into the edition. As we can see they all fall within the 45-55% win area, though the battletomes released in the last 6 months are a little stronger than the other cohorts.
Battle Formation Win Rates
This chart shows the win rates for Battle Formations that have seen 100 games or more at GT events.
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Player Elo Rating)
This is perhaps the most interesting chart to me personally. Here you can see the spread of the player skill levels for each faction according to our Elo rating system (updated each week in line with the Age of Sigmar stats).
The dark blue shows the really elite players of 700+ Elo. Interestingly, they don’t seem to give a damn about which faction is performing well in the meta and rely on their own skill (as they should!). Neither to 600-699 rated players. Where we start to see the swell in players possibly chasing the factions with more favourable rules is in players rated less than 600 Elo.
To make it a bit easier to see the effect of higher skilled players, I’ve added the below chart this week which breaks down each factions player base as a percentage.
Elite and Rookie Players by Faction
The blue section shows the percentage of a factions players which have an Elo rating of 500 or greater. While the Orange shows the number of new players to the faction where they have yet to attend a tournament (based on our database history).
The Fabien Chart
Fabien Barbusse is a top player in the AoS scene and a member of the Woehammer Discord who is one of many who points out any mistakes in the charts before we publish them. He stated he felt the most valuable chart would be a version of the one above, which shows the % of 4+ win results in a 5 game event compared to the other results.
% of Players with a Positive GT Result
Ideally you would want 50% of the players having a positive results for a truly balanced game system.
Consecutive Wins
This chart shows firstly the % of players with a negative result from 5 games at GT’s or GT+ in purple for each faction.
Dark blue shows the percentage of players who achieved 5 wins from 5 in the first five rounds of a GT or GT+.
Orange shows the players who achieved four wins from the first four rounds of a GT or GT+ but were unable to achieve the full house and lost their round 5 match.
Green shows the players who achieved three wins from three wins but were unable to win in their fourth round match.
Light blue shows all other players aside from those shown in the first three categories, who were able to achieve a positive result at a GT or GT+ i.e. 3 or more wins.
The above is an aim to show how easy factions are to pilot for players. In this case I’ve narrowed the population down to players with an Elo between 200 and 400. What follows is then the % of those players to win in the first round. This continues, showing what % of players won in round 1 and round 2 in the next column. This continues to show how deep developing players are progressing into tournaments undefeated using that faction.
Bear in mind that although we have no tournament history on record for these players, they may be skilled outside of tournaments before their first recorded instance in the Woehammer database.
Battleplan Win Rates
This one could be useful for TO’s who are looking to run tournaments in the near future. If you’re hoping to curtail a few of the higher powered factions, you could perhaps look to use battleplans where those factions aren’t as dominant.
PlasticCraic mentioned the popularity of Battleplans earlier this week on his discord. So thought I’d include this.
Past Battlescroll Win Rates
Woehammer Database
To download out Age of Sigmar stats database, click on the button below.
For those of you who are counted among our legendary Patreons, you can view the full stats and download the stats database below which now includes warscroll win rates and lists.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Warhammer Open Tacomathat took place in US between the 18th and 20th of July 2026. It saw 104 players vying to be crowned champion in a 8 game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Hedonites of Slaanesh Depraved Carnival General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of Extravagance Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Depravity Battle Tactics Cards: Flanking Firestorm and Siege of Ashes
Regiment 1 Shardspeaker of Slaanesh (120) Lord of Hysteria (120) • Incensed
Regiment 2 Thricefold Discord (180) • Bashful Visage Blissbarb Seekers (330) • Reinforced • Obsession with Control The Masque (120)
Faction Terrain Fane of Slaanesh
Daughters of Khaine Coven of Blood General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of Shadows Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Khainite Cult Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Khaine Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Morathi-Khaine (750) • General Blood Sisters (320) • Reinforced Blood Sisters (320) • Reinforced The Shadow Queen
The latest WoElo data paints a bleak (pun intended) picture for Stormcast players using the Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels battle formation. While the army posts a 46% overall win rate, its WoElo Adjusted Win Rate falls to 44%, suggesting that the faction’s struggles persist even when accounting for player skill.
On first look, it might not seem a dramatic difference, but it’s fairly important. WoElo Adjusted Win Rate is designed to remove some of the influence of player ability, helping us to understand how the faction itself is performing. In the Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels case, the adjusted figure suggests the army is currently underperforming on its own merits rather than simply being piloted by weaker players.
