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Tournament Review: Blood in the Snow

January 20, 2023 Woehammer Leave a comment

I recently asked Baz Norman Jr if he’d care to comment on his list from Blood in the Snow on 14th and 15th of January. I also asked him if he’d like to give a run-down of his games as part of that.

As always Baz’s response blew me away, and I thought it deserved an article in it’s own right. So thank you once again Baz!

Peter! Thank you once again for having me on the site. I attended Mark Ward’s Blood in the Snow at Hull’s Angels Gaming Club on the 14th and 15th January 2023. This was my second two day event already of 2023.

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
Morathi-Khaine (680)*
The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá
Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá
Blood Sisters (420)*
– Gorgai

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000

I have hit the competitive scene a lot, running Daughters of Khaine (DoK) over the last year so running them again at this event was no surprise to anyone, but what might be a surprise was that it isn’t my usual list.

The list above is a slight variation to the DoK list I ran last weekend on the 7th and 8th January, where I had the absolute pleasure of playing alongside the legends that are Team England at Brotherhood III at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, on Team England’s South team.

So let’s delve into it…

SUB-FACTION – I love my manoeuvrability. I’ve said on previous posts that movement is king, and I wholeheartedly stand by this. Being able to get into positions to threaten enemy units, objectives and push for future turns is huge, so Khailebron was a staple.

GRAND STRATEGY – This list revolves around being in combat, so Bloodthirsty Zealots matched perfectly.

TRIUMPH – At 1,965pts, +1 to wound when I wanted to hit hard just worked.

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale – Having Khailebron as the sub faction doesn’t make Blood Sisters battleline, and knowing I wanted to run 15 of them meant that it would have to be the Melusai Ironscale as general. The Command Trait was a given at Zealous Orator. Who doesn’t love a 4+ rally? My Artefact of power being Arcane Tome and knowing the spell, Mind Razor. The bonding to the Krondspine provides a +1 to cast within domination range.

Morathi – because its Morathi.

BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves – Two units of 10. These give a decent screen, but also with the run and charge, reroll failed battleshock test, and buckets of attacks, they can still threaten wounded units or chip wounds off when needed. Not to mention being objective grabbers whilst the rest of the army is doing the heavy lifting.

Blood Sisters – One unit of 15. Yes they’ve only got a 5+ save and the DoK 6+ ward save, but that’s where the negatives stop in my opinion. Three attacks base (+1 for the Gorgai), 3’s to hit, 3’s to wound, -1 rend, damage 1, and then the turned to crystal effect after the unit has fought for the first time in a phase. This attack profile alone is spicy, 46 attacks base from this unit. Now we add in and start tuning this unit to another level. Factor in the blood rites table, run and charge from the Ironscale, all out slaughter, mind razor and Fury of the Shadow Queen ability, this unit can suddenly end up having 61 attacks, 2’s to hit with exploding 6’s, 2’s to wound, -2 rend, and 2 damage a piece, then the crystal touch on top… not much can come away from this to be honest.

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – You’ve probably all heard about it, 480 pts that can’t be auto killed, doesn’t allow retreats, is good, but not broken as there are some easy ways around it, but is still strong, especially coupled with the units above.

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Horrorghast – I had points left over, easy to cast, can certainly help finish off units if you’ve fluffed a couple dice rolls and left a few models alive.

CORE BATTALION
Battle Regiment – Works for this list, as I normally govern who takes 1st turn.

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Game 1 vs Kruleboyz / Mike Chadderton and Head-on Collision.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (220)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Spells: Nasty Hex
1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)**
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Choking Mist
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Sneaky Miasma

BATTLELINE
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
– Wicked Hacka
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
– Wicked Hacka

OTHER
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Mike (of Goonhammer fame – Peter) is a great player, we regularly converse over Twitter and I’ve had the pleasure of playing Mike before at Sheffield Slaughter 2022; one of my first bigger events. The result ended in his favour before, so he had that psychological benefit.

I deployed just over 24” away, and being a gentleman, I gave Mike turn 1.

Mike made a few little movement wiggles, buffed up his units with elixirs from the Swampcalla Shamans ready to receive the DoK threat.

My turn 1, and I moved my whole army up to threaten his position and to give him too many threats to deal with all at once if Mike got the priority for turn 2.

Turn 2 dice off. I won priority.

Taking the turn, I knew this was the opportunity I needed to hit his army hard, so I prepped for it. Mind Razored the Shadow Queen, withered key units, Black horrored a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, cast the Horrorghast and then at the end of the movement phase, teleported the 15 Blood Sisters 9” away from his Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz.

The shooting phase came and went, with a couple more wounds going onto the already wounded Gnashtoof. Big charge phase inbound. Started with Morathi who was 4” away; into the 2 Gnashtoofs. Krondspine going into a unit of Gutrippaz. 9” long bomb charge required for the Blood Sisters, needed 8 on the dice, due to the Blood Rites table, rolled a 9. Big charge phase ticked off.

The combat phase followed, having Morathi curb stomp the already wounded Gnashtoof, killing it, and making room for her to pile round into some tasty Boltboyz. I started the combat phase with the Blood Sisters to ensure maximum damage. The unit was split between the Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz, a couple of Blood Sisters went into the Vulcha, chipping 5 wounds off it, whilst the rest went into the Gutrippaz. Turned to Crystal, which is what I was wanting, all went into the Vulcha, killing it. I did take some damage from other units piling in, and with the misplay of the Horrorghast, 12” is huge! I lost 5 Blood Sisters to battleshock…. lesson here for sure lol

The dust settled from that turn and Mike calculated just over 1000pts lifted in one turn. Solid turn for me.

Being pinned in by Morathi, Krondspine and the Blood Sisters and losing all those units made it really hard for Mike to come back so he played for points and got what could. With me winning turn 3 priority again, the nail in the coffin. We ended the game 32-5 to DoK. So that’s 1 game a piece now Mike….until next time! 😉

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Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat / Rob Anderson and Battlelines Drawn.

Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
– Army Type: Breaker Tribe
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Gatebreaker (520)*
– Artefacts: Amberbone Totem
1 x Gatebreaker (520)*
– General
– Command Traits: Monstrously Tough
– Artefacts: Vial of Manticore Venom
1 x Warstomper (450)**
1 x Warstomper (450)**
– Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)

So no “remove from battlefield and set up again”, but I was playing into the Sons of Behemat; an army that just wants to get in your face and ‘Triple H Pedigree’ slam enemies, which, I am weirdly okay with. I screened out with Morathi-Khaine, the Shadow Queen and the Krondspine. And with the Witch Aelves on the flanks, I gave turn 1 away as before.

Rob moved his 4 big boys up to capture objectives (table quarters in this mission), capped the centre terrain piece with Desecrate and charged one of his Warstompers into a unit of Witch Aelves I had on the flank. He rightfully killed them and chipped 3 wounds off Morathi-Khaine.

My turn 1, I chose Gaining Momentum and committed to lifting the giant that had just slapped Morathi-Khaine and the Witch Aelves. Turn 1 finished, and I had lifted 2 giants.

Turn 2 priority was won by Rob, where he continued with the points increase and reducing Morathi to 6 wounds, and did enough damage to reduce the Krondspine to level 1. Another 5 points for Rob. Seeing the work that happened from the DoK turn 1, turn 2 was no different.

Game 2 finished 26-10 to DoK.

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Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.

Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Arch-Warlock (155)
– General
– Command Traits: Deranged Inventor
– Artefacts of Power: Esoteric Warp Resonator
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Warlock Engineer (105)**
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!

BATTLELINE
Skryre Acolytes (75)***
Skryre Acolytes (75)***
Stormfiends (640)****
– 2 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows
– 2 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows
– 2 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour

BEHEMOTH
Doomwheel (165)

ARTILLERY
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)*
Warplock Jezzails (120)*
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)**
Warplock Jezzails (120)**

OTHER
Doom-Flayer (65)****
Doom-Flayer (65)****

TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhole (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Grand Battery
**Grand Battery
***Expert Conquerors
****Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Duncan is a loyal member of the GAF gaming group and has been to several of our events run by the Warrior Lodge, and every interaction with Duncs is….how can I describe it….erm….lets just say that he is a character and a gentleman to boot, so I knew this game would be laugh regardless.

Skaven is an army that I’ve not played a lot of to be honest, and with him rocking up with two Warp Lightning Cannons and 6 Stormfiends, I knew I had to be on him asap.

No surprises here when I gave Duncs turn 1 and with me deploying out side of his shooting range, he moved some units up to cap objectives. I was surprised that he didn’t go through the Gnawholes with his 6 Stormfiends and try to shoot off the Blood Sisters turn one….maybe he knew something I didn’t…? My turn 1 was simple, move up, and prep for later turns.

Turn 2 priority went in my favour, meaning that Morathi and the Krondspine could get into position for a charge. I also teleported the Blood Sisters for a supportive charge. Dice rolls went back and forth. Duncs killing his own general and bombardier through Skaven antics finished the game 28-9 to DoK.

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Game 4 vs Hedonites of Slaanesh / James Mackenzie and The Silksteel Nests.

Allegiance: Slaanesh
– Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
The Contorted Epitome (245)*
– General
– Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation
– Artefact: Oil of Exultation
– Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy
Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)*
Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)*
– Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture

Battleline
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*

Units
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
5 x Centigors (85)*
5 x Centigors (85)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 3

Having not played Hedonites of Slaanesh before, meant I had had to do some homework the previous evening. High manoeuvrability, lots of units, a lot of shots, buffs from Glutos, the hindrance that Sigvald can bring meant this would be new to me, not to mention the 8 available objectives.

