This is the top three AoS lists for the Medellin Grand Open 2026 that took place in Colombia between the 8th and 9th of August 2026. It saw 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite 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
Ironjawz Ironjawz Brawl General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of the Weird Prayer Lore – Warbeats Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Gorkamorka Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Kragnos, the End of Empires (580) • General Maw-grunta Gougers (200) Scourge of Aqshy: Brutes (320) • Reinforced Scourge of Aqshy: Brutes (320) • Reinforced Scourge of Aqshy: Megaboss (150) • An Eye For Da Fight • Chimeric Mantle
Slaves to Darkness Godswrath Warband General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Malevolence Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120) • General Chaos Chosen (510) • Reinforced • The Dread Banner • Brand of Apoplexy Mindstealer Sphiranx (140) Scourge of Aqshy: Chaos Warriors (400) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Daemon Prince (250) • Pledged to Nurgle • Trophy Rack • Darkflame Pendant • Radiance of Dark Glory
Regiment 2 Gunnar Brand (180) Singri Brand The Oathsworn Kin
Regiments of Renown The Exiled One (390) Skarbrand
Faction Terrain Nexus Chaotica
Ogor Mawtribes Beast Handlers General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Battle Tactics Cards: Blazing Onslaught and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Kragnos, the End of Empires (580) • General Stonehorn Beastriders (260) • 1 Chaintrap
Regiment 1 Frostlord on Stonehorn (320) • Gruesome Trophies • Great Gutlord Stonehorn Beastriders (260) • 1 Chaintrap
This is the top three AoS lists for the Rose City Rampage 4: To the Rextreme that took place in the US between the 1st and 2nd of August 2026. It saw 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite 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
Gloomspite Gitz Squigalanche General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of the Little Waaagh! Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate Battle Tactics Cards: Blazing Onslaught and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Droggz Da Sunchompa (150) • General Boingrot Bounderz (250) • Reinforced • Glitzy Bitz Rolla Scourge of Aqshy: Fellwater Troggoths (180) Squig Herd (200) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (160) • The Clammy Cowl Squig Hoppers (300) • Reinforced Squig Hoppers (300) • Reinforced Squigboss with Gnasha-Squig (140) • Loontouched
Helsmiths of Hashut Taar’s Grand Forgehost Army of Renown General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy (10 Points) Battle Tactic Cards: Siege of Ashes, Blazing Onslaught
General’s Regiment Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith (340) • General Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (180) • Reinforced Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Regiment 1 Ashen Elder (120) • Talisman of Obsidian Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140) Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140) Infernal Razers with Blunderbusses (220) • Reinforced Regiment 2 Ashen Elder (120) • Ruthless Oversser Dominator Engine with Bane Maces (150) Dominator Engine with Bane Maces (150) Dominator Engine with Immolation Cannons (160)
Disciples of Tzeentch Malevolent Schemers General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of Fate Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Tzeentch Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Legend of the Parch
General’s Regiment Lord of Change (390) • General • Devolving Aura • Fate Slicer – (10) Points Blue Horrors and Brimstone Horrors (240) • Reinforced Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (60) Pink Horrors (190) • Vision of Arcane Sacrifice – (20) Points Tzaangor Enlightened (400) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot (140) Flamers of Tzeentch (130) Pink Horrors (340) • Reinforced Scourge of Aqshy: Screamers of Tzeentch (110)
Faction Terrain Argent Shard
Soulblight Gravelords Deathmarch General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Grave Battle Tactics Cards: Flanking Firestorm and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Scourge of Aqshy: Vengorian Lord (310) • General • Shard of Night • Immortal Ego Barrow Guard (260) • Reinforced • The Never-Dead Scourge of Aqshy: Revenant Draconith (290) Vargheists (240) • Reinforced
This is the top three AoS lists for the Fields Of Slaughter GT 2 that took place in the UK between the 8th and 9th of August 2026. It saw 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite 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
Ironjawz Weirdfist General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 4 Wounds: 191 Spell Lore – Lore of the Weird Prayer Lore – Warbeats Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Gorkamorka Battle Tactic Cards: Siege of Ashes, Legend of the Parch
General’s Regiment Ardboy Big Boss (90) • General • Trophy Skulls • An Eye for da Fight Ardboyz (160) Ardboyz (160) Ardboyz (160) Ardboyz (160)
Helsmiths of Hashut Taar’s Grand Forgehost Army of Renown General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Taar’s Grand Forgehost Spell Lore Prayer Lore – Taar’s Grand Forgehost Prayer Lore Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries Battle Tactic Cards: Siege of Ashes, Blazing Onslaught
