All posts by Sean Langford

Beastmen Brayherds, Dark Elves, Forces of Fantasy, Games Workshop, High Elf Realms, Ravening Hordes, The Old World, Warriors of Chaos, Wood Elf Realms

The Old World Top 3 Doubles Clash

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This is the top three lists for the Old World: Doubles Clash that took place in Milwaukee on the 31st of January 2026. It saw 8 teams with 16 total players vying to be crowned doubles champions in a 3-game tournament. One of each of the doubles scenarios from the Matched Play guide was used and alliances were allowed to be chosen freely so we were able to see some unorthodox team combinations.

This tournament also used the latest faq that was released just a few days prior to the tournament so enjoy the latest results from a tournament format that has always personally been my favorite to play in.

Before I jump into the Top Three Old World Lists, I wanted to remind 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.

This is a tournament that happened locally for me and they players requested it be covered so here we are. It is true if you would like us to cover something you ran or played in please let us know!

The Top Three Old World Lists

===
Chris Connolly

Ambush [1248 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Beastmen Brayherds, Wild Herd, Grand Melee + Combined Arms
===

++ Characters [504 pts] ++

Beastlord [282 pts]
– Hand weapon
– No armour
– Shield
– General
– On foot
– The Black Maul
– Full Plate Chaos Armour
– Gouge-tusks
– Gnarled Hide

Wargor [222 pts]
– Hand weapon
– No armour
– Shield
– Battle Standard Bearer [Monster Hunter’s Tapestry]
– On foot
– Horn of the Great Hunt
– Heavy Chaos Armour
– Slug-skin

++ Core Units [574 pts] ++

Primal Warherd [228 pts]
– Foe-render (champion) [Great weapon]
– Standard bearer [War Banner]
– Musician
– 18x Gors [10x Hand weapons + Shields]
– 10x Ungors [10x Thrusting spears + Shields]

15 Gor Herd [132 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Additional hand weapons
– Ambushers
– True-horn (champion) [Great weapon]
– Standard bearer

10 Ungor Herd [60 pts]
– Shortbows
– Ambushers

10 Ungor Herd [50 pts]
– Shortbows
– Ambushers

1 Razorgor Herd [52 pts]
– Hand weapons (tusks)
– Light armour (calloused hide)

1 Razorgor Herd [52 pts]
– Hand weapons (tusks)
– Light armour (calloused hide)

++ Special Units [170 pts] ++

Preyton [170 pts]
– Hand weapons (Claws and fangs)
– Twisted antlers
– Ambushers

===

Kellen Binder

1249pts Wood Elf Realms

===
++ Characters [485 pts] ++
Treeman Ancient [275 pts]
(Oaken fists, Strangleroots, Full plate armour (Arboreal armour), Wizard [Level 2 Wizard], Ambushers, General, Battle Magic)

Spellweaver [210 pts]
(Hand weapon, Wizard [Level 3 Wizard], Warhawk, Glamour Weave Kindred, Lore of the Wilds)

++ Core Units [331 pts] ++
10 Eternal Guard [130 pts]
(Hand weapon, Asrai spears, Light armour, Shields)

14 Dryads [201 pts]
(Hand weapon, Light armour (Sapwood flesh), Ambushers, Nymph)

++ Special Units [208 pts] ++
4 Tree Kin [208 pts]
(Hand weapon, Heavy armour (Hardwood flesh), Ambushers, Elder)

++ Rare Units [225 pts] ++
Treeman [225 pts]
(Oaken fists, Strangleroots, Full plate armour (Arboreal armour), Ambushers)

What was different about list building for doubles than singles tournaments? What was the process and what were the end goals of your list when building?

I’ll start with the end goal. That was effectively to build something that was off-meta. We were calling it the Meme list, because it was mostly Ambushers. I think we had 5 drops total. The difference in list building this time was just finding ways to compliment each others lists, but also have them stand on their own, if needed. I sort of brought the board presence gameplan with the big Primal Warherd brick, and multiple US10+ scoring units in Ambush, and Kellen brought more heavy hitting units like Treemen, Tree-kin and his Spellweaver. It made it easy in the games to know what our roles were.

What worked well with your armies? Did you have any surprise off meta units that did better than expected?

Honestly, running a majority Ambusher off-meta list actually worked extremely well for us. I don’t know if that would translate to singles 2k events, but a lot of our opponents had to play a very reactive game and didn’t really take some of the lower profile Ambushers into account, like the Ungors. They seemed prepared for the scarier units like Treemen, Tree-kin and Preyton, but the Ungors got our opponents’ baggage trains in the two scenarios it was there for and contributed heavily to the Domination secondaries. Having a low number of drops on the table for turn 1 and 2 forced our opponents’ to close in and engage lower value targets like the Razorgor. A bunch of our off-meta units did great. The Treeman Ancient and regular Treeman absolutely carried game 3 for us. That was an incredibly impressive showing from them. I think they collectively scored over 1,200 kill points. But the Preyton was also a surprisingly good unit. All 3 games it outperformed my expectations, and never gave up points. Turns out dropping a T5 monster with decent output into your opponents’ backlines is actually pretty good.

What was your general strategy going into the tournament?

Have fun haha. We really didn’t think we’d do so well with this list, so our goal was to just play well and have fun. In seriousness though, we tried to use the terrain and our high mobility units (and Ambush deployment) to create smaller winnable combats rather than risking big open battles. Using the massive Warherd brick as a deterrent unit was very effective too. Nobody wants to engage a Beastlord with d6+4 S7 AP-4 attacks. Then using the Ambushers, generate as many points through objectives as we could.