I set up so that each of my 4 objectives, had models touching it and gave James turn 1. He was on me straight away, his Blissbarb Archers being screened by the Centigors lifted both units of Witch Aelves that were on either flank. I had to play super aggressive and hit his key units right from the get go, as I was behind on points. Morathi moved up to just behind a building, being 9” from Glutos and the Krondspine moved up ready to ‘eat’ from Centigors. Charges were made and the Warrior Lodge dice rolled well, meaning that my turn 1, Glutos was dead, the Krondspine was in combat doing its thing.

Turn 2 priority was won by James and he played big for points scoring 7 points his turn 2. Bottom of turn 2 the score was 9 to me, 12 to James…

Turn 3 priority was again won by James and he kept on racking up the points, although he was behind with model count, if he could keep scoring points though, that could see him win overall. Turn 3 finished 15 to me and 18 to James.

Turn 4 priority was won by….James again…I must have used up all my priority rolls on day 1! Again more points racking up in James’s favour finishing turn 4 on 20 to me, 24 to James.

Turn 5 priority came and went….finally in my favour. I managed to get into positions in the previous turns to eventually pin him in and lift the pesky Hedonites which were so quick. Game 4 finished 29-24 to DoK. Phew.

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Game 5 vs Sylvaneth / Peter Twigg on Won’t Back Down.

Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Harvestboon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
Celestant-Prime (325)*

BATTLELINE
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Revenant Seekers (705)**
– Revenant Soulwarden
– 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer
– 3 x Seeker Hornblower
Spiterider Lancers (420)**
– Spiterider Scion
– 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer
– 2 x Spiterider Hornblower

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

A little birdy had mentioned to me that Pete wanted revenge from our last meeting from across the table where we were both on table 1, game 5. That last game was also played over Won’t Back Down so things felt similar, even if our lists were different.

Sylvaneth have historically been a challenging match up for me as they’re really nimble and I struggle to pin them down, so knew this match up would be tough, not to mention the fact that Pete had 9 Revenant Seekers and 6 Spiterider Lancers…oh and the Prime!

I did my thing with deployment ensuring that the Witch Aelves were snaked (pun intended!) round the Blood Sisters at 3” just in case the Prime was to come down turn 1, and gave Pete turn 1.

Against the Odds was chosen and he moved units up to threaten, but also to take objectives for a solid 5 VP round.

My turn 1, I did some hero phase shenanigans as usual and ran the buffed Blood Sisters up so they were 5” away from the 9 Revenant Seekers and their pool of 45 wounds. There was no redeploy which I was expecting, even though I had explained the abilities at the start. Charge phase started and the Blood Sisters failed their 5” charge. CP reroll… then I rolled a 8. Here we go! Spending a CP for all out attack and burning my triumph for +1 to wound saw them lift the Revenant Seekers to the wound, nothing more nothing less…. a big dent made.

Turn 2 I got the double turn, which allowed me to move up into position again ready for another charge. The Shadow Queen failed her charge, but the Blood Sisters got another charge off, this time into the 6 Spiterider Lancers but without the Mind Razor buff. Lifting 4 of them meant that Pete could retaliate and then in his turn nip through the woods far away…. Far, far away to the other end of the board…. i.e., my deployment zone lol.

I slowly managed to take the lead with a couple of points difference but at the cost of Morathi dying and we shook hands finishing the game 26-21 to DoK.

Peter: What a result. Thanks again to Baz for sharing his tournament review. Hopefully we can get him on again in the future.

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Merry Christmas from Woehammer!

December 25, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

Our first full calendar year under our belts. Thank you for taking the time to read out thoughts, our top threes and our rambles along the way.

Next year you’ll see more of the same plus a whole lot more!

Thank you all for your support, and a special thank you to our Patrons!

Medivh Nietzsche

Joshua Owens

Malachy Wolohan

Lewis Jones

Eric Gómez

Chris Moore

Patrick

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Kieron Bailey

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Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Astral Templars, Blades of Khorne, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Legion of Blood, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Reapers of Vengeance, Soulblight Gravelords, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Ymetrica

Top Three AoS Lists for 2D6 Carnage

December 7, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for 2D6 Carnage that took place in Norway on 26th and 27th November. It involved 48 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS 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.

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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

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (380)
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (345)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)
– General
– Deathlance
– Command Trait: Sanguine Blur
– Artefact: Soulbound Garments
– Expertise: Martial
– Mount Trait: Foetid Miasma
– Universal Spell Lore: Amethystine Pinions

Battleline
5 x Black Knights (100)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*

Units
10 x Blood Knights (390)**
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (80)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 114
Drops: 5

Danny: Do my eyes deceive me? Does that say ‘1st’?! Soulblight have been struggling to rise from the gravesite that Bounty Hunters unceremoniously put them back into, taking a number of podiums recently but pipping the post at a singles event – until now! The route to 1st at first sight looks relatively soft, but the MW output of Kruleboyz can definitely trouble Soulblight, as can the shenanigans of Sylvaneth. Ben here has gone for the ‘double mortarch + VloZD’ archetype, which essentially works as either a giant death star of overlapping buff and de-buff auras (-1 to hit from Neffie, her spell to make something unrendable, CA from Manny for +1 to hit AND wound) or three fast, self sufficient monsters who can harry flanks and generally score well. In Legion of Blood, the VloZD is also able to be ‘Martial, making him slightly more reliable in combat, with Pinions for the extra movement and therefore threat projection.The rest is just good old fashioned objective play. Black knights are fast chaff, the zombies are vulnerable to BH but a ‘small’ squad can mitigate this by hiding in gravesites and popping out onto objectives – super strong on any plan like Silksteel nests or Prize of Gallet – while the Deathrattle do the same job but cheaper and with a smaller footprint. Meanwhile, a brick of 10 Bloodknights act as another potential home for the Mortarch buffs, and can function as a dual-purpose anvil AND hammer. All of this is backed up by some magic tech – the Corpse cart with Lodestone gives off +1 to cast in a 12″ aura (and bizarrely +1 save to zombies…which I can’t see coming in particularly handy) and Cogs protects against miscasts and helps those clutch early auras to go off, giving off plenty of protection if doubled. All in all, it’s a really nice balanced list with some great heroes and huge scoring potential – big up to Benjamin for the rare SBGL 5-0!

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Astral Templars (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord-Castellant (155)*
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Celestial Instincts
– Spell: Celestial Blades

Battleline
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Warblade
6 x Stormdrake Guard (1020)*
– Drakerider’s Warblade
– Reinforced x 2

Units
3 x Aetherwings (65)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 107
Drops: 1

Brett: The second of our 5/0 armies from the event and an army that shows the impact of some of the more recent releases. Astral Templars are the monster hunting Stormhost turning off monstrous rampages. It’s a small thing but with the Dragons issuing their own commands and relatively few units (so exposed to a roar) it’s a very solid defensive play.

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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Ymetrica
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Alarith Stonemage (120)**
– Artefact: Molten Talisman
– Lore of the High Peaks: Unbreakable Stoicism
Scinari Enlightener (170)**
– General
– Command Trait: Loremaster
– Artefact: Silver Wand
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh, Protection of Hysh, Total Eclipse
Avalenor, the Stoneheart King (420)**

Battleline
15 x Alarith Stoneguard (360)*
– Stone Mallets
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)*
– Stone Mallets
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Alarith Stoneguard (120)**
– Stone Mallets

Units
5 x Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Spell1: Lore of Hysh: Protection of Hysh
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)**
– Spell1: Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat
– Reinforced x 1

Artillery
Vanari Starshard Ballistas (130)
Shrine Luminor(0)
Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 121
Drops: 9

Alice: Since the launch of the new book the Alarith lists have sort of dwelled on the outskirts but we haven’t seen a ton of effective use for them and this one definitely gets there. All Alarith units, including the stoneguard, Avelnor and the Stonemage here, reduce Rend -1 to 0, making them much harder to defeat with chaff. The Stonemage is a solid caster handing out a bonus attack to the 3 stoneguard. The Enlightener is a general purpose buff bot with 2, possibly 3 spells per turn. Avalendor is here as the hammer, to crash through just about anything in his way.

Alarith Stoneguard are the bread and butter of this list, their damage is fine, nothing mind blowing but 2 attacks per model (3 with the stoneguard) at -1 to Rend Damage 1 with an additional mortal wound on 6s isnt nothing. Their strength comes from the reduction of rend and a 4+ ward against mortals on objectives. Frustratingly difficult to move, once they’re on that point they aren’t moving.

Sentinels are still here of course, that much ranged damage on a 5+ for mortals is too tempting to pass up, with a Ballista to increase their range and do a bit of damage itself.

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)
– Artefacts of Power: Skullshard Mantle
Skarbrand (380)
Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (310)
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
Bloodsecrator (125)*
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)*
– Artefacts of Power: The Crimson Crown
Slaughterpriest (100)*
– Hackblade and Wrath-hammer
– Prayers: Blood Sacrifice

BATTLELINE
Flesh Hounds (105)*
Flesh Hounds (105)**
Flesh Hounds (105)**

OTHER
Wrathmongers (145)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Skull Altar (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Alice: It genuinely warms my heart to see Khorne lists making a good effort even ahead of the new book. You got the Bloodthirster Flush with 1 of each, including Skarbrand. For the most part there isn’t anything too surprising here, Bloodthirsters bring the beat down, sacrificing 4 blood tithes if they need another swing at the start of the next round. One interesting choice here is the Crimson Crown on the Bloodthirsty of Unfettered Fury so he can use Rejoice in their Slaughter for free for a 6″ pilein.