General’s Regiment Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith (340) • General Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Regiment 2 Daemonsmith (80) Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140) Dominator Engine with Bane Maces (150) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Regiment 3 Daemonsmith (80) Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140) Dominator Engine with Bane Maces (150) Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Slaves to Darkness Legion of the First Prince Army of Renown General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Legion of the First Prince Spell Lore Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration (20 Points) Battle Tactic Cards: Siege of Ashes, Blazing Onslaught
General’s Regiment Be’lakor, the Dark Master (450) • General Legion of the First Prince Bloodletters (340) • Reinforced Legion of the First Prince Bloodletters (340) • Reinforced Legion of the First Prince Flamers of Tzeentch (240) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Centaurion Marshal (120) • Dread Marshal • Black Ritual Dagger Legion of the First Prince Bloodcrushers (150) Legion of the First Prince Bloodcrushers (150) Legion of the First Prince Bloodcrushers (150)
Faction Terrain Nexus Chaotica
Stormcast Eternals Thunderhead Host General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 2 Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Burning for Vengeance
We’ve updated the method of calculating the Elo ratings into our Age of Sigmar stats, this includes an attempt to reflect both the tournament strength and the faction strength.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, , Ecksen, ChampionshipHub, Milarki, Mini Headquarters, Tabletop Herald and Longshanks. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
For patrons, you’ll be able to download and play with the database as well (which includes all the lists and stats for all the factions).
As always, if you’re struggling to read a chart, you should be able to right click and then either view or download the image.
There are a few changes this week, so I should probably explain myself first!
Firstly, we no longer have the traditional win-rate chart. This has been replaced by the new Faction Meta Dashboard.
The reason is to move away from treating win rates as the sacred word when it comes to balance. I’ve been saying for a while now that win rates only scrape the surface. They’re useful, but we need to dig deeper to understand how those figures are being produced.
With that in mind, the Dashboard now shows the number of players and games behind each faction’s win rate, which we’re now calling the Observed Win Rate. Next to that, you’ll see the percentage of GT runs which resulted in four or more wins across the first five rounds of events.
On either side of the Observed Win Rate are two columns marked Lower and Upper. These represent the 95% confidence interval around that result. In simple terms, they’re the range within which we think the faction’s underlying win rate is likely to sit. Factions with fewer recorded games will have a much wider range, while those with hundreds of games will give us more confidence.
Recent Form
You’ll also see a new Recent Form section. We’re comparing a faction’s most recent 200 games with its opening 200 games of the current Battlescroll. To avoid overlapping samples, we only make this comparison once a faction has recorded more than 400 games.
This gives us another way of looking at the meta. Rather than asking “How has this faction performed across the whole Battlescroll?”, we can ask “Is it still performing that way now?”
That’s already producing some interesting results, which we’ll come to later.
Skill-Adjusted Win Rates
Last, we come to probably the most interesting part of the Dashboard, for me at least. The Skill-Adjusted Analysis attempts to separate faction performance from the skill and experience of the players using it.
Using WoElo, we can estimate how likely each player was to win each individual game based solely on the WoElo of themselves and their opponent. At this stage, we’re deliberately ignoring which factions either player brought.
Take Hedonites of Slaanesh as an example. Their players have an average WoElo of 480.9, and based on the individual match-ups those players encountered during this battlescroll, we would have expected them to win approximately 55% of their games even before looking at anything to do with Factions, Formations or lists.
Their Observed Win Rate was 58%. Once we account for that player-strength advantage, our current Skill-Adjusted Faction Win Rate estimate is 52%.
That doesn’t mean Hedonites really have a 52% win rate. The 58% is what actually happened. Instead, the adjusted figure is our attempt to answer a slightly different:
How much of that performance comes from the faction, rather than the players using it?
Battle Formations
We’ve also introduced a dedicated Battle Formation Meta Table.
This works in the same way as the Faction Dashboard, showing the number of players and games recorded for each formation, its usage within the faction, 4+ win finishes, Observed Win Rate and the 95% confidence interval around that result.
We then apply the same player-skill analysis to produce a Skill-Adjusted Formation Win Rate.