What would you change in your lists going forward? I

t was so impressive, I’d find a way to fit a second Preyton haha

This tournament was days after the old world faq drop and this tournament went full send using all the new rules. Did you notice any differences with the new rules? What was better or worse with it?

Well we played against a list that had Cathay in round 1. And we immediately found that the balloons were less game dominating. They had a character balloon and a regular balloon. Since the output has been decently reduced on them, we just kind of ignored the character balloon and focused on taking out the regular one since its defensive profile is significantly weaker now. Worked in our favor quite well. Dryads having the extra pip of movement really worked well for us too. Bringing them out of Ambush, letting them get that bit closer to artillery and other favorable match-up units made them that bit more consistent, I think. Aside from that our armies didn’t really have anything impacted by the changes. But we like the changes overall.

Any closing thoughts?

Everyone should start running spam Ambushers, and if you’re a Beastmen player, run max Preytons, they’re actually much better in practice than I thought. S-tier unit.

===

Chris

Wolves of the Sea

===

### Characters [532 pts]
– Sorcerer Lord (Sraheda the Lord of Ravens) [301 pts]
-# (Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Chaos [Mark of Tzeentch], Wizard [Level 3 Wizard], General, Chaos Steed, Lore Familiar, Spell Familiar, Enchanting Aura, Daemonology)
– Exalted Sorcerer (Dymetri the Craven Crow) [231 pts]
-# (Hand weapon, Light armour, Mark of Chaos [Mark of Tzeentch], Wizard [Level 2 Wizard], Chaos Steed, Grimoire of Ogvold, Diabolic Splendour, Shadowlands)
### Core Units [315 pts]
– 5 Marauder Berserkers (The Mad Shadows) [68 pts]
-# (Hand weapons, Flails, Light armour, Ambushers, Headtaker (Champion), Unnatural Fortitude)
– 20 Chaos Marauders (The Tribe of Turui) [247 pts]
-# (Hand weapons, Great weapons, Light armour, Shields, Chaotic Cult [None], Formation [Close Order], Marauder Headman (champion) [Enchanted Shield], Standard bearer, Musician, Unnatural Fortitude)
### Special Units [402 pts]
– 8 Marauder Tribe Huscarls (The Hammers of Fate) [292 pts]
-# (Hand weapons, Flails, Light armour, Shields, Drilled, Mark of Chaos [Mark of Tzeentch], First Sword (champion) [Brazen Collar], Standard bearer [Totem of Wrath], Unnatural Fortitude)
– Chaos Chariot (The Ice Runner) [110 pts]
-# (Hand weapons, Halberds, Mark of Chaos Undivided)


===

Paul
Beastmen Brayherds [1246 pts]
===

++ Characters [301 pts] ++

Doombull [301 pts] (Gholgak the Brutalizer) *TEAM GENERAL*
– Hand weapon
– Heavy armour
– General
– The Black Maul
– Charmed Shield

++ Core Units [349 pts] ++

29 Gor Herd [245 pts] (Gholgak’s Manflayers)
– Hand weapons
– Additional hand weapons
– True-horn [Great weapon]
– Standard bearer [Banner of Outrage]
– Musician

1 Razorgor Herd [52 pts] (Chris P. Bacon)
– Hand weapons (tusks)
– Light armour (calloused hide)

1 Razorgor Herd [52 pts] (Wilbur)
– Hand weapons (tusks)
– Light armour (calloused hide)

++ Special Units [337 pts] ++

4 Dragon Ogres [264 pts] (Sons of Derghur)
– Great weapons
– Heavy armour

1 Dragon Ogres [73 pts] (Takshar the Shartak)
– Great weapons
– Heavy armour
– Shartak

++ Rare Units [259 pts] ++

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth [259 pts] (Derghur the Blackened)
– Great weapon
– Light armour
– Heavy Chaos Armour

What was different about list building for doubles than singles tournaments? What was the process and what were the end goals of your list when building?

The biggest difference between doubles and singles is looking out for all potential rules and gameplay interactions between you and your partner’s army. For example using my friend’s team, they ran a Cathay and Wood Elf double gunline list which on paper would have worked well, but in practice they forgot to account for the extra free forest terrain the Wood Elf player got to place, which REALLY blocked his cannons LOS and shooting arcs. The effects of stuff like that in play is hard to foresee unless you bring your lists to the table. So I recommend doing a trial run of your armies before joining any doubles tournaments.

What worked well with your armies? Did you have any surprise off meta units that did better than expected?

Our lists had great synergy; both wanted to get up the board as quickly and possible and both of us had super killy units (the Gor-Doombull brick and my Huscarls) that could carry the weight if the other got destroyed. In game 2 for example we lost the Doombull and his gors turn 1 due to some unlucky combat rolls, but my Huscarls were around to clean up the board and bring it to a draw instead of a loss. Off-meta wise, the Tzeentch Huscarl brick is something I haven’t seen a lot in tournament WotS lists but it just feels so strong. Enchanting Aura alongside Daemonic Vessel, Totem of Wrath, and two assailment spells that function like Viletide (Daemonic Familiars and Shadowed Assailants) is no joke. Three attacks on each rider at S6 with AP4 and rerolling 1s to wound while striking before them, even when counter charging is just insane.

What was your general strategy going into the tournament?

For me and my partner, his Big Gor-Doombull brick and Dragon Ogre heavy list did a great job of distracting the enemy. He just marched everything forward while my Tzeentch Huscarl brick made its way into position and destroyed anything it got into combat with. It was impossible to stop too because everyone was so focused on the Shaggoth and regular DOs that enemy cannonballs and other shooting that could have threatened it never made its way towards the Huscarls. The Doombull brick itself was also extremely good in combat, allowing it to chew through whatever the sent to deal with it (except the Ogre Butcher brick in the second game, which managed to beat it as mentioned).

