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Top Three AoS Lists for Border War 2023

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This is the top three AoS lists for Border War 2023 that took place in the Albury, Australia on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 43 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: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADERS
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)*

BATTLELINE
9 x Endrinriggers (360)*
– 1x Grapnel Launchers
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 2x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1

UNITS
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon
– Gunhauler Modifications: Zonbarcorp ‘Debtsettler’ Spar Torpedo

BEHEMOTHS
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram

CORE BATTALION
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000

Sometimes, it pays off to lean into the highlights of a new Battletome, and Luca Foerster’s Barak Zilfin Kharadron Overlords list does this perfectly. One of the biggest loses to Kharadron Overlords was the loss of Aethergold in the new book, which was often used for an on-demand +1 to wound, Luca offsets this by taking the new Settle The Grudges Artycle which gives all Kharadron Overlords units a static +1 to wound against a target chosen at the start of the game. Less versatile, for sure, but often more impactful when multiple units are needed to ensure that something is made dead.

Luca starts things off with a classic Admiral taking Stormcaller and Leadership of the Alpha. Stormcaller allows for the rerolling of dice from the Navigator’s Read the Winds ability, which I will talk about in a moment. He follows that up with an Endrinmaster with Endrinharness, which pays the tax of allowing Endrinriggers to be battleline. Lastly, for heroes, he has taken a Navigator who gets an unbind/dispel and is carrying a Voidstone Orb, which is a once per game Artefact that will auto-unbind a spell. A powerful deterrent against trying to snipe heroes with spells or setting up crippling -1 to hit/wound auras. However, the real power of the Navigator is its Read the Winds ability, which allows it to roll six dice and then choose an effect. It can choose to either pick an enemy unit for each “one” it rolls to deal d3 mortal wounds and half movement until its next hero phase or for each “six” pick a friendly Boat and immediately normal move it D3+3 inches. The extra movement is great, but the real value is crippling fast enemy units, and combined with the reroll from the Admiral’s Stormcaller ability it can flat out win games by crippling the opponent’s ability to advance up the board to contest objectives or complete battle tactics. Sometimes, the best way to win is to not allow your opponent to play, and I especially feel for the poor Sons of Behemat player who ran afoul of this.

Moving onto his troop selection, Luca has taken a sample of the Kharadron mainstays. He has a double reinforced unit of Endrinriggers, which brings a bucket of rend -2 to the game both at range and in melee. They can also heal the boats, but that is just a bonus. The native rend -2 is the real benefit here. Next up, we have a common theme within Kharadron in this edition, the extremely efficient reinforced Thunderers with Special Weapons. They bring a massive amount of firepower at shotgun range, but back that up with a native 3+ save, 20 wounds, debuffs, and even mortal wounds in melee. They are a classic, “Move Me” objective holder with just enough range that they can not be ignored. A unit of Arkanauts rounds out the troop selection.

To finish off the list, Luca brought one of each of the Kharadron boats. An Ironclad toting around the Battle Ram to combo with the once per game 3d6 charge from his Footnote, a battleline Frigate courtesy of Barak Zilfin, and a cheeky Gunhauler to give the larger boats a 6+ ward save and a fast mover to cap objectives later in the game. He packages all of this into a one-drop Battle Regiment at an even 2000 points.

This is a classic list that can do well at range and in melee. It presents a difficult challenge for opponents as the Battletome Battle Tactics allow it to avoid interaction but greatly punishes opponents who spread out to score their own. Combined with Luca’s outstanding play, I pity the poor souls who had to face it.

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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Boulderhead
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
Frostlord on Thundertusk (400)
– Mount Trait: Matriarch
Huskard on Thundertusk (330)*
– Blood Vulture
– Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide
– Prayer: Keening Gale
Icebrow Hunter (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
– Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha

BATTLELINE
6 x Mournfang Pack (510)*
– Gargant Hackers
– Reinforced x 2
2 x Frost Sabres (80)*
2 x Frost Sabres (80)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 3

We’ve an absolute legend joining our team for the top three comments this week.

Peter Atkinson (AKA Plastic Craic) has recently made a return with a revamped website and a crack team of top AoS gamers to help him!

Peter Atkinson: Thanks for having me on gents – long time listener, first time caller.

“It’s gotta be Little Lisa Simpson, Springfield’s answer to a question NOBODY ASKED!”

– Ned Flanders

Well he’s pulled one out of the bag here, hasn’t he? The Thundertusk answers the question nobody asked, namely “how can I do chip damage to a chaff unit in the shooting phase?”. The whole point of shooting is that you get to pick where the damage goes, but the limitations around where (and how much) the Thundertusk can apply its output are usually seen as crippling in the hands of most players.

Well, up steps The Mayor to show he’s not most players.

The Factory-standard Frostlord is of course present, with the Manticore Venom artefact being a slightly unorthodox pick, but all Stonehorns will take consistency of output where they can get it. I like it. In fact, I might just copy it.

Then Mat goes off script with the double Tusks: one as a Frostlord for the 3+ save and at least some kind of melee output, and the other packing the 5++ ward Trait. Coupled with the Boulderhead extra wounds and neg -1 to wound on the big lad, Mat has layered up the durability buffs in this army, but he’s done the same with his charge bonuses too. Both Frostlords add stacking +1s to charge in an aura, and the 3rd Mount Trait does the same (for Thundertusks only), so they’re all supporting each other to charge at +2” or +3”. It won’t boost the charge mortals, but it can blow the game wide open with some unexpected long bombs.

And how about those Mournfang? He has the prayer for extra movement on them, so with dual Frosties nearby and their native plus 1” to charge, they’re often gonna be zipping around at +3” to move and +3” to charge. This unit is a ride-on lawnmower, and your army is the mole poking its head out of the ground.

They give zero fucks about overwatch too, so with all their charge mortals added in, KO might not be as scary as you think; and speaking of KO, those Thunderers make a prime target for Thundertusk shooting. You don’t want the pricks rallying back, but bringing them into combat means they can’t use Rally anyway.

In fact, expensive combat units with good saves are where Thundertusks want to be generally, and there’s a lot of that in the meta right now; so if they will ever have a time to shine this is it. They won’t go too badly into Khorne’s Mighty Skullcrushers for example, with a double-tap putting enough mortals into them that a decent charge or two could clean them up without even worrying about that stupid 0+ save. OBR springs to mind too.

In practice though, I think I’d use the Thundertusks just as often to bludgeon through a support hero. 2 mortals, another 2 mortals, Blood Vulture, bam. That’s a 5-wound hero gone. The chances of spiking off a 6-wound hero are not trivial, and across two turns of shooting it’s very likely they’re toast. Efficient sniping? No, but sometime’s a Tyrant’s gotta do what a Tyrant’s gotta do. And something like a Krulghast or Death Frenzy can just switch off your win condition, so efficiency goes out the window at that point and you just do what you have to.

The kitty cats are an ace in the hole, popping up to secure Desecrate and then (because they can’t be shot in cover) usually forcing a far-more-expensive combat unit to hit reverse gear and clear them up. They’re not half bad at soaking up a mortal-wound overwatch too.

I know Mat has owned this army for aeons but it rarely sees the tabletop in competitive play. So I’ll be honest, I looked at this list and thought Mat was bringing a palette-cleanser pick for his hometown GT, so he could relax into his games with no pressure.

Well the more you look at it, the better it gets. It’s surprisingly strong into a couple of dominant new books and you write it off at your peril. Strutting onto the podium with such a unique list is a great achievement – well done mate.

If you found this write-up informative, check out our site over at Plastic Craic where we’re smashing out regular, high-quality Age of Sigmar coverage. See you there.

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Archaon the Everchosen (860)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Chaos Familiar
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit

BATTLELINE
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– 5x Fellspear
– 1x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1
9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
5 x Chaos Knights (220)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Blasted Standard

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 89
Drops: 1

Ok folks, we’ve reached the Slaves sass threshold. What that means is we’ve now seen enough good results, with similar-enough lists, in a short enough time period, that I get to be a little bitch about them.

So what we have here is lots of the two good units in the book (cavalry) in the sub-faction that makes cavalry able to run and charge, with Archaon slapped on top for good measure. Archaon does offer a lot of tactical flexibility thanks to his picking a mark before deployment and not in the list building stage, and even though he’s always been frustratingly easy to kill and frustratingly bad at killing when I’ve run him, when he inevitably gets the Nurgle mark he’s definitely an annoying man-mountain that can stomp an objective while the 6 Varanguard do their thing.

