This is the top three lists for the Gallant Games AoS Store Championship, a 14 player event held in Singapore on the 7th and 8th of April. I think this may be the first time we’ve had the chance to cover an event from Singapore.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Host of the Everchosen – Grand Strategy: Take What Is Theirs
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Daemonic Speed, Binding Damnation – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (220)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
BATTLELINE Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Cursed Lance – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Rage Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Cursed Lance – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon Varanguard (580)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – 6 x Ensorcelled Weapon Spire Tyrants (80)* Spire Tyrants (80)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (140)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Moonclan Stabba – Artefacts of Power: The Clammy Cowl Squigboss (80)* Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – Spells: Itchy Nuisance – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Squigboss (80)** Skragrott, the Loonking (160)** – Spells: The Hand of Gork
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord-Imperatant (170)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades 1 x Celestant-Prime (330)** 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard
BATTLELINE 6 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (480)* 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)* – Sergeant – Standard Bearer – Drummer – Freeguild Sword and Shield 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 5 x Vindictors (130)**
This is the top three AoS lists for the Midtcon GT that took place in Denmark on the 4th and 5th of March. 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
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Oakenbrow – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired – Burgeoning
Leaders Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth Spirit of Durthu (350)** – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Knight-Zephyros (100)** – Allies Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Sylvaneth are really putting their roots down recently – and the nice thing is it’s still with a variety of lists – it seems like a great season for them, which is allowing people to flex their list building muscles with them and still do well.
Sune here has gone big tree heavy – with two hero trees and a full complement of treelord battleline. Durthi with the Gladius just absolutely slaps, and when such a threat is backed up by an Ancient (for a source of auto-forest at the start of the game) and a Warsong Rev for nasty casting through said forest (usually) – it’s a hell of a pincer movement.
Making full use of some allied tech, not only has Sune employed the now fairly standard Ghurish battlemage for the additional charge bonus, but he’s also rocking a Zephyros, who is just an absolute bargain basement GC who can also teleport.
Overall, I can see the root to victory for this list just being so many hyper-mobile scoring threats backed up by a killer Durthu that it’s overwhelming trying to keep up. Gratz to Sune on the evil tree 5-0.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Battleline 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Reinforced x 1 15 x Chaos Chosen (720)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh – Reinforced x 2
A rare HOTE list! Often overlooked in favour of Cabalists casting shenanigans or the battleline and run/charge of KOTET, a HOTE list really wants something to take advantage of that 5+ rally – aaaand 15 Chosen might just be the unit to do it!
Interestingly, Jon has Marked the Chosen as Slaanesh – *outside* of Legion, meaning he’s committing to their native -1 rend being enough, combined with their weight of attacks, to act as the list’s main hammer. HOTE offers a free second banner – so as well as the ubiquitous Eroding Icon on the pinning unit of Knights, he’s taken the Slaanesh banner on the Chosen for an additional attack on the charge – quite possibly relying on the mortal fishing to deal with more heavily armoured targets.
I suppose Be’lakor – whiffy and unreliable as he’s likely to be – does offer the option of locking down the Chosen’s natural predator for a turn or two, allowing them to clean everything else up – although I do struggle to see the logic of not even being able to roll on the EotG table with such a heavy investment of a unit – still, it worked out, and congrats to Jon for a great result!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Battlesmith (150)** – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – General – Runic Iron – Command Trait: Master Priest – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)** – Allies
Battleline 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1
Kevin Lathers: Now we see how far someone can skew a Fyreslayer list. Gustav has decided to deal with Fyreslayer’s innate slowness by just being able to deepstrike nearly the entire army. This list also lacks the usual Flamekeepers which accompany Vulkite Berserkers in nearly all Vostarg lists.
Between the Celestant-Prime, who can not only deepstrike but guarantee a charge, and three Runesmiters, Gustav can deepstrike all but two units in the list. Vulkites further benefit from this with their built-in +1 to charge rolls, thus making it an 8 on the roll to make a charge out of deepstrike. Twenty of them in GV is quite potent as well, even without the usual Flamekeepers.
I’m not certain how Gustav played things, but it seems the typical action would be to deepstrike two units of Vulkites and a battlesmith, along with the Celestant, leaving another brick with a battlesmith on the field; or deepstrike all three Vulkites and use Tunnel Master to bring a smith closer. In both cases this ends up performing almost like a pseudo-Beasts of Chaos list, only with a lot more wounds on the field and the ability to fight on death.
Once your opponent is boxed-in by warded up blocks of Vulkites and their big-daddy Celestant, holding objectives should be easy enough for the remaining group. It also retains the option of just sitting on an objective with the battlesmiths and making the opponent have to move the vulkites off in order to score anything, which can be daunting with 40 wounds under a 5+/6+ ward and the ability to rally on 4+’s.
