With the release of the Battlescroll: Galletian Reinforcements I’ve been able to go back through the data from the release of the General’s Handbook and tidy everything up. In doing so, I though it may be cool to give you a run-down of how each faction performed under the current General’s Handbook until the Battlescroll took effect.
The data used for analysing these results was taken from 110 Grand Tournaments between 3rd July 2022 and 6th November 2022.
Flesh-eater Courts
Region Comparison – Popularity
Flesh-eater Courts saw their highest popularity in Oceania with 3.7% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while at the opposite end of the world the uptake was only 1.8% in Europe.
Region Comparison – Win Rates
The win rates across all the regions were fairly solid at around 50%. However, the only exception was Scandinavia where this dipped to 35.0%
North America was the location of the Flesh-eater Courts only 5-0 result.
Subfaction Analysis
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Hollowmourne
7
54.29%
Gristlegore
13
50.77%
Feast Day
32
47.20%
Morgaunt
12
46.67%
Blisterskin
29
43.45%
None/Unknown
9
52.27%
Faction Total
104
47.60%
Although Hollowmourne appears to have the most successful win rate, they were by far not the most popular faction, with the majority of players choosing between Feast Day and Blosterskin as their go to.
Top 10 Flesh-eater Courts Players
You may notice that some players have a better World/Nation ranking than players above them in this table. This is due to players playing with multiple factions. These players have been ranked on their top Flesh-eater Courts results only.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Almost Loremaster that took place in Montreal, Canada on December 3rd. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 3-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired – Season of war: Dwindling
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120) Branchwych (130) – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Warsong Revenant (305) – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Acorn of the Ages – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)** 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
Units 3 x Revenant Seekers (235)*** 10 x Gossamid Archers (440)* – Reinforced x 1
No stranger to podiums across Quebec and Ontario, Olivier Gandouet takes first in a scrappy field with his take on the familiar Sylvaneth Heartwood skeleton. Eschewing common pieces like Drycha, a reinforced Seeker unit, or the Celestant-Prime, Olivier instead gets the most out of a reinforced unit of Gossamid Archers – a unit often maligned by Sylvaneth players.
You’ll find many of the usual suspects in this list – teleporting Tree-Revenants easily score battle tactics and potentially Show of Dominance, the Warsong provides reliable access to the strong Sylvaneth spell lore and bursts of AOE mortal wounds, and the Kurnoths are an unholy anvil/hammer combo that can be launched through the Wyldwoods crunked out on Spiteswarm sap to send something to the shadow realm and then fade away. A reinforced unit of Gossamids is really the elephant in the room here. While their durability and expected damage is low relative to their cost, they are capable of truly gruesome spikes and can be difficult to interact with for armies lacking in ranged reach. They will always be a risky include just because their strengths and weaknesses are so polarized, but the risk paid off for Olivier in this case.
We’ve seen Sylvaneth lists slowly edge toward lower drops over time, but Olivier reverses course and instead opts for a high drop list with all the bells and whistles. It’s a strategy that paid off in this event – Sylvaneth can still have a productive and relatively risk-free turn 1 if given first thanks to the Warsong + Spellsinger combo and Strike and Fade, but are also naturally resistant to alpha strikes if given second due to how far back they can set up. A unit of Seekers and a Branchwraith auto-casting Verdurous Harmony provides a layer of insurance for any mistakes, effectively negating any incidental chip damage and enabling rapid recovery from failed kill shots.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)* – General – Artefact: Eye of Hysh – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (245)* – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
UNITS 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Season of War’s own Carl Ong really put Flesh Eater Courts on the map of the Canadian tournament scene when he went on a run with his own FEC-Krondspine list. Perhaps seeing no reason to teach an old spine-dog new tricks, Frederic proves the nerfed Krondspine is still very much a thing in deftly piloting his ghoulies to a 3-0 finish.
