This is the top three AoS lists for the Aotearoa Masters Grand Tournament that took place in New Zealand on the 20th and 21st of May. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
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
Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: bloodthirsty
Leaders Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150)** – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch – Lore of Change: Treason of Tzeentch Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (200)** – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Magister (140)** – Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate Contorted Epitome (190)* – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Allies
Battleline 20 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (500)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Pair of Cursed Blades – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Pair of Cursed Blades – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Darkwalkers – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Doombull (180)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 10 x Ungors (80)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 20 x Ungor Raiders (230)* – Reinforced x 1 9 x Bullgors (630)* – Pairs of Axes – Reinforced x 2
Units 6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Chaos Warhounds (110)*
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (200)* – General – Command Trait: Loonskin – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*** – Artefact: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*** – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Webspinner Shaman (65)*** – Lore of the Spiderfang: Curse of da Spider God Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (100)** – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)* 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)* 40 x Moonclan Shootas (250)*** – Reinforced x 1 24 x Squig Herd (260)** – Reinforced x 1
Units 5 x Gobbapalooza (160)* – Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
This is the top three AoS lists for the Wartilyo GT that took place in the Philippines on the 13th and 14th of May. It involved 24 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.
Wartilyo Top Table
If you get a few minutes, have a look at the making of the Wartilyo GT Top table. It’s a thing of beauty!
The Top Three AoS Lists
Kieron: And the crown for one of the first, if not the first Philippines GT goes to Tzeentch with another Krondspine/Guild of Summoners combo. There are a few interesting choices here compared to other similar lists, the first of which is the Shards of Valagharr. What all of the Guild of Summoners lists want more than anything is time to get the big birds on the board and an Endless Spell that halves the movement of models and prevents units from flying or being removed from the board and set back up again are always going to be good value. It’s also an easy spell for the Krondspine to eat after killing your own Magister and making the Krondspine go wild with a casting value of only 5. Staying with the theme of slowing your opponent down, nothing puts a unit off making a charge more than having one of its members turn into a gibbering chaos spawn via the Burning Sigil.
Unit wise, two units of pinks is a great start to the list as there’s only summoning of Lords of Change in Guild of Summoners and, alongside the Krondspine, and good use of terrain, it’s going to be difficult to get to the casters for several turns. The Magister is a mainstay of these lists – giving you two potential casts, with the Krondspine giving an additional +1 on top of the +1 from Kairos as well. The other caster is a Thaumaturge, with the Gryph Feather Charm adding a 5+ ward save to this model – really key as if there are no Arcanite heroes alive (i.e. the Magister and the Ogroid) then there’s no summoning in Guild of Summoners.
In terms of how Carlo probably planned each battle to go, it would be to either Cunning Manoeuvre or Tide of Anarchy (take an objective with 9+ models) while building up to 8 summoning points. T2, Call for Change by earning one more summoning point through your opponent’s hero phase or simply through one of your own and then dropping in your first bird. T3, potentially finish off a 9 model unit or 9 wound hero/monster for Ninefold Dismantlement. T4 could easily be whichever of Cunning Manoeuvre or Tide wasn’t done in T1 and then, assuming you have at least two big birds and Kairos on the board and in range of each other, getting Kairos to cast 3 spells with +3 to cast is very straightforward or, just use Destiny Dice to cast them. Make sure you’ve got 9 on Destiny Dice at the end and that’s the Grand Strat as well. You may not even have had to use Desecrate Land or Eye for an Eye, two of the easier tactics to score, with This One’s Mine with the Ogroid being very viable too. And this is how Tzeentch wins – 13 points on the battle tactics and Grand Strategy meaning that even if you only score 10 points on the primary, you still have a very healthy score of 23. If your opponent doesn’t quite finish off enough Horrors to take an objective on a turn they chose Gaining Momentum…a one or two point turn is probably game over against this kind of list.
Congrats Carlo on the result and congrats to the Filipino AoS community!
Advertisements
After a couple of seasons in the shadows, their hunger building, Soulblight are finally back for blood – Legion of Blood, to be precise. And it’s a list archetype you’re going to see a lot of for a while.
The core of the list revolves around a vampire lord on dragon (VloZD) with the Cloak of Mists and Shadows to make it ethereal, aka a 3+ save that can’t be modified either way. Combined with the Doomed Minion trait, allowing it to apply the following effect to d3 enemy units that aren’t heroes/monsters they into engagement with: ANY friendly unit hits that enemy unit on unmodified 2+s. With the new hunger ability – healing up to 6 wounds of damage done – this makes the VloZD a terrifying utility piece that is insanely hard to kill and can make killing key units trivially easy.
Neferata brings up the rear, bringing two key pieces of utility to bear – the ability for her and 3 units to redeploy before the first battle round begins and her spell to make something _unrendable_, i.e. it can still benefit from positive save modifiers. The 10 blood knights are obviously a great receiver for that spell, but it works well on herself too, or the giant blob of Deathrattle to make them an absolute nightmare to fully deal with, especially given the new timing on their ability – essentially a free 4+ rally at the start of the combat phase.
All told, it’s a list with huge utillity, super anvils and fantastic board control – which as you might expect was only dealt with successfully by DoT and their sheer MW output being able to bypass all that tankiness and access to horrors etc to compete with the chaff hordes on objectives. This is a great result for John Paul and certainly not the last we’ve seen of this list.
Advertisements
We’ve a new commentator who joins us this week, and boy, does he love his Chaos armies! Roland Santiago is a US player who’s big into his Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaves to Darkness. As well as that, he also plays Ironjawz, Ogors, and Stormcast. So we’ll probably be hearing a lot from him going forward!
Roland Santiago: Ah, Nurgle. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve been seeing lists built around Pusgoyle Blightlords and the Drowned Men subfaction place well for over a year now, and this is the latest entry in that file. The pregame move Drowned Men provides is very powerful, as it can help you position the Blightlords to engage in midboard attrition scenarios (where they excel) ahead of schedule, or otherwise adjust to your opponent’s deployment and counter the disadvantage of being a 1-drop. Once in combat, Pusgoyle Blightlords can be very hard to deal with, because of their high wound count, solid saves, 5+ Ward, and multiple mortal wound generation abilities. The Blightlords are also paired with the customary Lord of Afflictions General with the Overpowering Stench command trait, which turns off the ability to issue and receive commands. This ability has only gotten stronger as the edition has progressed, as more and more powerful command abilities enter the game. The list also has Bloab as an efficiently costed Hero Monster with a powerful warscroll spell. A unit of Nurglings rounds things out by providing backfield pressure, which in Nurgle also translates to faster generation of Contagion Points you can then use for summoning more Daemons. An interesting bit of tech here is the inclusion of a Plague Priest. This Priest plays multiple roles in this list – he helps interact with Invocations (which Nurgle cannot do with its main roster), he is a Galletian Champion with Tunnel Master for sneaky objective capturing, and he can chant a high-upside prayer in Curse. The Pusgoyle Blightlords have lots of attacks but lack Rend, so Curse provides a nice source of extra damage. Do note that mortal wounds generated from Curse will not stack with disease points – you’ll have to pick one. Overall, this list is very good at what it does – it’s an attrition meatgrinder that can shove tough, elite units in its opponent’s face and pin them down.
