We’re back again for another Battlescroll Review… a day late or right on time? As always, I needed a bit of “finking” time (hmmm…. Maybe I should work that into a slogan 😉) to sort of take things in and gauge my feelings about the changes. Also, I had promised the kids I would paint with them this week and I’ve spent most of my spare time today watching and supporting Ironjawz and Sylvaneth get painted up.
So we’ve got a new Battlescroll. On April Fool’s Day? Seriously GW, pull it together. This one’s a bit different too. Rather than punishing the high performing armies… we’ve seen a lot of greens lifting up the options within the books and more greens for the factions who are lower in the winrate tables. Now, is this GW being clever in their balancing or the fact that the new books are mostly sitting right up there at the top and they’ve clearly tried not to change much for them. I’ll try and cover things without going into too much detail as you can all read the pdf and see how the points have changed. I’ll also add in some of the comments from our “Sensei”s from the Woehammer Discord!
Just for reference, here’s what the GT Win Rates look like (which is often the first thing we think of when it comes to stats but it’s probably not the most important stat).
People who are good at maths and stuff like Peter deserve all the credit here for putting together the stats we all love to see
It’s pretty green! At the end of the day we want the armies to be close to the 50% winrate ideally. And honestly, it’s not too far off. I’m personally happy so long as my army is in that green band. We can see then that Cities and Gits need a fair boost to get up to that 50% but everyone else is practically in that sweet spot already. Not to say that GW shouldn’t try to tune the factions closer to that ideal. This of course doesn’t take into account the “internal balance” of the books (how good units within one faction compare with each other) but we see a pretty good effort in this Battlescroll to try and address some of those differences.
General Rules Changes
Well… it’s goodbye to spam lists because of a change to auxiliaries where each auxiliary beyond the first will add more and more points to your list. It’s hard to write out so here’s the actual rule change:
I’m glad I don’t need to write these rules out! That looks hard!
Honestly, I’m a bit sad to see this one go. I really like the idea of “Oops all Doomwheels” for anyone willing to buy build and paint an entire army of them. Funny that GW even used this one as an example of the new list building back on release of 4th ed. People are largely blaming Spawn of Chotec spam for this one but it was really Darren Watson running the Doomwheel spam that had GW take our toys away.
And well, that’s pretty much it. It might have been nice to see other changes mixing things up a little but we are in the last quarter before the new General’s Handbook so not unexpected.
Losers
Flesh Eater Courts – The lists leaning heavily into the dragons/terrorgheists have been doing well for quite a while and they can feel quite oppressive for a number of armies to go into it. They’d had a pretty good long time near the top of the win rate rankings so I don’t think anyone feels like this one is unfair.
EXCEPT! They’re really the only ones to cop a fair amount of reds (point increases) and the rest are really light touches so that’s pretty much it for the Losers.
I don’t want to call the changes for Cities, Fyreslayers, and Gitz “losers” but it does feel like they could have gotten more drops without that being too dangerous.
Bonus Slight Loser: Baleful Lords got a not insignificant rules debuff as now Skarbrand can’t be brought back. He was nice to throw in early to pull bac with that 3d6 charge. I think we’ll still see the AoR played because who doesn’t want to play with a bunch of Bloodthirsters rampaging around the table!
Here’s a sexy example from “The Dude Abides”. Who wouldn’t want to play with this guy!
Winners
Lumineth – well, at least they didn’t get any green! But I reckon they’ve been incredibly lucky not to catch some reds already. Will the greens for other armies be enough to match LRL? Probably not, I’m quite sure we’ll be seeing them dominating top tables for a while yet!
Maggotkin of Nurgle – Tallyband not going up is criminal. Oooooh how I dislike that ability! Not that I blame the MoN players, if I had that as an option I’d want to take that too!
I mean look, may as well just say all the new books have done well not to get significant impacts yet. They all look pretty good (even OBRs is alright just maybe a bit boring)
Helsmiths of Hashut – I’m just calling them out there because of the 20 point drop on the Anointed Sentinels making them a pretty juicy unit at 130 points. I like how these changes help you to reflect and look at new options!
Idoneth – some nice points changes to open up some new list options… or just keep taking all sharks 😛
Slaves to Darkness – Plenty of decent units seeing some points drops. This probably isn’t a huge difference though considering that their units aren’t on the cheapside but this looks like it might just give enough flexibility to help Slaves out.
Seraphon – I think the changes will help some of the big monster and cavalry lists we’ve seen running around. On the other hand, they’ll probably have a battletome soon anyway
Stormcast – more options have definitely been opened up for the poster boys…. I can’t keep track of all their units without the app in one hand but I trust all the word on the street that things look good for them.
Destruction overall – I was going to go into detail with the Ironjawz and Sons of Behemat changes but Plastic Craic beat me to it so go make sure and check out their article. Things look pretty good here for the destruction factions this time around (Gitz could have had more points drops imo). Pretty interestingly, they reversed the points hikes on the formations/artefacts/traits for Kruleboyz so I hope they can get closer to a nice 50% win rate again.
This army from one of my kids probably won’t be finished before the next GHB but I’m still glad to see Ironjawz getting some points drops
Actual Expert Opinions
I mean look, I have a decent grasp on this game and I read way too much about the game but what does the Sensei channel have to say about what they think the impacts will be:
I’ll try and check in with the experts / paid patreons over the next weeks to see how we think things are going and have gone on this GHB.
Talking about experts, Goonhammer have their article out as of this afternoon too. Go and check it out here it’s much more orderly and structured than this good old ramble of an article!
Overall Impression
Honestly, I like these sort of changes where we’ve seen a lot of reduction to help armies out rather than hurting the top performers too much. This means that those with the good toys get to keep them but they’re helping the other armies get closer or match them for power level. Maybe you get to add an extra unit or maybe it’s just changing to other formations / artefacts. Will it be enough to help pick up those sitting with lower winrates? I think we’ll see improvement through this approach over the next couple of months.
This is a nice place to be for most of us. I know we all like to complain a bit about the balancing approach but considering how notoroiously difficult it is to balance a moving system (i.e. introducing new battletomes, rules modifications and changing GHBs), I’m really happy with how GW have been handling things in 4th. This feels like the most balanced we’ve seen AoS and the numbers look like they back that up too.
I know I get a bit of flak sometimes for being too positive but fuck it.
Good job AoS rules dudes! Keep it up!
Go buy yourself a beer or have a nice cuppa to celebrate and thanks for putting the hard work to try and make this funny little wargame we play be fun and fair.
Here we are back on the last day of March looking at our List Challenge for the month. We’ve got LRL at the top of the pack causing a bunch of trouble (although I wouldn’t say that it’s their casting making all of the issues). Running Kharadron recently, it’s no surprise that I’m not a big wizard fan so I was happy to lay down the gauntlet for the best anti-magic list.
I guess like lots of us out there I’ve been taking it a little easy on the AoS side of things waiting for the next Battlescroll. Please please please give me the battlescroll this week!
Up first is a pair of lists from Xaine going in heavy on the classic lets kill the wizards Khorne side of things!
The first is leaning into a themed list although I believe the moral of the story of several iconic 80s films was that we should all beware the nerds 😉
For the sake of this article, he’s holding up some Khorne underpants 😉
But you know… if all else fails, why not just try and kill all the wizards / bring bloodthirsters back with a Baleful Lords list?
Netx up we’re heading over to Seraphon with what feels a bit like if you can’t beat ‘em join em sort of thing but that’s a fair approach here and mass unbinds definitely works to counter casting heavy armies.
From Popliteal themself:
“What better way to tell wizards to mind their own goddamn business than 6 board-wide unbinds? What if three of them are at +1?
If that’s not enough, the starpriests bring two more unbinds, and the flying cavalry ignores their pathetic attempt at screening their squishy warm-blooded “wizards”. Combine all this with Run and charge from the spell lore, extra movement from the astorism, and you’ve got a very speedy wizard blender. (Results for any other matchups may vary)“
I know if I’d be entering myself, I’d probably be throwing in an anti-magic KO list looking at multiple ways to stop spells through wards, unbinds, and spell blocking boatefacts… and maybe even bringing a pointy eared ally wizard. This leans into that idea of trying to stop them at their game. However, there is another way to deal with the mortal wounds output from spellcasting armies…
The Envoy: “Just 203 wounds of angry mob”
And it’s bloody well true! I’m giving this months top prize to The Envoy on this one! Sure, this list is going to cause a spell casting army headaches… but it’s also got enough to it to really help carry it in a meta that needs to be able to deal with other mortal wounds sources and, at the end of the day, this list will happily go take and keep objectives and slap back too. Congrats to The Envoy for winning this month’s challenge.
Ignore me… I’m just riding the Plastic Craic bandwagon of sharing slightly relevant Aussie Rules Football images. Carn the Roos! Team of the 90s!
