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Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Destruction, Fantasy, Fuethan, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Idoneth Deepkin, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts, Ymetrica

Top Three AoS Lists for GT Bilbao

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GT Bilbao that took place in Spain on 10th and 12th December. It involved 26 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: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Ymetrica
– Grand Strategy: Alarith Afterschock
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)
Alarith Stonemage (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Unyielding Toughness
– Artefact: Molten Talisman
– Lore of the High Peaks: Unbreakable Stoicism
Avalenor, the Stoneheart King (420)*

Battleline
5 x Alarith Stoneguard (120)*
– Diamondpick Hammers
10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)**
– Diamondpick Hammers
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)**
– Diamondpick Hammers
– Reinforced x 1

Units
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Rune of Petrification (40)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 110 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

Ed: This is typical of the kind of lists we’ve been seeing since the new Lumineth Realmlords tome. It is tricky to run properly as Teclis has a whopping 18 spells to choose from and takes up so much of your points that what’s left really has no room to make mistakes. You need to know your rules inside and out – not a list for players who take 10 mins to read their warscrolls each round! However, the versatility of Teclis coupled with the hardiness and output of his Alarith entourage can accomplish a great deal even with so few models on the board.

Avalenor is a certified beatstick, especially with his pet stonemage in tow keeping him on top bracket for as long as possible. He and Teclis have the ability to dictate the course of the battle, while the Stoneguard will do most of the actual heavy lifting. Even as Galletian Veterans, Stoneguard are hardy anvils which gain a 4+ ward against mortal wounds while contesting an objective they control and the ability to ignore rend of -1 and -2! Plus in the Expert Conquerers battalion they count as 3 per model, meaning their hold over that objective and access to their ward are extra secure. They’re not too bad on the offensive either, though certainly the support from Avalenor and Teclis is crucial.

Then there are the Tree Revenants. A cheeky little unit that can pop up in unexpected places and secure objectives without much investment. It forces your opponent to play a little defensively and deploy their forces in less than ideal positions to prevent a catastrophic backdoor teleports. Even if they don’t steal an objective or assassinate a vulnerable unit, just having them on the board can be worth it for how it changes your opponent’s behaviour in your favour. I can’t speak highly enough of these guys as a list filler for any order faction who can ally them in.

It’s a brilliant list, clearly played excellently to have reached first place. But time is running out to make use of it! With a new GHB just around the corner, and Expert Conquerors/Bounty Hunters almost certainly about to disappear will similar builds continue to reach the top of the podium?

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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Butcher (135)*
– General
– Tenderiser
– Command Trait: Reluctant Rabble-rouser
– Artefact: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Lore of Gutmagic: Blubbergrub Stench
Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)**
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder

Battleline
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
4 x Leadbelchers (170)**

Units
20 x Gnoblars (100)**
20 x Gnoblars (100)**

Artillery
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)*
Ironblaster (170)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 146
Drops: 4

Brett: The current Big Bad of AoS according to many threads, as always shooting is effective and controversial. The increase in range for the Leadbelchers (to 18″) means it’s a lot easier for them to stand still. Standing still now guarantees 2 shots (2D3 v 1D6), not a lot but it’s significantly more damage. Ironblasters long range shot moving to a guaranteed 4 damage at 30″ with -2 Rend and doubling the number of shots is a huge deal. Their Hail Shot (10 shots, Rend -1, D2) is effective in Unleash hell and both units are solid melee damage dealers as are their Leaders. Fittingly for Ogors they are tough (4+ save) multiwound (4W for Leadblechers and 9W for Ironblasters) models who also tank well. With multiple small units they also blunt the counter strike and limit carry over damage.

With two effective (and cheap) screens in the Gnoblars (who aren’t even GV) to keep opponents out of your hair, it’s a challenge to take apart. Only the event’s 1st place managed to do so in the 3rd round, a match up of the new tomes, with the Stoneguard coming out on top. Scoring 20 in 3 rounds it looks like Adrian might have tabled his opponents frequently, certainly a chance with this sort of shooting.

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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin
– Enclave: Fuethan
– Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Sea (325)*
– General
– Command Trait: Endless Sea Storm
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides
Isharann Soulscryer (150)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
20 x Namarti Reavers (340)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)*
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

Faction Terrain
Gloomtide Shipwreck (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 4

Patrick: What a strange list, and yet here we are in the top 3. Fuethan opens up the ability to take Allopexes as Battleline as well as bringing in Bloodthirsty Shivers (which gain some bonus attacks if they are within a certain distance of one another). In Jordi’s Case, they have opted to take three squads of 2 without bringing any Shivers at all. Allopexes are already excellent “independent operator” units, and placing them in a Bounty Hunters battalion improves their ability to clear objectives, allowing for the slower Namarti to move in.

Speaking of Namarti, Jordi has brought 2 units, both fairly small. 30 Reavers spread across 2 units is decent if you’re pushing for a skirmish force, but the frailty of the Namarti will sting if anything focuses on them for very long. The Soulscryer’s ability to deep-strike will allow all of the Namarti to start the game off the board, which would allow for better early survival.

The final unit is an Eidolon general, bringing the Arcane Tome and Endless Sea Storm. The Eidolon innately has full re-rolls for casting, unbind, and dispelling, and Endless Sea Storm allows the ability to cast an additional spell for each successful casting attempt with a result greater than 7. The Eidolon has some solid warscroll spells, and with these upgrades he becomes a high-quality support hero that will do a lot to keep the Allopexes alive.