What would you change in your lists going forward?

The Chaos Chariot didn’t really do much, so if I were to run this again I would drop that 100%. Two or three skinwolves would have done a better job of clearing out chaff and running through their backlines.

This tournament was days after the old world faq drop and this tournament went full send using all the new rules. Did you notice any differences with the new rules? What was better or worse with it?

The only difference was the change to how characters retire when not in combat. Before the FAQ it seemed most people played it as characters not fitting in the front rank had to retire to the back but could still cast spells, which was great since I could enter marching column with the Huscarls and still get my buffs off. With the new FAQ strongly implying they can’t contribute at all even outside combat, it meant there was never any reason to enter marching column anymore.

Any closing thoughts?

Doubles really feels like the most fun you can have playing The Old World. I recommend it to anyone on the fence 100%! You see more interesting lists and negotiating/strategizing with a teammate in game adds another layer that is both fun and tactical.

===
Steve Sorenson

Hostile Resolve [1250 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Dark Elves, Open War
===

++ Characters [225 pts] ++

Supreme Sorceress [225 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Wizard [Level 3 Wizard]
– General
– Dark Pegasus
– Pendant of Khaeleth
– Battle Magic

++ Core Units [321 pts] ++

6 Dark Riders [114 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Cavalry spears
– Repeater crossbows
– Light armour
– Musician

16 Repeater Crossbowmen [207 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Repeater crossbows
– Light armour
– Shields
– Lordling (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

++ Special Units [504 pts] ++

17 Har Ganeth Executioners [273 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Har Ganeth greatswords
– Heavy armour
– Draich Master (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

6 Cold One Knights [231 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Lances
– Shields
– Full plate armour
– Dread Knight (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

++ Rare Units [200 pts] ++

War Hydra [200 pts]
– Wicked claws
– Serrated maws
– Hand weapons
– Whips
– 5+

===
Michael Sorenson

High Elf Realms [1247 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms, Open War
===

++ Characters [295 pts] ++

Archmage [295 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Wizard [Level 3 Wizard]
– General
– Great Eagle
– Seed of Rebirth
– Talisman of Protection
– Lore Familiar
– Elementalism

++ Core Units [397 pts] ++

21 Elven Spearmen [235 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Thrusting spears
– Light armour
– Shields
– Shieldwall
– Veteran
– Sentinel (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

6 Silver Helms [162 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Lances
– Hand weapons (Hooves)
– Heavy armour
– Barding
– Shields
– High Helm (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

++ Special Units [555 pts] ++

21 Swordmasters of Hoeth [312 pts]
– Swords of Hoeth
– Heavy armour
– Bladelord
– Standard bearer
– Musician

6 Dragon Princes [243 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Lances
– Full plate armour
– Shields
– Barding
– Drakemaster
– Standard bearer
– Musician

Forces of Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grand Cathay, Ravening Hordes, The Old World, Tomb Kings of Khemri, Vampire Counts

Top Three ToW Lists for London Grand Tournament

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This is the top three lists for the London Grand Tournament that took place in London on the 27th and 28th of September 2025. It saw 64 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three Old World Lists, I wanted to remind 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 Old World Lists

===
Grand Cathay [1999 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Grand Cathay, Grand Melee + Combined Arms
===

++ Characters [979 pts] ++

Shugengan Lord [384 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Iron talons
– Heavy armour
– Wizard [Level 4 Wizard]
– Lore of Yang
– General
– Great Spirit Longma
– Learned Feng Shi Bo
– Scroll Of Wei-jin
– The Monkey King’s Wisdom
– Illusion

Lord Magistrate [335 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Light armour
– Dragon fire bombs
– Sky Lantern [Iron hail guns
– Dragon fire bombs + Sky Lantern bombs]
– Crystal of Kunlan
– Alchemist’s Mask
– Armour of Meteoric Iron

Strategist [260 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Light armour
– Dragon fire bombs
– Sky Lantern [Iron hail guns
– Dragon fire bombs + Sky Lantern bombs]
– Jade Armour Of Beichai

++ Core Units [525 pts] ++

18 Jade Warriors [232 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Shields
– Heavy armour
– Stubborn
– Jade Officer (champion)
– Standard bearer [The Jade Banner]

5 Jade Lancers [182 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Cathayan lances
– Shields
– Heavy armour
– Barding
– Drilled
– Jade Lancer Officer (champion) [Ring Of Jet]
– Standard bearer [Icon of Heavenly Fury]

5 Jade Lancers [111 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Cathayan lances
– Shields
– Heavy armour
– Barding
– Ambushers
– Jade Lancer Officer (champion)

++ Special Units [495 pts] ++

Cathayan Grand Cannon [165 pts]
– Grand cannon
– Hand weapons
– Light armour
– Ogre Loader

Cathayan Grand Cannon [165 pts]
– Grand cannon
– Hand weapons
– Light armour
– Ogre Loader

Cathayan Grand Cannon [165 pts]
– Grand cannon
– Hand weapons
– Light armour
– Ogre Loader

This might become a familiar theme over the next several months, but Cathay has won another tournament. This one is a little different than the double Shugengan lists we have been seeing and opts for the double hero balloon instead. It also strays from the big block of Lancers and splits them into 2 but still runs Heavenly Fury to shut off flying for a turn and Ring of Jet that we commonly see in the bigger Lancer blocks. Otherwise, we have the pretty standard hero balloon and melee Shugengan builds we see in most Cathay lists supported by the triple Grand Cannons.