Advertisements
Brett: Bullgors centre stage in a list that focuses on board control as much as power with Ungors and Raiders for days. With summoning going away there is more play in Ambush (starting unit, up to the whole army off the board). That pairs well with the Herdstone which increases Rend from Round 2. Combined here with Darkwalkers to let a unit within 9″ of a board edge to leave the board and teleport back on;
4 Ungor and Ungor Raider units to take advantage of that mobility. The raiders being in Galletian Sharpshooters is surprising – their shooting isn’t strong but it does give them more utility. With the Doombull and Bullgors to hold the centre and be buffed by the Sharman this is a durable list with some punch especially later. However both of the Bullgor units only have 5+ saves which might have hurt them (although they can have a ward save). The Ungors (all of them) are free to score points and just be annoying all over the place. Unfortunately, even with their new book, their output can be disappointing since they mostly hit on a 4+. Combined with initially low rend they don’t hit hard until the later part of the game. The Bullgors are loaded for maximum damage but are also vunerable to being roared. If they are removed then the rest of the list lacks punch.
Looks like the Sons of Behemet used that against them and inflicted enough damage early enough to force a loss. Very respectible effort beating Soulblight, Seraphon and Slaves (Nurgle Knights?).
This is the top three AoS lists for II CN – II GT de CAT that took place in Spain on the 25th and 26th of March. It involved 24 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
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Krulghast Cruciator (150)** – General – Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts – Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Guardian of Souls (150)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Spirit Torment (120)** Lord Executioner (130)** – Artefact: Tuskhelm (Galletian Champion) Veremord’s Shamblers – Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (180)**** – Allies
Battleline 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*** – Reinforced x 1 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*** – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)* – Dreadwarden 10 x Chainrasps (110)* – Dreadwarden
Units 20 x Veremord’s Shamblers – Deadwalker Zombies (0)**** – Allies 2 x Chainghasts (90)* 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)*
Kel Pigg: A nighthaunt lists takes 5-0, while not an impossible task Nighthaunt have not been doing as well in this season as many originally believed they would so it’s great to see a strong performance.
Marc took a relatively standard Scarlet Doom list taking 40 Bladegheist revenants and having all the nighthaunt aura tech in play, offensives from the guardian of souls and the chainghasts and defensively from the cruxiator and the banshees, giving him the added benefit of being able to shrug off some of the more pesky spells.
Uniquely, though, Marc decided to bring out one of the new regiments of renown. This has been a hotly debated topic in nighthaunt for when this regiment is good, but looking at his list, Marc may be going for more of a counter strike playstyle. The regiment of renown for death gives you access to a corpse cart and some zombies. The corpse cart subtracts 1 from wound rolls within 9 and reduces enemy cast rolls by 1 within 18. But special to the regiment, the corpse cart also reduces the enemy ward and save rolls by 1 within 12 of it. Adding a nice bit of both offensive and defensive tech to a scarlet doom army. The only problem is that the corpse cart only has a movement of 4, meaning it’s needing 4+ runs just to keep up with the base movement of nighthaunt.
That’s why I believe Marc most likely let his opponent hit his line first, absorbed most of the damage with his cavalcade of defensive tech, and then, on his turn, really pushed back hard. His opponent matchup was mostly melee, so they would play into the strengths of this list, and personally, I believe it would be difficult to overcome. But all in all, Marc had an effective list using the new regiment and really showed off it’s potential.
Advertisements
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320) 1 x Lord of Plagues (140)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Gift of Disease – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Incubatch – Dolorous Tocsin – Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm 1 x Be’lakor (355)* – Ally 1 x Bloab Rotspawned (320)** – Spells: Magnificent Buboes
Alice: A very interesting off-shelf model for Nurgle. Very Herohammer friendly, with only 20 infantry models these guys are hoping to win through magical might.
Blightkings are resiliant enough, and Orghotts, the Lord of Afflictions and Lord of plagues can fight alongside them very well. Bloab and the Rotmire Creed offer support from the rear, peppering opponents with debuffs and Disease Points.
Be’lakor is here to do what he always does: Shut down the enemy’s most powerful tool for a turn (possibly two if they get a double) and then scrap with the rest if they can. Even if they fail to do significant damage, pinning down a major threat is reward enough.
Advertisements
Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Kairos Fateweaver (440)* 1 x Curseling (180)* – General – Command Traits: Cult Demagogue – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Shield of Fate – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Magister (120)* – Spells: Glimpse the Future – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
BATTLELINE 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Pink Horror Hornblower – Iridescent Horror – Split and Split Again 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Pink Horror Hornblower – Split and Split Again 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Tome of Eyes (40) 1 x Shards of Valagharr (40)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
So it’s a Krondspine list, Jim, but not as we know it! The changes from the Kaleb inspired lists of previous weeks are that it’s Host Arcanum rather than Guild of Summoners, cutting out the Call for Change battle tactic (summoning a Lord of Change) but allowing for a variety of units to be summoned (probably Horrors still!). It also features a different Endless Spell, with Shards of Valagharr being a useful tech piece to slow the enemy down if they try to go around the Incarnate to get to you.
In terms of other spells, The Curseling has Shield of Fate that they can cast on a double, or two Destiny Dice of the same value, and it can’t be unbound. Combined with the -1 to hit in melee on the Pinks from a Daemon character being in range, a 5+ ward can really increase the survivability of these screens. It might seem a small thing, but keeping those Pinks alive and standing on circles just drains the opponent of points, not only on the primary, but also with battle tactics as well. Add in a Krondspine pinning the enemy in place and you’ve got a recipe for victory.
In terms of opponents, Jordi clearly knows how to pilot his Tzeentch, taking out the Helon Lumineth Realm Lords boogeyman, Teclis and all, on the way to third place. Their only loss was to Marco’s second place list that you will find just above. Nice work, Jordi!
Advertisements
Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos – Subfaction: Quakefray – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Doombull (160)** – General – Command Traits: Bestial Cunning – Artefacts of Power: Slitherwrack Helm – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman (115)*** – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy Great Bray-Shaman (95)**** – Artefacts of Power: Brayblast Trumpet – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy Great Bray-Shaman (95)**** – Spells: Viletide Great Bray-Shaman (95)**** – Spells: Viletide
Alice: A powerful mix of hordes and elites. Tzaagors and Gors supported by a whopping a Tzaangor Shaman and a whopping three Great Bray Shaman. Hey at that cheap why not right? The gors hold a solid role as cannon fodder while Tzaangors can do the same, but actually put back a bit of bites
The Cygors and Doombull are the hammer, meant to come in once the enemy has tied themselves up with cheaper chaff. All in all an interesting approach to beasts.