It’s not flashy, but it doesn’t have to be: the trifecta of the Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, a block of 9 Flayers, and the Krondspine provide the savvy general with the tools to be competitive in most matchups. The Terrorgheist is an infamously explosive rocket-powered scalpel, threatening to tear even the hardest targets down by fishing for mortals with his Gaping Maw. The Krondspine gives the FEC army the durable mid-board unit it desperately wants and a temporary answer for units the Terrorgheist may not want to engage. In tandem, the Gheist and the Krondspine can either remove or tie up the opposing pieces that have the damage (see: Bounty Hunters) to threaten the Flayers, letting them safely leverage their recursion capability and project their force across the table with Run and Charge from Spectral Host.
This list is here for a good time, not a long time. It will launch a new Archregent-buffed unit across the board each turn until someone runs out of threats. Blisterskin is required here to turn the Flayers into GVs, but is also a strong blanket option with +2 move and access to a teleport for shifty objective play. The Horrorghast is a smart take here, helping to ensure that the list gets the kills it needs on the turn the pilot pulls the trigger and commits. Kudos to Frederic for an excellent finish here.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340) Katakros (450) Mortisan Soulmason (115) – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour – Spells: Drain Vitality
Legends say that on one fateful night a secret cabal of OBR players got together, prayed to effigies of Nagash, Bill Souza, and Owen Jackson, and received the revelation that big bricks of Necropolis Stalkers in Bounty Hunters can do very bad things to almost anything in the game. Dan Fortin was obviously in attendance at this clandestine ritual and has successfully spread the Stalker gospel in Montreal with convincing wins over Sylvaneth, KragGitz, and the OBR mirror.
What DON’T stalkers do, besides disappoint? They’re relatively fast by OBR standards (mimicking the FLY keyword and re-rolling charges), have access to a vintage 2.0 mechanic in re-rollable saves, and scale hard with powerful buffs from Katakros and the Soulmason to drown juicy targets in a sea of hyper-accurate damage 2 and 3 attacks. Arkhan provides damage diversity with his own personal orbit of arcane bolts, while Katakros acts as a buff vector and a constant threat to the opponent’s precious CP. The Mortek Crawler is a good utility add-on, allowing this otherwise melee-range army to reach out and threaten opposing wizards, monsters, and buff characters with a frightening 5 flat damage projectile. It’s worth noting that the Crawler’s normal profile can benefit from Katakros’ attack buff as well, making the payload extremely deadly in concert with a synergistic Horrorghast to lock in the casualties.
No silly frills like “screens” here: just twelve very large and VERY angry skeletons ready to receive positive affirmations from Katakros and punch a few one-way tickets to the bone zone. Congrats to Dan and looking forward to seeing the Ossiarchs again!
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)* Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (270)* – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)* – Moon-cutta
Battleline 20 x Shootas (120)* 20 x Shootas (120)* 20 x Shootas (120)*
Units 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)*
How cool is it that two Gloomspite Gitz lists finished back-to-back in 7th and 8th? In a true homage to the random nature of the Bad Moon, I rolled a dice to decide which I would cover. It seems Raphael Boyon continues to enjoy the moon’s fickle favour, though there was nothing lucky about his performance – he only dropped a game to Olivier’s winning Sylvaneth list!
A lot of the (justified) criticism of the Gloomspite tome boils down to it feeling like playing a losing game of keyword bingo: the juicy synergies seem to be there, but inevitably end up being just out of reach. Raphael’s Jaws of Mork list may represent the best combo this old 2.0 tome is capable of, solving the unreliable reach of Squig units with access to re-rollable movement, +3 movement, and 3d6 charging. On the offensive side of things, these Squigs can hit surprisingly hard: the Loonboss on Mangler provides a generous +1 to wound buff, while the Sneaky Snufflers are perhaps the cheapest source of the very powerful +1 Attack buff in the game. Kragnos ties the package together, serving as a cataclysmic melee threat and anchor that also allows the buffed Squig units to travel potentially shocking distances.