Supporting them is the Bloodsecrator is frankly far too cheap for what he does, granting an additional attack to each unit within 16″, making those terrifying bloodthirsters even more intimidating. The Slaughterpriest is a token priest, with Blood Sacrifice giving those precious Blood Tithes that can be hard to farm on low drop lists. Flesh House make cheap battleline to hold objectives while Wrathmongers are a solid hammer to round out the list.

Remember to check out Alice’s work on Goonhammer.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Cities of Sigmar, Destruction, Excelsis, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Kruleboyz, Lofnir, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Tempest's Eye, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Devon Destruction II

December 5, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Devon Destruction II that took place in the UK on 26th and 27th November. It involved 44 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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.

Trying to find the results for other events? Check out our top three lists archive.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Arch-corruptors of the Mortal Realms
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (325)*
– General
– Command Trait: Diabolical Schemer
– Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy
Plague Priest on Plague Furnace (335)
– Artefact: Blistrevous the Living Cyst
– Noxious Prayers: Rabid-rabid!
Plague Priest (100)*
– Noxious Prayers: Rabid-rabid!
Plague Priest (100)*
– Noxious Prayers: Filth-filth!
Verminlord Corruptor (350)
– Artefact: Blade of Corruption
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Units
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade
– 2x Standard Bearers
– 2x Standard Bell Ringers
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade
– 2x Standard Bearers
– 2x Standard Bell Ringers
30 x Plague Monks (270)***
– Foetid Blades
– 3x Standard Bearers
– 3x Plague Harbingers
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Plague Monks (270)***
– Foetid Blades
– 3x Standard Bearers
– 3x Plague Harbingers
– Reinforced x 2
Vermintide (40)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 151
Drops: 9

Declan: There’s still a few armies in Age of Sigmar that can genuinely run hordes… and thankfully Skaven remains one of them although it is rarely seen with Stormfiends being a more common choice.

Brandon has done very well to navigate this to a 5-0 helped by the 100 rats (40 Clanrats and 60 Plague Monks), but led by a complement of no less than 5 characters. As a horde player myself – I love this!

The Corrupter can hit like a ton of bricks:

Sure it’s as swingy as a Mangler Squig but with 3+/3+ he’s definitely doing damage on the charge… and will be a good trading piece – especially if opponents forget the Gnawholes (allow teleporting between them – stand near them to stop this!)

Meanwhile the priests are trying to get the Pestilens +1 to wound… which conveniently includes the Corrupter. 2+/2+ with this and all out attack – that’ll make a mess. And in case you think the big characters are all he has, beware of the glass cannons of the Plague Monks. It’s not what it was back in AoS2 but it’ll still catch some people out.

With Filth-filth they are 3+/3+ – a good combat profile – and with +1 attack on the charge they are getting through 1.5 wounds each before saves – and whilst the rend ‘-‘ looks weak they get -2 rend on any 6s to hit.

So, to beat this you need to attack it first… simultaneously whilst hoping Brandon doesn’t know how to use his Clanrats as screens or objective holders – not much chance of that against someone who’s gone 5-0!

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Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
– Army Type: Breaker Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Show ’Em Who’s Boss!
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Gatebreaker (520)*
– General
– Command Traits: Monstrously Tough
– Artefacts of Power: Glowy Shield of Protectiness
Warstomper (450)*
– Artefacts of Power: Amberbone Totem
Kragnos (720)**

BATTLELINE
Mancrusher Gargant (150)**
Mancrusher Gargant (150)**

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Danny: Devon was a tournament close to home (literally – a whole bunch of my club were there) – and despite its small size there were some heavy hitting lists. New SoB definitely count as ‘heavy hitting’ too – even though their damage output with the new book got swingier overall, they gained some extra utility and tactical flexibility.

Now, Kragos isn’t exactly ‘new’ but why fix what ain’t broken? What’s cool is that the ‘little’ guys are viable now, and Jon makes good use of their new points cost as objective/battle tactic grabbers. Meanwhile, Kragnos gets escorted by a Warstomper with the Amberbone Totem for a run AND a 3d6 charge (thanks to Krag-daddy) – while the Gatebreaker packs monstrously tough (for +5 wounds) and the Glowy Shield for minus 1 rend to incoming attacks, making the heavy-hitter also extra survivable.

All in all, it’s a simple, but well thought out and clearly effective package, losing only to the shenanigans of LotP and taking down 3 very good armies in the meta right now. Gargants run by my club-mate Cam also finished 4th – proving the big boys are very much back (well, settling) in town! Kudos to Jon!

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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Boulderhead
– Grand Strategy: Enough Grub for All
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)*
– General
– Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
– Prayer: Keening Gale
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Metalcruncher
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate

Battleline
4 x Mournfang Pack (350)*
– Gargant Hackers
– Reinforced x 1
Stonehorn Beastriders (310)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture
Thundertusk Beastriders (270)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture

Artillery
Ironblaster (170)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 91
Drops: 2

Alice: A classic style Beastclaw Raiders list, consisting of (mostly) mounted cavalry instead of foot troops. boulderhead is a natural choice as it adds 2 wounds to each model and hands out an extra mount trait to the leaders.

Leading the charge are two Frostlords on Stonehorns, which have an extremely nasty attack repertoire. Most notably the 4 attacks from the Frost Spear for Rend -1 Damage 3 and 6 Rock Hard Horns Rend -2 Damage 3 (With an extra point of damage on the charge). These guys also add +1 to charge rolls for any Beastclaw Raiders, which is most of this list, and they do stack if you’re within the bubble for both of them. Beastclaw Raiders live and die by the charge phase, either they all get in on turn 1 or they’re left out in the open to be picked off. If they get that charge, it’s usually going to be over real quick.

Each one is kitted out differently to aid the group as a whole. The General’s mount trait makes it much more hardy, granting it -1 to be wounded against all attacks, potentially saving it against alpha shooting or charging. Touched by the Everwinter lets him function as a priest, with Keening Gale adding 3″ of movement to the Mournfangs so they can keep up with their Masters. The other Frostlord is a Scalpel to take out high defense units. Metalcruncher does D6 mortals to units with a 3+ or better save, and Levitate allows it to bypass any would be screens trying to stop them from getting to the juicy targets in the back row. With the General using the Unstoppable Charge to make a 3D6″ move after charging, it becames damn near impossible to screen them out.

Rounding things off are a Reinforced unit of Mournfangs, Stonehorn and Thundertusk riders. Stonehorn are strong against tougher units, Thundertusk for hordes and Mournfangs for general purpose slaughter. The list struggle in battle tactics and missions requiring Galetian Veterans but solid at cracking through even strong foes. Of course, the meta darling Ironblaster also appears to rain down fire before the charge.

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Army Faction: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)
– Artefacts of Power: Armour of the Pact
Great Unclean One (495)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ruinous Aura
– Bilesword and Plague Flail
– Artefacts of Power: Fourfold Blade
– Spells: Flaming Weapon, The Master’s Command
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
Changecaster (140)*
– Spells: The Master’s Command
Be’lakor (360)**
– Spells: The Master’s Command

BATTLELINE
Flesh Hounds (105)**
Flesh Hounds (105)**
Plaguebearers (150)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Alice: Quick disclaimer going forward, the new Slaves to Darkness book was not used in this tournament so any commentary will be referencing the old book.

The general design for Legion of the First Prince focuses on a strong core of Leaders and going lean on troops. Without their faction buffs, most rank and flank daemons struggle to do more than tarpit, but the faction’s strongest ability is to continuously to summon more so its ok to run a bit lean here. The Take What’s Theirs grand strategy starts making a lot more sense with that in mind.

So what do these heroes contribute? Be’lakor the man himself is an obvious staple, even without his bodyguard rule he’s still an excellent beat stick and The Dark Master is unmatched at locking your opponent’s most dangerous unit down for a unit. The Daemon Prince of Khorne serves one goal (remember we still have the old one here): to use its command ability to halve run and charge rolls. There’s no question why it was changed and I can’t blame someone for wanting to take it for one last run. The Changecaster is an extremely budget priced caster compared to the other daemon leaders and packs a spell that reduces Saves on a unit by 1, which is nice.

Both the Bloodthirster and Great Unclean One are meant to be beat sticks that are also difficult to take down. The Bloodthirster’s Armour of the Pact lets it reroll saves while the Great Unclean One has a 5+ Ward thanks to its command trait (Remember, you don’t get Disgustingly Resilient outside Maggotkin). The Great Unclean one can enflame its sword and use its artefact to do D3 mortals with its flail to do a surprising amount of damage with a hero most armies will struggle to kill. If you get stuck in fighting either of these Greater Daemons you likely will lose after a long, grinding fight

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Beasts of chaos, Bloodtoofs, Chaos, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gavespawn, Gloomspite Gitz, Ironjawz, Kharadron Overlords, Order, Orruk Warclans, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for DaBoyz GT 2022

December 1, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for DaBoyz GT 2022 that took place in Texas, USA on 19th and 23th November. It involved 66 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)***
– Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars
– Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)***
– General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Great Bray-Shaman (100)***
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Savage Dominion
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)
– Axe
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Allies

Battleline
30 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (525)**
– 6x Pair of Savage Blade
– 12x Savage Greatblade
– 12x Savage Blade & Arcanite Shield
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Gors (70)**
– Gor-Blades & Beastshields
10 x Gors (70)***
– Gor-Blades & Beastshields

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
– Reinforced x 1

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

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 210 / 400
Wounds: 157
Drops: 9

Danny: BoC stands for ‘Best of Chaos’ right now. The book as it stands is kluged, retro-fitted and duct-taped together, in a failed attempt to keep its leathery, behooved insides from spilling out all over the winners podium. Peek inside and you’ll find a sludgey morass of keywords, a bunch of new rules sellotaped in and the ability to use the new versions of some other chaos scrolls and the ‘old’ (well, in between…) versions of other stuff like blood-slick ground Khorne Daemon Prince to halve charges/run rolls.