This is the top three AoS lists for the AoS OGR CUBBthat took place in Poland on the 1st and 2nd of April. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
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
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Slitherwrack Helm – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline 6 x Bullgors (390)** – Great Axes – Reinforced x 1 3 x Bullgors (195)** – Axes & Bullshields 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (230)* 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (230)
Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Subfaction: Koatl’s Claw – Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Lord Kroak (450)** Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)** Skink Starseer (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Hand of Glory – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Skink Starpriest (140)*** – Spells: Hand of Glory Saurus Sunblood (130)*** – Artefacts of Power: Eviscerating Blade Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (200)*** – General – Command Traits: Dominant Predator – Celestite Warspear – Artefacts of Power: Blade of Realities – Mount Traits: Beastmaster
BATTLELINE Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer – 2 x Wardrummer Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer – 2 x Wardrummer Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Wardrummer – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)
Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Underguts – Grand Strategy: Defend whaťs Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Butcher (140)* – General – Command Traits: Reluctant Rabble-rouser – Cleaver – Artefacts: Gruesome Trophy Rack – Spells: Blubbergrub Stench – Aspects of the champion: Leadership of the Alpha 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder
BATTLELINE 6 x Ogor Gluttons (260)* – Bellower – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Crusher – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 6 x Ogor Gluttons (260)* – Bellower – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Crusher – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 4 x Leadbelchers (170)* – Thunderfist
ARTILLERY 1 x Ironblaster (200) 1 x Ironblaster (200) 1 x Ironblaster (200)*
This is the top three AoS lists for Silverstream Smackdown 2 that took place in New Zealand on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 26 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
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
UNITS 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (240)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
This solid list from Lee Wilmot is almost a who’s who of Sylvaneth mainstays. The TLA and WSR combination allows aggression from turn 1, using the free tree placement to enable maximum value Warsong bombs followed by either use of the new realmspell Teeth of Gallet, or Dwellers below for better value on horde units like Squigs or massed cultists. This hero combo works with the strike and fading Kurnoth hunters – buffed by the Spiteswarm Hive – and the revenant seekers to ensure the Sylvaneth hammer is kept healthy and outputting maximum damage while the bows sit on a back objective and pick off wounds, or soften up targets, at artillery ranges. Tree revenants sneak off to pick up objectives and provide shooting protection for the warsong and archrevenant, little scamps that they are.
This lists’ real value is in how few truly poor matchups it has, it is a one drop, can alpha decently and loves the double turn, can score 5/5 Battle tactics consistently and really gives opponents few opportunities to interact with the list on their own terms. Even against lists which push the sylvaneth for board space early, like KotET and BoC the Sylvaneth units are often durable enough to weather the early storm and punch out, or alternatively simply relocate key pieces to safer locations and return to playing the objective game. Well done to Lee on his piloting – 5 games of sylvaneth is quite exhausting and mistakes are heavily punished – he’s done excellently to manage the tournament win with a 4-1-0!
Advertisements
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Darkwalkers – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
UNITS 10 x Ungors (80)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 20 x Ungor Raiders (230)* 6 x Bullgors (390)* – Pairs of Axes 10 x Ungor Raiders (115)* 6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
Brett: With the new book Beasts haven’t set the world on fire but are providing consistent results even if a little back from their recent peak. Jimmy has gone with the Ungors and a Doombull which aren’t common picks but they have their reasons. The Ungors (and Ungor Raiders) are relatively cheap and meet battleline leaving enough points for an Incarnate. That’s important. With BoC’s herdstone increasing rend on turns 2 and 4 you don’t want to commit too early. Because BoC can ambush (deploy to reserve and bring them on in the first or second round) and fade into the shadows (teleport from within 9″ of the board edge to another location 9″ from the board edge and 9″ from enemy units) they can hide very well. But to do that you need something for your opponent to focus on – the Incarnate.
They need at least 2 rounds to do that and that means you can wait until you have at least -1 rend on everything to commit. The Tzaangors can still score a Battle Tactic first round (Desecrate seems likely) while your opponent tries to deal with the Incarnate. If they don’t then he can make their life hell pretty quickly. Still the list might be a little slow without the teleport. They have access to book tactics which are pretty competitive. The Doombull’s had a bit of a glow up, one of his most useful talents is a command that allows a unit to charge in the combat phase – avoiding unleash hell. He’s a Tunnel Master (teleport) and can use his trumpet to summon Ugors (or raiders) to the cause. The Bray Shaman is along to provide exploding 6s. If anything is alive to reach -3 rend from the Bullgors or Doombull (turn 4) pretty much nothing on the opponents army is going to survive.
Only drawing to Sylvaneth and otherwise winning all of his matches is a great effort. Sylvaneth with their fire and fade, mortal wounds and desire to make you come to them is a solid counter. Otherwise an unblemished run with a new books is a great effort.
Advertisements
Allegiance: Skaven – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
LEADERS Verminlord Corruptor (350)* – General – Command Trait: Devious Adversary – Artefact: Blade of Corruption – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Grey Seer (120)* – Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy Master Moulder (90)* – Artefact: Rabid Crown – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 20 x Clanrats (100)** – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 6 x Rat Ogors (420) 10 x Gutter Runners (200)** 10 x Gutter Runners (200)**
We’re honoured to have Skaven aficionado and all-around top bloke Kieren Coates join our team. Kieren is well known on the tournament circuit down under and has featured in past editions of our top three. Who better to talk about the ratmen than him?!
Kieren Coates: A classic mixed arms MSU list with the unique twist of no clan Skryre, the list features 6 independently operating threats able to choke up the board while dealing surprisingly large amounts of damage.
Opting against the 1 drop race, the list has no issues in being forced to go first with 6 rat ogres able to hop through a gnawhole with death frenzy, mystic shield, +1 to wound and +3 to charge, leaving it with an impressive 82% chance to land its charge with one reroll.
If youre able to piece through 36 wounds of pure rat meat, that will fight on death to trade back you may just be unlucky enough for the Master Moulder to roll a 3+ upon the units death to bring the whole pack back to life again for round 2
Even beyond the alpha rat ogres, there is still 20 gutter runners skirmishing with ranged mortals, 2 hell pits ready to clear out any hordes or MSU which are not able to piece through 14 wounds in one swing, one of which is likely to get a mutation for 16 wounds at a 4+ save. at only 210 points, it’s incredibly efficient, and when it dies for some unfortunate souls, it has a 1/3 chance to come back to life with D6 wounds ready to swing again.