Anything that can punch its way out of this is going to prove formidable and without Flamekeepers the Vulkites lose their incredibly hard punch-back ability, fighting on death more than once, and their combat phase charging. Further, having two battlesmiths eats up a lot of points that could move toward other heroes or more Vulkites. This list is sacrificing a lot for its strategy. This may have resulted in the two losses to both Ogors and Big Waagh who, depending on their build, should have no trouble weathering the storm and fighting their way out.
Still, it’s an interesting list with a great performance. Definitely an interesting way to take Fyreslayers.
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: N/A
Battleline 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)* – 1 x Marksman – 3 x Standard Bearer – 3 x Piper – Reinforced x 2 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)* – Swords and Shields – 1 x Sergeant – 1 x Standard Bearer – 1 x Drummer 10 x Flagellants (80)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue – 1 x Prophet
Units 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – 1 x Drakerider’s Lance (Stormdrake-Prime) – 3 x Drakerider’s Warblade – Reinforced x 1 Gotrek Gurnisson (480)* – Allies
With a new book almost here, Adam has proven there is still life in one of the oldest, and probably never the strongest battletomes. In the end, it’s a pretty conventional approach, drawing on really mobile Stormcast allies (Dragons, of course). 3 very magical and small heroes leave a lot of room for a real hero, and Gotrek, at his current 480 points, fits well. Hallowheart really helps the wizards. Each gets an extra spell. That means 2 instances of +1 to wound (Ignite), a heal (Sear Wounds), 4+ ward (Warding Brand), and a mortal wound ward. Soulscream gives a useful teleport if required, and everything is in a Battle Regiment to give options for the initial priority.
The army is really planning to castle. The heroes are effectively buff machines, mostly for the Crossbowman. The Flagellants and Guard are there to screen, and Gotrek can prowl around, ready to pounce on anything that trys to deal with them. They can stand and deliver (with 2 shots each) at 24″ with a fantastic unleash hell. There is still the option to Wildform Gotrek and send him through the Soulscream bridge to harrass something important. And all the while, the Drakes are there to cap and harrass your enemy. With Breathe and Lance, they are very dangerous and hard to manage. Adam lost to fire and fade (Sylvaneth), who really make you go to them, a weakness. And a faction that out castles castles, Fyreslayers. 6th is a very respectable result for cities.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Battle at the Book that took place in Australia on the 18th and 19th of February. It involved 55 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs:
Leaders Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**** Bloab Rotspawned (320)*** – Lore of Malignance: Blades of Putrefaction Lord of Blights (150)*** – General – Command Trait: Grandfather’s Blessing – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Plague Priest (100)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Plague Monks (90)** – Foetid Blades – 1x Standard Bearers – 1x Plague Harbingers 15 x Plague Censer Bearers (270)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**** 3 x Nurglings (100)*** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**** 1 x Chaos Chariot (100)**** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Patrick… Patrick – wow… what an off-the-wall selection. There’s stuff in here I didn’t even know could join Nurgle, let alone seen before. The Ungor Raiders with Sharpshooters is a great shout to give a little reach and allow the sniping of characters to continue unabated. Their 6″ move before the game allows them to effortlessly pivot to the role of ‘screens’ if facing a lower drop alpha strike army – and that is likely as Patrick has 10 drops.
Then there’s all the Rotmire Creed units which do…. I don’t know!
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
Well, who knew… more shooting units in a Nurgle army in a game system where they (GW) can’t balance shooting correctly. These guys also give out disease tokens and then give them within 3″ as well (albeit with a recent Errata which is included above). The Warcry warbands have made some chaos builds different with spamming lots of them, and – whilst I would prefer GW kept them out of the Age of Sigmar game – they never will and if you’ve got access to it, and it’s good, use it!
Well done to Patrick – a great, different army and not one that I’ve seen before.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Theddra Skull-Scryer (160)** – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Artefact: The Conqueror’s Crown – Mark of Chaos: Undivided Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Battleline 20 x Splintered Fang (200)** – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Reinforced x 1 9 x Corvus Cabal (80) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided 9 x Corvus Cabal (80) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Units 10 x Chaos Chosen (480)** – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Ensorcelled Banner: The Dread Banner – Reinforced x 1 6 x Varanguard (580)** – 2x Ensorcelled Weapon – 4x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Reinforced x 1 5 x Godsworn Hunt (0)** 10 x Chaos Warhounds (80)* – Allies
This list has some interesting tech – typical of the topsy-turvy (in relation to the American/European meta at least) – but it does still rely on the current standard core: a blob of Chosen, a blob of Varanguard, and a Sorc lord to cast Daemonic power/Conduit for that sweet first turn battle tactic.