I’ve also spotted that the Chaos Knights have been marked Tzeentch so that they can be yoinked around a bit by the Tzeentch Sorceror Lord. I wonder if that ever actually went off? At least it’s new!

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Karazai, The Scarred (550)*
Lord-Castellant (160)*
– Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion)
Lord-Relictor (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Prayer: Translocation
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Liberators (120)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
10 x Vanquishers (220)*
– Reinforced x 1

UNITS
6 x Praetors (280)*
– Reinforced x 1

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 1

Joel’s a really knowledgeable Stormcast Player and has been running a version of this list for most of the edition. You can check out the development of the list and how it plays on his channel Measured Gaming. Some of the most entertaining Battle Reps you’ll watch, but I warn you, it’s very definitely NSFW.

The concept is simple, go first and jam Karazai into something. He is either going to be a wrecking ball or serve as a fantastic distraction (you can’t let him run around). There are still 2 Galetian Champions for battle tactics, the Lord Castellant is one of the strongest here, with a 5+ ward to make him harder to shift. Scions of the Storm lets you get him where you want him if you keep him off the board. There is the choice of either the Vanquishers or the Fulminators to accompany him. 7 Units, only half are allowed in the storm chamber, giving a few options. The Praetors are along to provide their bodyguard to Karazai. Staying close to Karazai is the trick though.

The Praetors are probably a surprise for anyone who hasn’t played against them. With 3 attacks and 2 damage, they have solid output, especially into 4+ and 5+ saves. If your army relies on a big block of something or a couple of models, Karazai is your worst nightmare. Most of the lists Joel faced suffered from that issue or would struggle to affect Karazai as MSU (Bladegheists). If you have a lot of threats and enough units though, you can overwhelm this list and score where they aren’t. I’ll let Kieron cover how the Skaven list worked against Karazai. I’m predicting disposable clan rats helped clog up the works.

If you have the chance it’s worth watching how Joel plays this list, it’s fun if nothing else. He’s also one of the few people that seem to be perfectly fine with the standard Liberator.

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Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Nar, Chaos, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Glogg's Megamob, Gloomspite Gitz, Kharadron Overlords, Knights of the Empty Throne, Order, Skaventide, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for The Icebreaker GT 2023

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This is the top three AoS lists for the The Icebreaker GT by Renegade Gaming that took place in the USA on the 15th and 16th of April. It involved 39 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420)*
– General
– Command Traits: Devious Adversary
– Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Slynk Skittershank (220)*
1 x Deathmaster (140)*
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Deathmaster (140)**
1 x Deathmaster (140)**
1 x Deathmaster (140)**

BATTLELINE
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**

OTHER
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
4 x Skittershank’s Clawpack (220)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Kieren Coates:This is the skaven list you get to point to when someone tries to tell you that clan eshin isn’t viable, the deathmaster is the worst warscroll in the book and mono-clan skavens is no longer viable

You now finally get to show them that you can indeed go 5-0 with your favourite ninja rats, but you might just need to be positioning like a madman to do so

With triple clan eshin the army gets board wide +1 to hit and wound in melle against heroes, and everything but your deceiver and 4 assasins can start off the board – sadly assasins can’t hide in gutter runners for whatever reason, GW fix this now!

Gutter runners have surprising mortal output at 3 shots per model with 6’s doing mortals, leading to a higher output per point than sentinels – and with 40 of them you’re looking at 120 shots with an average of 20 mortals per turn – before accounting for the extra 9 average mortals from assasins or slynk shooting in addition

Combine that with deepstrike and MSU positioning to clog the board and you’ve got a mean alpha to block the opponent in while slynk and the deceiver can surgically remove key pieces with a 6 inch deepstrike or teleport respectively

It takes a madman to pilot most skaven lists, and it takes one especially insane to run full eshin – well done on the 5-0 and for showing the naysayers everywhere just how viable off meta skaven builds can be.

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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: Glogg’s Megamob
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Dankhold Troggboss (200)*
– General
– Command Trait: Loonskin
– Artefact: Glowy Howzit
Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
60 x Moonclan Shootas (375)**
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Moonclan Stabbas (125)***
3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)**
3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)**
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)***
– Reinforced x 1

UNITS
10 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (220)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (130)***

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Loonskin Malevolent Moon (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Galletian Veterans

Total: 1990 / 2000

I’m going to start by saying I’m happy I wasn’t facing this from across the table. The core is the Troggoths, of course, regenerating as soon as they’ve fought (Glogg’s Megamob). You need to carefully manage your activations, but each turn 2 units will regenerate each turn before you can hit them. After the Troggoths, your eye is drawn to the Shootas – 120 attacks, only half will hit, but even with low quality attacks, you are probably rolling against 20 wounds. Into a 3+ save that’s still an average of 7 wounds. They threaten any GC, and you can’t hide your GCs ( Galletian Sharpshooters).

The smart play is to remove them of course, from Turn 3, they are a serious threat to damaged units. With a 4+ l that’s a tall ask, 50% of everything you kill is going to return (on average) up to a maximum of 10. That means without very serious effort, they will be a problem for 2 or 3 turns at a minimum. Their probably hiding some Loonsmashas as well making charging and combat no sure thing. The Stabbas can control an objective from 9″ away unless you weaken them. And both Skragrott and the Fungoid have teleport to drop them somewhere annoying.

An annoying, sticky list with the ability to be everywhere you aren’t as well as out stay and out score you. No surprise it’s gone 5/0/0, it’s a little more of a surprise that the Skaven outscored him but both lists are just good at the game. They play the missions really well without needing to destroy the opponent.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Nar
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

KHARADRON CODE
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADERS
Runelord (100)*
– Allies
Arkanaut Admiral (125)**
– General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb

BATTLELINE
6 x Endrinriggers (240)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)***
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)***
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

BEHEMOTHS
Flagship (300)**
– Arkanaut Frigate
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope
Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Linebreaker
***Galletian Sharpshooters

Total: 1930 / 2000

We’re lucky in that we have developed a number of relationships with top players around the globe. Some names that comment on here fairly regularly, such as Kieren Coates, Joshua Bennett, Kel Pigg, and Kevin Lathers, to name but a few. Jeremy Veysseire can now be added to this select crowd, and for those who are unaware, Jeremy has his own YouTube channel where he breaks down tactics in Age of Sigmar. Go subscribe!

Jeremy Veysseire: Hello everyone, thanks for Woehammer for letting me break down this KO army for you all. Let’s jump right into it. This Barak-Nar packs a mixture of punch and shooting, some core highlights:


• 4 Rolls of a 4+ for extra CP during their turn. (KO can be CP hungry)
• +1 to Wound (Melee and Shooting) against 1 enemy unit for the entire game
• 2D6 Run on 1 Unit a turn.
• Once per game 3D6 Charge.
• +1 Attack to all Barak-Nar units in combat within 12” of Brokk if he charges. (Massive buff to the Endrinriggers)
• Runelord is granting you an additional unbind at +2 and Blessing a unit for 6+ ward.
• Rerolling Navigator Reading the Winds (Stormcaller, Huge Value!)
• Once per game, Autounbind (Voidstone)
• Oncer per game on a 2+ remove Wards from an enemy unit during that shooting phase (Celestium Burst-Grenades)
• 70-point deficit for a near guarantee of +1 to Wound Triumph and prevent Indomitable Gitz builds.

Now, with those core concepts explained, let’s go over some overall packages. You have 1 Melee Frigate and 1 Shootey Frigate; the melee frigate is built around the 14” movement frigate (Magnificent Omniscope) with the Endrinriggers (no special weapons for more melee), Brokk, the Endrinmaster and the Admiral since the Boat is the Flagship thus the Admiral can give that boat a free CA per turn. The Shooty Frigate is built around the 10 Sharpshooting Thunderers and the Navigator as a great support platform to the melee one as it can effectively assist in clearing screens or pressuring heroes that provide some form of force multiplier. With the Celestium Burst-Grenade in the pack pocket, you can really have an effective take down turn of a specific target, especially with the +1 to Wound Artycle. One of the biggest highlights in this list is that while there are only 2 frigates, Brokk’s shooting profile is basically another frigate worth, so that melee frigate is very multiphase functional. There is a lot of magic defence between the Runelord, the Navigator, and the Voidstone, helping that KO power shut down key powers. The Runelord provides another low risk GC for some of the GHB battle tactics and provides a potential 6+ ward on a frigate early in the game. The Arkanaut make great screens and deckchair backfield units while able to move forward as the Frigate clear pressure upfront.