If you do manage to hit through respawning, death frenzied rate ogres, skirmished gutter runners and horde clearing hell pits, you still have to deal with the big boss which is the verminlord corruptor with the blade of corruption, 2D6 + 2 attacks (with command trait), often hitting at 2’s, 2’s, -2 rend, 2 damage with 6’s to wound being a whopping rend 3 damage 6. Did I mention he has another horde clearing spell to back up the two hell pits?
Once youre through all of that the real humble MVP of skaven, 40 clanrats for 200 points holding the objectives still need to be dealt with, healing D3 clanrats per pack in every battleshock phase.
Overall it’s lots of melle power with chance to revive, horde clearing power and MSU skirmish combined that many lists cant manage to crack through – well done to Locky
Advertisements
Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Sokatra, Leviadon Keeper (140)* Isharann Tidecaster – Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Allopleuron The Turtle Emperor (250)* Akhelian King – General – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Bladed Polearm – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
UNITS Turtle Trappers (170)* 10 x Namarti Reavers
BEHEMOTHS Archelon the Ancient (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Mount Trait: Ancient – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Carbonemys the Cleaver (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Definitely also a Turtle (480)* Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – Allies
Monster mash hasn’t been the soup of the day for a couple seasons, so it’s nice to see a few heavies make their way back into the Idoneth’s menu. The turtles are going to be very heavy hitters, especially in Nautilar where they count as batteline and get a monstrous action increasing the rend on two of their weapon profiles to -3. Ancient is present to get some extra durability out of the first turtle, but both are there to absorb damage and dish it back out.
The third “turtle” is a krondspine. The addition of the Arcane tome means that the incarnate can be bonded to either the King or the Tidecaster, depending on what the match requires. The lack of druability on Idoneth’s heroes also opens up the option of getting the Incarnate as afar away from the friendly units as possible then just shrugging your shoulders when the bonded hero eventually dies.
Past there the list is self-explanatory. The King does King things. The Tidecaster casts some tides (Steed of, specifically). The reavers fill out the last battleline slot, and act as a decent harassing unit, with the ability to make good use of the turtles’ auras.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Rumble in the Rockies that took place in Canada on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 18 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: Daughters of Khaine – Subfaction: Zainthar Kai – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
LEADERS The Shadow Queen (700) Melusai Ironscale (120)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts of Power: Crown of Woe – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Morathi-Khaine (700)***
Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh – Army Type: Godseekers – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (230) – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x The Contorted Epitome (240)* – Spells: Hysterical Frenzy – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord of Pain (130)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Battle Rapture 1 x Be’lakor (355)*
BATTLELINE 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)* 5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (120)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)
This is the top three AoS lists for the G&T GT that took place in the UK on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 8 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this was a small event, with less than 20 players, there will be no comments on the lists from Woehammer writers as they concentrate on the larger events.
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
Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Bloodpelt Hunter (140)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Huskard on Thundertusk (330)* – Blood Vulture – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm Slaughtermaster (140)* – Lore of Gutmagic: Molten Entrails Frostlord on Stonehorn (450) – General – Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter – Heal – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Quakefray – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs:
Leaders Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning Great Bray-Shaman (95)* : The Knowing Eye – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Primal Dominance
This is the top three AoS lists for Colonial Carnagethat took place in the USA on the 18th and 19th of February. It involved 45 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: Gloomspite Gitz – Army Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Squigboss (80)* – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* – Spells: Itchy Nuisance 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Artefacts: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Spells: The Hand of Gork
BATTLELINE 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280) – Bounder Boss 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280)* – Bounder Boss 36 x Squig Herd (360)** 12 x Squig Herd (120)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Mangler Squigs (260)
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Scrapskuttle’s Arachnacauldron (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
OTHER 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
Three years of an old book with Gloomspite Gitz mostly being seen as a wild-card entry in the top threes… mainly because Peter wanted to give me something to write about… and then a second 5-0 in as many weeks. So, it’s definitely an improvement so far.
Dale has gone with Squigs for his main force with Bounders providing some great Spears of damage and the Squig Herd doing mortals when they run away, and the herders can get them back. The lack of command abilities on them worries me, however, a little as people get used to the army… especially with shooting.
The buff pieces all have a place as well, with Squigs getting free moves, the moon doing as required, and 5+ward on one unit. It definitely requires some memory to keep all the moving parts in your head.
A 5-0 is impressive regardless of army and so we’ll done to Dale.
Advertisements
Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos – Army Subfaction: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Desecrating Brayherd – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Beastlord (145)* – General – Command Traits: Bestial Cunning – Artefacts: Slitherwrack Helm – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Great Bray-Shaman (95)*** – Spells: Wild Rampage 1 x Great Bray-Shaman (95)*** – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy 1 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman (115)*** – Artefacts: Brayblast Trumpet – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy
BATTLELINE 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (Gibbering Congregation) (230) 20 x Bestigors (440)** 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Ungors (80)*** – Pitted Blade
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105) 1 x Cockatrice (105) 6 x Beasts of Chaos Slaangor Fiendbloods (260)*
Peter: We have updated this comment since initial publication. Ungors were initially referred to as ‘Hammers’, and this has been changed to Bestigors. A predicted text typo of ‘Tendrils of Apathy’ has been corrected to ‘Tendrils of Atrophy’. Finally, the reference to +2 to casting per game has been corrected to +3.
We all make the occasional mistake. Please remember our writers comment on a lot of factions and may not know each inside-out!
The Gor stampede emerges! This list takes a very interesting tact with the enemy in order to try and shut down and isolate enemy units to substantially blunt their output. With the Beastial Cunning trait, you can bring in a key unit within 7″ instead of 9, guaranteeing the charge. First, the Chaos Spawn charge in to reduce enemy unit attacks by 1, and since they can move separately, you can either spread them out or focus them on one unit as needed.
Bestigors, Cockatrice and Slaangors all function as hammers, with Bray-Shaman boosting them with Wild Rampage for exploding 6s to hit, and the other Bray-Shaman and Tzaangor Shaman casting Tendrils of Atrophy (with +3 once per game if you really need to get it off) to increase the damage. Even if the opponent survives this onslaught, they will still have to deal with the -1 to attacks from the Chaos Spawn, and are likely fighting last due to the Gors Gor Stampede ability and the General’s Slitherwrack Helm meaning any counter attack will likely bounce right off of you.
A clever and precise use of debuffs before charging in with the hammer makes this list very difficult to deal with in melee by all but the most hardy of targets.
Advertisements
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty Holy Commands Enhancement: Steadfast March
LEADER 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)* – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger (170)* – Mount Traits: Scintillating Trail – Spells: Azyrite Halo
BATTLELINE 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime
OTHER 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – Stormdrake-Prime – Drakerider’s Warblade
3 x Vanguard-Palladors (200)* – Pallador-Prime – Boltstorm Pistol and Shock Handaxe
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
After the craziness that was Salt Smash, normal(ish) service returns. Still with Palladors as an action unit (everyone has some), with the points drop and ranged weapons on top of their movement, they are a great alternative to Draconiths. And dragons. A nice big block of 4. Beyond the Palladors JB threw in a Lord Arcanum on Gryphcharger (a personal favourite). He has his own built-in teleport and is both a decent caster and an ok combat character. He can keep up with and be covered by the Palladors and, in turn, cover for them with both his Cycle of the Storm (once per turn ignore a fatal wound) and Healing light. An effective way to deal with the 4+ save on the Palladors is a very efficient way to pick up remote objectives.