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Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Greyfyrd
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Auric Runesmiter (135)*
– Runic Iron
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Auric Runeson (80)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
Battlesmith (150)*
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)**
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runemaster (125)**
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Battleline
15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (480)***
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Molten Infernoth (40)
Runic Fyrewall (40)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge (0)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Warlord
***Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 9

Brett: Straight forward enough, the foot heroes provide a 4+ ward (in Greyfyrd) and can use their prayer (heal) to get the Hearthguard close enough to charge. The triple reinforced Hearthguard averages 10 mortal wounds (MW) in addition to their normal damage. Both Hearthguard are Expert Conquerors to give some solid objective play for really elite army. This is a great way to play into the current meta and try to deal with long range shooting. The primary hammers have the option of rending or non rending weapons to manage armies like Nighthaunt and the Vulkites are a risk for melee army with their fight on death.

As always though there are trade offs, this is such a slow army that you might be better to not engage the central castle forcing them to come to your or spread. Either works giving you the chance to weaken them piecemeal. Score wise I think that lack of movement may have cost him dearly.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hosts Arcanum, Knights of the Empty Throne, Morgaunt, Order, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 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.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.

Ranked Players

Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.

Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.

Faction Breakdown

The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

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

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

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

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

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

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

Phil Marshall: 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.

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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)*
– General
– Command Trait: Cult Demagogue
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
Lord of Change (400)*
– Artefact: The Eternal Shroud
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist

Battleline
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 69
Drops: 7

Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches. 

Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast. 

The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster! 

The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead! 

It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards. 

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
The Triceracop (285)
Engine of the Gods
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Lord Kroak (450)***
Bert the Banner Waver (155)***
Saurus Astrolith Bearer
An Undercosted Priest (120)***
Skink Priest
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Starseer (145)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory

UNITS
Skinkrunner Chariot (85)**
1 x Scourgerunner Chariots
Saurustrike Chariot (165)**
1 x Stormstrike Chariot
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
Kroak’s Ablative Wounds (115)*
5 x Saurus Guard
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

BEHEMOTHS
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

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

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 1990/2000
WOUNDS: 103
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 0/4
DROPS: 11

Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see! 

The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed. 

All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.  

I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it. 

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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Morgaunt
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)*
– General
– Command Trait: Savage Chivalry
– Artefact: Decrepit Coronet
– Mount Trait: Razor-clawed
– Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud
Varghulf Courtier (160)**

Battleline
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Crypt Flayers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chalice of Ushoran (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 120
Drops: 4

Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).

Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).

As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.

Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Boulderhead, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Hagg Nar, Lofnir, Nighthaunt, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, The Scarlet Doom, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Big Bristol Brawl

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Big Bristol Brawl that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 41 players (Including our very own Danny) 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.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.

Ranked Players
Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Bristol GT.

11 Players had already taken part in 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Luke Churchus) being 22nd in the UK. Remeber these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.

Faction Breakdown

The Bristol Brawl saw an unusually high number of Daughters, Blades of Khorne and Slaanesh armies, with all three seeing double their expected representation based on the current worldwide meta.

On the flip side of this, the tournament saw no representation from Ironjawz, Slaves, Cities, Kharadron and Big Waagh where we would have expected at least one army to be present.

Of the high win rate factions Beast of Chaos and Disciples are as expected while Ogor Mawtribes and Soulblight see a slightly higher number than compared to the meta.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)*
Spirit Torment (115)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts
– Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon

Battleline
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)*

Units
2 x Chainghasts (95)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 74
Drops: 1

Declan: Greg has been using Nagash since AoS3 dropped, and quite a bit before that. In early AoS3, there was a period we met 3 or 4 times and he beat me every time with a Soulblight version…. here he has taken Nighthaunt instead which allows him to use the Nighthaunt alleginace abilities on the charge and back it up with Nagash’s magic dominance.

Games Workshop / Wahapedia

When they charge the Bladegheists are almost certain to roll 4+ and get one of the debuffs on the table. But the truly frightening thing is that these debuffs stack. I’m not a fan of the mechanism, but it’s the core of how Nighthaunt work and it is scary when a 10+ is rolled followed by a few 8+ (because you can always go down the table).

There’s no denying that Nagash is the centrepiece though and – although he is seen as weaker in the last update – he can still take on an army (and at 955 points he needs to). I’d love to tell you how to kill him, but the truth is I still don’t know but I imagine it’s got something to do with mortal wounds (preferably at range). It’s definitely not a Mangler Squig (last time I charged one in, I did no wounds to Nagash).

If you’ve not met him before he lives up to his role as the Lord of the Undead… with 8 spell casts, all with bonuses and the piece de la resistance… Arcane Bolt as many times as you like. (see you’ll be glad you brought the ranged mortal wounds. He’s a beast and sometimes the best thing to do is get ahead on points, stand on objectives and hope he and the Bladegheists can’t shift you. Good luck; you’ll need it!

Games Workshop / Wahapedia
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Lofnir
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)**
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Battlesmith (150)**
Battlesmith (150)**

Battleline
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Flame-scale Youngblood
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Magmadroth Trait: Lava-tongue Adult
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)**
– Ancestral War-axe

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1940 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 90
Drops: 7

Edit: The maximum number of Magmadroths you can take in a Lofnir list is six, not five as the comment below eludes to.

Ethan: This Lofnir list leans on heavy on the idea that more is more, taking as many magmadroths as you can fit in 2000 points. It’s obviously an effective strategy, having worked out well for Alex, with his only loss being Hagg Nar where I can only predict Morathi’s unkillable rules made for a major issue for an army so light on units.