Where things deviate is, first and foremost, the list being in Legion – an oft-discussed and rarely seen sub-faction allowing for granular moving around of Marks to fit the board-state. It means giving up the extra casts of Cabalists or the runs/charges of KOTET, but the flexibility it offers is immense.
Continuing the techy picks is the Underworld band of Theddra, who brings a nice (if short range) -1 to wound spell and 10 ablative bodyguard wounds in her Godsworn hunt. Two cheapo Exalted offer GC flexibility and cheap chances at Apotheosis – i.e. rolling on the Eye of the Gods table to become a Daemon Prince, which represents a ‘free’ 80 points if it goes off – or otherwise just ideally stacking decent buffs on a cheap chassis.
A reinforced blob of Splintered Fang brings a large, reliable MW output option and a cheeky 10 chaos warhounds act as a fast, very cheap screen – potentially to keep up with the Varanaguard and act as a buffer.
Overall, a really interesting spin on the current Slaves meta that was able to take down some tough matchups – but interestingly lost to the more standard Cabalists mirror! Either way, big up to Michael for trying (and succeeding!) with something outside the box.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Kevin (100)* Cairn Wraith Guardian of Souls (150)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – Artefact: Pendant of the Fell Wind Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)** – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Lord Executioner (130)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Spirit Torment (120)**
Battleline 20 x Chainrasps (220) – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)*** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)***
Units 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)*** – Reinforced x 1 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)***
Solid change up to the lists we see for the faction. It almost looks like a pre 3rd Ed battletome. Two units of Spirit Hosts and solid blocks of both Chainrasps and Dreadscythe Harridans to cause problems, but the real meat of the list is the Heroes. That’s not something we’ve been saying about Nighthaunt a lot lately. We have the normal Guardian of Souls, Spirit Torment, and Krulghast to return models to larger units and reduce incoming damage. The Guardian of Souls has been buffed with Fuelled with Ghurish Rage to grant D3 heal and a once per game 3+ ward. I think we will see this a fair bit for the Guardian. They are easily picked up and are crucial. It goes further with auto cast (once per game) for an endless spell and Seal of Shyish (5+ ward).
We aren’t seeing the Cairn Wrath (Kevin) at all, and Lady Olynder is pretty uncommon. Kevin is a bit of a sleeper. His attacks are based on the number of enemy models within 3″. When you are facing Nighthaunt, Soulblight, and Beasts of Chaos, that can be a very nasty surprise. There is nothing wrong with the unit, but Lady Olynder is almost the same cost as 20 Bladegheist (and more than 20 Dreadscythe or Grimghast). What she does do is heal in the hero phase, debuffs, and turns off commands and mortal wounds. There are issues with the reliability of some of these, but if the heroes are clustered around the Chainrasps and Dreadscythes, it can be crucial.
The ranged mortals are a disincentive to getting close (with only 7 wounds she isn’t robust but can hurt in melee). Forcing your opponent to be circumspect can be useful, particularly when your Host talent is to cause D3 mortal wounds to 2 to 4 units every round. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an average of 10 wounds over 5 rounds. Emerald Host probably isn’t receiving the attention it deserves, but when most armies are 100 to 130 wounds, causing an average of 20 to 40 wounds without risk is pretty important. Even if you assume most games end round 4, that is still an average of 16 wounds. Enough to kill most MSU battleline and a lot of heroes and monsters. And it triggers Murderous Bloodlust (+1 to hit and wound for Dreadscythes).
If you look closely, the whole list has a number of sources of mortal wounds and is really built around making a Murderous Bloodlust trigger, including the Motalis Terminatus. The list looks to outlast and outscore you, and it worked except against Pat’s Maggotkin, another list built to outlast.
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Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Battleline 10 x Bloodreavers (80)* – Meatripper Axes 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** – Meatripper Axes 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
Units 10 x Wrathmongers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)* – Allies 9 x The Unmade (80)** – Allies 6 x Mighty Skullcrushers (320)** – Ensorcelled Axes – Reinforced x 1
The polar opposite in terms of lists to the Nighthaunt are the recently popular mortal Blades of Khorne. Blood Tithe points are the key to Blades of Khorne – they gain one for every unit that is destroyed. Keeping a steady flow of points is vital, allowing summoning and the granting of boons. It doesn’t matter whose units die, just that something does. Then you should understand that half of this list is just here to die. The Bloodreavers, Unmade and Corvus Cabal, can do damage in the attack, but they’ll explode when struck back. The Bloodstoker can get them there faster, and the Bloodsecrators grant extra attacks. But they are better with the Wrathmongers (who will give other units more attacks) or the Skullcrushers.