GW are onto a good thing with 3e books and I’m sure the new BoC book will sort this mess out – because it turns out ‘keep the points the same, but give everything +2 rend and a 4+ rally, along with use of the best melee warscrolls from the new Tzeentch book’ kinda makes for a good army – despite the recent points ‘hikes’.

This list takes the usual stuff – a Shaggoth for cheap casting and a platform for the ‘tanglehorn Familiars’ which literally just stops an enemy wizard within 12″ from casting…anything… and access to the Hailstorm spell to halve the move/run/charge rolls of an enemy unit within 21″. Bet you didn’t realise even their lore was broken.

2x 6 Enlightened on Discs on loan from the shiny new Tzeentch portal because apparently everything with a beak and hooves has to stick together? A giant blob of 30 Tzaangors on hoof form a big, buffable blob and summons in god knows what else at a rate of knots.

Nothing in this game is an auto-win and it’s entirely possible to rupture your hamstrings while leaning over a table to push this many models around so congrats to Jiwan for staying standing and getting the 5-0.

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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Ironjawz
– Army Subfaction: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork, Foot of Gork
1 x Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)**
– General
– Command Traits: Touched By The Waaagh!
– Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Spells: Bash ’Em Ladz, Flaming Weapon
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
1 x Orruk Warchanter (115)**
1 x Orruk Warchanter (115)**

BATTLELINE
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka

BEHEMOTH
1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x The Burning Head (20)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Edit: We’ve edited the below and removed the reference to the Krondspine being a source of 3d6 charges. Danny was thinking of Kragnos at the time…. he really wants one….

Danny: Ironjawz have definitely struggled this season, due to a one dimensional playstyle and, frankly, their book having been seriously powercrept. However, they can still pile on a whole load of pressure and if you’re not prepared for it, they can start a chain reaction of activations that can end games fast if you can’t tank it.

One of their weaknesses is getting into position – something the Spinedog obviously helps with. The fact it can lock down multiple units also potentially allows the gore-gruntas to choose more favourable engagements and gives them something to chuck into targets that would ordinarily blunt their charges, or of course preventing scary stuff cleaning up the pigs that IJ rely on to do everything.

You don’t have a huge degree of flexibility in a pig-heavy list (which is all IJ can realistically field in this Season) so let’s look at the Maw-krusha, the one thing with tactical choices. Brian has opted for Touched by the Waagh and Arcane Tome combo, giving him the ability to do d3 MWs to a nearby unit (enemy or friendly) and get the same value as a bonus to cast – in this case the +1 to wound spell and flaming weapon (thanks to the magnificent from command entourage) for extra damage when necessary. Of course with Spinedog bonded, he can potentially be up to a +4 to cast!

Spinedog occupies a weird niche atm and may still be controversial, but if it has a home in any army it’s Orruks atm, thematically and in terms of shoring up their weaknesses. And going 5-0 with IJ these days is definitely an accomplishment. It would be great if they didn’t have to rely on the Spinedog to do it, but in the meantime – big gratz to Brian!

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Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Spend Shares to Make Shares
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Collector
– Artefacts of Power: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
Aether-Khemist (90)**
– Artefacts of Power: Spell in a Bottle

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (90)*
Arkanaut Company (90)*
Arkanaut Company (90)**

BEHEMOTH
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)*
– Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)**
– Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram

OTHER
Grundstok Thunderers (270)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Randal: Carl is at it again with another strong Kharadron Overlords list. This one tosses Gotrek to the side in favor of taking a second Ironclad. Also gone is the Flare-Pistol, a casualty of being a double Battle Regiment, but the list gains a Volley Cannon and two very important Great Endrinworks in the Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram and The Last Word.

These two powerful mount traits add a level of resiliency to big wiffs from the dice, allowing the two boats to claw back into a game when something goes wrong. The Last Word allows the powerful Volley Cannon to fire at the end of the opponent’s Charge Phase if a unit ends their charge within 3” of that Ironclad making a scary Unleash Hell absolutely devastating, especially to big chaff units. The Ram, roll dice equal to the charge roll with mortal wounds on a 4+, serves as a risky backup plan if a shooting phase does not go well to finish off a unit giving the army a small amount of mortal wounds which the army overwise lacks.

This list is less of an alpha-strike list as his previous list was and more of a control and positioning army. It wants to play cagey, determining when and where engagements happen, and controlling the flow of the game. The big downside is that it is still weak to mortal wounds and has almost no mortal wound output itself. It is still a solid list but is going to require an experienced and knowledgeable pilot as mistakes are going to be harshly punished.

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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Option: Gloomspite Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)*
– General
– Moon-cutta
– Command Trait: The Clammy Hand
Madcap Shaman (80)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)*

Battleline
20 x Shootas (120)*
20 x Shootas (120)*
36 x Squig Herd (420)**
– Reinforced x 2
24 x Squig Herd (280)**
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)*
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 212
Drops: 3

Declan: 4-1… with Gitz. Well done to Anthony for a cracking result. Obviously the key to the army is Kragnos for his ability to charge most monsters off the board, give 3D6 charges to the squig herd (and himself) and generally cause a distraction. But the tech here is the Squig Herds and Sneaky Snufflers. With Expert Conquerors they each count as 3 on objectives (that’s 108 for the full 36 herd). They also rally on a 4+ so that’s where a lot of command points are going.

Then add in the Snufflers for +1 attack for each squig and they are not just an anvil with loads of wounds – they can be a hammer too. I was surprised that they (squig herd) went down in points in November, but definitely worth taking now!

Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for the GAF Jamboree

November 28, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GAF Jamboree that took place in the UK on 19th and 20th November. It involved 23 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
Morathi-Khaine (680)*
The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
Khainite Shadowstalkers (150)*
– Shroud Queen
Blood Sisters (280)*
– Gorgai
Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Krone

OTHER
Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
– Shryke
Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
– Shryke

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Joshua: Baz gives us a different look into Daughters, with a very interesting Khailebron list.

First, let’s talk about Khailebron since this isn’t a top pick of the temples. This temple allows you to spend a command point and target a friendly unit. Remove them from the battlefield, and set them up anywhere on the battlefield 9” away from enemy units. This is very valuable in the sense that it opens up easy access to battle tactics and getting key units out of combat. This also allows the shadow stalkers to become battleline. After becoming a battleline you also get a very mobile unit for objective grabbing and back line threats.

The first thing that we take away from this list is that Morathi is still involved and we all know she is a force to be reckoned with. Now to add to her threat level you can’t lock her into combat and bog her down. She just uses the Khailebron command ability to teleport out of combat and sets herself up for another charge. Which keeps the scary mindrazor spell giving the plus 1 to damage on the charge. Or getting away to safety, stopping the clock of three wounds on the queen for turn. And for lists that already have trouble getting those three wounds a turn, now struggle even more.

Ironscale being the general allows the Blood Sisters and Blood Stalkers to become battleline. Which is a key piece to this list allowing the stalkers to get up to a 15 man unit. Throwing 30 shots 24” across the table. With morathi on the table allowing the hero phase shooting a total of 60 shots, doing mortals on sixes to hit. Ironscale also lets the Bloodsisters run and charge which increases their threat range to a staggering 24”. Add in the Horrorghast which prevents inspiring presence, units are not staying on the table for long.

To add to all the mobility this list already has, it has two units of Khinerai Heartrenders. Having these two units allow to complete a DOK book tactic, Cruel Delight. Having these two units set in reserve there is nothing your opponent can do to prevent you from completing this tactic. Which gives you an edge in a generals handbook that tactics are not easy to come by.

This list gives you the mobility to threaten the entire board, making no objective safe from your taking. Also it gives you, as the pilot the ability to control your targets a little easier. With the Rites Table giving you a Plus 1 to charge it makes those 9” charges a little easier to come by. Looking at this list it’s clear that it has many, many threats and can easily see it going 5-0 in the upcoming events.

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Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)**
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Mighty Waaagh! Leader
– Artefact: Destroyer
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)**
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter – Bonded (115)**
Orruk Warchanter
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork

Battleline
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 7

Declan: With the points increase from 400 to 480 points there was clearly a hope in the AoS design studio that it would reduce it’s appearance. We can’t tell yet, but Tom doesn’t seem to mind. He’s added in a Maw Krusha and 3 Warchanters! No doubt this is so he can power up the Maw Krusha and both 6 Gore Gruntas units. This is an alpha strike army of the highest order.

Add in the Ironjawz ability – Smashing and Bashing – you’re going to need big screens to stop this one steamrollering over you. It’s very, very quick; gets to you in turn 1, and hits like a freight train.