Royal Lybaras cult of Tahoth [1998 points]
Tomb Kings of Khemri

==== Characters [745 points] ====

High Priest – Hekhmenukep [465 points]
– Hand Weapon
– General
– Level 4 Wizard
– The Hierophant
– Necrolith Bone Dragon
– Ruby Ring of Ruin
– Staff Of Aeons
– Talisman of Protection
– Earthing Rod
– Illusion

High Priest – Khalida Neferher [170 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Level 3 Wizard
– Lore Familiar
– Elementalism

Mortuary Priest – Khat, Herald of Khalida [110 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Level 2 Wizard
– Battle Standard Bearer
– Elementalism

==== Core Units [663 points] ====

9 Ushabti – Legion of Phakth [448 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Greatbow
– Heavy Armour
– Ancient Ushabti (champion)

7 Skeleton Horse Archers – Runners of Settuneb [77 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Warbow
– Unarmoured

13 Skeleton Skirmishers – Legion of the asp [78 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Warbow
– Ambushers

12 Skeleton Skirmishers – Legion of the asp [60 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Warbow

==== Special Units [455 points] ====

Tomb Scorpion – Sarcophagus of Meshep [77 points]
– Decapitation Claws
– Envenomed Sting
– Bone Carapace
– Ambushers
– The Terrors Below

Tomb Scorpion – Sarcophagus of Nemtoph [77 points]
– Decapitation Claws
– Envenomed Sting
– Bone Carapace
– Ambushers
– The Terrors Below

6 Ushabti – Guardians of the alabaster tower [301 points]
– Hand Weapon
– Greatbow
– Heavy Armour
– Ancient Ushabti (champion)

==== Rare Units [135 points] ====

Casket of Souls – Hapros the Seer [135 points]
– Casket Guardians [Hand Weapon, Great Weapon, Light Armour]

Also, get used to seeing a random Tomb King player among the top 3 with 2 Cathay players, I guess. This list goes for Ushabti spam. Having damage 2 for Ushabti bows and no modifiers to hit can do some damage into some of these multi wound lists we are seeing such as Pegasus Knight spam or Balloon Spam with Cannons. The Staff of Aeons on the Priest on Dragon can permanently lower the armor save of balloons to make it easier to get picked off by the Ushabti’s bows. This list looks to be built to counter a lot of the meta-armies out there and ironically did not go into a single Cathay player in 5 rounds. I would have definitely liked to see how this would have panned out into a Cathay list, but we may see some Mortuary Cults lists trying more of this in the future if the meta stays with monster and balloon spam.

335 – “General Bao-Loon” Lord Magistrate, Dragon Fire Bombs, General, Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs, Sword of Striking, Jade Armour Of Beichai, Alchemist’s Mask
195 – “Chairman Meow” Shugengan General, Celestial Blade, Heavy Armour, Wizard Level 1, Lore of Yang, Battle Magic, Maw Shard
199 – “Shughengis Khan” Shugengan General, Heavy Armour, Wizard Level 1, Lore of Yang, Battle Magic, The Brazen Blade
270 – “Ming The Inflatable” Strategist, Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman Of Protection
166 – “The Chop Chop Suey Squad” 5 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer, Ring Of Jet, Obsidian Lodestone
166 – “Rice ‘n Ready Riders” 5 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer, Ring Of Jet, Obsidian Lodestone
169 – “Super Soy Soldiers” 12 Jade Warriors, Shield, Jade Officer, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Icon of Heavenly Fury, Musician
165 – “The Wok ‘n Load” 1 Cathayan Grand Cannon, 1x Ogre Loader
165 – “Chopstick Thunder” 1 Cathayan Grand Cannon, 1x Ogre Loader
170 – “Sir Floatsalot” Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs

This list holds a special place in my heart, mostly because my Khajit character in Skyrim was also named Chairman Meow. This list doubles down with 4 characters. 2 of them on Balloons and 2 on Great Spirit Longmas, going for quantity over quality. It is topped off with only 2 cannons as opposed to the usual 3 but adds a 3rd balloon in a rare spot instead. The only loss comes to another triple balloon list with the better Shugengan melee setup and 5 units of Jade Lancers.

[ppp_patron_only level=1]

++ Characters [990 pts] ++
Master Necromancer [435 pts]
(Hand weapon, Level 4 Wizard, General, Mortis Engine, Sceptre Of De Noirot, Spell Familiar, Talisman of Protection, Necromancy)

Vampire Count [355 pts]
(Great weapon, No armour, Level 2 Wizard, Nightmare, Lore Familiar, Sword Of Kings, Master of the Black Arts, Illusion)

Tomb Banshee [90 pts]
(Hand weapon)

Wight Lord [110 pts]
(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Battle Standard Bearer, On foot, Helm of Commandment, Charmed Shield)

++ Core Units [524 pts] ++
20 Zombies [60 pts]
(Hand weapon)

12 Crypt Ghouls [114 pts]
(Hand weapons, Crypt Ghast)

24 Grave Guard [350 pts]
(Hand weapons, Heavy armour, Shields, Implacable Defence (0-1 per 1000 points), Seneschal, Standard bearer [Drakenhof Banner])

++ Rare Units [484 pts] ++
6 Blood Knights [323 pts]
(Hand weapons, Lances, Iron-shod hooves, Full plate armour, Shield, Barding, Drilled, Kastellan [Supernatural Horror], Standard bearer, Musician)

5 Hexwraiths [161 pts]
(Hand weapons, Great weapons, Skeletal hooves (Hand weapons), Hellwraith)

[/ppp_patron_only]

