This is the top three AoS lists for the Aotearoa Masters Grand Tournament that took place in New Zealand on the 20th and 21st of May. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: bloodthirsty
Leaders Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150)** – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch – Lore of Change: Treason of Tzeentch Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (200)** – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Magister (140)** – Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate Contorted Epitome (190)* – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Allies
Battleline 20 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (500)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Pair of Cursed Blades – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Pair of Cursed Blades – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Darkwalkers – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Doombull (180)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 10 x Ungors (80)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 20 x Ungor Raiders (230)* – Reinforced x 1 9 x Bullgors (630)* – Pairs of Axes – Reinforced x 2
Units 6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Chaos Warhounds (110)*
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (200)* – General – Command Trait: Loonskin – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*** – Artefact: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*** – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Webspinner Shaman (65)*** – Lore of the Spiderfang: Curse of da Spider God Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (100)** – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)* 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)* 40 x Moonclan Shootas (250)*** – Reinforced x 1 24 x Squig Herd (260)** – Reinforced x 1
Units 5 x Gobbapalooza (160)* – Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
This is the top three AoS lists for the Wartilyo GT that took place in the Philippines on the 13th and 14th of May. It involved 24 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
Wartilyo Top Table
If you get a few minutes, have a look at the making of the Wartilyo GT Top table. It’s a thing of beauty!
The Top Three AoS Lists
Kieron: And the crown for one of the first, if not the first Philippines GT goes to Tzeentch with another Krondspine/Guild of Summoners combo. There are a few interesting choices here compared to other similar lists, the first of which is the Shards of Valagharr. What all of the Guild of Summoners lists want more than anything is time to get the big birds on the board and an Endless Spell that halves the movement of models and prevents units from flying or being removed from the board and set back up again are always going to be good value. It’s also an easy spell for the Krondspine to eat after killing your own Magister and making the Krondspine go wild with a casting value of only 5. Staying with the theme of slowing your opponent down, nothing puts a unit off making a charge more than having one of its members turn into a gibbering chaos spawn via the Burning Sigil.
Unit wise, two units of pinks is a great start to the list as there’s only summoning of Lords of Change in Guild of Summoners and, alongside the Krondspine, and good use of terrain, it’s going to be difficult to get to the casters for several turns. The Magister is a mainstay of these lists – giving you two potential casts, with the Krondspine giving an additional +1 on top of the +1 from Kairos as well. The other caster is a Thaumaturge, with the Gryph Feather Charm adding a 5+ ward save to this model – really key as if there are no Arcanite heroes alive (i.e. the Magister and the Ogroid) then there’s no summoning in Guild of Summoners.
In terms of how Carlo probably planned each battle to go, it would be to either Cunning Manoeuvre or Tide of Anarchy (take an objective with 9+ models) while building up to 8 summoning points. T2, Call for Change by earning one more summoning point through your opponent’s hero phase or simply through one of your own and then dropping in your first bird. T3, potentially finish off a 9 model unit or 9 wound hero/monster for Ninefold Dismantlement. T4 could easily be whichever of Cunning Manoeuvre or Tide wasn’t done in T1 and then, assuming you have at least two big birds and Kairos on the board and in range of each other, getting Kairos to cast 3 spells with +3 to cast is very straightforward or, just use Destiny Dice to cast them. Make sure you’ve got 9 on Destiny Dice at the end and that’s the Grand Strat as well. You may not even have had to use Desecrate Land or Eye for an Eye, two of the easier tactics to score, with This One’s Mine with the Ogroid being very viable too. And this is how Tzeentch wins – 13 points on the battle tactics and Grand Strategy meaning that even if you only score 10 points on the primary, you still have a very healthy score of 23. If your opponent doesn’t quite finish off enough Horrors to take an objective on a turn they chose Gaining Momentum…a one or two point turn is probably game over against this kind of list.
Congrats Carlo on the result and congrats to the Filipino AoS community!
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After a couple of seasons in the shadows, their hunger building, Soulblight are finally back for blood – Legion of Blood, to be precise. And it’s a list archetype you’re going to see a lot of for a while.
The core of the list revolves around a vampire lord on dragon (VloZD) with the Cloak of Mists and Shadows to make it ethereal, aka a 3+ save that can’t be modified either way. Combined with the Doomed Minion trait, allowing it to apply the following effect to d3 enemy units that aren’t heroes/monsters they into engagement with: ANY friendly unit hits that enemy unit on unmodified 2+s. With the new hunger ability – healing up to 6 wounds of damage done – this makes the VloZD a terrifying utility piece that is insanely hard to kill and can make killing key units trivially easy.
Neferata brings up the rear, bringing two key pieces of utility to bear – the ability for her and 3 units to redeploy before the first battle round begins and her spell to make something _unrendable_, i.e. it can still benefit from positive save modifiers. The 10 blood knights are obviously a great receiver for that spell, but it works well on herself too, or the giant blob of Deathrattle to make them an absolute nightmare to fully deal with, especially given the new timing on their ability – essentially a free 4+ rally at the start of the combat phase.
All told, it’s a list with huge utillity, super anvils and fantastic board control – which as you might expect was only dealt with successfully by DoT and their sheer MW output being able to bypass all that tankiness and access to horrors etc to compete with the chaff hordes on objectives. This is a great result for John Paul and certainly not the last we’ve seen of this list.
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We’ve a new commentator who joins us this week, and boy, does he love his Chaos armies! Roland Santiago is a US player who’s big into his Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaves to Darkness. As well as that, he also plays Ironjawz, Ogors, and Stormcast. So we’ll probably be hearing a lot from him going forward!
Roland Santiago: Ah, Nurgle. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve been seeing lists built around Pusgoyle Blightlords and the Drowned Men subfaction place well for over a year now, and this is the latest entry in that file. The pregame move Drowned Men provides is very powerful, as it can help you position the Blightlords to engage in midboard attrition scenarios (where they excel) ahead of schedule, or otherwise adjust to your opponent’s deployment and counter the disadvantage of being a 1-drop. Once in combat, Pusgoyle Blightlords can be very hard to deal with, because of their high wound count, solid saves, 5+ Ward, and multiple mortal wound generation abilities. The Blightlords are also paired with the customary Lord of Afflictions General with the Overpowering Stench command trait, which turns off the ability to issue and receive commands. This ability has only gotten stronger as the edition has progressed, as more and more powerful command abilities enter the game. The list also has Bloab as an efficiently costed Hero Monster with a powerful warscroll spell. A unit of Nurglings rounds things out by providing backfield pressure, which in Nurgle also translates to faster generation of Contagion Points you can then use for summoning more Daemons. An interesting bit of tech here is the inclusion of a Plague Priest. This Priest plays multiple roles in this list – he helps interact with Invocations (which Nurgle cannot do with its main roster), he is a Galletian Champion with Tunnel Master for sneaky objective capturing, and he can chant a high-upside prayer in Curse. The Pusgoyle Blightlords have lots of attacks but lack Rend, so Curse provides a nice source of extra damage. Do note that mortal wounds generated from Curse will not stack with disease points – you’ll have to pick one. Overall, this list is very good at what it does – it’s an attrition meatgrinder that can shove tough, elite units in its opponent’s face and pin them down.
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Brett: Bullgors centre stage in a list that focuses on board control as much as power with Ungors and Raiders for days. With summoning going away there is more play in Ambush (starting unit, up to the whole army off the board). That pairs well with the Herdstone which increases Rend from Round 2. Combined here with Darkwalkers to let a unit within 9″ of a board edge to leave the board and teleport back on;
4 Ungor and Ungor Raider units to take advantage of that mobility. The raiders being in Galletian Sharpshooters is surprising – their shooting isn’t strong but it does give them more utility. With the Doombull and Bullgors to hold the centre and be buffed by the Sharman this is a durable list with some punch especially later. However both of the Bullgor units only have 5+ saves which might have hurt them (although they can have a ward save). The Ungors (all of them) are free to score points and just be annoying all over the place. Unfortunately, even with their new book, their output can be disappointing since they mostly hit on a 4+. Combined with initially low rend they don’t hit hard until the later part of the game. The Bullgors are loaded for maximum damage but are also vunerable to being roared. If they are removed then the rest of the list lacks punch.
Looks like the Sons of Behemet used that against them and inflicted enough damage early enough to force a loss. Very respectible effort beating Soulblight, Seraphon and Slaves (Nurgle Knights?).