Thomas had an interesting path to 3rd place with a loss starting against Corey Anderson’s STD Host of the Everchosen with Be’Lakor, Eternus and Chosens. My guess is that perhaps Be’Lakor’s once per game shutdown mechanic was able to shut down the Thunderers long enough while the Cockatrice were able to debuff the Endrinriggers hitting on 6’s. He even perhaps suffered a double turn from his opponent since he had the choice of turn order. His second round opponent was a classic Hallowed knights list with a mixture of Dragons and some shooting piloted by Colin Jarrell, it honestly looked like an ideal list for Thomas to face as the majority of the SCE army has a hard time to set tempo against his superior shooting and melee. His third round opponent was a Kruelboyz list with Kragnos piloted by Isaac Kangas, and I can only imagine that this game was like shooting fish in a barrel (no offiense to Isaac). His round 4 opponent was a Hedonites army packed with Heroes, Slickblade Seekers and some Blissbard Archer piloted by Hugh Cunningham, I am curious to know how the game went personally but looking at the unit selection and not knowing the mission, either Hugh ran out of pressure early in the game or couldn’t catch the boats as they were raining death from above since it would appear very hard for that specific hedonite build to generate depravity in that match up to counter some of the teeth of that KO list. His final round opponent was an Ogor Boulderhead build piloted by Logan Wendt with 4 Stonehorns (1 Frostlord, 1 Huskard, 2 Normal) and 3 packs of Mournfang. I can only imagine that the removal of the Stornehorn and halving movement speed to various units made it easy for Thomas to control the tempo of the game early on. It would take a serious gungho approach by Logan to oversaturate his shooting targets and bank for a double to catch the boats.Ov

erall Thomas had a 4-1 record with a very good all comers KO list that plays multiple phases of the game. Congrats to him, and I wish the best of luck for the next event!

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (200)*
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Warp Reality
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Spells: Daemonic Speed, Warp Reality
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (440)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Flail
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
Varanguard (580)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– 6 x Ensorcelled Weapon
Varanguard (580)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 6 x Fellspear

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

Loyal readers of this column may be starting to notice certain trends with successful Slaves lists. At this point to be frank, we should probably rename them ‘Slaves to Varanguard’. But what’s a competitive player to do when faced with a super efficient cavalry unit that can fight twice and be battleline in a sub-faction that allows them to run and charge?

I mean, literally the only unusual pick here is the Geminids, a cute little ploy to turn off commands to stop those pesky redeploys and whatnot while the Varanguard bear down on them.

Solutions to list variety? I don’t think Varanguard need or deserve a nerf – they’re already expensive and fairly vulnerable to any decent amount of attacks with any kind of rend – soon as they lose a few models, and their own low volume of attacks starts to tell. I think the rest of the book just needs a better reason to be taken to be honest, but with the warscrolls and lack of synergies the way they are, I’m not sure pure points adjustments will do the job…

Either way, well done to Daniel here for wins over some super strong factions!

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Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Helon, Khailebron, Knights of the Empty Throne, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for A Gathering of Might

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This is the top three AoS lists for A Gathering of Might that took place in the UK on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 27 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Subfaction: Helon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Archmage Teclis (700)*
Scinari Cathallar (110)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand
– Spells: Speed of Hysh
– Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Scinari Loreseeker (160)*
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat

BATTLELINE
Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– High Warden
– Spells: Etheral Blessings
Hurakan Windchargers (130)*
– Windspeaker Seneschal
– Standard Bearer
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)*
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Speed of Hysh

OTHER
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)*
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Etheral Blessings

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
1 x Rune of Petrification (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Jon Anderson: Sticking to the old ways of the Sith is David Jack piloting the Helon Castle to an undefeated finish. With a pinch of his own spice we have a Scinari Loreseeker making its presence known allowing David to play scenarios with spread objectives to a more effective manner.

The Rune of Petrification has really grown on me over the past month or so. What a great Endless Spell for its cost. Personally, I have found that more Windchargers equals more control but this nets you an extra wizard so the defense for the pick is there. Well done David.

Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Skragrott, the Loonking (160)*
Dankhold Troggboss (200)**
– General
– Command Traits: Loonskin
– Artefacts of Power: Glowy Howzit

BATTLELINE
Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
Rockgut Troggoths (320)*

OTHER
Sporesplatta Fanatics (90)*
Gobbapalooza (145)*
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
Dankhold Troggoths (360)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Malevolent Moon (80)

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Troggherd Heavies

TOTAL POINTS: 1915/2000

Staring at this list and thinking it looks really familiar and didn’t I just write about it? Only to realise it was this list and I lost my work. Anyway, I’m ignoring my cognitive decline and focusing on the list – back to the future in many ways. Before the new book, the most successful Gitz lists were Troggoths (Trolls). Great to see they are still viable and show this is a good book, with decent internal balance allowing a lot of builds. Anyway, this time, trolls with ‘shrooms.

As usual, this is about layering buffs on the Trolls and letting them punch on. Starting with the Sporesplatter, +1 attack for friendly units within 9″. Their Spore Cloud is tricky to use but makes them one of the best screening units in the game, letting them screen both charges and shooting (with careful positioning). Gobbapalooza brings all the buffs to the yard. Every round, you get to choose from +1 run/charge, +1 to hit and wound, -1 rend. They also have 2 unique spells to either turn off commands for an enemy unit or make a unit -1. And they have a teleport spell (Hand of Gork). They can give a unit +1 run/charge and then gate them to outside 9 for an 8″ charge. They are an almost auto, including their ability to react and only 145 pts. They have a worsening ward (starting a 4+ and gone by round 4) to make you commit them early.

Skragrot is another almost auto include – 2 spells with an innate +1 to cast/dispell and knows all of the Moonclan spells. Then there is the Dankhold Troggboss, everything a Dankhold brings (4+ ward against spells, MW on within 3″, Crushing Grip and when he gives other Trolls all out attack they get an extra attack. Good on the Dankholds (2 attacks with potential for 6 damage from each), better on the Rock Trolls (6 extra attacks on a 6 Troll unit). With heals and damage, you have 4 hammers, but of course, on a 4+ save. Even with reduced spell effects (4+ and 5+ wards to magic) , it hurts them they can wilt. With only an average unbuffed potential damage of 15 per 6 Rock Troggoths are going to take more than a turn to guarantee a kill on anything too big.

A solid counter to most of the armies around now where 10 wounds are going to drop an MSU unit. The Trolls will struggle with either the Krondspine or something that can either fight on death or fight twice, preventing their heal between phases. And that happened with DoK here. The Blood Sisters will easily lift a Troggoth unit a round. Without some luck, it’s a tough match-up.

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Daemonic Speed, Warp Reality
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spells: Levitate, Warp Reality
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit, Warp Reality

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Doom Knight
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
Varanguard (870)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 4 x Ensorcelled Weapon
– 5 x Fellspear
Varanguard (290)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– 3 x Ensorcelled Weapon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

James Workshop likes to talk about internal balance in their recent – and welcome! – Meta Watch dis – and Slaves to Darkness are a prime example of what happens when it’s out of whack. The list pioneered by Big Phil has seen plenty of copycats, and a few tweaks here and there recently – and now this Phil (Little Phil?) has gone 4-1, losing only to the current boogeyman of Helon Lumineth, with what can only be described as a twist aimed at having even less warscrolls to remember.

We start off with an additional Sorc Lord compared to Big Phil’s archetype for a grand total of three of the buggers. And don’t ask me why one of them is marked as Slaanesh. Little Phil then replaces the Chosen – because two legs bad, four legs good in Knights of the Empty Throne, allowing for mounted units to run and charge and Varanguard to be battleline – with loads more Varanguard! Including a rather hilarious double-reinforced block marked as Khorne. So yeah, that’ll hurt. We also see a min unit of Nurgle Varanguard for a smaller, tankier missile to give options, while the usual 10 blob of Nurgle Knights lead the way as a pinning device and screen for the V-guard.

And that’s it, really. How does it play? Charge. Double fight. Profit. I can only imagine the Helon list was able to adequately screen the initial knight charge and hit back with enough mortals (which Helon has a habit of doing…) to buy them time – especially if they won the double – to then whittle down the Varanguard at range – despite their 4++, they’re still vulnerable to weight of dice or simply being hit first. I mean, you’d think a large blob of fast wounds with a 4++ vs. mortals would be one of the few things capable of tangling with Helon, but there you go! A great effort nonetheless, and further fuel on the ‘Slaves book = 3 warscrolls’ fire.