I think this is important because a faction sitting comfortably at 50% doesn’t mean every way of building that army is balanced. One formation might be outperforming while another struggles, with the two averaging out into what could be seen as a healthy faction result.
The Charts
We’ve retained our two player population charts, showing the number and percentage of players within each WoElo bracket. These provide some useful context for the Dashboard by showing just how differently the player populations of each faction are distributed.
We’ve also kept the Fabien Chart, showing what percentage of players finished their GT runs with 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4+ wins. Averages are useful, but sometimes it’s much more informative to see what actually happened to the people who took an army to an event.
Finally, we have one new chart, Observed vs Skill-Adjusted Faction Win Rate. Blue represents the Observed Win Rate and orange represents our estimate after taking into account player WoElo.
The line between them is where some of the interesting stories in the data live. If a faction moves substantially down after adjustment, we have evidence that a strong player population may be helping its results. If it moves upwards, its players may actually be underperforming.
And with all that explanation out of the way, we can finally get onto what the numbers are actually telling us this week…
Faction Dashboard Analysis
With the boring explanations out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff.
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Hedonites are sitting pretty with 58%, but there’s more being that. Hedonites have the highest Observed Win Rate in the game, and that 58% comes out of 350 games. That would be where most people stop, they’re three percentage points above the traditional 45-55% window, and 30% of their completed GT runs have resulted in four or more wins, which is also the highest in our data.
But Hedonites players also have an average WoElo of 480.9, the highest of any faction. Looking at the individual opponents they’ve faced, we’d have expected these players to win around 55% of their games based on their ratings alone. Their skill-adjusted estimate falls from 58% to 52% which is the largest downward adjustment on the table.
It doesn’t mean Hedonites are a 52% faction, or that there’s nothin to worry about. But what it tells us is that Hedonites raw results are going with a very strong player population.
Fyreslayers
Fyreslayers are 57% from 223 games. But unlike Hedonites, adjusting for the player strength doesn’t make that performance disappear.
Fyreslayers players have averaged out at 448.2 WoElo, with their match-ups giving them a player-skill baseline of roughly 51%, this has meant their skill-adjusted win rate remains at around 54%.
So we have two factions with similar headline results:
Hedonites: 58% falling to 52% adjusted Fyreslayers: 57% falling to 54% adjusted
It would arguably mean that the Fyreslayers are the more interesting faction to watch. But, Fyreslayers only have 223 games recorded which means the confidence interval is quite wide at between 51-64%.
They’re also having 21% of their players achieve 4+ wins compared to Hedonites 30%.
Cities of Sigmar
Cities have 720 games from 145 players on record, with an Observed Win Rate of 56%. Their confidence interval is narrower at 53-60%, and 29% of their players reach four or more wins.
Cities opening 200 games had an Observed Win Rate of 58% which has fallen to 54% across the most recent 200 games.
Their WoElo is good, averaging at 454.1, but even taking that into account their skill-adjusted win rate is still 55%. But there’s even more behind this when we get to the Formation dashboard.
Daughters of Khaine
Their overall Observed Win Rate is 56%, but their most recent 200 games have reached 58%, up 4.8 percentage points compared with their opening 200.
Their average WoElo is a tough 465.8 and their expected player performance was around 52%, which brings their adjusted down to 53%.
Gloomspite Gitz
At the other end of the table we have the Gitz. They’ve won 45% of their 519 games this battlescroll, and their latest 200 games is sitting at just 38%. Unlike some of the other factions, player strength doesn’t seem to explain this one. Gitz players have an average WoElo of 404.0 and a player-skill baseline of 49%. Our adjusted win rate only goes up to 47%.
Something has changed recently, it could be anything between the players, builds, match-ups or simply the wider meta adapting to Gitz.
Ogor Mawtribes
The new Ogor Mawtribes have been getting a lot of attention recently and have an awful lookin 38% Observed Win Rate. But that is only based on 89 games across 19 players, Their confidence interval is a massive 28-48%, and their skill-adjusted estimates climbs to 44%.
This does suggest the Ogors performance could be partly down to the skill and experience of the players using faction. But we don’t have enough data yet.
Formation Analysis
Lumineth Realm-lords
Aelementor Guardians are leading the way. Sitting with a whopping 61% Observed Win Rate across 124 games and 35% of their players achieving four wins or more.