These are the top AoS lists for Adepticon that took place in the USA on the 23rd and 24th of March. It involved 204 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
There was some controversy around the scoring for Adepticon, so we decided as a team to focus on all those lists that went undefeated or were in a tournament winning position (4 wins from 4 after round 4).
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: Nine-Eyed Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Magister (120)** – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)** – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)** – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)** – 8x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)** – Allies – Bound to Magister
Endless Spells & Invocations Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90) Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (60)
Kaleb returns with a variation on his LVO list. Kairos is replaced with a Lord of Change; the extra 40pts are then used to upgrade the Changecaster to a Curseling and to enable Kaleb to take Burning Sigil instead of Tome of Eyes to get the summoning train rolling. The list goes up from 2 drops to 4 drops to allow the Lord of Change to have a re-roll casts relic to practically guarantee that those casts will go off, most likely Umbral Spellportal and then the Warscroll spell for a consistent 6 mortal wounds or so a turn.
The reason that Umbral Spellportal is the key spell is so you can feed it to the Krondspine. How the combo works is that the Magister successfully casts their first spell and then uses the Destiny Dice to cast a second, with the double killing the Magister, sending the Incarnate wild. Spellportal can then be chucked out near the Krondspine’s charge target. Obviously another spell could be cast through it (or even move the Purple Sun through it) but the main job of the portal is for the Krondspine to be able to charge in and then Devour the endless spell to go up to level 3. It is a slight risk as it goes down a level if it fails, but Kaleb would just need to roll a 4 on 2D6 for it to be successful. With it more than likely being successful, the Krondspine is hanging around for a bit, no matter what it goes into.
If not more important than an indestructible Krondspine is that the Battle Tactics and Grand Strategy for Tzeentch are among the most straightforward to achieve, demonstrated by Kaleb scoring all 5 Battle Tactics every turn and Master of Destiny being arguably the easiest Grand Strategy in the game to complete.
One of those Battle Tactics, the Guild of Summoners specialises in: Call for Change, which is to summon a Lord of Change. Normally these would need 27 fate points, but in Guild of Summoners, the first Lord of Change is only 9 fate points and the first fate point is the auto-cast at the start of the game with Arcane Armies.
Congratulations on another superb showing from Mr Tzeentch himself and very much a trendsetter for several Tzeentch lists doing well in tournaments…
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Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** – General – Command Trait: Egomaniak – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (120)*** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Megaboss (140)*** – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)*** Skragrott, The Loonking (160)** – Allies
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)*
Other Units 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*** 24 x Squig Herd (240)* – Allies – Reinforced x 1
Big Waagh is enjoying a kind of thematically Ghurish resurgence, due to their access to great GCs and the simple fact they can also now take some Gitz allies, who, as you may have heard, have enjoyed somewhat of a glow up.
Either way, a 5-0 Waagh is a thing to be celebrated, so let’s dive into how it got there. The compliment of heroes has a few interesting surprises – you have ol’ laser eyes with his 4+ ward, a Warchanter and Megaboss as standard, and Gobsprakk for his anti-magic tech – but we also see here a Snatchaboss. Even though he’ll only be buffing one unit of 3 Boltboyz, he’s a well rounded solo operator, and Rob has slapped Egomaniak on him – I wonder if some of the Ardboyz acted as a bodyguard, making him a relatively fast and very durable monster with MW spike potential.
Then there’s the newly much-more-expensive Skagrott. At 210, I wonder if Ron would still ally him in – but as it stood, he’s an insanely high value allied spellcaster with a nasty, long range MW spell.
The other allies on loan from Gitz are the Squid Herd – a super cheap way to gain access to a high volume of attacks and further mid-range MWs when they fail a battleshock test – although they also have a recursion mechanic, meaning if you don’t kill the whole unit, the pain train keeps on comin’.
Overall, it’s a fantastic hero-hammer Waagh that makes great use of their spicy new allies. The points don’t quite add up anymore, but the fact it took down high profile armies such as Ogors, NH, Slaves, and Gitz themselves speaks to the versatility of the list – and Rob’s prowess of course. The Orruk book as a whole might be a complete bin-fire, but Big Waagh clearly offers the best way to make like an Orruk and slap whatever manic, vaguely green muscle you can lay your hands on into a potent krump!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* – General Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse Scinari Loreseeker (160)* – Artefact: Tuskhelm (Galletian Champion) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
I call this list archetype the ‘can’t wait for the next Battlescroll’! Lead designer Matt Rose has highlighted that Helon and Sentinels are in line for an adjustment, for what should by now be fairly obvious reasons.
Tell you what though, it’s quite fun seeing the Tuskhelm on the Loreseeker. Imagine him popping up wherever he wants pre-game, then yeeting himself into you with a flaming weapon like a less sneaky version of the Masque.
Otherwise, there’s not much to say – it’s Sentinels projecting extreme prejudice at range and up close, with Teclis doing Teclis things. The only thing of interest left about this kind of list is how hard it’s going to get hit by the nerf bat!
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Kragnos (720) 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – General – Command Traits: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Spells: Flaming Weapon
BATTLELINE 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
TERRAIN 1 x Great Mawpot (0)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)
Since the Ironblaster points hike, bar the very occasional Stonehorn heavy podium, Ogors have settled comfortably into a ‘top 5’ army, as though they have a nice big dinner early on and then get a bit too sleepy to bother chasing the absolute top spot.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course – we don’t want every faction to be Lumineth Slaanesh! Taking down three tanky melee armies, the shooty Ogors and a summoning heavy Tzeentch list for a 5-0 is a great result, either way.
So how did Tony do it? Well, he took Kragnos and a bunch of Stonehorns. The name of the day here is killing stuff on the charge – why risk having to roll attacks? Kragnos is capable of a OHKO of a big monster with the right roll of course, but probably the main thing he offers is a 3d6 charge aura. Given Stonehorns do mortals on a 4+ for dice equal to their unmodified charge roll – which a 3d6 is – you can start to see the appeal.
That’s about all there is to it. Like the Ogors themselves, it’s big and not very clever, but gets the job done.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty – Seasons of War: The Burgeoning
LEADERS Spirit of Durthu (350) – General – Command Traits: Gnarled Warrior – Artefacts of Power: Greenwood Gladius The Lady of Vines (290) – Spells: Verdant Blessing Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* – Spells: Verdant Blessing
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000
This list from Joey Trizenberg is so elite and character focused that it might be playable in Marvel Ultimate Crisis. The Lady of Vines and Alarielle’s summoning mechanics bulk out the wound count and utility this list needs with 30 dryads and a unit of tree revenants satisfying most of your objective-sitting needs. The reason such a limited selection of units can get away with this is that both Alarielle and Durthu demand answers, immediately, and can either murder or pin vast quantities of the opponent’s army, limiting their scoring options.
Durthu with the Gladius and Gnarled warrior is a brutal beatstick, and ethereal 3+ keeps him healthy over the game and the gladius makes him hit like a brick. Combine this with a 6+ ward and the number of wounds in this army gets a sneaky boost to keep it in the game. This said, the selection of the Burgeoning as the Season of war requires a 70 point investment in the form of Cogs to make the quantity of spellcasting in this list work, especially so, when you consider that Gnarlroot is being taken for 3d6 casting, messaging that Joey wants to ensure he’s spreading trees and getting up the very important LoV’s 5+ ward spell, which is rather inconsistent when raw-cast as a 7+ on 2d6.
Legitimate analysis aside, I’d pay good money to see this list smack around Sons of Behemat, that’d be a great table to watch. Great work Joey, a great achievement to get an uncommon 5-0 for sylvaneth, let alone with a list that is a major departure from what we usually see.
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Meatfist – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Tyrant (150)* – Big Name: Brawlerguts Kragnos (720)* Icebrow Hunter (120)** – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Prayers: Keening Gale Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master – Big Name: Brawlerguts Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Big Name: Brawlerguts
Continuing their recent hot-streak of great results is another 4-1 Alarielle finish! Oh how people bemoaned the Everqueen upon the book’s release – and in fairness, she takes a bit of figuring out, as her power doesn’t lie in her melee power but rather in her zoning and revival ability.
She’s backed up here by the standard Arch-Rev with Warsinger to make stuff speedy – make that extra-super speedy when also combined with the Spiteswarm Hive. It’s also nice to see a brace of Dryads as surprisingly effective screens – sure they turn into splinters once hit but, with -1 to hit and wound, the can be like reeds in a breeze…. and a reinforced blob of Seekers for doing Seeker things (namely pinning stuff at speed and just never, ever dying due to their abilities to heal themselves and bring their own models back automatically).
