This is the top three AoS lists for the Gateway Open 2023 that took place in the US on the 19th and 20th of August. It involved 46 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Null Myriad
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (380)*
– Spells: Drain Vitality
Mortisan Boneshaper (140)**
– General
– Command Traits: Diversionary Tactics
– Artefacts of Power: Artisan’s Key
– Spells: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Mortisan Boneshaper (140)**
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard

BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (180)*
– Necrophoros
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade
Immortis Guard (220)*
Necropolis Stalkers (440)*
– Dread Falchions
Kavalos Deathriders (180)*
– Necrophoros
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade
Morghast Archai (220)*
– Spirit Halberd

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Soulstealer Carrion (40)
1 x Aethervoid Pendulum (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Andtorian Acolytes

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

We’re lucky enough at Woehammer to know Mrigank and the Stormkeep guys fairly well. So it seemed natural to ask Mrigank for a breakdown of his list.

Mrigank Jha: To no one’s surprise, Null Myriad is one of the hottest picks in the Summer of Death. The ability to disregard ye olde magical dominance of Tzeentch and Seraphon’s Mortal wounds spam pummeling traditional melee armies into the ground is held in check by this subfaction and so that was the pick.
That being said, Katakros + Arkhan is all the rage now. Save stacking, recursion, negative bonuses, The list with 6 Immortis Guard and Katakros matched with Arkhan’s magical abilities is very good, very oppressive…….and incredibly boring. So I went in a slightly different direction.

I wanted to take advantage of extra primal dice for casting and unbinds so I went with dual Boneshapers to add a bit of recursion as well. One unit of Immortis guard to protect Arkhan from 15 Thunderers or 44 Blissbarb Archers if need be. And instead of the 6 Immortis Guard route, I went with the more damaging Hammer unit 6 Stalkers, who also have better mobility overall. I used the extra points from not taking Katakros towards a Morghast Archai for the OBR mirror and two spells Aethervoid Pendulum for more MWs and Hero assassinations and Soulstealer carrion to help me take objectives against the cheap SBG hordes of skeletons and zombies.

I faced Gloomspite Gitz, the OBR Mirror (the ones with Katakros + Arkhan + 6 Immortis Guard) Twice (once in round 2 and then in round 5). Blades of Khorne, and Soulblight Gravelords.
Andtorian Acolytes was indispensable in making sure I always had a bank of primal dice to either cast my own spells or hold off to cancel out theirs. Instead of the usual Aura of Sterility (-1 to hit and wound in shooting) I went with Diversionary tactics (-3 to charge in a 12 inch aura) as the command trait on my Boneshaper to help with the OBR mirror and also against Legion of Night and Khorne. Mannfred and SBG units found it very difficult to counter charge with that aura affecting them and a key redeploy from my Boneshaper often messed up my opponents 6 or 7 inch charges. The extra units like Morghast Archai, with their ability to turn off commands within 3 and the damage of 6 Stalkers was enough to chew thru Trolls, Bloodthirsters and even 6 Immortis Guard. I felt like the extra units gave me more play on the board than the traditional Arkhan + Katakros list. Moreover having Merciless Blizzard and Pendulum to hit Katakros who isnt affected by a 2+ spell ignore, did make opponents nervous

As for the recursion, I don’t believe any opponent could have dealt with 30 wounds of Immortis Guard or Stalkers outside of a well placed double turn. I think recursion in OBR should probably be limited to 10 wounds for the health of the game, as I did find myself playing for a nervous double turn often in the mirror match to be able to fully wipe a 30 wound block of Immortis Guard/ Necropolis Stalkers before they all came back.

Overall I think this list has potential and a great toolset in the current meta. I’ll tweak it further after the battlescroll and its changes.

