This is the top three AoS lists for Lay low the GAF Jamboree that took place in the UK on the 21st and 22nd of October. It saw 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Idoneth Deepkin
– Army Subfaction: Fuethán
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER
1 x Lotann (110)*
1 x Isharann Tidecaster (130)**
– General
– Command Traits: Teachings of the Túrscoll
– Artefacts: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide
– Spells: Steed of Tides
BATTLELINE
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)*
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)*
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)*
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)*
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)**
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)**
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)**
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)**
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
1 x Akhelian Allopexes (Bloodthirsty Shiver) (150)**
– Razorshell Harpoon Launcher
– Barbed Hooks and Blades
BEHEMOTH
1 x Akhelian Leviadon (400)**
– Mount Traits: Reverberating Carapace
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
Jon Anderson: Admittedly a bit of deja vu for me on this one, good friend of mine Mike Stewart has taken the building blocks of the Fuethan sharknado list I went undefeated with at Southern Fried Gaming Expo and improved upon it. Going undefeated and earning himself a ticket to represent England at the World Championships of Warhammer.
The changes to the Fuethan enclave in the most recent balance pass have seen a surge in the lists playability as well as representation. Who’d have thought that if you let people play the Jaws theme during deployment and offer them a reasonable path to victory that they’d flock to it. The reach of the list is almost unparalleled, with each of the satellite platforms shooting 24″ it’s easy to encircle your opponent and poke at their armor until the time is right.
At two drops and 1990 points letting Mike play for a wound triumph, the list is fairly straightforward in the list building stage. However, on the table, the list plays the current edition exceptionally well. Utilizing the Spellcasting Savant Grand Strategy is a questionable decision in a GT setting given her low wound count. However, in a teams environment, I think it has more play.
I’d like to see the Leviadons “Ancient” mount trait reduce all rend by 1 so that we could see some variety as I’m unsure ive ever seen it or “Denizen of the Darkest Depths” used.
Mike battled through a relatively stable field of opponents to earn his undefeated result, taking wins over: Beasts of Chaos, Sons of Behemat, Stormcast Eternals, Ogor Mawtribes, and Maggotkin of Nurgle. The pairings gods were undoubtedly in Mikes corner, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
Great list, and congratulations to Mike on the undefeated finish.
Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Gnarlroot
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumph: Inspired
– Seasons of War: The Dwindling
LEADERS
Branchwych (110)*
– Spells: Hoarfrost, Verdant Blessing
Warsong Revenant (300)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Artefacts of Power: The Vesperal Gem
– Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony
BATTLELINE
Dryads (100)*
Dryads (100)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
OTHER
Spiterider Lancers (380)
Gossamid Archers (420)*
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (440)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Overall this is a straightforward Sylvaneth, but I like it in the sense that it isn’t trying to be too clever. What it DOES do, is lean into the inherently exponential value of reinforcing its key pieces.
Unusually, they’ve opted for the Lancer variant of the bug-cavalry, which I find very interesting as conventional wisdom states that the recursion and general durability of Seekers makes them the preferred pick. But that’s the problem with conventional wisdom eh! Lancers have fight first of course, making them a much more offensively oriented unit, and I wonder if they operated in tandem with the also quite unusual reinforced Gossamids.
Gossamids are traditionally used as a fire’n’fade screen and good source of chip damage, but reinforcing them gives them fairly serious spike damage potential and makes them more resilient to chip damage – allowing for more rally dice and whatnot. Potentially they were used to keep up with the Lancers as a mobile (and horribly frustrating to charge) screen, and then hang around nearby for a legit unleash hell threat after a Lancer charge.
The other pieces in the list are just good old fashioned value and aren’t going out of fashion anytime soon, but overall a fairly unusual Sylvaneth list that clearly did the business, showing there’s life in some oft-maligned units yet!
Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
– Army Type: Stomper Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble!
– Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER
1 x Warstomper (450)*
– General
– Command Traits: Monstrously Tough
– Artefacts: Club of the First Oak
1 x King Brodd (520)*
1 x Kraken-Eater (480)*
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
1 x Rabble-Rowza (Braggit’s Bottle-snatchaz) (500)**
OTHER
5 x Gobbapalooza (Braggit’s Bottle-snatchaz) (500)**
12 x Squig Herd (Braggit’s Bottle-snatchaz) (500)**
10 x Squig Hoppers (Braggit’s Bottle-snatchaz) (500)**
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bosses of the Stomp
**Regiment of Renown
TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)
Pete Brizio smashed out a strong 4-1 with Sons of Behemat guest-starring Braggit’s Bottle-Snatchaz. Although we live on opposite sides of the world, I consider Pete a personal friend: we both love Destro armies and sneakers (I prefer Adidas and he’s more into Nike), and I’ve occasionally found that people think we are one and the same person despite me never having played a game of Warhammer on English soil. The confusion is possibly not helped by the fact that I run the Plastic Craic blog and Pete B was briefly a member of the writing team over there.
So, for clarity: I’m Peter Atkinson, and this 4-1 was achieved by Pete Brizio. I’m the one that runs Plastic Craic. He’s the one that runs the Just Roll 6s Twitch stream. So that’s Pete A and Pete B, or maybe you could call him Beta Peter.
So, how does the list work? As we noted when these guys first dropped, Sons of Behemat is the natural home for this Regiment of Renown both in terms of maximizing the positive tech that the Regiment brings, and shoring up inherent weaknesses in Sons of Behemat:
- The wee man makes Monsters run and charge, and the whole of your army is Monsters. Easy to miss on the first read through, but it triggers each time you pick a Monster – so they all will benefit.
- The big knock on the Rabble Rowza is that moving towards him all the time really works more smoothly when you can teleport him up the field. The Regiment just lets you dump him there and crack on.