The Skullcrushers are a solid anvil. They hit reasonably hard if supported, but they are a 5 wound, 3+ save unit. On the charge, a block of six causes D3 mortals on impact instead of 1 per model. It’s really important to drop one from as far away as possible. The Slaughter Priest is a source of dispels, blessings, and mortal wounds. He can summon the Wrath-Axe for more ranged mortals. That leaves Skarbrand and Skarr. Skarbrand needs no introduction: reroll charges and appalling amounts of damage to anything, not Nighthaunt. Still, for 390 points, he can die fairly easily. Skarr is a lot of fun. He has 5 attacks minimum but can increase it to the number of enemy models within 3″. He grants fight on death to Wrathmongers (who give him an extra attack), and if he dies, he returns to the battlefield on an 8+ (on 2D6).
And that’s the list, a whole lot of things that want to get to you fast, either to kill you or be killed. Unfortunately, they don’t really play the mission well, relying on beating an opponent to death.
This is the top three AoS lists for the War of the Spider God that took place in the UK on the 11th and 12th of February. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this tournament has less than 20 players, there will be no commentary on the lists.
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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Survivor’s Instinct – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – The Burgeoning
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Branchwych (130)* – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Archaon the Everchosen (860) – General – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)** – The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (70)** – Allies
Battleline 3 x Varanguard (290)** – 3x Ensorcelled Weapon – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 5 x Chaos Chosen (240)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)**
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Quakefray – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Khozrul Doomrender (160)* Doombull – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Slitherwrack Helm Zhorthas Baletongue (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Artefact: The Knowing Eye – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Ghorgrar Gnarlcurse (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline Horns of the Gorefather (390)** 6 x Bullgors – Pairs of Axes – Reinforced x 1 Kaarosh Warplash (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Zyclor Fluxbane (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Khrol Bladefur (240) Ghorgon Galarash the Gorger (240) Ghorgon Uzghal Bloodripper (240) Ghorgon
Units The Stalking Turnskins (115)** 10 x Ungor Raiders
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Befouling Host – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Horticulous Slimux (220)* Sloppity Bilepiper (130)* Poxbringer (130)* – Spells: Stream of Corruption – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Unclean One (480)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Doomsday Bell and Bileblade – Artefacts of Power: The Witherstave – Spells: Fleshy Abundance
DANNY Ok, so first question for you, Phil – you’ve been on a few shows (like Coach’s) to talk about your thoughts on the whole book. But since then, I know you’ve played a whole bunch of test games, putting theory into practice. How many have you played since the book came out, and have any of your theories/feelings changed since the plastic has hit the table?
PHIL I have played a “couple” of games with the new book. Based on my spreadsheets, I have played 67 games with the new book, of which 13 of them are with the new GHB. My initial thoughts on the book was that Host of the Everchosen and Ravagers were going to be Damned Legions that I was going to lean into the most. Hosts is still really appealing for access to the second banner. The 5+ rally I thought was really strong but is also very situational as your army wants to be grinding it out in combat.
Ravagers, I think, have huge potential within a teams setting by maximising on cultists, splintered fang mostly but is something that I think will struggle in singles play. Having played a few games with both (11 with Hosts and 7 with Ravagers) I soon felt that the army felt quite reliant on its spell casting to elevate it to the level that I want it to play at, the army needs it spells to come off to really show its pure power. The Heroic action Draw on Power tends to be the go to heroic action and with this come the sacrifice of additional CP for what is quite a CP hungry army, at least with the new GHB going second will allow multiple heroic actions.
Since working this out, I have found myself playing purely Cabalists and have got in 49 games with them with two losses to Laurie & Sylvaneth and Mike Wilson with that horrid Hexwraith list. Both of which were close games. The power of casting 5 spells (in my builds) on 3D6 all but assures for a successful magic phase and even armies like Tzeentch struggle to shut you down, even if they welcome the 5 fate points, they dont like a fully buffed unit of Chosen having a 5″ charge through a soulscream bridge with Levitate.
DANNY Haha, yes, just a couple! I’ve played a slightly more humble 10 games (8 in new season) with the new book but I can totally see what you mean about HOTE – it’s hard to play into the rally while doing what the army wants to do. And yeah, Cabalists is where I’ve landed too – like you say, being able to actually plan around your casting and mitigate our lack of range/MWs with endless spells etc is clutch. Fascinating early thoughts, thank you. Since playing those 67 games, what’s your overall vibe on the book? Are you happy with the tools it has? At a high level, how do you think it’s balanced internally and externally?
I know you’ve said Splintered Fang seem to stick out internal AND external balance wise – they seem pretty obviously ‘off’ – but are there any other army rules or units that are standing out for better/worse to you?
