This is the top three AoS lists for the TRS Torneo Regio Sabaudo 2° Edition that took place in Italy on the 6th and 7th of May. It involved 68 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Bloodsecrator (110)* Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayers: Killer Instinct, Unholy Flames Bloodmaster (110)** – General – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice, Bloodbind – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)** – Artefacts of Power: Ar’gath, the King of Blades Slaughterpriest (110)** – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct
BATTLELINE Claws of Karanak (100)* Claws of Karanak (100)* Blood Warriors (190)*** – Blood Champion – Icon Bearer – Paired Goreaxes – Goreglaive Bloodletters (360)*** – Bloodreaper – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Hornblower
Alice: Still feels weird to see Khorne in the top spot and a nice mix of mortals and daemons to boot. Claws of Karnak go up front to create some early momentum, capturing center points (or desecrate in the right battle maps), and get merced early for cheap and easy blood tithes. Then most of the army comes up the rear to kill what just got stuck in.
Bloodsecrator, Bloodmaster, Slaughterpriest, and Realmgore Ritualist are all support characters. Bloodsecrator granting +1 attack once per game and a 4+ rally for mortals. Bloodmaster teams up with the Bloodletters to give them +1 to wound. Slaughterpriest is the anti-magic choice and Realmgore Ritualist helps them secure ground on objectives.
Most of the rest of the units exist to murder, as Khorne Approves. Garrek’s Reavers exist to grant blood tithes when they kill a model, great for swinging for chaff. Everything else basically hits like a hammer, and Skullcrushers are pretty durable all the same, too. Last but not least, of course, is the Bloodthirster when you absolutely need something dead. His Artefact lets him cut through wards for any would-be Nurgle hosts who might try and hold him back.
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Army Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (210)* 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)** – Artefacts: Moonface Mommet – Spells: Squig Lure 1 x Squigboss (100)** – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand 1 x Squigboss (100)** – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 20 x Squig Hoppers (360)* – Squig Hopper Boss – Reinforced x 1 24 x Squig Herd (260)* – Reinforced x 1 24 x Squig Herd (260)* – Reinforced x 1 24 x Squig Herd (260)* – Reinforced x 1
TERRAIN 1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
OTHER 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (130)* 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)* – Allies
ALL the Squigs! This list is still very effective, as proven by Robert guiding it to 2nd place. What’s hard to believe is that the list would have cost around 165 points less before the last Battlescroll. Gitz have maintained their 55% win rate, so I can see herds going up by perhaps another 5-10 points next time around….
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Allegiance: Slaanesh – Host: Pretenders – Grand Strategy: Glutton for Depravity – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Keeper of Secrets (400)* – General – Command Trait: Strength of Goodhood – Shining Aegis – Artefact: The Crown of Dark Secrets – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon The Masque (140)* Contorted Epitome (190)* – Lore of the Magnificent: Phantasmagoria – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
UNITS 22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)* 11 x Blissbarb Archers (150)* 11 x Blissbarb Archers (150)* 5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)* 10 x Slickblade Seekers (400)*
Alice: Honestly, it is comforting how Hedonites lists havent’s changed a ton – they just got better. Blissbarb Archers launch a ton of suppressing fire, and the Seekers tag them with a -1 to saves for the turn before the Slickblades charge in.
The Keeper of Secrets remains a terror in combat, should you need something bigger. With Strength of Godhood, the Crown of Dark Secrets and Flaming weapon we’re looking at 3 Rend -3, Damage 7 claw attacks if near the target of the Crown of Dark Secrets. And that’s if they weren’t tagged by the Seekers.
The Contorted Epitome and Masque round things out with some solid utility pieces. The Epitome can cast its warscroll spell for +1 to wound against an enemy unit, and Phantasmagoria to pull out anything that gets into combat too early. Or it can cast Mesmerising Mirror to help control the enemy’s movement to a place it finds more beneficial.
The Masque operates as a better replacement for tunnel master, able to pop up almost anywhere it wants within 3″ of the enemy, and its pretty damn good in combat too, able to take down most medium hammers and chaff and secure the point for itself.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Army Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Katakros (440)* 1 x Mortisan Ossifector (120)* – General – Command Traits: Aura of Sterility – Artefacts: Gothizzar Cartouche – Spells: Reinforce Constructs – Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha 1 x Mortisan Boneshaper (120)* – Spells: Drain Vitality
BATTLELINE 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (220)* – Dread Falchions 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (220)* – Dread Falchions 6 x Immortis Guard (400)*
TERRAIN 1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
OTHER 2 x Morghast Archai (240)* – Spirit Halberd 2 x Morghast Archai (240)* – Spirit Halberd
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Alice: A powerful elite list, chaff and screens need not apply. Katakros works as the mobile command center, handing out buffs like candy and debuffing the enemy. The Boneshaper offers healing to keep the Immortis Guard protecting it alive (while casting Drain Vitality on the enemy), while the Ossifector buffs the Morghasts with -1 Rend.
Stalkers do Stalker things, they absolutely cut stuff up with their Rend -2 Damage 2 and 3 attacks in precision stance. Slap Bludgeon on there if that’s not enough rend. The Immortis Guard help body guard the delicate mages, and if they get into combat they can fight twice to good effect.
The Archai are like the glue holding this together, not quite as many attacks as the stalkers or immortis guard they are almost as lethal. They have a 5+ ward and block command abilities, making them a great escort for the stalkers. With the Ossifector thats 6 Rend -3 Damage 3 attacks. Which goes further when your opponent can’t use all out defence. Ouch!
This is the top three AoS lists for the Spring Rubicon 2023 GT that took place in Wisconsin, USA on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 40 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament. The event was organised by The Die is Cast crew from Youtube.
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: Kharadron Overlords – Sky Port: Barak Zilfin – Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies – Triumphs: Inspired Kharadron Code – Artycle: Settle The Grudges – Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste – Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk
LEADERS
Arkanaut Admiral (125)* – General – Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok – Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Aether-Khemist (80)* Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*
BATTLELINE
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)* – 3x Aetheric Fumigators – 3x Decksweepers – 3x Aethercannons – 3x Grundstok Mortars – Reinforced x 2 10 x Arkanaut Company (100)* – 1x Light Skyhooks Arkanaut Frigate (300)* – Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon – Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope
UNITS
3 x Endrinriggers (120)* 3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
BEHEMOTHS
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)* – Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon – Major Installation: The Last Word
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS 1970 / 2000
Today we have another Kharadron Overlords list, this time from Nicholas True who ran a very interesting Barak Zilfin list. A lot of the usual suspects are present here, with his Kharadron Code being +1 to wound, extra movement from runs, and a once per game 3d6 charge. Then we have our Admiral with Ex-Grundstock to make Thunderers battleline and a Celestium Burst-Grenade to turn off ward saves. There is also the requisite Thunderer buff machine we all know and love that goes by the name Aether-Khemist, who will be handing out -1 rend candy all game long. But the really interesting part of this hero lineup is a cheeky Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar, in a Barak-Zilfin list.
Brokk deserves special mention here because at first glance it looks off since his best ability, +1 to attack profiles in melee, only applies to Barak-Nar units. However, his Command the Fleet ability works just like the Admiral’s similar ability, but he can target up to three boats with this command which can really spread out the board. Kharadron Overlords lost its great positioning gameplay with the new Battletome, even if it kept its mobility, but Brokk’s command ability the army can overcome that and really take advantage of raw speed to get into position and still shoot. Unfortunately, the ability does not let the guys inside the boat shoot since the boat has already received the command it cannot use Combat Landing in the same movement phase. Combine all that utility with a powerful shooting and melee profile and Brokk can easily be an unexpected menace on the board especially in the mid-game when things tend to bog down.
The rest of the list is again what we would expect with a Battleline Frigate, an Arkanaut Company, and the monster nastiness of double reinforced Thunderers with Special Weapons. Woe be the opponent who thinks they can tank the output from this unit, especially when you add in the Khemist -1 to rend buff, and the Admirals once per game -1 rend ability. The sheer volume of rend -2/-4 ranged attacks will drop almost anything. Watch out, it slaps. Rounding out the troops are a couple of Endrinrigger squads to give a little frontline pressure and heal the boats.
