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!
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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!
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.
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.
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