Player strength accounts for some of that with Aelementor players having an average WoElo of 474.9 with a player baseline of 52%. But even taking this into account, the formation still has an adjusted win rate of 55%.
Cities of Sigmar
Cities’ Zealous Hordes are more of a concern. With 284 games from 59 players. It has a 60% Observed Win Rate and a 31% 4+ success rate. Their average WoElo is 473.6 and after taking in the player skill, we would still expect Zealous Hordes to hit around 57%. Compare that to the other formations:
Formation
Observed Win Rate
Adjusted Win Rate
Zealous Hordes
60%
57%
Stalwart Guardians
53%
51%
Swift Reinforcements
48%
50%
Zealous Hordes seems to be doing the heavy lifting in the Cities Observed Win Rate.
Hedonites of Slaanesh
With Hedonites, Depraved Carnival are used in 75% of their games. They have 58% across 261 games, which is pretty much the same as the Hedonites overall figures.
But again, their player base is strong at 483.2, and their players were expected to win 54% of the time regardless of faction. Their estimated win rate falls to 53%.
Sylvaneth
Sylvaneth have two Formations that are giving us some interest. The Faction overall has 53%, but their Formation Lords of the Clan has 56% over its 241 games and an adjusted win rate of 56%. Their players have a modest WoElo of 413.9 and an expected win rate regardless of Factions at 47%. Meanwhile Glade Defenders sits at 51% observed and 51% adjusted across 319 games.
Interesting because Lords of the Clan isn’t producing good results because of a high skill player base. Its players are outperforming what we’d expect from their ratings.
Blades of Khorne
Khorne aren’t particularly alarming at 50% Observed and 53% Adjusted. But Murderhost is currently at 52% Observed and 54% Adjusted, while Khornate Legion sits at 51% and 52%. Northing scary there.
But what’s interesting is that both improve after player adjustment. Murderhost players have a baseline expectation of only 46% yet won 52% of their games.
Kharadron Overlords
The Endrineers Guild Expeditionary Force makes a jump from 44% observed to 50% adjusted. Their average WoElo is just 351.6 which is incredibly low.
I’m not claiming they secretly balanced, but its difficult to look at the 44% without looking at who’s piloting the army in those games.
Popularity Analysis
Disciples of Tzeentch have one of the strongest populations in the game, around 34% of their players are rated 500+ WoElo, including 6% above 700. Daughters of Khaine aren’t far behind, with 38% at 500+.
That helps put some of their results into context. Both factions are performing well, but they’re also attracting considerably stronger-than-average players.
At the opposite end sit factions such as Kharadron Overlords, where around 60% of players are below 400 WoElo, and only around 9% are currently above 500.
Skaven and Gloomspite also have particularly large sub-400 populations at 56% apiece.
This doesn’t tell us why. It could be that those factions attract less experienced players, that experienced players have moved away from them, or as was raised in our Discord this week, that repeatedly playing a struggling army may itself suppress a player’s WoElo.
That’s something we’re going to look at, and not pretend we’ve already got the answer.
Win Analysis
This remains one of my favourite charts because it translates abstract win rates into something much more tangible. If I take this faction to a GT, what sorts of records are people actually coming home with?
At the top, 30% of Hedonites runs reach four or more wins, followed closely by Cities at 29% and Daughters of Khaine at 27%.
But the rest matters too. For Hedonites, another 32% finish on three wins. That means roughly six in ten Hedonites GT runs are currently finishing with at least three wins from the five rounds we’re measuring. Compare that with Stormcast Eternals. Only 10% reach four wins, while 31% finish 3-2, 27% finish 2-3, 19% manage one win and 12% go winless.
And then there are Ogors. None of the 19 recorded Ogor players have yet reached four wins, while 48% finished with either zero or one win. The sample is tiny, as we’ve already discussed, but that’s still rather grim.
Accounting for Player Strength
This helps us see more clearly what I’ve been talking about this week. When we account for players strength some factions barely move at all while others move massively.
Hedonites fall from 58% to 52%, and Daughters from 56% to 53%. At the opposite end we can see that Kharadron rise 46% to 50% and Ogors go from 38% to 44%.
This is not intended to show any “real” win rate. WoElo and faction performance aren’t independent. A player repeatedly winning with a strong army will increase their WoElo, and someone sticking with an underperforming faction could see theirs fall. But we’ll look into refining this as we get more data.