Final Tournament Placings

Fantasy, Forces of Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grand Cathay, Orc and Goblin Tribes, Ravening Hordes, Sean Langford, The Old World, Tomb Kings of Khemri, Tournaments

Top 3 Old World Lists for the NOVA Open

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This is the top three lists for the Nova Open that took place in the US on the 29th of August to the 1st of September 2025. It saw 62 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three Old World Lists, I wanted to remind 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 Old World Lists

310 – Lord Magistrate, Dragon Fire Bombs, General, Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs, Alchemist’s Mask, Talisman Of Protection

150 – Shugengan General, Light Armour, Wizard Level 1, Lore of Yin, High Magic, Burning Blade
374 – Shugengan Lord, Heavy Armour, Wizard Level 4, Lore of Yin, Illusion, The Monkey King’s Wisdom, Learned Feng Shi Bo

182 – 8 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer
182 – 8 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer
137 – 10 Jade Warriors, Shield, Drilled, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer, Icon of Heavenly Fury

165 – 2 Cathayan Grand Cannon
• 1x Ogre Loader
165 – 2 Cathayan Grand Cannon
• 1x Ogre Loader
165 – 2 Cathayan Grand Cannon
• 1x Ogre Loader

170 – Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs

In the first big Old World GT, Cathay comes out with a great showing. People had been worried about how strong Cathay would be and they proved their dominance at the NOVA Open going 1 and 2.

The winning list only took a mere 2 lanterns but loaded up on 3 cannons and 2 Shugengan heroes. The level 4 goes all in on a melee build with illusion and The Monkey King’s Wisdom. 2d6 strength 10 attacks with d3 wounds can really put a hurt on something while Learned Feng Shi Bo greatly increases the chances of still getting Doppelganger while not relying on Lore Familiar.

290 – Lord Magistrate, Gunpowder Bombs, General, Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman Of Protection
344 – Shugengan Lord, Light Armour, Heavy Armour, Wizard Level 3, Lore of Yin, Elementalism, The Monkey King’s Wisdom, Learned Feng Shi Bo

273 – 10 Jade Lancer, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer, Alchemist’s Mask, Standard Bearer, Musician
228 – 27 Jade Warriors, Shield, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer

130 – Cathayan Grand Cannon
130 – Cathayan Grand Cannon
130 – Cathayan Grand Cannon
135 – Sky Lantern, Sky Lantern Crane Guns

170 – Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs
170 – Sky Lantern, Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs, Sky Lantern Bombs

In second place we have a lantern heavy list running 4 total lanterns. It can be very hard for most armies to handle that many. We also see 3 Grand Cannons without the Ogre Loaders to make room for more lantern, as well as a melee focused Shugengan Lord which seem to be staples in Cathay lists. While this list and the first place list did not have to go head to head, I really would have liked to see who would have won between the two. Either way, expect to see a lot more Cathay in the top 3 with lanterns, 3 Cannons and Shugengan Lords.

420 – High Priest, Necrolith Bone Dragon, Wizard Level 3, Illusion, Serpent Staff, Warding Splint, Lore Familiar
124 – Royal Herald, Battle Standard Bearer, Skeleton Chariot, Great Weapon
452 – Tomb King, Shield, General, Necrolith Bone Dragon, Biting Blade, Armour of the Ages, Talisman Of Protection

270 – 5 Sepulchral Stalkers, Ambushers
60 – 12 Skeleton Archers
283 – 5 Skeleton Chariots, Master Charioteer, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Icon of Rakaph, Musician

195 – Necrosphinx
195 – Necrosphinx

In 3rd, we have tomb kings running the double dragon and double sphinx combo. We have seen this list do well in the past and still did well enough to score max points against every opponent except the loss to Cathay so this list still has it. This one runs the very hard to kill tomb king as well as a similar approach we saw with Cathay, in using illusion for spectral doppelganger and a magic weapon for melee punch. They also run a royal herald on chariot which can help to soak up wounds from the Tomb King making it even harder to kill, as well as run with a very fast block of chariots with Icon of Rakaph for free reforms. 5 Stalkers can ambush and keep up with a very fast-moving army with the mandatory skeleton archers being able to sit on an objective and maybe be lucky enough to pick off a wound here and there.

Well, there we have it. The first really large sample size post 1.5 updates and Cathay drop. Will we continue to see Cathay dominate? I will be watching closely to see how the meta shakes up next and only time will tell.

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Da Vibe-Tribe, Da Red WAAGH, Da List that still loses to Phil Karl’s 2 necrosphinx+2 Bonedragons.

241 – Black Orc Warboss, General, War Boar, Martog’s Best Basha, Trollhide Trousers
30 – Night Goblin Bigboss
30 – Night Goblin Bigboss
95 – Night Goblin Oddgit, Wizard Level 1, Waaagh! Magic, Idol Of Gork
135 – Orc Bigboss, Cavalry Spear, Light Armour, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer, War Boar, Dead ’Ard Armour

186 – Orc Weirdnob, War Boar, Wizard Level 3, Battle Magic, Lore Familiar
147 – 10 Black Orc Mobs
• 1x Black Orc, Great Weapon, Standard Bearer
• 1x Black Orc, Great Weapon, Boss
• 3x Black Orc, Great Weapon
• 5x Black Orc, Shield
165 – 30 Night Goblin Mobs
• 3x Fanatic
• 30x Night Goblin, Shield
165 – 30 Night Goblin Mobs
• 3x Fanatic
• 30x Night Goblin, Shield
165 – 30 Night Goblin Mobs
• 3x Fanatic
• 30x Night Goblin, Shield

45 – Goblin Bolt Throwas
45 – Goblin Bolt Throwas
210 – 7 Orc Boar Boy Mobs, Cavalry Spear, Heavy Armour, Shield, Big Un’s, Boss, Standard Bearer, The Big Red Raggedy Flag, Musician
95 – Doom Diver Catapults
95 – Doom Diver Catapults
75 – Goblin Rock Lobbers
75 – Goblin Rock Lobbers

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Final Tournament Placings

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The Old World Matched Play Guide

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First the huge Errata and Faq drop and now we get the much anticipated Matched Play Guide! The Old World’s answer to the General’s Handbook. Another little quality of life addition we have all been yelling for. All along with the buzz of Cathay on the same day?! It is a good day to be an Old World player. So what do we have here and does it live up to all the hype?

