Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Quest of Champions – Heat 3 that took place in the UK on the 2nd and 3rd of June. It involved 42 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: The Flayed – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Slaughterpriest (110)** – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Curse Realmgore Ritualist (100)** – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)** – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts of Power: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice, Unholy Flames Bloodsecrator (110)***
BATTLELINE Blood Warriors (380)* – Blood Champion – Goreaxe and Gorefist – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Goreglaive – Reinforced: Once Blood Warriors (380)* – Blood Champion – Goreaxe and Gorefist – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Goreglaive – Reinforced: Once Flesh Hounds (100)** – Gore Hound
OTHER Mighty Skullcrushers (200)*** – Skullhunter – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Ensorcelled Axes Mighty Skullcrushers (200)*** – Skullhunter – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Bloodglaives
Aqua Teen aside, we’re going to start by addressing the large, blood-covered elephant in the room:
There should not be this many tops spots in a tournament that are all held by the same army. Khorne is an army that has a relatively high skill ceiling. It takes a good player to keep track of all of the rules, the different interactions between mortal and daemon units, and the best way to position units to be sure that all the abilities align.
That being said, they are also a relatively forgiving army. You can easily retake your home objective in the last round through summoning. You have a ton of freedom on positioning and movement through murderlust, killer instinct, and bloodbind. You have decent protection from spells thorugh Hatred of Sorcery, and you won’t often find an opponent who can reliably dispell your prayers, since that would require facing an army that wants to bring a lot of priests.
So where does that leave us? With a top 3 article where all of the top three lists are Khorne. It also leaves us facing the difficult prospect of GW’s inevitable attempt at balance. I expect to see some changes to our movement rules as well as points increases on some of the big-hitter units (Skarbrand, Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury, and Skullcrushers to name a few).
I’m going to skip a lot of the detail I normally would go into for each list. The army is going to play roughly the same, even with different unit compositions and subfactions.
This first list has a wider focus on mortal units, with a couple of Fleshhounds thrown in for a cheap screen with an added unbind. The general is a Fury-thirster with Firebrand and Ar’gath (get used to that combination, because it’s in every list). Double skullcrsuhers and reinforced Blood Warriors makes for a selection of extremely tanky units, and while this list won’t necessarily kill as fast as a daemon-centric list, it can outlast many armies. It will also see a ton of mortals dropped on the enemy as those tanks die.
The realmgore ritualist, bloodsecrator, and slaughterpriest are all straightforward units. Each of them has one job, and they perform that job admirably.
Overall a solid list that aims to control the board first, and kill second.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)* – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Heal, Bloodbind 1 x Bloodmaster (110)* – Artefacts: Halo of Blood – Prayers: Unholy Flames, Killer Instinct 1 x Bloodsecrator (110)* – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct 1 x Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct 1 x Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)** – Prayers: Killer Instinct, Blood Sacrifice
BATTLELINE 10 x Bloodreavers (80)* – Blood Chieftain – Icon Bearer – Hornblower – Reaver Blades 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** – Blood Chieftain – Icon Bearer – Hornblower – Reaver Blades 20 x Bloodletters (360)*** – Bloodreaper – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Hornblower 10 x Bloodletters (180)*** – Bloodreaper – Icon Bearer – Hornblower 10 x Bloodletters (180)*** – Bloodreaper – Icon Bearer – Hornblower
Speaking of killy daemon-centric lists: here’s one. 4 priests, one of which can reliably resurrect the central damage dealers of the list, coupled witht he Fury-thirster and bloodsecrator already have the list immediately stacked to provide some tankiness to a killy list (much like the realmgore and bloodsecrator were providing killiness to a tanky list, above).
