This one has taken a while! But I’m pleased to say that all of the warscrolls for Slaves to Darkness have now been translated into Datacards.
Reading the Datacards
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter that took place in the China on 14th and 15 January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADERS Engine of the Gods (285)* – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration – Mount Traits: Beastmaster – Prayers: Curse Celestant-Prime (325)* Lord Kroak (450)* Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spells: Hand of Glory
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Saurus units riding the crest of Seraphon power? Seraphon claiming number one with an Engine of the Gods and Kroak isn’t new. But Saurus Knights and Razordons in Thunder Lizard? It looks like Thunder Lizard was taken for double cosmic engine rolls and the Fusil of Conflagration. Thunder Lizard really boosts the power of an Engine and with Kroak can push out a lot of mortals. This is mostly a short range/melee army though, with the Engine’s 8” range working really well with the 9” range of curse. The Razordon’s bring 18” range (12D6 shots), but are most useful if the enemy gets close where they can both unleash hell and shoot at the end of the charge phase. Essentially, Seraphon Leadbelchers, you can’t leave them, but you can’t charge them.
The Saurus Knights are usually left at home, they don’t accept buffs as well as Skinks but this army is playing heavily into their Predatory-Fighter (+1 attack for Jaws attacks) and Scaly Skin (-1 damage). And they aren’t GVs. Combined with additional damage on the charge and the potential mortals on 6s, the double unit is pretty scary. A big part of the list, though, is the Celestant Prime – arguable if he is worth the cost in Seraphon, but it worked here. His guaranteed charge and damage profile is effective at removing key pieces like MawCrushas, Durthu, or Warsong Revenant. With Kroak shutting down spells it’s not hard to see why Sylvaneth struggled, the same for Skaven. Neither do well with Mortals. Damage reduction limits some of the impact of Ironjawz and the limited rend, but large number of attacks counters Nighthaunt. The army still has Seraphon’s ability to score while countering a lot of the unique abilities of his opponents army. It’s a really well thought out counter list.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Season: The Dwindling – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arch-Revenant (120)* – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing Treelord Ancient (360)* – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony
OTHER Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)* Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Vengeful Skullroot (60) 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Gladewyrm (50)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Nikola here has brought a fairly standard Gnarlroot magic build here, with the Treelord Ancient and Warsong Rev combo for putting down a set of trees early doors with the Ancient for Warsong to use Spellsinger to cast his nasty AoE through.
It’s backed up by a compliment of reinforced Sword ‘Noth – a less popular choice than scythes because of their lesser rend – but a more balanced one overall, I think, due to their potential for MW output against targets who scoff at even 3 rend (such as Nighthaunt for example).
Happily for me, an endless spell enjoyer, the list packs all three Sylvaneth specific ones, and why not? They allo have fantastic utility and get be got off nicely in Gnarlroot with the ‘3d6 pick best 2’ to cast and re-roll from The Dwindling. Not only are they some of the best looking faction specific spells but they really do give the army a lot of options – horrorghast effects, healing, charge bonuses and more – love to see it!
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Type: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy – Take what’s theirs
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Demonic speed
Varanguard (290)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Fellspear
BATTLELINE Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Splintered Fang (100)* The Unmade (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)*
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
OTHER Ogroid Theridons (190)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Great Axes
BATTALIONS Battle Regiment* Overlords of Chaos**
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Great to see a good run out with the new Slaves book! Although, less happy to see Spinedog – and do bear in mind that the new focus on foot heroes in the forthcoming season will likely mean a list such as this has to change in some big ways.
In the meantime though, it leans into the the obvious highlights of the new book – triple Varanguard in Khorne with lances for that sweet rend 3 charge in one unit, and two units of Ensorcelled Weapons for fast chaff/lower armour targets. With each unit able to fight twice, that’s potentially a lot of pressure coming at you early.
Andy also leans into a bevvy of tech cultists, which is a fantastic section of the new book. Splintered Fang for reliable MW output, The Unmade for running up and turning off Redeploy to help those Varanguard make their charges and not end up in no-man’s land, and double Corvus Cabal for deepstriking and scoring battle tactics. Note – in the new season we lose Barge – so one unit of Corvus for Desecrate is probably going to be the new jam.
It’s interesting that he’s packed in some Theridons – to be fair, they’re a cost effective if not at all durable counter-punch, so why not?
An interesting list that took down what I would imagine are some fairly green match ups, losing only to Nikola’s Sylvaneth, who are quickly proving to be a red matchup for the new chaos bois! Andy – be a hero and take 2nd place next time, without Spinedog! My commenting fingers are ready.
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
BATTLELINE Skryre Acolytes (75)* Skryre Acolytes (75)* Stormfiends (960)* – 3 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour
OTHER Warp-Grinder (65)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50) 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Skaven is one of those armies that I love to see pop up in these lists. Much like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
In this case, we get nearly half of the points of the list dumped into one 9-rat unit of Stormfiends with a weapon load-out that punishes at 24″, ruins days at 12″, and ruins lives within 3″. Combining their damage output with the additional wounds of Warpstone-laced Armor allows them to absorb the mortal wounds they will ultimately take when one of the two nearby Warlocks casts More-more-more Warp Power! Stormfiends absolutely love the ability to land those 9 Windlauncher shots at 3+/2+/-3/D3, 9D6 Ratling Cannons at 2+/2+/-1/1, and 12 Shock Gauntlets at 2+/2+/-1/2.
We also get to see two endless spells that will be standards for the new battletome. The bonuses to mobility brought into play by Lauchon and the Soulscream Bridge makes scoring first and second turn battle tactics easier, since it allows those foot heroes (who might normally have a hard time moving more than 9″ in a turn) to jump across the board to claim objectives. Thanquol’s casting bonus allows him to be a very expensive, but reliable taxi driver, with the ability to cast Skitterleap and one of the two endless spells in the same turn, throwing both of the Galletian champions wherever the they need to be.