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale (120)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Morathi-Khaine (700)*
The Shadow Queen (700)*

BATTLELINE
Khainite Shadowstalkers (160)*
– Shroud Queen
Blood Sisters (300)*
– Gorgai
Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Krone

OTHER
Khinerai Lifetakers (80)*
– Harridynn
Khinerai Lifetakers (80)*
– Harridynn

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

Unfortunately, there are no comments for this one because I’m silly and used Baz’s comments from an older list!

That being said, it’s Morathi and the Sneks, which I’m sure you’re all familiar with by now.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zon, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Kharadron Overlords, Knights of the Empty Throne, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter Holland, Slaves to Darkness, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for War Under the Mountain

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This is the top three AoS lists for War Under the Mountain that took place in Australia on the 25th and 26th of March. It involved 19 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zon
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Honour Is Everything
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

Leaders
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aetheric Navigator (85)**
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb

Battleline
6 x Skywardens (260)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Skywardens (260)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Skywardens (260)*
– Reinforced x 1

Other Units
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)**
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon
– Gunhauler Modifications: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments
3 x Endrinriggers (120)**
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*

Behemoths
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 2

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha

Battleline
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 105
Drops: 1

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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Hag Queen (120)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
– Prayers of Khainite Cult: Crimson Rejuvenation
Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)
– Allies
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
– Prayers of Khainite Cult: Sacrament of Blood

Battleline
15 x Blood Sisters (450)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Blood Sisters (150)*

Units
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Heart of Fury (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3/4
Allies: 320 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 2

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Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Grinnin’ Blades
– Mortal Realm: Hysh
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)*
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Trait: Mean ‘Un
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Artefact: Eye-biter Ash
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)*
– Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)*
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)***
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
20 x Gutrippaz (300)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Gutrippaz (150)*
20 x Hobgrot Slittaz (160)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**

Units
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced x 1

Artillery
Beast-skewer Killbow (100)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Galletian Command

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 163
Drops: 12

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Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Cities of Sigmar, Death, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowheart, Hammers of Sigmar, Knights of the Empty Throne, Legion of Blood, Order, Slaves to Darkness, Soulblight Gravelords, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII

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This is the top three AoS lists for Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII that took place in the USA on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 52 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: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (350)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)**
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Expertise: Arcane
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares (280)***
– Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale

Battleline
5 x Black Knights (100)***
5 x Black Knights (100)***
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*

Units
10 x Blood Knights (400)***
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Grave Guard (280)**
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (80)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Command
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

Some of our readers may remember that we interviewed Jeremy Veysseire some time ago on General Speaking. We reached out once more, and ever the gentleman, Jeremy agreed to give us a rundown of his list.

Jeremy Veysseire: The important thing about the Legion of Blood army I played at Sparkle Death party is that it was designed originally roughly 1 year ago to counter the hyper aggressive meta that was around Maggotkin Flies, Dragons and Ironjawz through the following important mechanics of Neferata’s spell allowing a unit of mine to ignore negative modifiers to saves (aka REND) for either Neferata and the Blood Knights on a 3+ save platform making them easily 2+ save during the crucial fights and the minus 1 to hit Aura from Neferata’s Command Ability, the reduction in attacks to 1 unit with the book spell. The additional mechanics that were more of a bonus such as the Bravery Reduction, the additional models fleeing and the Horrorghast combo really punished in some cases Dragons and the flies themselves since my army does not do straight raw damage per say but more of this “I will kill you by a thousand slow cuts while you scream for the hills.”

So we fast forward to Spark Death Party, why bring this army since the meta has evolved so much since then? Well, I wanted to see if the combo was a good counter to Gitz, Slaves and Mawtribes, which all fit those hyper aggressive archetypes. The difference being that all of those armies have abilities to deal out a lot more MW consistently than the previous meta (yes, even more than dragons) and still punch very hard. I made some tweaks by incorporating Lauka Vai and the Corpse Cart for the +1 to cast aura, hoping that in some games I could get Lauka Vai’s spell off allowing me to really control how my opponent could choose the engagement and the additional thought process was if the Gitz armies went deep in Squig Herd since they can’t reroll charges, it could potentially stop them when they want to charge.

Now lets cover some of the additional combos in the list that are less obvious, Levitating Blood Knights to always be able to move any enemy units when they retreat and plant themselves easily where they want while removing terrain to clunk them up. Making the Grave Guards Sworn protectors allows me the ability to do another Battle Tactic “A Matter of Honor” with them and just in the off chance I can get them to activate in the Hero Phase with the Vampire Lord. Lauka Vai’s MW on the Charge really allows me to sometimes get Neferata out of combat or lets me remove a GC consistently with her as she can be kind of a surgical strike unit and she provides the Blood Knights coverage if Neferata fails to cast her spell.

At the event itself, I played in order into FEC, Fyreslayers, Mawtribes, Gitz, Cities of Sigmar. My first 4 matchups were exactly the type of army I wanted to face, aggressive melee armies and man oh man did the combo work. Some highlights, keep Gotrek debuffed with less attacks and half charges while the army picked up everything else around him, into Mawtribes watching Stonehorn hit on 5’s with Neferata’s minus 1 to hit, into Gitz watching BK just absolutely lock units up and the Black Knights blocking avenues up the board. Neferata slayed a Terrorgheist, a Phoenix, a Grimwrath, and terrified the Heroes on Stonehorn with her dagger. The army obviously got to play the type of armies it was designed to fight into and it did incredibly well due mostly to its ability to keep my opponent’s army locked away and debuffed as I cut him ever so slightly to drain him of his life essence like perhaps…a Vampire. But honestly, all it took was probably a non Static shooting army like KO or Seraphon to just ruin my day. What a great last ride for this army before the new battletome.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Lord-Castellant (160)*
– Artefacts: Quicksilver Draught
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Lord-Relictor (150)***
– General
– Command Traits: High Priest
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Battlemage (100)****
– Ally
– Realm: Ghur

BATTLELINE
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)****
5 x Drakespawn Knights (110)****
– Dread Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower

OTHER
10 x Protectors (440)*
– Protector-Prime
– 4 x Starsoul Mace
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)**
– Raptor-Prime
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (170)***
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Galletian Command
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Vanguard
****Vanguard

Total Points: 1990/2000
Total Drops: 10
Total Units: 10
Total Wounds: 109

Through our friends at Stormkeep, we were able to reach out to Stark and ask if he’d give us a rundown of his list. Thanks again, Stark, for the comments, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again in the future!

Stark Pister: This list is a natural evolution of my HaXbows list from last season, with which I topped out at 4-1. Last season I played 15 Judicators + 3 Longstrikes in a 3 drop with double chariot bounty hunters and so this list pulls back on the shooting and chariots for a more durable anvil/hammer in the block of 10 protectors to fit the more midboard grind battleplans of this season.

In my opinion the strongest Stormcast lists tend to be mixed arms builds with durable screens protecting efficient shooting and high damage melee hammers to riposte threats that try to get through the screens to threaten the shooting, all supported by minimal characters since our faction synergies tend to be minimal. I tend to build my tournament lists with this a general philosophy as the balanced nature allows the flexibility to deal with most types of opponents. In a similar vein, I try to have units with diverse types of damage to have the tools to minimize polarized matches. I find Stormcast’s incredibly deep roster tends to provide the options to really customize what you want available in any given meta.

This new season presents a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges for Stormcast lists. Fortunately, our main minimal support characters are all GCs (except Gardus). One of our big strengths is the ability to snipe out small enemy buff heros and now that is even better with enemy GC’s being critical for half the non-book tactics and several battle plans, incentizing use of the Sharpshooter battalion. However, they balanced sharpshooters well by forcing it to be 3 required units so you can’t be very low drop. High drops can be problematic for shooting armies because an early double can allow melee to close the gap and for opposing shooting to gain the upper hand in output, so this needs to be compensated for somehow. Longstrikes make the perfect GC hunters, and with scions, translocate, and Thunderbolt volley, they provide very flexible turn one threat that helps offset those high drops. The added threat of the Judicators forces conservative screening of heros while they efficiently clear those screens from a safe distance.