To stop it, you need to take out the bonded Warchanter or hit the Maw Krusha when it doesn’t have finest hour or Mystic Shield on. Shooting armies will definitely have a chance here, but I’m not surprised that Tom got a 4-1.

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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Subfaction: Ymetrica
– Grand Strategy: Alarith Aftershock
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Archmage Teclis (700)
– Spells: Total Eclipse, Transporting Vortex
Avalenor (420)**
Alarith Stonemage (120)**
– General
– Command Traits: Unyielding Toughness
– Artefacts of Power: Heartstone Amulet
– Spells: Crippling Vertigo, Unbreakable Stoicism
Scinari Cathallar (110)**
– Spells: Etheral Blessings, Speed of Hysh

BATTLELINE
Alarith Stoneguard (240)*
– Truestone Seneschal
– Paired Stratum Hammers
– Diamondpick Hammer
Alarith Stoneguard (240)*
– Truestone Seneschal
– Standard Bearer
– Paired Stratum Hammers
– Stone Mallet
Vanari Bladelords (130)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Rune of Petrification (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Shrine Luminor (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Declan: Well this is different. Starts off with Teclis but then has none of the rest of the usual LRL army. Indeed in Ed’s absence I needed to look some of these units up… and that’s a great sign of an off-meta list.

Joe has done well to get to 4-1 with it built around Avalenor and Stoneguard although with Teclis doing his usual heavy lifting of course.

Avalenor is designed to not die – not quite in the same way as Morathi, or a Bastiladon but he can still take some damage and the 3+/3+ combat profit shows he is expected to do some work in combat. At 420 points he’s not cheap but he’s not very slow and counts as 5 on objectives as well.

Meanwhile the Stoneguard and (arguably) more defensive with a 4+ ward if contesting an objective you control with Fortitude of Faith.

This will give even Orruks a run for their money and makes them very survivable as anyone who has fought Pheonix Guard will attest to. If they are on an objective, not much is shifting them. Well done to Joe and thanks for getting me to look at 2 different warscrolls!

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Exalted Greater Daemon of Khorne (580)
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
– Artefacts: Deathdealer
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)*
1 x Skarbrand (380)**
1 x Bloodsecrator (125)**
– Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle
1 x Skullgrinder (90)**

BATTLELINE
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
– Chieftain
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Meatripper Axe
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
– Chieftain
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (80)*
– Chieftain
– Reaver Blades

OTHER
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Alice: Most Khorne lists rely on 3, sometimes 4 bloodthirsters. It’s one of the actually really good heroes in a faction that is struggling really hard. So Skarbrand and Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury are not surprising here.

What is surprising is the Exalted Greater Daemon, the Resin terror from Forgeworld. At 580 points this thing is not cheap, but it has power when your opponent is facing off against something they’ve probably never seen, let alone played against before. 20 wounds is hard to cut through, and the axe is incredible at 8 attacks at Rend -2 (rend -3 in this case, due to the command entourage’s extra artefact), Damage 3. The fun doesn’t stop there, either. It can nominate a unit in combat to be unable to retreat, able to function as an excellent tarpit. With 20 wounds it’ll be able to hang around a bit. The final perk is in the form of its command ability which lets any daemon unit pile in 6″, anywhere on the field. If your opponent thought he was being clever staying outside of 3″, it’s going to be a bad time.

Most of the roster rounding things off is pretty predictable. Bloodsecrators can help neuter enemy Wizards, and grant an extra attack to every unit within 16″.

The Skullgrinder helps support the foot troops, able to deal some mortal wounds to Enemy Heroes and Monsters on a 2+. Bloodreavers are a workhorse battleline, suitable for capturing objectives and sacrificing to opponents, while Wrathmongers can actually put in some work with their Flurry of attacks and mortal wounds on death.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowed Knights, Kharadron Overlords, Legion of Blood, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Soulblight Gravelords, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts

Top Three AoS Lists for the Lost Legion GT

November 27, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Lost Legion GT that took place in Australia on 19th and 20th November. It involved 32 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Subfaction: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADERS
Tyrant (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Killer Reputation
– Artefacts of Power: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Big Name: Fateseeker, Brawlerguts
Slaughtermaster (135)*
– Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
Firebelly (130)**
– Spells: Billowing Ash

BATTLELINE
Ogor Gluttons (265)*
– Bellower
– Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar
– Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
Ironguts (270)*
– Bellower
– Gutlord
– Rune Maw Bearer
Leadbelchers (170)*
– Thunderfist

ARTILLERY
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)*
Ironblaster (170)**

OTHER
Gnoblars (100)**
– Groinbiter
Gnoblars (100)**
– Groinbiter

TERRAIN
1 x Great Mawpot (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Declan: I don’t know if the tournament allowed the new book, but Patrick is well prepared for it if they didn’t. 4 Ironblasters never really appeared in the UK meta, but was reasonably common in the US and has appeared in Australia. It’s a great example of how the tournament scenes are different in each country.

Why is everyone talking about Ironblasters….? Well more consistent damage is coming and the Hailshot is getting very good! Expect to see similar lists to this once the book is fully allowed at tournaments.

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Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Collector
– Artefacts of Power: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
– Artefacts of Power: Svaregg-Stein ‘Illuminator’ Flarepistol
Arkanaut Admiral (125)**

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (90)*
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol
Arkanaut Company (90)*
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol
Arkanaut Company (90)**
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol

BEHEMOTH
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)**
– Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)*
– Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram

OTHER
Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
– Grundstok Mortar
– 2 x Honour Bearer
– 2 x Aethercannon
– 2 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 2 x Decksweeper
Grundstok Gunhauler (155)**
– Drill Cannon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

Randal: There are two primary archetypes of Kharadron Overlords that have been successful this season. There is the Full Fleet list with four or more boats, and the Double Ironclad with an Anvil lists which have also seen a lot of success like this wonderful list from Luca Foerster.

Luca took this list in a slightly different direction from the typical double ironclad lists we have seen in the past, by foregoing the Krondspine or Gotrek anvil choices and instead taking a reinforced unit of Grundstok Thunderers with Special Weapons. This is extra spicy since it gives the unit an enormous amount of firepower but has limited range with most of the weapons limited to 12” or less. This list gets around that restriction by being in Zilfin which gets a hero phase move for one of the Ironclads allowing the Thunderers to jump out and pummel the enemy’s frontline. The usual suspects for heroes and battleline accompany the two heavy boats, but there is a surprise Grundstok Gunhauler which provides a little extra extra for the two big boats in the form of a 6+ ward if it is nearby.

Another surprise here is that Luca has foregone using Spell in a Bottle which is a mainstay for Kharadron Alpha-Strike lists. This is likely a concession to stay in Zilfin and still get a Navigator instead of the common double Khemist builds that we usually see.

There is not much out that wants to play against this, but the lack of mortal wounds output or Purple Sun means that after the Flarepistol and Admiral’s Special Ammunition are used there isn’t much punch left to deal with a good save army that managed to survive the opening
barrage.

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Stormkeep)
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Gardus Steel Soul (150)**
Karazai, The Scarred (550)**
Lord-Relictor (145)**
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Artefact: Mirrorshield
– Prayer: Translocation
Lord-Castellant (155)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Celestial Blades

Battleline
5 x Liberators (115)
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
5 x Liberators (115)
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
10 x Vanquishers (220)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
6 x Praetors (290)*
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108
Drops: 9

Brett: Joel is a member of Measured Gaming (as is Pat who took first) who loves Liberators and Stormstrike Chariots (he has a battle report on youtube with 5 in a single game – against Pat). Very experienced SCE general who has been developing this list since Karazai came out. This army is about Karazai and trying to get him into battle while within range of the Praetors or Gardus (bodyguard and ward don’t stack). The Praetors, as Bounty Hunters, they are capable damage dealers, just a bit slow, with 19 attacks at Rend -1 and 2(3) Damage. The army has a few more surprises, Fulminators are efficient even in pairs and with a 5+ ward if near Gardus, hard to shift. Bounty Hunters can really help them if they are caught in combat, against GV anyway.

Vanquishers are good anti horde (3 attacks against 5 models and 4 attacks against 10 or more) all with Rend -1. The Castellan isn’t the general but still included for utility with his Lantern ability (improved saves or mortal wounds). Teamed with the Vanquishers he can make them as robust Vindicators (3+ save) while they have a much better damage profile. Hallowed Knights grants fight on death to the Liberators and Vanquishers (Redeemers). The same units benefit the most from the army being Watchful Guardians (Stormkeep). They get the benefit of Eternal Conquerors without the battalion (except they only count as 3 models on home objectives before round 3) and when successfully charged while on an objective they do mortal wounds to the attacker.

With the Relictor’s translocate and Liberators counting as 3 models you can sometimes steal an objective in Turn 4 with a unit that is hard to shift and has really strong objective control. The army has a really balanced approach with a solid mix of resilience and damage ultimately finishing only 4 points behind Luca (2nd) who he beat in the 1st round. Ultimately he lost to Pat with the revitalised Ogors and their amazing Ironblasters.

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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)*
– General
– Deathlance
– Command Trait: Aristocracy of Blood
– Artefact: Soulbound Garments
– Expertise: Martial
– Mount Trait: Foetid Miasma
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (200)*
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (525)
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Dire Wolves (135)*

Units
5 x Blood Knights (195)**
5 x Blood Knights (195)**
3 x Fell Bats (75)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 525 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 4

Danny: This list harks back to a brief period around the turn of editions where zombie spam + Big Drogg was a tournament winning Soulblight list. William has ditched the zombies like everyone else while Bounty Hunters is a thing (and here’s to it dying off soon) but kept Big Drogg – and why not? The guy is a source of rend 2 that Soulblight traditionally lack, and, well, he’s a gargant. They’re fast, soak up serious punishment and dish it out in turn – leaing your msu Deathrattle, speedy wolves and Fell Bats (LOVE seeing them) and the tankier 2 units of Blood Knights to head out and score.