Following on from Danny and Phil’s excellent chat about the new Slaves to Darkness Battletome, we thought it would be great to give you an option for a beginners army based on the new Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness.
Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness
This new boxed set priced at £85 through Games Workshop comes with 17 models in total to give you an (almost) complete beginners army. I say almost, the total points in this set amounts to 680 points.
Included in the box you have:
1x Chaos Lord (115 points)
10x Chaos Warriors (220 points)
5x Chaos Knights (230 points)
1x Gorebeast Chariot (115 points)
But we want a full 1,000 point army that we can start playing with, so to add to the above I’d possibly look at buying a Chaos Sorcerer Lord, a Darkoath Warqueen and a set of Darkoath Savagers.
What will it all cost?
Battletome: Slaves to Darkness £32.50
Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness £85
Darkoath Warqueen £21
Darkoath Savagers £35
That’s total of £173.50 at Games Workshop prices for everything you need to play at 1,000 points with Slaves to Darkness.
You can of course get these cheaper through your local retailers. Element Games in the UK offer between 15-25% off on these prices. Why not use our affiliate link below to start your army today?
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The List
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Host of the Everchosen
LEADERS Chaos Lord (115) – General – Mark of Nurgle – Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel – Command Trait: Death Dealer – Artefact: Hellfire Sword(Reaperblade) Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120) – Mark of Nurgle – Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Darkoath Warqueen (100)
BATTLELINE 10x Chaos Warriors (220) – Mark of Nurgle – Murderous Weapons – Retinue 5x Chaos Knights (230) – Mark of Nurgle – Cursed Flail – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon 10x Darkoath Savagers (100)
OTHER 1x Gorebeast Chariot (115) – Mark of Khorne – Lashing Whip & Chaos War-Flail
TOTAL POINTS: 1000/1000
This army is tough! and it has fast elements which can also pin units in place while you bring your Chaos Warriors and Darkoath Savagers to bear. We’ve gone for Host of the Everchosen as our subfaction, this will allow us to bring back slain models on 5+ instead of 6+ with our rally ability. This only applies to the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights, but these two units with the Mark of Nurgle are already going to be blighters to shift anyway, this will just make it even harder for our oppposition!
How it could play
Chaos Lord
Our general for this particular list. He’s tough and hits like a hammer. Giving him the Mark of Nurgle means the enemy have to subtract 1 from their wound rolls that target him when using melee weapons. It also gives him the ability to use the Command Ability: Bestow Contagion. This will allow our other Nurgle Marked units (Chaos Warriors and Knights) a chance to cause D3 mortal wounds to enemy units within 3″ on a 3+.
We’ve got Death Dealer as our Command Trait, and this will allow our General to fight for a second time in the fight phase once per battle. Admittedly it’s with the Strike-last effect, but even so, well worth having.
With Chaos Lords you’re also allowed to choose a retinue which you can pass wounds off to on a 3+ (the reasons for this shown in the Chaos Warriors section), for this I’ve chosen the Chaos Warriors, as really he should be sticking to them like glue throughout the game. The other benefit from being retinue is they can fight immediately after our Chaos Lord if they haven’t fought yet. Essentially giving you two fight activations for the price of one!
As an artefact, I’ve gone for Hellfire Sword, which will allow our Reaperblade to cause two mortal wounds for each hit roll of 6.
Giving him the Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel does mean that the damage output is slightly better than that of the Daemonbound Flail when you also take into account the mortal wounds caused by Hellfire Sword:
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Reaperblade
2
2
2
2
2
2
Daemonbound Steel
1
1
1
1
1
0
TOTAL
3
3
3
3
3
2
Daemonbound War-Flail
2
2
2
2
2
2
Average Damage after Saves
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Chaos Sorcerer Lord
This lovely fellow is a good buff to your forces. He’s a single cast and single unbind wizard which isn’t anything to write home about, but what he does provide is his spell Daemonic Power. With a casting value of 6 and a range of 18″ it should be fairly easy to cast each turn, and when you do you’ll be able to give ANY of your other units in this list +1 to hit and +1 to wound for their melee attacks. That’s nothing to be sniffed at!
As well as this he can give a 6+ ward to one of your other units in this list until the next hero phase. Hopefully you’re starting to see the tankiness of those Chaos Warriors now with their Mark of Nurgle (-1 to wound them) and a 5+ Ward Save against mortals and 6+ Ward against everything else.
Darkoath Warqueen
I absolutely love this model, which is mainly why I’ve chosen it (never discount rule of cool!). Like the Chaos Lord, this unit can allow the Darkoath Savagers to fight immediately after herself (as long as they haven’t already fought), another twofer!
She has an ability where if issuing the inspiring presence command while inside the enemy territory she can give it up to 2 Darkoath or Cultist units. We only have one for this list, but perhaps consider buying one of those awesome Warcry warbands when you look to expand to 2k?
Chaos Warriors
The first of our three battleline units. Keep these near your Chaos Lord so that they can benefit from the Retinue rule and fight immediately after the Chaos Lord in the fight phase.
With a 3+ save, a 5+ ward against mortals and a 6+ ward against everything else using the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Oracular Visions, AND the ability to have slain models return from the rally command on 5+, this unit is going to take A LOT of punishment before it goes away! In fact they would need an average of 72 damage from zero rend weapons to be allocated to them before saves, for the enemy to have a chance of destroying them.
By getting the Chaos Sorcerer Lord to cast Daemonic Power on them as well you’ll soon see their average damage output after saves is not to be ignored:
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Murderous Weapons
14
14
12
10
7
5
Murderous Weapons (Enemy Territory)*
21
21
18
14
11
7
*Chaos Warriors gain +1 attack while wholly within enemy territory
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Darkoath Savagers
Another unit I absolutely love. These guys have an added benefit of causing mortal wounds on hit rolls of 6 when in combat. This is the perfect unit to try and take objectives with, because if you manage to claim one previously held by the enemy then this unit will get a 5+ ward save until the end of the game. They won’t stand up to much punishment though, so if you’re going to commit them make sure you can win!