Next month: Assuming we’ve got a battlescroll this week… I know all you List Addicts will be out there theory crafting and trying to see how to best adjust after whatever changes we see (I hope it’s LRL getting nerfed hard :P). So let’s see your best Battlescrol Reaction lists.
This time I’m going to give bonus points to submission with some combination of the following: a) clever adjustments
b) new lists opened up by the battlescroll… and yeah, I do also mean lists spamming silly shit
c) lists with a good explanation /commentary of what they do.
Good luck out there and don’t forget to drop your submissions to me over on the Discord: https://discord.gg/s8qytsGz
In the meantime… I’ll get back to impatiently waiting for the Battlescroll!
This week we’ve got something a little different for you, I’ve been wanting to scrape the brains of the community out there for more thoughts about competitive AoS. So why not start at the start, so to say! We’ve had a few people in the discord recently who have been attending their first tournaments and I thought this was a good chance to grab a random bystander and grill them to get the best info on starting out at tournaments for you all.
If you’re someone who is interested in heading to a tournament for your first time, I’ve also got a guide for first timers and some reflection on how to move on up from there. None of which Andrezzo seems to need as he’s already killing it out there and having a ball. On with the interview!
…
Fittsy: First up, thanks for agreeing to this interview, Andrezzo! I’m really interested in your experience at your first tournament and what it felt like. What sort of armies do you play and how long have you been playing Age of Sigmar for?
Andrezzo: Thanks for this opportunity, make me feel much more important than I am… I’m not new to the hobby, I started too many years ago with WHFB 5th edition with my brother, then 7th edition and 40k with some friends but when adult life occurred I stopped for several years. Finally my children was old enough to play (at least that’s what I told myself) I jumped back again in 40k but when I discovered a club nearby I enjoyed it and here I discovered about AoS. And it was love at first game. I bought the Seraphon’ spearhead (it seems fair to begin again with the first army I ever played), then the second one and I jumped completely into the hobby. This was in October. Then suddenly my father passed away and the only way I find to relax, besides my family, was the hobby: I painted more minis in two months than in my entire life, I played at least once a week and I can state that warhammer saved my mental health in these months. To summarise, I have been playing Seraphon (and AoS) since November.
Andrezzo’s Krozigor, looking great and they smash on the tabletop too
Fittsy: Never underestimate your own importance! It’s great to get the perspective of somebody new to the hobby and going to tournaments. Sorry to hear about your father! Good to hear though that the hobby could help you through a tough time. Wow though, so you’re only a couple of months into your AoS adventure and already hitting the tournaments, that’s amazing. What sort of list did you run?
Andrezzo: As I said I started from the two seraphon’ spearhead, I mixed them together (proxying something else) and playing step by step I realised what I enjoy the most and which style I preferred. I don’t like the idea to copy champions’ lists, so I preferred to create one of my own learning by mistakes and losses. I really love the new saurus and kroxigor design, and although their ability is quite strange and hard to activate I decided to make them the core of my list, and my personal record so far is playing with 40+9 of them! Then I tried (and still doing) to balance the rest of the list around them and the sunclaw starhost battle formation. After several adjustments (I must thank the Woehammer community discord for the help) I decided to bring this list.
Fittsy: That is an interesting list and you’ve chosen a good path by tailoring the list to the way you want to play. It sounds like you used the community well to get some feedback. Is there anything else that you did to prepare for your first tournament?
Andrezzo: I asked for advice to some friend of course but mainly, my army works well if every unit can buff the others, so I arranged at home a table with the three battleplans to try some set-up, to try understanding how could I manoeuvre my army and prepared two or three strategies for each game. And of course I made a match with my children in the battleplan I have never played before. With this method I have prepared in advance the set up and I could deploy my drops without over thinking.
Fittsy: That’s a good idea to practice the deployments. It’s something I recommend to newer players. Just to get a feel for that deployment and make the start of the game easier on yourself! Running through the first turns definitely helps too. Also, cool to involve your kids in your practise! I wouldn’t recommend having kids just for that reason but it’s definitely a side benefit! After all your preparation did you feel nervous about going to your first tournament?
Andrezzo: Having children is a very long-sighted plan to become a better Warhammer player XD. You’re not just preparing for a tournament; you’re playing with your sons, and nobody can blame you for that! My aim was to end every game with something still alive on the fifth turn; a bonus goal was being close to winning in the last round. Surprisingly, I was nervous. I had played rugby for almost two decades, and other sports before that, and my thoughts were: ‘OK, I’ll definitely lose every game, but this is the worst thing that can happen: nobody is going to beat me up’. Nevertheless, I was still anxious. Luckily, the tournament was at my own club, so I got involved in the preparation of tables and stuff to keep my mind busy. Then my first game started. I was paired with (I don’t like to say ‘against’, it’s a fun game, not a fight) one of the best players in my region, who had an army I wasn’t familiar with (Hellsmith of Hashut set up for heavy firing), and I had the first turn. I spent the first two CP redeploying the Slann after a bad move I made, and unbinding the Malevolent Maelstrom I had cast… But with a bit of luck and some bad rolls from my opponent, we had a nice game. I learnt a lot (he was very nice, patient, and taught me a lot) and the game was decided in the last turn, ending 51 to 56 in his favor. So, I accomplished my bonus goal in the very first game! I was happy but exhausted, and I hadn’t eaten yet! Now I could lose every match and still be satisfied with my tournament…
This looks like a nicely set up tournament… maybe I should head over to Italy for a weekend 😉
Fittsy: Ah, that’s nice to be at your own club for your first tournament! That sounds like a really exciting first game. What did you eat for lunch afterwards? And how did your other games go?
Andrezzo: The game was really close, but again, that was more down to my opponent’s bad luck than my own skill, of course! We spent lunchtime together (a sandwich and a slice of crostata—a traditional Italian jam tart) talking about the game and the local AoS scene. My second game was, once again, with a very experienced player. He was bringing his incredibly tough and successful Troggoth list (18 of them!) for a ‘last hurrah’. Even so, the atmosphere was extremely chill and relaxed; it was a very fun game and he even taught me a couple of tricks with Morbid Conjurations. My 20 Saurus met a grizzly end against his wall of Troggoths, but nevertheless, the game was quite close and ended 52-59. Finally, I played with another club member who ran a Nighthaunt army with a Black Coach, Lady Olynder, and plenty of Bladegheists and Pyregheists. The battleplan was Linked Ley Lines, and he just couldn’t shift my 20 Saurus from the central objective while my heavy hitters reached the centre of his army and blew it apart. Another fun game! We were both exhausted and ran out of time at the end of the third turn. It was my first win, 42 to 34, and the game was definitely in my favor but who knows…
Fittsy: 3 good games is the best result you can have. Tournament games are a really great place to learn. While you’re really focussed, you can learn some really important things to do or not to do. Are you already planning to go to more tournaments?
Andrezzo: Yeah, the very next day I negotiated with my wife the tournament deal: once a month I can attend one tournament, once every quarter a two days tournament. I did have a great time, I feel to have improved massively and understood that, like in sports, you can train hard as you like, but the real grow comes from real games and matches, and if nobody can beat you up even better!
Andrezzo himself at the tournament. I can see the killer instinct in those eyes, I reckon he will be a real threat at tournaments soon.
Fittsy: That’s awesome! Great to hear that you had such a good time and it would be cool to find out how you go after a few more tournaments! Would you do anything differently next time and do you have any tips for other players thinking of going to their first tournament?
Andrezzo: I’m not aiming to be a ‘pro’ player (just a better one, I hope!), but so far I’m loving the process. With this schedule, I can reach almost 100 games per year (around 50 club nights and 40 tournament games), which I think is a great way to learn and grow. My principal aim is to be a solid sparring partner for the guys in my club—who are very strong right now—and to provide a challenge that helps them improve as well. I’m pushing forty (OMG!), but I’ve found a wonderful way to spend my free time, bond with my kids, and meet new friends who share the same passion. I live in Italy, and while I can’t speak for other countries, the AoS scene here is incredibly friendly. I feel welcome everywhere I go, and I believe the spirit of the game is the same all around the world. So, if you’re nervous about playing in a competitive environment: don’t be! Jump in and give it a go. You might not always have ‘hot dice’ like I did, but you will definitely meet great people and improve your game. Beyond that ‘moral’ message, I found that preparing my battleplan in advance was a huge help. It acted as an anchor and allowed me to make more sensible choices (or at least, that was my impression!). Last but not least: don’t wait until you know every single army, warscroll, or possibility because you never will. Just be confident in what your own list can do; know your strengths and your weaknesses. You can’t control the battleplans or what your opponent brings, so don’t overthink it. Be good with what you bring to the table, set a goal for the tournament, and enjoy it. If you don’t reach your goal, the worst that can happen is that you’ll have to try again next time. And remember: even if you lose every game, so what? No one is going to beat you up anyway!