The Gallatian Command battalion provides the opportunity for a very strong combo in Stormcast when used alongside a Galatian Champion with the Quicksilver Draught and the new Tunnel Master makes it easy to set up even with a hero like the Castellant who wants to be on the board in the hero phase for his ability. More importantly, it allows the combo to be down at the start of the game as part of your initial deployment castle, and with the help of the Relictor, it can be anywhere it needs to be on turn one. This allows you to defend from alpha strike armies that choose to go first against you (or the rare person you outdrop), while being able to get them buffed and into the optimal position when given top of one. Lord Castellant is the perfect hero for this job not just because of his ability to buff them to a 1+ save but critically because he has a 40mm Gryph Hound that enables the whole 10 block to fit within the 2.5″ bubble to allow them to strike first with him when someone charges them. This provides a HUGE deterrent to hitting your midbaord castle from the front and specifically acts as protection of your main melee hammer against the double turn.

The Ghur Battlemage helps make up for the paladin speed issues in the mid game and pairs well with the Relictor for melee units in general throughout. I often lead with Mystic shield on one of the screens to help with weathering the potential double as well, before flipping to wildform to go on the offensive. He also provides the bare minimum magic defense, which coupled with heroic willpower and the relictor Dispel at least let you disrupt the low hanging fruit.

The efficient battleline slots provide the opportunity to pick up an all-star screen in the Drakespawn Knights, who pair well with the Chariot to safely claim objectives and pin large threats until their buffs are down. The Chariot even has vanguard battalion to reroll its first charge outside of hero range. Because the battleline are the riposte and ranged units, they can easily stay back to protect heros from shooting for a while.

Another critical consideration this season has been the battle tactics. The teleporting GC lineup and Sworn Bodyguard paladins make most of the new ones achievable with some planning, though This One’s Mine is rarely an option. Hammerstrike Assault and Draconith Desctruction can be good backup options, albeit riskier that come in handy against armies where killing the one thing needs to be your focus anyway. The spicy Drakespawn pick can even sneak a late game Pioneers of the Realms.

Shoutouts to my mentor Matt Beasley for helping refine the list and forcing me to get reps in (and for lending the Drakespawn), to my painting mentor Ricky Fischer whose squigs I beat in round 5 to finish the tournament, and to the whole of Dimensional Cascade. Special thanks to my partner Larc for the unending support of my unbelievably-high-time-commitment hobbies.

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Be’lakor (355)
– Spells: Binding Damnation
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Leadership of the alpha
1 x Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)*
– Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

BATTLELINE
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3 x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Knights (230)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Splintered Fang (100)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Another notch on Be’lakor’s bedpost! If you’ve not met him on the table before, Be’lakor’s man schtick is being able to stop a key unit from doing stuff (on a 3+ each phase) until your next hero phase. He’s been hotly debated in (all 9) S2D player circles because, while he offers a great amount of short-term control, which potentially allows you varanguard/10 knights (as in this list) to do their work, it’s also entirely possible that you roll a few crucial 2s, and then you’ve basically paid 355 pts for a not very durable, not very killy and kinda fast hero.

He has been cropping up recently though, suggesting that, overall, he’s worth it for the time he buys the hammers to do their work. Ricky here has actually gone for KOTET, which will allow the two units of knights, the Varanguard, and the Sorcerer on Manticore to all make up plenty of ground by running and charging. Obviously, that’s going to allow a fair bit of early pressure, especially with daemonic power being cast on 3d6 with a re-roll by the Manticore Sorc, allowing one unit to charge with 3d6 as well. I imagine the spell-portal is also there to allow the Manticore’s warscroll spell – one of the few good offensive spells S2D has access to – to reach out across the board to soften stuff up.

Finally, we have an Exalted Hero, who is utterly garbage, but only 100 points, and I imagine it is mainly there for GC based scoring.

Taking down one of the two mirrors and also managing to chew through NH and a monster heavy Ogor list means this is a great result with a techy list from Ricky!

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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
– Army Type: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Battlemage (100)*
– General’s Adjutant
– Spells: Roaming Wildfire, Ignite Weapons
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Freeguild General (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade
1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)*
– Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds
1 x Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)**
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Sear Wounds, Flaming Weapon
1 x Lord-Arcanum (140)**
– Spells: Warding Brand, Roaming Wildfire

BATTLELINE
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)*
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
– Long Rifle
20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)*
– General’s Retinue
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
– Standard Bearer
– Marksman
– Piper
10 x Flagellants (80)**
– Prophet
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Standard Bearer
– Drummer
– Freeguild Halberd
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Drummer
– Standard Bearer
– Freeguild Halberd

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Quicksilver Swords (60)

OTHER
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Once you get one player comment, you can often get two or three from the connections those players have. That was the case here as well when Stark said he could reach out to Louis-Philippe for his comments.

Louis-Philippe: The Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix should only have Flaming Weapon (The mistake has been spot before start of the tourney and opponents were dully advise).

Game plan: First of all, AoS is a dice game. Luck is part of the game, but careful planning can sway the odds in your favour. …sometime 😛

Flagellants are there for the easy ‘’Sanctify’’ battle tactic T1 (White dwarf). Since I always let my opponent go first (I was lucky not to face a 1 drop), he usually doesn’t kill anything. So that was a free one turn 1. (Aside from game 4, where the battleplan didn’t favour that BT (Position Over Power). Fun fact, that was the only game my opponent concentrated on his resource to kill my flagellant on his T1.

This list has 4 (double, cause Hallowheart) casters, meaning an 8 cast hero phase T1. The Hallowheart command ability lets you take D6 mortals for the same amount in casting bonus. Meaning this list is usually casting at +1, if not +2 or +3, but could reach a whopping +9! and since all your spells are cast on 6s (aside Flaming weapon) unless your opponent is able to unbind, everything goes flying out. Fun fact (not so fun for my opponent): In my 4th round T1 hero phase, I was casting with a +5 from that command ability since my phoenix failed all his ward saves. Got to heal 3 wounds back with Sear Wounds though.

I mostly face Melee lists (Fireslayer, Skaven (night/gutterrunners), Nighthaunt, nurgles (beast), Soulbright Grave lord)

So, the plan was to deploy away from their charge range. For the skaven, I deployed my shooting units 3’’ aways from the front of my shaft unit, so his deepstriking rats only had my shaft to shoot at (and my Fulminators which they killed with mortals). He also charged my shaft with his deceiver (one of them failed the charge). His deceiver didn’t like mortals from magic bottom of 1 (and the other rats didn’t like my shooting).

As for the Soulbright, well Jeremy is impressive, tactics wise and had a bit of luck, he stole initiative T2, forcing me to move forward by burning my ‘’back’’ objective, and had Neferata do 1 wound (yes only 1 unsaved wound to my Phoenix, mind you it was the dagger that got through, Phoenix was at 11 health, he rolled a 5… pouf no more Phoenix).

Units :
The goal was to use the Freeguild Guards and Flagellants as chaff around the Handgunners and Crossbowmen. My general and the battle mage from Ghur had to be close to each other for the adjutant rule and my general was in the middle of the range unit, providing +1+1 with his CP and a 18’’ wholly whiting immune to bravery. The Phoenix was there to act as tarpit and increase survivability (if there’s any) of the chaff unit since his -1 wound bubble affects any enemy unit within range.
Fulminators are there to act as a menace, which they did great since most of my opponents were scared of them and diverted resource to deal with them.
Finally, th Lord-Arcanum was there to :

  • Be an extra GV
  • Give 1 more (possibility of 2) HP to the fulminators
  • But mostly give 6’’ more movement range on the Quicksilver Swords, which make them a 20’’ threat range on cast (remember the casting bonuses I talked about earlier)

Battleplans :
R1-Prize of Gallet
R2-Ours for the taking
R3-Only the Worthy
R4-Position over power
R5-Jaws of gallet.