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Darkoath Weapons
8
7
4
4
1
1
Average Damage Output after Saves
Chaos Knights
Another tanky unit. They also benefit from the 5+ ward save against mortal wounds. We’re also giving them Mark of Nurgle (who is Mark anyway?) so the enemy is at -1 on their to wound rolls.
These guys are quick as well, we’ve given our Chaos Sorcerer Lord the spell Daemonic Speed. This will allow to roll 3D6 for their charge rolls when within 18″.
We’ve also chosen to give these chaps The Eroding Icon Ensorcelled Banner, this will worsen the rend of melee weapons used against them by 1, making them even harder to kill!
You’ll want these guys quickly claiming objectives and tying up units you want to hold in place ready for your Chaos Warriors to pummel.
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Cursed Land (Charging)
8
8
8
6
6
4
Cursed Lane*
4
4
3
3
2
1
Cursed Flail*
3
2
2
1
1
0
Trampling Hooves*
3
2
2
1
1
0
TOTAL*
10
8
7
5
4
1
Average Damage Output
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Gorebeast Chariot
Another flanker unit for our army. We’ve given this the Mark of Khorne which allows us to add 1 to the attacks of its melee weapons when it charges.
Don’t forget that at the end of the combat phase it can make a normal move even if still within 3″ of the enemy. If it does so, it can cross across models with wound characteristics of 4 or less as though it can fly. If you do so, pick a unit that this model passed over and roll a dice, on 3+ that enemy suffers D6 mortal wounds! You’ll probably do an average of 3 or 4 mortal wounds… And it only costs 115 points! Bargain!
Weapon
– Save
6+ Save
5+ Save
4+ Save
3+ Save
2+ Save
Lashing Whip
1
0
0
0
0
0
Chaos War-Flail
3
2
2
1
1
0
Crushing Fists
2
2
2
2
0
0
TOTAL
6
4
4
3
1
0
Average Damage Output
Where to go next?
Everything in this book looks cool and you certainly couldn’t go wrong by possibly buying a second Vanguard box! If not, have a look at the Varanguard and Chosen, both heavy hitting units if that’s what you like. There’s also a certain bloke named Archaon…
Pinpointing precisely when the first Slave to Darkness was born is difficult to achieve. Since the dawn of time within the mortal realms the Chaos Gods’ tendrils would reach through and warp reality, whispering dark thoughts to anyone who would listen. Khorne would urge Generals to strive for evermore glory, Tzeentch would encourage further study into the arcane, Slaanesh would speak of pleasure to aristocrats and artists alike, and father Nurgle would call out to those who lived off the land. It is when the first of these individuals gave in to the dark voices which lurked within and pledged themselves to these mysterious forces that the first Slave to Darkness came into the Mortal Realms.
A crippling defeat
Sigmar and his Pantheon were the all-powerful Gods who sought to shepherd all the races within the mortal realms. Aware of the existence of Chaos, they prepared for the eventual day that the Ruinous Powers would invade the mortal realms. As the age of Chaos began, the daemons poured in, slaughtering all who did not join them. At the battle of the Burning Skies Sigmar was betrayed by Nagash, and in turn was decisively defeated, retreating into Azyr. Those few who remained would either be forced to concede and accept the Chaos gods as their own or be slaughtered in the wake of their victory.
The Great Game
Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh, and the Great Horned Rat though allied against Sigmar and the forces of order, are only allies of convenience when it suits them best. Otherwise, they forever compete within The Great Game, in which each god seeks to dominate the others within the realm of Chaos. This Game of course extends well within the mortal realms, where they constantly vie for control of land, resources, and followers.
Archaon the Everchosen
Perhaps the greatest encapsulation of the Great Game is no other than Archaon. The mortal champion of Chaos, accepting gifts from all gods, but pledging himself to none. Archaon is a mortal, who is speculated to have lived for eons, having ushered in the end of the world that was, and potentially having destroyed other realities since then. His ultimate goal is to pierce into the realm of Azyr, and destroy the last bastion of Order and Sigmar along with it.
The Dark Master
Belakor, the first Daemon Prince to have ever existed, as Archaeon, has existed since the formation of the world that was. Indeed prior to the existence of any Everchosen having been crowned, the ruinous powers would compete over his soul as they now do for Archaon. Belakor would go on to betray the Gods, in an attempt to serve his own purposes, and would in turn fall right into their trap. Cursed to forever crown the Everchosen, but never become him, Belakor lives in a state of pure envy. Envy of the great Archaon, to whom so many swear their loyalty. Belakor, seeks to usurp Archaon’s place within the eyes of the Chaos Gods, and return himself to the glory of his past.
I’ve been starting my own personal journey down the corpse-strewn path to glory and the Chaos Gods’ approval – aka I’m 3 games in with the new Slaves to Darkness book – and I’ve started to consider some less obvious army picks.
As I was looking into Legionnaires for my Be’lakor list and discussing them in the discord, I ran some numbers and did some thinking. Although I’ve not tested them in a game yet, I wanted to write a post that explains my thought process and what I believe is a sensible, generally applicable way to analyse whether unit x is better than unit y in a certain role. Moreover, we all love shooting the shit when it comes to unit comparisons, which is good and well, but unless you look at these things with the correct analytical lens, you’ll either go round in endless circles of debate, or risk misunderstanding what ‘value’ the unit actually has in a competitive environment.
As a quick proviso, if you can’t be bothered to read the full analysis (I won’t hold it against you), consider the ‘four obvious factor’ a few paragraphs below as a tl;dr method for a balanced analysis of any unit.