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Null Myriad
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (380)
Katakros (460)*
Mortisan Boneshaper (140)*
– General
– Command Traits: Aura of Sterility
– Artefacts of Power: Artisan’s Key
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard

BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (180)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
Kavalos Deathriders (180)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
Immortis Guard (440)*
Morghast Archai (220)*
– Spirit Halberd

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Pretenders
– Grand Strategy: Selfish Desire
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Contorted Epitome (210)*
– General
– Command Traits: Strength of Godhood
– Artefacts of Power: The Crown of Dark Secrets
– Spells: Flaming Weapon, Hoarfrost
Lord of Pain (140)*
Glutos Orscollion (480)*
– Spells: Born of Damnation, Phantasmagoria

BATTLELINE
Blissbarb Archers (160)
Blissbarb Archers (160)
Blissbarb Archers (160)

OTHER
Slickblade Seekers (210)
Slickblade Seekers (210)
Blissbarb Seekers (210)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Dreadful Visage (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Laron Roberts: Thanks for highlighting my list! I’ve been playing Slaanesh since second edition and I’m having tons of fun taking them to tournaments recently. Stick with me while I try to dissect my list here first. Hedonites of Slaanesh in its current form pretty plays its own game without to much regard for what your opponent is doing. Ive foundI only care what their doing to find reasons to use my Temptation Dice.

In my list I use Glutos to form a durable center that helps deter alpha strikes on my vulnerable units. While using the Pretenders Hosts ability to use the same ability more then once to put out alot of damage with anyone who does try for the Alpha. With this season I’m able to reliably use buffs to turn my Contorted Epitome into a Depravity farming creature of destruction with Hoarfrost and Flaming Weapon. Slick blades are in the list to push to get to 12 Debravity as soon as possible to really seal the deal on making my opponents army inefficient.

All right… Let’s dive in. This list does so many things well for me, but it has pretty key changes compared to other list that you’ll see for slaanesh. First only three min squads of blissbarbs… oh no! How could he possibly win with only 33 blissbarbs? Well, I think blissbarbs are obviously amazing, but at their current cost (appropriate cost, no more nerfing them!) and their vulnerability to lots of lists out there, they are pretty susceptible to getting blown off the table turn one if that’s all you have in your list. 33 is great – if you tried to alpha for me first turn, you’re getting unleashed hell times three; they’ll shoot down any screens pretty effectively; and really, with only 33, people still seem to freak out over them but they aren’t oppressive like other mass shooting lists.

You’ll notice that I also took two minimum size squads of slickblade seekers. Side note—I’m so glad they don’t suck anymore, they are one of my favorite models ever. This does mean that I cannot take a battle regimen for my list… And that’s totally OK. At gateway open, people seemed super concerned I would alpha them down turn one, so they opted to take first turn even though I was lots of drops. I’m not sure what the right answer for them is, but I did not feel like I was at any serious disadvantage going second. Second, I think 2×5 slickblades is the way to go. They are five up save and die at the slightest breeze. I feel pretty confident with two units of five that I can get my 12 depravity turn one pretty much every game. But then, unlike lists with a single reinforced unit, I have another squad for tactics, eliminating threats, getting me to 24 points, whatever I need. Having a second unit makes me a constant threat on turns two, three, four, or five.

Contorted is great. Some people think she (they? There’s two of them…) should be like 350 points, which is ridiculous. She’s perfectly fine at her points, I think people are actually just sad about crown of dark secrets and Warlord Supreme. Despite the haters, she’s actually super fragile and one misplay loses her, and without her I lose a ton of my power.
Not much to say about the Lord of pain. While in some ways you don’t need him, being able to give out all out attack x3, his synergy with my blissbarbs and seekers regardless of my command points or other factors is just consistently awesome. I wasn’t taking him in lists for a while, but I really see his value now.