Overall, a nicely balanced list that gives Big Momma and her Fancy Beetle a good run out against a tough variety of opponents.
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Archmage Teclis (700)* – Spells: Healing Zephyr Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
BATTLELINE Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Standard Bearer – Windspeaker Seneschal
OTHER Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Overwhelming Heat Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Speed of Hysh
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60) 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
TERRAIN 1 x Shrine Luminor (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
More LRL! Funnily enough, this list has also opted for Helon, and who cares how many Sentinels. But they also go hard on WIndchargers! A cunning tactical ploy to have slightly fewer shots on slow bodies and slightly more shots on fast bodies. I’m sure the dilemma was agonising.
Since this tournament, and indeed my comments on the 3rd place list, Sentinels, Teclis, and Windchargers have gone up a few points. So lists like this will no longer be able to take quite so many endless spells! I’m sure the effect on their efficacy will be devastating.
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Magister (120)* – Spells: Shield of Fate – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Curseling (180)** – Spells: Glimpse the Future – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)** – General – Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Arcane Suggestion 1 x Lord of Change (400)** – Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery – Artefacts: Nine-Eyed Tome – Spells: Ghost-mist
BATTLELINE 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – Twistbray – Icon Bearer – Brayhorn Blower – 2 x Tzaangor Mutant – Pair of Savage Blades
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (60) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Please read the review for Kaleb’s winning list and substitute the word ‘Kaleb’ for ‘Jonathan’! Seriously, I wasn’t kidding about Kaleb’s list being a trendsetter!
I should probably include a few more words on Jonathan’s path to 13th place so that Peter doesn’t get mad at me and assigns me 500 words on each variant of contrast paint. He did fantastically well to get to table 2 in Round 5 but then faced the Kryptonite of many Tzeentch lists: Kragnos and Stonehorns. With the ability to ignore so much magic AND the speed of Tony’s 4th placed list (see above) it was always going to be tricky. While having some monsters to eat would be handy for the Krondspine, Jonathan wouldn’t have been given the time to get the summoning going and so had to settle for a still very impressive 4-1 in the end.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Mortis Praetorians – Grand Strategy: Unrelenting Efficiency – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340) Katakros (430)* Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – Spells: Protection of Nagash – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – General – Command Traits: Katakros’ Chosen – Artefacts of Power: Artificer’s Blade – Spells: Drain Vitality
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Nightmare Predator (40)
TERRAIN 1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
A list reminiscent of classical pre-Stalkers as Battleline lists for Ossiarch Bonereapers. Obviously, this list was before the new battletome so a few things need to be considered. Katakros and Arkhan are the headliners, with Arkhan being one of the few legitimately good units in OBR with his +2 to casting and blazing fast speed. Katakros offers a ton of buffs from stealing a command point on a 4+, -1 to hit on an enemy unit, and giving +1 to hit and to saves for all units within 36″. Mortis Praetorians doesn’t see as much play as Petrifix Elite but if you’re going to run Katakros it’s about the same with his +1 to save aura, though you do lose the -1 Rend from Petrifix Elite. Rounding off the list is two Soulreapers, which while not very good allow him to slip in 2 Galetian Champions at 2000 points.
As for units this list doesnt really have much of a hammer. That’s clearly not the point though, with 60 Mortek Guard you can gum up the board pretty bad, 30 3+ Save, 6+ Ward wounds aren’t easy to cut through if you didn’t bring a Monster to roar them. While they may not hit nearly as hard as Stalkers, they’re not totally impotent either, and can usually win a grind out war over 2-3 turns of combat against nastier things. The Immortis guard are a workhorse unit to protect Arkhan from ranged fire, since an 11 wound 4+ Save Monster makes him a giant red bullseye for enemy fire.
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (240)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Host Option: General – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (210)* – Host Option: General Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture Infernal Enrapturess, Herald of Slaanesh (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)** 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)**
As Peter put it the other day, Old Slaanesh (the previous Battletome) was in play. This is a popular “old list” right now. Slaanesh, like all aelves, has always been very difficult to balance, at the moment though they are a bit of a sleeper. Mobile with mad summoning, decent shooting and surprisingly durable with Revel in Pain.
Laron’s doubled down on the Epitome with Fuelled by Ghurish rage on top of Oil (+1 wound) and Flaming Weapon. Glutos, the mobile road block, is here with Sigvald to snipe out annoying Galletian Champions and the Enrapturess to make sure those casts go off. Beyond wards, bravery and damage spells, the army is packing all 3 Hedonite Endless Spells. Mortal wounds for everyone and a fight last as well. Mandatory Blissbarbs and the soon to be extinct Cockatrice (the monster keyword isn’t on the new scroll). The Cockatrice still has a place to generate DP and for their fast movement, letting them score early points.
And that’s the conundrum of facing the chaos aelves – target the Blissbarb, and apart from being stung, you’ll give them a lot of DP (summoning points). And as you kill them, they’ll get harder to kill. Worse, Glutos and the Epitome will be free to act. Target the heroes, and the Blissbarb will make you look like a porcupine. The old HoS book is a dps check. You need to deal with them fast enough that their summoning doesn’t matter. Preferably from range.
Laron took the list to 4-1 handily defeating several top armies (and Stormcast). Pretty amazing with a list that shouldn’t have a lot of surprises and was at the time running with a 47% win rate. That success should tell you how good the general was.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Units 10 x Dryads (100)* 10 x Dryads (100)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 6 x Revenant Seekers (480)* – Reinforced x 1
Continuing the 4-1 with Alarielle trend – which I’m personally happy to see given Momma Nature is such a great model, is this Heartwood list that, well, pretty much follows the template.
Probably the most important synergy in overall playstyle here is the way the Seekers compliment what Alarielle can do. Beetle-bum is much more of a mixed phase zoning piece with her big’ ol….base and surprising speed, so you need something like the Seekers to be able to zoom in on smaller, more versatile bases, do a good amount of damage, and actually stay where they end up – something they’re willing to risk due to their built in healing, 5+ rally and ability to bring a model back. With Dryads and Tree Revs as annoying, teleporty objective grabbers and screens, and the 3 Greatbows doing plinky-plink damage at long range, this kind of list can be very difficult to actually navigate around. And of course, by the time you finally kill Alarielle, she’s liable to come back in later rounds when you no longer have the tools to take her off again.
Losing only to a Gnarlroot Sylvaneth semi-mirror, and taking down a good variety of other lists en route, this new list archetype (I’m calling it Beetle-Momma and the Seekers) clearly has legs/wings/roots…. I’ll leaf it there. Big up to Matthew!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Mor’Phann – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)* Isharann Soulrender (120)* – Artefact: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)* – Reinforced x 1
This list makes use of some of the best Idoneth units avaiable in the book, without relying on Lotann or the Leviadon. Two champs are there to support the Namarti units, both defensively and offensively, and the Artefact allows the Isharann character to summon a Gloomtide Shipwreck at the end of the first movement phase. This is particularly good with Tunnel Master, because the Soulrender can pop up anywhere on the board and drop a large piece of line of sight blocking impassable terrain.
The eels and king can work in tandem to deal a lot of damage. The eels can charge in first, eat the Unleash Hell while still getting their mortal wound bomb off, while the king can pop himself and possibly both eel squads into high tide, creating the possibility of an alpha strike against any enemy who may have deployed too aggressively.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Sheffield Slaughter that took place in the UK on the 21st and 22nd of February. It involved 98 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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Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Indomitable x2
LEADERS Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Squigboss (80)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand Madcap Shaman (70)* – Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet – Spells: The Hand of Gork – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE Boingrot Bounderz (420) – Bounder Boss Squig Hoppers (540) – Squig Hopper Boss Squig Hoppers (180) Moonclan Stabbas (125)** – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Moonclan Boss – 3 Barbed Nets – Stabba Moonclan Shootas (125)** – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Moonclan Boss – 3 Barbed Nets
OTHER Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
It’s amazing what a new book can do, and Dan Bradshaw has pivoted from Beasts of Chaos to Gloomspite Gitz following their (near-) simultaneous release. Guess we know which one he thinks is better in the current meta. A lot of the army will be familiar with those who played Gitz through the dark times of the last 3 years, and indeed much of the ‘tech’ that is used has been hardened on the crucible of defeat throughout that time.
Dan has no doubt benefitted from his knowledge of the game and the other armies, but it’s still good to see Gitz doing well with an immediate 5-0 out of the gate. Some of this is going to be ‘what does that do’ as people get used to the new army. Other Gitz players did not perform so well, with long term Trogg player – Stuart – going 1-1-3 (but close in all 5!)