It’s an interesting HQ selection too – Belladamma is a great buff piece but not usually taken these days, however for 200 pts she’s relatively cheap, speedy, and can cast a spell on a 6 for a 12″ aura of exploding 6s – which can help Blood Knights hit much more reliably. With her built in +1, she’s also a good Jaws caddy and being able to use the wolves as bodyguards ups her survivabillity.

Topping things off you have the always-reliable Lord on Zombie Dragon, who in Legion of Blood gains a built in horrorghast effect, and gains +1 attack on his Deathlance with Martial Expertise, while Soulbound Garments for +1 save gets him on a 2+ as standard before anything like AoD, Finest Hour – etc – making him SUPER tanky.

The one thing this list doesn’t have is access to good MWs outside of jaws, which may explain the loss to Stormcast – presumably they were able to tank the VLoZD, out-compete William on objectives and strike down Big Drogg with the usual SCE hammers. Still, a great result for an unusual list – I’m loving seeing the variation and the resurgence of top 5 SBGL lists these days after a slow start to the season!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Guild of Summoners, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Kharadron Overlords, Lurid Haze, Order, Peter & Brett, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for 5 Alarm GT

November 23, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the 5 Alarm Grand Tournament that took place in Canada on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Morathi-Khaine (340)*
The Shadow Queen (340)*
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe

Units
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced x 2
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 3

Peter: Joshua Bennett (who you may recognise from many a top three article featuring his own lists), has kindly joined the Woehammer team to comment on Daughters Lists.

Joshua: While this list sticks to the norm of the current meta for DOK, it does have its own tweaks that make it very interesting.

At first glance, we see what looks like the basic Zainthar Kai list. At the head of the snake army is the high queen herself, Morathi. Morathi, by herself, is a menace to most opponents. She has a cap of only three wounds a turn, which becomes a great deterrent for the alpha strikes becoming a perfect screen, where the alpha strikes are running into an unkillable duo of models. As anyone knows that has ever faced off against the shadow queen, she is not to be taken lightly in combat. Shadow queen has the potential to pick up most units. She lives up to her title as a “God Model” with the ability to tank everything with the absolute barrage of attacks with high damage and rend.

Bring on the snakes! 15 blood stalkers have always and still remain to be a powerful force to deal with in the DOK list. At 30 shots, hitting on three’s, wounding on three’s, doing mortals on sixes to hit, makes stalkers a threat against any list. Add the fact that they are also shooting in the hero phase, bringing the total number of shots to 60 at a range of 24”. With all of these attacks, this unit should be feared by all. To add to the terror of the Stalkers, their melee loving counter parts, the blood sisters, are also added to this list. Two 10 man units bring each of these death ball units to 30 attacks, hitting and wounding on threes, followed by an extremely powerful turned to crystal ability. This ability allows the unit to roll a dice for each model in their unit and each 2+ inflicting a mortal wound to the selected unit an inch away from it. In this list, the blood sisters are placed in the bounty hunters battalion, which brings the damage of each attack against Galletian Veterans units, a minimum of 2 damage. But it doesn’t stop there, when the ever daunting Shadow queen is in combat within 18” of these blood soaked sisters, the sisters attacks increase to four attacks each, which gives the sisters even more power to pick their opponents units up.

So I know what you’re thinking! I am just going to stay away from this army of blood driven blood elves. This may be harder to do than you think. This is because the Shadow queen is moving 14” and the melee snakes are moving 8”. Also you must keep in mind that the Melusai is in the list as well and serves more than just a pretty face. She allows the Sisters to be able to run and charge, increasing the threat of the slithering blood crazed sisters to the potential of a 14” move bringing them into a more manageable charge range.

Wait, look in the sky! That’s right, a unit of heartrenders are circling above the battlefield waiting for the right moment to strike. This unit can deploy off the board and be placed on the table 9” away from an enemy model. In the shooting phase they each shoot an enemy within 12” of them and then move 6”. Normally we see two of these units in a list because that allows DOK players to use the Battletomb tactic Cruel Delight. This single unit still has its uses. It keeps a constant threat to the backfield objectives. Also this unit can make a great screen for the remaining army. With this units very speedy movement of 14” it can bounce back and forth between objectives causing their opponents a massive headache of leaving models on all objectives. Also with the Grand strategy of take what’s theirs the late game deepstrike can give you edge needed to gain that three extra points.

The other obstacle opponents face while playing this list, is that you must pick up entire units. Because thanks to the Command trait Zealous Order bringing models back from the dead is much easier than normal. This command trait allows the general to bring back friendly models back on a four plus rally compared to the normal six.

Overall this list hasthe range, and the face-to-face killing power to take on most lists, and I can see why it did so well at this tournament.

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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Subfaction: Guild of Summoners
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Curseling (180)*
– Spells: Shield of Fate
Fluxmaster (170)*
– Artefacts of Power: Pyrofyre Stave
– Spells: Unchecked Mutation
Lord of Change (400)*
– Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery
– Artefacts of Power: The Eternal Shroud
– Spells: Ghost-mist
Kairos Fateweaver (435)***
– Spells: Tzeentch’s Firestorm
Tzaangor Shaman (135)***
– Spells: Glimpse the Future
Magister (120)***
– General
– Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Arcane Suggestion

BATTLELINE
Kairic Acolytes (120)**
– Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
– Scroll of the Dark Arts
– Vulcharc
– 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield
Kairic Acolytes (120)**
– Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
Kairic Acolytes (120)***
– Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (50)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Kieron: A super interesting list for my first time reviewing a Disciples of Tzeentch top three list. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Guild of Summoners is relatively low down in the sub-faction hierarchy but Nic has clearly made this work well for him. Conventional wisdom would also suggest that Master of Destiny is a no-brainer Grand Strategy (have Destiny Dice equal to 9 or more at the end of the battle) but Nic has again bucked the trend with Defend What’s Ours. Where the power comes from in this list can be broken down into Destiny Dice, Fate Points and Battle Tactics.

Let’s start with Destiny Dice, or cheaty dice as some less charitable (and non-Tzeentch players might call them). Nic would roll 9 at the start of the game and the Eternal Shroud would allow new dice to be rolled on a 5+ whenever they are used. The Tzaangor Shaman can lurk at the back of the board (see battle tactics below) generating a new one with Glimpse the Future which will be supporting Kairos who is generating one per turn if you have less than 9. This means that over the course of the game, there should be in the region of 20 dice that the Tzeentch player will know ahead of time, allowing them to be super aggressive or defensive as the game demands.

Next up is fate points and if you thought 20 was a lot of a resource to generate then you haven’t seen anything yet! If Tzeentch go first and all the possible spells go off they will have: 1 from Burning Sigil; 2 from The Curseling; at least 1 and probably 3 from Fluxmaster (theoretically 10, but if you roll 9/9 5+s against me I’m probably conceding or calling a TO!); 2 from the Lord of Change; 3 from Kairos; 1 from Shaman; 3 from Magister; 1 from each Kairic unit making around 15-18 in Turn 1. And what do we do with those points I hear you ask? You summon another Lord of Change for only 9 points and bank the other points for the next turn. Next turn you will have another two casts meaning that you will have more than enough to summon another Lord of Change 18 fate points! At this point you would be facing over 1600pts of prime Tzeentch Turkey that are giving each other (and nearby heroes) +4 to cast. Diminishing returns from this point in as there won’t be enough spells for them all to cast, so probably just bring in 20 pinks a turn instead! If the Tzeentch player is not locked down quickly, they could summon 1500pts by turn 5 (EDIT: Thanks to Tasteless for getting me to go back and not blah, blah , blah the sub-faction ability: Guild of Summoners can ONLY summon Magic Chickens, meaning that a 5 turn game could actually see 2000pts of summoning and Nic possibly in need of kidney to donate to fund the 7 Lords of Change that could be on the board at this point…).

This is all well and good, but if you don’t score points then you don’t win and this is also a list that really wants to use book battle tactics! Call for Change is extremely straightforward as you just need to summon a Lord of Change; the Tzaangor Shaman is an excellent choice for Reckless Abandon, where you need to complete a charge move with a mortal unit more than 18″ away from all enemy units; Ninefold Dismantlement needs you to kill a unit with 9 models or a hero/monster with a wounds characteristic of 9 or more and Tide of Anarchy needs you to take an objective off your enemy with 9 or more models. To truly flex on your opponent, Kairos could even go for Mass Conjuration by casting 3 or more spells for a full 5/5 Tzeentch tactics.

Congrats to Nic for doing fantastically well with some more off-meta choices, demonstrating the internal balance of the Disciples of Tzeentch book.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (90)*
– General
– Command Trait: Collector
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Aether-Khemist (90)**
– Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
– Artefact: Svaregg-Stein Illuminator Flarepistol
Gotrek Gurnisson (485)**

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Units
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)**
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)**
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Ebullient Buoyancy Aid

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

Peter: Another new member of the team today. Randal Brasher, who some may remember from General Speaking, has agreed to join us to comment on KO, Cities and Stormcast lists.