Fittsy: You’re very passionate and your drive is clear. It looks like you’ve found a hobby which you’re enjoying very much. There is a great community around AoS and that’s a large part of what makes it so much fun to take part in tournaments! Thanks very much for taking your time to do the interview, it’s been a pleasure! Keep up the awesome attitude and hope to see you in a top 3 lists article soon!
…
It was a ball to chat with Andrezzo about his experience. It was nice to think back to my own times before starting heading to tournaments.
Andrezzo really worked hard on his own preparation and I think he’s got some great advice there for new tournament players! So get out there, sign up to a tournament, and join in on all the fun!
So I’m turning things around a bit this week and not looking at how I can get better but rather at how to either make that little step up from the bottom tables to the middle of the pack. After my last tournament, as an exercise, I went through the sort of things that I could see either working for those players or where they could do something differently that could help up their game a little.
I’m lucky to have an active community in my area at the moment with a bunch of people who are playing in their first AoS tournaments (and they’re also getting dangerously competitive). We ran a bunch of tournaments over the last two years as well and got to see a lot of people in the region develop and lift their game up. This made it an interesting reflection to make and I thought that I would help share this as a part 1. I figure I’ll follow this up with an interview with someone trying to make their way up the placings and maybe also catch up with a real coach and see what they have to say 😊
Regardless to say, my personal options for getting better over in the Getting Good article are probably all valid here. These ones are just a little more specific and tailored towards small changes to rise up in the pack!
This song is here for a reason… because it’s AWESOME!
Use a Chess Clock
Ok… if you’ve read some of my other articles, you’ll know I sometimes why away from using one. However, that approach is flat out wrong! Practice with a chess clock, get familiar, and use it every game. This means that when the opponent wants to use one, you’ll be fine with using it and not put at a disadvantage. It also means that you’ll play on a more even footing with all types of opponents. This is a weird one to start with but small steps added up together can make a big difference.
This game 100% did not need a chess clock. But we did it anyway!
Write a Diary
Keep some sort of games log. This can be as simple as recording your game on your phone, or a little book where you write down the results. This could be as detailed as a turn by turn summary of what happened in your games. Just doing it is what I see as the most important step. Next step is to look back on it, reflect what you think you did well and what didn’t go well. In my coaching with Onwards AoS, I took this a step further by recording both of those and the mistakes I was making. I ‘ve been naughty and not keeping my diary up to date… but I’ve been busy writing articles like these 😛 Ok, shitty excuse, get back to it Fittsy!
You can inimidate your opponent with something like this, or go pay 2 Euros for a tiny thing you pop in your pocket and take with you on your bathroom breaks at work
Stick it out with one army
Now… this is one which has been easy for me in the past because I was so shit with Skaven when I tried a second army. This doesn’t mean you need to play every game with the same army but I’d say rule of thumb to get at least 3 out of 4 games in with the army you want to take to tournaments. This one has real proof on the tables, you’ll see people who really focus on one army across an edition perform better than they “should” just by knowing their own army, how it plays on different battleplans, and how it should play into different matchups. Now is a great chance to at least play out the edition with one army and do this last GHB with a focus. Avoid the temptation to switch armies!
Battleplan plans
Now… I feel a bit shitty because when I started out, I know I read or watched something which helped me before going into my first tournament but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. But! I do remember a key piece of advice which was to learn all of the battleplans before going into the tournament with the advice of playing at least 1 game on each battleplan shortly before the tournament. Back when I started, somehow I had more time to play and I would play a couple of games on each battleplan beforehand with my old sparring partner (who stepped away from the game for a while but is back with a vengeance now… you know who you are 😉). I also used to practice my deployments on the table with terrain proxies and nowadays I try to go through the battleplan check out 1-3 deployment options beforehand and when I’m a good boy, even write down notes about my turn 1-2 options. This one will help remove some of the decisions in your early game and keep that brain fit for the tough decisions come turn 2-3.
The handy thing about using fruit as terrain is that if you get hungry halfway you can just eat the terrain
Change that Mindset
Hah! There really was a reason for Eye of the Tiger up there… this is a song which I sometimes use to hotwire myself into a state of competitiveness (wow, that sounds a bit wanky… but hopefully you know what I mean). Back when I was on the lower to lower-mid tables, I would play lists I liked the look of and avoid deployments that looked silly because I wanted my horses pointing forwards. Forget all that! Focus on what you’re trying to do on the table and try to leave those thoughts to one side. Remind yourself that it’s ok to want to win (that’s also one of the things Onwards AoS has really helped me with).
Find your killer instinct! If you’re reading this, you’ve already got it in you!
Get out there and play games
It’s one thing to read this but at the end of the day, you need to put it into practice. Maybe you’ll find it’s other things that really help you instead, you’ll only find out by trying. I’d normally finish this article with a statement about getting wins. But hey, just playing is already a win, every game is practice and if you get out there and play against good opponents that’s even better practice.
Fittsy with more than one article in a week? Well… the weather is shit outside and it’s a good time of year to stay inside playing Age of Sigmar. In case you’re unfamiliar with Tabletop Simulator (TTS), it’s a software that let’s you play board games and tabletop games on your computer.
Click the image for a link to the Steam page
Of course, this ends up feeling very different to playing in real life. Different doesn’t mean bad though and although I don’t think this should replace playing games face to face, TTS gives a new opportunity to get games in. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, check out my guide over here.
I’ve played a few pick-up games but was finding it hard to find opponents at a time when I could play. So naturally I signed up for the Woehammer Fate of Denatre campaign, I won’t be covering each of the games individually here but am reflecting on how it was to play a tournament in this sort of format. For details check out the article about how the tournament was run.
I will throw in some pictures and try and capture the turning points in each of the matches. If you want more details on lists etc. You can just check it out on Ecksen!
Game 1 against Popliteal’s Sylvaneth, I started to feel like I was getting to grips with my list and good use of commands to covering fire and all out attack shoot helped to stack damage over the turns to wipe Sylvaneth off the board
What’s it feel like Playing AoS on TTS?
It does feel different for me… one of the big reasons for me getting into AoS was the social aspect and that’s just not here in the same way. I miss the handshake before the game starts and the feeling of ending a game in person. Maybe with time it will feel more familiar, for now, I miss the natural feeling and knowing the etiquette around the game online.
There is of course a community around it and that part is sort of fun. Watching how the other games go and chatting on Discord about it has been an unexpected side benefit.
Wow do I sound fucking old! I just want to say it feels different but it’s not all bad. Onto some of the more concrete differences!
Game 2 against Archivesband with so many Liberators. Went in for the big turn 1… did some good damage but it was the wrong plan and it just let this list grind me down. Also, I let a little gap in my back line and I got Stormcast all up on my back objective.
What’s different to a regular tournament?
No chatter and meeting up with people I mentioned the social aspect around games above, of course, this is missing. Itäs a large part of what I mean by TTS not replacing real life games. It is in the end a completely different way to play this game.
A lot of prep time instead of having a few minutes to assess and adapt after seeing who you’re paired into, you’ll have a week to look at the list you’ll be up against and with the battleplan. I sort of liked this… it did mean I spent a bit of time looking at the list and how I would want to deploy and play against each of them which is a good habit to work on.
The games are spread out. This makes it feel a bit more like a league playing a game every couple of weeks rather than the 1 dayers and GTs that I’m more used to. This was good for reflecting on how each of my games had gone and thinking about how I change and learn from my mistakes.
Game 3 against JuraBenHur with Skaven. Ironclad spiked to kill the Deceiver. He couldn’t get the bell out. Brokk went wild and shot and chainsawed skaven all over the place. Autoendrins blocking potential teleprots were fantastic.
What’s good?
Get in games against armies you don’t see as much in the local community. This isn’t just good from a “getting better” perspective but it was also cool to play against armies I rarely play against! Bit like heading to a tournament in real life too though I guess.
Get games in against really good players. The tournament had a great mix of some really top players, middle-fielders, and some newer players. I definitely saw that playing against some strong players pushed me harder than the luck of the draw at a 1 dayer event.
You play from home when it suits you / no transporting your army around. This cuts down on a lot of the logistics around getting games in. Especially for those living a bit further away from opportunities to play in tournaments this could greatly open up opportunities to play competitively.
Practice and prep. This one links up with the spread out games and the longer prep time and it really reminded me of Roma’s approach to league games (check out Dudes of Sigmar, it’s one of the best Podcasts out there!). This means you might go as simple as reading the list, you might try a deployment, you might work out turn 1-2 ideas… or you might even play a practice game against that army on that battleplan by yourself (Roma style) or with a mate.