Speaking of boats, Nicholas brought along an Ironclad to finish off his list with the curious addition of The Last Word which has been unpopular compared to the Battle Ram in other KO lists. This does create something of a deterrent if an opponent correctly assesses the Thunderers as the real threat in the list and if the boat properly backs them up it means in addition to eating an Unleash Hell from the Thunderers, there is also a Great Sky Cannon. An interesting choice that makes the idea of charging Thunderers even less appealing.
Nicholas brought a great list with some unexpected threats in an army that already excels at keeping opponents unbalanced and on the back foot. Outstanding job and well played.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: The Flayed – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS
Bloodsecrator (110)* – Artefact: The Crimson Plate Dromm (180)* – Prayers: Bloodbind, Curse Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Unholy Flames Slaughterpriest (110)** – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice, Bloodbind – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Skarr Bloodwrath (100)** Slaughterpriest (110)** – General – Command Traits: High-priest of Khorne – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
BATTLELINE
Blood Warriors (570)*** – Blood Champion – Paired Goreaxes – 3 x Icon Bearer – 3 x Goreglaive Claws of Karanak (100)*** Claws of Karanak (100)***
BEHEMOTH
Chaos Gargant (145)
ARTILLERY
Skull Cannon (140)
OTHER
Magore’s Fiends (120)* Gorechosen of Dromm (180)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Bleeding Icon (40) 1 x Wrath-Axe (70)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord **Warlord ***Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000
Amusingly losing only to another Khorne list, this is an interesting set up.
At first glance, it looks like a mad grab bag, but I think I see the logic. Claws of Karanak are obscenely useful pre-game movers for their points, and following on their heels is a triple reinforced unit of Blood Warriors, who I’m sure were hilarious to try and kill, all the while bouncing mortals back and putting out a non-trivial weight of attacks that could be buffed to rend 2 with Unholy Flames, and after activating – thanks to the Flayed sub-faction – capable of a 5 up ward.
Meanwhile, you have 4 priests, who’re the not-so-secret sauce to Khorne mortal lists. I mean, the entire Prayer lore is utterly banging, and with High-priest of Khorne on one of them, this list is praying out 5 (including the two excellent Invocations) per round.
The other tech on display is Skarr (who deep-strikes back alive on an 8+ when killed) for blood tithe farming, a Chaos Gargant who for the -1 save aura, who I imagine was kinda wrapped in Blood Warriors to make them really nasty to charge – and a skull cannon for a cheap way to pick off a few screens where necessary.
A really fun looking list, and I’m jealous of his Claws of Karanak, can’t buy those bastards for love nor money at the moment!
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
LEADER
1 x Bloodmaster (110)** – Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Killer Instinct – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Bloodsecrator (110)** – Artefacts: Banner of Blood 1 x Aspiring Deathbringer (80)** 1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)*** – General – Command Traits: Embodiment of Wrath 1 x Bloodmaster (110)*** – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice 1 x Bloodmaster (110)*** – Artefacts: Halo of Blood – Prayers: Unholy Flames
BATTLELINE
20 x Bloodletters (360)* 20 x Bloodletters (360)* 10 x Bloodletters (180)* 10 x Bloodletters (180)***
OTHER
5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)**
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Galletian Veterans **Warlord ***Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
A more traditional Khorne Daemon list here, following the ‘loads of bloodletters in Bloodlords for MWs on 5+ to hit, supported by Bloodmasters and Bloodthirsters’ which I’m henceforth going to call the ‘Bloody Blood Bloods‘ archetype.
There’s not a huge amount more to it than that – but of note is the Grand Strat – have more GCs alive than opponent at end – which should be fairly locked in with 5 of them and a large swathe of horny bastards running at you in the meantime.
Another bit of tech to note is the Halo of Blood on the Bloodmaster – this allows him to strike first, and with his war-scroll ability to allow a unit of Bloodletters to fight immediately after him, when positioned correctly can mean charging him/them is essentially suicide. Nasty stuff and took down some savage opponents for a great result.
Peter: Danny failed his challenge. He had to mention Blood 10 times in the comment. 9 = Not acceptable.
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER
1 x Warpgnaw Verminlord (275)* – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Deathmaster (140)* – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420)** – Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Slynk Skittershank (220)** 1 x Deathmaster (140)**
BATTLELINE
5 x Gutter Runners (100)** 5 x Gutter Runners (100)** 5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
OTHER
5 x Gutter Runners (100)* 5 x Gutter Runners (100)* 5 x Gutter Runners (100)* 5 x Gutter Runners (100)* 4 x Skittershank’s Clawpack (220)** 5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
Brett: How do you describe this list? 8 Gutter Runner units, 8. Is this a secret Khorne list? No it’s Clan Eshin with poisoned weapons and a very rare Warpgnaw Verminlord (Forgeworld) – who also happens to be Eshin. That makes the Gutter Runners battleline, important to make this work. Teamed with the Deceiver this is a very nasty pair of hammers. Lots of Flaming Weapons to maximise their potential. Add a pair of Deathmasters and Slynk Skittershank, with his Clawpack (fights first) and there are so many threats. All with ranged and melee attacks and poison damage on 6s.
This list lets you be everywhere, you can easily hold objectives and most turns you will have a Battle Tactic available. With the Verminlord’s to capture your opponents attention or remove threats. The Deathmaster’s , Gutter Runners and Slynk all run and shoot making it easy to get with in 12″ for some throwing star magic. You’d expect this list to score very well, and it did, scoring better than the winners through to the last round. It’s weakness? Anything that can split fire and remove Gutter Runner’s quickly – like a shooting heavy army. KO’s combination of speed and shooting was too much in this case with both an Ironclad and Frigate with loads of Arkanauts. A great skew list but with Seraphon getting a new book it mightn’t be long lived.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Regicide in the Realms that took place in the UK on the 6th and 7th of May. It involved 16 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
Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Skullfiend Tribe – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayers: Killer Instinct, Blood Sacrifice 1 x Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Blood Sacrifice 1 x Slaughterpriest (110)* – General – Command Traits: High-priest of Khorne – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Unholy Flames, Killer Instinct – Galletian Enhancement: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Bloodsecrator (110)** – Artefacts: Banner of Blood 1 x Bloodstoker (90)****
OTHER 5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)* 6 x Mighty Skullcrushers (400)**** – Skullhunter – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Bloodglaive 6 x Mighty Skullcrushers (400)**** – Skullhunter – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Bloodglaive
Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Subfaction: Legion of Blood – Mortal Realm: Shyish – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs: N/A
Leaders – Parade Ground Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (390)* – Lore of the Deathmages: Waste Away Skeleton High King (440)* Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon – General – Deathlance – Command Trait: Doomed Minions – Artefact: Cloak of Mists and Shadows – Lore of the Vampires: Soul Pike The Ever-Living Prince (440)* Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon – Vampiric Sword – Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference The Scorned Captain (135)** Wight King – Artefact: Amulet of Screams – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox The Discarded Princess (135)** Ivya Volga, the Outcast
Battleline – Procession Host The Endless Duty (85)** 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons The Worked-To-The-Bone Brigade (85)** 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons The Impending Doom (220)** 10 x Black Knights – Reinforced x 2
Endless Spells – Delirious Visions The Reins Of Tyranny (40) Soulsnare Shackles The Great Unwashed (30) Suffocating Gravetide
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Karazai, The Scarred (550)* – General Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)* Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Celestial Blades Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard
UNITS 5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)** – Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes 5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)** – Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes 5 x Vindictors (130)** 6 x Praetors (280)*
This is the top three AoS lists for Smash & Bash that took place in the USA on the 22nd and 23rd of April. It involved 62 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: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (200)** – General – Command Trait: Loonskin – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Skragrott, The Loonking (210)* Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 9 x Rockgut Troggoths (480)* – Reinforced x 2 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)*
Well, there’s no doubt that the new Gloomspite Gitz book is better than the original, but I must admit that I’m still suprised to see Troggs smashing their way to a 5-0. Christopher didn’t have an easy route either ending on the other Destruction go-to army – Ogor Mawtribes.