Possible upgrade : Swap ‘’Tunnel Master’’ from the battlemage to the Lord-Arcanum.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Knights of the Empty Throne, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter Holland, Petrifex Elite, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Straight Edge Wargaming GT

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Straigyt Edge Wargaming GT that took place in Sweden on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 14 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: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Swampboss Skumdrekk (290)*
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)**
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)**
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)**
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex
Skragrott, The Loonking (160)*
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Gutrippaz (150)*
10 x Gutrippaz (150)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*

Units
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
The Burning Head (30)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 160 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 2

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Skink Priest (120)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Starpriest (140)*
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Slann Starmaster (290)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Engine of the Gods (300)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Bind Endless Spell
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
10 x Skinks (80)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (80)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
30 x Skinks (240)**
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (260)**
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (260)

Endless Spells and Invocations
Horrorghast (70)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 5

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Hysh
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– General
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1

Battleline
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Chaos Knights (230)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
9 x The Unmade (80)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

Units
1 x Cockatrice (105)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 111
Drops: 1

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Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)*
Mortisan Soulmason (120)*
– Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Mortisan Boneshaper (110)*
– General
– Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefact: Godbone Armour
– Lore of Mortisans: Reinforce Battle-shields
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
30 x Mortek Guard (420)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Mortek Guard (420)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 2
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*

Behemoths
Gothizzar Harvester (200)*
– Weapon: Soulcrusher Bludgeons

Endless Spells & Invocations
Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 1

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowed Knights, Idoneth Deepkin, Knights of the Empty Throne, Mor'Phann, Nighthaunt, Order, Slaves to Darkness, Stormcast Eternals, The Scarlet Doom, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for God’s of War 3

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for God’s of War 3 that took place in Italy on the 11th and 12th of February. It involved 84 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

The rankings for this tournament included other points that played around with the usual order of lists. We therefore decided to base the top 3 lists on the traditional method of wins and then battle points.

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: Idoneth Deepkin
– Army Subfaction: Mor’phann
– Grand Strategy: Dominion of the Deep Ones
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Isharann Tidecaster (140)
– Artefacts: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide
– Spells: Steed of Tides
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)*
– General
– Command Traits: Lord of Storm and Sea
1 x Isharann Soulrender (120)*
1 x Lotann (110)*

BATTLELINE
20 x Namarti Thralls (260)*
– Icon Bearer
20 x Namarti Thralls (260)*
– Icon Bearer
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)**
– Icon Bearer
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)**
– Icon Bearer
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)**
– Icon Bearer

BEHEMOTH
1 x Akhelian Leviadon (460)*
– Mount Traits: Reverberating Carapace

TERRAIN
1 x Gloomtide Shipwreck (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Sharpshooters

TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)

Just in case it isn’t obvious by the time I finish this segment, I really love Idoneth Deepkin. They are the perfect army full of the best models with no bad builds, and you will never convince me otherwise. Luca’s list shines a spotlight on a handful of excellent units and clearly uses them to their greatest effect.

Let’s start with heroes. Luca has opted to leave the classic Murderking at home to fill in more slots for GCs. They are also focusing their heroes on the ability to buff and support their key units rather than shine by themselves. The Tidecaster brings two Isharann Rituals, the Thrallmaster is remarkably versatile (and has pretty decent solo damage output as well), the Soulrender keeps those Namarti alive, and Lotann provides some amazing buffs when stacked up with other heroes.

The Namarti thralls and reavers are supported by these heroes in key ways. Sticking the Tidecaster in a boat to give Riptide the widest possible reach, then pick your favorite Thrall unit and stick all of the remaining heroes into the middle. At that point the Soulrender is going to be resurrecting 4 to 6 Thralls per battleshock phase, the Thrallmaster is going to provide exploding 6’s to hit, Lotann provides +1 to wound, the Leviadon gives +1 to hit…

You see where this is going. Assuming the chosen unit doesn’t get destroyed on their way to their destination (which obviously didn’t happen, given Luca’s first place win) the 20 thralls will force a massive number of Rend -1 saves. And if it does happen that the thrall unit gets destroyed on the way to their destination, Luca has a backup castle right behind the first. On top of all this, Luca has 30 Sharpshooter Reavers running around the board as fast as (or faster) than other armies’ cavalry all the while able to pick off enemy GCs before they have the chance to score battle tactics.

All-in-all, this is an excellent showing from an army that we don’t get to see in top 3 articles very often, and Luca did an excellent job piloting them to a 5-0 win and first place!

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Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Guardian of Souls (150)**
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Krulghast Cruciator (150)**
– Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
Lord Executioner (130)***
– General
– Command Trait: Hatred of the Living
– Artefact: Slitter
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Spirit Torment (120)**
Spirit Torment (120)

Battleline
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (180)*
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (180)*
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Spirit Hosts (130)***

Units
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)**

Core Battalions
*Galletian Veterans
**Warlord
***Vanguard

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 11

No Harridans, no Hexwraiths, just a single-minded focus on some of the most effective murder machines Nighthaunt has. By now, everyone knows the Bladegheist trick, an extra attack on the charge. With Lightshard, that means up to 5 attacks as well as mortal wounds from the charge (Scarlet Doom ability). This is a variation on the 2 blocks of 30 Bladegheist that we saw early in last season. This list deals with one of the weaknesses of the 60 Bladegheist list by giving both more units and a non-trivial screen. The weakness, of course, is only 10 wounds for 180 points. They can issue discorporate on themselves to take advantage of a 5+ ward increased their effective wounds 30%. But even without rend, a 10/13 wound unit is pretty easy to pick up.

Unfortunately unless you have a double pile in/fight rule (Terrorgheist I see you) the unit that removes the screen is really only a trading piece with one of the large units likely to take advantage of your clearing the screen. Elite armies can’t afford that trade too often. The normal buffing heroes are here, Kruleghast gives -1 damage, and Guardian of Souls with 2 Spirit Torments to return models every turn. The Lord Executioner build is cute and very threatening, but with only 5 wounds, he can be removed a bit too easily to rely on. It will take a little effort, though, with his standard wards and once per game 3+ wards.

If combined with the Spirit Hosts, it will take quite a bit to shift him. He’s not a Megaboss but with Slitter (chance to one shot small heroes) and Hatred of the Living he’s a nasty bomb waiting for something to get too close. The points increase cost this list dearly – in Season 2, it costs more than 100 more than Season 1 neatly removing the Purple Sun (and other helpful spells). With a mix of defensive and offensive buffs and choices, this is still a very aggressive list that aims to win by destroying you more than playing for points. Isolated any of the core units are pretty weak. The lower Battlescore (still 5 and 0) reflects that it’s a bit harder to score in Season 2 just by killing your opponent. It’s still fun though.

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (170)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Cursed Warhammer
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
– Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (230)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
Chaos Knights (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Doom Knight
– Cursed Lance
– 2 x Hornblower
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
Varanguard (290)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 3 x Ensorcelled Weapon
Varanguard (290)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 3 x Fellspear
Varanguard (290)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 3 x Fellspear

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

Slaves to Darkness players (myself included) are quickly finding that the new book has some definite power, even if from a fairly limited selection of warscrolls and allegiance abilities. However, the combos that do work, work.

Meme has kept things simple and leaned into a ‘2e Slaves but with no Archaon’ list, with loads of cavalry in Knights of the Empty Throne, which makes mounted units able to run and charge, and Varanguard battleline. Also, be aware, the 5+ Varanguard rally only applies if the GENERAL is a Varanguard model.

Slaves HQ picks are quickly consolidating to a lean selection of 1-2 Lords, with at least being the Sorcerer as we have here, for access to the fantastic Daemonic Power (+1 to hit and wound) spell, that he can cast on 3d6 thanks to a heroic action – hence the Arcane Tome and Master of Magic – also crucial to getting ‘Daemonic Speed’ off for those 3d6 charges.

Troop wise, Chaos Knights are rapidly showing Nurgle to be their favourite mark, so they can act as durable pinning pieces. Meme has them backed up by 3x msu Khorne Varanguard, as savage guided missiles, with each unit being able to fight twice.

You can probably see how it works – a wall of super hard to kill knights with run+3d6 charge to box you in, and death squads of Varanguard with – if all the buffs go off – 4 attacks each, 2/2/-3/2!

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Stormkeep
– Subfaction: Hallowed Knights
– Triumph: Inspired
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Their

LEADERS
Lord-Castellant (160)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Starfall
Gardus Steel Soul (170)***
Knight-Zephyros (100)***
– Artefact of Power: Mirrorshield
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Krondys (550)***
– Spell: Thundershock

BATTLELINE
15 x Vindictors (390)*
– Vindictor-Prime
– 3 x Azyrite Signifier
5 x Vanquishers (110)**
– Vanquisher-Prime
5 x Vanquishers (110)***
– Vanquisher-Prime

OTHER
3 x Aetherwings (70)**
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)**
– Raptor-Prime

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

CORE BATTALIONS
* Galletian Command
** Galletian Sharpshooters
*** Warlord – Artefact

UNIQUE ENHANCEMENT – HOLY COMMAND
Steadfast March

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

With the news that small heroes were the focus of Season 2, SCE players rejoiced and began sorting through their 40 heroes for Galletian Champions to take up the challenge. And very quickly realised that despite only average performance, they’d gotten a nerf. The same 3 or 4 foot heroes that were already in the list were there for a reason. However, both the Knight Zephyros and the Knight Azyros. especially the Knight Zephyros, made a return. Only 6″ move, but he can teleport instead of move on top of run and charge. Only 5 wounds but equipped with Mirrorshield (can’t be shot unless you are within 9″) and Subborn as a Rhinox makes him both a great backfield but also a great unguarded objective unit. Really though this is the Krondys show with a supporting cast of heroes.