So how does it work, and how do you beat it? Well I may leave the 2nd question for a few weeks yet (got to have some time under the light of the moon), but Dan has gone for a toolkit of toys. Skragrott is much improved, and much cheaper – gaining the Warmaster trait and so being able to play with the moon. The Squigboss gives out helpful bonuses and makes Boingrot Bounders battleline (allowing Dan to take 15 of them). The final character is the Madcap with the two stalwarts of Hand of Gork and Moonface Mommet. Both of which are back and both of which are still as good as ever (dare I say essential).
There’s some support in the Marshcrawler and Snufflers both of which buff the other units. The stabbas and shootas are for objective control (within 9″!) and the hitting power comes from Hoppers and Boingrots. Now they have consistent movement (10″+D6 and 7″+D6″) respectively, can run and charge under the moon and cause mortal wounds… plus the squigs can do some real damage. In the previous book I was very happy if my hoppers moved 10″ as (with run) this was normally enough for a maximum attempt at mortal wounds. Now there’s limited risk and the 10″+D6 is much more generous than I expected.
It’s a great start, but we’ll see if this is a ‘flash in the pan’ or a genuine 5-0 consistent battletome. Only time will tell, but well done to Dan for a really good start.
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Battleline 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2
Kevin: With Bounty Hunters out and foot heroes in, there’s a resurgence in non-Magmadroth Fyreslayers. This list abandons the ‘droths entirely for an all-foot list. Its plethora of GCs means it has a solid footing in this season’s tactics.
Andrew’s running Vostarg, the sub-faction for buffing Vulkites, and his six heroes rounding out the leaders are the usual suspects for any Vostarg list, excepting the foot-father. No Fyreslayer can leave home without a Nulsidian Icon Battlesmith for the 4+ spell ignore, and double flamekeeper is basically a must-have for any Vostarg list. Flamekeepers allowing out of phase charging – the combat phase in this case – is absurdly powerful, as is adding damage to the high amount of attacks Vulkites enjoy. The runefather can further pump up those attacks once per game.
In a bit of an oddity for Vostarg, Andrew has added 15x Hearthguard to support his Runefather. This not only gives him some bodyguards, but also some objective holding power that can hit back hard. Those poleaxes’ mortal wounds can rack up fast. Further, with ember storm (prayer to run and charge) and Tunnel Master, the Hearthguard can speed ahead and have the runefather simply teleport to them without fear of them losing their ward or him losing his bodyguard. Tunnel Master can also allow the runefather to position perfectly to share his once-per-game buff with the vulkites. The hearthguard can also be pumped up or charged by the flamekeepers if need be.
The Vulkites do what Vulkites do in any Vostarg list: die while doing damage, pump the flamekeepers, then punch back absurdly hard – either by running and charging or combat-phase-charging. The 30x Vulkite unit will receive buffs excellently as well as Rally’s from the Battlesmith. 30 charging Vulkites with the runefathers and flamekeepers can output, theoretically, 121 attacks of 3 damage (especially with GV battalion allowing them to fight through each other). Those high attack numbers certainly spell trouble for his Nighthaunt opponent. There’s nothing quite as sweet as charging that into an opponent in their combat phase and then activating strike first to wipe out a unit before it gets off its activation. The two units of ten Vulkites can either be deepstriked by the Runesmiter or stay on the field to act as screens, food for the flamekeepers, or objective holders.
The infernoth accomplishes the beautiful Grand Strategy of keeping an invocation on the field while also chasing around Galletian Champions. It can also be used as a poor-man’s fyrewall in some cases, particularly against large bases like Archaon or Mawkrushas.
This list results in the classic Fyreslayer playstyle: a wave of naked dudes with axes that just can’t be removed from objectives. They trade incredibly well with anyone willing to try to remove them in the combat phase, making that route a daunting task. At the same time, shooting is hampered by a 4+ rally under a 6+ ward (5+ ward, occasionally) from the Battlesmith who can not be shot.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Treacherous Bond – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch Magister (120)** – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master The Blue Scribes (160)** Fatemaster (140)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 10x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
Endless Spells & Invocations Chronomantic Cogs (70) Purple Sun of Shyish (90) Umbral Spellportal (80)
With more chickens than a KFC basket, we have another Guild of Summoners list doing extremely well this weekend. While Kaleb called in the support of a Krondspine to give him time to get those Lords of Change on the board, Stephen goes the more traditional (and pink) tarpit of Horrors to slow his enemy down. Another big change to several other Guild of Summoners lists is that it doesn’t start with a LoC/Kairos on the board at the beginning, allowing more Arcanite casters to be taken instead. This is key, as one way of shutting down a Guild of Summoners list is to kill the mortal characters who the Lords of Change must be summoned through. With three such characters, it’s going to be hard to do that to Stephen’s list.
Once the summoning does get going, the shooty Lord of Change is great here as it’s up to 12 shots, hitting on 3s, wounding on 3s (or 2s if the Fatemaster is nearby), rend -1 BUT if you’re shooting at something in Purple Sun range (helpfully auto-cast by The Blue Scribes) now you’re at rend -2. Have the Curseling use a pair of Destiny Dice to make Arcane Suggestion’s armour debuff be unable to be unbound, suddenly those shots are up to rend -3.
Tzaangors being surrounded by wizards is also a great pick as they’re be doing mortal wounds on 4+ at range, rolling a number of equal to the number of wizards within range, so probably at least 5 dice T1, increasing as the game goes on. Twice. The last troops choice is Kairics, probably there for cheap screening, but get their warscroll spell off and shoot them at the Purple Sunned/Arcane Suggested unit and that’s another 10 rend -3 shots going down range.
All in all, a great take on Guild of Summoners, throwing in a couple of Galletian Champions for battle tactics and being able to quite easily access 4/5 of the Tzeentch specific ones.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)* – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)* – General – Command Trait: Hellish Orator – Artefact: Eye of Hysh – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Bonestorm Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)*
Discord user: gualtikhan: This list utilizes the full summoning power from the fec Heroes to maximize the number of summons it brings to the table. This adds some mass with which to take the board and pin the opponent off of the objectives. This helps counter the faction’s natural lack of durability as well.
There are some really good spells, mainly a couple of really strong unit buffs (+d3 attacks, +1 attack, 5+ ward, reroll to wound, +1dmg) but fec typically lacks the reliability to cast those often enough. In particular, this list relies on spectral host, combined by the +2 movement of the subfaction, to give the two dragons and the flayers an huge threat range.
Crypt flayers’ ranged attack has big variance but against the right unit can definitely pack a punch. I’m a bit surprised to see arcane tome for an extra unreliable cast instead of the more often taken garland, for -2 bravery, increasing both the efficiency of the scream attacks and the bravery damage.
The aforementioned buffs to damage output synergize really well with the fec command ability to fight twice, allowing one buffed unit to pack some serious damage, and also helping to burst open some bunkers against imperfectly deployed armies.
The teleport is great as it helps with scoring battle tactics and objectives greatly in this edition, and it can be used also to let the flayers scream the right unit at the right time.
All in all this is the best attempt l’ve seen at running Fec, which is a subfaction that is having an hard time right now, having several key units with poor durability and a weakness to alpha strikes, since killing the heroes would prevent their summoning.
This is the Top Eight AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open that took place in Nevada, USA, on 27th, 28th, and 29th January. It involved a massive 324 players, all vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
We’re particularly lucky this week as six of the top eight players agreed to give us comments on how their lists work. On top of this, we’ve also got comments from the Head Judge at LVO, Gareth Thomas.
So, thank you to; Jiwan Noah Singh, Kaleb Walters, Gavin Grigar, Cody Saults, Nate Trentanelli and Gareth Thomas for all agreeing to give us your thoughts.
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95) – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*** – Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy Grashrak Fellhoof (150)*** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 30 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (525)** – 30x Pair of Savage Blade – Reinforced x 2 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)***
Jiwan Noah Singh: The heroes all serve a function against different matchups, and with the Gavespawn ability, they can then serve a secondary function when they die.
The general has to be the Tzaangor Shaman to unlock Galletian Veterans for the big block, but also has the extremely helpful big cast once per game, and moves 16/19” if I need to go hold and up a huge threat. Mostly, I used the big cast for the bull spell, but in other matchups, I considered he would have used tendrils of atrophy to break armor stacking. His speed let’s him get there for that short ranged spell.