Randal: Oh boy, here we go! Karl is no stranger to Kharadron Overlords this season and has found 5-0 and 4-1 success with both Double Ironclads and Whole Fleet lists, but the one constant has been his inclusion of Purple Sun. This list leans in on the power of the Endless Spell even more than his previous winning lists by overloading an Ironclad with heroes, Arkanauts, and some spicy Grundstock Thunderers then using the Zilfin Hero Phase move alongside Ebullient Bouyancy Aid. After moving the murder boat across the board it wants to unleash the Purple Sun then leverage the once per game effects of the Flare Pistol (full rerolls in the shooting phase) and the Admiral’s Special Ammunition for either additional rend or eliminating a ward save. It is a very high volume of shots at very high rend, more than enough to cripple most elite armies or clear the flank of a horde army. If the opponent somehow manages to survive the barrage in any condition to fight, they get a facefull of Gotrek.

A bit of tech in this list is to use the Great Sky Cannon over the more synergistic and higher damage Volley Cannon. It lets the boat play the objective game and still contribute some shooting after it unleashes its payload due to the superior range. This list is going to play very well into elite armies or high save armies but it has a serious issue with ranged mortal wounds as its loss to Disciples of Tzeentch shows. Armies with a lot of summoning, such as Beasts of Chaos or Nurgle, might also give it some problems. However, into a metagame of Giants, Daughters of Khaine, Sylvaneth, and Seraphon it is a monster of a metabreaker.

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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Invaders
– Army Subfaction: The Lurid Haze
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Synessa (260)*
– General
1 x Sigvald (205)*
– General
1 x Be’lakor (360)*

BATTLELINE
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)*
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)*
5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*

BEHEMOTH
1 x Chimera (200)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

OTHER
10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)*
10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Alice: Slaanesh is struggling badly at the moment, but it’s not entirely without merit. There’s a few units that manage to succeed despite their own faction dragging them down, and Invaders manages to pull itself up to something quite usable, if a bit fiddly.

Invaders allows you to have 3 Generals who need to remain 12″ apart from each other. This is largely fine with this composition, because Be’lakor operates well as the main general leading the force to shut down the major threats while Synessa hangs back and casts spells and Sigvald attempts to do character assassinations. If any do die, its a free CP.

Blissbarb Archers are one of the few stand out units in Slaanesh. While they may not get mortal wounds on 6s like some armies, they get a decent number of Rend -1 shots and can run and shoot. Twinsouls make a solid hammer and anvil, depending on what you need in any given situation. Rounding it out, the Chimera is an interesting ally, giving them the mortal wound support they really need while being a solid beat stick to boot.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Knights of the Empty Throne, Reviews, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, Tournaments

Tournament Review: War in the Heartlands

November 22, 2022 Woehammer 2 Comments

By Phil Marshall

My list

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)*
– General
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
– Artefact: Grasping Plate
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)**
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

Battleline
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (215)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

How it works

Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind. The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport). The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine. As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.

Game 1 vs Ben Godbold – Slaves to Darkness – Silksteel Nests – Win 32-10

Ben’s List

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Type: Despoilers
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (225)**
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Artefacts of Power: Helm of Many Eyes
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)**
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Command Traits: Paragon of Ruin
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
– Artefacts of Power: Doombringer Blade
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spells: Mask of Darkness
Bloodsecrator (125)***
Sigvald (205)***

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (340)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield
Chaos Marauders (180)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Barbarian Axe and Darkwood Shield
Untamed Beasts (70)***
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
Untamed Beasts (70)***
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne

OTHER
Varanguard (280)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Fellspear and Warpsteel Shield
Iron Golems (75)***
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Iron Golems (75)***
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

This game was relatively straight forward, it was a honed Slaves to Darkness list against a variety of different slaves units in the Mark of Khorne. If you are familiar with slaves to darkness over the last two season you will know Tzeentch looks to keep your stuff alive. It was Ben’s first ever tournament and got unlucky pairing this round 1. Ben sent 3 Varanguard, Sigvald, Chaos lord on Karkadrak and khorne Deamon Prince into my general who had all their buffs up. At the end of combat, I had taken zero damage and everything that had gone against it had died, with the Varanguard using their once per game ability to pile in and fight twice. At the end of turn 3, Ben had lost all of units and I had lost 6 iron golems.

Game 2 vs Michael Lowis – Beasts of Chaos – Won’t Back Down – Win 28-17

His List

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*
– General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Beastlord (95)**
– Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Artefact: The Knowing Eye
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage

Battleline
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
– 10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
– 10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)****
– 10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Ungors (65)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)***
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)***
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)***
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**
1 x Cockatrice (110)**

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 167
Drops: 14

Beasts of Chaos is usually a very bad match up for my list due to the board control that they can obtain through summoning as well as the amount of rend that they get on turn 3. There is only one way to play this match up and that is aggressive, you need to do as much damage as you can by turn 3 and see how you can stay in the game. I decided that I would screen out all the board edge of my territory to ensure nothing could be summoned behind me and let my Varanguard focus on heading down the middle of the table. I managed to get the double one into turn which allowed me to clear screens turn 1 and then get both units of VG with even stacks – both +2 to their saves. My General managed to tag 12 enlightened and 30 tzaangor meaning I had them locked where I needed them. In the two subsequent combat phases, I managed to take all of this off at the expense of 3 Varanguard across both units. At this point, I had the board control and was up on points with easy battle tactics left to do.

Game 3 vs Max Barton – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Prize of Gallet – Win 22-15

His List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Lord of Blights (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: Infernal Conduit
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)*

Battleline
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (500)*
– 2x Dolorous Tocsin
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 117
Drops: 1

So we had a Team England face off to finish day one. This game was a chess match for the first 1.5 turns with staying out of threat ranges and not really engaging each other. I had won priority from 1 into 2 and gave it to Max to allow me the opportunity at the double turn 2 into 3, which I did. In my turn 2 my general burnt their once per game fight twice and managed to take off 4 flies. With the double I decided to risk it and mask of darkness my general down the board and risk the 9 inch charge, knowing if I make it the bulk of Max’s army is locked in combat the rest of the game. We made the charge and there went any chance of Max being able to do require damage. The all fly nurgle list is so reliant on the impact hits to damage to the Varanguard.

Game 4 vs Marc Brookes – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Nidus Paths – Loss 24-25

His List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
–Subfaction: Blessed Sons
-Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
-Triumphs:

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (320)
–Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Great Unclean One (495)
–General
-Plague Fall & Massive Bilesword
-Command Trait Nurgling infestation
-Artefact The Witherstave
-Universal Spell Lore Flaming Weapon
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)
Gutrot Spume (170)
Morbidex Twiceborn (320)

Battleline
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors

Total: 2000/2000
Reinforced Units: 0/4
Allies: 0/400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 8

Again this was a very cagey game for the first 1.5 turns. I was looking for an opportunity to pin bloab, great unclean one, Orghotts and Morbidex. This came in my turn 2 and despite having all my save stacks, the mortal wound out put was obnoxious, the great unclean ones version of the stomp 4 MWs, stomp D3 MWs, disease with the witherstave being on a 3+ and ward saves of a 6 doing a MW back to me. Kept them locked for long enough but the game was very close and slowly away from me. I had to play for the double 4 into 5 to have a chance at winning the game but at the same time risk losing if I don’t get priority. So what was required, if I complete my grand strat I win, 3 Varanguard go into 10 rotmire creed, fighting twice, failed to kill them, grand strat failed. Nurgle final turn had to kill my warshrine with Gutrot Spume with 7 wounds left, couldn’t make a save and lost by 1VP.

Game 5 vs Sam Barker – Stormcast Eternals – Close the Chest – Win 32-22

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Knight-Draconis (300)
Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic – Celestine Hammer
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Mount Trait: Scintillating Trail
– Spell: Celestial Blades

UNITS
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Holy Command: Steadfast March

TOTAL: 1940/2000
WOUNDS: 89
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 1/4
DROPS: 5

This match up again is usually pretty dicey for the Slaves to Darkness as all it takes is the dragons to spike on their breath, unfortunately for Sam he rolled terribly for these. I knew it was bad but I thought I would take every opportunity granted to me. Sam made a bit of a misplay by bringing down his fulminators turn 1 to try and take of my screens for the dragons to captalise on later in the game. I decided to put +2 save onto my non general unit with all re-roll hits and wounds, masked them down the board to try and take off the storm drake and then auto ran my general to be with 6” of his fulminators and opted to not re-deploy. I made the charge with my non general unit of Varanguard killing the stormdrake and then piled in 6” into fulminators taking them all off as well. I won prior and gave it away looking for a better double later on. My turn 2 I managed to take off the remaining four dragons and he was left with Knight Draconis. I failed to win another priority which meant I was chasing Draconis around the board for 3 turns till he finally succumbed in turn 5.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Blades of Khorne, Blisterskin, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Kastelai Dynasty, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Reapers of Vengeance, Soulblight Gravelords, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zaitrec

Top Three AoS Lists for Gourds of War GT

November 21, 2022 Woehammer 3 Comments

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Gourds of War FT that took place in Texas, USA on 12th and 13th November. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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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

Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Subfaction: Zaitrec
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours

LEADERS
Sevireth (320)
Scinari Cathallar (110)**
– General
– Command Traits: Loremaster
– Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand
– Spells: Protection of Hysh, Solar Flare, Total Eclipse
The Light of Eltharion (240)**
Vanari Lord Regent (170)**
– Spells: Protection of Hysh

BATTLELINE
Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)**
– High Warden
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat
Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)**
– High Warden
– Spells: Solar Flare
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450)**
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Total Eclipse

OTHER
Vanari Bladelords (130)*
– Bladelord Seneschal
Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Steedmaster
– Standard Bearer
– Spells: Speed of Hysh
Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Steedmaster
– Standard Bearer
– Spells: Speed of Hysh

TERRAIN
1 x Shrine Luminor (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

Ed: Dustin’s List seems simple at first glance, but it is a deceptively hard list to run. All his units have the potential to be stars depending on match ups and battle plans, but they are fragile. You need to be thinking at least a turn ahead to ensure your key pieces are in the right place ahead of time. It is a common mantra that “Games are won in the movement phase”, and I feel like Dustin’s list takes this to heart with his highly manoeuvrable choice of units. Don’t leave an objective open around Dustin!