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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Boulderhead

LEADER
1 x Kragnos (720)
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)*
– General
– Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Prayers: Heal (🎶Living on a Prayer🎵)
1 x Butcher (135)*
– Cleaver
– Spells: Molten Entrails

BATTLELINE
2 x Mournfang Pack (175)*
– Skalg
– Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)*
– Blood Vulture
2 x Mournfang Pack (175)*
– Skalg
– Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)

Danny: Andy helped me out with our Ogor Tome Review – so it’s awesome and very interesting to see him go 4-1 and 3rd at this highly competitive event – WITHOUT cannons or Gnoblars. Andy has basically stuck with this tried and tested core of a Frostlord backed by Kragnos – the big(ger) man offering 3d6 charges for those sweet 3d6 MWs on the charge, along with a huge pressure piece while the Frostlord, specced out with Arcane Tome + Flaming weapon for more reliable damage and Touched by the Everwinter to also make him a priest with the ability to heal himself – or Kragnos. So he’s doing it all. Another ‘big cow’ joins the pressure party as the first battleline pick.

Two units of Mournfang fill out the tax, allowing for some excellent objective play, hardly inconsiderable damage and their new and improved resistance to shooting attacks.

Andy also included a Butcher for some utility spell casting and to babysit the mawpot, although he informed me that he regretted including him overall as he always ended up out of range to be useful and felt like wasted points overall.

Andy had a tough route to 4-1, remaining on top table most of the event, taking a big win against IDK to kick off, followed by a tough Blood Knight list, then the Kroak list that beat me, a grudge match over the ‘new’ 4x Ironblaster + leadbelcher Ogor list before finally losing to the event’s winner Greg. The amount of pressure this list can put out can clearly only be resisted by unrendable ghosts with Nagash bringing loads back and shunting fistfuls of MWs through Kragnos’ 2+ save – definitely a counter to what is otherwise clearly a list that very few armies in the game can really withstand.

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

LEADER
1 x Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts: Crown of Woe(hammer)
1 x Morathi-Khaine (680)*
1 x The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Sciansá and Bladed Buckler
15 x Blood Sisters (420)*
– Gorgai
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Krone

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

OTHER
9 x Khainite Shadowstalkers (150)*
– Shroud Queen
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
– Shryke

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Danny: It me! First things first, I’m working on an in-depth tourney report including some deeper thinking on my list and a breakdown of the games, so for now I’ll give you the digest of HOW the list works rather than get bogged down in the why.

It’s relatively simple – a twist on the Morathi on the bowsnakes. I took 15 spears and 10 bows to lean more heavily into the reliable MWs. Witch aelves are a cheap screen and battleline pick with bladed bucklers for some hopeful clutch saves and mortal wound bouncing. I took Ironscale to make the sneks battleline and enable the run+charge for some key threat projection, but also because I wanted Hagg Nar to speed up Blood Rites, which saves me loads of CP and helps Morathi perform a lot better in early rounds (when she’s still alive!)

This event didn’t allow book battle tactics, so instead of a 2nd squad of Khinerai, I opted for Shadowstonkers, who are also just a relatively tanky and super mobile scoring piece.

Jaws rounds out the list as a spare point filler and another source of MWs against slower targets that my spear sneks might be scared or unable to get into. It’s all wrapped up in a one drop bat reg because this list really, really wants to avoid getting doubled. Of course, sometimes you come up against another 1 drop in round 5 and lose the roll-off….more on that and other exciting, brain-melting moments in my full report.

Want to say a quick but big kudos to both the organisers (Alex and Jonny) from our club, Sigmar’s Pilgrims, and to all my opponents and everyone else there – it was a hugely competitive field but the vibe was friendly and jolly as all hell – a fantastic, super hard fought event!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Ethan & Peter, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gnarlroot, Grinnin' Blades, Hagg Nar, Hallowed Knights, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans, Skaventide, Stormcast Eternals, Sylvaneth, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for HHOGT 2022

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Hobart Hammer On Grand Tournament that took place in Tasmania, Australia on 1st and 2nd October. It involved 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Ethan: Bit of a fun one here. I was at this GT! I came second, first GT ever to boot! Let’s get into the lists and keep an eye out for the GT writeup soonish when I find some time to put thoughts to keyboard but in case that is delayed somewhat a massive shout-out to Mitch the TO and our venue of Good Games Hobart for getting AoS kicking in good old Tassie again!

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: Hagg Nar
– Mortal Realm: Ulgu
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Morathi-Khaine (340)*
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
– Lore of Shadows: Shroud of Despair
The Shadow Queen (340)*
High Gladiatrix (90)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe
– Incamate Bond

Battleline
20 x Witch Aelves (230)**
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Witch Aelves (115)***
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
10 x Witch Aelves (115)***
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers

Units
10 x Doomfire Warlocks (290)**
– Spell1: Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Spell2: Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

Additional Enhancements
Spell

Total: 1990/2000
Reinforced Units: 2/4
Allies: 400/400
Wounds: 84
Drops: 8

Ethan: Congratulations to Luke Stone of Cinderfall gaming (check him out on YouTube) on his first GT victory. He achieved this with a DoK list which seems to be the new and improved iteration of Morathi and her pesky bow snakes, along with a Spinedog. This list presents you with lasting problems to which many armies don’t have an answer. Both Morathi and the Spinedog are fighting and murdering things for the first 2 battle rounds under ideal conditions, even more if you don’t have units to handle them and weather the storm. Backing this spine up, a high gladiatrix and 40 witch aelves sit as a mobile block ready to delete anything which makes it past the front lines. One block of 20 is in Bounty hunters, adding to their powers of deletion while the other two MSU units are in Expert Conquerors adding to this army’s prodigious scoring capabilities.