PHIL Overall, I am happy with where the book has landed. We all knew the save stacking was going to disappear and as were all the re-rolls that we had. I am sure a lot of non slaves to darkness players are pretty happy about this! The new book really suits the way I like to play, which is very much an aggro play style. Your models will now die but will do a mass amount of damage in the process. With regards to the tools it has on offer, the lists that I have been focused on are still really reliant on the sorcerer lords and hard-hitting elite units such as Chosen and Knights. These units are quite pricey but are worth every point for me. The addition of the ensorceled banners is great and gives so much to these elite units with either the survive-ability of the nurgle banner or the heavy hitting prowess of the khorne or slaanesh banner.
What helps is that we still also have very cheap battle line options with the cultists that do a great job for their points costs, particularly the Unmade and Corvus Cabal for me. In terms of the questions regarding the internal/external balance. As I stated, a lot of people are going to be much happier playing against this book as you will actually see models get taken off the table. The army is a lot more “honest” now, its a combat army that hits like a train, has a good save, but isn’t immune to rend 5, for example.
People are going to hate me, I don’t actually think the splintered fang are as much of an issue as everyone thinks with them, yes they do MWs on 6s to hit and wound on a 2+. A unit of 30 with no buffs other than khorne on the charge is 96 attacks, which averages 16MWs and 26 saves at no rend. They are then bravery 6, 5+ save, movement 6. Good players will be able to deal with them before they get there.
Units that I think have really stood out for me are Chosen, which may sound stupid after playing with Varanguard for so long. The double fight mechanic can never be overlooked, especially as they dont need to be within 3″ for it to trigger, and with a 2″ reach, it can be quite devastating if people don’t screen correctly. These with a soulscream bridge are super scary when casting all spells on 3d6. The unit in Khorne averages 12 damage and 7MWs against a 2+ unrendable save on the first activation. For me, there isn’t much in the game that can stand up to this unit double fighting. The other unit for me is Knights. Initially, I was looking at them as big damages sources as MSU and was running warriors in Nurgle with the banner.
Now I have moved to a big unit of knights with the nurgle banner as they can add an extra dynamic to the list to what the warriors gave, they give that double edge with being able to deal damage and also grind out your opponents, I often use them to pin in my opponents and clear away all the screens turn 1 to leave open avenues for my chosen to get bridged in and do damage.
Big miss for me is Archaon, and I hate to say it, as he and I had such a bromance last year. But at 860, he’s over costed. He has some great abilities with no inspiring or rally, but he just doesnt do enough consistent damage to warrant the price tag anymore, he is also keyword locked into a subfaction that offers him no benefits and also potentially hampers the army you take in it. As you then start struggling to fully utilise the double banners. If you could take him in Ravagers and perform the heroic action attributed to them, then Archaon may be back in my list buidling.
DANNY Sorceror Lords definitely do a lot of heavy lifting, don’t they? And amen in terms of the chaff – I’m so impressed with how they’ve managed to make almost all of the Warcry cultist units have their own identity and role. Horns of Hashut don’t jump off the page, but even they have a ranged anti-chaff attack and decent tankiness for their points. Cypher Lords and Tarantulos – and this is a shame because they both look so cool – are two of the less inspiring ones, but otherwise, it’s a great selection.
On that note – haha I think you’d have to say worse than that about the Splintered Fang for me to hate you – they’re a hot topic but I’m with you – they have great output on paper but we all know games aren’t won on paper. Chosen are the new darlings for sure, right? I know you’re making hay with the Khorne allies while the sun shines – but I think even once that ends, with Undivided mark and the Dread Banner I’ve found it’s super reliable to get them to rend 2-3 and a few other super useful buffs too.
Nurgle Knights as a pinning device is very interesting – given they hit on 4s (frustrating!), this sounds like a great way to run them. And I also hard agree with you on Archaon – I know how much it must hurt you to say that!! – in my test games with him, he’s super fun but yeah, his damage output is actually super swingy and poor overall, and agree the key word locking is frustrating as it really limits the tactical options of both him and some of the ‘lesser’ sub-factions.
So, let’s double down on sub-factions quickly. We know Cabalists is strong. HOTE and KOTET both have very clear and obvious benefits and play styles. But do you think there’s any untapped potential in LotP, Ravagers, or Despoilers?
Despoilers seems to me like the faction for ‘oh you’re an old player with loads of daemon princes and monsters – here’s a way you can kinda use them together – but just seems utterly non competitive given what monsters and daemon princes in the book are like.
PHIL For me I actually think Ravagers have the ability to be very good on the table, there are a lot of strong cultist units in the book and with the culmination of also a good allies pool, could pose a real threat on the table top, especially with the heroic action to bring back half a unit. Imagine killing a unit of splintered fang after its just done 26 MWs and forced 49 armour saves [EDITOR’s NOTE: Obvs there’s since been the FAQ to disallow Khorne heroes buffing Slaves units, but you get the point] with the right khorne pieces bloodstoker & bloodsecrator with the charge, then they come back in your hero phase and you get to do half of that all over again! The fact that they come down in the hero phase and you are able to move after is another huge benefit. I was playing some test games with them with Archaon and having them fight on death as well.