The current dataset contains 26 players across 132 games, but only two of those players have a WoElo above 500. As a result, the 500+ pick percentages in the following images should be treated as directional rather than definitive. They can highlight trends, but they’re far from conclusive with it being such a small sample.
Tournament Performance
Stormcast players are proving capable of solid tournament finishes, but converting those into podium results remains difficult. Only 8% of players were able to achieve four wins or more, while the majority at 42% finished with two wins.
Overall, this suggests Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels are most commonly ending events with 2-3 wins rather than consistently challenging for top tables.
Enhancements
List construction appears to be fairly settled at the moment with Quicksilver Draught being the most common Artefact of Power. Despite posting a respectable 49% win rate across 67 games, it’s WoElo Adjusted Win Rate falls to 44%, matching the faction average. The less common Blade of the Six Smiths actually improves sightly after adjusting for player skill, posting an adjusted win rate of 48%.
Heroic Traits are also interesting, the two 500+ players both chose this as their trait yet it only records an adjusted win rate of 42%, below the faction adjusted rate. That doesn’t necessarily mean the trait is weak, but it does suggest that simply copying elite list choices may not automatically translate into better results.
Meanwhile Envoy of the Heavens and Shock and Awe both perform slightly above the faction adjusted rate despite being absent from higher-rated players’ lists.
Players are committing to the Scar of War, Veterans of the Amberstone Watch. It appears to be a dependable choice at the moment.
Battle Tactics
Sentinels players favour Burning for Vengeance which appears in 98 games and peforms in line with faction’s adjusted win rate. The remaining commonly selected tactics all cluster around the same performance. This does suggest Battle Tactics are not currently making a large impact on separating successful and unsuccessful lists.
Common Warscrolls
Reclusians top the usage charts, appearing in 95 games, while Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows, Lord-Terminos, Vigilors and Questor Soulsworn all feature heavily.
But popularity doesn’t equate to performance. Longstrike Crossbows post a 42% adjusted win rate, below the factions own adjusted win rate, despite being one of the main choices.
Prosecutors continue to stand out though. Although they appear in fewer lists than several other units, they have a 49% adjusted win rate making them possibly, one of the strongest warscrolls that Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels can use.
Most Impactful Warscrolls
Looking past popularity means we can look at some other units that may deserve some attention.
Liberators are seemingly good with an adjusted win rate of 52%, making them one of the few units that comfortably outperforms the faction.
Stormcoven, Prosecutors and Yndrasta also exceed the adjusted faction win rate, meaning there may be some value in including them.
On the otherside, Karazai the Scarred and Vanquishers all appear to be struggling posting a 40% and 42% adjusted win rate respectively.
Perhaps the most interesting example is the Celestant-Prime, his raw win rate of 64% initially looks really good, but once player skill is taken into account, the adjusted win rate falls to 45%. Much of his success seems to be driven by the calibre of players fielding him rather than the warscroll itself.
Final Thoughts
Stormcast Eternals are the games most common army, and Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels is its players most common Battle Formation, but they face an uphill struggle in competition play. Their already low 46% becomes 44% once player skill is taken into account.
But there are positives, Prosecutors, Liberators, Stormcoven and Yndrasta all are currently pulling the faction up, there may be some room therefore for innovation.
As always, these findings are based on the first 100 games played with the Battle Formation. The Elite 500+ player sample is too small to draw any meaningful conclusions from so the WoElo pick rates should only be viewed as early indicators. Even so, data could be suggesting that Sentinels players may have more success by looking beyond the established lists and exploring some of the less obvious options.
Bacchanal of Blood is proving to be one of the stronger formations in the current meta, posting a 53% win rate across 143 games. Unlike Coven of Blood, though, its success isn’t being driven by an elite player base. With an average Elo of 451.9, only 16% of players above 500 Elo, and 20% first-time tournament attendees, these results suggest the formation is performing well across a broader range of player skill levels.
The performance breakdown reinforces that consistency:
32% of players finish on 4+ wins.
32% finish on exactly 3 wins.
36% finish on two wins or fewer.
That points to an army that consistently achieves positive tournament records rather than relying on a handful of standout finishes.
Warscrolls
The army has a fairly clear core, although there is noticeably more variety than we’re seeing in Coven of Blood for Daughters of Khaine.