Reavers are cheap screen, Bloodletters deal damage. The bloodsecrators helps them deal more damage, and the wrathmongers help them deal even more damage. By the time all of the buffs are in place it isn’t out of the question to see one of those larger bloodletter units swinging with 4 attacks per base, hitting and wounding on 2+’s, dealing mortals on 5+’s. Ossiarch Bonereapers woudl have a hard time withstanding an assult like that, and few other armies would outlast that combat phase.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
LEADERS Skarbrand (380) Wrath of Khan Bloodthirster (330)** – Artefacts of Power: Halo of Blood Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)** – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts of Power: Ar’gary, the King of Blades – Prayers: Killer Instinct Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice Realmgore Ritualist (100)** – Prayers: Bloodbind – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Slaughterpriest (110)** – Hackblade and Wrath-hammer – Prayers: Curse
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Bleeding Icon (40) 1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Skull Altar (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Galletian Veterans **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Thought I wouldn’t post it again? You were wrong.
There’s nothing here that we haven’t really touched on in the last two lists. Garrek’s Reavers are here because they are the cheapest 10 wounds that points can buy, and they make excellent fodder for blood sacrifice. Skarbrand also makes an appearance, working as one of the best independent units in the army, where he is perfectly happy to ignore all of your buffs and go wander into the mid field to punch everything he sees.
Overall, excellent work to all of our top 3. This can be a difficult army to run, and it’s good to see some variety in the lists.
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Runemaster (130)** – General – Command Trait: Master Priest – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)*** 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
This one has taken a while! But I’m pleased to say that all of the warscrolls for Slaves to Darkness have now been translated into Datacards.
Reading the Datacards
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
Change Log
16th February 2023 – Chaos Spawn resilience corrected. Thanks to Max in the comments for pointing it out.
29th December 2022 – Update to correct name on Chainrasps
29th December 2022 – Correction to the damage output of Bladegheist Revenants
It’s taken a while, but thanks to the help of Patrick our first faction data cards are now ready!
We’ve started with Nighthaunt but have a lot of others in the pipeline and close to completion.
Each card shows the following information:
Resilience – Specifies how much damage is requited at the various rend values to destroy the unit or to destroy the unit via battleshick (if this is possible).
Threat Range – This will tell you how far the unit can move and then charge. If the unit had any missile weapons, then the card will also show how far the unit can move and then shoot.
Average Damage Output – The main focus of each card, this shows how much damage a unit should cause (as an average) to each of the save values. I.e. how much damage is unsaved.
Leaders
Awlrach the Drowner Cairn WraithDreadblade HarrowGuardian of SoulsKnight of ShroudsKnight of Shrouds on Ethereal SteedKrulghast CruciatorKurdoss ValentianLady OlynderLord ExecutionerNagashReikenor the GrimhailerScriptor MortisSpirit TormentThe Briar QueenTomb Banshee
Battleline
ChainraspsGrimghast ReapersHexwraithsSpirit Hosts
Behemoth
Black Coach
Other
Bladegheist RevenantsChainghastsCraventhrone GuardDreadscythe HarridansGlaivewraith StalkersMyrmourn BansheesThorns of the Briar Queen
Who’s Next?
Next up will be the Slaves to Darkness. Keep an eye out!
Peter: We’re always looking for fresh bl… I mean writers to join our team and expand our range of content. Patrick is trying his hand at a top three lists before he moves on to writing about the content he loves….. Horus Heresy.
This is the Top Three AoS lists for Quest of Champions Heat 4 that took place in the Sanctuary Gaming Centre and Coffee Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, UK on August 6th and 7th. Quest of Champions is run by Warrior Lodge in Nottingham, UK. There was a total of 38 players competing in this five-round heat, the top twelve of which will be invited back for a grand final later this year.
Want to watch some top AoS games for free? Ben Bailey’s new YouTube channel, Dice and Ducks were at the event giving live coverage. Round 4 and 5 are available to watch for free here.
The Warrior Lodge always have events coming up so why not check out their Twitter page and book your self on to their next event?