An interesting piece of tech for this list is the inclusion of the 10 Doomfire Warlocks, creating an additional hypermobile threat to assist either Morathi or the Spinedog or to create pressure in the parts of the field that they can’t cover. Add in a Purple Sun and the Doomfires running near your lines becomes rather ominous as you’re forced to deal with them or play hero roulette for the turn (We played this GT under old Purple Sun rules but the statement remains true!). The one critique I hold for the list is it puts a great deal of points into a limited number of models so anything with the capacity to go wide (a rarity in the current meta) or to pin it, rather than vice versa can present it with some difficult questions to answer. That aside, Luke performed admirably throughout the tournament, only losing in the fifth round and only dropping a single battle tactic over the course of the entire event!

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Gnarlroot
– Season of War: The Dwindling
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Warsong Revenant (305)
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below
Treelord Ancient (360)
– Lore of the Deepwood Treesong
Arch-Revenant (120)”
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony

UNITS
10 x Dryads (100)*
5x Tree-Revenants (110)*
5x Tree-Revenants (110)*
6x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)*
3x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
– Alles

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Horrorghast (40)
Spiteswarm Hive (40)
Vengeful Skullroot (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1985/2000
WOUNDS: 93
ALLIES: 240/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 1/4
DROPS: 1

Ethan: This list is a masterpiece of tasteful design, whoever made it must be both a savant of the game and incredibly good looking to boot…

I’ve been informed that I should stick to writing the articles from here forward so, full disclosure, this is my list! This list runs Gnarlroot for the 3d6 casting once per turn, usually invested into the Warsong bomb to maximise Mortal Wound output. Combined with The Dwindling for re-rolls and the intrinsic +1 to cast of the Warsong Revenant and you have a considerable backline ranged threat active from turn 1. The TLA acts as an enabling piece for this, placing a single tree anywhere on the field and acting as a decent combat beat stick. Throw in a Vengeful Skullroot and there are very few support heroes surviving the first turn as the endless spell is cast from the summoned tree, right into the midst of the enemy army. Horrorghast provides the army a means of evening the wound differential Sylvaneth often suffers from, acting as a great anti-horde tool over a wide area in combination with the warsong bomb and creating great threat against reinforced elite units.

The only other spicy aspects of the list are the Kurnoth Swords as a 6-block, unusual in its difference from the usual scythe block found in Sylvaneth lists. Swords hold the unique advantage of being more effective after taking 5 wounds (even surpassing 6 scythes in damage output) and being significantly more damaging without supporting pieces, lessening the need to play a terrifying game of chicken with the Archrevenant and avoiding the antisynergy present in the allegiance abilities’ limitation of a single unit strike and fading per turn. In review, and especially against Nighthaunt (Sorry Steve) this worked as planned and provided a durable and dangerous mortal wound output into the broadest possible variety of units. The other tech piece is allied Longstrikes. We all know what Longstrikes do. I refuse to pay 230 points for mediocre shooting on a 15 wound chassis (Get in the bin, Kurnoth Bows). They help force battleshock tests and ensure if the opponent had any hope of using any of their heroes, it’s snuffed out. This list also went 4-1 (no 5-0s in the event!), dropping game 4 to a 10-Protector Hammer of Sigmar list.

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Scions of the Storm)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Demonstration of Strength
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Gardus Steel Soul (150)*
Lord-Relictor (145)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Celestial Blades
– Prayer: Translocation

UNITS
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1 x Grandweapons
5x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1 x Grandweapons
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Warblade
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Holy Command: Call for Aid

TOTAL: 2000/2000
WOUNDS: 114
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 2/4
DROPS: 1

Ethan: In third, this Hallowed Knights list from Kaine presents the opponent with two massive threats (1st and 3rd sharing a theme there) in the form of two blocks of 4 x Stormdrake Guard. Call to aid and MSU liberators provide battleline requirements and durable deck-chair sitters at a point premium while Gardus and the standard Lord-Relictor set-up provide durability and mobility in equal parts. Much like Luke’s List, Kaine’s list asks the opponent a key question of “Can you deal with 36 wounds of Mortal Wound outputting, 3+ armour save, 5+ ward save, flying cavalry counting as 5 each on objectives?”. If the answer is no, congratulations you’re not playing Big Stabbas. With the exception of the Spinedog (which I think Kaine managed to dodge in this GT) treating them like a sectioned-up protein bar, dragons haven’t lost any of the power they once enjoyed, even if they have lost automatic 3” charges the moment your opponent puts down their dice. This creates brilliant pressure all game long and a strong primary-scoring advantage which most armies will struggle to match.

Gardus is an interesting tech-piece here, adding to the Dragons’ and Liberators’ durability massively with the 5+ ward but obligating the use of the Hallowed Knights subfaction, which is often overlooked compared to other Stormcast offerings. The list does suffer when it comes across something which can either kill the dragons quickly or withstand the storm of damage they put out but with a lack of both present in this tournament Kaine was able to execute consistently with his two big-threat units to carry himself to a 4-1, only losing to Sylvaneth in round 2.

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

LEADERS
Thanquol on Boneripper (415)*
– 4 Warpfire Projectors
– Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Artefact: Esoteric Warp Resonator
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!
Plague Priest (100)**
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Noxious Prayers: Rabid-rabid
Plague Priest (100)**
– Noxious Prayers: Filth-int
Plague Priest (100)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Guidance

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
6 x Stormfiends (640)*
– 2x Windlaunchers
– 2x Rating Cannons
– 2x Doomflayer Gauntlets
20 x Plague Monks (180)*
– Foetid Blades
– 2x Standard Bearers
– 2x Plague Harbingers

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Warp Lightning Vortex (80)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 2000/2000
WOUNDS: 130
REINFORCED UNITS: 2/4
DROPS: 2
ALLIES: 0/400

Ethan: Freddie Berryman: Our local protagonist and rat-man enthusiast was the favourite for many of our locals. A Skaven Savant, Freddy utilizes a wide variety of army-specific strategies in this list, with the Grand Strategy “Arch-Corruptors of the Mortal Realms” providing an alternative to many of the swingier options available in the current GHB. This only requires any three of Thanquol and the three Plague Priests to survive until the end of the game.