Interesting that Raphael opted for a 2-drop here, but it certainly makes sense for this configuration of the list. If the opponent makes a deployment mistake or fails to respect his movement, Raphael could potentially pull off an Ironjawz-esque alpha strike that pins the opponent at worst and cripples them at best. Going second, Raphael can sit behind the generous screening provided by the Shootas and then pierce the opponent on their weakest flank, threatening a deadly double with Kragnos. Props to Raphael for squeezing every drop of competitive juice out of a beleaguered battletome.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Smite Club Open AoS 2022 that took place in Mesa, Arizona on the 10th and 11th of September. It involved 47 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: Cities of Sigmar – Army Type: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead
LEADER 1 x Battlemage on Griffon (255)* – Mount Traits: Soaring Guardian – Spells: Crystal Aegis, Elemental Cyclone, Warding Brand – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur1 x Freeguild General (100)* – General – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand 1 x Battlemage (100)* – General’s Adjutant – Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand
BATTLELINE 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – Marksman – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Piper 10 x Freeguild Guard (85)* – General’s Retinue – Sergeant – Standard Bearer – Drummer – Freeguild Sword and Shield 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – Marksman – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Piper
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
OTHER 10 x Protectors (450)* – Protector-Prime
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Brett: Demonstrating how open things are we have a Cities list taking a big event that doesn’t lean on Stormdrakes. And answers the question “Where are all of the SCE paladins and why are they always on backorder”. Hallowheart, the mystical city, giving a 5+ magical ward, +1 to cast, and an extra spell to wizards. The list has 3 mage HQs, Krondspine and 210 pts of endless spells to take advantage.. Purple Sun for +1 rend (that’s the effect of -1 to saves) and a 16% per turn to eat something, Ravenak’s for it’s mortal wounds and Soulscream Bridge for teleports. The BM on Griffon is a Ghur mage, I assume the other Battlemage is as well. This means the the Griffon can cast Mystic Shield and Wildform before moving 15″ with +2 to the charge.
Or the other mage could do the same on the protectors before they stepped on the Bridge to move 24″ for a 7+ charge roll. The learned spells include improved magical ward (4+, Crystal Aegis), MW (Elemental Cyclone), Warding Brand (MW following a hit on a 4+), Ignite Weapons (+1 to wound, includes ranged weapons), and D3 heal with Searing Wounds. The protectors, Krondspine and the Griffon can act as hammers supported by the Crossbows. The Crossbows get an extra attack (2 total) so long as they are more than 3″ from opponents and more than 10 models. That gives 2 units with 20+ attacks potentially wounding on 2s. Challenging.
5/0 against pretty strong lists including Ironjawz, Sylvaneth and Beasts of Chaos. The list has a lot of options centred around a castle with 2 heroes and a lot of archers. Charging into that is hard work but Thomas (who was playing Bonesplitterz last time we saw him) also took down a 30 Sentinel Lumineth list as well.
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court Delusion: Feast Day – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Abhorrant Archregent (245)* – Artefacts of Power: The Dermal Robe – Spells: Spectral Host – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)* – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Blood Feast Crypt Haunter Courtier (110)* – General – Command Traits: Dark Acolyte
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
TERRAIN 1 x Charnel Throne (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Brett: In second we have another uncommon faction who received a bit of a boost recently. Fairly horrific combination of two large blocks of Crypt Horrors combined with Krondspine and the Purple Sun. FEC don’t ignore rend like Nighthaunt so the Purple Sun affects them but with their heals, wound count and regeneration it’s just not that bad. Keep the Abhorrents away, particularly if it goes wild. Potentially you are looking at a very nasty castle, at least early game. The Archregent applies D3 attacks to the larger unit of Horrors (from the Carnal Throne, the Terrorgheist grants them a 5+ ward (they have 6+), on the Throne he can summon for free as well. They reroll all hits within 18″ of an Abhorrent. Dark Acolyte grants the Haunter Courtier the wizard ability and they know the Abhorrent Ghoul Kings Black Hunger giving another attack (or buffing a second unit).
Crypt Horrors with up to 6 attacks (Ferocious Hunger) with 2 wounds normally and 3 wounds on sixes (or 4 and 3 against Galletian Veterans). No rend but weight of dice counts even into 2+ saves. The block of 9 with 4 wounds, 5+ save and 5 or 6+ ward takes serious effort to shift. And they can be returned. The Terrorgheist has rerolls to Fanged Maw, it can receive additional attacks and of course Fanged Maw does 6 MW on 6s. The Terrorgheist can also receive run and charge (on top of 14″ move) from Spectral Host (up to 3 units can receive fly or if they have fly, run and charge). That’s before summoning. Both the Abhorrents can summon a unit of Galletian Veterans anywhere on the board.
