This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Almost Loremaster that took place in Montreal, Canada on December 3rd. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 3-game tournament.

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Heartwood
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Season of war: Dwindling

Leaders
Arch-Revenant (120)
Branchwych (130)
– Artefact: The Vesperal Gem
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Warsong Revenant (305)
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Acorn of the Ages
– Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong

Battleline
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)***
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**

Units
3 x Revenant Seekers (235)***
10 x Gossamid Archers (440)*
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 103
Drops: 8

No stranger to podiums across Quebec and Ontario, Olivier Gandouet takes first in a scrappy field with his take on the familiar Sylvaneth Heartwood skeleton. Eschewing common pieces like Drycha, a reinforced Seeker unit, or the Celestant-Prime, Olivier instead gets the most out of a reinforced unit of Gossamid Archers – a unit often maligned by Sylvaneth players. 

You’ll find many of the usual suspects in this list –  teleporting Tree-Revenants easily score battle tactics and potentially Show of Dominance, the Warsong provides reliable access to the strong Sylvaneth spell lore and bursts of AOE mortal wounds, and the Kurnoths are an unholy anvil/hammer combo that can be launched through the Wyldwoods crunked out on Spiteswarm sap to send something to the shadow realm and then fade away. A reinforced unit of Gossamids is really the elephant in the room here. While their durability and expected damage is low relative to their cost, they are capable of truly gruesome spikes and can be difficult to interact with for armies lacking in ranged reach. They will always be a risky include just because their strengths and weaknesses are so polarized, but the risk paid off for Olivier in this case.

We’ve seen Sylvaneth lists slowly edge toward lower drops over time, but Olivier reverses course and instead opts for a high drop list with all the bells and whistles. It’s a strategy that paid off in this event – Sylvaneth can still have a productive and relatively risk-free turn 1 if given first thanks to the Warsong + Spellsinger combo and Strike and Fade, but are also naturally resistant to alpha strikes if given second due to how far back they can set up. A unit of Seekers and a Branchwraith auto-casting Verdurous Harmony provides a layer of insurance for any mistakes, effectively negating any incidental chip damage and enabling rapid recovery from failed kill shots. 

Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Blisterskin
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)*
– General
– Artefact: Eye of Hysh
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Archregent (245)*
– Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation

UNITS
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*

BEHEMOTHS
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
– Allies

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Chronomantic Cogs (70)
Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1990/2000
WOUNDS: 77
ALLIES: 480/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 2/4
DROPS: 1

Season of War’s own Carl Ong really put Flesh Eater Courts on the map of the Canadian tournament scene when he went on a run with his own FEC-Krondspine list. Perhaps seeing no reason to teach an old spine-dog new tricks, Frederic proves the nerfed Krondspine is still very much a thing in deftly piloting his ghoulies to a 3-0 finish.

It’s not flashy, but it doesn’t have to be: the trifecta of the Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, a block of 9 Flayers, and the Krondspine provide the savvy general with the tools to be competitive in most matchups. The Terrorgheist is an infamously explosive rocket-powered scalpel, threatening to tear even the hardest targets down by fishing for mortals with his Gaping Maw. The Krondspine gives the FEC army the durable mid-board unit it desperately wants and a temporary answer for units the Terrorgheist may not want to engage. In tandem, the Gheist and the Krondspine can either remove or tie up the opposing pieces that have the damage (see: Bounty Hunters) to threaten the Flayers, letting them safely leverage their recursion capability and project their force across the table with Run and Charge from Spectral Host. 

This list is here for a good time, not a long time. It will launch a new Archregent-buffed unit across the board each turn until someone runs out of threats. Blisterskin is required here to turn the Flayers into GVs, but is also a strong blanket option with +2 move and access to a teleport for shifty objective play. The Horrorghast is a smart take here, helping to ensure that the list gets the kills it needs on the turn the pilot pulls the trigger and commits. Kudos to Frederic for an excellent finish here. 

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (340)
Katakros (450)
Mortisan Soulmason (115)
– General
– Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour
– Spells: Drain Vitality

BATTLELINE
Necropolis Stalkers (330)*
Necropolis Stalkers (330)*
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

BEHEMOTH
Mortek Crawler (200)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Legends say that on one fateful night a secret cabal of OBR players got together, prayed to effigies of Nagash, Bill Souza, and Owen Jackson, and received the revelation that big bricks of Necropolis Stalkers in Bounty Hunters can do very bad things to almost anything in the game. Dan Fortin was obviously in attendance at this clandestine ritual and has successfully spread the Stalker gospel in Montreal with convincing wins over Sylvaneth, KragGitz, and the OBR mirror.

What DON’T stalkers do, besides disappoint? They’re relatively fast by OBR standards (mimicking the FLY keyword and re-rolling charges), have access to a vintage 2.0 mechanic in re-rollable saves, and scale hard with powerful buffs from Katakros and the Soulmason to drown juicy targets in a sea of hyper-accurate damage 2 and 3 attacks. Arkhan provides damage diversity with his own personal orbit of arcane bolts, while Katakros acts as a buff vector and a constant threat to the opponent’s precious CP. The Mortek Crawler is a good utility add-on, allowing this otherwise melee-range army to reach out and threaten opposing wizards, monsters, and buff characters with a frightening 5 flat damage projectile. It’s worth noting that the Crawler’s normal profile can benefit from Katakros’ attack buff as well, making the payload extremely deadly in concert with a synergistic Horrorghast to lock in the casualties. 

No silly frills like “screens” here: just twelve very large and VERY angry skeletons ready to receive positive affirmations from Katakros and punch a few one-way tickets to the bone zone. Congrats to Dan and looking forward to seeing the Ossiarchs again!

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Option: Jaws of Mork
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)*
Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (270)*
– General
– Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder
– Artefact: Syari Screamersquig
Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)*
– Moon-cutta

Battleline
20 x Shootas (120)*
20 x Shootas (120)*
20 x Shootas (120)*

Units
10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)*

Behemoths
Mangler Squigs (250)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 1

How cool is it that two Gloomspite Gitz lists finished back-to-back in 7th and 8th? In a true homage to the random nature of the Bad Moon, I rolled a dice to decide which I would cover. It seems Raphael Boyon continues to enjoy the moon’s fickle favour, though there was nothing lucky about his performance – he only dropped a game to Olivier’s winning Sylvaneth list!

A lot of the (justified) criticism of the Gloomspite tome boils down to it feeling like playing a losing game of keyword bingo: the juicy synergies seem to be there, but inevitably end up being just out of reach. Raphael’s Jaws of Mork list may represent the best combo this old 2.0 tome is capable of, solving the unreliable reach of Squig units with access to re-rollable movement, +3 movement, and 3d6 charging. On the offensive side of things, these Squigs can hit surprisingly hard: the Loonboss on Mangler provides a generous +1 to wound buff, while the Sneaky Snufflers are perhaps the cheapest source of the very powerful +1 Attack buff in the game. Kragnos ties the package together, serving as a cataclysmic melee threat and anchor that also allows the buffed Squig units to travel potentially shocking distances.

Interesting that Raphael opted for a 2-drop here, but it certainly makes sense for this configuration of the list. If the opponent makes a deployment mistake or fails to respect his movement, Raphael could potentially pull off an Ironjawz-esque alpha strike that pins the opponent at worst and cripples them at best. Going second, Raphael can sit behind the generous screening provided by the Shootas and then pierce the opponent on their weakest flank, threatening a deadly double with Kragnos. Props to Raphael for squeezing every drop of competitive juice out of a beleaguered battletome.

Tournament Placings