Freddy has gone wide with his list, investing for the full Pestilens package, including Great Plagues while dipping his toe into Masterclan and Skyre for perks for their respective units. Thanquol forms the backbone of the list with a massive +3 casting bonus baseline ensuring dominance in spellcasting while the 4 Warpfire Projectors, properly screened, create a strong deterrent for anyone thinking of quickly lifting a unit of Clanrats. Thanquol has the ability to issue the same command twice so, positioned properly alongside the Stormfiends, any army without the chaff requires to eat the unleash hell will have a miserable time cracking open the Skaven Castle.

Outside of this, the Plague Monks – buffed to the nines by the Plague Priests and Death Frenzy – are one of the punchiest units in the entire game. Kragnos? Archaon? 20 rats with little swords and more attacks than can be reliably attributed to the entire united states military. Were you previously against dice-rolling apps? You won’t be after spending 10 minutes watching your opponent obliterate your favourite unit through the sheer power of “eventually you will roll enough 1s to die”. Safe to say, if your opponent has a scary looking unit, you can point Plague Monks at it and assume its death is imminent.

One of the more interesting aspects of Freddie’s list is taking a compact Skyre package of Bombadier and 6 Stormfiends, allowing the projection of a powerful shooting threat to “encourage” opponents to approach the castle. Throw in Warp Lightning Vortex and Purple Sun and you’ve got a truly terrifying list.

Freddy finished Best in Chaos with a respectable 3-2, falling to both 4th and 5th place. Having played every Orruk army at the event I can only feel for his Clanrats, who must feel like they’ve been hit by a car or at a minimum, a stiff breeze.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Baleful Lords, Blades of Khorne, Bloodgullet, Celestial Warbringers, Chaos, Destruction, Ethan & Peter, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Salt Lake Open 2022

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Salt Lake Open 2022 that took place in the USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 33 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: Fyreslayers
– Subfaction: Greyfyrd
– Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Auric Runefather (125)**
– General
– Command Traits: Spirit of Grimnir
– Artefacts of Power: The Daemon Slayer
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Runeson (80)**
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefacts of Power: Axe of Grimnir
Auric Flamekeeper (90)****
– Artefacts of Power: Draught of Magmalt Ale
Auric Runemaster (125)****
– Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier
– Prayers: Heal
Auric Runesmiter (135)****
– Forge Key
– Prayers: Prayer Of Ash

BATTLELINE
Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Karl
– Berzerker Broadaxe
Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Karl
– Flamestrike Poleaxe
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)***
– Fyresteel War-pick and Bladed Slingshield
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)***

OTHER
Auric Hearthguard (250)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Magmic Battleforge (0)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000

Ethan: Holy moly what a collection of lists this tournament presents! In the vein of Bill Souza this list uses many battalions in order to stack up bonus enhancements and abilities but that is where the comparison ends. Fyreslayers are uniquely suited to taking high drop lists in that they, unlike most armies, don’t care about taking first and can weather an enemy double turn thanks to their durability. This opens up a broad cadre of list building options with the sheer number of heroes present here not reasonable for those armies relying on Battle Regiment to have play.

Getting into the list itself, this Greyfyrd army runs a large contingent of cheap foot heroes, using a combination of the subfaction and battalions to outfit the heroes with a selection of the Fyreslayers’ rather stacked artefact list. Prayers are made more consistent, damage output is improved and items like the Nulsidian icon provide spell ignores in a meta still often visited by Nagash’s Favourite Sphere. At 1965 points this list will often get its triumph and the selection of inspired helps to ensure the large units of troops aren’t losing more than they need to to battleshock.
The hero selection here gives this lists an absolute keyring of tools ranging from forgekeys and latchkey grandaxes to the extra CP of the Runemaster and the deepstrike of the Runesmiter. Of particular note is the Flamekeeper, the hero released with the Fyreslayers’ recent FOMO box, which doesn’t often see play in the tournament scene. With such large units of foot troops, his abilities – which are activated at the start of the combat phase whenever 6 models have died near the Flamekeeper since the previous turn – are going off with alarming frequency to provide powerful effects such as:
– 6+ ward (meh)
– Fight on death (alright)
– Charge, including during the enemy turn (!!!!!!!)
– +1 damage (still !!! but less so)

The rest of the list is still exciting (when was the last time anyone saw Auric Hearthguard?) but less in-depth than the heroes. Auric hearthguard deepstrike with the runesmiter and shoot quite well while the remainder of the army racks up objective scoring with difficult to shift statlines and wound characteristics. Putting these in Expert Conquerors and Bounty Hunters is a nice bonus in a list that already has drops to high heaven and the list is capped off with the Molten Infernoth, which gives the list an easy way to achieve its Grand Strategy. The notable bonus of the infernoth over other options is that you aren’t obligated to move it meaning, as the game is coming to a close, you can elect to not attempt a move and thus eliminate the chance of rolling it off the board with hot dice.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

LEADER
1 x Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Thundershock
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard

BATTLELINE
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

OTHER
3 x Annihilators (200)*
– Annihilator-Prime
3 x Annihilators (200)*
– Annihilator-Prime
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)*
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Ethan: I mentioned it in the Fyreslayers but my goodness we’re in funkytown. The subfaction here is largely irrelevant but useful for re-rolling a save?