Game 4 against TheEnvoy with Nighthaunt. I played this one tight and well… but could not find ways to block Quicksilver from tagging my Ironclad. If this was post the points increases for Nighthaunt, I think the match would have been enough in my favour to pull a win.
What’s bad?
Stuck with one list for however long it runs. Of course, because it’s spread out you’ll pick your list and be stuck with it. Similar to problems with Path to Glory or Leagues that means if you’re unhappy with it you won’t be motivated to keep going.
Some of the stakes are reduced… Motivation is clearly different to physically being there in front of the tables when things aren’t going well and of course life is always there competing with your time to play Warhammer. I could see that for others with drops especially at the end of the tournaments. But I also felt it personally, I’m happy with my result but for sure it didn’t feel as important as turning up in person and winning those games standing on the other side of the tabletop to your opponent.
Trying to schedule games. For me, this was the worst and hardest part about it all. I had the good or bad luck of pairing into players all across the world but this meant it was really hard for me to find times to fit my games in. Between work, family, and other commitments, my calendar is a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. Finding those times to play was as real headache and a surprising amount of work. Thanks to all my opponents for their patience!
Game 5 against Slangster with Aggradons and a Soggy Carnosaur. I lost my notes and screenshots but after forcing the army to come to me, I could really pile the damage on and got a double 1 into 2 to decide this one really early on.
Will I keep doing it?
When I think I can’t get real life games in… this is a nice replacement. I have found that it’s started to impact whether I play in real life… I’d have a chance this weekend and instead I will end up stuck in my office playing games on TTS. So that’s something I want to balance better.
Before writing this article… I did register for a team tournament, Release The Beast, but more on that later 😉
I think I like the middle ground of the new Woehammer ladder league which will be starting soon is about right for me. It cuts out some of the problems of scheduling the games one after the other. That one is just about to start but if you’re interested in general, come and join us there I’m sure we’ll have another one coming up as soon as that one’s finished.
You want to get started in Tabletop Simulator (TTS). Fittsy is here to save the day! Or at least help out enough for you to get started and learn enough to jump into it and get going.
In my adventure to try and get better, I’ve gotten into using TTS. I’ve been using it for a couple of different things. Mostly for checking out deployment and movement options but I’ve also been getting into playing full games on there now too. So after a few months of using it and some 10 odd games, I figured I’d share what I’ve learnt and maybe help you to get started with it too.
I’ll try and keep this updated but I’m also interested to know if there’s things I’ve missed or if there are better ways to do things. Let me know in the comments or over on the Woehammer Discord!
Step 1: Get TTS
Step 2: Install the mods you need and prep an army
Step 3: …
Step 4: Learn how to use it / Play games / Profit
OK, that was a serious stretch for the meme… and I didn’t even bother to do a picture of it. Well, onto the actual article after that poor attempt at humour. This one is going to be pretty light on pictures sorry. It may even be a bit of a “boring” Fittsy’s Foughts but… it could be an actually useful one 😛
Getting yourself setup
First up, you’ll need to download and install Tabletop Simulator. I don’t know if there is an alternative to doing it via Steam but I’m old / couldn’t be bothered checking / literally don’t knwo what journalistic integrity is. I’m so honest, I don’t even know if the last point there is relevant. Anyway… getting on with things…
Do yourself a favour and do the tutorial!
This’ll really help you get to grips with the controls. To start it up click on the little light globe icon in the middle when you start TTS up. If you can’t find that… you’re probably doomed. But really, if you can’t find it, come and chat and we’ll help you via Discord!
Ok, you’ve done the tutorial now? Good! On with the show!
Next step will be to head onto Steam Workshop, click on “Community” in the top bar then “Workshop”. Then you need to get to the Tabletop Simulator section of the Workshop by using the “Search for a Workshop” field.
You can find other good options around like Mitch’s Maps and Ulthuan. You may find that for your army or for other reasons that other options work better for you!
Get an army ready to play with
Click Create in TTS and then select your Model Mod of choice.
If you’re in Malavitch’s, right click on the bag for the army you want and then you can use the search function to find the models you want, so long as you know how to spell the names of your units 😉. Just click on the models you need and drag them onto the table.
Here, you can use right click and then clone to make more of something or press ctrl+c ctrl+v.
You can also save warscroll cards if that’s how you want to see your rules while you play… of course, you can always use your standard tools like warscroll cards or an excel file with your rules listed per phase. Or why not all 3 as I do sometimes 😀
Once you’ve got all the pieces you want to have ready for when you play, you have two options (that I know of). You can just select it all with shift click or drag to select, then right click and choose “Save Object”. Or you can empty a bag out and put everything you want back in there. Right click that one and save it. Up to you! I started with the bag but then found just spawning an army into the game was easier.
On that note, when you want to bring that army out to play, just click the Objects Icon in the top row and then on “Saved Objects” to go and pick the army you want.
If you have to ask, yes, I have no shame and I just used the first tool Microsoft put in my face to markup the image. Oh how my artistic integrity has fallen.
Setting up your Table
Head on over to the Main Menu and go back to “Create” to get started on a table.
Click your mod, click ok when it asks for confirmation then wait patiently while it loads.
Then I normally follow these three steps (assuming you already know which map you’re going to play).
Find the green bag with the terrain for the map you want and click the “place” button underneath it.
Right click on the “deployment zones” button just next to the green bags, go to state, then hover over the numbers until you find the map you need and click that.
Next to the “deployment zones” button should also be a “deployment buffers”9″ Zones” button, set this one up for the battleplans where some of the deployment zone is blocked off by being too close to the opponent’s.
Right click on the GHB and do the same for the objectives.
Then you can head down to your Battle Tactics cards and use the states again to change these into the ones you are using with your list.
Then bam, you should have something that looks like what you have here below and you are ready to bring your army in and start deploying!
An almost interesting picture!
Doing your game stuff
Measuring
The tutorial should have introduced you to the basics but there are a couple of bonus parts here.
Use the rulers if you need to! If the other tools are bugging out, just use a ruler or 2! You can also copy these if you need more.
AURAs! These are a game changer for playing AoS in TTS. If you’re using “Makalvitchs” or a similar mod, then when you right click, you’ll be able to change the state which will show you measurements based on the models base. You can also change this by simply hovering and pressing numbers too! Just go and give this a try for yourself, measuring those 3” ranges becomes amazingly easier and quicker.
If you’ve got “auto” on, then when you move your models, it will tell you how far you’re moving them. The other option is to stick to “free” where you’ll then need to press tab from where you start until where you want to end to measure.
Moving models
Sounds so easy but is also sort of easy to fuck up from time to time. My two main tips here beyond the tutorial is that:
Pressing “ESC” whilst holding the models means you return them to where you picked them up from.
If you right click while you’re holding them it will place them back on the surface of the table so that you can see they’re going to sit fine. This is key if you want to use the auto measurement tools in TTS for them to calculate your distance correctly. Note: at least for me, this only seems to work if you have measurement on “auto”
A cool trick is picking up your unit and then pressing the numbers 1,2,3 etc to rank them up automatically! Give it a try!
Rolling Dice
Have a play around in tts, I find getting used to the dice rolling came very quickly!
Right clicking on the “Clear Mat” thing is very helpful to get rid of the dice but you can also pick them up and press delete or similar. I also really like using the “Roll all dice” after adding the dice in to the correct amount with the red buttons. Otherwise, you pick up all your dice, shake your mouse around and then drop them on the thing that looks like a galaxy.
Then you’ll want to practice right clicking or clicking on the buttons next to your dice to delete certain rolls or all numbers below a certain value. You’ll want to practice this because every so often you’ll click on the wrong thing and then you’ll need another trick…
The “Last 5 Rolls” button is a life saver if you mess something up… or if you and your opponent simply forget what you were up to.
Communication
You’ll want to be on voice chat… the best place for that is naturally the Woehammer Discord 😉
Otherwise, you’ve got a couple of things that can help such as pressing tab when you’ve got the ruler (“line”) tool selected to ping on the table or if you want to get fancy you can use the draw function to help communicate between you both.
Handy tips (stuff that didn’t fit somewhere else)
I mean… I could’ve gone for a way dirtier pun here instead of putting in this “hand”
Don’t press rewind! Don’t press ctrl+z. Look, we all do it sometimes… but it causes all sorts of headaches. Just try your best not to press it.
Use “Color Tint” (it hurts me to misspell colour) to change how the bases look! It’ll make it easier to tell units apart. Just right click, then select the colour you want to use. You can do it to mark up certain states too in case Nurgle is getting you diseased or something gross like that.
Markers and stuff. You’ll find them all in front of your dice area. Use them! Especially those little red blood drop wound markers!
Copy your units, is it too hard to show on the table the wounds or prayer points? Copy your units place them to one side and put your markers there!
The ALT key! If you want to see a zoomed preview of something it’ll show it right up big on your screen so that you can read it without jiggling your view around!
