A few of the Age of Sigmar sites you know and love have got together and organised a little competition between us all. It’s a veritable who’s who of AoS blogging! PlasticCraic, Goonhammer, AoS Shorts, Sprues & Brews, and No Rerolls will be facing off to see who can be crowned champion. Each person taking part is choosing a Galletian Champion, tooling them up and letting them loose on the enemy bloggers! With 5 participants, Woehammer has a strong representation in the tournament. Hopefully, we don’t all go out in the first round!
It’ll be a knockout competition (think, the World Cup). Battles will take place in a 9″ x 9″ space and will be simulated on Tabletop Simulator over on Pete Brizio’s Twitch channel throughout May. The 1st round draw will be live at 11 am on Saturday, 13th May BST.
Brett
My first thought was to go Stormcast, with 19 warscrolls there had to be a contender. A Lord-Castellant fits the bill his output is a little weak. The Celestant-Prime is good but only 3 attacks (he has to be on the board). No to win this we have to look to the future, and the future is Chaos. I present the thing of unspoken nightmares, it has no use for a name, instead it reflects your darkest fears:
Credit: Brett Martin
With only 7 wounds and a 5+ save, is he mad I hear you ask? The Epitome has 2 spells, Mystic Shield goes without saying and then either Flaming Weapon or Arcane Bolt. In built casting rerolls, Horrible Fascination (within 3” no commands can be issued or received) and 2+ ward against Mortal Wounds.
That’s just the warscroll. Stongest Alone for +1 to hit and wound rolls, now hitting on 2s and wound on 3s. The Crown of Dark Secrets lets you to pick one unit at the start of your hero phase and they will only have 1 attack with their melee weapons. And finally Fuelled by Ghurish Rage for the 3+ ward.
Two ways to run him depending on priority. If our epitome has priority then we’ll take finest hour then cast flaming weapon and overwhelming acquiesce (don’t forget rerolls) before picking our target for the Crown of Dark Secrets. Assuming they’ll throw everything into that attack we’ll activate Fuelled by Ghurish Rage and after a 6” move we’ll charge. If they survive and there is a second round we’ll repeat (except the single use Fuelled by Ghurish rage).
If we don’t go first then we’ll still use Finest Hour and then pray. Before going with the sequence above.
Declan
With the Galletian Champions being foot bosses I had a lot to chose from and – although it may steal Pete’s thunder – I was definitely going for Destruction. But which one – would it be the Orruk Warclans and Big Waaagh which had done me so well, or would it be little Gitz stabbing at knees.
I was very tempted by a Loonboss with his D3 damage, but there was really only one option… go fight, or go home – and do it large! With heads exploding all around – all I would have to do is survive a round of combat (so All Out Defense)… but which chap am I referring to… well it’s got to be the Wurrgog Prophet!
Credit: Declan Waters
The Wurrgog was why I ran Big Waaagh in 2021 (that and having most of my attacks on 2+/2+ by turn 3). And he can be a monster. I’m sure by now everyone knows his Stare mechanic and with Fuelled by Ghurish Rage he can keep going until he dies and get back up (on a 3+)… then do it all again.
The key is that he must be within 12″ at the start of the hero phase to use his ability so no shenanigans – but he’ll just cast magic instead! Finally the 4+ ward makes his 7 wounds much more like 14 making him even more dificult to kill (so what if most of those 14 wounds are going to be caused by himself).
Patrick
It’s fun to play with a new toy. I recently picked up Blades of Khorne (I’m not a meta-chaser, I swear!) and have been reading and re-reading that book to prep for games. In the spirit of that research, I decided that I wanted to pull in a GC that showed off some of Khorne’s new tech pieces.
Enter: the François, the Bloodmaster.
Credit: Patrick German
The bloodmaster, on paper, is a straighforward beast. He’s a daemon priest that brings a couple of abilities to the table. I won’t touch onThe Blood Must Flow, since that will have no bearing on this event. Decapitating Blow borrows from the Kruleboyz book and deals mortal wounds on a hit roll of 6. His warscroll prayer is the equivalent of All-out Attack, but with wound rolls.
I’ve opted to make him a high priest. With no support from other units, it’s vital that his prayers are heard. I’ve also given him Ar’gath the King of Blades, which removes all wards (including Fueled by Ghurish Rage) within 3″. While I wouldn’t normally hand this off to a back-line support piece, it’s going to be extremely useful in this competition, since everyone will take FbGR.
Peter
Let’s be honest, I was always going to be the one who’d pick a Kruleboy.