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the fun bit. The completely normal general here is a translocating Lord-Relictor and that’s where our dose of normal ends. Five Knight Vexillors. Count ’em. Five. For those not in the know (and who would be?) the Knight-Vexillor is the little Stormcast bloke with a banner. His ability? Do d3 wounds to everything within 6″ of a point anywhere on the board. So that’s 5d3 Mortals, averaging around 8-10 mortals to everything in range. This is then topped off with the Everblaze Comet which does d3, or d6, Mortals within a large area at a 36″ range. What a combo. In a double battle-regiment this list comes in at 2-drop, being one of the few lists that is likely to take the first turn, hitting anything remotely resembling a castle like, well, a storm? (I’m so sorry).

The rest of the list backs up this combination with tools to turn this opening blow into a knockout with a stormstrike chariot thundering around the board (I’ve moved past shame) while the Annihilators and their 2+ save come crashing into the opponents lines and punch a hole while tying things up for the judicators to rain down a squall of shots (we’re still going).

The only loss for this list was against Gargants and honestly, that tracks, considering how the list functions. While the list does incredible damage spread across a huge number of units, it would struggle to deal the concentrated pain required to take down wound-dense Sons of Behemat. What a list. Noe Aquino should be absolutely thrilled with this exciting result.

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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Bloodgullet
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Huskard on Thundertusk (335)
– General
– Command Traits: ‘Nice Drop of the Red Stuff!’
– Blood Vulture
– Artefacts: Skullshards of Dragaar
– Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)*
– Artefacts: Splatter-cleaver
– Mount Traits: Metalcruncher
1 x Hrothgorn (170)*
1 x Butcher (135)**
– Tenderiser
– Spells: Ribcracker, Molten Entrails
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)**
1 x Slaughtermaster (140)**
– Spells: Ribcracker, Greasy Deluge

BATTLELINE
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*

TERRAIN
1 x Great Mawpot (0)

OTHER
3 x Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers (170)*

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

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Peter: I’m starting this with a caveat! None of us know anything about Ogors…. Mind you we still get some of the comments wrong on lists we do know about so….

We have three characters on Stonehorns or Thundertusks who have a threat distance of 24″ (average 19″). These boys are tough with 13 wounds each, a 3+ save AND a 5+ ward. The Frostlords on Stonehorns can kick out an average of 18 damage before saves if they get a charge in.

The Huskard has the Blood Vulture which allows him to cause a free mortal each turn on any enemy unit within 24″. On top of this he has a tasty missile weapon which on its top bracket will roll 12 dice and will cause mortal wounds on 6’s (if the unit is less than 10 models), 5+ if the target had 10+ models or 4+ if it has 20+ models. He also has a command ability which allows other Beastclaw Raider (those Stonehorns) units within 12″ to re-roll their charges.

Hrothgorn and the Mantrappers are a clever inclusion for objective capturing and battle tactics as they can be set up in reserve and bought on in a friendly turn anywhere on the board more than 9″ from the enemy.

The Yhetees, while not great at dishing out damage can run and charge if they’re with 16″ of a Thundertusk when they do so. They also have the annoying ability to pile in from 6″ away instead of the usual 3″.

Both the Butcher and Slaughtermaster know additional spells thanks to their Bloodgullet allegiance and both have Ribcracker which deducts 1 from a an enemy units save. Molten entrails allows a Ogor Monster to add 1 to the damage of their mounts attacks (great on the Stonehorns), while Greasy Deluge forces an enemy unit to deduct 1 from their attacks.

Sprinkle in things like the Splatter-Cleaver which allows you to heal nearby Ogor units D3 wounds if you were successful with any of that models attacks. And a Nice Drop of the Red Stuff which is a command ability that allows units within 12″ of the general an additional 3″ pile in (9″ pile in for Yhetees).

All of this adds up to a tough and hard hitting army

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Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: Baleful Lords (Host of Chaos)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Bloodstoker (80)****
– Artefact: Talisman of Burning Blood
Bloodstoker (80)****
Bloodsecrator (125)***
– General
– Command Trait: Thirst for Carnage
– Artefact: Black Brass Crown
Skarbrand (380)***
Valkia the Bloody (135)***
Slaughterpriest (100)****
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
– Prayer: Blood Sacrifice

Battleline
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes

Units
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*
1 x Chaos Chariots (100)***
– Greatblades
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
1 x Chaos Chariots (100)****
– Greatblades
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
4 x Khagra’s Ravagers (125)*
– Spell1: Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Allies
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)***
– Allies
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)****
– Allies

Behemoths
Jabberslythe (150)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Hexgorger Skulls (50)
Prismatic Palisade (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 265 / 400
Wounds: 135
Drops: 16

Ethan: I’m going to coin this list the “Skarbrand launcher”. A multitude of battalions provide a slew of artefacts to this list, mitigated by the untamed beasts’ pregame move ensuring that objectives are contested from word go. The Baleful lords subfaction is usually utilised by “Oops, All Bloodthirsters” builds, however this list has eschewed such choices in favour of a hectic collection of units which all seem to be built around the uniting goal of “Skarbrand runs and charges at anything on the board”.

In the Heroes section, the arcane tome and ghost-mist, in combination with the prismatic palisade create powerful counterplay against shooting lists, ensuring the army’s lack of ranged options aren’t punished before it has a chance to walk up and beat you to a bloody pulp. The combination of Bloodsecrator, Wrathmongers and Valkia ensure that the Reavers punch above their very cheap cost and, with the benefit of additional attacks, the chaos chariots become a threat, aided by their incredible movement to be a scary prospect across the board. Bloodstokers double down on the theme handing out more movement bonuses to their willing whipees. The keyword for this list is mobility and it has it in spades. Castle build? This is the trebutchet, and the keystone boulder is a running and charging Skarbrand, enough to put fear into the heart of even the most seasoned Living Cities player.