Barrow Guard are the most common unit and continue to perform well at 54%.
Vengorian Lord stands out among the commonly used warscrolls with a 60% win rate, while Dire Wolves and Fell Bats also comfortably outperform the faction average.
Some staples aren’t carrying their weight quite as well. Blood Knights (47%), Barrow Knights (46%), and Prince Vhordrai (43%) appear regularly despite below-average results.
Among the less common options, several units are quietly posting excellent numbers:
Deadwalker Zombies (71%)
Mannfred von Carstein (68%)
Askurgan Trueblades (66%)
Revenant Draconith and the Necromancer both sit at 65%.
These all come from smaller samples but could point towards alternative builds worth exploring.Enhancements
Enhancements
The enhancement choices are fairly settled.
Shard of Night is comfortably the preferred artefact and returns a solid 60% win rate.
Immortal Ego is the standout Heroic Trait, posting an impressive 62% across a healthy sample of 86 games, making it the clear default option.
Battle Tactics and Manifestations
Unlike some factions, Bacchanal of Blood doesn’t appear to have one overwhelmingly dominant battle tactic package.
Burning for Vengeance (59%) edges out the other common choices.
Siege of Ashes remains the default selection thanks to its reliability rather than exceptional performance.
One interesting note is that while Manifestations of the Grave is the most common lore, Aetherwrought Machineries is quietly producing a 61% win rate from 33 games, suggesting some players are finding success by moving away from the expected choice.
Overall Impression
Bacchanal of Blood feels like a very healthy competitive army. It isn’t dominating through elite players alone, nor is it dependent on a single oppressive unit. Instead, it has a broad collection of efficient warscrolls, several viable support options, and enough flexibility that players are still discovering successful combinations. The formation looks strong without appearing solved, and there is still room for innovation as the meta develops.
Overall, Coven of Blood continues to justify its place as the standout Daughters of Khaine formation. A 60% win rate across 130 games is backed up by a healthy player base and a very experienced one, with almost 60% of players sitting above 500 Elo and just a single first-time tournament player.
Overall Performance
A 60% win rate from 130 games makes this one of the strongest formations in the game.
38% of players finish on 4 or more wins, with another 29% reaching 3 wins. That means over two-thirds of players are leaving events with winning records.
The high average Elo (494.9) suggests the formation is attracting experienced players, so a lot of the success is undoubtedly pilot skill.
Warscrolls
There’s very little variation in the core list.
Blood Sisters, Morathi-Khaine, the Shadow Queen, Khinerai Heartrenders and the Melusai Ironscale appear in the overwhelming majority of lists, forming a very consistent backbone.
The standout performers are the Slaughter Queen on Cauldron (74%) and Bloodwrack Shrine (72%). While both have smaller sample sizes, they’re well worth watching as the data grows.
Outside of those, most of the core units are clustered around the 58-60% mark, suggesting the army wins through the strength of the overall package rather than one clearly broken warscroll.
Enhancements
There isn’t much experimentation with artefacts.
Witchbrew is effectively the default choice.
Heroic Traits are more varied. Hand of Khaine (72%) and Shadow-Blooded (69%) have posted excellent early numbers, although from relatively small samples compared to Loyal Unto Death, which remains the most commonly selected option despite its lower 56% win rate.
Battle Tactics
Players are clearly favouring Siege of Ashes and Burning for Vengeance because they’re the most reliable and most commonly selected.
The eye-catching number is Blazing Onslaught at 74%, although that’s from only 23 games, so it’s probably best viewed as an option with high potential rather than a proven staple.
Overall Impression
The data paints the picture of an army that’s becoming highly refined. Most successful lists share an almost identical core, with only a handful of support choices changing around the edges. The question isn’t whether Coven of Blood is strong, but whether the meta will adapt to it over the coming weeks, or whether these numbers remain as more games are played.
We’ve updated the method of calculating the Elo ratings into our Age of Sigmar stats, this includes an attempt to reflect both the tournament strength and the faction strength.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, , Ecksen, ChampionshipHub, Milarki, Mini Headquarters, Tabletop Herald and Longshanks. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
For patrons, you’ll be able to download and play with the database as well (which includes all the lists and stats for all the factions).
As always, if you’re struggling to read a chart, you should be able to right click and then either view or download the image.
