This is the top three AoS lists for the Maple Meltdown that took place in the UK on the 27th and 28th of April. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Queen Divine (330)** Huskard on Thundertusk – Blood Vulture – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm Big Chungus (450)* Frostlord on Stonehorn – General – Command Trait: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
Battleline The TERF Eater (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture Lesbian Bed Death (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture Netflix Comedy Special (310)** Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture White Male Privilege (270)** Thundertusk Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture
Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)** – General – Command Trait: Embodiment of Wrath – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)** – Artefact: A’rgath the King of Blades – Prayer: Bloodbind – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)** – Artefact: Halo of Blood – Prayer: Killer Instinct Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)* – Prayer: Bronzed Flesh
Battleline 20 x Bloodletters (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Bloodletters (360)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Bloodletters (180)*
Other 8 x Claws of Karanak (100)** 3 x Bloodcrushers (180)* 5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)*
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 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.
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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!