The Troggs don’t have the bodies that you might expect in a Gitz list, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have sneaky tricks in abundance, and Christopher has brought along some Gobbos to help his Rockguts. The Fungoid can Hand of Gork – a great threat to his opponent – whilst Skragrott can do that, and can keep the moon where you need it to be – as well as giving a little ranged damage with his scroll spell.
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
A spell that wouldn’t be out of place in an Aelf book. Glorious stuff.
Meanwhile the Rockguts are healing in both turns, and if you can kill nine of them – 5 can come back! That’s a hell of a hammer piece appearing within 12″ of the Loonshrine near the end of game (because you’re not killing them early). It’s great to see the list do so well, and a list mostly unchanged from the Trogg lists before the new book (with the notably addition of Skragrott). Goes to to show what a few well placed warscroll re-writes can do.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330) – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Killer Instinct, Blood Sacrifice 1 x Skarbrand (380)** 1 x Realmgore Ritualist (100)** – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Bloodbind – Aspect Tunnel master 1 x Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Unholy Flames, Blood Sacrifice
BATTLELINE 20 x Bloodletters (360)* – Bloodreaper – Icon Bearer – Hornblower 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)* 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*
INVOCATION 1 x Bleeding Icon (40) 1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Skull Altar (0)
OTHER 5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)* 6 x Bloodcrushers (360)** – Icon Bearer – Hornblower – Bloodhunter
CORE BATTALIONS: *Galletian Veterans **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Khorne’s new book is having a rush of blood to the head and starting to post results! This here is a forerunner for a very solid competitive archetype, and here’s how it works.
The big, daemonic blob of core synergy here is the Thirster of Unfettered Fury projecting a -1 to hit aura, and taking the command trait ‘FIrebrand’ that makes him into a priest. Because of the warlord battalion, each priest in the list knows two prayers – and the Khorne scripture is SO GOOD. With him is 20 Bloodletters, who in Bloodlords, are doing MWs on 5s to hit instead of 6s. The Thirster also has the ability to give a unit a 3d6 charge – meaning this blob is suddenly annoyingly hard to kill with the Thirster parked beyond, but also capable of long-bombing and handing you a whole bunch of MWs on a bronze platter.
Skarbrand is simply another very scary beatstick that can’t be ignored, meaning the other priests – the Ritualist and Bloodmaster, whose warscroll spell can give daemons +1 to wound vs a target – are probably free to do their thing, unmolested. Factor in two key Invocations, the Bleeding Icon to turn off inspiring presence in an aura and the Hexgorgers to absolutely lock down casting – and you have a very difficult equation to solve.
There are more moving parts to this list and a whole lot of strategy and further synergy based around Blood Tithe use that is all acts as a force multiplier but would take an essay to explain – but that gives you the core idea. A nasty, ‘everything is scary’ list full of movement shenanigans and board control. A great result and a sure sign of Khorne lists to come.
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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords – Sky Port: Barak Urbaz – Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies – Triumphs: Inspired
Kharadron Code – Artycle: Master The Skies – Urbaz Artycle: Settle the Grudges – Amendment: Trust to Your Guns – Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk
Leaders Aetheric Navigator (85)*** – Artefact: Voidstone Orb Arkanaut Admiral (125)* – General – Command Trait: Stormcaller – Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)*** Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)***
Battleline 3 x Endrinriggers (120)* 3 x Endrinriggers (120)** 10 x Arkanaut Company (100)** – 1x Skypikes – 1x Light Skyhooks – 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns 10 x Arkanaut Company (100)** – 1x Skypikes – 1x Light Skyhooks – 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns 1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*** – Main Gun: Sky Cannon
Behemoths Arkanaut Ironclad (500) – Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon – Major Installation: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram Arkanaut Ironclad (500) – Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
Kharadron and I have a love/hate relationship, I love the concept and like to see them do well, but I don’t love their play style or look. Jame’s list is brilliant, no attempt to outdrop you – he isn’t going to deploy near you anyway. 2 x Ironclads and a Gunhauler all with Sky Cannons is no joke, 50/50 to hit at long range (but all out attack can help) with only 2 shots but D3+3 damage. And through the artycles, amendments, and footnotes, those boats have +2″ movement, +1 to wound against a unit, a reroll of a 1 and once per battle 3D6 charge. Guess which Ironclad that’s going to go on (battleram rolls for mortals with a number of dice equal to the charge roll).
On top of the boats shooting, their embarked Akanaut’s are Galletian Sharpshooters. Very difficult to use their disembarked ability to give them +1 to hit to anything contesting objectives. But there is no reason they can’t target a GC from the boat with All Out Attack after a fly high command. The Galletian Command is an unusual choice for a non combat army but a decent way of accessing the season’s Battle Tactics. It might leave you open to the Bodyguard being killed, but the Admiral could contest an objective effectively particularly late game. But wait, there’s more – this is not just a shooting army. There are a lot of moving parts and buffs. From the Navigators reading the winds to the Admiral granting rerolls to the reading the winds, drops, movements, and profiles. It’s a lot to keep track of. Essentially, though, if they shoot, they will lift most units in the game.
They would have the drop on most of the armies James faced, the loss to Ogors is interesting – Ogors do have tricks to get close and if they do they can dominate. They are hard to put down as well. Poor Fyreslayers though, slow, forced into the open and gunned down.
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Allegiance: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Thanquol on Boneripper (430) – 4 Warpfire Projectors – Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap Verminlord Warbringer (400)* – General – Command Trait: Devious Adversary – Artefact: Warpstone Charm – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Warlock Engineer (100)* – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate Clawlord (110)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Aspect of the Champion: Fueled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100) – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100) – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100) – Rusty Blade
80 clanrats and 2 warp lightning cannons, who cares how you go, this army is going to be a laugh with lots of death. There is no special list tech here, just some really hard-hitting hammers (Thanquol, Warbringer, and even the Hellpit) with deep deep screens. Thanquol has his skateboard (Lauchon) and is built for maximum melee. He’ll hit harder than a Mawcrusher. The Warbringer will, with this build, hit as hard a Thanquol (8 x 3 damage attacks) with his melee weapons. It’s a great list for killing, but maybe not for scoring. That’s an issue for Skaven their heroes are either massive or very small (5 wounds), and season 3 battle tactics are hard work for them.
At that’s how Smash and Bash went down; 4/0/1 and finishing in 9th with a few close battles. The only one he didn’t overcome was 2nd place, Blades of Khorne. And when your army is all about trading bodies to maintain position and killing your opponent, your worst nightmare is an opponent that wants exactly that. The more you kill, the more bloodtithe, and Khorne isn’t fussy who died. Bloodthirster/Skarbrand on Thanquol is going to depend on who goes first and the dice. Brilliant to see on the tabletop. Fantastic list to see, maybe hindered by the new season, but it is still a very effective and bloody machine that will grind out wins.
This is the top three AoS lists for Valleycon 2023 that took place in New Zealand on the 22nd and 23rd of April. 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: Khorne – Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! -Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)** – General – Command Trat: Firebrand – Artefact: Argath the King of Blades Skarbrand (380) Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)* Bloodsecrator (110)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)** – Artefact: Halo of Blood
UNITS 30 x Bloodletters (540)** – Gore Drenched icon 10 x Bloodreavers (80** – Reaver Blades 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** – Reaver Blades 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** –Reaver Blades
Peter: We’ve corrected this article to say that Bloodlords can be buffed to cause mortals on 5+ and not 4+ as previously stated.
Hero-hammer is alive and well in the land of Khorne. While I think their book was initially overlooked due to the insane rules from Slaanesh, there is a lot of potential in the new Blades of Khorne battletome. They remain a very tech-y army with a moderate to high skill level, but in the right hands they can get a lot of work done.
In this case, Shaun has packed more than half the points for his army in heroes, and a further quarter of his points in a single, massive unit of Bloodletters.