Very hard to screen against and almost automatic Against the Odds, Desecrate their Lands and Barge through their lands. This is a list that can surprise people and is difficult to counter, unless you have good shooting. That said he lost his first round and recovered well to go 4/1 to the Sylvaneth list with little shooting sitting just below in 3rd.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (305)** – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Treelord Ancient (360)** – Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony
OTHER Spiterider Lancers (420)* – Spiterider Scion – 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer – 2 x Spiterider Hornblower Revenant Seekers (235)* Gossamid Archers (220)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
TERRAIN 1 x Awakened Wyldwood (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Bounty Hunters **Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
Brett: interesting Sylvaneth list with all of the new stuff (or a lot of it anyway). 4 spells Verdurous Harmony (returns models to Tree Revenants) and Treesong (+1 Rend within 9” of a wyldwood). The Warsong has Spellsinger to extend casting range (a Wyldwood becomes a spell portal). Works really well for Unleash Swarm of Spities. This is really dangerous, you want to avoid grouping up and stay away from trees. List tech wise we have 2 endless spells, because the Purple Sun is mandatory.
Otherwise Spiteswarm Lancers for mobile damage, they strike first and can heal making it a little bit tougher. Gossamer Archers to do your opponent’s head (fade when charged), Revenant Seekers to return models (including Lancers). And finally Tree Revenants for opportunist attacks, teleporting and fire and fade. The last are among the most effective scoring units at the moment. No really big threats (the Treelord hits hard though) this list is about control and scoring. Hard to come to grips with and able to wear you down in attritional warfare (flavourful or frustrating). Differential type scoring was its only weakness, because it does rely on a longer game.
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Kruleboyz – Subfaction: Big Yellers – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)* Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (240)** – General – Command Traits: Supa Sneaky – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un – Spells: Nasty Hex – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
BATTLELINE Man-skewer Boltboyz (360)** – Boltboy Boss Man-skewer Boltboyz (360)** – Boltboy Boss Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**
Brett: Kruleboyz 4th, that’s an awesome effort with one of the weakest if not weakest faction right now. Since they appeared as the poster boys of the new edition they’ve struggled to make a serious impression on their own (they are crucial to the success of Big Waagh). How did he do it? You look at it and think it’s a skew list but it really isn’t, this is a balanced list with hard hitting HQs bearing the brunt of combat, ranged battleline and some of the cheapest screens around. The Hobgrots are not even GVs, his opponents are going to have to kill them the old fashioned way (and they will). Killaboss on Gorpse-rippa Vulcha loaded with Fast’Un, Arcane Tome so there is one wizard and Supa Sneaky for a redeploy. Nasty Hex to turn off wards.
The list is looking to work at range and try to stop someone charging (or using endless spells) with Krondspine, he makes it really hard to get to particularly the bigger Boltboyz units. With their extra range they outrange almost all archers (Sentinels, Raptors and Kurnoth excepted). If you do charge one Unleash hell is going to be fun. With Covered in Mud they may also be invisible so hard to shoot. Gambling that the opponent can’t charge in multiple places (so only one unit uses Unleash hell). The Breaka Boss can pick off things or stop pressure on a flank and the Killaboss offers a lot of mobility particularly mid late game (I think you want to avoid a wild Krondspine too early so your opponent doesn’t send it into your archers).
It’s a different take and great to see hobgrots have a use (bullet shields, awesome), have you painted yours?
Another tournament, and week, throwing up unusual winners. The diversity in winners is amazing and puts AoS in a really great place for interesting games and tournaments. It’s genuinely exciting to see what’s going to win next week, other than Nurgle, there will always be Nurgle.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Capital City Bloodbat that took place in Ontario, Canada on 20th and 21st August. 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: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Court of Delusion – The Feast Day – Mortal Realm: Shyish – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)* – General – Command Trait: Dark Acolyte – DerangedTransformation King of the Krondspine (245)* Abhorrant Archregent – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)* – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Blood Feast
Battleline 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)** 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)** – Reinforced x 2
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)* – Allies
Brett: Carl (Season of War) is back and with a different army as well. Jordan took 4th with his slippery eels as well. This time Carl’s running Flesh Eater Courts reminding everyone there is more to death than Nighthaunt (or maybe Soulblight). No Grand Court listed, that avoids the mandatory trait and artefact common to 2nd edition book subfaction but they can still take a delusion – Feeding Frenzy. This command grants a second pile in and fight to a unit, very useful on the Flayers or Terrorgheist. The Archregent and Ghoul King are wizards with 3 casts/dispel but as senior officers of the court they can also muster (summon) units. Both the Archregent and the Infernal can muster or return Flayers or Horrors as can the Ghoul King. The Archregent can also bring in cryptghouls (Galletian Veterans) and Courtiers.