Tournaments Included (Using December Battlescroll)
I’ve added in a colour code to show the rough age of the rules the faction is using.
As always, these are global stats from various sources around the internet. Er… Kruleboyz?
Factions by Average Elo
I’ve included this one to show the rankings of factions by their average Elo. As mentioned in the last section, Daughters have the highest average Elo of all the factions currently which goes a long way to contributing to that 62% win rate.
Estimated Win Rates if the Player Skill Levels were Equal
What I’m trying to do here is work out what the win rates would be if the skill levels of all the players were the same (Yes, I realise this is nearly impossible to calculate – But I’m playing around here).
How it works is by calculating the average Elo of all the players that have had matches since the July battlescroll dropped. This worked out as 409.1. I then calculated how much difference there was between a factions average Elo shown in our original win rate graph to this overall average. The difference between these two figures was then turned into a percentage difference over/under the 409.1 elo. I then increased or decreased their win rate by this percentage (But this isn’t as simple as deducting or adding the percentage different to the win rate – you have to work out for instance what 4% may be of say 53% and then apply that. For Example – 10% of 40% is 4%)
Win Rates by Release Date
This chart shows the win rates for all the battletomes released within certain periods of time (every 6 months since 4th edition release).
This should show whether Battletomes are generally stronger the later they are released into the edition. As we can see they all fall within the 45-55% win area, though the battletomes released in the last 6 months are a little stronger than the other cohorts.
Battle Formation Win Rates
This chart shows the win rates for Battle Formations that have seen 100 games or more at GT events.
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Player Elo Rating)
This is perhaps the most interesting chart to me personally. Here you can see the spread of the player skill levels for each faction according to our Elo rating system (updated each week in line with the Age of Sigmar stats).
The dark blue shows the really elite players of 700+ Elo. Interestingly, they don’t seem to give a damn about which faction is performing well in the meta and rely on their own skill (as they should!). Neither to 600-699 rated players. Where we start to see the swell in players possibly chasing the factions with more favourable rules is in players rated less than 600 Elo.
To make it a bit easier to see the effect of higher skilled players, I’ve added the below chart this week which breaks down each factions player base as a percentage.
Elite and Rookie Players by Faction
The blue section shows the percentage of a factions players which have an Elo rating of 500 or greater. While the Orange shows the number of new players to the faction where they have yet to attend a tournament (based on our database history).
The Fabien Chart
Fabien Barbusse is a top player in the AoS scene and a member of the Woehammer Discord who is one of many who points out any mistakes in the charts before we publish them. He stated he felt the most valuable chart would be a version of the one above, which shows the % of 4+ win results in a 5 game event compared to the other results.
% of Players with a Positive GT Result
Ideally you would want 50% of the players having a positive results for a truly balanced game system.
Consecutive Wins
This chart shows firstly the % of players with a negative result from 5 games at GT’s or GT+ in purple for each faction.
Dark blue shows the percentage of players who achieved 5 wins from 5 in the first five rounds of a GT or GT+.
Orange shows the players who achieved four wins from the first four rounds of a GT or GT+ but were unable to achieve the full house and lost their round 5 match.
Green shows the players who achieved three wins from three wins but were unable to win in their fourth round match.
Light blue shows all other players aside from those shown in the first three categories, who were able to achieve a positive result at a GT or GT+ i.e. 3 or more wins.
The above is an aim to show how easy factions are to pilot for players. In this case I’ve narrowed the population down to players with an Elo between 200 and 400. What follows is then the % of those players to win in the first round. This continues, showing what % of players won in round 1 and round 2 in the next column. This continues to show how deep developing players are progressing into tournaments undefeated using that faction.
Bear in mind that although we have no tournament history on record for these players, they may be skilled outside of tournaments before their first recorded instance in the Woehammer database.
Battleplan Win Rates
This one could be useful for TO’s who are looking to run tournaments in the near future. If you’re hoping to curtail a few of the higher powered factions, you could perhaps look to use battleplans where those factions aren’t as dominant.
PlasticCraic mentioned the popularity of Battleplans earlier this week on his discord. So thought I’d include this.
Past Battlescroll Win Rates
Woehammer Database
To download out Age of Sigmar stats database, click on the button below.
For those of you who are counted among our legendary Patreons, you can view the full stats and download the stats database below which now includes warscroll win rates and lists.