Before we continue, just a gentle reminder that we have an affiliation with Element Games, where you can buy the Old World Matched Play Guide for £14.02 (15% off RRP). It also gives a little kick back to the site too!

Let us start at the very beginning since it is the most important part I believe. One of the very first sentences is “the Old World is a game that thrives upon narrative”. Shots fired! It is true though. Majority of the games I have played and have seen played, are not what we hear complaints about. People aren’t going to casual matches and throwing out 2 dragons, tons of Pegasus Knights, Dragon Ogre spam, etc. The vast majority of players actually do not need this book. It goes on to talk about matched play and tournament play and the joys of a high competitive level and how this book can enhance that. This is not to say this book is solely for tournaments or high level play. The casual player can enjoy this book and it’s scenarios and objectives just as much, but it definitely does a lot to control a lot of the feel bad lists that are out there, or at least tries to.

Let’s skip ahead to the organizing the event section. This part details just about everything you would need to, well, organize an event. From the organizer, to referees, to the players, and everything in between. They even awkwardly note that players “must” use official games workshop and forge world miniatures, but I guess that would really be up to the Tournament Organizer (TO). There is also a section on pairing players and how to pair them in rounds after the first round, as well as the usage of a spare player if there is one.

On to the controversial part of the book. They do add a tournament points table. It calculates how many points each player will score a round from 0 for a crushing defeat to 6 for a crushing victory. These are based on the size of the game and the difference in victory points. You often see tournament points based on a scale from 0-20 because of the range of scores, so this is wildly different than many of the standard methods currently used. It does provide an easy way to do this for those running their first tournament and we will have to see if this new table causes any headaches for TOs running events that a 0-20 point system might alleviate.

Now we come to what people have been homebrewing for a year now. Army composition. They have laid out 3 different universal compositions but aren’t super clear how to use them. The first is Open War which is basically the rule book with no comps at all. This is important to note that we don’t have to comp every game or every tournament with this book being released. We also have Grand Melee which has been commonly used by many already and limits a single unit to only be 25% or less of the total points. Sucks to be Warriors of Chaos players that bought a Lord on Dragon in this world. This also affects units as well, so Death Star units also take a hit here too. Casters are also capped at 1 level 4 per 2000 points and 1 level 3 per 1000 points. The other comp is Combined Arms and this one limits the number of the same unit you can take with max 3 for characters, 4 for core, 3 for special, and 2 for rare. The army rule overrides this, but these keep units with no restrictions from getting spammed.  It is obviously up to the TO but I imagine you can use one or even both of these 2 new ones concurrently, but I do like that there is a universal set that people can just reference when a tournament says they are using Open War or Grand Melee and Combined Arms. Hopefully these are enough, and we don’t have to see a lot of other homebrew comps coming up anymore, but time will tell if the rules changes and this book will have fixed the need for heavy comps in tournaments.

They touch on the terrain and battlefield and deploying but we won’t go into that. They do lay out 3 different game length rules. Fixed turn is a 6-round game, random game length is rolling after the 5th round and adding a dice where the game ends when you roll a 10, and break point where the game ends when an army goes below 25% total Unit Strength. This allows for easy mixing and matching of rules to create a tournament pack.

It also goes through common objectives and VP scored. Many of these are the same as the main rulebook. One that was in the errata and now here, is the addition of gaining VP of half of the points for a unit at 25% of its starting wounds. Now keeping that dragon alive with 1 wound doesn’t deny 500 VP anymore. They also add that you get 500 VP for breaking the opponent through the Break Point game length so basically get that extra 500 VP for the stuff that was still alive when the game ended.

Here is the bread and butter of the book. They added 6 scenarios. They are pretty cool, and I will not go through them all. Buy the book or find some leaks but they look quite fun. The main part is that they each recommend certain game lengths, have their own scenario special rules for most of them, and have recommended secondary objectives. This makes it easy for a TO setting up a tournament or even casual players rolling up a scenario, to determine the best ways to play it. Although, we could just as easily pick one not recommended and play that too.

Secondary objectives are the part of the game that will change it the most, and can be picked for any scenario. The first one, baggage train, requires you to defend a baggage train and capture or destroy your opponents for VP. Next, special features are like the main rulebook but have unusual properties that are rules you will roll for at the start of the turn that offer benefits, as well as the VP you get for controlling it. Domination is basically controlling a table quarter with more Unit Strength than your opponent for VP, which was actually a standard way to score VP in every game back in older Warhammer Fantasy Battles editions. Lastly there is Strategic Locations (x). If you’ve played Age of Sigmar or 40k you know these. These are objectives on the table and (X) can range from 2-4 objective markers to control. Now here is the caveat for most of these, outside of domination. To control something, it has to be a core unit and it has to be unit strength 10 or greater. If you want to score secondary objectives, you will have to bring and utilize your core units. Will this be enough to get players to stop referring to a “Core Tax” like it is a bad thing and want to take more core units to score? This is another time will tell kind of thing, but I hope it does add variety to list building and maybe keep people from trying to keep their core units as close to the minimum as possible.