Conventional Lord Castellant (with celestial blades) and Lord Relictor. Celestial Blades can either be placed on the Dragons or a handy Retributor unit. Hitting on a 2+ is always welcome. Running 3 MSU Retributors as battleline reflects the points drops (they were 235) and some of their tricks. They lack the 2 up save of Protectors but with a Lord-Castellant that can be dealt with. They are slow, Steadfast March will help push them onto the middle or an objective out of deployment. They can be held in reserve and dropped via Scions. Most importantly, they are a solid 15 wounds with -2 rend and 16 attacks. That makes them harder to kill than an MSU Annihilator with Grandhammer while having more attacks, making them more reliable. Your opponent will have to make a serious effort to remove them, and if even one is left alive, the strike back is likely to have serious consequences.
A very well crafted SCE list taking advantage of the recent points drops to make it more competitive. Losing to the new Gitz is probably not unexpected. They can build strength as they go, which is a weakness of SCE, as key pieces go down their scoring options shrink fast.
Advertisements
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Radukar the Beast (310) Vampire Lord (140)* – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura – Aspects of the Champion: Butcher Belladamma Volga (200)* – Spells: Invigorating Aura, Soulpike Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (420)* – General – Command Traits: Kin of the Wolf – Deathlance – Artefacts of Power: Sangsyron – Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma – Spells: Flaming Weapon, Invigorating Aura
BATTLELINE Dire Wolves (130)* Deathrattle Skeletons (80)* Dire Wolves (130)*
OTHER Grave Guard (280)* – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower Grave Guard (280)* – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
Soulblight two seasons ago was a different vibe. That was when zombie blobs shambled care free and nigh on unkillable Blood Knights trampled dreams. Soulblight now, post points hike and during a season that rewards having good GCs – exactly the thing Soulblight don’t have – are a different matter, so it’s cause for celebration when a list cracks the top 10.
William has opted for a Vyrkos hero-hammer here, with Radukar and Balladamma following on the bone-tails of a VLoZD. It’s a techy combo – Belladamma can be bodyguarded by the Dire Wolves and set up an exploding 6s aura, while Radukar can summon additional wolves and, so long as he makes a charge, put out a +1 attacks aura, making for a pretty potent set of overlapping buffs. It can be tricky to set up but I imagine the plan was to run a kind of hero-castle, setting up the Zombie Dragon – or one of the two big blobs of Grave Guard, who are still a super value unit – as super-buffed up hammers at the centre of the auras.
It’s hard to pin point exactly why Soulblight just don’t quite have the tools to reach the top tables atm, but I suspect this is about as good a list as they can field at the moment! Kudos to William for the 3-2.
This is the top three AoS lists for the War of the Spider God that took place in the UK on the 11th and 12th of February. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this tournament has less than 20 players, there will be no commentary on the lists.
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
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Survivor’s Instinct – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – The Burgeoning
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Branchwych (130)* – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Archaon the Everchosen (860) – General – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)** – The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (70)** – Allies
Battleline 3 x Varanguard (290)** – 3x Ensorcelled Weapon – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 5 x Chaos Chosen (240)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)**
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Quakefray – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Khozrul Doomrender (160)* Doombull – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Slitherwrack Helm Zhorthas Baletongue (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Artefact: The Knowing Eye – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Ghorgrar Gnarlcurse (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline Horns of the Gorefather (390)** 6 x Bullgors – Pairs of Axes – Reinforced x 1 Kaarosh Warplash (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Zyclor Fluxbane (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Khrol Bladefur (240) Ghorgon Galarash the Gorger (240) Ghorgon Uzghal Bloodripper (240) Ghorgon
Units The Stalking Turnskins (115)** 10 x Ungor Raiders
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Befouling Host – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Horticulous Slimux (220)* Sloppity Bilepiper (130)* Poxbringer (130)* – Spells: Stream of Corruption – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Unclean One (480)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Doomsday Bell and Bileblade – Artefacts of Power: The Witherstave – Spells: Fleshy Abundance
This is the Top Eight AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open that took place in Nevada, USA, on 27th, 28th, and 29th January. It involved a massive 324 players, all vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
We’re particularly lucky this week as six of the top eight players agreed to give us comments on how their lists work. On top of this, we’ve also got comments from the Head Judge at LVO, Gareth Thomas.
So, thank you to; Jiwan Noah Singh, Kaleb Walters, Gavin Grigar, Cody Saults, Nate Trentanelli and Gareth Thomas for all agreeing to give us your thoughts.
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95) – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*** – Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy Grashrak Fellhoof (150)*** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 30 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (525)** – 30x Pair of Savage Blade – Reinforced x 2 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)***
Jiwan Noah Singh: The heroes all serve a function against different matchups, and with the Gavespawn ability, they can then serve a secondary function when they die.
The general has to be the Tzaangor Shaman to unlock Galletian Veterans for the big block, but also has the extremely helpful big cast once per game, and moves 16/19” if I need to go hold and up a huge threat. Mostly, I used the big cast for the bull spell, but in other matchups, I considered he would have used tendrils of atrophy to break armor stacking. His speed let’s him get there for that short ranged spell.
Grashrak gives out the +3 move, and because he can pass wounds, it is helpful against ranged threats who losing the move bonus would be difficult against. His spell is also a super combo with Gavespawn if I need to lift a gargant or something in one activation.
The shoggoth was there for his spell and having a starting monster, and the pre-phase move made anyone worried about that going off have to deploy really far back.
Beastlord was the newest addition but was a pretty fun vehicle for the gnarlblade. With run and charge, he moves 15” on an auto run, so throwing him across and 18” deployment means he can also make people worry about making me take top, for small only investment on my part. Additionally, if he got his attacks off and the bull was on something, it was a less likely but still redundant plus to wound, or hit and wound.
Gors are 10 potentially deepstriking bodies on a 4+ in combat for 70 points. They also have plus to run and pile in, which is so strange that it just confuses people when you tell them, but it is actually helpful.
Tzaangor are 60 wounds, have mortal banners, can zoom across the board and fight something with a billion attacks, but also rally on 4+. I generally deploy them in a cloud, all about 1” from each others bases, to maximize the board space, but also to be able to pull them out of 3” against things that shut down inspiring, and if I need to rally, recharge, ect. Let’s me save bodies if I pull them out of coherency too, which I did intentionally several times to be able to rally again.