Working from the top of the list, we’ll start with the Fury Thirster. I think you’ll see this unit + command trait combination a lot. The Thirster starts as a great force mulitplier, allowing one unit per round the chance to roll 3D6 for a charge, as well as providing a -1 to hit debuff for enemies within 8″. Giving him Firebrand allows him the ability to chant prayers as well, and Khorne’s Prayer Scriptures are good enough that you’ll want to pack as many priests as possible. He’s also taken Argath, which will cut ward from nearby units, allowing those aura mortals to go through more easily.
He’s followed up by Skarbrand. Skarbrand’s role in the army didn’t change from the last tome. He’s still a massive beatstick character that suffers from some durability issues. Luckily he’s one of the few bracketing units in the game that gets better as he takes damage, so if your opponent happens to leave him standing with only 1 or 2 wounds they are in huge trouble. His damage output became more reliable in this tome, but he lost the ability to increase the number of attacks for Carnage, so you’re banking on that single die. At his bottom bracket that’s a guaranteed 8 mortal wounds, with a potential 16 mortal wound spike, so that one attack can still be very effective if aimed correctly.
I’ll lump the Realmgore Ritualist and Bloodsecrator in the same bucket, as they both have the same goal: time their once-per-game ability well, then die. The blood tithe points gained from their deaths will be 1 shy of summoning an extra GC to the field, and since their attack increases are once per game, it means they can be effective in death. If you don’t have the opportunity to have them killed, you still have two priests running around the field, both of which are GCs, so scoring some late-game battle tactics should be well within your reach.
The Bloodmaster and Herald are both Daemon priests (5 priests in this list!), and serve different purposes. The Herald can move quickly around the battlefield, and carries a healing prayer that can bring back a few of those bloodthirsters as they die, while the bloodmaster buffs them by giving them +1 to wound against an enemy unit. Tie the bloodletters unit near enough to the Bloodthirster to get a 3D6 charge and they’ll fling themselves across the field lightning-fast while setting off the Bloodlords army trait. Give them All-out Attack and you now have a 30-strong unit fighting in two ranks (thanks to their shiny new 2″ weapon range), hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, with mortal wounds happening on hit rolls of 5+! A large enough squad can reasonably survive most enemy’s Unleash Hell, so you’ve got a very powerful mobile unit that can dish out a ton of damage.
Past there you have three units of Reavers. They are decently cheap battleline, and work well for screens and blood tithe points. Shaun has also taken a Magnificent Command Entourage, bringing an extra artefact on the Bloodmaster, giving it permanent fight-first (note that this also gives the bloodletters fight first due to The Blood Must Flow in a roundabout way).
Congratulations, Shaun, on your first place win! I love to see Khorne come out strong, and I’m sure we will see more Khorne lists in the near future.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Treelord Ancient (330)* – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong 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)* 10 x Shadow Warriors (120)* – Allies
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1990/2000
Not the first, nor likely the last time I’ll find myself writing about Lee Wilmot’s Sylvaneth play, I feel it’s worth commenting on a thread of consistency between his Sylvaneth lists that is often glossed over in favour of unit to unit analysis: The kind of list Lee runs, and the reason he is so successful with Sylvaneth vs top factions such as Gitz, KotET, LRL and so forth, is that the lists he makes score well. Lee’s use of things such as the Vesperal Gem on the TLA (automatically cast once per round), tech choices like the Dweller’s below (Sylvaneth’s generic anti-horde spell) and frankly, the inclusion of a TLA at all (to create a tree 3″ away where-ever he wants, once per game) combine to form a picture of consistency. If piloted well, this kind of list will consistently flip objectives each turn and score Battle tactics, building to a trading advantage that allows Take What’s Theirs (the GS) to be scored at the end of the game.
I do have some questions about how this style of list handles some of the new fast – or spell dominant – books like Seraphon, Slaanesh and KO (always KO) so if you see this Lee, please reach out! That said, this list style allows a base formula to be applied each game, with little room to interact for the opponent (unironically a massive positive for tournament play, and the pillar of LRL’s general success) and provides great scope for adjustment on the fly based on battlefield conditions, Revenant Seekers provide mobility and improve consistency by resurrecting Kurnoths that are killed off by Fight On Death or long range chip damage effects while the combination of the pet Shadow Warriors unit and the Tree Revenants allow for objective sitting once the combination of spell damage, ranged damage and Strike and Fading Kurnoth Hunters clear the way. It’s an extremely well structured way to approach list building for the GT environment where a broad range of matchups will be played and a great show of Lee’s system mastery.
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*** – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Dankhold Troggboss (200)** – General – Command Trait: Loonskin – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (100)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*** – Artefact: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Webspinner Shaman (65)*** – Lore of the Spiderfang: Curse of da Spider God
UNITS 40 x Moonclan Shootas (250)** 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)** 3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)** 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*** 24 x Squig Herd (260)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (160)** – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Gitz are back baby… although its perhaps more accurate to say that they have arrived for the first time. Sam has brought a ‘soup’ list to 4-1 here and snagged 3rd place. (A soup list in Gitz is one with a few keywords, so in this case Troggs, Squigs, Spiders and Gitz (in the form of the Gobbapalooza))
It’s great to see the Gobbapalooza popping up in lists now that it’s been made into a single warscroll which makes it much easier to understand and – more importantly – stop ‘gotcha’ moments because an opponents forgot which of the 5 scrolls the little green guy was in the last book!
The Webspinner is a fun addition in this list to also represent the Spiderfang, and he’s brought along a free scuttletide (well the Dankhold has!) This makes these three models very good value and we’ll definitely see it in a few more lists before the book has run it’s course.
The main backbone is the Troggs though – hitting like a freight train you’ll need to hit first and hit hard – and then kill them again when they come back from the Loonshrine. It’s a lot of muscle with a small number of attacks but good damage on the Rockguts.
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
They have the ‘elite infantry’ profile of 3+/3+ which routinely means 2+/3+ and have rend 2, damage 3. Sure you don’t get many attacks, but it makes your opponent sweat when they have to take those saving throws. Even Annihilators have cause for (some) concern.
It’s great to see the Gitz getting near the top now and to have so many players dust off their collections after 3 years in the attics. Hopefully I’ll get a game or two in with them soon… getting serious FOMO watching all my fellow Gitz get in the reps!
This is the top three AoS lists for Realmgate Rampage II that took place in the USA on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 37 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: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Cabalists – Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit, Daemonic Speed – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Spells: Chaotic Conduit, Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon The Unmade (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)*
OTHER Chaos Chosen (480)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Exalted Champion – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Skull Drummer Varanguard (580)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – 6 x Fellspear
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Peter: I reached out to Anthony to see if he would be able to give us some info on how this list works. The legend kindly responded:
Anthony: So I mostly just lifted the list from Big Phil Marshall, with a few tweaks to marks. The army has 3 key pieces, with a bit of utility to support them. First, the block of 10 Nurgle-marked Knights with the Eroding Icon is incredibly tough to shift, while also able to do a fair bit of damage on the charge. Next are two hammer units: 10 Khorne Chosen, and 6 Khorne Varanguard with spears. I chose to go with Khorne on both units because, for the most part, these units perform threat removal duty, and I want those threats gone immediately. Plus, it means you get even more value if you use the ability to activate a second time in the combat phase on the turn that they charged. All three units are 30 wounds on a 3+ save, but have drastically different roles, and you can further enhance with the 2 Sorcerer Lords. There are quite a few spells that you want to get off, hence the choice of adding Arcane Tome, Master of Magic, and being in Cabalists. Lastly, Corvus Cabal is a nice piece to be able to save and snag an objective after the battlelines shift, the Unmade help ensure that the units you want to charge cannot redeploy away and make the charge harder, and the bridge increases your threat range immensely.
Being one drop means you decide first turn in most cases. A typical game sees you giving away the turn, although you do have the speed to rush across the board to hit your opponent before they can set up any of their buffs if they misdeploy in an egregious way. The other advantage of going second is that it allows your Sorcerer Lord to use both the heroic action for 3d6 cast and 3d6 for rolling on the Eye of the Gods table. You want to be rolling for that early and often. Getting an 11-12 on 3d6, rerolling one die isn’t too unlikely, but it’s still something that relies on rolling, and all it takes is your sorcerer lords getting killed off to remove your ability to achieve your Grand Strategy. I typically use the Knights to block areas of the board off from my opponent and initiate trades. It will cost most armies more value to remove this unit than the 460 points that the knights cost, and the Chosen and Varanguard hit hard enough that most things will struggle to survive contact with them. You’re looking to value trade more efficiently than your opponent, which is what the Slaves to Darkness do incredibly well.