Once the Khorne allies go, I think we are more likely to see a transition to Slaanesh to aid their delivery to where they want to be, run and charge, throw in a warshrine and charge 3d6 and you will be able to get the across the board pretty reliably. You might even see a Daemon Prince with a trophy rack to aid them against the chip damage!
Legion of The First Prince is an interesting one. It’s not one that I would focus on the allies pool too much or even Belakor. I instead would really lean into the eye of the gods and look to roll as much as you can on the table with a unit of 10 Chosen or 6 Varanguard, with the ability to give one of these the mark of your choice each turn it really gives great utility to react to what is happening in a game. I played my friend the other day with 10 Chosen with the dread banner and he is rolling on the eye of the gods up to 3 times a turn, think by turn 3 his Chosen were rend 4, plus 3 to charge and 6+ Ward. There is definitely scope there! But are they better than the other banners? Time will tell.
I will be honest, Despoilers. Read it, didn’t look into it. I am sure Simon Weakley will come up with some mental list surrounding a bunch of Daemons Princes but I dont think that there scroll is the strongest out there, the fact that the best ability is an heroic action is frustrating. The fact that you can add 2 wounds to all your Daemon Princes and Monsters is nice, with a 3+ save on the princes and 6+ Ward. You effectively become 14 wounds. There are some nice command traits you can use that make the princes a bit more tanky or fighty, but it really isn’t a legion i would be leaning into.
DANNY Yeah Despoilers definitely seems like the biggest miss, mainly due to how limited Daemon Princes are like you say – I’ve had success with one as a utility platform (trophy wracks keeping blobs of Chosen/Warriors safe, turning off wards, extra heroic action etc) but more than one seems likea huge trap.
Ok – I’d love to get your thoughts on something more philosophical – and that’s why are the coolest looking units in the book so mediocre? Daemon Prince, the iconic Chaos Warshrine, both ‘beasts (Mutalith and Slaughter), Ogroid Myrmidon – and I’m going to throw the Chaos and Exalted lords in there even though they have obvious scoring utility in the new season. Why did the rules writers take their foot of the gas on them – or do they have potential? Seems to me, if nothing else, the Myrmidon and chaos lords have utterly boring scrolls and essentially rely on lucky EotG rolls to become semi-useful late game, when most foot heroes in the game have some kind of fun buff/command ability etc.
The Muta/Slaughter beasts seem almost there but lack the things you’d expect – no decent rend on a giant Khorne monster, most of the Mutalith effects being super poor and relying on having a Tzeentch wizard nearby (which you don’t want as Gaunt summoner sucks and the Tzeentch mark also sucks) – etc etc. Am I missing something with these guys? They’re my biggest let downs in the book, and even though we have enough stuff to be competitive, it feels like there’s a lot of missed design/fun potential here. Thoughts?
PHIL For me, I think two of the MVPs of the last book in the Chaos Lord & The Warshrine are a detriment of their own success. For a long period of time, you saw both these models in the vast majority of lists. The Warsrhine for me is the biggest miss, though, as this book feels like you want to be mixing and matching sub factions, and locking its ability to the keyword it’s assigned is a feels bad. Particularly, as Slaanesh for me feels the only really viable mark for the 3D6 charge. My lovely Mindstealer was quickly moved from auto, including to the bin, with the removing of its awesome ability and the monster keyword! Both the Slaughter & Mutalith Vortex beasts are warscrolls I quickly passed over, as you say the lack of rend on the Slaughter Beast and the Mortilth Vortex Beast having cool abilities but the chances of them coming off cant be assured in the slightest.
However, I actually like the Gaunt Summoner! He is a two cast wizard, knows the full spell (which allows him to know levitate), and naturally plus 1 to cast. The summoner gives options with spell casting, but I feel he is slightly over costed at 210 points. But, I have used in some Host of The Everchosen lists that I have been trialling as that second banner keeps eyeing me up!
DANNY Yeah I think you’re right, GW have mostly smashed it out of the park with 3e books feeling very thematic etc, but they do seem to have a pattern of hammering stuff too much down that stood out before. My issue is that it’s not a points issue necessarily, but a frustrating design issue. And yeah I totally agree on the Gaunt Summoner being over-costed – he’s a great magic option for the reasons you say, but the fact the Tzeentch Mark is so weak and him being so fragile for the points means it just feels way too risky to me to ever really include. But sure, outside of Cabalists, he gives you some magic phase flexibility.
OK, final questions! At the current points, what tier (or take a guess at average win-rate for the season) would you put the book in – for most normal (but competitive) players? What do you think our red match ups are?