The rest of the list is enlightened, in blocks of 6, in bounty hunters. These have tons of uses and can pump out massive damage. Turning off all our defense is like another rend in many cases. So with the fight last bull running around, some plus to hit (always try to end on damned if you can) from multiple sources, and the throwing an extra attack on them from a spawn, they are such a threat that an opponent must deal with them. When you stack a plus to hit, going second, and gavespawn attacks, I know of very few things with that output. And at 2/3 rend no cp, few things can eat it with saves.
The beasts summoning on top of all the threats to kill or hold things, and ability to run a hero into something, die, and lock them up, meant that in almost all my games I can lose tons of things and still keep taking points. I built in some tech to deal with specific matchups that concerned me, most of which didn’t happen, but in general it’s a 5 turn army with a ton of flexibility and lots of different things going on. Good proving ground usage was hugely helpful with the ability to summon Galletian Veterans, and the output meant the main armies I expected to see, Ogors, Gargants, Nurgle, Nighthaunt, all had something that was a big problem for them that I didn’t mind sacrificing.
That’s pretty much it.
That, and having distractingly beautiful hair, that helped too.
This list – piloted by Nicholas ‘Scooter’ Walters – is testament to the difference reps and familiarity with an army can make. Even if that army is considered underpowered.
Scooter nearly went all the way with what is a pretty common IJ list, with a sneaky ally in the shape of the Fungoid Shaman for the extra CP generation. I mean, it’s an ‘obvious’ list – but if you watch back the stream of Scooter playing Gavin Grigar’s Cities list for example, you can see the difference skill and knowing the intricacies – the limits, the averages – of your army can make. Keeping the Maw Krusha back until it’s absolutely needed – knowing when to smash that ‘Destroyer’ button on the foot boss – and making all the right calls with your pigs are all key to playing IJ well.
Even though the list will be hurt by losing bounty hunters, making the pigs half as effective, the inclusion of the Megaboss makes sense going into the new season – he’s a great, durable and fighty Galley champ. The speed and activation potential with smashing/bashing of the feral hogs will never go out of style.
Ironjaws might be suffering from a lack of units and power creep these days but Scooter is out here to prove that if you love your army, and you’re prepared to stick with it and get the reps in, ‘the meta’ be damned, you too can damn well near win LVO.
Advertisements
Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (440)* Magister (120)* – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Incarnate is Bound to the Magister Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150) – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Tome of Eyes (40) Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Kaleb Walters: My main goal was to create a Swiss Army Knife style list. Bring as many solutions to the answers in my faction as possible.
Reason For Family: Guild of Summoners: 1 FREE Battle Tactic: Summon Lord of Change. LOC have 14 wounds, -1 Rend shots, 18 inch range, movement 12, +1 To casting for all Tzeentch casters, -1 to hit naturally and monstrous rampage abilities. While other families have more flexibility, the norm is to summon Blue Horrors that have 20 wounds, Movement 5, shoot 12 inches at 0 rend but have good board presence.
List Design: Min Max: Minimum Battleline Maximum Hero’s/Monster Damage. My list is designed to castle up and react to the deployment of my opponent. By staying low drop I normally have the option to decide how I want to engage. I either sacrifice my Acolytes (120pt a unit) to an alpha strike list, or I position aggressively with a front and center incarnate primed to go wild and level up. Either formation still allows me to throw powerful spells that can turn off Command abilities and unleash a possible 15 mortal wounds at 27 inches or more. In addition, as the game goes on, I become more magically dominant with the additional LOC while reducing the overall strength of my opponent.
The next part of my list design is increasing/ reducing my opponents armor. I have 2 spells & 1 Endless spell that can reduce my opponents armor and with the rend stacking of the Acolytes or the LOC natural -1 Rend shots and of course the already powerful incarnate -2/-3 rend I am able to turn normal attacks into Mortal Wound equivalent attacks.
I also know the future with my lame sauce guaranteed Grand Strategy & Destiny Dice…….
Opportunities of The Design: I have a difficult time dealing with Hordes and / or armies that can summon cheap disposable models on a mission with more than 4 objectives. I also find it difficult to face armies like KO that can stay outside my threat range and then engage on their terms.
Advertisements
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Tempest’s Eye – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)* – General – Command Trait: Hawk-eyed – Lore of Eagles: Strike of Eagles Arkanaut Admiral (140)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory Battleline 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)* 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
Units 20 x Arkanaut Company (180) – 2x Light Skyhooks – 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1
Core Concept Bring guns… lots of guns. We recently had 2 books introduced into the meta (Ogors and Slaves to Darkness), and the resurgence of some old foes (Dragons, Ironjaws and Nurgle), that generate a ton of kill pressure and melee engagement on Turn 1. Tempest’s Eye combats this with great Turn 1 buffs (+1 Save/+3 Move) and efficient shooting (+1 Hit/+1 Wound) supplemented by a healthy number of mortal wounds (Hurricanum, Dracoth Breath). All these elements together are hopefully enough to keep even the scariest melee threats at bay.
Strengths Shooting Volume from Crossbowmen, Tempestors and Arkanauts combined with force multipliers centering around the Hurricanum (+1 Hit/+1 Wound). Adaptable Tech from the Admiral (+1 Rend/Ward Removal/Charge Debuff). Drop Control (2 Drops) typically allows the list to immediately threaten a double turn and forces your opponent to make hard decisions on Turn 1. Horrorghast allows the list to hit crucial damage break points against large units such as Tzaangors, Chosen, or Blood Sisters or spread damage across multiple units for greater efficiency.
Weaknesses 1 Drop armies or specifically being disconnected from the double turn, which forces the list to overextend and expose its firebase. Melee armies whose movement outranges the threat ranges of the list’s shooting units. Middling mobility limits the army’s ability to play proactively and aggressively.
Takeaways and Closing Thoughts As fun as it was to throw buckets of dice, the list has some glaring weaknesses that I was able to mostly avoid due to some fortunate pairings over the course of the weekend, but it does have undeniable strengths and when the list wins it really wins. Enjoy responsibly!
Advertisements
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Ironjawz – Subfaction: Bloodtoofs – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480) – General – Command Traits: Mighty Waaagh! Leader – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist – Artefacts of Power: Destroyer – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
BATTLELINE Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Shootas (120)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Cody Saults: Ironjawz, for me, was the only choice for LVO this year. My standard approach to tournaments is to not play the same game everyone else is expecting to play. With GV being a thing, and folks running bounty hunters, 2 drops kept me tied or out dropping every opponent, and with the list’s raw damage potential, it has the potential to cripple opponents before they get a chance to interact with your units. Second consideration, with a tournament with as many rounds as LVO potentially has for those who do well, avoiding burnout is key. The list only has 4 unit profiles, which helps with keeping rules front of mind and always knowing your options.