Grashrak gives out the +3 move, and because he can pass wounds, it is helpful against ranged threats who losing the move bonus would be difficult against. His spell is also a super combo with Gavespawn if I need to lift a gargant or something in one activation.
The shoggoth was there for his spell and having a starting monster, and the pre-phase move made anyone worried about that going off have to deploy really far back.
Beastlord was the newest addition but was a pretty fun vehicle for the gnarlblade. With run and charge, he moves 15” on an auto run, so throwing him across and 18” deployment means he can also make people worry about making me take top, for small only investment on my part. Additionally, if he got his attacks off and the bull was on something, it was a less likely but still redundant plus to wound, or hit and wound.
Gors are 10 potentially deepstriking bodies on a 4+ in combat for 70 points. They also have plus to run and pile in, which is so strange that it just confuses people when you tell them, but it is actually helpful.
Tzaangor are 60 wounds, have mortal banners, can zoom across the board and fight something with a billion attacks, but also rally on 4+. I generally deploy them in a cloud, all about 1” from each others bases, to maximize the board space, but also to be able to pull them out of 3” against things that shut down inspiring, and if I need to rally, recharge, ect. Let’s me save bodies if I pull them out of coherency too, which I did intentionally several times to be able to rally again.
The rest of the list is enlightened, in blocks of 6, in bounty hunters. These have tons of uses and can pump out massive damage. Turning off all our defense is like another rend in many cases. So with the fight last bull running around, some plus to hit (always try to end on damned if you can) from multiple sources, and the throwing an extra attack on them from a spawn, they are such a threat that an opponent must deal with them. When you stack a plus to hit, going second, and gavespawn attacks, I know of very few things with that output. And at 2/3 rend no cp, few things can eat it with saves.
The beasts summoning on top of all the threats to kill or hold things, and ability to run a hero into something, die, and lock them up, meant that in almost all my games I can lose tons of things and still keep taking points. I built in some tech to deal with specific matchups that concerned me, most of which didn’t happen, but in general it’s a 5 turn army with a ton of flexibility and lots of different things going on. Good proving ground usage was hugely helpful with the ability to summon Galletian Veterans, and the output meant the main armies I expected to see, Ogors, Gargants, Nurgle, Nighthaunt, all had something that was a big problem for them that I didn’t mind sacrificing.
That’s pretty much it.
That, and having distractingly beautiful hair, that helped too.
This list – piloted by Nicholas ‘Scooter’ Walters – is testament to the difference reps and familiarity with an army can make. Even if that army is considered underpowered.
Scooter nearly went all the way with what is a pretty common IJ list, with a sneaky ally in the shape of the Fungoid Shaman for the extra CP generation. I mean, it’s an ‘obvious’ list – but if you watch back the stream of Scooter playing Gavin Grigar’s Cities list for example, you can see the difference skill and knowing the intricacies – the limits, the averages – of your army can make. Keeping the Maw Krusha back until it’s absolutely needed – knowing when to smash that ‘Destroyer’ button on the foot boss – and making all the right calls with your pigs are all key to playing IJ well.
Even though the list will be hurt by losing bounty hunters, making the pigs half as effective, the inclusion of the Megaboss makes sense going into the new season – he’s a great, durable and fighty Galley champ. The speed and activation potential with smashing/bashing of the feral hogs will never go out of style.
Ironjaws might be suffering from a lack of units and power creep these days but Scooter is out here to prove that if you love your army, and you’re prepared to stick with it and get the reps in, ‘the meta’ be damned, you too can damn well near win LVO.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (440)* Magister (120)* – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Incarnate is Bound to the Magister Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150) – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Tome of Eyes (40) Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Kaleb Walters: My main goal was to create a Swiss Army Knife style list. Bring as many solutions to the answers in my faction as possible.
Reason For Family: Guild of Summoners: 1 FREE Battle Tactic: Summon Lord of Change. LOC have 14 wounds, -1 Rend shots, 18 inch range, movement 12, +1 To casting for all Tzeentch casters, -1 to hit naturally and monstrous rampage abilities. While other families have more flexibility, the norm is to summon Blue Horrors that have 20 wounds, Movement 5, shoot 12 inches at 0 rend but have good board presence.
List Design: Min Max: Minimum Battleline Maximum Hero’s/Monster Damage. My list is designed to castle up and react to the deployment of my opponent. By staying low drop I normally have the option to decide how I want to engage. I either sacrifice my Acolytes (120pt a unit) to an alpha strike list, or I position aggressively with a front and center incarnate primed to go wild and level up. Either formation still allows me to throw powerful spells that can turn off Command abilities and unleash a possible 15 mortal wounds at 27 inches or more. In addition, as the game goes on, I become more magically dominant with the additional LOC while reducing the overall strength of my opponent.
The next part of my list design is increasing/ reducing my opponents armor. I have 2 spells & 1 Endless spell that can reduce my opponents armor and with the rend stacking of the Acolytes or the LOC natural -1 Rend shots and of course the already powerful incarnate -2/-3 rend I am able to turn normal attacks into Mortal Wound equivalent attacks.
I also know the future with my lame sauce guaranteed Grand Strategy & Destiny Dice…….
Opportunities of The Design: I have a difficult time dealing with Hordes and / or armies that can summon cheap disposable models on a mission with more than 4 objectives. I also find it difficult to face armies like KO that can stay outside my threat range and then engage on their terms.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Tempest’s Eye – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)* – General – Command Trait: Hawk-eyed – Lore of Eagles: Strike of Eagles Arkanaut Admiral (140)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory Battleline 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)* 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
Units 20 x Arkanaut Company (180) – 2x Light Skyhooks – 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1
Core Concept Bring guns… lots of guns. We recently had 2 books introduced into the meta (Ogors and Slaves to Darkness), and the resurgence of some old foes (Dragons, Ironjaws and Nurgle), that generate a ton of kill pressure and melee engagement on Turn 1. Tempest’s Eye combats this with great Turn 1 buffs (+1 Save/+3 Move) and efficient shooting (+1 Hit/+1 Wound) supplemented by a healthy number of mortal wounds (Hurricanum, Dracoth Breath). All these elements together are hopefully enough to keep even the scariest melee threats at bay.
Strengths Shooting Volume from Crossbowmen, Tempestors and Arkanauts combined with force multipliers centering around the Hurricanum (+1 Hit/+1 Wound). Adaptable Tech from the Admiral (+1 Rend/Ward Removal/Charge Debuff). Drop Control (2 Drops) typically allows the list to immediately threaten a double turn and forces your opponent to make hard decisions on Turn 1. Horrorghast allows the list to hit crucial damage break points against large units such as Tzaangors, Chosen, or Blood Sisters or spread damage across multiple units for greater efficiency.
Weaknesses 1 Drop armies or specifically being disconnected from the double turn, which forces the list to overextend and expose its firebase. Melee armies whose movement outranges the threat ranges of the list’s shooting units. Middling mobility limits the army’s ability to play proactively and aggressively.
Takeaways and Closing Thoughts As fun as it was to throw buckets of dice, the list has some glaring weaknesses that I was able to mostly avoid due to some fortunate pairings over the course of the weekend, but it does have undeniable strengths and when the list wins it really wins. Enjoy responsibly!
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Ironjawz – Subfaction: Bloodtoofs – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480) – General – Command Traits: Mighty Waaagh! Leader – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist – Artefacts of Power: Destroyer – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
BATTLELINE Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Shootas (120)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Cody Saults: Ironjawz, for me, was the only choice for LVO this year. My standard approach to tournaments is to not play the same game everyone else is expecting to play. With GV being a thing, and folks running bounty hunters, 2 drops kept me tied or out dropping every opponent, and with the list’s raw damage potential, it has the potential to cripple opponents before they get a chance to interact with your units. Second consideration, with a tournament with as many rounds as LVO potentially has for those who do well, avoiding burnout is key. The list only has 4 unit profiles, which helps with keeping rules front of mind and always knowing your options.
The Maw Crusher is an absolute engine for this list, as Skull-Shaking Bellow allows you to spread Mighty Destroyers out to multiple targets, which helps with board control and damage potential. Its melee profiles allow it to put out a punishing amount of wounds, while its solid armor save prevents it from being an easy removal target. Moreover, it has several ways to help clear screens to make sure you get to your target. Its shooting attack is only 4 potential wounds at rend 1, and very short range, but combine that with the impact hits from the pigs, and enhanced stomp monstrous action, the crusher stands a very good chance of clearing screens and getting to the target it truly wants. A quick Finest Hour passing to your opponent’s turn, with an All Out Defense means that even after they deal their damage, they will continue to gum up the works for your opponent, while taking a monstrous amount of extra attention to move. Having 2 allows for redundancy, protect the one in the most vulnerable position, and then respond with the second. The mighty destroyers move means they are never out of position, as if they clear targets and need to pivot to another flank, they almost always have the movement to get there.