Lastly, the big man, Glutos! I see him in a lot of list, but I. He’s a damage threat, he heals like soulblight hunger heroes, and oh, -1 to hit is still really good. I find that most opponents don’t know what to do with Glutos, contorted, slickblades, and blissbarbs—there’s a lot of target priority confusion. This is especially true for Glutos where people aren’t sure if they should commit to him or avoid him. But they all feel really sad when they run in against him and his minus 1 to hit aura. I miss some of the things he had before the new tome, but he’s still just an incredible piece, and so hard for people to counter. And personally, I think my model has the sickest paint job out there.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: In and Out, Ladz
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Gobsprakk (240)
– Spells: Da Black Pit
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Spells: blizzard
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Spells: blizzard
1 x Killaboss with Stab-Grot (90)**
– Boss‑hacka and Skareshield
1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)***
– General
– Command Traits: Egomaniak
– Artefacts: Amulet of Destiny
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un

BATTLELINE
20 x Gutrippaz (150)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Hornblower
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
20 x Gutrippaz (150)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Hornblower
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)***

OTHER
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***
– Boltboy Boss
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***
– Boltboy Boss

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Wizard-finders of Andtor
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Austin Timesch: There are 3 things in this list design that I have found to work best in the several two day events I have played kruleboyz.

Egomaniak on the sludgeraker is so important to making sure the buff to your armies damage and keeping the grand strat intact. Using 2 big blocks of gutrippaz is a huge wound sponge for your general to abuse. ( I have not lost my sludgeraker since the change to 2 big blocks of gutrippaz)
Gobsprakk and abusing the primal dice for dispels. The ability to just say nope and do damage to small foot casters or a neferata or arkhan is amazing. Huge attrition and denial piece to armies.

Killaboss- I know everyone is used to playing order or the new death factions so they don’t really understand this mechanic of bravery. However playing this inferior grand alliance known as destruction we have to play in a phase of the game most people just skip. The killaboss allows you to act like one of those try hard grand alliances and just lose 1 model instead of your entire unit from chip damage.

To build on these 3 pillars of success
The locus battalion really helps you maintain an opportunity to dispel with gobsrpakk and or cast blizzard from one of your shamans
Also the wizard finder battalion really makes gutrippaz slap into the big bads of this meta like the VLOZD or neferata etc. Getting a potential 61 attacks on a unit at a time is really a tipping point.

The main Strat of the list is to find as many objectives in the center or near each other as possible and maintaining hold more and hold 2 every turn.

Second, as you maintain your castle and what I mean by castle is your killaboss is within 3 of both big blocks of gutrippaz, your sludgeraker is wholly within 12 of your bolt boyz and your 1 exposed block of gutrippaz you want people coming into, and lastly your shamans are within 3 of boltboyz and both units of gutrippaz to ensure the options of MAXIMUM DAMAGE!!!!!

As you move your castle up I like to set up the mighty waaaagh turn. What this entails is mostly charging in with the general, and both units of gutrippaz which are poisoned at the time. This allows my general and 2 units to fight after the general fights. Most times this cripples or absolutely deletes the current targets. This 1 turn a lot of times is when your opponent will go “kruleboyz are not that bad” or “I didn’t expect this much damage from Kruleboyz”

In all fairness when people ask me how I have had success with kruleboyz it comes down to playing them to specifically counter the current meta. And right now kruleboyz is spectacular into OBR and some SBGL lists. (we wont talk about how anyone can pilot these armies to 4-1/5-0)

Back to reasons why this list is fun and in a good spot. Your main sources of damage come from poisoned gutrippaz and or poisoned boltboyz. Rolling a slot machine every time adds to both the banter and enjoyment of the game with your opponent. With this being said as you go through your games the main reason of playing your game is to have fun and enjoy your time with your opponent. I have had the pleasure of playing the top of the game in the likes of gavin, and nate T ghosty pants. At that level even then the main reason is to play a good game and enjoy it. I hate the stigma on how competitive games cant be enjoyable. They can be and just make it a priority in your game on a personal level and it will happen.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions but, in all honesty, if I can find success with kruleboyz you can too! Roll 6’s and lets grow this community.

Final Tournament Placings