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs:
LEADER Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955) Spirit Torment (115) – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350) 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175) 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)
OTHER 2 x Chainghasts (95)
ENDLESS SPELLS Chronomatic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
CORE BATTALIONS Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)
Patrick: One of the best parts of Age of Sigmar is seeing huge, god-tier centerpiece models not only regularly used on tables, but seeing those units perform to their points cost. Between the upgrades the Nighthaunt saw in their recent book, including their excellent spell lore, I imagine that we will begin to see Nagash show up in more Death lists as time goes on. Andrew’s list shows Nagash supporting (or being supported by) a big killy block of ghosts.
Nagash can produce an almost offensive number of spells in the Hero phase, and the re-roll from the Cogs makes those casts unlikely to be turned off by an early phase miscast. On top of that, Nagash is pulling double-duty by keeping the units of Bladegheists alive and closer to full strength throughout the fight.
Speaking of Bladegheists: there are 40 of them present in this list, including one reinforced unit. The buffs they can receive from the Chainghasts and Spirit Torment can turn them into a force to be reckoned with, and Andrew used them to great effect in this tournament. The units can be used both as mobile screens, protecting Nagash from incoming enemies, or as a melee threat while supported by the Spirit Torment and Chainghasts. The Scarlet Doom spirit host allows for the large unit of Bladegheists to reliably put out mortal wounds, leaning into one of the more common winning strategies in the current meta.
The Purple Sun makes an appearance in this list, as it does in most lists featuring wizards, and the forward push from the Arcane Tome wielding Spirit Torment allows for the Sun to be placed in a favorable position early in the game, rather than casting it and presenting opportunities for the opponent to dispel it as it works its way up the table 8” at a time.
This is also the only list featured today that uses a grand strategy other than No Place for the Weak. Fright or Flight seems to be leaning more towards a conservative defensive approach, relying on preventing enemies from contesting objectives rather than outright killing the opponent. Overall, a straightforward list, but one that saw Andrew win four of his games with a draw in the fourth round.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560) – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560) – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness BATTLELINE 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
OTHER Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)
BEHEMOTH Chaos Warshrine (215) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer: Heal
Patrick: What’s the best way to keep the Purple Sun from wiping your 500+ point leader on an unlucky roll? Have your 500+ point leader be a six-man squad of Varanguard! Or two of those units in Toby’s case. Toby is taking advantage of one of the stranger aspects of Knights of the Empty Throne, in that your leaders don’t need to be a single model, bringing a total of 12 Varanguard spread across two reinforced units. Both units carry Warpsteel Shields, providing them some resistance to spells and endless spells, and both have been improved through artefacts and command traits, allowing the two units to buff the defenses of nearby units, keep enemies locked in combat, and automatically dispel one spell. The leaders are rounded out through a pair of Sorcerer Lords, which can use Mask of Darkness to sling any given unit in the army to the other side of the board, allowing a unit of Iron Golems to catch a distant objective or place a 6-man unit of heroic Varanguard behind enemy lines.
The army wide Tzeentch mark and Chaos Warshrine give a clear image of how badly Toby doesn’t want his opponents to successfully cast, and when they do manage to get a spell off, he wants to make sure that it doesn’t hit as hard as his opponents expects. A Mindstealer is there to supplement the martial abilities of the already-proficient Varanguard, helping ensure that they can get the most out of the combat phase by delaying an opponent’s turn to fight.
The use of a Battle Regiment that doesn’t include all units in the army makes for an interesting addition, potentially preventing Toby’s priority but allowing him to deploy more reactively to his opponents. Those units may have been better placed in a battalion providing more utility benefits, such as an Expert Conquerors or Bounty Hunters battalion. Ultimately Toby drove this army to a top spot with the Battle Regiment, so it clearly worked. We can talk at length about the magic-heaviness of the current meta, but seeing a list that turns that around to focus on magical defense rather than output shows that there are hard counters present to arcane lists. The fact that Toby took this list to a 4/1 victory and 2nd place overall, with only a single loss to a Thunder Lizard list, shows that sometimes martial might makes right.