Think of this as answering: “How did this faction perform compared with what we’d have expected from the previous performance of the players involved?”
Woehammer Database
To download out Age of Sigmar stats database, click on the button below.
For those of you who are counted among our legendary Patreons, you can view the full stats and download the stats database.
This database is included in an additional article which is Patreon only and posted on the same day. These Patreon posts also include additional stats which aren’t available in the standard stats article, such as Faction v Faction stats.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Realmshift Series 2026 – Chapter 2 that took place in the US between the 15th and 16th of August 2026. It saw 37 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before we jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I want to invite 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
1st Dylan Therriault Cities of Sigmar
R1
Win
v
Maggotkin of Nurgle (Tallyband of Nurgle)
R2
Win
v
Seraphon (Sunclaw Starhost)
R3
Win
v
Flesh-eater Courts (Knightly Echelon)
R4
Win
v
Slaves to Darkness (Despoilers)
R5
Win
v
Cities of Sigmar (Zealous Hordes)
Cities of Sigmar Zealous Hordes General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Wounds: 152 Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane Prayer Lore – Scriptures of Sigmar Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate Battle Tactic Cards: Blazing Onslaught, Burning for Vengeance
General’s Regiment Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (340) • General Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120) • The Last Blade of Embergard • Beloved Leader Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Cavaliers (300)
Regiment 2 Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (120) Freeguild Gallants (130)
Faction Terrain Dawner’s Triumph
Dylan: Not only is this list one of the strongest I’ve ever had the opportunity to pilot, it may be the most exciting I’ve played in fourth edition. It follows a usual structure for my GT lists: A handful of core combat pieces, a moderate degree of shooting output, multiple layers or resources and a handful of technical tools to open play.
The absolute, uncontested MVPs of this list (and Cities as a faction) are the Cavaliers. The speed, durability, offense and layered buffs available to this unit (offered by Tahlia, the Warforger, Gallants, Zealous Hordes, “Hurl them back!”, and the Cavalier-Marshal’s impact mortals) make them one of the most incredible combat units on stats alone. Coupled with their “storm of steel” ability, they are extraordinarily flexible and a nightmare for your opponent to deal with, repositioning on your opponent’s turn and becoming immune to efforts to tag them out from charging. At their present cost, it is hard to see any other unit as the building block of a Cities list’s combat, especially as the focal points of the faction’s triple activation.
Cities of Sigmar has very limited access to meaningful ward saves or recursion and almost no abilities that debuffs enemy output. Instead, this list survives entirely on its ability to control the combat phase to blank enemy hammers and reposition units away from danger or into opportune positions. Steelhelms carry this job by counter-charging to taunt enemy hammers that attempt to engage Cavaliers (subsequently leading to a devastating rend 3 activation by the Cavaliers). The storm of steel ability lets cavaliers slide away from attackers or open routes for Steelhelms to reach their targets by counter-charge. Jorvann, too, lets the Fusiliers and Grenadiers escape combat by striking and fading on both turns. This ability can be used twice in a turn, first during the combat phase and then during the end of turn with rage dice. With some planning, you can make massive, 24″ repositions of your units to deny scoring, save wounds, or prepare to score on later turns. Don’t be tempted to put Jorvann into combat: I’ve never used his ability to turn off crit effects (or even remembered that he has it). His teleports are too valuable to risk him dying anyways.
The Grenadiers are an inclusion people often ask me about. Indeed, the unit is very fragile and expensive for its roll. Their slow speed, poor defense and strange combat profile have proven awkward to use. Their inclusion here relies on their synergies with Jorvann Kreel and Tahlia Vedra: both units give this unusual combat unit dynamic options to score and stay safe, especially during the late game. The foot-gallants are used almost exclusively for their anti-charge rend bubble. The Fusiliers are usually placed on the line in range of Jorvann.
Given that Cities is dangerous on both their own turn and their opponents, this list can follow a variety of gameplans and tempo. A typical game revolves around connecting an all-in go turn using all twenty Cavaliers with Tahlia’s once per game to force the issue and sweep away resources. If the opponent is able to respond at all, it can be mitigated by leveraging the Steelhelms to flip their turn on their head and end the game. But, if there is no safe opportunity to push the game forward, this list is happy to creep forward, set-up its tools and wait to punish an overextension by the opponent. The tactics choices, Blazing Onslaught and Burning for Vengeance, were chosen to keep the focus of this list on rolling through the opponent. Generally, I try not to compromise board position and coordination between units to score tactics early in the game. Capturing the opponent’s hideout and felling their fugitive are accomplished by following the above gameplans: keep your units overlapped and central, capture the middle of the board, wipe away the core of the opponent’s list and end the game as early as possible.
