This is the top three AoS lists for the Tales in the Wood XI GT that took place in Germany on the 17th and 18th of August 2024. It saw 27 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Nighthaunt
Death Stalkers
[Lore of the Underworlds]
[Morbid Conjuration]
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (300)
[General]
– 10 x Craventhrone Guard (200)
Reikenor the Grimhailer (210)
– 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (300)
– 2 x Dreadblade Harrows (160)
Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180)
[Lightshard of the Harvest Moon]
[Ruler of the Spectral Hosts]
– 10 x Hexwraiths (320)
– 5 x Hexwraiths (160)
– 5 x Hexwraiths (160)
Colin Klären: Like every competitive Nighthaunt list right now, I played Death stalkers in conjunction with the Morbid Conjuration Manifestation Lore. Added to that was the usual Heroic trait and the usual artifact to restore half of a destroyed unit once per game and to give +1 attack once for all units in wholly 12″ around the KoS.
In my list I wanted to have as few units as possible in the Generals Battalion, so that the opponent can’t get 1+ to hit & wound buffs against my important units. The Craventhrone Guard was the perfect choice and is also the secret winner of the list. +1 to hit & wound against the enemy Generals Battailion meant 21 attacks on the 3+/2+/-1/1dmg and that every turn from turn 2 on thanks to counter fire and the ability that the guard does not get negative modifiers on hit rolls. Pretty good unit for 200pkt.
Besides the obviously best units at the moment (Bladegheist/Harridans/Hexwraith/Reikenor) I chose Lady Olynder because she offers the army a lot of utility with two additional casts and the resurrection. I also played a 3 drop because I wanted to play the Knight of Shrouds. Thanks to his speed, I always had the option to set up passively and still be right up front to activate the Lightshard if necessary. He also gives me the opportunity to activate the Hexwraiths with +1 to Hit in chain activation.
In both mirror matches I wasn’t allowed to choose which player had to start, which definitely didn’t make it easy. Nevertheless, both games were over very quickly, as the opponents gave me turn 1 and I was able to destroy more than 700 pts in both games with a very aggressive style of play in turn 1.
The game against Lumineth was against a very strong opponent who was previously unbeaten with his list. Windchargers that ignore wards and that you can never catch, Teclis that puts all endless spells on the board every turn and unbinds all the spells I have, as well as 20 wardens that can dish out a ton of mortal wounds, made the game very close. Also, the battleplan “Jawz of Gallet” was very difficult for me to play because the LRL player could be the underdog all the time and was allowed to burn targets at will.
The final against Tzeentch and arguably one of the best players in the world (Tobias Schwarz) was also very close and could have gone either way. I opted for a more passive approach and didn’t try to pin Tobi in the first round. I wanted to have the middle objectives in Battle for the pass 1-2 rounds just for myself so that I could win narrowly in the end. I knew that a close win would give me the tournament victory and the golden ticket! Nevertheless Tzeentch is definitely not bad against Nighthaunt with all the mortal wounds the can dish out.
Disciples of Tzeentch
Wyrdflame Host
[Lore of Change]
[Morbid Conjuration]
Kairos Fateweaver (440)
[General]
– 6 x Flamers of Tzeentch (240)
– 6 x Flamers of Tzeentch (240)
– 1 x Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (60)
– 1 x Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (140)
Lord of Change (360)
[Nine-Eyed Tome]
[Illusionist]
[Rod of Sorcery]
– 20 x Blue Horrors and Brimstone Horrors (240)
– 10 x Pink Horrors (140)
– 10 x Pink Horrors (140)
Soulblight Gravelords
Deathmarch
2000 Points
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (410 Points)
• General
Black Knights (320 Points)
• Reinforced
Black Knights (320 Points)
• Reinforced
Grave Guard (300 Points)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Necromancer (140 Points)
• Amulet of Screams
• Lash of the Sire
Deathrattle Skeletons (100 Points)
Fell Bats (90 Points)
Grave Guard (300 Points)
• Reinforced
Connor Irwin: Congratulations to Dario for an excellent showing at Tales of the Wood for his Soulblight Gravelords. Let’s take a look at what makes this list spin.
Starting at the bottom there is a necromancer with its double activation ability that is great for Grave Guard with their new and improved durability. It has an Amulet of Screams artefact and the Lash of the Sire command trait. A great package to squeeze every ounce of power possible into that wizard. The Amulet punishes enemy wizards within 18″ with d3 mortal damage and the lash enables a friendly unit within combat range to make a hero phase d6″ move, which is great for slow grave guard in particular. Sharing that regiment are two utility pieces, a unit of Deathrattle skeletons and Fellbats. Skeletons are excellent tactics and objectives grabbers that are hard to ignore but expensive to fully remove. Bats are superb at that early flanks tactic, taking covering fire to the face and just being obnoxiously everywhere.
Leading the generals regiment is Mannfred, a force multiplier wizard (2) and technical piece with a fun ability to make a redeploy work going into combat, access to a fight first rampage and an extra attack to nearby Deathrattle units when he kills models with that fight first. With the debuff heavy spell lore of Soulblight with things like Prison of Grief (fight last) and Waste Away (-1 DMG) make enemy units regret being within 12″ in the hero phase. The bloody hammers of this are the new and improved Black Knights. A reinforced unit of these things is a chunk of 30 health on a 4+ save with charge damage, crit mortals and extra rend from the formation ability. Add to this the Deathly Invocation healing and Endless Legions unit recursion and the power is clear. Dario took two of them and another reinforced grave guard unit on top. Brutal.
I think the standout feature of this list is the two drop package, something of a novelty in a faction that often brings a heavy hero load out with at least three regiments. If you’re playing with aggressive cavalry and can mess with activation order, that early double will end a lot of games.
Congrats to Dario for recovering after a round 1 loss and taking his skellibobs to an excellent 4-1 finish.
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Final Tournament Placings