The Maw Crusher is an absolute engine for this list, as Skull-Shaking Bellow allows you to spread Mighty Destroyers out to multiple targets, which helps with board control and damage potential. Its melee profiles allow it to put out a punishing amount of wounds, while its solid armor save prevents it from being an easy removal target. Moreover, it has several ways to help clear screens to make sure you get to your target. Its shooting attack is only 4 potential wounds at rend 1, and very short range, but combine that with the impact hits from the pigs, and enhanced stomp monstrous action, the crusher stands a very good chance of clearing screens and getting to the target it truly wants. A quick Finest Hour passing to your opponent’s turn, with an All Out Defense means that even after they deal their damage, they will continue to gum up the works for your opponent, while taking a monstrous amount of extra attention to move. Having 2 allows for redundancy, protect the one in the most vulnerable position, and then respond with the second. The mighty destroyers move means they are never out of position, as if they clear targets and need to pivot to another flank, they almost always have the movement to get there.
Gore Gruntas also represent a solid damage investment, as buffed by the Warchanta, and under the Iron Jaws WAAGH, there is very little in the game they can’t chew through. I went with two units of three, and one of six. The 2 three-man units can take buffs and present good screen clearance in matchups where the opponent has good screening, and for matchups you don’t need the initial sacrificial salvo, they can be used for fast objective grabbing, or counter skirmishing. The post-combat movement abilities from Bloodtoofs also allow for re-establishing screens or locking up units safely.
Warchantas are a must in any IJ list, as they can pass out solid damage bonuses to units about to be in combat, give out charge bonuses, and even heal a key couple of wounds. They have a surprising amount of beef for small characters, and receiving their own buffs can dish it right back.
The last inclusion in the list was shootas, an easy inclusion to give me some cheap screens. Shootas in 20 man squads can be strung out to prevent enemy outflank or deep strike, and the nets, positioned well, can punish an opponent for under-committing resources to remove them or what they are near.
All in all, the list was tailored with so much mobility and relatively low drops to force an opponent to play defensively. This works out either way for us, as the number of hard to remove wounds makes sure they stay in their deployment zone while we grind down their units. Every unit in the army punches up, able to drag down more costly targets, with the post combat mobility to shift our positions, removing the need to choose between damage and objectives.
All in all, the list performed well. The meta we had until the GHB transition had a lot of lists with hard DPS checks, and this list put out enough damage to meet that need and then some.
Advertisements
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired,Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95)* – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Battleline 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 6 x Dragon Ogors (290)*** – 2x Paired Ancient Weapons – 4x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 3 x Dragon Ogors (145)*** – 1x Paired Ancient Weapons – 2x Draconic War glaives
Units 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)* 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*** – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480) – Allies
It’s the ‘other’ BoC list from LVO! As you can see, it damn near went as far as Noah’s, losing only to Scooter’s incredibly well piloted IJ list.
It’s a relatively normal archetype – with the usual 3 HQs for their wide variety of utility – the Dragon Ogor Shaggoth especially proving critical due to his incredible warscroll spell (heal d3 to a Dragon Ogor and give them re-roll wounds) and the Dragon Ogor scroll allowing re-rolls of 1s while near him.
A mix of Ungors for super cheap and speedy (+3″ thanks to the Bray Shama) trading pieces (once the rend starts stacking) and the more out-of-the-box Dragon Ogors make up the battleline – offering speed, punch, and plenty of board control.
Beyond that, it’s basically ‘the spindog’ syndrome. 6 Enlightened on Discs also provide an absolute missile – if you read any of these, you know by now they’re an absolute staple of BoC lists.
The body count, speed, and Spinedog allow Rigolet to care less about dictating first, and so he packs in bounty hunters plus a warlord for additional utility. A savage list that will operate very differently (and be like, double the cost) with the new book – but there you have it!
Advertisements
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)* Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (150)* – General – Command Trait: Spiteful Spirit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)*
Units 10 x Craventhrone Guard (180)* – Reinforced x 1
Nate Trentanelli: The list began as a bit of a joke to include two famously “bad” units in the Black Coach and the Craventhrone Guard- or “Crossboos” as they’ve come to be known by. I decided that I couldn’t possibly take Top Nighthaunt in the ITC this season without ever having actually played these units. Not wanting to have no chance during games, I peppered in some more useful units in the Hexwraiths and the Krulghast- staples of Nighthaunt armies.
I’ve gone for an Arcane Tome Knight of Shrouds here for one reason. With his Command Trait “Spiteful Spirit”, when he takes damage in the Combat phase he will roll a number of dice equal to his wounds characteristic and do a mortal wound to all enemy units within 6” for each 4+ he rolls. Quite the useful little bomb. To make things even better, Arcane Tome makes him a wizard, allowing him to be moved by Lauchon. Almost guaranteeing a turn 1 charge wherever I want to maximize his chances of doing mortal wounds. Reikenor with his +3 to cast will almost guarantee Lauchon goes off.
Hexwraiths do what hexwraiths do – nearly unmatched speed to pin opponents in their deployment zones. With 4 units of them, I can either overload my opponent turn 1 with all 20, or simply move block them turn after turn. It may lose me all my hexwraiths, but I’ve functionally disallowed my opponent from actually scoring any objective points.
2 units of Chainrasp exist solely for 2 battle tactics. Start them in the underworld and bring them down on a turn. You don’t have a good battle tactic option. Put both in your opponents deployment zone for an easy Barge Through Their Lines with a bonus for 2 GVs. The next turn take Desecrate Their Lands for another Battle Tactic. 2 complete for no effort.
The unit of Craventhrone Guard I also put in the underworld. Though their damage output is poor, it is something Nighthaunt don’t really have access to anywhere else – shooting. Even that small amount of extra damage is noticeable and useful. They are also a great distraction piece, and the Spectral Bolts ability to shoot through terrain is better than it seems. I know, I know. It’s Crossboos. Trust me. They will work.
Last is the Black Coach. It really is the AoS equivalent to a tank. It’s base size makes it terrific at blocking key areas. With the Craventhrone Guard shooting it’s actually quite easy to power it up as well. Allowing you to shoot with the Craventhrone Guard first, slay 5 models from a screen, and fire the Black Coach into the thing you really wanted to shoot for 3D3 mortal wounds. Alternatively, keeping it on its 4+ ward makes it truly crazy at tanking. Keeping it in the Krulghast bubble also gives it -1 damage for even more craziness. It’s shocking how survivable it is.
The Mortalis Terminexus gives you the flexibility to heal your heroes and Black Coach or use it more as I did, which is an aggressive mortal wound bomb. 26” total threat range from casting is great, and it can pump out quite a bit of chip damage.
All together, the armies Battle Traits of Ethereal and Wave of Terror combine to make even the weakest looking unit truly scary. Roll enough 8s on the charge, and even Kragnos will fall to simple chainrasp. The army has 5 different units that do D3 mortals on a 2+ on the charge. Don’t underestimate how much that is. Simple averages tell you that’s about 8 mortal wounds. Which, by the way, you can retreat and do all over again every turn.