Hover your mouse over a unit and often you’ll be able to see the unit stats (doesn’t seem to always work 100% and different mods may or may not have it).
You can switch between grabbing and measuring with F1 and F4
Just play roughly ignoring coherency or you’ll have a bad time! Talk over it with your opponent first of course and remove models in the same way you would on the table and you’ll be fine. I played a game doing everything correctly, it was a pain in the arse and it took ages too!
Get out there and give TTS a go!
Now go get yourself setup and start practicing how things work. Then go get yourself a game with someone else and have fun. This is definitely a learn by doing thing and other players will help you out with how to do things and playing the game. If you do run into trouble, ask around. Like I said earlier, there’s heaps of people in the Woehammer Discord who will help out!
It’s a really helpful tool for when you can’t just have a table setup to play around with your deployment or just to see how battleplans are for different lists. I’ll make callbacks to using TTS in other articles and it’s one of the changes that has helped me already feel better prepared and ready when I walk up to a table in real life and want to throw dice competitively!
Fittsy’s back at real-life tournaments! It feels good to be back too! I’ve been trying to cover improving my Age of Sigmar skill level… but have been held back a bit by not being able to play much the last 6 months. I’ve been playing a bit online using TTS (table top simulator) and I’ll cover that tournament once the results are ready but with a bit more of a focus on how it feels to play my first tournament on TTS.
I’ve covered the Hamburg Major last year… they made some really good improvements on the Orga side and Dario did a good job of running things in our Age of Sigmar corner of the event. The terrain was all there and prepared for each table. Although they’d emailed us to say it could be a bit tight there was generally enough space to play and plenty of chairs for everyone. Easy access to water. Ticking all of those important tournament boxes. This is only the second year but I don’t have any serious gripes (food is delivery pizza/pasta but you can also bring or order your own). Overall this is an event I’d recommend that you come along to if you get the chance, Hamburg is also pretty easy to train or fly into so if you’ve ever wanted to meet and/or beat me, consider putting this one on your calendar for next year.
What was cool this time is that we there were a bunch of us from Bremen there for the tournament with it being the first AoS GT for 4 of the crew! Some of us arrived on the Friday already and met up for dinner. I slept terribly that night which definitely didn’t help me out going into the next day. So here we go into the interesting bits for Hamburg Major 2026
My List
What it’s meant to do… force the opponent to make decisions about whether they wait or come to me. Lets me play passively for 1-2 rounds shooting whatever isn’t hidden in obscuring. Then it wants to get most of the army into play to cause damage in my go turn but then keep enough of my own pieces alive to score big turns 3-5… easy to say, hard to do. The army can crumble relatively quickly and so it’s punishing in certain matchups and is not very forgiving if a couple of mistakes are made (or sometimes just one). On the other hand, it punishes in certain matchups and can capitalise on any mistakes the opponent makes.
Is it the best list I could write with KO at the moment? I think I’ve got 3 better lists up my sleeve but this one has the Ironclad and I wanted to finish painting it (I didn’t) / wasn’t going to finish painting the other models I’d need for the other lists. It’s also the most similar to the lists I’ve been practicing with.
Game 1: Surging Slaughter against Rene’s Magic Bird Fellas
Not my best battleplan for the tournament and starting into an army that I dread facing up against. There aren’t any local Tzeentch players and I’ve rarely come up against them, this leaves me feeling like I don’t have a good grasp on them as an army. I guess here it was beneficial to have had the pairings in advance and I think I had a good plan in the end for pulling a win out here anyway.
Rene deployed pretty defensively after winning the deployment roll-off. I had to deploy assuming I would be given the 1st turn and the board ended up looking like this (minus the endless spell):
So I guess the image technically spoiled that he actually took first turn! That surprised me a bit… but I was happy for that and I can see why he did it for the chance to get his buffs off and control the flow of the game. The sigil came out early and he took the move buff, this gave him a handy 9 inch charge into the Frigate even after I redeployed… here was an early mistake where I let myself forget the auto 12 inch charges and I’d redeployed the Frigate back which probably ended up letting him get into more of my Skywardens than was necessary. I also forgot that he could just teleport the Soggy Thaumaturge into me. However, alternating activations are a thing and after losing 1 Skywarden (I think) to the Tzaangors, they clapped that hero straight off the board so hard he didn’t even bother with the ward.
I had a focus on clearing things up a bit in my turn and getting myself in position to block the centre up but failed to wipe the Tzaangors who had gotten themselves out of combat after taking mortals and rolling the 4+ they needed to get into Obscuring terrain which was a fucking awesome play from Rene. This meant that not only could I not shoot them I also couldn’t take their ward away.
Moments before that bloody redeploy
Also note my perfect screen of Auto-endrins next to my Ironclad… very important in a moment 😉 In my greed to damage the Tzaangors in the middle and hope he’d take one more model off the objective, I charged one of those Auto-endrins in to do mortal damage.
Rene won the prio and with it the game… he charged those Tzaangors in through the gap I’d left tagging both ships and had moved his Skyfires in behind the ‘Clad on the other side. I counter charged the other unit of Wardens into the Tzaangors in the forest to knock off the ones who were left. Then the 6 remaining Tzaangors spiked and wiped the full unit of Skywardens who had countercharged.
In my turn… I couldn’t even move the Ironclad so it was all about positioning to scrape points on each side using charges with my admiral and the Frigate. I could get a little but he manage to wipe the Frigate out after I rushed and left it within range of Kairos.
Result:
Rene’s 4+ redeploy and my screening error in the middle gave Rene a massive win and left my ego a little bruised too.
30:75
Game 2: Creeping Corruption against Jan’s Vampires and Skeletons
Creeping Corruption is not a great Battleplan for me, I don’t want to spread out until later in the game and need to keep to one side giving my opponent more space to play with and making it harder for me to engage / take that go turn. On the other hand, going into Soulblight isn’t a bad matchup for me and Jan has been playing for about a year (but should not be underestimated). Jan’s an awesome bloke who’s part of the Bremen crew, he’s a nice opponent and a fun guy to hang out with!
I could use my standard deployment here but you see how it stretches me and really forces me onto one side. Jan used this to his advantage and kept his key pieces either in obscuring or far enough away from me (almost). I gave him the first and he really just used the turn to consolidate his positioning. I did more or less the same in the first turn and was watching to see how he would react. I almost shot Radukar off the board with the Ironclad and managed to do 11 damage with him warding the damage to survive.
Jan won the Prio into turn 2 and failed every buff and debuff spell. I decided to take the chance on this turn and pushed up the centre of the board as I thought I could block enough to cripple almost half his army and avoid too much clapback. Here I failed to actually knock Radukar off with shooting after two rallies and this was a mistake on my part. I definitely could have left some more grave guard sitting on the objective even if I’d have ended up losing some points that turn.
This is the moment where I thought I had him… and in hindsight had made a grave error
Consequently, Jan won the Prio (I think with his reroll this turn), charged Radukar and the Vengorian in and wiped both units of Skywardens. This spelt the end of the game for me effectively as even though I could wipe most of his army… Soulblight did what Soulblight do and just kept scoring tactics and on objectives. I really need that damage to clear things out quickly enough.
It doesn’t matter if you have wiped most of their army if they’re still scoring
Result:
It was a narrow loss but Jan simply played better than I did and worked with his strengths to come out 10 points ahead of me. Fuck Vargheists 😛
64:74
Game 3: Lifecycle against nice Ulf’s cool Orks
I paired into Ulf who I met back in 2025 at Raccoon Rumble and who I have a lot of respect for. I guess me calling him nice Ulf goes some way towards decribing my impression of him. A real nice fella who I’ve always got time for a chat with. Going into this game I was pretty sad that I’d already dropped two games and having a sympathetic opponent like Ulf was the perfect remedy for that. Even if I lost, I’d be giving a win to him and I could be happy about that too.
Oh cool, a Kragnos. Kragnos gives Destruction armies the counter they need to play into KO (and many other armies) by allowing them to get across the board in the first turn and starting to tie up my ships or even taking them off the board. Otherwise, this is a pretty good matchup from my perspective. A couple of Monsters to shoot, other slow units to play around. Of the 5 battleplans, this is also the stand-out one for me with KO.
Oh wait… also these pictures don’t do it justice but Green Kragnos looks sick! It pairs him really well with the Ironjawz!
He deployed Kragnos on the back marker and spread across the board so I had a pretty good indication he was going to take first and go for the 10 points, which I was happy to let him do so. You can see I’m centre right, ready to then take Underdog and put the Primary on the right flank.
Then I moved up and took out the pig which had taken the right objective and took the objective so I could score my 9 points for a difference of 1.
Ulf moved up to control the centre of the board and my back objective which was a good play and made a big difference in the score in the end.