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Army Type: Seraphon – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Lord Kroak (430) – Spell: Stellar Tempest Engine of the Gods (265) – General – Command Trait: Prime Warbeast – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Spell: Hand of Glory – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140) – Artefact: Fusil of Conflagration Skink Priest (90) – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
BATTLELINE 5 x Saurus Guard (115) 5 x Saurus Knights (110) 5 x Saurus Knights (110)
OTHER 5 x Chameleon Skinks (115)
BEHEMOTH Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250) Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)
ENDLESS SPELL Chronomantic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Patrick: Ah, Kroaknado, how we miss thee. In such a magic and mortal wound heavy meta, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Lord Kroak remains such a strong presence in high-ranking Seraphon lists, going 4/1 with a second-round loss to Hallowed Knights. Tom takes advantage of Kroak’s 4 casting attempts, a stock +2 to casting, unbind, and dispelling rolls, and the ability to unbind spells cast anywhere on the map, Kroak is an arcane powerhouse. While this list does not take advantage of the ability to measure line-of-sight from skink wizards or Oracles, it does include some Saurus Guard to help beef up Kroak’s already impressive defenses. It’s a shame that the Balewind Vortex is no longer available, otherwise we could see Tom run the true insanity of 2nd edition Kroak.
A pair of Bastiladons are near constants in Thunder Lizard lists. Their tremendous defense and high-quality shooting always impress and taking two allows Tom to take advantage of Thunder Lizards command ability throughout the fight, leading the pair to push out an average of 18 wounds at their top bracket with more against Chaos armies or with the use of All-out Attack, enough to potentially wipe some reinforced squads of Galletian Veterans off a nearby objective.
The list includes a trio of utility heroes largely meant to improve the defenses and recover from heavy losses throughout the battle. A pair of non-reinforced Saurus Warriors act as excellent mobile screens to block the progress of enemy melee units. There is also a small cadre of Chameleon Skinks, which are an excellent harassing unit, and surprisingly durable when taking advantage of their “Perfect Mimicry” ability. While unreliable, the mortal wounds that can be caused by their dart pipes will always be appreciated when the dice are in Tom’s favor.
Two of the top three placing armies at this event included the Chronomantic Cogs and Purple Sun. These endless spells are highly effective at their current points cost, and the added boost the Cogs provide to any magic-heavy army cannot be understated. The Purple Sun remains ever-present in the meta and will probably be here to stay until the next General’s Handbook gets released.
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Army Type: Flesh-eater Courts – Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADER Abhorrent Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445) – Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Deranged Transformation Abhorrent Archregent (245) – Spell: Spectral Host Crypt Infernal Courtier (130) – General – Command Trait: Grave Robber Varghulf Courtier (160)
BATTLELINE 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85) 9 x Crypt Horrors (330) 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)
ENDLESS SPELL Chronomantic Cogs (40)
CORE BATTALIONS Battle Regiment
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Artefact
TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)
Patrick: Hero-hammer is a thing of beauty and dropping half of your army’s cost on fitting four different rotting corpses into the leader slot of your roster is an excellent place to start. Thomas took an uncommon FEC list to the top ten, going 4/1 with a loss in the second round to a Scarlet Doom Nighthaunt list (I suppose Nagash is allowed to have a favorite child for the moment).
Thomas is using Hollowmourne to its full effect by taking two double-reinforced units of Crypt Horrors, with the right support from the Archregent the damage potential of these units can quickly build from fearsome to terrifying. The ability for the Terrorgheist to keep up with the extra speed provided to one unit by Deranged Transformation makes sure to keep the unit in the aura of hit roll re-rolls. The summons from both Abhorrent units can also help supplement the army’s relatively low model count by bringing large blocks of Crypt Ghouls to the field (up to 40 between the two).
The Crypt Infernal Courtier’s high Movement characteristic and artefact make it an excellent hero hunter. The Varghulf pulls its weight both by being a support hero for the Ghouls and Horrors, but also by being a melee threat by itself.