Gore Gruntas also represent a solid damage investment, as buffed by the Warchanta, and under the Iron Jaws WAAGH, there is very little in the game they can’t chew through. I went with two units of three, and one of six. The 2 three-man units can take buffs and present good screen clearance in matchups where the opponent has good screening, and for matchups you don’t need the initial sacrificial salvo, they can be used for fast objective grabbing, or counter skirmishing. The post-combat movement abilities from Bloodtoofs also allow for re-establishing screens or locking up units safely.
Warchantas are a must in any IJ list, as they can pass out solid damage bonuses to units about to be in combat, give out charge bonuses, and even heal a key couple of wounds. They have a surprising amount of beef for small characters, and receiving their own buffs can dish it right back.
The last inclusion in the list was shootas, an easy inclusion to give me some cheap screens. Shootas in 20 man squads can be strung out to prevent enemy outflank or deep strike, and the nets, positioned well, can punish an opponent for under-committing resources to remove them or what they are near.
All in all, the list was tailored with so much mobility and relatively low drops to force an opponent to play defensively. This works out either way for us, as the number of hard to remove wounds makes sure they stay in their deployment zone while we grind down their units. Every unit in the army punches up, able to drag down more costly targets, with the post combat mobility to shift our positions, removing the need to choose between damage and objectives.
All in all, the list performed well. The meta we had until the GHB transition had a lot of lists with hard DPS checks, and this list put out enough damage to meet that need and then some.
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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired,Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95)* – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Battleline 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 6 x Dragon Ogors (290)*** – 2x Paired Ancient Weapons – 4x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 3 x Dragon Ogors (145)*** – 1x Paired Ancient Weapons – 2x Draconic War glaives
Units 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)* 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*** – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480) – Allies
It’s the ‘other’ BoC list from LVO! As you can see, it damn near went as far as Noah’s, losing only to Scooter’s incredibly well piloted IJ list.
It’s a relatively normal archetype – with the usual 3 HQs for their wide variety of utility – the Dragon Ogor Shaggoth especially proving critical due to his incredible warscroll spell (heal d3 to a Dragon Ogor and give them re-roll wounds) and the Dragon Ogor scroll allowing re-rolls of 1s while near him.
A mix of Ungors for super cheap and speedy (+3″ thanks to the Bray Shama) trading pieces (once the rend starts stacking) and the more out-of-the-box Dragon Ogors make up the battleline – offering speed, punch, and plenty of board control.
Beyond that, it’s basically ‘the spindog’ syndrome. 6 Enlightened on Discs also provide an absolute missile – if you read any of these, you know by now they’re an absolute staple of BoC lists.
The body count, speed, and Spinedog allow Rigolet to care less about dictating first, and so he packs in bounty hunters plus a warlord for additional utility. A savage list that will operate very differently (and be like, double the cost) with the new book – but there you have it!
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)* Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (150)* – General – Command Trait: Spiteful Spirit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)*
Units 10 x Craventhrone Guard (180)* – Reinforced x 1
Nate Trentanelli: The list began as a bit of a joke to include two famously “bad” units in the Black Coach and the Craventhrone Guard- or “Crossboos” as they’ve come to be known by. I decided that I couldn’t possibly take Top Nighthaunt in the ITC this season without ever having actually played these units. Not wanting to have no chance during games, I peppered in some more useful units in the Hexwraiths and the Krulghast- staples of Nighthaunt armies.
I’ve gone for an Arcane Tome Knight of Shrouds here for one reason. With his Command Trait “Spiteful Spirit”, when he takes damage in the Combat phase he will roll a number of dice equal to his wounds characteristic and do a mortal wound to all enemy units within 6” for each 4+ he rolls. Quite the useful little bomb. To make things even better, Arcane Tome makes him a wizard, allowing him to be moved by Lauchon. Almost guaranteeing a turn 1 charge wherever I want to maximize his chances of doing mortal wounds. Reikenor with his +3 to cast will almost guarantee Lauchon goes off.
Hexwraiths do what hexwraiths do – nearly unmatched speed to pin opponents in their deployment zones. With 4 units of them, I can either overload my opponent turn 1 with all 20, or simply move block them turn after turn. It may lose me all my hexwraiths, but I’ve functionally disallowed my opponent from actually scoring any objective points.
2 units of Chainrasp exist solely for 2 battle tactics. Start them in the underworld and bring them down on a turn. You don’t have a good battle tactic option. Put both in your opponents deployment zone for an easy Barge Through Their Lines with a bonus for 2 GVs. The next turn take Desecrate Their Lands for another Battle Tactic. 2 complete for no effort.
The unit of Craventhrone Guard I also put in the underworld. Though their damage output is poor, it is something Nighthaunt don’t really have access to anywhere else – shooting. Even that small amount of extra damage is noticeable and useful. They are also a great distraction piece, and the Spectral Bolts ability to shoot through terrain is better than it seems. I know, I know. It’s Crossboos. Trust me. They will work.
Last is the Black Coach. It really is the AoS equivalent to a tank. It’s base size makes it terrific at blocking key areas. With the Craventhrone Guard shooting it’s actually quite easy to power it up as well. Allowing you to shoot with the Craventhrone Guard first, slay 5 models from a screen, and fire the Black Coach into the thing you really wanted to shoot for 3D3 mortal wounds. Alternatively, keeping it on its 4+ ward makes it truly crazy at tanking. Keeping it in the Krulghast bubble also gives it -1 damage for even more craziness. It’s shocking how survivable it is.
The Mortalis Terminexus gives you the flexibility to heal your heroes and Black Coach or use it more as I did, which is an aggressive mortal wound bomb. 26” total threat range from casting is great, and it can pump out quite a bit of chip damage.
All together, the armies Battle Traits of Ethereal and Wave of Terror combine to make even the weakest looking unit truly scary. Roll enough 8s on the charge, and even Kragnos will fall to simple chainrasp. The army has 5 different units that do D3 mortals on a 2+ on the charge. Don’t underestimate how much that is. Simple averages tell you that’s about 8 mortal wounds. Which, by the way, you can retreat and do all over again every turn.
Because of the movement of this army- Hexwraiths, Lauchon heroes, Black Coach teleports, and Underworld Reserves – you can be anywhere and everywhere. Movement wins games, and it’s no surprise to me that most of my opponents had issues with catching me. Even if it they were close, you can simply use one unit to block for the rest to move to safety. Keep your units alive until the exact moment your opponent is out of position. And then pounce all at once. Be careful not to allow your opponent to single out units and be careful. You don’t pull your units away from each others support. Aggressive movement with supporting units will win you games.
Happy haunting!
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Frostlord on Stonehorn (450) – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Metalcruncher – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm Butcher (140)* – Cleaver – Spells: Molten Entrails Huskard on Stonehorn (400)* – Blood Vulture – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Prayers: Keening Gale
Camaron has my thanks (but not quite my sword) for not taking any Ironblasters! What he’s taken instead is loads of big, angry cows! It’s almost a completely pure Beastclaw Raider army – love to see it.
This list essentially asks ‘can you handle 5 cows swamping you’, and the answer was ‘no’ for everyone other than Kaleb’s Tzeentch, who were able to puncture those super tough hides with his sneaky magic MW output.
Enhancement wise – which is where the tactics are in a list like this – you’ve got Metalcruncher on the Frostlord for dealing with tanky 3+ saves, along with Touched by Everwinter to make him into a priest and able to cast the excellent MW AoE ‘Pulverising Hailstorm’. The Huskard gets the Rockmane Elder (-1 to wound in melee).
A pack of Gnoblars act as a cheap add-on screen that still fits into the battle reg – crucial for a pressure list like this – in order to dictate first and almost certainly give it away every time to make an absolutely devastating round of turn 2 charges and a hopeful end-it-there double.
Big gratz to Camaron for losing only in the shadow round to a legendary player and a bad match-up.
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Head Judge – Thomas
Acting as Head Judge at LVO 2023 was a thrilling experience. I should begin by thanking both Front Line Gaming, and Scott Reed, the Head TO, for organizing such an amazing event.