Both the Castellant and Steel Soul bring useful buffs (+1 to save and a 12″ 5+ ward). While Krondys is the big hammer, the Vindictors are a hammer in their own right. They are part of the Galletian Command battalion with the Castellant. You can expect them to hang around with a 2+ save. You can expect them to do an average of 5 mortal wounds at full strength (15 models), they need to lose 3 models before battleshock is an issue. They also fight on death, so combat is a real concern. They are part of an anti horde approach, including Starfall and the Vanquishers (they get more attacks the more models they face). At the same time, as including a hero that can snipe objectives, Ambrogio included some real snipers.

Aetherwings are not just spotters (+1 to hit for longstrikes if the target is within 12″ of them). They can, of course, take objectives or push scoring opportunities. The Longstrikes are a good choice for sniping out Galletian Champions. A well thought out list with solid scoring opportunities and the ability to apply pressure, including through remote mortal wounds (Raptors, Everblaze Comet, and Starfall) that will punish any horde or army that castles. 13th is low for a 4 and 1 record, demonstrating SCE’s frequent mobility issue and its impact on scoring.

Final Tournament Placings

For the full tournament listing visit Best Coast Pairings.

Age of Sigmar, Authors, Cabalists, Chaos, Danny Wadeson, Despoilers, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Host of the Everchosen, Knights of the Empty Throne, Ravagers, Reviews, Slaves to Darkness

Talkin’ Tomes: Slaves to Darkness with Big Phil

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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!

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Cabalists, Chaos, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Helon, Knights of the Empty Throne, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Bloodshed in the Shires

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This is the top three AoS lists for Bloodshed in the Shires that took place in the UK on the 4th and 5th February. It involved 80 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: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Helon
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)*
– General
Scinari Cathallar (110)*
– Artefact: Silver Wand
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)*
5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)*
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1

Other Units
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Rune of Petrification (60)
The Burning Head (30)
Umbral Spellportal (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 91
Drops: 1

What a whopper! Of course, at the top is Teclis, who knows all the spells, and casting 4 at casting value 10 (Without a roll, making crucial spells like Total Eclipse all but inevitable). Through the Umbral Spell Portal, he can throw Searing White Light through to deal a staggering number of mortal wounds all over the place. Between the book spells, Burning head and Rune of Petrification mortal wounds will be dropped all over the place. Adding to the headache, Searing Heat and Rune of Petrification also inflict movement penalties, slowing the enemy army to a crawl.

The rest of the list is mostly pure efficiency. Sentinels still have some of the deadliest shooting in the game, and with 2 units supporting each other, their range is extremely deadly. Even if the enemy gets close, Helon gives +1 shots, putting opponents in a no-win situation. Wardens will keep the enemy at bay while Windchargers move up and grab objectives.

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Archaon the Everchosen (860)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Gaunt Summoner on Disc of Tzeentch (240)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate

Battleline
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 75
Drops: 1

New Slaves are starting to make their first splashes in the scene! Initial impressions (including my own) is that there isn’t a great deal of depth to the competitive parts of the book – and Ben here is proving that out with a 3 warscroll list – that is nevertheless highly effective.

Varanguard are pricey at 290 but obviously still slap. The main question when taking them is ‘which weapon’ – with three units, Ben has opted for 2 units to have the Daemon blades (additional mortals on 6s) for tough armour/unrendable cracking – and one ‘scalpel’ unit with rend 3 (on the charge) lances. Keeping them MSU fulfills the battleline tax – and marking them all as Nurgle (-1 to wound in melee) means that on the off-chance they don’t vaporize whatever they go into, or get counter-charged, they could well stick around to hit back down the line.

In KOTET, they can all run and charge, which gives them a huge degree of threat projection and in a battle regiment, Ben probably often gave first away for a devastating first turn of multiple charges where a double could end it there – or postured up carefully and pounced once the opponent over-extended.

Archaon has been a controversial topic among the community since the new rules dropped, but Ben here finds success – given Archaon selects his Mark at the start of the game, there’s tactical flexibility there – for my money, I’d bet he marked him Nurgle most of the time and used him as a durable, utility platform (especially for issuing fight on death to the Varanguard) with a huge board presence.

A cheeky gaunt summoner rounds out the list for a vulnerable but incredibly reliable source of casting – with the Slaves heroic action ‘Draw on Power’, he will have been casting 3 spells on 3d6+1 with one re-roll.

Big congrats to Ben for a strong showing with the new book.

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Cabalists
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Cunduit
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate

Battleline
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– 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
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 1

Big Phil’s list – unchanged from his LVO outing – operates a bit differently to Ben’s, by dint of the 10 blob of Nurgle Knights with the banner – making the unit 30 wounds of 3+, -1 to wound and -1 to rend. Combined with the Soulscream Bridge – reliably cast in Cabalists along with the other important buff spells of Daemonic Power (+1 to hit and wound) and Daemonic Speed for a 3d6 charge – they operate as an alpha pin piece.

Then, the 6 Varanguard follow up behind, marked Khorne to ensure they obliterate whatever they reach. Two sets of cheap’n’cheeky deepstriking Corvus Cabal fill out the battleline while 10 Chosen bring up the rear as a durable, very slappy 3rd wave. Marked Undivided, if they take an objective off the opponent, or kill a hero/monster, they have the ability to start stacking important buffs from the Eye of the Gods table – such as additional rend, +1 to charge, etc!

As mentioned, this is all supported by a brace of sorceror lords – who in Cabalists, and including Arcane Tome, while within 3″ of one another – will be putting out 5 3d6 casts!

It’s a savage list that only lost to LRL Helon, who are capable of throwing out insane weight of mortals while also being Slave Cavalry’s worst nightmare, -1 to hit.

Big love to Phil (whose interview about the Slaves book we’ll be just about to publish as you read this) for pioneering a list I imagine we will see more of in the very near future.

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Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Greyfyrd
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)*
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Draught of Magmalt Ale
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runesmiter (120)*
– Runic Iron
– Artefact: Ash-cloud Rune
– Prayer: Ember Storm
Auric Runesmiter (120)*
– Runic Iron
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash
Battlesmith (150)**
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Runeson (80)**
– Ancestral War-axe
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Doomseeker (80)****
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)****
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)*
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Molten Infernoth (40)
Runic Fyrewall (40)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Galletian Veterans
****Galletian Command

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Aspect of the Champion

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 126
Drops: 11

To save us getting any info wrong on the list, I reached out to Dominic, who kindly agreed to write a few words on how his list works. Congratulations again, Dominic. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you and your Fyreslayers this season.

Dominic Stonebridge: If I were to summarise the build of this list – it was designed to be able to score maximum points every turn. It plays the primary well, finds easy battle tactics, and offers the chance to stop your opponent from achieving theirs. It’s a real grind list, but you win warhammer on scoring the most points…and that was the idea behind this list.

Firstly, I chose Greyfyrd for the additional artefacts and extra wound on the heroes. Taking a large number of survivable heroes enables easy scoring of battletactics, especially when coupled with those in the book.

Given the inability to shoot the heroes, the Magmadroth now plays a different role as you can afford to send him into more risky situations if he’s going to trade well, rather than having to protect him to keep the 4+ ward on the Hearthguard! Here I’ve built him as a combat machine with the ability to double his axe attacks and also fight twice once a game. In one round of combat you can get his big axe of 10 attacks – 2s, 2s, -3, 3 and fighting twice…clear a screen and pile into the good stuff or save it for something you really want dead.

Two priests give you options to run and charge but the artefacts are the real tech…one makes you invisible to spells for one hero phase (one of the biggest threats to the slayers GC) and the other gives a reroll and double range of the Magmic invocations. This enables you to pin your opponent at 36” with the wall or start getting mortals into your opponent turn one…such reach slayers lists are normally lacking. This also achieves your battletactic just having one on the board…wild.