Combat exclusive armies are in immense danger facing this Cities list. More challenging matchups include factions or lists that have considerable shooting or multi-phase mortal wound output. Without a ward save or recursion, consistent attrition damage outside combat will eventually wear down Cities options. Similarly, hard shooting forces cities play uncomfortably aggressive, or hover around obscuring to protect their Steelhelm tools. Armies that shut-down charge damage or punish charge abilities can neutralize the output of the Cavaliers as well.
2nd Rye Anderson Sylvaneth
R1
Loss
v
Disciples of Tzeentch (Fated Blades)
R2
Win
v
Daughters of Khaine (Coven of Blood)
R3
Win
v
Slaves to Darkness (Godswrath Warband)
R4
Win
v
Ironjawz (Ironjawz Brawl)
R5
Win
v
Hedonites of Slaanesh (Depraved Carnival)
Sylvaneth Lords of the Clan General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 5 Spell Lore – Lore of the Deepwood Prayer Lore – Lore of the Spirit-Song Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Deepwood Battle Tactics Cards: Legend of the Parch and Siege of Ashes
Rye: Are you a degenerate gambler willing to bet your entire game on rolling just a few dice? Well, this is the list for you.
Leveraging the dusty old Battletome Treelord Ancient to pump out Run & Charge alongside various goofy Endless Spells, the setup allows the true stars of the show to shine: three (yes, three) Spirits of Durthu. These big fellas pack terrifying damage potential. The Treelord Ancient feeds them +1 to Hit (until your next turn) via its Rampage, while the reaction ability lets a Durthu gain +2 to charge any enemy unit that is already in combat with another Sylvaneth hero. Thanks to that charge reaction, even the normally meme-tier Realmroot Guide Heroic Trait becomes legitimately viable. Top it off with the Lords of the Clan battle formation, and your giant trees are casually healing a flat 3 wounds at the end of every turn. When set up correctly, your primary Durthu, who holds the Glamour Weave, swings 5 sword attacks hitting and wounding on 2s, followed by another 3 attacks hitting and wounding on 2s at the end of the combat phase, all with re-rolls in both phases. The rest of the list exists purely to keep the Durthu engine humming:
Warsong Rev: Provides a clutch -1 to Wound prayer and gives 6+ ward/-1 ward to enemies.
Spiterider Lancers (Heartwood Boon): Deliver a once-per-game flat 6-wound heal to the Durthu cuddle puddle and help score Siege of Ashes 2.
Dryads, Spite-Revenants, & Gossamid Archers: Run interference, secure Siege of Ashes battle tactics, supply recursion, and apply backline pressure.
Between Durthu’s 3+ Strike-Last Rampage and the native Sylvaneth Fight First command, you can completely dictate the tempo of the combat phase. Just keep your Warsong or Treelord Ancient parked near Places of Power to generate the precious Rage Dice needed for end-of-turn burst damage or clutch saves.
Matchups Your absolute worst nightmare is reliable, heavy debuffing.
Tzeentch (Round 1): Despite eventually tabling Radu’s list, early debuffs blunted my momentum, and a positioning blunder cost me the game.
Slaanesh (Round 5): Jacob kept my Glamour Weave Durthu thoroughly “glazed” and sitting at -2 to Hit for the majority of the match.
Getting charged by units that fly or other monsters can be rough. Durthu’s 3+ fight last rampage only works on non-fly infantry and cavalry. Early pressure from shooting can be similarly hard to weather as you close the distance. High-volume of wounds with strong saves or wards also pose challenges for your low-attack-count list.
Ironjawz (Round 4): Seeing Grant’s Kragnos across the table was terrifying. Kraggy easily could have pinballed through all three Durthus in a turn or two if given the chance. Lots of wound-dense Brutes and Ragerz also made it tricky to pick this list apart.
The Verdict Is this list “meta” or even good? Probably not.