PHIL For me I think the book is in between A & B tier, I think the win rate will very much the same at around 45%, people used to be able to get away with mistakes if they got the save stacking right, whereas now its not as forgiving, which sounds stupid considering the army has a base 3+ save, but with only one mystic shield and all out defense we need to think carefully of where it needs to go. The army packs even more of a punch now, so when you go in and it goes right, it will smash people away. The biggest reds for me are Lumineth, Tzeentch, and anything with mass AOE mortal wounds.
We are so reliant on our heroes and spell casting, so if opponents have a way of getting around the new Galletian Champions rules, it’s going to cause a massive issue and really lowers the effectiveness of the list. Tzeentch and Lumineth can both do this very well through magic. The next red is Nighthaunt, they can just turn off the fact that the army is 3+ save with the charge debuffs and with the cruciator reducing damage it becomes really hard as we have no way of taking out these pieces at range really without allying in units.
DANNY Legendary. I can believe that – I also think some of the design failings we spoke about combined with the eliteness just means we won’t be able to keep up with the board control of certain armies – looking at you with a side-goat-eye new BoC book and maybe even Gitz.
Ok, I think that about wraps it up, much as I’d love to ask you endless questions, I know you have a small tournament over in the US shortly to prepare for….
[Post-script] That little tournament was LVO – at which Phil went 4-1, losing only to 3rd place Kaleb’s Tzeentch, by 1 point!
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 South Coast Series July that took place in Bournemouth, UK on 9th and 10th July. It involved 40 players from the world over, 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: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen (Sixth Circle) – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Archaon the Everchosen (860)** – Aura of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Binding Damnation Chaos Lord (120)** – General – Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – 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
Units 9 x Untamed Beasts (70)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 9 x Untamed Beasts (70)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Endless Spells & Invocations Chronomantic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: A return of a list that became common in AoS 2.0 with Archaon and Varanguard taking the tournament 5/0. Really demonstrates just how Archaon can dominate a lot of the board but don’t discount the Endless Spells either. With 3 wizards in the list (thanks to Arcane Tome) they are always going to be an option. Cogs offering rerolls for casters making Purple Sun, with it’s debuffs and wound potential more reliable, much more reliable.. Marking Archaon with Aura of Chaos – Tzeentch is a great way to increase his and the armies durability. So this list is all about durability and being hard to shift. Making the Varanguard Bounty Hunters improves one of their weaknesses (damage output) and is a solid move for removing MSU Galletian Veteran units. With both the Iron Golems (keep them stationary on a home objective in cover) and Untamed Beasts there are plenty of Galletian Veteran units in the army and 2 teleports (Mask of Darkness) to get them where they need to be. 6″ pregame move and the ability to run and charge make the Untamed Beasts unpredictable with a very long threat range. It would be great to see how the list plays into Nighthaunt. A very solid performance against some of the newer books we can only assume that Archaon wrecked face. 5/0 is an amazing performance with one of the older books and a range of characters that everyone knows well.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Krulghast Cruciator (150)** – General – Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts Awlrach the Drowner (175)** Guardian of Souls (150)** – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Spirit Torment (115)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Spirit Torment (115)***
Battleline 30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)* – Reinforced x 2 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)*** 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)**
Brett: What a horrifying list to face. Multiple small heroes including 3 that return models every turn and some of the best data sheets in the book (Bladegheist and Banshees). On top of that Krulghast is there to reduce the damage of incoming attacks. The big block of Bladegheist is nightmarish, on the charge they are putting out 90 attacks. This list is a strong 5/0 contender but I wonder about the battalions.
We more often see larger units of Bladegheist in Bounty Hunters but there are good reason to use Expert Conquerors. It would be very hard to take an objective off 30 Bladegheist backed by a Spirit Torment or Guardian and Banshees to steal spells. It would be interesting to see Awlach in action with this force offering a solid teleport ability throughout the game. The bigger blocks of Bladegheist would be a nasty threat even without their support heroes or after missing a charge. Taking down DoK confirms the horde meta is here. Notable that the list only lost to Sylvaneth.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Season of War: The Reaping – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (840)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Brett: Pregame move, teleports and movement buffs, all kinds of shenanigans are possible with this list including the endless spells. Crucially you need to get the best from (buffed) Alarielle and the Kurnoth (1300 pts – you have to) but with the ability to deploy aggressively, then redeploy, and the change away from one drop lists there are some real benefits to being Sylvaneth. The only loss (to Slaves to Darkness) would have been a very interesting with Archaon facing Alarielle in a titanic struggle. Varanguard are well matched to Kurnoth as well. Long range shooting is still a problem for a lot of lists notably Nighthaunt, Daughters of Kaine and Beasts. The Kurnoth bring some serious hurt, particularly with an Arch-Revenant giving +1 to wound rolls, and Alarielle only adds to the pain. The tree-revenants provide some screening and the ability later in the game to teleport away as well. Great performance with the new book and some familiar faces, it’s great to see a podium finish so soon after release.