So, let’s start with a quick overview of the Chaos Legionnaires themselves. They’re an 8 model unit, for 110 points, with two interesting scroll abilities (below) along with them proccing an ability of Eternus – gaining you 1 extra command point if Eternus and the Legionnaires are within 1” of each other.
Their warscroll abilities:
‘Sow Confusion: Once per turn, at the start of any phase, you can say this unit will sow confusion. If you do so, pick an enemy unit within 6″ of this unit and roll a dice. On a 4+, that unit cannot issue or receive commands in that phase.’ ‘Devoted of the Dark Creed: In the presence of Be’lakor, these warriors fight with unrelenting zeal.
Add 1 to wound rolls for attacks made by this unit while it is wholly within 12″ of a friendly BE’LAKOR.’
On the surface of it, they seem to be designed to slot neatly into a Be’lakor LotFP list, synergising with Eternus and Be’Lakor. So the question is, are they worth taking over a less synergistic and more expensive unit, such as Chaos Warriors or Iron Golems?
To answer this question, we must first ask ourselves what their role is. You can crunch and compare raw data points of course, but to apply it meaningfully to a list making decision you need to know what the unit in question will actually be doing.
So, there are four obvious factors in their battlefield role: synergy; output; defences; utility.
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Analysis
We start with checking their overall output as a starting point. NB Because a reinforced Legionnaires unit gets an extra attack, and 3 out of the remaining 5 models get an extra damage point I had to slightly cheat on the profiles below, but overall it’s the correct numbers of attack etc.
I also assumed they would be benefitting from the +1 to wound from being near Be’lakor because that’s clearly their use-case. Initially I compared them to Chaos Warriors without their extra attack from being near an enemy objective, because that’s a more situational modifier.
As you can see, Legionnaires outperform Chaos Warriors (CWs) when the CWs aren’t contesting an enemy objective, and put out a fairly respectable 7 damage against a 4+ save. And bear in mind the Legionnaires have a 50% chance from Sow Confusion if they choose to use it offensively as counting as the next bracket up (i.e. turning off AoD) – so, on a good day, they’re keeping a 4+ nat save unit on 4+ and doing that 7 damage instead of 5.3.
Now, this is a good start to figuring out their role and value within it, but let’s remember that:
a) Legionnaires are a total of 8 wounds on a 4+ compared to Chaos warriors being 20 wounds on a 3+ with, if you’re taking them in Nurgle (like why wouldn’t you, a -1 to wound and ignoring 1 rend). We must consider that Legionnaires, if using Sow Confusion defensively (they can’t use it for both in the same phase) have a 50% chance of preventing the opponent’s AoA, which is a valuable defensive modifier.
But still, Chaos Warriors are obviously, clearly tankier by a significant margin. Thanks Peter for the following maths – it would on average take 183.7 attacks at 3/3/-1/1 to take down the Chaos warriors compared to 73.5 to take down a reinforced (so that they’re an equivalent cost) unit of Legionnaires.
And b) in general this is comparing a 110 pt unit with 8 models/8 wounds with a 220 pt unit with 10 models and 20 wounds.
So, with that in mind, we can draw a conclusion that Legionnaires have fairly good output for their price and therefore could function as a sub-hammer.
By the same token, it’s clear that as a defensive role such as a screen, Chaos Warriors seem to massively outperform them. If we reinforce the Legionnaires we have a 16 model unit with 16 wounds on a 4+ with a 50% chance of turning off one unit’s AoA against them, compared to a 10 model unit (so slightly less of a footprint) with 4 more wounds, on a nat 3+, guaranteed to ignore 1 rend and at -1 to wound them – assuming they’re Nurgle marked have the banner (which we are, because again it’s so standard for them.)
Legionnaires certainly aren’t the squishiest thing ever, but they’re not meant to be a screen, clearly.
Let’s continue the output comparison – how does a reinforced unit (220 pts) stack up to a unit of Warriors, who do have the extra attack for being near an enemy objective?
The results still favour the Legionnaires and the damage output is not at all inconsiderable! However, let’s also remember this assumes they can all get into range, which in this season they can do with ease thanks to the galley vets two ranks rule, but from the next Season onwards – PRESUMABLY they won’t be able to.
Let’s end the output analysis with a quick look at a unit of 5 Chosen for 240 pts, who naturally put out the following.
So the delta with roughly equivalent points between Legionnaires and 5 Chosen into an average save is 5 in favour of the Legionnaires – interesting! And that would be 16 wounds on a 4+ vs the Chosen’s 15 wounds on a 3+ with 2” reach weapons. Obviously this doesn’t take into account the potential for Chosen to vastly outperform if they roll well on the Eye of the Gods table and their lack of a need to be near to Be’Lakor, but still – interesting.
Synergy/Utility
With that in mind, let’s think about Synergy and Utility. Legionnaire’s Sow Confusion is nice in that it has a 6” range – meaning it can be used while they’re behind a screen themselves – a plus. Consider it could potentially be used to deny Inspiring Presence, Redeploy, and other sneaky commands, not just combat based ones. A 50% chance isn’t bad but you’d have to treat it as a ‘nice to have’ rather than something you can rely on.
However, their proccing the extra CP on Eternus has an obvious drawback – past Turn 1, It seems highly unlikely Eternus will still be in range of them given he’s mounted and these chumps have to footslog. Eternus gets an extra CP from Furies being near him too – who are much better suited to keeping up with him – so in that sense, they don’t synergise very well with him in a real world scenario.
CONCLUSIONS
Having considered the pure maths and the real world scenarios, I think it’s fair to say that the best use-case for Legionnaires is as a cost-effective sub-hammer. They can’t holistically compete with Chosen as a main hammer, and they’re orders of magnitude less tanky than warriors. They have an interesting, decent-odds if short range utility ability and put out respectable damage. Being 8 models with small bases for a small overall footprint for the cost is decent ‘points on objective’ value also.