Because of the movement of this army- Hexwraiths, Lauchon heroes, Black Coach teleports, and Underworld Reserves – you can be anywhere and everywhere. Movement wins games, and it’s no surprise to me that most of my opponents had issues with catching me. Even if it they were close, you can simply use one unit to block for the rest to move to safety. Keep your units alive until the exact moment your opponent is out of position. And then pounce all at once. Be careful not to allow your opponent to single out units and be careful. You don’t pull your units away from each others support. Aggressive movement with supporting units will win you games.
Happy haunting!
Advertisements
Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Frostlord on Stonehorn (450) – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Metalcruncher – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm Butcher (140)* – Cleaver – Spells: Molten Entrails Huskard on Stonehorn (400)* – Blood Vulture – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Prayers: Keening Gale
Camaron has my thanks (but not quite my sword) for not taking any Ironblasters! What he’s taken instead is loads of big, angry cows! It’s almost a completely pure Beastclaw Raider army – love to see it.
This list essentially asks ‘can you handle 5 cows swamping you’, and the answer was ‘no’ for everyone other than Kaleb’s Tzeentch, who were able to puncture those super tough hides with his sneaky magic MW output.
Enhancement wise – which is where the tactics are in a list like this – you’ve got Metalcruncher on the Frostlord for dealing with tanky 3+ saves, along with Touched by Everwinter to make him into a priest and able to cast the excellent MW AoE ‘Pulverising Hailstorm’. The Huskard gets the Rockmane Elder (-1 to wound in melee).
A pack of Gnoblars act as a cheap add-on screen that still fits into the battle reg – crucial for a pressure list like this – in order to dictate first and almost certainly give it away every time to make an absolutely devastating round of turn 2 charges and a hopeful end-it-there double.
Big gratz to Camaron for losing only in the shadow round to a legendary player and a bad match-up.
Advertisements
Head Judge – Thomas
Acting as Head Judge at LVO 2023 was a thrilling experience. I should begin by thanking both Front Line Gaming, and Scott Reed, the Head TO, for organizing such an amazing event.
LVO 2023 was the largest Age of Sigmar tournament in the world, by far, and 50% larger than previous LVOs. Whilst being involved in such a large event was a great experience, the logistics of organizing 325 players did throw up some challenges. To start, the release of the Battlescroll with new points one week before the list deadline (and after our rules cut-off) was a bit disruptive. We had to ensure that every player knew that we would be using the new points, and yet we still had quite a few lists submitted with the old points. Equally, we had to ensure that every player knew that we would not be using the new GHB, which was released the day after lists were due (and one week after rules cutoff). Of course, there were still a few players who submitted lists assuming the new GHB (comically enough, there was one player who we could not contact until round 1 to let them know that their Aspect of the Champion and Sharpshooter battalion had to go!).
The rest of the pre-event organization was handled by FLG and Scott, so my preparations beforehand were minimal. But I have been involved with the running of 36 events in the past 18 months and know that quite of bit of prep work is involved.
Due to the large number of players, LVO did not use the standard AoS GT format of 5 rounds. Instead, we used 5 rounds followed by a 3rd day of single elimination rounds for top 8 players. This year, 9 players went 5-0 which required us to run a Shadow Round 6th game for the players in 8th and 9th place to determine which of them would advance to Day 3.
The first five rounds were pretty straight forward from a rules judging point of view. The pack used at LVO, produced by Scott Reed, borrowed from the OTTD Generic Pack, which is something I was heavily involved in creating. Many of the players at LVO already have experience attending events that use the OTTD system, which helped keep rules and scoring questions to a minimum. When tricky questions did arise, I was able to fall back to the aosfaq.com website and team to provide answers.
The pressure as Head Judge only really started during the Shadow Round, which was the first round where we introduced active judging (where a judge watches the entire game and points out rules mistakes before and whilst they are made). Unfortunately, the game was a bit of a one-sided blowout – the choice to use Mighty and Cunning proved problematic when one player had essentially all GV and the other essentially none. Lesson learned! The only rules issue that cropped up was when one of the players declared Desecrate their Lands on a Defensible terrain piece. I had to remind him that you can only control Defensible terrain pieces by garrisoning them – the standard 3” rule does not apply. He was able to declare another terrain piece instead.
Day 3 was where the real excitement as Head Judge began, which entailed three rounds of active judging among the best players in the world. I was fortunate enough that James O’Brien who was a contender, had not made it to day 3, but as an experienced TO and judge was willing to jump in and judge half of the games.
When judging the final 8 of a 325-player event, there is really very little stress. These are fantastic players with a huge amount of experience and, more importantly, great sportsmanship. There was no confrontation to deal with, and all players played with intent at all times, meaning there were no disagreements to intervene with. If anything, I had to prevent players from giving too much benefit to their opponents!
Instead, the rule of table judging was just handling the occasional line-of-sight judging, pointing out often forgotten rules such as you need to jump into a garrison to control it (even the top players didn’t know that rule!) and mostly sitting back and watching some fantastic Warhammer being played. The biggest drama, up until the end of the final game, that is, was during the first round, when one of the games ended in a complete tie. With single elimination, a tie is not an option. It was also not something we had prepared for. Fortunately, the two players were able to agree that under any tie-break rules, there would be a clear winner. Of course, I couldn’t end without talking about that final game. What a game! I could watch both Noah and Scooter play Warhammer all day. Scooter is one of the great personalities to watch, and Noah is a fantastic human being. And their game was so close.
I suppose I should talk about the ending… By the end of the final game, the players had been through 3 days of extensive Warhammer. All with the backdrop of Las Vegas. I think it is fair to say that both players (and Judge) were drained. The game came down to control of an objective. Noah had a chaos spawn on it, Scooter had a goblin shaman. They fought in combat, but neither could kill the other (Scooter made the 4+ ward save to keep his Shaman alive on one wound – much to the crowd’s delight!). It was a great moment!
Of course, the spawn has 5 wounds, and so is worth 2 points on an objective, and the Shaman only has 4 wounds, so it is worth 1. But we were all too exhausted to notice. Noah assumed the Shaman was worth 2. Scooter assumed the spawn was worth 1 and I failed to notice the mistake (oh so easy to assume all heroes in the game are going to be 5 wounds or more!). That meant that they were tied on points, and Scooter won the match on battle tactics scored. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that we caught the mistake – where we had not considered that the Shaman was only 4 wounds (a friend texted me – thank you!). The way both players handled the turnaround in decision is a credit to them both. The level of joy each felt at the other being declared the winner was heartwarming.
The final, and LVO in general, left no doubt that Age of Sigmar has a fantastic community. And I am proud to be part of it.