The only Galletian Champion that could, maybe, possibly, get through a round or two once kitted out would be the Stab-Grot with Killaboss.
This dude can certainly pack a punch!
Credit Games Workshop Age of Sigmar App
That’s an average of 0.75 damage before saves! His assistant is also pretty useful, being able to equip the big lug with a boss-hacka and a choice of either a Rusty Flail or skareshield.While two weapons are enticing, the flail would only kick out an average of 0.87 additional damage per turn. While the Skareshield will give our Grot a little more durability with a 3+ save instead of 4+. In number crunching terms, this would mean a – rend 1 damage weapon would have to land 18 attacks to kill him on average rather than 12 with the 4+ save. Granted, it’s unlikely our plucky grot will be facing 1 damage, no rend weapons, but even so.
Credit: Declan Waters
As for which Subfaction, the choice had basically been made for me. With no shooting, there was no point going Big Yellers, and with a 9″ x 9″ playing area, there was no point going for Grinnin’ Blades. That left the little used Skulbugz. Basically, it forces the enemy to roll a dice before their combat with him. On a roll of 6, they’ll be forced to subtract 1 from their hit rolls.
On to the Artefact, and here a plan started to form in my mind. I went with the Tuskhelm, this would allow our plucky grot to roll a number of dice equal to their charge roll. On each 4+, he’d cause a mortal wound. Nice, right? This then made the choice of Command Trait easier, as I was left with two options that went well with the Tuskhelm. The first was Battle-lust, which would allow him to re-roll his run and charge rolls. Meaning I could try and up the number of dice I’d be rolling 4+ on for the mortals. Or I could go with Slippery Skumbag, which would allow him to retreat and charge in the same turn. I decided on the second, just in case combat went beyond one round, it would mean I had a chance to cause more mortals.
The Aspect of the Champion was a really easy one to make as Fuelled by Ghurish Rage would be the one played by every… single… champion… in the tournament.
That done, it was time to pick a name for our Grot. For this, I let the name generator on Realm of Plastic make the decision:
Ian
So I have decided to stay loyal to my first AoS faction and go with an Arkanaut Admiral. My approach here is to try and shoot them dead before they reach me and settle the grudge with my hammer if I have to. Seems a sensible and business-like approach fitting to a Kharadron Overlord Admiral. Just a shame he’s not allowed to bring his flagship…
Credit: Peter “Woehammer” Holland
Arkanaut Admiral (125) Sub-faction: Barak-Zon (+1 to hit and wound rolls for melee weapons on the charge) General Command Trait: A Scholar and an Arkanaut (Additional Footnote) Artefact: Masterwrought Armour (5+ Ward Save) Battle Trait: Grudgebreaker Rounds (+1 Rend on Missile Weapon)
Stick to the Code Artycle: Settle the Grudges (+1 to Wound Rolls against a Unit) Amendment: Trust to your Guns (Re-roll 1 hit roll of 1 in your shooting phase) Footnotes: There’s no Reward without Risk (3D6 for charge rolls) There’s no Trading with some People (Once per battle, at end of enemy shooting phase, a unit fired upon can shoot back)
The approach here is if I get first turn to basically shoot them dead. As my Masterwork Volley Pistol will be hitting on 3+, Wounding on 2+ (with the artycle) and a rend of -2 on 3 shots (with some re-rolls thrown in for good measure) he has half a chance. There is a potential 6 damage there (averaging about 4 damage without re-rolls) they should be on the ropes. And mixed with my There’s no Trading with some People footnote, I may even cause an upset to an opponent by shooting them in their own phase and then shooting them on the charge! I am seriously hoping for an Indiana Jones moment here…
The additional charge dice is just to make sure the charge roll is less likely to whiff, and I couldn’t see much else of benefit to take. The ward save will be nice and may help with survival against scrawny opponents who rely on mortal wounds to do their damage. We shall see, it will all come down to the dice!
As for a name, well I feel my Path to Glory warlord, Khreld Thundergust, should have a chance to prove himself. Maybe I will add this tournament to his backstory as a fever dream…
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)**
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
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)
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.
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)*
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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:
From Games Workshop / Wahapedia
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.
Games Workshop & Wahapedia
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)**
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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)
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)*
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!
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.
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.
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)*
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.
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
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
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.
From Games Workshop / Wahapedia
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.
Games Workshop / Wahapedia
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)**
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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)*
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!
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.
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.
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)*
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)
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.
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.
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
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
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: ViciousStranglethorns 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)**
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
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)*
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
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.