A final thought is that, in LotFP (which I’m largely assuming this kind of list is), they could be given a mark for a turn, substantially improving their survivability with Nurgle, or potentially giving them an extra attack in Khorne to boost their output further.
If you have 110 points spare, I think they’re a good pick. Outside of LotFP they’re still a good little add-on to Be’Lakor, but without Big B they’re probably not worth ever taking.
I hope that’s been a helpful breakdown, not just of the merits of Legionnaires themselves but of the wider set of factors you should take into account when trying to ascertain a unit’s role and its value within that role/the wider context of your list.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 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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Pre-Tournament Analysis
I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.
Ranked Players
Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.
Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.
Faction Breakdown
The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)* – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind.
The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport).
The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine.
As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (435) Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**
Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches.
Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast.
The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster!
The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead!
It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards.
Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see!
The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed.
All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.
I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Lore of Madness: DerangedTransformation Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – General – Command Trait: Savage Chivalry – Artefact: Decrepit Coronet – Mount Trait: Razor-clawed – Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud Varghulf Courtier (160)**
Battleline 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1
Units 6 x Crypt Flayers (360)* – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Chalice of Ushoran (50)
Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).
Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).
As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.
Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)* – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind. The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport). The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine. As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.
Game 1 vs Ben Godbold – Slaves to Darkness – Silksteel Nests – Win 32-10
Ben’s List
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Type: Despoilers – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (225)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Artefacts of Power: Helm of Many Eyes Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Command Traits: Paragon of Ruin – Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons – Artefacts of Power: Doombringer Blade Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spells: Mask of Darkness Bloodsecrator (125)*** Sigvald (205)***
BATTLELINE Chaos Knights (340)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield Chaos Marauders (180)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Barbarian Axe and Darkwood Shield Untamed Beasts (70)*** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne Untamed Beasts (70)*** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne
OTHER Varanguard (280)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Fellspear and Warpsteel Shield Iron Golems (75)*** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Iron Golems (75)*** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
This game was relatively straight forward, it was a honed Slaves to Darkness list against a variety of different slaves units in the Mark of Khorne. If you are familiar with slaves to darkness over the last two season you will know Tzeentch looks to keep your stuff alive. It was Ben’s first ever tournament and got unlucky pairing this round 1. Ben sent 3 Varanguard, Sigvald, Chaos lord on Karkadrak and khorne Deamon Prince into my general who had all their buffs up. At the end of combat, I had taken zero damage and everything that had gone against it had died, with the Varanguard using their once per game ability to pile in and fight twice. At the end of turn 3, Ben had lost all of units and I had lost 6 iron golems.
Game 2 vs Michael Lowis – Beasts of Chaos – Won’t Back Down – Win 28-17
His List
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)* – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy Beastlord (95)** – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Artefact: The Knowing Eye – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: ViciousStranglethorns Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)**** – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)**** – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)**** – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Ungors (65)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*** – Reinforced x 1 3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)*** 3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)*** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)** 1 x Cockatrice (110)**
Beasts of Chaos is usually a very bad match up for my list due to the board control that they can obtain through summoning as well as the amount of rend that they get on turn 3. There is only one way to play this match up and that is aggressive, you need to do as much damage as you can by turn 3 and see how you can stay in the game. I decided that I would screen out all the board edge of my territory to ensure nothing could be summoned behind me and let my Varanguard focus on heading down the middle of the table. I managed to get the double one into turn which allowed me to clear screens turn 1 and then get both units of VG with even stacks – both +2 to their saves. My General managed to tag 12 enlightened and 30 tzaangor meaning I had them locked where I needed them. In the two subsequent combat phases, I managed to take all of this off at the expense of 3 Varanguard across both units. At this point, I had the board control and was up on points with easy battle tactics left to do.
Game 3 vs Max Barton – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Prize of Gallet – Win 22-15
His List
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Lord of Blights (150)* – General – Command Trait: Infernal Conduit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations Orghotts Daemonspew (320)*
Battleline 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (500)* – 2x Dolorous Tocsin – Reinforced x 1
So we had a Team England face off to finish day one. This game was a chess match for the first 1.5 turns with staying out of threat ranges and not really engaging each other. I had won priority from 1 into 2 and gave it to Max to allow me the opportunity at the double turn 2 into 3, which I did. In my turn 2 my general burnt their once per game fight twice and managed to take off 4 flies. With the double I decided to risk it and mask of darkness my general down the board and risk the 9 inch charge, knowing if I make it the bulk of Max’s army is locked in combat the rest of the game. We made the charge and there went any chance of Max being able to do require damage. The all fly nurgle list is so reliant on the impact hits to damage to the Varanguard.
Game 4 vs Marc Brookes – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Nidus Paths – Loss 24-25
His List
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle –Subfaction: Blessed Sons -Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance -Triumphs:
Leaders Bloab Rotspawned (320) –Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease Great Unclean One (495) –General -Plague Fall & Massive Bilesword -Command Trait Nurgling infestation -Artefact The Witherstave -Universal Spell Lore Flaming Weapon Orghotts Daemonspew (320) Gutrot Spume (170) Morbidex Twiceborn (320)
Battleline 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
Again this was a very cagey game for the first 1.5 turns. I was looking for an opportunity to pin bloab, great unclean one, Orghotts and Morbidex. This came in my turn 2 and despite having all my save stacks, the mortal wound out put was obnoxious, the great unclean ones version of the stomp 4 MWs, stomp D3 MWs, disease with the witherstave being on a 3+ and ward saves of a 6 doing a MW back to me. Kept them locked for long enough but the game was very close and slowly away from me. I had to play for the double 4 into 5 to have a chance at winning the game but at the same time risk losing if I don’t get priority. So what was required, if I complete my grand strat I win, 3 Varanguard go into 10 rotmire creed, fighting twice, failed to kill them, grand strat failed. Nurgle final turn had to kill my warshrine with Gutrot Spume with 7 wounds left, couldn’t make a save and lost by 1VP.