All of this adds up to the listed army being on the start. The Flayers will be hard to remove, 9 with 4 wounds is enough to survive most attacks and they can grow back. Chronomatic Cogs to ensure rerolls, the spells that they use tend to increase the number of attacks, grant fly or mortal wounds. The warscroll spells are good enough that you want access to them most of the time. Apart from the Infernal Courtier/Flayer connection important aura’s are large (18″ reroll 1s for Grypt Ghouls). They can spread a little to cover an objective with certain death. But their ability so summon Galletian Veterans anywhere on the map that isn’t occupied they play into this season really well. The army has 3 full hammers between the Ghoul King, Incarnate and Flayers.
And they are very mobile, particularly when everything can be made to fly so terrain is irrelevant. One loss to a very strong Witch Aelve army – 50 stabby ladies and the High Gladitrix is hard to punch through and they hit very hard. Otherwise they’ve taken down strong combat and magic armies as well as Gargants. Amazing effort with what is currently seen as one of the weakest factions in the game. More than anything I think this shows the level of balance in Age of Sigmar (and what a good general can do). Shout out to Karl Turbide for the very interesting Ironjawz list Carl played in Round 2.
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Allegiance: Bonesplitterz – Warclan: Icebone – Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones! – Triumphs:
Leaders Savage Big Boss (65)* – General – Command Trait: Great Hunter Maniak Weirdnob (100)* – Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar Wurrgog Prophet (150)* – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar Savage Big Boss (65)** Savage Big Boss (65)** Savage Big Boss (65)**
Battleline 5 x Savage Boarboys (140)* – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140)* – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140)** – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140)** – Stikkas
Units 5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)*** 5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)*** 4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)*** – Reinforced x 1 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
Brett: Ah the cunning orcs. No one in their right mind would just run at you and throw their bodies at you to kill you. So they’ll never suspect that’s our cunning plan. 19 drops, count ’em, 19. They get a turn whenever you want them to. Do you want them to go first with a pregame move? Icebone does Mortal Wounds on 6s based on the damage characteristic across the army. Big Stabbas are strong (and there are a lot), 6 high quality attacks hit and wounding on 3s per pair is great. Running the fairly cheap Maniacs backed by the standard Boarboy is another great idea, making it easier to hunt down Galletian Veterans where ever they are.
Not strong on objectives so their preference is always to charge into an enemy for the +1. With the double Warlord the army has an extra spell and artefact. Glowing Tatooz to improve his Ward to 4 (+2 to ward casts) making lifting his stare much less of a risk.
His warscroll has a useful spell into hordes as well. 3 casts but both casters have the same spells, one to force fight last (very bad against Bonesplitterz) and the other to grant +1 to run and charge. The Savage Big Bosses bring 6 attacks and allows another unit within 12″. With 4 Savage Big Bosses they can either spread out or concentrate and maximise their chance to remove something. His only loss was to Oliver (3rd) who brought a lot of shooting and casting which would quickly wear down teh Bonesplitterz. I think we will continue to see versions of this army for most of this season. They are a fun army, who doesn’t want semi naked greenskins running across the field at you.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knight-Incantor general adjudant(125)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Ignite Weapons – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist Battlemage on Griffon (255)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds – Lore of Whitefire: Elemental Cyclone Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290) – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Crystal Aegis – Lore of Whitefire: Roaming Wildfire Freeguild General (100)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds – Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand
Battleline 10 x Dreadspears (85)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models) 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)* – Reinforced x 2 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)* – Reinforced x 2
Units 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)* 5 x Drakespawn Knights (120)*
Endless Spells & Invocations Horrorghast (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70) Soulscream Bridge (80)
Brett: Very spell heavy army (from Hallowheart so that’s to be expected) back with a lot of shooting and some thin screens. 4 Heroes that in Hallowheart all (even the SCE and the non caster with Arcane Tome) have 2 spells. Hallowheart grants the ablity for a cast to give themselves D3 mortal wounds and add that to their casting roll, most of their spells are CV5 or 6 to begin with so this is mostly useful in getting the Purple Sun out but useful for any clutch spells and in early turns no reason not to do it. The Knight Incantor still has a once per game dispell/deny and ignite weapons grants +1 to wound, most likely on the Crossbow men (wounding on 2s). Between the Wildfire Lore and their warscrolls the wizards have access to 5 damaging spells, 3 that are AoE.