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Army Faction: Fyreslayers – Subfaction: Greyfyrd – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Battlesmith (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon Auric Runefather (125)** – General – Command Traits: Blood of the Berzerker – Artefacts of Power: Axe of Grimnir Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)** – Wyrmslayer Javelins – Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve – Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient
BATTLELINE Hearthguard Berzerkers (480)* – Karl – Berzerker Broadaxe Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)* – Hornblower of Grimnir – Karl – Fyresteel War-pick and Bladed Slingshield Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)* – Hornblower of Grimnir – Fyresteel War-pick and Bladed Slingshield
OTHER Gotrek Gurnisson (485)** Grimwrath Berzerker (105)** – Artefacts of Power: Draught of Magmalt Ale
CORE BATTALIONS *Expert Conquerors **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Brett: Eschewing the more popular Magmadroth builds comes at cost but what a thematic list this is. A tide of marking norse dwarves with your favourite hero from the before times (Gotrek) ready to wreck pretty much everybody. And particularly rats, which for the most part don’t move too quickly so were vulnerable to what this list brings. 3/5 is great with an off meta list like this one. Fyreslayers are let down by their 4″ move and they still seem a little expensive per unit. The battle against Maggotkin would have been a stand out since both are slow moving but against a Great Unclean One or Glottkin I think this list is a little short of firepower.
The overall results show that points matter still with both 1 and 2 being the highest point scorers, next highest is 8th though. At least within this tournaments catchment there is a very healthy meta with 8 different factions in the top 10. Seraphon and Daughters of Khaine are unusually low with 2 Sylvaneth, with different subfactions, in the top 5. Interesting to watch the rest of the performances across the weekend to see if this is a prelude to the Wood Elves rising. Don’t picnic too close to the trees just in case?
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for World tSports Champions that took place in Nottingham, USA on 2nd and 3rd July. It involved 16 players from the world over, vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
This tournament was organised by the fantastic guys at Honest Wargamer.
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
Declan: Ronya qualified for the World Tsports Event by using Nighthaunt – exclusively – getting incredible results with what was considered to be a weaker army. So during Worlds she took the same army… but with a new book!
I watched the final of Ronya against Mike and she played very well, with the Nighthaunt now being great in the hands of an expert. I have played against the new book once, and it is very good. If you don’t kill whole units, they quickly come back, can retreat and charge and give debuffs on the charge – including -1 to hit, -1 save, and strike last. If you are charged by multiple units these really stack up quickly.
Nighthaunt still have their ward save as well, so if these spike you can fail to kill them… over attack and charge with everything!
Congratulations to Ronya, it was great watching her play with an army she’s used all year. I wonder if she’ll stick with them into GHB22 or take the opportunity to try something new.
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Declan: Mike finished the season as the top ranked player with all 6 of his qualifying results coming as Seraphon with 4 5-0s! But for Worlds he’s pivoted effortless to IdK and did exceptionally well to qualify despite losing his first game in the group. Qualifying on tie-break for the top 4 bracket, he then beat Beasts before being beaten by Ronya’s Nighthaunt.
Mike has gone for a Battle Regiment to get 1 drop and chose who goes first or second, allowing him to set-up for a double turn or get an alpha-strike in. His army has a bit of everything including some shooting, striking first in the third turn, and an Akhelian King who is 40 points cheaper than a Loonboss on Mangler Squig — wow… what value!
IdK are not easy to play with as they are glass cannons, but they are very strong cannons – be careful of charging in turn 3! Well done to Mike as well, top ranked player in GHB21 and 2nd at Worlds. What a year for him.
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Declan: Ah Beasts of Chaos – a perfect example of what can happen to a low ranked army if it gets a good white dwarf article / update. And Beasts did! Massive rend, good summoning, and lots and lots of Dragon Ogres! I watched Ole’s game against the Thunder Lizards on the Saturday and it was great to see how he dealt with the Seraphon – swamping the objectives and summoning Chimeras to finish people off.
Ole is a player who switches armies around, and it is no surprise to see him doing well with a different army!
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Declan: 4-1 at the Worlds. Well done to Phil with Slaves to Darkness. Sure it is Archaon in a Host of the Everchosen list. Varanguard are great support units for Archaon, but it is the big guy who does the heavy lifting here. Able to auto-kill other models into his sword, fight twice, and with immense movement. I have managed to kill him before, but my normal approach is to ignore him — not an easy method.
It’s great to see variety at the Worlds and one of the main characters of Age of Sigmar making an appearance.