Game 5 vs Sam Barker – Stormcast Eternals – Close the Chest – Win 32-22
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Knight-Draconis (300) Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500) – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Celestine Hammer – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Mount Trait: Scintillating Trail – Spell: Celestial Blades
UNITS 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)* 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance
CORE BATTALIONS *Bounty Hunters
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Holy Command: Steadfast March
This match up again is usually pretty dicey for the Slaves to Darkness as all it takes is the dragons to spike on their breath, unfortunately for Sam he rolled terribly for these. I knew it was bad but I thought I would take every opportunity granted to me. Sam made a bit of a misplay by bringing down his fulminators turn 1 to try and take of my screens for the dragons to captalise on later in the game. I decided to put +2 save onto my non general unit with all re-roll hits and wounds, masked them down the board to try and take off the storm drake and then auto ran my general to be with 6” of his fulminators and opted to not re-deploy. I made the charge with my non general unit of Varanguard killing the stormdrake and then piled in 6” into fulminators taking them all off as well. I won prior and gave it away looking for a better double later on. My turn 2 I managed to take off the remaining four dragons and he was left with Knight Draconis. I failed to win another priority which meant I was chasing Draconis around the board for 3 turns till he finally succumbed in turn 5.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for War in the Heartlands that took place in UK on 12th and 13th November. It involved 102 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy Show of Dominance – Triumphs
Leaders Bloab Rotspawned (320) – Lore of Malignance Gift of Disease Great Unclean One (495) – General – Command Trait: Nurging infestation – Plague Flail & Massive Bilesword – Artefact: The Witherstave – Universal Spell Lore Flaming Weapon Orghotts Daemonspew (320) Gutrot Spume (170) Morbidex Twiceborn (320)
Danny: Now this is what we like to see – a crazy looking but clearly still brutal list with no flies and lots of big stinkers!
The core tech to this list is Gutrot Spume’s ability to deepstrike and take up to 3 Nurgle mortals along for the ride – yep, that means if Marc wanted to, and had the space, he could put each Maggoth lord into reserve and being them all out of reserve at once. Hilarious. Is that the way he probably played it? Almost certainly not. But could he have? Absolutely yes. Nevertheless, the ability to do it with one is a powerful mind-fuck for the opponent given how much utility and killing power each Maggoth lord brings.
Anchor that around the GUO – with his mixed phase goodness, and msu Rotmire, a cheap battleline option with native deepstrike with the ability to ‘splash’ disease points around, acting as a really effective catalyst for Nurgle’s attrition game, and you have a really quite amusingly mobile, or should we say positional Nurgle list with some fantastic meta-deployment options.
Great list, love to see it, big up to Marc!
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Helon – Trumph: Inspired. – Grand Strategy: No place for the weak
LEADERS Archmage Teclis (700)* – General Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse
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 (40)
TERRAIN 1 x Shrine Luminor (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000
Ethan: In a WWE-esque blindside from the top rope Helon seems to be coming out of absolutely nowhere to be the LRL tournament faction of choice. Many LRL lists still follow the Teclis + everything else structure and I won’t keep everyone waiting to hear about Teclis: He’s quite good. Assuming most TOs are using the common sense god gave a dog about his spells known: the versatility of casting 4 spells from the various spell lores, the el classico Tecnado (d3 mortal wounds in an area that makes a Slaan blush), a 5+ ward aura and any number of other strong effects (teleportation, d3 mortal wounds and half movement, d3 mortal wounds in a line, d3 mortal wounds on a skateboard, d3 mortal wounds to a target of choice, you get the picture); in combination, make Teclis an absolutely beastly inclusion in any list. This list focuses on projecting power at distance using umbral spellportal and the rune of petrification (you guessed it, d3 mortal wounds, twice!) alongside Teclis’s spell package and other units to essentially prevent opponents’ ability to interfere with this process.
The two blocks of Sentinels, double reinforced, allow each other to shoot at 30″ under the new warscroll and output great damage and mortal wounds to force enemies to approach this castle setup. Late in games, I’d foresee this pairing splitting somewhat if enemies are out of range and need to be chased down but otherwise this is the core damage output of the list, sitting at the back and making enemy units wonder which nerfs exactly LRL players were complaining about. The other units essentially act as speedbumps, the wardens are a fun little block of 10 to sit on objectives and fighty enough that opponents can’t send their chaffiest chaff to deal with them while the windchargers take on the role of the old spirit of the wind, plinking, unleashing hell and piling out of combat as the opponent chases them up the board Benny Hill style while Teclis’s casting does it’s best impression of a Home Alone movie, ensuring that by the time enemies arrive to objectives they’re so battered as to be easy pickings for the Sentinels.
Last but not least, the Cathallar, she sits in the shrine and makes the opponent pay 2 cp for each CP they spend and sucks up any bad feelings from Elves having meth Aetherquartz withdrawals. We all love the Cathallar here at WoeHammer. What an absolute team player. Great work to Dan in piloting this relatively spicy archetype to a 5-0 and having seen some massive complaints in various discords about the difficulties of using a similar build I’d love to hear from the man himself if he has any tips for aspiring practitioners of the ancient martial art of D3 Mortal Wounds.
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Gardus Steel Soul (150)* Knight-Draconis (300)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Scintillating Trail – Spell: Thundershock
Battleline 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – Drakerider’s Lance – Reinforced x 1 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance
Units 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Horrorghast (40)
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Additional Enhancements Holy Command: Steadfast March
Brett: The last of the 5 and 0 lists for the event and we see the return of the Dragon List. Not as extreme as some with 9 drakes altogether but it’s still a hard list to play into. There is an ongoing debate surrounding Lances vs Warblades but Lances make a lot of sense in a Hallowed Knights list with Gardus. There is a really nice synergy between Gardus’s warscroll abilities and Lances with both an extra reroll (so the Drakes can save theirs) and an additional attack. On the charge the lances are -2 Rend, 2 Damage for maximum impact. Statistically best on the unit of 4, all units within 12″ benefit. It would be hard (but possible) to get more than 6 drakes wholly within 12″.