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Knights Excelsior (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Karazai, The Scarred (550)* Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)* Lord-Imperatant (170)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Celestial Blades – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 3 x Annihilators (180)* 3 x Annihilators (180)* 3 x Annihilators (180)*
Units 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* 3 x Praetors (140)*
Peter: We reached out to Joseph, who kindly offered a quick synopsis on how his list works.
Joseph: Use the longstrikes the aoe mortals and the charge mortals from the annilators to punch large holes in their army’s screens and key buff pieces. Then go for the kill with the prime and Karazai.
Brett: Joseph undersells his list a bit, there is a bit of tech in how he has set up the list to do exactly what he says it will. There is a Lord Imperatant to make sure those Annihilators only have a 7″ charge. Best case that’s 3 turns of skyfalling. The list is Knights Excelsior to give a Paladin unit +1 to hit and wound on top of being battline. The Annihilators don’t have Grandhammers so cheaper (by 60pts) and more durable. Rerollable 7″ charge that does D3 mortals on arrival, more mortals on the charge (on a 4+) and then hits on 2+, wounds on 2+, saves on 2+. Even if they don’t wipe a screen some will probably survive the counter attack. It also makes dropping 2 units in a turn more palatable, even if the second fails it’s 9″ charge it may survive to try again.
The Longstrikes have Thunderbolt Volley (and aren’t reinforced) to give a turn of double shooting. Praetors to bodyguard Karazi in the early game (he out paces them) wraps up the troops. After that the Lord Imperatant has Tunnel Master for a sneaky teleport and celestial blades just in case something needs help with wounding (melee weapons only). And lastly the Celestant Prime for another hammer mid to late game (when Karazai is normally running out of steam).
Not without it’s risks, in the end there are only 75 wounds in the list and it needs to dictate the engagement. Karazai is more rarely chosen because he is vulnerable to mortal wounds generally. Being a one drop army helps, Joseph will dictate the first round activation in most games. Competing well against combat armies, Joseph faced down a Tzeetch army which is a tall order for an army with almost no denies.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Skarbrand (390) 1 x Archaon (860)* 1 x Bloodsecrator (130)* – General – Command Traits: Mage Eater – Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Slaughterpriest (100)* – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice
A lot of armies in Age of Sigmar can be broken down into units of hammers and anvils. This is a useful distinction, since it gives a quick idea of what role a unit needs to play, why you would include them in your list, and what to expect from your opponent’s force. Blades of Khorne do not work this way.
Blades can be better broken into three categories: independent operators, tech pieces, and drones. In Samuel’s case, he has brought a balance of the three, with a skew towards independent operators.
In this list, the idependents are Archaeon and Skarbrand. Both are meant to be beatstick intimidation pieces with minor buffs to other units. Archaeon is the only wizard in Samuel’s list, and he will see some benefit from Mystic Shield, but the known spell are limited since Khorne does not have a spell lore (for obvious reasons). Skarbrand is an excellent intimidating force, and only opponents that have never faced him before will risk damaging him without being positive that he will die. At his lowest bracket (his best) he can guarantee 8 mortal wounds with his axe, Carnage. While he can’t score VP from killing a Galletian Champion, he can certainly deny his opponent a few battle tactics through the use of the rare rule: “you can just pick that one up.”
The Bloodsecrator, Slaughterpriest, and Cockatrice are Samuel’s tech pieces. The first provides two useful auras (forcing Wizards to re-roll successful casting attempts and providing Blades of Khorne units +1 attack). The second gives access to prayers (Blood Sacrifice in this case, allowing early blood tithe gains) and invocations (which Samuel has elected to leave at home). The Cockatrice brings a particularly interesting ability that is one of the few in this list that will benefit Archaeon. If the Cockatrice manages to ping some mortal wounds on an opponent, that unit can only hit on 6s in that combat phase. This can be used to either protect Archaeon and Skarbrand from the beatings Samuel’s opponents are surely going to throw at them, or can be used to add some additional protection for his drones.
A note for the above units: Skarbrand, the Bloodsecrator, and the Slaughterpriest can all be used at summoning points for daemon units. Khorne is in a great spot right now, partially because the summoning mechanic allows them to pull a GC out of thin air onto an objective for the measly cost of 2 blood tithe points. This allows for some seriously flexible scoring, ecen into the late game, assuming you have a hero or skull alter and some blood tithe points burning a hole in your pocket.
Back on the subject of drones, Samuel has chosen to take the mortal flavor of drone: 10 blood warriors and 30 blood reavers. The blood warriors’ 2 wounds and 4+ somehow make them one of the most durable units in the book (about equal with Mighty Skullcrushers), which is saying something. The blood reavers are fast and will die as soon as they connect with something, providing some early blood tithe points.
All around a deceptively technical list, and one that was piloted to a great 4-1.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
LEADERS Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)* – General – Command Trait: Hellish Orator – Artefact: Eye of Hysh – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)*
UNITS 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480) – Allies
CORE BATTALIONS *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL: 2000/2000 WOUNDS: 83 DROPS: 7
Declan: Well I’m the first to admit that I’m not an expert in Flesh Eater Courts, but I have fought them a few times and this one has a Incarnate of Ghur – so there’s that. Frederic has gone for the 4-1 that’s difficult to pull off known as the submarine (LWWWW); and it’s a great result with a difficult army to use. This one is all about close assault, the Krondspine, Terrorgheist and Crypt Flayers.
Despite the increase in cost (480 points from 400 points in the latest balance update), the Krondspine is still good, and as he doesn’t die until the end of the turn so when it’s in combat you can guarantee it will dish out damage.
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
This allows teleporting Ghouls and gives the Terrorghiest a useful -1 to be hit with the Eye of Hysh, not to mention his warscroll ability to summon more Crypt Flayers. The Archregent can do the same, but also comes with a great utility spell:
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
It’s easy to cast and – crucially – lasts to the next hero phase. This means Frederic can make one awesome unit a turn with additional D3 attacks in combat. Sure, he may roll a 1, but you’ll never forget it if you’re on the other end of a 3 on a Terrorgheist or Crypt Flayers.
The army certainly has potential, but Frederic must have commanded it well to get a 4-1; they’re still not common with FEC.
Tournament that took place in the USA on 25th and 26th February. It involved 30 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?
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Big Waaagh have been taking a bit of a back seat recently, with not many people playing it; but it’s great to see Gregory still repping it and grabbing the elusive 5-0 here. Big Waaagh is great, and often taken by people with Ironjawz armies who want to run a Wurgogg Prophet… and what has Gregory done? He’s taken 2! Great work here.
He’s also taken Skragrott which is interesting as he loses his access to the Gloomspite magic lore, and his Warmaster ability. However his spell (Fangs of Da Bad Moon) still has the potential to cause damage. I wouldn’t have considered it myself… but its an interesting shout.
The rest of the army is an Ironjawz core, with 15 Ardboyz and 15 Orruk Brutes as the reinforced units. They hit hard and the Brutes can cause great damage with the +1/+1 to hit/wound and extra damage from the Orruk Warchanter. Interestingly there’s no MawKrusha here, but that’s likely because of Galletian Champions – its good to see a GHB make some changes to army selection.
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Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Charge
Leaders Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)* – Artefact: Armour of Scorn Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (300)*** – General – Command Trait: Mage Eater – Artefact: Skullshard Mantle Skarbrand (390) Slaughterpriest (100)* – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Skarr Bloodwrath (110)* Slaughterpriest (100)** – Prayer: +1 to hit – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
Peter: We’re lucky that for such a small site, we’re followed by some of the competitive players in the US and UK. As such, Gareth agree to share how his list worked for the event (though remember, this won’t apply for long with the release of the new book imminently).