I stuck it out where I was clearing Brutes and keeping my positioning for a potential double. I was giving up points but ensuring that I could have the win.
Auto-Endrins and screening making a huge difference to the game
My screening / blocking game was on point here after my first two games and it made a world of difference, I blocked the poor pigs and Kragnos multiple times using the Auto-Endrins who were my MVP this game.
Result:
No need to go for a win big for me in this situation. In the end, he really couldn’t get into my army and I took out unit after unit to score a respectable 60:32 and get my first win for the tournament.
Dinner:
We went back to the same restaurant we’d been to the night before since it was close to the venue and we had a big bunch of us there all together. It was an awesome atmosphere and after going 1-2 for the day I was not taking the tournament as seriously anymore so I had a few Ouzo’s (5ish) and a few cheeky beers too which hadn’t been my plan but I did have a great night! It was great to decompress after 3 challenging games and shoot the shit with a bunch of chill and awesome AoS players.
Game 4: Roiling Roots against Lothar’s stinky Orks
Sorry Lothar but Kruleboyz are stink and they have stinky tricks too. Lothar was practicing with a teams list which helped swing this matchup my way as he didn’t have too many Gutrippaz. Oh but guess what he had a Kragnos so I had the same problem again! I do like Roiling Roots though as I can play to the middle pair of objectives and that can work for me well, I also play pretty well around the strikes last on the objectives. On the other hand, Kruleboyz dirty tricks are a real headache for me doing mortals and removing charge damage as well as giving out that strikes last and teleporting around the place. Oh and why not have every infantry unit doing mortals on 5s or 6s too 😛
Lother slow dropped and also responded to my set up similarly to Jan in game 2. He didn’t expect me to give him first turn but I was set up to make them 12 inch charges (somehow I missed an inch and they were 11s… oops) so that he could only get 1-2 units into me. I shot into the Gutrippaz with the Clad on covering fire. Lothar then tried to get them onto combat but failed the charge even with he reroll. Phew I thought, now I’ll be fine :P. A unit of Monsta-killaz made it in together with the Killaboss with Gnashtoof which I thought would be fine. He then proceeded to rack up 15 damage on the Ironclad! Leaving it with just 3 health.
I healed up just 2 wounds here with the Endrinmaster. Then I forgot the heal from the terrain because it comes into paly so rarely! He had accidentally blocked out my Frigate from jumping over into the middle of his units and killing Kragnos (and probably mostly everything else too). So after a lot of measuring to make sure I couldn’t get in there… I had to take the more conservative protect the Clad and consolidate approach whilst also narrowly taking underdog for the strike last on the objective we were fighting over. So… I didn’t do as much damage as I wanted but was feeling better about it.
Whoever was going to get the Prio had the chance to decide the game
He used his reroll to take the prio into the second turn. Fair call. Big rally of 1 on the Ironclad here. I thought no worries, I’m still safe with the Frigate blocking and a long charge to get into the Ironclad… except they rolled a hot 14 inches on the charge and could get the Gutrippaz all the way in. One activation later and the Ironclad had 1 health left! I won’t forget the terrain heal ever again!
After this, there wasn’t enough to stop me and I had the chance to dominate the board. I stripped Kragnos’ ward cleared the entire left side of Kruleboyz and got to scoring.
Result:
Another day, another Kragnos. Decent win for me 72:34 and bringing me back to 2:2 and raising the stakes again.
Game 5: Bountiful Equinox against Jan’s Giants
Bountiful looks terrible for KO with the 4 forests but the ability to go wherever I want without blocking terrain is a big win… and Jan was not getting anything in obscuring with 3 Gargants and… Kragnos again! As a side note, I somehow ended up on the same table I’d played game 1 and 2 on.
Knowing that the Gargants really only have one chance here which is to knock out a ship in turn 1 I deployed 3-4 inches back from the line. Expecting to be given the first turn and need to just sit tight there. However, Jan took his chance to get at both ships (I would’ve pulled the Frigate back further) and got a Beast Smasher (with a run and charge I hadn’t taken into account) and Kragnos in. Kragnos rolled a hot 6 mortals into the Ironclad and I started to sweat. But then totally failed to get more damage into it and that was really that. I took Kragnos’ ward, easily knocked him off, placed screens, and got another Gargant down to a handful of wounds.
I won the Prio into turn 2… took the double and that was that. Just to add salt to the wound, he charged the Warstomper in killed 2 skywardens and almost died to the clapback!
The entire army getting ready to finish the game off top of turn 2
Jan had taken the chance that he could see to get to a win and it hadn’t worked out for him. Nicely the game was done in under an hour so we had plenty of time to chat. Jan is another great member of the community, it was really cool to play against him and get to know him better. If you speak some German (or want to learn) you can check out their channel here on twitch.
Wrapping the tournament up…
Shout out to the Fairytale of the tournament which was the first thing everyone was talking about at the end of the first day. Benjamin and his Skaven! He’d never won a tournament game before, turned up to his first GT and rocked a 3-0. He’s also one of the nicest opponents I’ve ever faced and I think about his kindness back then on what was a real shitty start of a day surprisingly often.
Fucking also shoutout to Flo who beat Dario by a handful of points to take out the tournament! Flo was amazing to watch on the top table, absolutely cool and calm. He performed amazingly against one of the top players in Germany and got a well deserved win. It was just great to see how happy he was afterwards too!
We had Dario’s Sylvaneth then in 2nd, Hendrik’s Baleful Lords in 3rd, with IDK Lukas’ Idoneth in 4th and Lukas from Kiel’s Legion of the First Prince in 5th.
Mentioning Dario, I think he did a great job of TOing / judging during the event whilst also playing, a hard balance to get. For my German-speaking fanbase, he’s recently launched a Twitch Channel and offers coaching services too. I’ve heard really good things about his coaching (which he can also do in English) so it’s worth a shot to check that out! Also thanks to all the other orga team who will have put in a lot of work to pull off an event like this. I’m really thankful of the effort that people put in to make events like this happen.
A bunch of really awesome and nice people who I’d happily play against at any tournament which really feels like that same would go for anyone at the tournament. I’m constantly somehow surprised by the really nice group of people that I keep meeting at tournaments across Northern Germany. It’s definitely something which makes me want to turn up to tournaments! I think it’s fantastic how supportive people are when things are going a bit shit and we all sort of band together. Just great! I hope all you readers have similar experiences at your tournaments too!
Where do I go from here
Another 3 and 2 which I’m happy with (especially after the first two games)! I still want to turn this into a shot at the 4 and 1s so how am I going to do that.
I’m going to drop Restless and take Intercept as Restless was forcing me to make moves I didn’t want to make on Battleplans that are already harder for me to play (see game 2). Also, I want to see others sweat about their Intercept decisions. This also means I’m going to play around with some different lists leaning a bit more on the Vongrim and/or Gunhaulers.
I’m going to commit to playing KO till the end of the edition because I think that’s how I get better and how I can capitalise best on the experience I’m building at the moment playing them. That’s definitely something I’m going to speak about with my coach in the next month!
I’m going to keep preparing for tournaments like I did for this one, I went through rough plans including deployment and turn 1-2 for each of the battleplans. Wrote it all out and checked against it before each game.
I do have to have a serious think about my mindset about tournaments and what I expect to get out of them. That start really knocked me down a little and definitely pivoted me back to trying to have fun… but maybe that’s part of what I need to focus on now. Time for some self-reflection 🙂
However, even after losing both my first two matches, this was an amazing tournament for me, completely made that way by having a group of people around me who were interested in my results and me in theirs. Its definitely made me excited to get to more tournaments again this year! One last thanks to everyone there who make these events fun!
Fought(s) of the day: Obscuring looks stupid on the Tabletop… and why doesn’t obscuring work for flying units… have you ever tried to find a bird in a tree when you can hear it but can’t see it?
Here is my generic intro to article where I say I’m back and sorry for the long break between articles! I didn’t realise quite how long it had been until I sat down to finish this one off and get it ready to publish. Wow, it’s been 4 months and another battlescroll in the meantime since that article. I’m so out of practice I couldn’t even decide on a title so you get two.
2026 was going pretty good from an AoS perspective and I feel like I was legitimately getting better. Then the NH book came out. Only kidding 😛 (at least a bit). Life just got busy, I moved house last year which was great for lifestyle and everything else but not great for getting in enough AoS games to stay at the same level or get better.
Enough about that though… I’m here today to kick the year off here for Fittsy’s Foughts and take a look back at those goals I set in May last year and the methods I planned to use to get there.
Goals? Aims? Targets? Whatever they are did I meet them?
I set them back in this article over here but I’m not going to make you click a link just to check it out. 😛
’ll go through them one by one here anyway. I decided back then to have one main goal for myself and I’m not there yet…
“+ become a consistent 4:1 player with a shot at 5:0”
I’ve still got some way to go before I can call myself that… like getting another 4:1. I think I’m just up to 3 GTs and a teams tournament so far so it’d be good if I could find a way to get more in each year. In the teams tournament, I did go 3-1-1 with the “all rounder” list so that was darn close!