Horrorghast is an unusual choice but makes sense, Drakes don’t do huge damage and might not clear a unit completely through shooting and combat. Bottom of a round this might make a difference. Everblaze is a good option with the build on the Knight Draconis and the points. Tree Revenants are another good choice, their ability to walk the spirit paths (teleport) is better than the similarly costed Vanguard-Hunters because they don’t need to arrive close to the board edge. Choosing Tree Revenants means no need for a priest (Translocation) and a redeemer. In this list that’s worth an extra 2 dragons.
Mobility with endurance and reasonable hitting power is usually effective. Everything fits in a single battle regiment and at 1960 pts, the triumph should be in play most games. Daniel’s scores were competitive but his opponents were ranked lower through the tournament so his Swiss SoS placed him 3rd. A really good way to play SCE if you have the patience to build and paint that many dragons. It still needs good generalship, you don’t have a lot of bodies to control objectives or the board.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)* – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Peter: I reached out to fill to see if he would be kind enough to comment on his list. He not only agreed but also gave us a tournament run down, which I’ll be publishing later today in its own article.
Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind. The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport). The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine. As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Quest of Champions Final that took place in the UK on 22md and 23rd October. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
We have covered all of the previous four heats on Woehammer where players competed for a place in the finals. The system was devised by Dan from the Warrior Lodge in the UK and it makes for great competition each year. If you want to catch up on the games, the event was covered by Dice and Ducks on their YouTube channel.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Beastlord (95)* – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)**** – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Great Bray-Shaman (100)**** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Savage Dominion
Battleline 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*** – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*** – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields
Units 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)**** 20 x Bestigors (250)*** – Reinforced x 1 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Danny: Freddie Leggett has a point to prove – and that point is ‘nerf Beasts’. The man even admitted himself after this event – his 3rd 5-0 with BoC in the self-proclaimed ‘Cygor meta’ – and far as we know, his wish is about to be granted… but in the meantime, you gotta take your hat off to the guy for running quite so rampant.
Beasts have a few things going for them. Not least of which is sheer numbers and efficiency. Dragon Ogors are just a brutally good hammer for their points – and in true 2nd edition fashion the Shaggoth allows them to re-roll 1s to hit, making their high volume of attacks uber reliable.
Ungors are fairly bad, but at 65 pts they’re one of the cheapest screens/battleline taxes going – they also make excellent Herdstone fodder, meaning a cheap way to rack up plenty of summoning points. Whereas Bestigors and Centigors fill out the niches of speed and slow good quality of attacks on a 4+ respectively.
The techy-cherry on top of this swarm is the two monsters, who each gain a unique monstrous action. The Cygor can try for an endless spell dispel – and if successful heal itself equal to the roll, making itself particularly tanky in this spell heavy meta. Whereas the Jabber can worsen the save of an enemy hero by 1 on a 2-5 or 2 on a 6 until the following combat phase – meaning even rend 1 weapons can utterly melt a priority target. Meanwhile the Mindstealer Sphiranx has a good chance of making something fight last.
It’s all tied together by the just all round great enhancements of Gavespawn. No one thing is particularly frightening on its own but the combined offensive weight and significant numbers of summoned models just tend to utterly overwhelm and establish massive board presence.
Good point, well made Freddie – time to put BoC out to pasture!
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen (Sixth Circle) – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Archaon the Everchosen (860)* – Aura of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Call to Glory Chaos Lord (120)* – Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 3 x Varanguard (280)* – Ensorcelled Weapon and Warpsteel Shield – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 3 x Varanguard (280)* – Ensorcelled Weapon and Warpsteel Shield – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Danny: With leaks of the new tome flooding the interwebs and the current Tome languishing at the bottom of the win-rate pile, Toby Meadows drops this bombshell on us – a 2nd place Archaon list! To be fair, it’s not a huge deviation from pretty much the only viable Slaves build at the moment.
Archaon is a big, tanky-ass utility provider, who is himself supported by the two lords for more buffs than you can shake a stick at. His role is usually as a super hard to shift distraction carnifex who can roll smaller units, making him a tricky tactical proposition. Meanwhile, 2 squads of Tzeentch marked Varanguard – meaning they’re re-rolling 1s to save on a nat 3+, and doing +1 damage in the 6th circle – act as twin hammers. 3 squads of super-bargain Iron Golems work on the board and objective control game – they hit more like pillow golems, but they’re a super cheap source of wounds on a 4+ with a natural +1 if they didn’t move.
And that cheeky kitty shows up again for the fight last shenanigans!
Big kudos to Toby as this list, while strong, is definitely suffering from being behind the times overall and takes a great degree of tactical acumen to pilot well. Losing only to the insane volume of attacks and bodies of 1st place Freddie is a great achievement.
Danny: It’s Mike Stewart. It’s Seraphon. It’s double Bastiladons with a Purple Sun. And even that couldn’t beat Freddie. Ok i’ll throw you a bone if you’re not familiar with Seraphon lists – Slann provides magical domination, the Bastiladons can be buffed to re-roll 1s, have +1 to hit and do additional mortals on 6s. If the Engine manages to get Curse off on something (6s to hit do mws) and the Sun is nearby to make each shot rend 2 – and in Thunder Lizards, one of them can use a command ability to firre twice…it’s gonna burn. And Beasts still beat it.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (245)*** – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Ghoul King (165)*** – Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)** – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Blood Feast Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)*** – General – Command Trait: Savage Chivalry – Artefact: Decrepit Coronet – Mount Trait: Razor-clawed – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)** Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)**
Battleline 30 x Crypt Ghouls (255)* – Reinforced x 2 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)***
Danny: So, FEC aren’t eating good these days – so 6th place is a big achievement and sure to score highly on our Woehammer scoring system. This is really a ‘ghouls for days’ list – each of those ghoul squads can come back on a 4+ … as many times as you like! They’re underwhelming in general but with bounty hunters can still bring the weight of dice pain, and if you roll well can represent a fairly overwhelming amount of board control over the game. Backed up by the King on ‘Gheist and his well known spike damage potential, plus a slightly less royal zombie dragon, it’s a classic ‘swamp and chomp’ (yes I just coined that term) list that must have scored fantastically to end 6th with 3-1-1.