Gareth: I’ve been running the same variation of this list for a few years now. I don’t play many tournaments and don’t have the brain power to change lists too much, so I just tinker around the edges. This latest iteration was a change from the list I was running last season. I removed a Khorne Daemon Prince and an Incarnate, and put in a Cygor, a second Slaughterpriest, Skarr, the Unmade, and the incantations.
The list is built primarily around the idea of giving your opponent headaches and making them doubt every move they make. Khorne has possibly more tricks than any other army right now, and this list is built to take advantage of all of them.
First let’s start with the anti-magic element, which, as with any Khorne army, is extremely strong. First off, the list has 8 unbinds; 1 from each Slaughterpriest, 1 from each unit of Flesh Hounds, 2 from the Cygor, and 1 from the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury wearing the Skullshard Mantle. Although none of these unbinds have any bonuses to unbind the Skullshard Mantle does have the neat little rule that an unmodified roll of an 8 automatically unbinds the spell, and the caster suffers D6 MW. If you save that unbind for a wizard who has one or two wounds left, it can throw doubt into your opponent over whether they want to chance it. Rolling an 8 is only a 14% chance, but in their mind, it is much higher.
Secondly, we have the Skull Altar, which causes any miscast to do D6 MW instead of D3 MW to the caster. Came in particularly handy this weekend in one of my games: a Master of Magic rerolled a miscast into a miscast, and then promptly died!
Thirdly, we have the use of 2 blood tithe points to auto stop a spell. Note that this is not an unbind, so even if the caster has a rule that says their cast can not be unbound, we can still use 2 blood tithe to say NO!
Fourthly, we have the Hexgorger Skulls. A handy incantation that has two nice rules – wizards within 12” get a -2 to cast debuff, plus if they’re within 8” and they roll an unmodified 8 to cast, the spell is unsuccessful, the caster, and any other wizards within 12” suffer D6 MW, and the wizard can no longer cast that spell for the rest of the game! Again, that 8 is only 14%, but in their mind, it is much larger.
Fifth, we have the ignore-magic on a 6. Any time any of your units are affected by a spell or endless spell, you can ignore its effects on a 6 (and you gain a blood tithe!). In one famous game against a Teclis-Sentinel list a few months back, Teclis managed to put Searing White Light through a portal to cause D3/D6 MW to my whole army during turn 1. I rolled well, and he caused a total of 4 MW across my whole army, and I gained 5 blood tithe. Thanks!
Finally, there is the Cygor’s ability. Any time a spell is successfully cast by a wizard within 30” of the Cygor, that wizard suffers 1 MW. Now that isn’t going to dent a huge monster-hero-wizard like, say Teclis, but I faced both Gitz and Skaven this weekend, and both had 5 wound wizards with two casts a turn. Quite a few times, I was willing to not even attempt an unbind, preferring to chip off 20% of their health for free. Again, it puts doubt into your opponent’s mind – “How much do I really need to cast this spell?”
The next trick we have is the use of blood tithe. Prior to this GHB, I almost exclusively used blood tithe for hero phase move and hero phase fight. That’s changed a little now that Galletian Champions are important – our ability to summon one for just 2 blood tithe is pretty great, so I’ve been doing that a lot. Before going into detail on blood tithe, let’s talk about Skarr. He’s in the list for one reason and one reason only – to die. He has an amazing ability that once he is dead, at the end of any movement phase (including your opponents) you can roll two dice and, on an 8,+ he comes back alive, anywhere on the board, 9” away from enemy units. That’s an amazing tech piece. I try to kill him as early as possible, and then during each of my opponent’s movement phases just take out my 9” stick and start measuring things, just to put doubt into their mind about where they can or cannot move safely.
Of course, to make sure he dies early, you need ways to kill him. That’s where he ties into blood tithe. One of my Slaughterpriests has the Blood Sacrifice prayer, which allows you to target a friendly BoK unit and cause them D3 MW in return for a blood tithe point. I was lucky that in four of my five games over the weekend, I had mystical in my deployment zone.
I placed the Skull Altar (which allows priests to re-roll prayers) within 8” of the mystical terrain, placed Skarr inside the Altar, and the Priest on the mystical. Turn 1 sacrifice Skarr, gain a tithe, and give him D3 MW. Then, since he is in the Skull Altar he can chant to bring out the Wrath-Axe, I use the Axe to cause another D3 MW on Skarr, and possibly another D3 with its secondary damage ability. Generally, this killsthis kills him, meaning I get 2 blood tithe (1 from his death, 1 from the sacrifice) in my first hero phase.
The blood tithe are then used later in the game as either a threat – using 3 to move the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage or Skarbrand in my hero phase, giving them a much larger threat range, or, more commonly, to deny battle tactics. In your opponent’s hero phase they declare a battle tactic that involves killing something , and so you counter that by moving the thing they need to kill, out of range or behind a screen. Or, if you’re in combat in their hero phase, you spend 4 blood tithe to fight and generally cause carnage to their carefully laid out plans. Finally, there’s the summoning aspect. Many of the new GHB battleplans or battle tactics require GCs to be on an objective for extra points or to score the tactic. Rarely are they “starting army” GCs. The ability to just summon one onto an objective for just 2 blood tithe (a Blood Master) is fantastic. Particularly if you pair it with Skarr’s revival. End of your movement phase, you revive him on to one objective, and then use him to summon a GC on to either the same objective or sometimes a second one!
Now let’s talk about the actual units that do stuff during the game. The Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury is there for one reason and one reason only – his command ability. At the start of the combat phase he can issue his command and all friendly BoK daemon units can pile-in 6”, and it’s the good 6” pile-in, meaning they can do it even if they’re outside of 3”. Note that this is an aura, but since the book is so old, none of the affected daemon units count as receiving a command ability, so are able to use other abilities at the same time. This is huge. Having, essentially, your whole army able to pile-in 6” is bonkers good. I very rarely charge any of my daemons during a game. Just move them to 3.1” away from their target unit, and then pile-in 6”. This has multiple benefits. First if you’re going against a monster, they cannot roar you (although the reverse is also true – you cannot perform a monstrous rampage). Second, you avoid any unleash hell. Third you can play activation games – although you’re going to fight with every single one of your units, your opponent is only able to activate their units which are within 3”, which is very often none (you activate first, put in a Bloodthirster, it kills the unit, it’s your opponent’s activation, they have nothing within 3”, so then you activate with your next 6” pile-in, and so on).
The 6” pile-in also interacts with the other tech piece in a Reapers of Vengeance list – all daemons have the start-of-combat-phase command ability to fight twice, and it’s an immediate fight twice. Note this command ability can only be used if you are within 3” of an enemy. The general idea is that you pile-in 6” with a Rage thirster or Skarbrand into two units, kill a bunch of stuff in one unit on the first fight, and then activate a second time, again going 6” to kill another unit. That second 6” pile-in often allows you to jump over a screen to target something more juicy. The Fury thirster is not that great in combat itself, typically doing only 5 or so wounds. But it does have a neat shooting attack – 4 attacks 3s/3s/-1/D3dmg that can kill a solo support hero or chip off some wounds from a screen etc.
Skarbrand is there to kill big monsters/heroes. It is relatively easy to keep Skarbrand at maximum rage for rounds 2-5. When at maximum rage, he does a guaranteed 8 MW per activation with his Carnage axe, and then has 9 attacks with Slaughter that are 4s/3s/-2/3dmg. That 4s to hit is horrible, even with the Locus of Fury ability that allows re-rolls of 1s to hit. We can mitigate that somewhat with either an All-Out-Attack (with the 6” pile-in he won’t have been roared), or earlier in the turn by using the Killing Frenzy prayer on him to give him +1 to hit. Skarbrand generally kills most heroes or does enough damage to seriously wound. If you’re going against multiple units, or a tough monster, you can use the double activate ability on him to cause a guaranteed 16 MW (with the potential of 24 or 32), and have 18 attacks.