Now, let’s talk about the Jabberslythe. I don’t quite get it? For 150 points, Sean knows something I don’t. It can make a high-output unit absolutely self destruct with self inflicted mortals or kill something that is killing it, Magmadroth style, but I’ll be real with y’all: I’m not sure what this does in the list. That said, it’s a very cool inclusion and provides a wonderful end point for a top 3 article discussing some of the most thrillingly different lists I’ve seen in the last few years. AoS is feeling spicy right now for the Johnnys of the world, with the GHB’s maturation proving that initial overreactions to Bounty Hunters were exactly that. Exciting times!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Big Waaagh!, Blades of Khorne, Bonesplitterz, Chaos, Destruction, Ethan & Peter, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Icebone, Lofnir, Order, Orruk Warclans, Reapers of Vengeance, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Steel City GT

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This article is the debut article for Ethan Armstrong who has joined us from our Discord Server. Ethan will be joining our list doctors, a small team of players who will talk you through your lists and give suggestions on how you may be able to improve.

If you’re interested in having the list doctors look at your army list, then please send it to thewoehammer@gmail.com and we’ll be sure to include it in a future article.

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Steel City GT that took place in Pennsylvania, USA on 6th and 7th August. It involved 24 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: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Lofnir
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Auric Runefather (125)**
– General
– Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir
Auric Runesmiter (135)**
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash
Runelord (95)**
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Flame-scale Youngblood
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Magmadroth Trait: Lava-tongue Adult

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 8

Ethan: In a meta increasingly leaning towards magic dominance, recent tournaments have returned a suite of powerful results for a variety of armies running anti-magic tools. Bill Souza, in this vein, has expertly piloted his Lofnir Lodge to a 5-0 utilising a variety of tools tailored to meta-mancy. The inclusion of a Runelord as ally speaks to the prevalence of endless spells in the current game, with his +2 to dispel rolls and additional unbind giving the army tools to put a damper on the ability of purple sun (and other spells! They also exist!) to affect Bill’s hero and monster-reliant list. The easy scoring of Bill’s Grand Strategy (have an invocation on the field at the end of the game) solves a problem many armies struggle with under the new GHB neatly, taking advantage of the lack of banishment found across most armies to pick up a consistent source of VP to boot!

Bill has taken Lofnir into this tournament, unlocking Runesons on Magmadroths as battleline and allowing for inclusion of all three mount traits. Magmadroths provide a monster of a warscroll (pun intended) – taking hits well, providing huge amounts of output and being excellent carriers of the artefacts Bill has included (more on this later!). Looking at Bill’s path through the tournament, his army is well equipped to the challenges of both melee-focused enemies who struggle to displace his army off of objectives at the same time as preventing the magmadroths punching holes in their own lines. Trickier foes like the Lumineth are tempered at least in part by the Runelord and the sheer prevalence of powerful ward saves in Bill’s force.

An exceptionally clever layer of complexity in this list is the expert use of the new battalions Bill has used, using both his sub-faction and general selection to satisfy conditions of these battalion for the inclusion of powerful units in Expert Conquerors and Bounty Hunters. The selection of the Auric Runefather as the general, make the Auric Hearthguard battleline, allowing them to be Expert conquerers, counting as 3 models on objectives. On such a notoriously durable unit, so long as they remain close to their heroes to activate their 4+ ward, an opponent is forced to invest significant quantities of damage onto these units if they intend to displace them, losing primary points for every turn they fail to do so. Additionally, the Magmadroths becoming battleline allow them to be selected as bounty hunters, increasing their already incredible output further when paired up against Galletian Veterans. Having committed so heavily to the new battalions, it only makes sense to round things out with a Command Entourage, picking up an extra artefact in the process.

With a strong alternative to Battle-regiment focused lists and a suite of tools tailor made to handle current meta conditions Bill has proven the Ur-Gold fiends of the Fyreslayers have fight in them yet after many dismissed their most recent battletome. Things are looking up for the Dwarves!

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

LEADER
1 x Bloodsecrator (125)*
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)*
– Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle
1 x Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
1 x Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (140)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
1 x Skarbrand (380)**

BATTLELINE
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Skullhunter
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Hornblower
– Standard Bearer
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Hornblower
– Standard Bearer
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)**
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)**
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Ethan: What year is it?!?! The inimitable Thomas Guan has flown in from the top rope with a Khorne list that looks like it’s straight out of their second edition glory days with a few notable tweaks to continue with the current trend of anti-magic tech. Everyone knows Khorne is good at dealing with magic due to their Blood Tithe dispel but the White Dwarf update to how the tithe is used opens up the ability for Khorne to really lay the smackdown on caster-heavy opponents. As if this weren’t powerful enough, Reapers of Khorne seems to be the premium Khorne sub-faction under the new GHB providing a suite of excellent command abilities, artefacts and traits to their heroes. In the old book style, these traits and artefacts are mandatory selections, though with abilities like a 2+ spell ignore and an additional unbind attempt (auto-unbinding and causing d6 mortal wounds on an 8!) I doubt you’ll find many among the bloodied hordes complaining.