The Zaitrec subfaction gives all wizards a +1 to casting, unbinding and dispelling rolls. That added reliability is key for getting off important spells, particularly Power of Hysh which represents a huge increase in damage and Protection of Hysh which keeps your army alive.

After so long on the bench, it’s nice to see Eltharion included in a list that’s performing well. As a mid-level threat with a small presence on the table he is often able to fly under the radar until he connects with something important. He is much more reliable since the new battletome, and has been referred to as a Diet-Gotrek – although mortal wounds will bring him down very quickly.

To have achieved 5 wins with this list, Dustin must have played wonderfully. It is an army with a high skill ceiling and an extremely techy set of core mechanics. It’s not your typical netlist army that can be copied by a novice and still do fairly well. But if you’re looking to improve your skills, playing a list like this is a good challenge to test your mastery of strategic buff placement, unit positioning and long term thinking.

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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Kastelai Dynasty
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)**
Wight King on Skeletal Steed (110)**
– General
– Command Trait: Rousing Commander
– Artefact: Fragment of the Keep

Battleline
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 88
Drops: 4

Edited: Sorry I somehow forgot (it’s wishful thinking…) that Blood Knights aren’t summonable! That’s what you get for re-reading Nagash’s scroll after a 1-dayer when your brain is mush. Post is now accurate!

Danny: It’s Nagash! Again! What is happening??

Well, there’s a fairly standard core at play here, with 3x msu Blood Knights in Kastelai providing a roaming set of both tanky AND killy – especially in bounty hunters – fast movers. Aaron will have had the option of layering them up or splitting them off for board control, and either way the Wight King on Steed is a relatively budget general acting as a ‘Rousing Commander’ caddy – which allows the best of the Kastelai ‘kill a unit and gain a buff based on its type’ effects to pop off once per battle ‘for free’, as it were. And the battleline is rounded out by the 2x msu Deathrattle are cost-efficient grave-site lurkers.

So in this context, Nagash seems to really be offering the magical dominance. He can’t buff Blood Knights in the same way Mannfred/Coven Throne etc can, but with Spellportal (and no Cogs – living dangerously!) he can stay at a safe range and shut down a lot of the usual magic threats that would ordinarily threaten the Blood Knights. Soulblight have some excellent debuffs too.

So overall, your opponent has a tough choice. Try and take down Nagash – not easy unless you have excellent ranged firepower – or focus down the Blood Knights and leave the magic powerhouse at liberty. Clearly making his opponent make tough choices paid off, with a brutal anti-aelf campaign, losing only to Zaitrec LRL who could probably stand up to the magic and shut down most of Nagash’s utility. Big congrats to Aaron for the 4-1 with Nagash!

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)
– Artefacts of Power: Skullshard Mantle
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)
Skarbrand (380)*
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)**
– Artefacts of Power: Ar’gath, the King of Blades
Bloodsecrator (125)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
Slaughterpriest (100)**
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Prayers: Resanguination

BATTLELINE
Bloodletters (110)*
– Bloodreaper
– Gore-drenched Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
Flesh Hounds (105)*
– Gore Hound
– Burning Roar
Bloodletters (110)*
– Bloodreaper
– Hornblower
– Bloodsoaked Banner Bearer

OTHER
Karanak (150)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Skull Altar (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Peter: Our new colleague, Alice, needs no introduction! You may know her as Ragnarok Angel, the lead AoS writer for Goonhammer. Alice has kindly offered her skills and expertise to help us with top three commentary.

Alice: Blades of Khorne is a real underdog that is often underestimated when faced (Source: Me being the receiving end of it not too long ago). “It’s a bad book, the changes to priest nerfed them!” you say and you aren’t wrong, but piloted by a skilled player and a far too eager opponent, Khorne can put out a lot of damage.

Reapers of Vengeance is still considered the best subfaction, Devour the Craven causes D3 extra models to run on a failed battleshock which is fine but the real meat is the Leave None Alive command ability, allowing a Daemon model to fight a second time. When you look at the quadruple Bloodthirsters, you start to see the profit here.

On top of this, the change to Blood Tithes so they no longer burn all their points at once has had a bigger impact on the faction than is generally understood. For 4 Blood Tithe points, a unit can fight at the beginning of the Hero phase, including your opponent’s, before your opponent has had a chance to set up their buffs. That means a Bloodthirster fighting potentially three times in a single turn of gameplay, assuming something even survives that many hits.

The Bloodthirsters are the showstoppers, but rounding off the list is some decent anti-magic. The forced artefact is a 2+ shrug for spells, which while not ideal is still really good at forcing an enemy wizard to choose different targets. The mandatory Mage Eater is much better, allowing the General, Karnak and Flesh Hounds to unbind spells and even do Mortal Wounds with the General and Karnak. Hexgorger Skulls force -2 to casts, and can potentially cause more mortal wounds. It won’t stop an overwhelming number of spells, which explains the one loss against Lumineth, but it’ll shut down armies with only a handful of crucial spells.

When brought together it creates a list that is just incredibly difficult to engage in close combat. If you fight a Bloodthirster you better go first and you better win because if it hits you on the kick back it’ll kill most things. A blunt instrument, but a reliable one, as Khorne would wish.

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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Blisterskin
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Blood Feast
Abhorrant Ghoul King (165)**
– Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)*
– General
– Command Trait: Hellish Orator
– Artefact: Eye of Hysh
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)**
– Lore of Madness: Monstrous Vigour

Battleline
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

Peter: Another new writer, and perhaps a familiar name to those on the Canadian tournament circuit. Jake Seguin is currently ranked 20th in Canada.

Jake: Don’t call it a renaissance, but things have been looking up of late for our favourite Bretonnian roleplayers. Harnessing both the power of the Incarnate and the frightening damage and recursion of max-size Knight units, a few ghoulish generals have successfully piloted an off-meta army to notable tournament success. Eddy Andrews ascends to abhorrent greatness with his take on a Blisterskin list that foregoes the Incarnate in favour of expanding his royal family with the oft-overlooked King on Zombie Dragon.

You’ll find much of the familiar FEC architecture here: an Archregent, the King on Terrorgheist, and MSU ghouls to fill the battleline slots. What the Zombie Dragon lacks in the spiky mortal wound output of his batty brother, he makes up for in force multiplication. His signature spell (at only a CV of 6) provides a 16” wound reroll bubble for friendly FEC units, juicing the double-fighting Flayers to incredible heights of carnage and closing his own average damage gap significantly with the Terrorgheist.

With 36 wounds, a natural 6+ ward, and conditional access to a 5+ ward from the Terrogheist, the Flayers are sporting some real beef to complement their reach and offence. As FEC can now get an additional Muster from any hero courtesy of White Dwarf, any failed attempt to remove this unit can become a game-losing swing. It may fall short of turning water into wine, but a single hero phase can certainly turn one remaining Flayer into nine. Presenting a tough force allocation dilemma and providing the frail FEC army with an actual anvil, 9 Flayers can threaten to take over any matchup where there isn’t a strong Bounty Hunters threat opposite them.

The four Kings will cast their respective buff spells, supercharge something with up to +4 attacks and run+charge, and slam into the enemy until someone is tabled. Leveraging the ability to summon up to four units from any board edge, the list is also deceptively wide and can play a more cagey objective game if the situation calls for it. While flesh-eating enthusiasts will continue to debate the merits of Blisterskin over Feast Day/Crusading Army until the next End Times, Eddy decided that the army-wide +2 movement and teleport utility was worth giving up his first artefact slot. Instead, he took a Command Entourage for the dermal robe, giving his Archregent that extremely important casting buff in a list where he couldn’t fit Cogs.

Excellent work by Eddy, who only dropped his last two games to the eventual 1st and 3rd-place finishers.

Game 1 vs Kruleboyz / Mike Chadderton and Head-on Collision.

Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat / Rob Anderson and Battlelines Drawn.

Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.

Game 4 vs Hedonites of Slaanesh / James Mackenzie and The Silksteel Nests.

Game 5 vs Sylvaneth / Peter Twigg on Won’t Back Down.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

By Phil Marshall

How it works

Game 1 vs Ben Godbold – Slaves to Darkness – Silksteel Nests – Win 32-10

Game 2 vs Michael Lowis – Beasts of Chaos – Won’t Back Down – Win 28-17

Game 3 vs Max Barton – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Prize of Gallet – Win 22-15

Game 4 vs Marc Brookes – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Nidus Paths – Loss 24-25

Game 5 vs Sam Barker – Stormcast Eternals – Close the Chest – Win 32-22

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

Woeful Wargaming