The General can increase ward saves against magic and heal wounds (also useful if you take wounds on say the Hurricanum to boost casting). The crossbows need to be more than 3″ from enemy units and not have moved to receive an extra attack if there are more than 10 models – so 61 attacks. No rend but if they are wounding on 2s weight of dice is an issue. Horrorghast helps because even if you only kill enough to force a battleshock, they are losing an extra D3 models if they fail. Against MSU units that can be devestating. Both Fulminators and Drakespawn Knights are nasty, particularly on the charge, in this army they can be given Wildform (Mage on Griffon) for +2 to run and charge. They could use the Soulscream and then only have a effective 7″ charge into something important.
Most of this army is going to be a big castle with a lot of buffs and reach. There aren’t a lot of screens so there is a chance something can reach the casters/crossbowmen. If you are close then the Crossbowmen really drop in effiency. Against FEC (a really close game – only 2 points) I wonder about the impact of FEC summoning, particuarly of units outside of the shooting range. In the end this is a spell casting army with limited mobility (4 really mobile units but 2 of them will struggle solo) so it’s dependant on the dice. A gambler’s army, really fun to play with and against.
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs:
Leaders Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)* – General – Moonclan Stabba – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig Madcap Shaman (80)** – Lore of the Moonclans: Squig Lure Madcap Shaman (80)** – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Battleline 20 x Shootas (140)*** – 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers 20 x Shootas (140)*** – 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers 20 x Shootas (140)*** – 2x Badmoon Icon Bearers
Units 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)* 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)* 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)* 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)* 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)* 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)** 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)** 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)** 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)** 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)** 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Mork’s Mighty Mushroom (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: 186 wounds of Madness. Watch your army be swarmed and overwhelmed by funny little creatures with Slittas. This is the Jaws of Mork White Dwarf army right down to the option use of a General with a Squig. This isn’t a Tome Celestial but an older 2nd Edition buff. Lots of cheap Shootas in units just big enough to qualify for the +1 to hit. Jaws of Mork has a command ability to return (on a 4+) a slain squig unit at half strength near the Loonshrine. On top of that we have the Marshcrawla to buff nearby units of Bounder’s melee attacks to make sure they do something and attract attention.
2 casters to castle with the Shootas (expert conquerors to really control objectives), they are bringing a teleport and an ability to run and charge for 3 units. The plan is to buff up 3 bounders and run then charge them into your face. Returning squigs and a genuine horde are hard to deal with unless you have horde killing abilities. FEC does and also plays into low bravery units really well (you will have many running squigs) and Fangs of Sotek Seraphon have better heavy hitting units with big screens of cheap tradeable Skinks. Their spell casting would have limited the effectiveness of things like the Purple Sun. I really like that this is a 6 drop list (madness) – those are long drops. A crazy off meta list that performed really well, horde Gitz are meant to make a come back.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Boise Cup O AoS GT that took place in Texas, USA on 30th and 31st July. It involved 52 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. A larger event with a good spread of lists in the Top 5. The tournament used the CORRECT scoring system which awards bonuses to the Battleplan scoring including for denying a Battle Tactic. Something for TOs to consider.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Legion of Blood – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Neferata (365) – Spells: Decrepify 1 x Vampire Lord (140)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Arcane – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Levitate, Invigorating Aura 1 x Mannfred Von Carstein (380)* – Spells: Fading Vigour
BATTLELINE 5 x Black Knights (100)* 5 x Black Knights (100)* 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Horrorghast (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
OTHER 10 x Blood Knights (390)** – Standard Bearer – Kastellan 20 x Grave Guard (280)** – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade
Brett: It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Soulblight in the spotlight it seems. Quickly checking the stats it’s still a popular faction at tournaments (right around the middle in entries) but is slowly dropping in performance against newer books. After spending a year around a 50% win rate it’s now dropped in the last month to a 38% win rate. This underlines how good a performance this is. While in the states the army is interesting for taking a less popular Sub-faction and an uncommon battle line.