- Gobbapalooza gives two casts and unbinds so you can pump out Mystic Shield and some clutch unbinds with your PMDs (in addition to any you might get from Arcane Tome). Their own warscroll spells (for CA disruption and a neg 1 to hit aura) are dope, too.
- This is all in addition to each of the units in the Regiment just being quite good in their own right.
What we really love about this Regiment in Sons is that it gives you a couple of things the army is crying out for:
- Screens. You get screens.
- A couple of Battle Tactics are unlocked. This is crucial for Sons of Behemat, whose book tactics are somewhat crap.
The following BTs become significantly easier with the Bottle-Snatchaz:
Magical Dominance. Otherwise impossible without Arcane Tome, and you often don’t want to shove a full quarter of your army on the backboard out of unbind range.
Intimidate the Invaders. You have full control over how many units pop up outside of your territory, and it also makes it easier to get your mid-paced Giants wholly out too. 10” isn’t that fast when they’re dragging a 5” base behind them and need to get wholly outside; so running and charging gives you the extra movement from doing both (making it more probable), as well as removing the cost to the army of running for your BT and then wasting their output because you can’t charge (making it more desirable).
Surround and Destroy: Similar to above, this just flows so much better with the Bottle-Snatchaz because of how you’re allocating your resources around the board. You can probably run a couple of Megas far enough (but only probably), and then have ~1000 points standing around on board edges scratching their arses, instead of being where they want to be which smashing stuff on objectives. Mancrushers with their 8” base move are an even worse bet. So yes, you can score it with pure Giants, but it’s both far easier and far less disruptive to your army’s flow if you use the Bottle Snatchaz to do it instead.
So that’s the Regiment of Renown and why you use it. That leaves you 1500 points for a bunch of Giants, and given the fragility of the Gloomspite units, you really need these guys to anchor the list and dominate the primaries. For that reason, Pete has gone with the the Crouching Gargant, Hidden Stonehorn build we talked about when the book dropped.
Doubling him up with the 40-wound giga-chad, King Brodd himself continues that theme, and that leaves one slot. I’d probably go for the really basic option here and chuck in a Gatebreaker with Amulet of Destiny, but Pete’s gone for the Kraken-eater with Mystic Shield. Take your pick, but that’s the template: 3 Megas plus the Bottle-Snatchaz, in a two-drop package with an extra Artefact available.
Is it more competitive than Brodd’s Stomp? Possibly, but I don’t think there’s much in it. I prefer the latter because there’s still something cool about an army of nothing but Megas – that’s a major part of the appeal of running Sons for a lot of people – and it pisses me off no end that so many pieces of faction terrain can be Smashed to Rubble with little to no impact on their core functionality (because it’s written into the Battle Traits rather than the warscroll). So, for me there’s a lot of value in physically bouncing Gnawholes or Gnarlmaws off your opponent’s head, but I reluctantly accept that doesn’t necessarily make the army better. Adidas are still better than Nike though.
Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Grundstok Expeditionary Force
– Grand Strategy: Acceptable Profit Margin
– Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (100)*
– Artefacts of Power: Aetheric Nullifier
Aetheric Navigator (100)**
– General
– Command Traits: Back On Your Feet!
– Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust
BATTLELINE
Grundstok Thunderers (480)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 3 x Honour Bearer
– 3 x Grundstok Mortar
– 3 x Aethercannon
– 3 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 3 x Decksweeper
Grundstok Thunderers (320)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 2 x Honour Bearer
– 2 x Grundstok Mortar
– 2 x Aethercannon
– 2 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 2 x Decksweeper
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Thunderers (320)**
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 2 x Honour Bearer
– 2 x Grundstok Mortar
– 2 x Aethercannon
– 2 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 2 x Decksweeper
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)**
– Sky Cannon
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Carl Stokes: Here we have a look at the power of the (pre-errata) Grundstock Expeditionary Force. Obviously, the way this army plays has changed a great deal, but the core mechanics remain relatively unchanged. By giving up any attempt at close combat, this entire army gets to shoot twice on a 4+ EVERY time they make a shooting attack. Unleash hell? Regular shooting? Yeah, that’s two opportunities to hit that sweet sweet 4+ and turn your opponent’s models into a fine haze of plastic and resin.
Bringing 25 thunderers means that you’ll have the ability to concentrate overwhelming firepower basically anywhere on the table and 3 units means that you’re really shooting with approximately 38 “thunderer equivalents” since you’ll have 3 chances to roll a 4+ in the shooting phase. That’s… a lot of damage.
In the pre-errata world, these thunderer units could be teleported around the battlefield by the grundstock haulers, giving them unparalleled maneuverability and guaranteeing that there’d be no escape from their guns. Thankfully, this has since been changed. Even without the teleporting tricks, 4 gunhaulers (shooting as 6 gunhauler equivalents) can provide a great deal of supporting fire and character hunting to help clear out the smaller units you wouldn’t want to waste a round of shooting from the thunderers on.
Otherwise, this list goes as light as possible on the characters, bringing an anti-magic navigator that lets the thunderers rally on a 4+, and a khemist to make their shooting that much more deadly.
This list lives and dies by its shooting, so any lists that can bring a strong anti-shooting item/trait is going to be extremely hard to deal with. Things like aura of sterility present an almost insurmountable obstacle for this style of army, and fast chunky monsters can also be a challenging matchup. That being said, there are few problems that can’t be solved by an unreasonable volume of fire, and it’ll be interesting to see where the Grundstock Expeditionary Force ends up in this post-errata world.
Final Tournament Placings
To view all of the results for the tournament please follow the link below to Best Coast Pairings
https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/V1FLU20VQV