While running three Durthus is an absolute blast, for fewer points you could field 3x Kurnoth Hunters, which are easier to obscure, move just as fast, offer better Control and Wound density per point, and won’t balloon your drop count. But if you want to swing big tree swords and force your opponent to respect your rage dice, it gets the job done.
3rd Logan Young Cities of Sigmar
R1
Win
v
Seraphon (Shadowstrike Starhost)
R2
Win
v
Disciples of Tzeentch (Fated Blades)
R3
Win
v
Sons of Behemat (Taker Tribe)
R4
Win
v
Sylvaneth (Glade Defenders)
R5
Loss
v
Cities of Sigmar (Zealous Hordes)
Cities of Sigmar Zealous Hordes General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy (10 Points) Battle Tactic Cards: Legend of the Parch, Blazing Onslaught
Regiment 2 Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120) • The Last Blade of Embergard • Beloved Leader Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Freeguild Cavaliers (300) • Reinforced Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk (160)
Faction Terrain Dawners Triumph
Mike Mercurio: Who doesn’t love the thunderous sound of hoofbeats beneath the roar of cannon fire? Probably whoever is on the other side of this Cities of Sigmar list, that’s for sure. 20 Freeguild Cavaliers and their Beloved Leader Marshall continue marching across the mortal realms, not to mention the win column. This time, however, they do so in the shadow of a Cannonade Cogfort. The Cogfort adds an interesting dimension to the list; offering both solid ranged output in addition to anti-shooting tech to protect the formation. The Cogfort can also be quite flexible with its Special Ammunition ability; offering access to additional Rend into high armor targets or reducing ward saves into armies that rely on them. And with the bonus to hit from the Ogor Warhulk, and the Beloved Leader ability from the Cavalier-Marshall preventing negative modifiers from enemy abilities, the artillery support is indeed quite hearty. And if you think charging into the thick of it will keep you safe, think again. Freeguild Cavaliers can still charge in combat, avoiding engagements with potentially problematic hammers off turn. Gallants then provide the Cavaliers with additional rend, meaning one of those units will be Rend -2 Damage 2 in the enemy combat phase. Not to mention the humble Steelhelm sacrificing themselves for Sigmar’s knights to further prevent incoming damage. Overall, a fun take on what has become a competitive staple in the current meta.
6th Boris Poletaev Ironjawz
R1
Win
v
Slaves to Darkness (Godswrath Warband)
R2
Win
v
Ironjawz (Ironjawz Brawl)
R3
Loss
v
Slaves to Darkness (Despoilers)
R4
Win
v
Flesh-eater Courts (Knightly Echelon)
R5
Win
v
Blades of Khorne (Murderhost)
Ironjawz Ironjawz Brawl General’s Handbook 2026-27 Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of the Weird Prayer Lore – Warbeats Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Gorkamorka Battle Tactics Cards: Burning for Vengeance and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment Scourge of Aqshy: Megaboss (150) • General • An Eye For Da Fight • Amberbone Whetstone Scourge of Aqshy: Brutes (320) • Reinforced • 2 Gore-choppa Scourge of Aqshy: Brutes (320) • Reinforced • 2 Gore-choppa Scourge of Aqshy: Brutes (320) • Reinforced • 2 Gore-choppa Zoggrok Anvilsmasha (160) • 1 Grunta-tongs
edumh22: The best way to define this Ironjawz list, in my opinion, is scary. Daring to charge that many Brutes is only for the bold—they are incredibly efficient, and you had better wipe them out before they hit back, especially since they get buffed after being attacked.
The inclusion of the Ragers and the new Megaboss on Scourge of Ash helps address the list’s slow mobility and board control struggles. If ignored, the Megaboss can start buffing himself, ramping up his damage output and becoming a real menace. Having an extra Mighty Destroyers move boosts the army’s mobility and helps trap enemy units aiming to charge deep into the Orruk lines.
Zoggrok remains a solid pick because he boosts the units’ damage output and compensates for the list’s lack of Rend, while also providing an extra hero to declare the Waaagh!. I also love the choice to run the Weirdnob Shaman; he is easily one of the best wizards in the game when near big units, particularly when paired with the Manifestations of Gorkamorka. Having a reliable wizard for teleports, combined with so many charge buffs, constantly threatens the opponent and forces them to play defensively.
Overall, while this list is very efficient, it takes a highly skilled player to achieve a result this great.