LVO 2023 was the largest Age of Sigmar tournament in the world, by far, and 50% larger than previous LVOs. Whilst being involved in such a large event was a great experience, the logistics of organizing 325 players did throw up some challenges. To start, the release of the Battlescroll with new points one week before the list deadline (and after our rules cut-off) was a bit disruptive. We had to ensure that every player knew that we would be using the new points, and yet we still had quite a few lists submitted with the old points. Equally, we had to ensure that every player knew that we would not be using the new GHB, which was released the day after lists were due (and one week after rules cutoff). Of course, there were still a few players who submitted lists assuming the new GHB (comically enough, there was one player who we could not contact until round 1 to let them know that their Aspect of the Champion and Sharpshooter battalion had to go!).
The rest of the pre-event organization was handled by FLG and Scott, so my preparations beforehand were minimal. But I have been involved with the running of 36 events in the past 18 months and know that quite of bit of prep work is involved.
Due to the large number of players, LVO did not use the standard AoS GT format of 5 rounds. Instead, we used 5 rounds followed by a 3rd day of single elimination rounds for top 8 players. This year, 9 players went 5-0 which required us to run a Shadow Round 6th game for the players in 8th and 9th place to determine which of them would advance to Day 3.
The first five rounds were pretty straight forward from a rules judging point of view. The pack used at LVO, produced by Scott Reed, borrowed from the OTTD Generic Pack, which is something I was heavily involved in creating. Many of the players at LVO already have experience attending events that use the OTTD system, which helped keep rules and scoring questions to a minimum. When tricky questions did arise, I was able to fall back to the aosfaq.com website and team to provide answers.
The pressure as Head Judge only really started during the Shadow Round, which was the first round where we introduced active judging (where a judge watches the entire game and points out rules mistakes before and whilst they are made). Unfortunately, the game was a bit of a one-sided blowout – the choice to use Mighty and Cunning proved problematic when one player had essentially all GV and the other essentially none. Lesson learned! The only rules issue that cropped up was when one of the players declared Desecrate their Lands on a Defensible terrain piece. I had to remind him that you can only control Defensible terrain pieces by garrisoning them – the standard 3” rule does not apply. He was able to declare another terrain piece instead.
Day 3 was where the real excitement as Head Judge began, which entailed three rounds of active judging among the best players in the world. I was fortunate enough that James O’Brien who was a contender, had not made it to day 3, but as an experienced TO and judge was willing to jump in and judge half of the games.
When judging the final 8 of a 325-player event, there is really very little stress. These are fantastic players with a huge amount of experience and, more importantly, great sportsmanship. There was no confrontation to deal with, and all players played with intent at all times, meaning there were no disagreements to intervene with. If anything, I had to prevent players from giving too much benefit to their opponents!
Instead, the rule of table judging was just handling the occasional line-of-sight judging, pointing out often forgotten rules such as you need to jump into a garrison to control it (even the top players didn’t know that rule!) and mostly sitting back and watching some fantastic Warhammer being played. The biggest drama, up until the end of the final game, that is, was during the first round, when one of the games ended in a complete tie. With single elimination, a tie is not an option. It was also not something we had prepared for. Fortunately, the two players were able to agree that under any tie-break rules, there would be a clear winner. Of course, I couldn’t end without talking about that final game. What a game! I could watch both Noah and Scooter play Warhammer all day. Scooter is one of the great personalities to watch, and Noah is a fantastic human being. And their game was so close.
I suppose I should talk about the ending… By the end of the final game, the players had been through 3 days of extensive Warhammer. All with the backdrop of Las Vegas. I think it is fair to say that both players (and Judge) were drained. The game came down to control of an objective. Noah had a chaos spawn on it, Scooter had a goblin shaman. They fought in combat, but neither could kill the other (Scooter made the 4+ ward save to keep his Shaman alive on one wound – much to the crowd’s delight!). It was a great moment!
Of course, the spawn has 5 wounds, and so is worth 2 points on an objective, and the Shaman only has 4 wounds, so it is worth 1. But we were all too exhausted to notice. Noah assumed the Shaman was worth 2. Scooter assumed the spawn was worth 1 and I failed to notice the mistake (oh so easy to assume all heroes in the game are going to be 5 wounds or more!). That meant that they were tied on points, and Scooter won the match on battle tactics scored. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that we caught the mistake – where we had not considered that the Shaman was only 4 wounds (a friend texted me – thank you!). The way both players handled the turnaround in decision is a credit to them both. The level of joy each felt at the other being declared the winner was heartwarming.
The final, and LVO in general, left no doubt that Age of Sigmar has a fantastic community. And I am proud to be part of it.
With the release of the Battlescroll: Galletian Reinforcements I’ve been able to go back through the data from the release of the General’s Handbook and tidy everything up. In doing so, I though it may be cool to give you a run-down of how each faction performed under the current General’s Handbook until the Battlescroll took effect.
The data used for analysing these results was taken from 110 Grand Tournaments between 3rd July 2022 and 6th November 2022.
Disciples of Tzeentch
Region Comparison – Popularity
2nd Edition Player %
Disciples of Tzeentch saw their highest popularity in North America with 1.3% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while in Scandinavia the faction wasn’t even chosen.
Region Comparison – Win Rates
2nd Edition Win Rates
Oceania saw a massive win rate of 80.0% for the Disciples of Tzeentch, while UK & Ireland could only manage 46.0%.
2nd Edition Book Results
3rd Edition Book Results
North America and Europe were the only locations where 5-0 were achieved. under the 2nd edition tome. While Oceania id the only region so far where the 5-0 has been achieved with the 3rd edition tome.
Subfaction Analysis
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Hosts Duplicitous
7
68.42%
Hosts Arcanum
28
55.94%
Guild of Summoners
2
50.00%
Eternal Conflagration
3
40.00%
None/Unknown
3
63.33%
Faction Total
43
57.24%
Results under the 2nd Edition Battletome
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Cult of the Transient Form
1
100.00%
Pyrofane Cult
3
60.00%
Hosts Duplicitous
7
59.09%
Hosts Arcanum
16
55.13%
Guild of Summoners
6
50.00%
Eternal Conflagration
9
30.00%
None/Unknown
2
60.00%
Faction Total
44
52.43%
Results under the 3rd Edition Battletome
With the Tzeentch book coming out part way through the first half of the season, the effect was interesting. Under 2nd Edition their win rate was at a slightly unhealthy 57.2%, this then dropped to 52.4% under the 3rd edition book.
Top 10 Disciples of Tzeentch Players
You may notice that some players have a better World/Nation ranking than players above them in this table. This is due to players playing with multiple factions. These players have been ranked on their top 4 Disciples of Tzeentch results only.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the 5 Alarm Grand Tournament that took place in Canada on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 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: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Zainthar Kai – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Morathi-Khaine (340)* The Shadow Queen (340)* Melusai Ironscale (115)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Artefact: Crown of Woe
Units 10 x Blood Sisters (280)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Blood Sisters (280)** – Reinforced x 1 15 x Blood Stalkers (540)* – Reinforced x 2 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
Peter: Joshua Bennett (who you may recognise from many a top three article featuring his own lists), has kindly joined the Woehammer team to comment on Daughters Lists.
Joshua: While this list sticks to the norm of the current meta for DOK, it does have its own tweaks that make it very interesting.
At first glance, we see what looks like the basic Zainthar Kai list. At the head of the snake army is the high queen herself, Morathi. Morathi, by herself, is a menace to most opponents. She has a cap of only three wounds a turn, which becomes a great deterrent for the alpha strikes becoming a perfect screen, where the alpha strikes are running into an unkillable duo of models. As anyone knows that has ever faced off against the shadow queen, she is not to be taken lightly in combat. Shadow queen has the potential to pick up most units. She lives up to her title as a “God Model” with the ability to tank everything with the absolute barrage of attacks with high damage and rend.
Bring on the snakes! 15 blood stalkers have always and still remain to be a powerful force to deal with in the DOK list. At 30 shots, hitting on three’s, wounding on three’s, doing mortals on sixes to hit, makes stalkers a threat against any list. Add the fact that they are also shooting in the hero phase, bringing the total number of shots to 60 at a range of 24”. With all of these attacks, this unit should be feared by all. To add to the terror of the Stalkers, their melee loving counter parts, the blood sisters, are also added to this list. Two 10 man units bring each of these death ball units to 30 attacks, hitting and wounding on threes, followed by an extremely powerful turned to crystal ability. This ability allows the unit to roll a dice for each model in their unit and each 2+ inflicting a mortal wound to the selected unit an inch away from it. In this list, the blood sisters are placed in the bounty hunters battalion, which brings the damage of each attack against Galletian Veterans units, a minimum of 2 damage. But it doesn’t stop there, when the ever daunting Shadow queen is in combat within 18” of these blood soaked sisters, the sisters attacks increase to four attacks each, which gives the sisters even more power to pick their opponents units up.