Well done to Tom, and please, James Workshop, for the love of all that’s unholy give this faction some new models and rules.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Northern Invasion Grand Tournament that took place in Scotland on 1st and 2nd October. It involved 45 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord Kroak (430)* Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140) – Artefact: Serpent God Dagger Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spell: Hand of Glory Slann Starmaster (265)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Artefact: Itxi Grubs – Spell: Stellar Tempest
Battleline 30 x Skinks (225)** – Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)** – Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)** – Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 5 x Saurus Guard (115)*
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Horrorghast (40) Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60) The Burning Head (20)
Comments: Fangs of Sotek with both Kroak and Krondspine headlining a lot of Skinks. No Bastilidons or Engine of the Gods, the only Behemoth is the Krondspine. No Purple Sun either but a pair of Mortal Wound endless spells with Ravenak’s and Burning Head combined with Horrorghast. The intention is pretty clear, send in the Horrorghast then follow up with Ravenak’s and maybe the Burning Head before Kroak rains MWs on you. This list is able to bring decent damage, especially from Kroak, Krondspine and the big unit of Skinks, which on top of the MWs and Horrorghast will cause battleshock issues. Countering that play is difficult, particularly with the summoning, but trying to stay back early may be the play. Kroak’s spells aren’t range limited and you need to avoid Unleash Hell from the 30 Skink block.
His opponents for the most part are reasonably slow and very exposed to Ravenak’s as a result. Combined with the Skink double shoot and Kroak turning off magic these were hard games for his opponents. It will be interesting to see what, if any, impact the new Tzeentch, Behemat and Lumineth tomes have on this type of list.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Spirit Torment (115)*** Guardian of Souls (150)*** – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Spirit Torment (115)*** Krulghast Cruciator (150)*** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist
Battleline 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)** 5 x Hexwraiths (160)* 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)** 10 x Chainrasps (110)**
Units 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)***
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Comments: Scarlet Doom continues to be the top choice in Nighthaunt and this list doesn’t deviate too much from the normal inclusions. 2 x Spirit Torments, Guardian and Krulghast with Spirit Hosts as bodyguards. Otherwise Bladegheist (the soul of a Scarlet Doom army), Hexwraiths for mobile pressure and scoring with some Chainrasps as either screens of for screens/objectives. Banshees to provide counter spell (endless spell anyway) and the Purple Sun. Stand outs are probably Master of Magic (great choice) and the use of both of the new battalions. Turn priority isn’t critical for Nighthaunt with their speed, ignore rend and ward saves, the potential double on 2/3 is very strong for them, they often lose models slowly and regrow them. Most lists would run a 20 and a 30 Bladegheist unit with this number (50) available).
2 large units of Bladegheist are going to delete a lot of threats, they can each be backed Spirit Torments for some returned models. The list isn’t tied to 1 big death ball, it can effectively operate on 2 fronts. Expert Conquerors is a great choice, the units are relatively cheap so they can be traded and MSU batteline may not destroy them in one turn. Spectral Lure (Guardian of Souls) has a 24″ range, it’s possible to return models from a decent distance. The only match up he lost to is Kharadon, their boats can escape combat and with their shooting it’s a very tough fight for Nighthaunt.
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Heroic Stature – Artefact: Armour of Gork – Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* – 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers – 1x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers
Comments: A variation on the double Mawcrusha style with a Rogue Idol in place of the 2nd Mawcrusha. Warlord has been used to give the Shaman and extra spell and the MegaBoss on Mawcrusha is super tanky (Armour of Gork, Heroic Stature and Smelly ‘Un). Smelly ‘Un only applies if you haven’t charged, and that suggests how this list plays. The 2 x 6 Gore Grunta units and the Rogue idol are the aggressive elements, the Mawcrusha is going to be held back until it has to be committed. On the other hand the Rogue is going to charge as much as possible for that +1 to hit. If the Warchanter gives it the Get ’em beat it’s threat range is massive.
The list is the first of the 4/1s only struggling with Soulblight Gravelords. That’s expected because they operate in different ways, with SBGL getting stronger as time goes on and they can summon/return units while the Orruks lose strength particularly from Turn 3 onwards as units succumb. The secret to beating them is to out last them. Is it time for a new model for Ironjawz? If there was what should it be?
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)* – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 6 x Furies (95)**
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Comments: In 4th and another 4/1 result it’s Knights of the Empty Throne with max Varanguard and Iron Golems. Everything has Mark of Tzeentch because it’s probably the best in the current spell meta. Combat heroes (6 Varanguard) and 2 casting heroes with a team of mortal screens (Iron Golems) and the warshrine. Mask of Darkness for teleporting madness. The Varanguard are going to be applying pressure and stamping out threats, they don’t do as much damage as Fulminators (average damage is 18 before saves + 3 MWs). Iron Golems are a very annoying screen/objective unit. With the 7 x 1 wound and a 3 wound model, there is a very good chance you want clear it 1 turn unless you commit. And the Warshrine can then heal it forcing you to fight a them in 2 turns.
Again the only loss was to a faction that directly counters this list, long range shooting with mortals being a great counter. The unit of Varanguard with the grasping plate is able to pile in 6″, remember that if you have ranged attacks because they don’t need to trigger Unleash Hell. That’s probably the biggest trick, otherwise this a straightforward list.