The final way they added VP to be scored is from secret objectives. These hold up to their name since they get a couple paragraphs and are on the last page of the book so they are quite secret. That is unfortunate because I think that these are one of the coolest things that they added. There are 12 different secret objectives that reward VP for completing. When you write your muster list for a tournament you pick 6 of them. When you battle you can choose one to try to complete for that game and you can’t use it again for the event. So, a 5 round GT, you bring 6 and use 5. I absolutely love this rule and will be encouraging its use for any tournament I go to and will even be implementing it in my escalation league.

There are also rules for doubles events and how to run those including army composition and minor rules changes. They also have 3 scenarios to use for a doubles event, and these also use the same secondary objectives as the single player games. There are also rules for team events with how to match using vanguard, battleline, and rearguard assignments for team play. This is actually a really cool system so check it out and spread the word and hopefully teams become popular in The Old World like it is in 40k because I would love to try this!

All said and done, I am not disappointed in this book. The ease of being able to set up a tournament or league where you can just say we are playing scenario 2 at 2000 points, using Grand Melee and Combined Arms, with secondary objectives baggage trains and special features is incredibly convenient and easy to do. I do like this for casual and tournament players alike and recommend picking it up. Will this fix all of The Old World’s problems alongside the Errata? I will be keeping a close eye on the meta to find out but at the bare minimum, it makes it feel like a fresh new game.

Now that we got this book out of the way, though. Let’s give us what we really want. A narrative campaign book!

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The New Old World – Part 3: Miscellaneous Changes

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Finally, we have various other changes not affecting magic or combat. Some of these seem a little weird to me as I don’t think they were as big of a part of the problem as combat and magic were. Let’s see what else they changed.

The biggest change I would say is the change to poisoned attacks. Now, rather than auto wounding, you get +2 to your wound rolls. Poisoned bricks looked stupid and did not really fit into the spirit of the game. They were, however, an effective solution to the problem with dragons. Poison has never been an issue in the 4 previous editions I have played, so this one is confusing to me. Poisoned bricks are not great against anything except large targets, so I think this poison nerf actually is a buff to the Dragon spam that was already out of control.

This leads us to the next change. Shooting at large targets only gives you one extra rank rather than the entire unit shooting at them. Another rule that seems unnecessary to me. They seemed to try to dissuade dragon and monster spam but have toned down magic, shooting at large targets, and nerfed poison. I may be wrong, but with these three changes that were counters to dragons, we may actually see more dragons and monsters than ever before. Hope I am wrong, but if you want to run double dragon lists, you are actually a little safer to do so than you were pre errata. Just make sure to compensate for the changes to combat res when you do charge those dragons in.

Speaking of combat res and dragons, let’s talk about the change to fly. You can no longer use the fly move when following up or pursuing. I really like this one. Making these dragons use ground movement is pretty thematic and does do a little bit to help to control their power, even if just a little bit.

Regeneration got a little bit of a change as well. You now roll a regeneration save after a wound is lost. Things that inflict multiple wounds will now roll before regeneration saves. Let’s say a cannonball hits that tomb king on dragon, and it fails it’s armor save and ward. You now roll how many wounds and then roll that many regeneration saves. This one I do like. It also has another effect on those unstable units, though. You can now get your regen against crumbling to combat res. This seemed like an oversight, but the old faq about getting regen saves to that was removed so it does seem intended.

Vanguard rules added that you can not declare a charge in the first turn. Sorry Pegasus knights, this one was a long time coming.

Impetuous finally got a little more manageable. Rather than a random 50% chance roll, you now test on your leadership. This is a great one and really makes a lot of those impetuous units that were never seen a little more useable.

Frenzy, on the other hand, took a really weird nerf. If someone can tell me what frenzied units were out there causing problems, I would like to know. Was it chosen chaos knights that ruined it for everyone? You now only get the +1 attack during the turn it charged. Frenzy was generally not used very often because good opponents can easily bait out charges or send these units on wild goose chases all over the battlefield. Now I think you really don’t see frenzied units at all anymore. Too bad, I really liked the idea of the brand new minotaur army, but with impetuous and frenzy, the whole army really got the axe (of Khorgor) before it even got off the ground.

Finally, they may have finally settled on the stupidity rule. I really did like moving an infinite amount when failing it, but that argument is dead now. Now, if you fail, you really can’t do anything. No casting, no shooting, no moving, no dispelling. Just stand there and take a charge if you were charged. At least you can still fight, though.

There are many other changes, but I really wanted to highlight the most significant ones. If you have any that you feel had a great effect on your game personally that I did not cover, let me know. Overall, I think the game has changed for the better. Magic doesn’t seem super overpowered, and infantry doesn’t feel like you are being punished for taking them. Will the meta flip upside down now, or will dragons and monsters still rule the sky? I am excited to be following the upcoming meta changes and see. Coming up next, the matched play guide rundown that really may show changes and improvements to the tournament scene.

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The New Old World – Part 2: Combat

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Welcome to part 2 of the massive Old World Faq and Errata review. This one will cover what we have all been asking for. Changes to combat. Will it be enough? Let’s dive right in.