We’ve updated the method of calculating the Elo ratings into our Age of Sigmar stats, this includes an attempt to reflect both the tournament strength and the faction strength.
All of the results in this article are taken from Best Coast Pairings, , Ecksen, ChampionshipHub, Milarki, Mini Headquarters, Tabletop Herald and Longshanks. They include GT (Two day events) or GT+ (6 or more rounds) only.
For patrons, you’ll be able to download and play with the database as well (which includes all the lists and stats for all the factions).
As always, if you’re struggling to read a chart, you should be able to right click and then either view or download the image.
Tournaments Included (Using December Battlescroll)
I’ve added in a colour code to show the rough age of the rules the faction is using.
As always, these are global stats from various sources around the internet.
Estimated Win Rates if the Player Skill Levels were Equal
What I’m trying to do here is work out what the win rates would be if the skill levels of all the players were the same (Yes, I realise this is nearly impossible to calculate – But I’m playing around here).
How it works is by calculating the average Elo of all the players that have had matches since the July battlescroll dropped. This worked out as 411.1. I then calculated how much difference there was between a factions average Elo shown in our original win rate graph to this overall average. The difference between these two figures was then turned into a percentage difference over/under the 411.1 elo. I then increased or decreased their win rate by this percentage (But this isn’t as simple as deducting or adding the percentage different to the win rate – you have to work out for instance what 4% may be of say 53% and then apply that. For Example – 10% of 40% is 4%)
Win Rates by Release Date
This chart shows the win rates for all the battletomes released within certain periods of time (every 6 months since 4th edition release).
This should show whether Battletomes are generally stronger the later they are released into the edition. As we can see they all fall within the 45-55% win area, though the battletomes released in the last 6 months are a little stronger than the other cohorts.
Battle Formation Win Rates
This chart shows the win rates for Battle Formations that have seen 100 games or more at GT events.
Faction Popularity (Broken Down by Player Elo Rating)
This is perhaps the most interesting chart to me personally. Here you can see the spread of the player skill levels for each faction according to our Elo rating system (updated each week in line with the Age of Sigmar stats).
The dark blue shows the really elite players of 700+ Elo. Interestingly, they don’t seem to give a damn about which faction is performing well in the meta and rely on their own skill (as they should!). Neither to 600-699 rated players. Where we start to see the swell in players possibly chasing the factions with more favourable rules is in players rated less than 600 Elo.
To make it a bit easier to see the effect of higher skilled players, I’ve added the below chart this week which breaks down each factions player base as a percentage.
Elite and Rookie Players by Faction
The blue section shows the percentage of a factions players which have an Elo rating of 500 or greater. While the Orange shows the number of new players to the faction where they have yet to attend a tournament (based on our database history).
The Fabien Chart
Fabien Barbusse is a top player in the AoS scene and a member of the Woehammer Discord who is one of many who points out any mistakes in the charts before we publish them. He stated he felt the most valuable chart would be a version of the one above, which shows the % of 4+ win results in a 5 game event compared to the other results.
% of Players with a Positive GT Result
Ideally you would want 50% of the players having a positive results for a truly balanced game system.
Consecutive Wins
This chart shows firstly the % of players with a negative result from 5 games at GT’s or GT+ in purple for each faction.
Dark blue shows the percentage of players who achieved 5 wins from 5 in the first five rounds of a GT or GT+.
Orange shows the players who achieved four wins from the first four rounds of a GT or GT+ but were unable to achieve the full house and lost their round 5 match.
Green shows the players who achieved three wins from three wins but were unable to win in their fourth round match.
Light blue shows all other players aside from those shown in the first three categories, who were able to achieve a positive result at a GT or GT+ i.e. 3 or more wins.
Battleplan Win Rates
This one could be useful for TO’s who are looking to run tournaments in the near future. If you’re hoping to curtail a few of the higher powered factions, you could perhaps look to use battleplans where those factions aren’t as dominant.
PlasticCraic mentioned the popularity of Battleplans earlier this week on his discord. So thought I’d include this.
Past Battlescroll Win Rates
Woehammer Database
To download out Age of Sigmar stats database, click on the button below.
For those of you who are counted among our legendary Patreons, you can view the full stats and download the stats database.
This database is included in an additional article which is Patreon only and posted on the same day. These Patreon posts also include additional stats which aren’t available in the standard stats article, such as Faction v Faction stats.
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