What this army does bring though is three Flying Vampires wizards (thank you for that nightmare), a whole mess of spells and a murder of summonable (not sure that’s a word – Peter) units that will keep coming back. Six casts across the three heros and the current staple Cogs and Purple Sun. Cogs for rerolls before casting the Purple Sun for it’s typical debuff and potential to eat something important. Lets assume you drop it near two units everytime (10″ separation is required to prevent the sun touching two units) then over the course of a tournament it will eat something 8 times. With flying multi cast Vampire Wizards that could drop it in a home objective castle on turn 2. I’m not saying that did happen, but lets say it ate a Bastiladon or a Storm Drake. Or even Thanquol. That’s possible.
The list has a lot of mobile threats with the Knights combining with Manfred and Neferata to give a lot of options on positioning. The Vampire Lord is most likely going to stay close to the Summonable (Still not sure – Peter) units he can heal. Importantly for the Vampire Lords they all have heals if they kill something. Otherwise they work to weaken their enemy and reduce their bravery. Combining Horrorghast with the effects of the army is a nice touch, you can potentially lose a lot of 1 wound models in a turn that way. Their spells mostly reduce the combat effectiveness of their opponents and, like most Death armies there is a 6+ ward
The Grand Strategy is an interesting one, it’s book specific and requires you to control more gravesites than your opponent. They either need to disperse their forces to cover one or two of them and risk being attacked by summonable units (like the Black Knights) or cede the GS to you. You pick how many points there are and where they are. Nasty.
It’s good to see a different list from a faction that is struggling do so well, congratulations to Jeremy for taking it all the way to number 1.
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Zaitrec – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Sevireth (345)** Scinari Cathallar (110)*** – General – Command Traits: Fast Learner – Artefacts of Power: Gift of Celennar – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Protection of Hysh, Total Eclipse Scinari Loreseeker (170)*** – Artefacts of Power: Blade of Leaping Gold – Spells: Flaming Weapon, Lambent Light, Overwhelming Heat The Light of Eltharion (220)***
BATTLELINE Vanari Dawnriders (140)* – Steedmaster – Standard Bearer – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Total Eclipse Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)** – High Warden – Spells: Lambent Light, Overwhelming Heat Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)** – High Warden – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh Vanari Auralan Sentinels (510)** – High Sentinel – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh
OTHER Vanari Dawnriders (140)* – Standard Bearer – Steedmaster – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
Brett: This tournament has been a bit of a blast from the past, Lumineth on the podium with a massive block of Sentinals and sporting Emerald Lifeswarm. So 2021. Still it’s hard to argue with 30 Archers that can shoot you even behind cover from across the map. That’s the heart of the list, a big block of archers with Wardens as screens. With Power of Hysh the 30 are still averaging 10 Mortal Wounds per turn. Unleash hell while they have Power of Hysh up is very painful. The Dawnriders in Bounty Hunters provide flexibility and threat across the board with much needed increased damage. No MSU is safe, particularly Galletian Veterans.
Severith is a unique threat piece with his extraordinary movement and fire and fade abilities. Exposing small heroes offers him opportunities, the Light and Cathallar are most likely going to remain near the shooting castle offering improved saves. increased bravery and spell protection. The Light of Eltharion is a good covering piece with his MW ranged attack and multiple attacks. The Scinari Loreseeker having Flaming Weapon (+1 damage) with Blade of Leaping Gold (+3 attacks) is very interesting combined with his Lone Agent ability. Drop him within 3″ of something important and apply 7 attacks hitting on 2s wounding on 3s with -1 rend and D3+1 damage.