I did have these minor goals to get me towards that.
“+ make less mistakes”
+ be more consistent
+ be the best Australian AoS Player in Germany
+ get another 3-0 or two”
I legitimately think that I’m starting to or have hit most of these. I’ll see how my next proper GT is but I’m definitely starting to see and catch my own mistakes. I’m even catching them sometimes before I make them on the table which is the ideal case!
I’m not as sure if I am being more consistent… some more games would help there. I do feel like I have reached a more consistent level of AoS. In hindsight that goal could have been better written. Placing 2nd, 1st, 7th, 5th, 4th in my last 4 outings feels like I might be headed in the right direction. But most of these are 3-2s or 2-1s.
I’m still the best Aussie in Germany! At least until another Aussie turns up in the scene (and no, the New Zealander doesn’t count).
This was the only New Zealandish model I could find! There are tons of Australian AoS model optionsthough. Sharks, snakes, literal kangaroos, snakes made of blood… so many options!
And hey, I did get one more 3-0 so far… It’d just be nice to play a few more tournaments and get a second one to feel good about that.
So feel like I’ve stepped forwards, coaching has helped but then playing less often has definitely come with a negative impact. I think I’ve played a single game in person since October 😮
Luckily the internet exists! TTS is making a difference and not just in being able to get some games and even a tournament in without travelling. It’s also making a big I’m better prepared than ever before. I’ll definitely put an intro to TTS article up soon because it’s an important tool which I had largely overlooked until now!
“All the roads that lead you there were winding”
So if I got a bit better but not better enough yet, what helped from that stuff in the old article and do I need to change anything from my old approach?
Getting in more games?
That didn’t work… I just ended up playing less, I need to play more and get to more tournaments if I want to get to the next level.
Getting reps with my army / list?
This was my strength before and switching back and forth between Nighthaunt and Kharadron was fun but I need to sit and focus on one army competitively for a while again! I feel like I’m not where I was yet with KO as I was with NH before the new battletome.
Getting in games with other armies?
I’ve managed that a bit with games with Nighthaunt, KO, Gargants, and even one with Helsmiths. I want to keep throwing in a game with my “non-main” army from time to time. I think my aim was 1 in 4 with a different army but I definitely feel I need to focus a bit more with KO still.
Start looking at other armies?
AS much as I want to paint my Helsmiths and finish up my Gargants… I’ve got units I want to have to give my KO lists more options (I’ve already got a file for what I paint next to fill out the army). Yuck, that was a hard sentence. First things first, paint more KO for the next half year, then look at painting one of the other armies (and my Necromunda Ogryns 😉)
Maybe I’ll finish this mysterious model that I started 1.5 years ago 😛
Heading into tournaments to win?
Oof. First thought was “hell yeah”. But then those second thoughts came in and I know I’m planning to get a 3:2 at the GT on the weekend with a shot at a 4:1. I recognise that I need to work on this a little more. I know I go into each game going for the win.
Changing my mindset about scoring?
This is done and dusted. I’m quite sure it’s one of the aspects that is really helping me to change my results.
Coaching?
This has definitely helped. From changing my mindset, to working on cutting down on my mistakes, to specific deployment and battleplan strategies. I’ve been really happy I’ve given this a shot. I’m at the end of my “review” of Onwards AoS and I’ll do some coverage of my experience with coaching over a couple of articles.
And then…
There’s two more things I’m trying to do at the moment.
More games against top opponents! TTS is one of the things making the difference here and trying to see about getting to more GTs is the other. Then it occurs to me I should play against Luca who I think has now taken the crown from me for best player in Bremen… but only because I moved! Sucker! You have to beat me to take the crown!
More prep and more discussion. See how calm and calculated I can be :P. I mentioned Luca in the one above but along with increasing how much I chat with him about games, I’ve also done so with some others and I’m trying to ask questions and get involved in relevant chats.
You’ve done a good job to read this far in this word salad of an article with hardly a picture of video link. As a consolation prize, enjoy this campfire classic 😊
Just in case you didn’t get the quote at the start there!
Looking Ahead
This was super helpful for me reflecting back on how things have gone with a bit more than half a year since deciding to try and be more competitive. I hope it’s at least given you all a thought or two about why you play or how you play.
I didn’t get those gargants finished… then I picked up Helsmiths… started to paint then life really got in the way and now I’m painting KO again. Gah! Positive side is that with the new battletome I’m enjoying KO so much more than before (and I think my opponents are too now that the points dropped).
On the playing front, I actually have good news… I just finished a tts tournament and I’m heading to a GT this weekend. Next up is participating in RTB with the Woehammer based team as well to see what all the fuss is about over there. Tune in next week for the next exciting episode of Fittsy’s Foughts!
This is the top three AoS lists for Weekend Warlords IX – The Bad Moon that took place in Italy between the 10th and 11th of January 2026. It saw 66 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Ossiarch Bonereapers Hekatos Drillmasters General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Lore of Necrotheurgy Manifestation Lore – Horrors of the Necropolis Battle Tactics Cards: Attuned to Ghyran and Wrathful Cycles
General’s Regiment Scourge of Ghyran Mortisan Boneshaper (100) • General • Helm of Tyranny • Aura of Sterility Immortis Guard (340) • Reinforced Mortek Guard (220) • Reinforced
Boggy: If there is one clear message this list sends, it is this: Necropolis Stalkers are still very much the backbone of competitive Ossiarch Bonereapers. Stalkers, Stalkers, and more Stalkers, three reinforced units forming the core of the army, signal a build that leans hard into what was one of the most dominant warscrolls at the tail end of the Index OBR era, and remains extremely efficient under the current ruleset.
Necropolis Stalkers dominate the battlefield not only through their exceptional damage output, but also through the stacking debuffs they bring to combat. This dual role allows them to function as both hammer and anvil, a rare and extremely valuable combination in the current meta.
Their points cost remains aggressively low for what they deliver: high-volume, high-quality attacks, flexible weapon profiles, and layered debuff potential. Running three reinforced units maximizes these advantages and ensures that even if one block is neutralized, the list still applies relentless pressure across multiple fronts. In the Hekatos Drillmasters formation, their ability to operate outside standard aura ranges while maintaining Relentless Discipline only amplifies their effectiveness.
Immortis Guard provide an excellent complement to the Stalkers. While primarily tasked with protecting the backline and key heroes, they are far from passive. Their damage output closely mirrors that of the Stalkers, meaning opponents cannot afford to ignore them. This duality, durability paired with meaningful offensive threat, forces difficult decisions for the opponent. Push forward and risk punishment from Immortis Guard, or hang back and allow the Stalkers to dictate engagements? Either choice favors the Bonereapers.
The inclusion of two Mortisan Soulreapers is a subtle but powerful choice. Their role is not raw damage, but combat control. By applying additional debuffs and enabling chain activations with Stalkers and Immortis Guard, they significantly increase the army’s overall combat efficiency.
In an army that already excels at grinding fights down over multiple turns, the Soulreapers push engagements firmly into OBR’s favor by ensuring key enemy units fight weakened, outnumbered, and often out-activated.
Mortek Guard fill a classic Ossiarch role: screening, objective control, and recursion. Their synergy with the Mortisan Boneshaper allows them to rally models back consistently, creating an irritatingly resilient unit that refuses to stay dead. While they are not the stars of the list, they provide critical board presence and buy time for the elite elements to do their work. In an army that is already difficult to shift, this added layer of recursion further frustrates opponents.
Arch-Kavalos Zandtos is a quietly excellent inclusion. His larger base size compared to other heroes, combined with solid movement, allows him to project Relentless Discipline to areas that would otherwise be difficult to support. This mobility makes him a reliable lynchpin for the army’s command economy, ensuring that key units receive the discipline they need exactly when they need it, especially as the army fans out across the board.
This list exemplifies what Ossiarch Bonereapers do best in the current season: durable, debuff-heavy elite infantry backed by reliable support and strong command projection. The Hekatos Drillmasters formation further enhances the army’s flexibility, allowing its wandering elite units, chiefly the Necropolis Stalkers, to operate independently without losing efficiency. It may not be flashy, but it is brutally effective. Against an opponent, this list presents a grim reality: you must fight through multiple layers of resilient, hard-hitting units, all while operating under constant debuffs and relentless pressure. For players looking to leverage the strongest elements of the OBR roster, this is a very serious competitive build.