Most seasoned Khorne players are surprised to see I don’t have a Bloodsecrator or Wrathmongers in my list. Either of these units give Skarbrand an extra attack, which works on Carnage, causing him to do a guaranteed 16 MW per activation instead of 8. That’s obviously a very nice buff, but I find Skarbrand generally kills everything he touches anyway, or is scary enough that people avoid him. Plus I hate the aesthetic of Khorne Mortals, so try to have as few mortals in my list as possible. Even my priests and Skarr are converted to look more daemon-like!
The Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage is the real scary piece in the army. His job is to clear hordes and support heroes. Particularly useful in this season where both are common. His basic attack profile is 5 attacks, 4s/2s/-2/D6dmg. That D6 damage is painful, as is the 4s to hit. But, he has this one little rule that changes everything. Any 6s to wound cause 4 MW (at top bracket) to all enemy units within 8” of him. That’s bonkers. If you roll two 6s, you’re doing 8 MW. That’s enough to kill most support heroes. And 8” with a largeish base is a big area. Couple it with the 6” pile-in and a double activation, and you can wreak havoc. I tend to use Killing Frenzy (+1 to hit prayer) and the double activation on him more than on Skarbrand. 3s to hit RR1s is actually fairly consistent to get enough hits through to then get one or two 6s to wound per activation. In my first game this weekend I faced the dreaded squig heavy Gitz list. Gitz have lots of over-lapping buffs, so tend to want to castle. They also have lots of support heroes. My Rage thirster killed 60 models in one combat phase.
Next is the Cygor. Although I’ve already spoken about his great anti-magic potential, he’s also a pretty handy monster. I tend to like monster-mash lists, so when I knew I had to include more GC in my list this season, I was looking for a non-leader monster to throw in. Cygor is the perfect match. 16 wounds means he’s tanky (even with the 5+ save). His flat 5dmg shooting attack is pretty good at finishing off a unit or solo support hero. He’s also decent in combat. For magic heavy armies he’s a good distraction. He usually is the first thing to die in my army (other than Skarr), but that means that my ‘Thirsters are not being targeted, which is fine by me! The Unmade are included for their debuff aura. Any enemy units within 12” (which is a crazy range for a unit of 9 models) can not redeploy or rally. Redeploy is the bane of the 6” pile-in. If you run your Bloodthirsters up the table, counting on the 6” pile-in to get into combat, a 4” redeploy kills you. Unmade for 80 points is a bargain to stop that. Also, with so many 4+ rallies in the game now, stopping that is handy, too!
The only remaining piece to describe is the Wrath-Axe. As well as being there to potentially first turn kill Skarr, it is handy to just have around all game doing chip damage and move blocking. Although incantations can be moved through as if they aren’t there, you still can not end a move on top of them. The Wrath-Axe has a large base, and being able to put it on one side of your army to prevent anyone charging from that side is pretty handy.
My choice of 2nd artefact is probably worth some discussion. Many Khorne players swear by Ar’gath, the King of Blades, as the artefact of choice on a Rage Thirster. This weapon gives changes the to-hit profile on the Rage Thirster from 4s to hit to 2s to hit. But only when targeting heroes. Since I generally use Skarbrand to hit big heroes and use Rage to target hordes (hoping to kill support heroes with the booms), I don’t like this choice. Harvester of Skulls is another choice – increase the number of attacks from 5 to 6 per activation. That’s a decent choice. An extra attack means more chances to get that 6 to wound. There’s also The Crimson Crown. This army is very command point dependent, so being able to use a command for free once per round is very useful. I can definitely see the attraction of that on the Fury Thirster. But I go for Armour of Scorn on my Rage. This gives him a 6+ ward, but 4+ wards against magic MW. I want my Rage thirster to live, and that 6+ ward is the nice little extra toughness to keep him alive a little longer. I’m very sympathetic to those who prefer Crimson Crown or Harvester of Skulls though.I’m pretty happy with this list at the moment, although with a new book on the horizon I think last weekend was probably my last competitive outing with it. Across two RTTs and the GT, I’m 10-1 with the list, which is pretty decent!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Lotann + Leviadon + Big Namarti Parties are the soup of the day for Idoneth. The combination is a great way to improve the Namarti (Reavers or Thralls) in both offense and defense. The Leviadon provides an aura giving Namarti +1 to hit so long as the target is within 12″ of the Leviadon. With the Leviadon’s large base size, that 12″ is generous. He also provides a +1 to save aura in the same zone, meaning that the Namarti may be able to hold back and reap the benefits of the save and hit bonuses from the turtle while enjoying a bonus to wound from Lotann. Ultimately, a squad of 20 will be firing 40 arrows hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, with rend -1 and 1 damage.
The King and Morsarr Guard are here to do King and Morsarr Guard things. Both like to move fast to get in their opponents’ faces. Both like to hit insanely hard for their cost. Both like to die if you sneeze near them while unsupported. a 6-strong unit of Morsarr can blend large blobs of chaff units using their once-per-game mortal wound bomb, and the king is one of the best duellists in the game. Careful positioning can lead to a blistering number of attacks, and on-demand strike first is nothing to sniff at.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Legion of the First prince is starting to establish itself as ‘the third way’, after Cabalists and KOTET, and for good reason – it’s a much harder and more subtle sub-faction to get your head around. It does some offer some baked in synergy – and Kyle here (for the first time in this column that I’ve seen) has leant all the way into the fluffy, synergistic version.
The core fluff of a Legion list is the overlapping benefits to taking Be’Lakor, the Centaurion, Eternus, Legionnaires (double reinforced in this instance) and plenty of furies. The synergies are thus: Legionnaires gain +1 to wound while near Be’Lakor (making them a pretty respectable sub-hammer while relatively durable for their points); Eternus gets +1 to his ‘comes back from the dead’ roll while Be’lakor is still alive – and he gains a free CP while near either Legionnaires or Furies – the latter being more likely to keep up with him while Legionnaires guard Be’lakor; lastly, the Marshal allows the big blob of Legionnaires to rally on a 5+.
The rest of the list is worth commenting on to – it’s an early example of allying in the Cockatrice from the new Beasts book, for ability on a 4+ after one of its shots connects to make the enemy unit hit on 6s – which as you can imagine, could wildly swing the outcome of a key engagement – and at only 105 pts, it’s not a hugely risky gamble.
Ths list lost only to a no-doubt more traditional Slaves list, and again to Khorne – who love lists like this without ranged threats – with the most notable win being the on-form Sylvaneth for a 3-2, which is a good result with both a highly thematic and off-meta list. Gratz Kyle!
I thought as Woehammer often struggles to get all the event results out for any given week, it may be a good idea to do one post with all of the lists we intended to cover.
Below, you’ll find all the top three lists this week (that we’re aware of), along with my wildcard choices. We will post individual event results as well, and I will link them to the results below where possible.
Wildcard – Slaves to Darkness (Legion of the First Prince)
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Warhammer World: Matched Play Event (UK) – 74 Players
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Greyfyrd – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Battlesmith (150)*** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm
Battleline 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)* – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Trait: The Clammy Hand – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Grinkrak The Great (190)* Skragrott, The Loonking (160)* – Lore of the Moonclans: Nikkit!Nikkit! Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)** Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**
Battleline 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)* 6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (145)** – Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Be’lakor (355) 1 x Lord of Plagues (140)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Gift of Disease – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Bloab Rotspawned (320)* – Spells: Blades of Putrefaction 1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Incubatch – Dolorous Tocsin – Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm 1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Liege-Kavalos (160)* – General – Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefact: Helm of the Ordained Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Lore of Mortisans: Arcane Command Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – Artefact: Godbone Armour – Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 10 x Mortek Guard (140) – Nadirite Blade and Shield 10 x Mortek Guard (140)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield 5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180) – Nadirite Blade and Shield
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)
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Holy Commands: Thunderbolt Volley – Holy Commands: Call for Aid – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Bastian Carthalos (300)** 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)** – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Thundershock – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)** 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield – Grandweapon 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
OTHER 3 x Aetherwings (70)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime
Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Army Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Archmage Teclis (700)* 1 x Scinari Calligrave (110)* – Spells: Overwhelming Heat – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse
BATTLELINE 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Protection of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Etheral Blessings 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Solar Flare
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420) – Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Verminlord Warbringer (400)* – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts: Warpstone Charm – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Thanquol (430)** – 4 x Warpfire Projectors – Spells: Skitterleap
BATTLELINE 10 x Night Runners (90)* – Nightleader 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Warp Lightning Vortex (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
This is the top three AoS lists for the Battle at the Book that took place in Australia on the 18th and 19th of February. It involved 55 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs:
Leaders Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**** Bloab Rotspawned (320)*** – Lore of Malignance: Blades of Putrefaction Lord of Blights (150)*** – General – Command Trait: Grandfather’s Blessing – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Plague Priest (100)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Plague Monks (90)** – Foetid Blades – 1x Standard Bearers – 1x Plague Harbingers 15 x Plague Censer Bearers (270)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**** 3 x Nurglings (100)*** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**** 1 x Chaos Chariot (100)**** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Patrick… Patrick – wow… what an off-the-wall selection. There’s stuff in here I didn’t even know could join Nurgle, let alone seen before. The Ungor Raiders with Sharpshooters is a great shout to give a little reach and allow the sniping of characters to continue unabated. Their 6″ move before the game allows them to effortlessly pivot to the role of ‘screens’ if facing a lower drop alpha strike army – and that is likely as Patrick has 10 drops.