Now the Battlesmith. The main event. A 4+ rally, with which you can do 3x using the leadership of the alpha, though I’ve mainly used that for three AODs or AOAs. He also has a 4+ spell ignore bubble and dishes out a 6+ ward, which one a game becomes a 5+. This Slayers list ticks with all the GC alive, and he helps you do that.

The Flamekeeper is next up who gives you a nice little toolbox. Once five slayers die in range, which you’ve probably rallied back on a 4+, he can make a unit charge in your opponents combat phase (or your own to avoid unleash hell!), give plus one damage or fight on death. Fight first and on death Hearthguard play really well into alpha lists or use a counter charge to get onto an objective and stop, say, a battle tactic.

The runeson is mainly there for more survivability and to babysit one unit of Hearthguard, as he shrugs wounds onto them, and then the Doomseeker offers a teleporting GC – opening up even more battle tactics.

Finally, onto normal units…Vulkites with dual Handaxes can get 30 attacks in a unit if they charge and also fight on death. You can use them really effectively with the slayers runes, such as -1 rend or mortals on 6s to wound, and they’ll trade really well if used properly. They also offer screens against alpha armies with high rend…as Hearthguard will die if you can’t roll 4 ups! You can get these Vulkites onto a 5+ ward and -1 to wound too…making them actually quite hard to shift and a bit of a battle tactic trap!

Last but not least, the Hearthguard. A hammer and an anvil – you can deepstrike them with a rune smiter who, in the absence of sharpshooters, can’t be shot and therefore you no longer need to stay in your castle as you once did as a Slayer player! You can build multiple castles around the board…

Final Tournament Placings

For the full tournament placings, visit Best Coast Pairing

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gnarlroot, Knights of the Empty Throne, Order, Seraphon, Skaventide, Slaves to Darkness, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter that took place in the China on 14th and 15 January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADERS
Engine of the Gods (285)*
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
– Prayers: Curse
Celestant-Prime (325)*
Lord Kroak (450)*
Skink Starpriest (130)*
– Spells: Hand of Glory

BATTLELINE
Saurus Guard (115)*
Saurus Knights (220)*
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws
Skinks (75)*
Saurus Knights (110)*
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws

OTHER
Razordon Hunting Pack (210)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Saurus units riding the crest of Seraphon power? Seraphon claiming number one with an Engine of the Gods and Kroak isn’t new. But Saurus Knights and Razordons in Thunder Lizard? It looks like Thunder Lizard was taken for double cosmic engine rolls and the Fusil of Conflagration. Thunder Lizard really boosts the power of an Engine and with Kroak can push out a lot of mortals. This is mostly a short range/melee army though, with the Engine’s 8” range working really well with the 9” range of curse. The Razordon’s bring 18” range (12D6 shots), but are most useful if the enemy gets close where they can both unleash hell and shoot at the end of the charge phase. Essentially, Seraphon Leadbelchers, you can’t leave them, but you can’t charge them.

The Saurus Knights are usually left at home, they don’t accept buffs as well as Skinks but this army is playing heavily into their Predatory-Fighter (+1 attack for Jaws attacks) and Scaly Skin (-1 damage). And they aren’t GVs. Combined with additional damage on the charge and the potential mortals on 6s, the double unit is pretty scary. A big part of the list, though, is the Celestant Prime – arguable if he is worth the cost in Seraphon, but it worked here. His guaranteed charge and damage profile is effective at removing key pieces like MawCrushas, Durthu, or Warsong Revenant. With Kroak shutting down spells it’s not hard to see why Sylvaneth struggled, the same for Skaven. Neither do well with Mortals. Damage reduction limits some of the impact of Ironjawz and the limited rend, but large number of attacks counters Nighthaunt. The army still has Seraphon’s ability to score while countering a lot of the unique abilities of his opponents army. It’s a really well thought out counter list.

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Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Gnarlroot
– Season: The Dwindling
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Arch-Revenant (120)*
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing
Treelord Ancient (360)*
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony

BATTLELINE
Dryads (100)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*

OTHER
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)*
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Vengeful Skullroot (60)
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
1 x Gladewyrm (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Nikola here has brought a fairly standard Gnarlroot magic build here, with the Treelord Ancient and Warsong Rev combo for putting down a set of trees early doors with the Ancient for Warsong to use Spellsinger to cast his nasty AoE through.

It’s backed up by a compliment of reinforced Sword ‘Noth – a less popular choice than scythes because of their lesser rend – but a more balanced one overall, I think, due to their potential for MW output against targets who scoff at even 3 rend (such as Nighthaunt for example).

Happily for me, an endless spell enjoyer, the list packs all three Sylvaneth specific ones, and why not? They allo have fantastic utility and get be got off nicely in Gnarlroot with the ‘3d6 pick best 2’ to cast and re-roll from The Dwindling. Not only are they some of the best looking faction specific spells but they really do give the army a lot of options – horrorghast effects, healing, charge bonuses and more – love to see it!

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Type: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy – Take what’s theirs

LEADERS
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Demonic speed

Varanguard (290)**
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Fellspear

BATTLELINE
Varanguard (290)**
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Ensorcelled Weapon
Varanguard (290)**
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Ensorcelled Weapon
Splintered Fang (100)*
The Unmade (80)*
Corvus Cabal (80)*
Corvus Cabal (80)*

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

OTHER
Ogroid Theridons (190)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Great Axes

BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment*
Overlords of Chaos**

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Great to see a good run out with the new Slaves book! Although, less happy to see Spinedog – and do bear in mind that the new focus on foot heroes in the forthcoming season will likely mean a list such as this has to change in some big ways.

In the meantime though, it leans into the the obvious highlights of the new book – triple Varanguard in Khorne with lances for that sweet rend 3 charge in one unit, and two units of Ensorcelled Weapons for fast chaff/lower armour targets. With each unit able to fight twice, that’s potentially a lot of pressure coming at you early.

Andy also leans into a bevvy of tech cultists, which is a fantastic section of the new book. Splintered Fang for reliable MW output, The Unmade for running up and turning off Redeploy to help those Varanguard make their charges and not end up in no-man’s land, and double Corvus Cabal for deepstriking and scoring battle tactics. Note – in the new season we lose Barge – so one unit of Corvus for Desecrate is probably going to be the new jam.

It’s interesting that he’s packed in some Theridons – to be fair, they’re a cost effective if not at all durable counter-punch, so why not?

An interesting list that took down what I would imagine are some fairly green match ups, losing only to Nikola’s Sylvaneth, who are quickly proving to be a red matchup for the new chaos bois! Andy – be a hero and take 2nd place next time, without Spinedog! My commenting fingers are ready.

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Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Thanquol (415)*
– Warpfire Projectors
– 3 x Warpfire Braziers
– Spells: Skitterleap
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Arch-Warlock (155)*
– General
– Command Traits: Deranged Inventor
– Artefacts of Power: Esoteric Warp Resonator
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!

BATTLELINE
Skryre Acolytes (75)*
Skryre Acolytes (75)*
Stormfiends (960)*
– 3 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows
– 3 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows
– 3 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour

OTHER
Warp-Grinder (65)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Skaven is one of those armies that I love to see pop up in these lists. Much like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

In this case, we get nearly half of the points of the list dumped into one 9-rat unit of Stormfiends with a weapon load-out that punishes at 24″, ruins days at 12″, and ruins lives within 3″. Combining their damage output with the additional wounds of Warpstone-laced Armor allows them to absorb the mortal wounds they will ultimately take when one of the two nearby Warlocks casts More-more-more Warp Power! Stormfiends absolutely love the ability to land those 9 Windlauncher shots at 3+/2+/-3/D3, 9D6 Ratling Cannons at 2+/2+/-1/1, and 12 Shock Gauntlets at 2+/2+/-1/2.

We also get to see two endless spells that will be standards for the new battletome. The bonuses to mobility brought into play by Lauchon and the Soulscream Bridge makes scoring first and second turn battle tactics easier, since it allows those foot heroes (who might normally have a hard time moving more than 9″ in a turn) to jump across the board to claim objectives. Thanquol’s casting bonus allows him to be a very expensive, but reliable taxi driver, with the ability to cast Skitterleap and one of the two endless spells in the same turn, throwing both of the Galletian champions wherever the they need to be.

Final Tournament Placings