So I know what you’re thinking! I am just going to stay away from this army of blood driven blood elves. This may be harder to do than you think. This is because the Shadow queen is moving 14” and the melee snakes are moving 8”. Also you must keep in mind that the Melusai is in the list as well and serves more than just a pretty face. She allows the Sisters to be able to run and charge, increasing the threat of the slithering blood crazed sisters to the potential of a 14” move bringing them into a more manageable charge range.
Wait, look in the sky! That’s right, a unit of heartrenders are circling above the battlefield waiting for the right moment to strike. This unit can deploy off the board and be placed on the table 9” away from an enemy model. In the shooting phase they each shoot an enemy within 12” of them and then move 6”. Normally we see two of these units in a list because that allows DOK players to use the Battletomb tactic Cruel Delight. This single unit still has its uses. It keeps a constant threat to the backfield objectives. Also this unit can make a great screen for the remaining army. With this units very speedy movement of 14” it can bounce back and forth between objectives causing their opponents a massive headache of leaving models on all objectives. Also with the Grand strategy of take what’s theirs the late game deepstrike can give you edge needed to gain that three extra points.
The other obstacle opponents face while playing this list, is that you must pick up entire units. Because thanks to the Command trait Zealous Order bringing models back from the dead is much easier than normal. This command trait allows the general to bring back friendly models back on a four plus rally compared to the normal six.
Overall this list hasthe range, and the face-to-face killing power to take on most lists, and I can see why it did so well at this tournament.
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Subfaction: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Curseling (180)* – Spells: Shield of Fate Fluxmaster (170)* – Artefacts of Power: Pyrofyre Stave – Spells: Unchecked Mutation Lord of Change (400)* – Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery – Artefacts of Power: The Eternal Shroud – Spells: Ghost-mist Kairos Fateweaver (435)*** – Spells: Tzeentch’s Firestorm Tzaangor Shaman (135)*** – Spells: Glimpse the Future Magister (120)*** – General – Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Arcane Suggestion
BATTLELINE Kairic Acolytes (120)** – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield Kairic Acolytes (120)** – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield Kairic Acolytes (120)*** – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (50) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70) 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
Kieron: A super interesting list for my first time reviewing a Disciples of Tzeentch top three list. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Guild of Summoners is relatively low down in the sub-faction hierarchy but Nic has clearly made this work well for him. Conventional wisdom would also suggest that Master of Destiny is a no-brainer Grand Strategy (have Destiny Dice equal to 9 or more at the end of the battle) but Nic has again bucked the trend with Defend What’s Ours. Where the power comes from in this list can be broken down into Destiny Dice, Fate Points and Battle Tactics.
Let’s start with Destiny Dice, or cheaty dice as some less charitable (and non-Tzeentch players might call them). Nic would roll 9 at the start of the game and the Eternal Shroud would allow new dice to be rolled on a 5+ whenever they are used. The Tzaangor Shaman can lurk at the back of the board (see battle tactics below) generating a new one with Glimpse the Future which will be supporting Kairos who is generating one per turn if you have less than 9. This means that over the course of the game, there should be in the region of 20 dice that the Tzeentch player will know ahead of time, allowing them to be super aggressive or defensive as the game demands.
Next up is fate points and if you thought 20 was a lot of a resource to generate then you haven’t seen anything yet! If Tzeentch go first and all the possible spells go off they will have: 1 from Burning Sigil; 2 from The Curseling; at least 1 and probably 3 from Fluxmaster (theoretically 10, but if you roll 9/9 5+s against me I’m probably conceding or calling a TO!); 2 from the Lord of Change; 3 from Kairos; 1 from Shaman; 3 from Magister; 1 from each Kairic unit making around 15-18 in Turn 1. And what do we do with those points I hear you ask? You summon another Lord of Change for only 9 points and bank the other points for the next turn. Next turn you will have another two casts meaning that you will have more than enough to summon another Lord of Change 18 fate points! At this point you would be facing over 1600pts of prime Tzeentch Turkey that are giving each other (and nearby heroes) +4 to cast. Diminishing returns from this point in as there won’t be enough spells for them all to cast, so probably just bring in 20 pinks a turn instead! If the Tzeentch player is not locked down quickly, they could summon 1500pts by turn 5 (EDIT: Thanks to Tasteless for getting me to go back and not blah, blah , blah the sub-faction ability: Guild of Summoners can ONLY summon Magic Chickens, meaning that a 5 turn game could actually see 2000pts of summoning and Nic possibly in need of kidney to donate to fund the 7 Lords of Change that could be on the board at this point…).
This is all well and good, but if you don’t score points then you don’t win and this is also a list that really wants to use book battle tactics! Call for Change is extremely straightforward as you just need to summon a Lord of Change; the Tzaangor Shaman is an excellent choice for Reckless Abandon, where you need to complete a charge move with a mortal unit more than 18″ away from all enemy units; Ninefold Dismantlement needs you to kill a unit with 9 models or a hero/monster with a wounds characteristic of 9 or more and Tide of Anarchy needs you to take an objective off your enemy with 9 or more models. To truly flex on your opponent, Kairos could even go for Mass Conjuration by casting 3 or more spells for a full 5/5 Tzeentch tactics.
Congrats to Nic for doing fantastically well with some more off-meta choices, demonstrating the internal balance of the Disciples of Tzeentch book.
Peter: Another new member of the team today. Randal Brasher, who some may remember from General Speaking, has agreed to join us to comment on KO, Cities and Stormcast lists.
Randal: Oh boy, here we go! Karl is no stranger to Kharadron Overlords this season and has found 5-0 and 4-1 success with both Double Ironclads and Whole Fleet lists, but the one constant has been his inclusion of Purple Sun. This list leans in on the power of the Endless Spell even more than his previous winning lists by overloading an Ironclad with heroes, Arkanauts, and some spicy Grundstock Thunderers then using the Zilfin Hero Phase move alongside Ebullient Bouyancy Aid. After moving the murder boat across the board it wants to unleash the Purple Sun then leverage the once per game effects of the Flare Pistol (full rerolls in the shooting phase) and the Admiral’s Special Ammunition for either additional rend or eliminating a ward save. It is a very high volume of shots at very high rend, more than enough to cripple most elite armies or clear the flank of a horde army. If the opponent somehow manages to survive the barrage in any condition to fight, they get a facefull of Gotrek.
A bit of tech in this list is to use the Great Sky Cannon over the more synergistic and higher damage Volley Cannon. It lets the boat play the objective game and still contribute some shooting after it unleashes its payload due to the superior range. This list is going to play very well into elite armies or high save armies but it has a serious issue with ranged mortal wounds as its loss to Disciples of Tzeentch shows. Armies with a lot of summoning, such as Beasts of Chaos or Nurgle, might also give it some problems. However, into a metagame of Giants, Daughters of Khaine, Sylvaneth, and Seraphon it is a monster of a metabreaker.
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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh – Army Type: Invaders – Army Subfaction: The Lurid Haze – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Synessa (260)* – General 1 x Sigvald (205)* – General 1 x Be’lakor (360)*
BATTLELINE 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)* 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)* 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chimera (200)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)
OTHER 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)* 10 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (260)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Alice: Slaanesh is struggling badly at the moment, but it’s not entirely without merit. There’s a few units that manage to succeed despite their own faction dragging them down, and Invaders manages to pull itself up to something quite usable, if a bit fiddly.
Invaders allows you to have 3 Generals who need to remain 12″ apart from each other. This is largely fine with this composition, because Be’lakor operates well as the main general leading the force to shut down the major threats while Synessa hangs back and casts spells and Sigvald attempts to do character assassinations. If any do die, its a free CP.
Blissbarb Archers are one of the few stand out units in Slaanesh. While they may not get mortal wounds on 6s like some armies, they get a decent number of Rend -1 shots and can run and shoot. Twinsouls make a solid hammer and anvil, depending on what you need in any given situation. Rounding it out, the Chimera is an interesting ally, giving them the mortal wound support they really need while being a solid beat stick to boot.