This list includes a selection of the well-known Khorne combos and all-star units with the ever-powerful combination of a Pile-in Thirster and Skarbrand appearing. Usually in this combination Skarbrand is held back on the first turn to place him at his top bracket before being flung into combat with a 6” pile-in, no charge required. This combination is brutally doubled down on by the Reapers of Vengeance sub-faction command ability allowing Skarbrand to then fight again in the combat phase, again piling in 6” so long as they remain within range of the other Bloodthirster. A bloodsecrator acts as a buff-piece and powerful priest, allowing for additional attempts to dispel endless spells and a STD Daemon Prince gives Thomas the capacity to choose who he fights, and where. The combination of this Daemon Prince with the Pilethirster provides a lot of control for a list that, on the face of it just wants to smash you in the face but it’s only after looking at the remainder of the list that the flashbacks of a time when Khorne was the meta darling of the day begin. A Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut and five (count ‘em!) units of Mighty Skullcrushers round out the list, blasting mortal wounds into opponents on the charge and providing tanky bodies for objective taking with good movement to ensure the army is able to make contact with the enemy before its lack of ranged tools become an issue.

Thomas has done well with an off-meta pick, only falling to Fyreslayers in the final round. Sadly for Thomas, the Duardin possess (or maybe Dispossess?) many of the tools required to stare down this combat army and ask them if that’s all they’ve got? Also lacking in magic of their own, the durable, high-ward Fyreslayers waste many of the strengths of Thomas’s Subfaction, drawing them into a sit-down, drag out combat slog where the Skullcrusher’s charge effects will lack the punch they would otherwise provide. To go 4-1 with an off-meta pick is nevertheless an incredible achievement and show a level of list-building mastery that seems to be the joy of many an experienced player in the new GHB.

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Allegiance: Bonesplitterz
– Warclan: Icebone
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)*
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks

Battleline
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas

Units
5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)*
4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)*
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 1

Ethan: Holy moley what a brutal list:

  • Kragnos
  • Wurrgog
  • Krondspine
  • Big Stabbas

Ben’s army asks you which problem you’d like to deal with first and like the multiple choice quiz from hell, you’re always wrong. With the number of threats this list presents you can only pity the opponents Ben stared down ( 😊 ) throughout his journey on this eternal quest to krump.

Continuing the trend of book-based Grand Strategies, Waaagh! Simply requires either a battleline unit or your general (Does Kragnos count?) to be wholly within enemy territory when the battle ends. Realistically, if this doesn’t naturally happen in the course of play in an Ork army, you may need to return to school to do some fingerpainting and commune with old mate Mork.

There’s not a huge amount to say about the list as a whole, Kragnos is a brutal combat monster, the Wurrgog’s usual trick of staring something off the table removes notable threats and, in combination with a bound Incarnate provides a wonderful problem for your opponent should you ever lose the staring match. Boarboyz fill out the battleline slot while a reinforced unit of big stabbas… well… they stab?

With so many points invested into the Incarnate and Kragnos, Ben does a good job of rounding out his army, ensuring that he has enough bodies to threaten various objectives and the speed to get there, only falling over (in much the same way as Thomas’s Khorne) to the sheer durability of Bill’s fyreslayers. With such a stable of experienced players I’d kill to be a fly on the wall throughout these games but don’t let the relatively heavy combat focus of these lists trick you into thinking the games look much as a toddler playing with dinosaurs (leave that to Seraphon players), without the tools such as shooting and casting that many armies enjoy mastery of both deployment and the movement phase would have been key to these players.

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Allegiance: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (280)***
– Lore of the Swamp: All
Orruk Warchanter (115)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)***
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (150)***
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry

BATTLELINE
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*

OTHER UNITS
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies
– Bonded: Wurgog Prophet

ENDLESS SPELLS
Umbral Spellportal (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 111
Drops: 12

Ethan: This tournament’s wildcard list, piloted by Ben Mulshine, utilises a variety of the tools we’ve mentioned throughout the other lists above, only losing once to Thomas’s Khorne in its path. Much like Bill, Ben (must resist!) has potted (sorry.) his units into the triple combination of Warlord, Expert Conquerers and Bounty Hunters, eschewing any hope of turn selection in favour of an extra artefact, CP, Count-as-three capturing and bonus damage against Galletian Veterans. ‘Ardboyz capture objectives while the suite of powerful heroes and the Gore-Gruntas team up with the Incarnate to grab the opponent’s neck and beat them down with pure combat efficiency.

The previously discussed combination of Wurrgog and Incarnate present a Russian Roulette-esque threat to the opponent where even playing the game is to lose it. The hero loadouts all work together to solve one of the lists major weaknesses with the Eye-pebble, Fast’un and the Great Green Hand of Mork getting in the opponents face quickly and mitigating the ability for shooting armies to punch holes in Ben’s units before they’re able to do that they do best, foightin’.

I’d love to ask Ben how he felt various aspects of the list performed, the battalions make deployment a challenge as, while Ben can deploy in reaction to his opponent, the risk of a double turn or being alpha struck himself create a schrodinger’s cat of a deployment, where Ben must be ready to react depending on whether his opponent decides to give him the turn or not. The list is finely tuned with tools for a variety of situations and draws on one of the biggest advantages Big Waaagh! provides by allowing an all-star cast of the Orruk Warclans various Warscrolls. Listbuilding is always a matter of refining however and I do wonder whether Ben feels he’d make any changes or stick with the current list after such a respectable result.

Incredible work to the players of all of today’s lists! The new GHB continues to deliver as a factional wunderkind with tournaments around the world giving a variety of factions their time in the sun. It only remains to be seen whether the current trend of anti-magic continues to dominate the magic-heavy lists going around currently or if upcoming tomes (LRL and Tzeentch, though still a ways off) can break through a meta which seems pre-designed to keep them under wraps.

Final Tournament Placings