Beaten into 2nd by one point this is a strong list harking back to the hey day of Lumineth. His opponents, apart from Nighthaunt, mostly had something big that would be a deserving target and without which the army would find it hard to recover. The final match up with Teclis would have been interesting, Dustin couldn’t have relied on his spells at all. The mobility of the Loreseeker, Seviarath and the Dawnriders would appear to be the difference. Loreseeker could do a lot of damage to a Sentinal block in one turn (and die).
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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh – Army Type: Invaders – Army Subfaction: The Lurid Haze – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Sigvald (205)* – General 1 x Bladebringer, Herald on Seeker Chariot (185)* – General – Spells: Hysterical Frenzy 1 x The Contorted Epitome (245)* – General – Command Traits: Feverish Anticipation – Artefacts: Oil of Exultation – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
BATTLELINE 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)* – High Tempter 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)* – High Tempter 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)* – High Tempter
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x The Burning Head (20) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
TERRAIN 1 x Fane of Slaanesh (0)
OTHER 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)
Brett: Archer meta? Krondspine, Purple Sun, 55 Blissbard and Sigvald, what a fun army. The Krondspine to threaten your heroes, block the board and eat endless spells. You don’t want to engage him but his movement makes him hard to ignore and you definitely don’t want to feed him. But if you do try to deal with him you give the opportunity for either the Epitome or Sigvald to wreck face. Sigvald is going to try to come from a board edge and the Epitome can move very quickly.
There aren’t a lot of buffs to their casting but the Epitome has reroll casts. That’s a big buff to getting the Sun out. Flaming Weapon with the Lurid Haze artefact and trait is good combo. 9 attacks at 2 damage particularly if it gets Overwhelming Acquiescence off. Sigvald will typically be entering from a board edge and using his charge to get into something important. Lots of damage, very small screens (Centigors) and a reason to get into your deployment. This is a fun army that is going to be very determined. It’s interesting that Matt’s only lose was to Lumineth.
That list was built around Teclis, so no Purple Sun and included a block of Sentials, the natural enemy of Blissbard. The Epitome and Sigvald would struggle with Teclis as well, this would have been a difficult army to engage. 3rd in a big tournament is a solid effort and reflects the value of Slaanehi lists.
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts: feast day – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – General – Command Traits: Dark Acolyte – Artefacts of Power: The Dermal Robe – Spells: Deranged Transformation Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)** – Artefacts of Power: The Grim Garland – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Blood Feast Varghulf Courtier (160)**
Brett : An army that is currently among the lowest ranked in the current meta with some potential in this season 17th is a good result. Flesh Eater Courts work by applying overlapping buffs from their Nobles (or Heroes) to the Knights (Horrors and Flayers) and Serfs (Ghouls). That means, at least early on, you can expect a pretty big castle.
That makes a lovely target for some serious shooting if you have it. The army has 3 casts with the Archregent having +1 to cast, unbind or dispel from the Dermal Robe. The command trait appears to add a spell but they aren’t gaining the wizard trait (since it is a wizard) and he add Deranged Transformation to throw those Horrors further faster. The Ghoul King and his Terrorgheist have some “interesting” abilities but they are let down in the execution. Death Shriek is only really effective against Destruction armies or Cities but the other attacks inflict serious damage. The Gaping Maw/Gruesome bite combo is extremely nasty, reroll hit rolls, it has 3 attacks, where a 6 does 6 MW. Enough to one shot a Stormstrike Chariot. Twice. In the same game.
The Horrors have 3 attacks hitting on 4s that can be improved, doing 2 damage and 3 on wound rolls of 6. Flayers have 4 attacks only doing 1 damage but can redeploy quickly and does MW on 6s. The Archregent and Ghoul King can return models on top of their summoning which can make clearing the Horrors/Flayers more difficult. To stop the army you need to kill the heros or they will heal and summon. Unfortunately this army has effectively 6 screens to stop you doing that. You can play around the bigger units and pick up the screens through MW attrition and shooting. Like most death armies their strength is often in numbers and if you are patient you can deal with them.
Cody did very well taking the army to 17th dealing with Ironjawz, DoK and SCE all of who have strong play into this list, well done.