The biggest one is changes to infantry and heavy infantry with the Press of Battle rule. This allows infantry to have the second rank be a fighting rank. The stipulations with this are you cannot have charged that turn and you have to be in combat order. This is accompanied by another change that models have to be within their movement to be able to fight so no more linehammer. They have also changed supporting attacks with things such as spears to reflect this and support from behind a fighting rank so you can now fight in 3 ranks with spears. Note that the second rank is not in base to base so you still only get 1 attack even if it is considered a fighting rank. This brings up another question for another faq though. Can you now remove slain models from the second rank since it is a fighting rank? While it may not be relevant to many units, if you can take casualties from the second rank, models with 2 or more attacks can kill off their second rank that would be only getting 1 attack to still get their full attacks from the front rank. Whether or not you can this is definitely a great improvement to infantry.

Credit: Warhammer Community/Games Workshop

They also made some improvements to the survivability of infantry and heavy infantry. You can now get the parry rule of old 7th edition. When fighting with a hand weapon and shield, you can no get +1 to your armor save. This does, however, have a cap of max 3+ armor so something like chosen chaos warriors with shield will still only get a 3+. Things with light armor and shield now get a very respectable 4+ armor save now. You can also now change weapons when combat is chosen so you can do things like take spears and shields and use hand weapon and shields on the charge for a better save and switch to spears the next round for 3 ranks of attacks. Conversely, there is a max of 2+ armor save for infantry while chariots, monsters, and war machines can now only max out at a 3+ armor save.

The Errata made other big changes to combat resolution. To start, close order only gives you the bonus if you are unit strength 10 now. No more spamming small close order units for combat res. Another rule of old Warhammer I never knew why they did away with was the outnumber bonus. You can get +1 combat res for outnumbering and I have been asking for this since day 1! Another rule change that has huge implications to combat res is that now mounts in challenges do not get attacks against dead models. When a dragon is in a challenge now, the rider may kill a unit champ if it has higher initiative and only their wounds will count for overkill. The dragon will not get it’s attacks and stomp to rack up a ton of overkill resolution. Impact hits did get a bit of a glow up because they will hit the unit before being drawn into a challenge.

              These all seem to be really good changes for the game of Old World and especially infantry in general. Will this change the Meta? It is too early to say. I think we will definitely still see dragons and maybe even 2 in a lot of uber competitive lists, especially with magic getting toned down and a nerf to poison I will discuss in the next part. Both were great counters to monsters, so monsters got a little tougher to deal with now. Infantry at least does not feel like a bad option anymore like it used to and in a casual game it can be significantly more fun to play with. With the Matched Play Guide coming it may also tip the scales of infantry to being a staple in armies rather than a feels bad to take unit.

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The New Old World – Part 1: Magic

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Here it is. What we have been waiting a year for! The Old World 1.5 we are calling it. We have complained and they have listened. Will this fix all of the issues of The Old World? Let’s break down some of the significant changes. The first part I will cover are the new changes to magic.

Every list started with a level 4 wizard. Even if you weren’t needing it, you definitely did not want your opponent to be throwing out 5 spells with +4 to cast succeeding on nearly every cast. It was mandatory to include one to keep your opponent in check.

Magic has definitely been toned down. The big one is the positives to casting and dispelling. You now only get +1 for level 1’s and 2’s and +2 for level 3’s and 4’s for both casting and dispelling. Now, a level 1’s bonus is only 1 lower than a level 4, so needing to take a level 4 to keep from getting spanked in the magic phase is no longer a necessity.

You can also only cast as many spells as your level, so no more getting to cast 5 spells if you have an item that lets you know more than your level. You still know 5, but you have to pick which one not to cast.

The last major change is dispelling remains in play spells. This one lets you dispel if in range of the wizard but now adds the caveat that you can dispel, specifically vortexes if you are in range of the vortex. I am not sure if this is an oversight or intentional, but it is only for vortexes. You can still have an ethereal hero flying around with steed of shadows, but being in range of them does not let you dispel it. You still have to get in range of that wizard hiding in a corner to dispel that one. It’s weird to target just vortexes, and not all remain in play spells.

While we are on magic let’s skip ahead to the spells. There are several changes to spell casting values, but you can read them so I won’t go through everyone. The biggest and best one, in my opinion, was the change to the Travel Mystical Pathway. You can no longer move insane distances with it by keeping one model in range. Now, the entire unit has to be within 12” of its original location and outside of 6” from enemy models. This one was mostly locally fixed already with house rules, but now it’s official.

Pillar of fire got both buffed and nerfed. It is no longer dangerous terrain and is now difficult terrain. It also moves in a random direction rather than the direction being chosen by the player. However, as compensation, it only damages enemy units rather than all units, friends, and foe.

All of the vortexes lost their dangerous terrain and are now difficult but most remained unchanged otherwise. The only other one that took a hit was Spiritual Vortex. It is now whilst within 8” of one or more so you can no longer stack -1 leadership modifiers with multiple Spiritual Vortexes.

Lastly, we have magic items. They have magic in the title, so we will just cover them here. The biggest one I think was the Ruby Ring of Ruin. This auto include item went up to 35 points and dropped to bound spell Power Level 1 instead of 2. Is it still auto include now? It is still in my lists at the moment, but that is TBD. Also, the Ogre Blade went up to 75 points. Now you have to choose between Ogre Blade or Talisman of Protection. You can no longer have both.

That is it for all things mystical and magical. When I first got the rule book and went through the magic phase, I thought to myself, “This feels really bad” and I am apparently not the only one who thought that. This seems like the gap in magic being too good and auto include is narrowed, and I feel like there is much more diversity in list building. I am not starting every list by adding a level 4 like I did just last week, so that is at least a start to having diversity, which is important for the health of ToW. They seemed to have found a way to make it less overwhelming without completely nerfing the magic phase, which is great news. Although if you ask me, I still really liked having a pool of power dice!

Stay tuned. Next, I will cover what everyone has been waiting for. Changes to combat! Will infantry finally be useful?