Ossiarch Bonereapers Hekatos Drillmasters General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of Necrotheurgy Manifestation Lore – Horrors of the Necropolis Battle Tactics Cards: Attuned to Ghyran and Wrathful Cycles
General’s Regiment Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (520) • General
Regiment 2 Scourge of Ghyran Mortisan Boneshaper (100) • Helm of Tyranny • Aura of Sterility Scourge of Ghyran Mortek Guard (110) Teratic Cohort (140)
Faction Terrain Bone-tithe Nexus
Blades of Khorne Khornate Legion General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 3 Prayer Lore – Blood Blesssings of Khorne Manifestation Lore – Judgements of Khorne Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Restless Energy
General’s Regiment Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (400) • General • Skull Collector • Ar’gath, The King of Blades Bloodletters (160) Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (410) Scourge of Ghyran Bloodcrushers (320) • Reinforced
Nataša: This list has it all: raw oomph and damage output, intimidation tactics, reactability, resiliency, and movement shenanigans. Multiple moving parts need to be taken into consideration when trying to play against it, and heroes beware! The list differs from the usual Bloodletter spam we see, and it is quite refreshing.
First, let’s talk movement. This list has Karanak, the ultimate MVP for his 110pts. His sole purpose is to hunt heroes the opponent may have left alone or unprotected on the backlines. He can pick himself and a unit of Flesh Hounds to teleport to a Hero that he declared as his Quarry. Mind you, at deployment, that Hero does not have to be on the table to be chosen. Karanak can be set up out of 6” from the Quarry and out of 9” of other units, while the Flesh Hounds just need to be wholly within 12” of him. Karanak then gains +2 to charge (!!), while the Flesh Hounds lose the beast keyword, which is so good for snatching up those back objectives! This is all already good, but then comes the fun: he can get additional attacks from the Wrath of Khorne, who just needs to be able to see him, so be careful of true line of sight for your positioning. Also, he can chain-activate from the subfaction, and the options keep piling on. Karanak is really one of the more potent pieces in the list, and not even the main one!
Then, we have movement in the combat phase: both Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers have these abilities, as they can move 3” (always) and 2d6” (on a skill check of a 3up). This gives excellent manoeuvrability, as they can pass through combat range and tag new units. Note – Bloodcrushers can pass through models, too! Quite unusually, this list has only one unit of 10 Bloodletters; we are now used to seeing 2×20 in the current meta, but that is why we have a reinforced unit of soggy Bloodcrushers: 30 wounds, on 4 up saves and 6 up ward, not bad at all. They could pass through your screens and tag you up in combat, and have damage that is not to be dismissed. They are an excellent technical piece in this list.
But enough about movement! Khorne has finally moved away from the ballerina-style movement, techy army… where is our damage? Where is our threat? Well, in the Thirsters for sure. Our General, the Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster, has on him both the artifact and command trait, so he gains an additional attack until the end of battle if he kills a hero, which mediates the fact that he cannot issue the additional attack onto himself in combat. He also turns off wards for enemy heroes, so in addition to his rampage targeting heroes and the anti-hero rend, he really shuts down their ability to survive. His movement is 12”, he is survivable, and is a buff piece to others. I would recommend he go with the other Thirster, the one we love calling Boomthirster, in tandem, and then you have a powerhouse slaughter castle. The Boomthirster, other than just having a swingy but outrageous damage potential, can also boom into targets in 8” (every 6 to hit is a boom in addition to a hit, and then every enemy unit within 8” suffers a d3 per boom). So… Not bad at all for your murderblender core.
Defense? Mind you, do you need it after everything thus far? Yes, yes you do in competitive gameplay, as the name of the game now is waiting for the juicy go-turn. Your Blood Warriors come in here, as they have a 5 up ward when contesting, but not controlling, an objective. This needs some manoeuvrability, but it is very strong.
Finally, let’s talk about the choice of tactics. Intercept is easier to score here than for most lists, as we have teleports, jumping over screens, combat movement, and flying. So no biggie there. And restless is easy when you have tabled your opponent! Joking aside, due to the low drop count, it is easy enough to score the first two out of three on restless. If you are scoring the 3rd one, it is just a win-more condition.
All in all, this list is rounded and very good into most matchups, as it has a bit of everything. Enjoy hunting those heroes down!
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This is the top three AoS lists for Mercia Madness IV that took place in the UK between the 3rd and 4th of January 2026. It saw 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.
Fittsy: Potentially I’d say Endrineers Guild is the subfaction everyone should be taking and yet here we go with Pioneers and Scavengers giving Vongrim a ward of 6+ when contesting objectives. Not bad on 40 wounds flying around the table if you think about it. To fill out the first regiment we’ve got a classic Endrinmaster Ironclad combo which greatly increases the value of the Ironclad but outs a huge target on the Endrinmaster’s head. To counteract this, I really like the Combat Rig for the ward of 5+, it’s also got a +1 attack. Bold as Brass you don’t see too much but it ups his Control to 7 making it together with the ironclad a good Combo for stealing objectives.
The second regiment has some more focussed melee and a frigate to deliver them with the mortals on a charge boatefact which is good on the Frigate if you don’t need the +2 move. Then we’ve got a Soggy Codewright which sees a bit of play due to it’s funky ability to slow the enemy or reduce combat proficiency in either hero phase (it’s a bit slot machiney though so not for the faint of heart). This is an interesting list we’ve got here with a really diverse selection of units. I think we’ll see more lists like this with all the changes to once per army on the abilities. A two drop really helps keep pressure on from the KO side and may give a good chance at a double.
A really great effort with KO at the moment who have drifted back down to the middle of the pack after a couple of nerfs. Great work on the 5:0 to take the tournament Steven!
Fittsy: Hold the press, (Not literally…) I’m coming around on this list. The combination of Pioneers, a big boat, and Soggy Codewright means that your opponent may have -1 to hit and wound, 1 less rend into a 3+ save (with AoD) and a 6+ ward. On top of that the Vongrim Harpoons with their start of Combat move can reduce the number of enemy models in combat. This makes for one tanky 20 wound unit that can take a serious charge and then let the rest of the army clap back. I think I’m going to be trying out something like this as soon as I can!
Grand Alliance Order | Stormcast Eternals | Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries Battle Tactics Cards: Intercept and Recover and Restless Energy —– General’s Regiment Scourge of Ghyran Iridan the Witness (320) • General Lord-Terminos (140) • Quicksilver Draught • Legendary Tenacity Questor Soulsworn (200) Reclusians (280) • Reinforced Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (400) • Reinforced — Regiment 1 Knight-Azyros (120) Liberators (90) Prosecutors (300) • Reinforced — Regiment 2 Knight-Arcanum (120) —– Faction Terrain Stormreach Portal (20) —–
Eduardo Rodriguez: This stormcast list combines the durability of the Reclusians and the Questors with the powerful threat of the Raptors and the Prosecutors. The idea of this list is to advance the Reclusians while surrounding the Lord Terminos so there is no way that a charging opponent will not engage both units. If they charge, the Terminos will use the Quicksilver Draught to activate both units with strike first. This is the anvil of the list as they can get a 5+ ward from the subfaction. This strategy helps controlling the center of the board
On a different place the Soggy Iridan will bank points to try to give +1 attack or +1 rend to the Prosecutors with her prayers and it can slingshot them through the portal. In combination with the Longstrikes dropping from the sky, this list manages to threaten the opponents key units from anywhere on the board.
The other support units of the list are the Questor Soulsworn, the Knight Arcanum, and the Knight Azyros. The manifestations from the Arcanum can help reroll charges or to supply more damage when needed, while the Questor Soulsworn can play as either anvils, hammers or board control pieces when needed. Finally, the Azyros can help as a defensive piece giving -1 to hit, or help the Prosecutors retreat from an unfavourable position at the end of the turn.
Overall, this list has a lot of tools and is very versatile even when Stormcast is played as an elite army. Only great players can manage to get the full potential from it.
Shawn Freed: This Seraphon list is skink maxing for sure. 30 Raptadon Chargers that put out 17 damage per 10 are capable of surprisingly overwhelming medium level threats. Then a unit of Raptadon Hunters to keep up range pressure and hand out some +1 to hit. All of this in an extremely speedy package, capable of moving 16+D6″ in the presence of Beastmaster, Sotek Asterism, and the Shadows trike star host. Then 6 Aggradon Lancers to really put the hurt on. Everything I’ve mentioned so far can also be recurred with the Slann, making for a very hard to deal with army.
I like the decision of Scouting Force, as theres little one can do to stop them from scoring these at will. Master of the Paths is a bit more challenging, but using disposable, fast Raptadons should be able to dig out a hero and start scoring those tactics too.
This list is very efficient damage per point. Very fast. And Alex was able to leverage these into effective tactic choice and piloted to a respectable 4 -1!
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Final Tournament Placings
At the time of writing, the final positions hadn’t yet been published and the above top 3 are based on their number of wins and table rankings at the end of the tournament.
For the full list of players, please see the event on BCP.