Then there’s all the Rotmire Creed units which do…. I don’t know!
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
Well, who knew… more shooting units in a Nurgle army in a game system where they (GW) can’t balance shooting correctly. These guys also give out disease tokens and then give them within 3″ as well (albeit with a recent Errata which is included above). The Warcry warbands have made some chaos builds different with spamming lots of them, and – whilst I would prefer GW kept them out of the Age of Sigmar game – they never will and if you’ve got access to it, and it’s good, use it!
Well done to Patrick – a great, different army and not one that I’ve seen before.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Theddra Skull-Scryer (160)** – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Artefact: The Conqueror’s Crown – Mark of Chaos: Undivided Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Battleline 20 x Splintered Fang (200)** – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Reinforced x 1 9 x Corvus Cabal (80) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided 9 x Corvus Cabal (80) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Units 10 x Chaos Chosen (480)** – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Ensorcelled Banner: The Dread Banner – Reinforced x 1 6 x Varanguard (580)** – 2x Ensorcelled Weapon – 4x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Reinforced x 1 5 x Godsworn Hunt (0)** 10 x Chaos Warhounds (80)* – Allies
This list has some interesting tech – typical of the topsy-turvy (in relation to the American/European meta at least) – but it does still rely on the current standard core: a blob of Chosen, a blob of Varanguard, and a Sorc lord to cast Daemonic power/Conduit for that sweet first turn battle tactic.
Where things deviate is, first and foremost, the list being in Legion – an oft-discussed and rarely seen sub-faction allowing for granular moving around of Marks to fit the board-state. It means giving up the extra casts of Cabalists or the runs/charges of KOTET, but the flexibility it offers is immense.
Continuing the techy picks is the Underworld band of Theddra, who brings a nice (if short range) -1 to wound spell and 10 ablative bodyguard wounds in her Godsworn hunt. Two cheapo Exalted offer GC flexibility and cheap chances at Apotheosis – i.e. rolling on the Eye of the Gods table to become a Daemon Prince, which represents a ‘free’ 80 points if it goes off – or otherwise just ideally stacking decent buffs on a cheap chassis.
A reinforced blob of Splintered Fang brings a large, reliable MW output option and a cheeky 10 chaos warhounds act as a fast, very cheap screen – potentially to keep up with the Varanaguard and act as a buffer.
Overall, a really interesting spin on the current Slaves meta that was able to take down some tough matchups – but interestingly lost to the more standard Cabalists mirror! Either way, big up to Michael for trying (and succeeding!) with something outside the box.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Kevin (100)* Cairn Wraith Guardian of Souls (150)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – Artefact: Pendant of the Fell Wind Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)** – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Lord Executioner (130)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Spirit Torment (120)**
Battleline 20 x Chainrasps (220) – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)*** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)***
Units 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)*** – Reinforced x 1 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)***
Solid change up to the lists we see for the faction. It almost looks like a pre 3rd Ed battletome. Two units of Spirit Hosts and solid blocks of both Chainrasps and Dreadscythe Harridans to cause problems, but the real meat of the list is the Heroes. That’s not something we’ve been saying about Nighthaunt a lot lately. We have the normal Guardian of Souls, Spirit Torment, and Krulghast to return models to larger units and reduce incoming damage. The Guardian of Souls has been buffed with Fuelled with Ghurish Rage to grant D3 heal and a once per game 3+ ward. I think we will see this a fair bit for the Guardian. They are easily picked up and are crucial. It goes further with auto cast (once per game) for an endless spell and Seal of Shyish (5+ ward).
We aren’t seeing the Cairn Wrath (Kevin) at all, and Lady Olynder is pretty uncommon. Kevin is a bit of a sleeper. His attacks are based on the number of enemy models within 3″. When you are facing Nighthaunt, Soulblight, and Beasts of Chaos, that can be a very nasty surprise. There is nothing wrong with the unit, but Lady Olynder is almost the same cost as 20 Bladegheist (and more than 20 Dreadscythe or Grimghast). What she does do is heal in the hero phase, debuffs, and turns off commands and mortal wounds. There are issues with the reliability of some of these, but if the heroes are clustered around the Chainrasps and Dreadscythes, it can be crucial.
The ranged mortals are a disincentive to getting close (with only 7 wounds she isn’t robust but can hurt in melee). Forcing your opponent to be circumspect can be useful, particularly when your Host talent is to cause D3 mortal wounds to 2 to 4 units every round. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an average of 10 wounds over 5 rounds. Emerald Host probably isn’t receiving the attention it deserves, but when most armies are 100 to 130 wounds, causing an average of 20 to 40 wounds without risk is pretty important. Even if you assume most games end round 4, that is still an average of 16 wounds. Enough to kill most MSU battleline and a lot of heroes and monsters. And it triggers Murderous Bloodlust (+1 to hit and wound for Dreadscythes).
If you look closely, the whole list has a number of sources of mortal wounds and is really built around making a Murderous Bloodlust trigger, including the Motalis Terminatus. The list looks to outlast and outscore you, and it worked except against Pat’s Maggotkin, another list built to outlast.
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Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Battleline 10 x Bloodreavers (80)* – Meatripper Axes 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** – Meatripper Axes 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
Units 10 x Wrathmongers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)* – Allies 9 x The Unmade (80)** – Allies 6 x Mighty Skullcrushers (320)** – Ensorcelled Axes – Reinforced x 1
The polar opposite in terms of lists to the Nighthaunt are the recently popular mortal Blades of Khorne. Blood Tithe points are the key to Blades of Khorne – they gain one for every unit that is destroyed. Keeping a steady flow of points is vital, allowing summoning and the granting of boons. It doesn’t matter whose units die, just that something does. Then you should understand that half of this list is just here to die. The Bloodreavers, Unmade and Corvus Cabal, can do damage in the attack, but they’ll explode when struck back. The Bloodstoker can get them there faster, and the Bloodsecrators grant extra attacks. But they are better with the Wrathmongers (who will give other units more attacks) or the Skullcrushers.
The Skullcrushers are a solid anvil. They hit reasonably hard if supported, but they are a 5 wound, 3+ save unit. On the charge, a block of six causes D3 mortals on impact instead of 1 per model. It’s really important to drop one from as far away as possible. The Slaughter Priest is a source of dispels, blessings, and mortal wounds. He can summon the Wrath-Axe for more ranged mortals. That leaves Skarbrand and Skarr. Skarbrand needs no introduction: reroll charges and appalling amounts of damage to anything, not Nighthaunt. Still, for 390 points, he can die fairly easily. Skarr is a lot of fun. He has 5 attacks minimum but can increase it to the number of enemy models within 3″. He grants fight on death to Wrathmongers (who give him an extra attack), and if he dies, he returns to the battlefield on an 8+ (on 2D6).
And that’s the list, a whole lot of things that want to get to you fast, either to kill you or be killed. Unfortunately, they don’t really play the mission well, relying on beating an opponent to death.
