Category Archives: Hollowmourne

Top Three AoS Lists for Dazmaul Wargaming

This is the top three AoS lists for the Dazmaul Wargaming Tournament that took place in the UK on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 29 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
Lineage: Vyrkos Dynasty
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
1 x Necromancer (130)*
General
– Command Trait: Pack Alpha
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
1 x Radukar the Beast (310)*
1 x Vampire Lord (140)*
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions

Battleline
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)*
Reinforced x 1
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)*
Reinforced x 1
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)*
Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)*
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Zombie Dragon (270)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

I can’t in good faith make any more jokes about Soulblight rising back up, so I’ll just jump right into it.

What we’ve got here is a Vyrkos list that gleefully flips off the last season and screams ‘RIP BOUNTY HUNTERS’ while pushing 120 zombies up the board and, presumably, cackling gleefully. They’re all backed up by the usual buff pieces allowing them to get extra attack (Radukar, if he makes a charge) and fight twice (Necromancer, with danse macabre) – and remember they do MWs on 6s to hit and bring back models killed as zombies on a 2+. So it’s not like they can’t spike a few rolls and do a surprise bunch of mortals to whatever tries to chew through them or pull from the front and rally back up.

On top of that, they’re backed up by a Corpse Cart, which projects a -1 to wound aura, making those zombos even more infuriating to kill, and the pretty standard 20 Graveguard – who also make an excellent target for the hero buffs – who always have and still absolutely slap. A newly bargain-priced Zombie Dragon provides access to monstrous rampages and some nice targeted damage, while fitting neatly into the battle regiment!

5 wins for Soulblight at the moment is a great result, and it seems like loads and loads of meat is well and truly back on the menu, boys (and girls).

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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts
Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)
Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)*
General
– Command Traits: Grave Robber
– Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Spectral Host
1 x Abhorrant Archregent (240)*
Artefacts: The Dermal Robe
– Spells: Deranged Transformation
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)*
– Spells: Blood Feast
1 x Varghulf Courtier (160)*

BATTLELINE
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
6 x Crypt Horrors (220)**
6 x Crypt Horrors (220)**

TERRAIN
1 x Charnel Throne (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Galletian Veterans

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Having just called a list with 9 x Flayers “the list” we’ve got one of the best variations. I say that because I played against a version of this a lot. 2 Dragons and 2 blocks of Crypt Horrors is a smart way to play the faction. It gives you more threats to push an opponent. You still have the ability to bring 9 x Crypt Flayers/Horrors (Flayers are probably better) on through summoning. You might have to do it earlier if the Terrorgheist are in combat though.

Still no Cogs, taking the risk that a spell will fail, and only one of the Crypt Horror units will have all of the buffs. The 6 strong units are a risk as well, against a Rend -2 attack even with a 5+ ward (and only one should have it), it’s only 36 effective wounds. A block of fulminators can overcome that on the charge easily. Still, they have fight twice near one of the Dragons on top of rerolls to hit. And additional attacks – they are very nasty threat.

Tunnel Master on the Archregent is surprisingly useful. He can grab an unattended objective easily and then summon friends. But just as easily, it lets him stay within range of either the dragons or Crypt Horrors. Lots of mobility and stacks of board control, it’s a very effective way to control your opponents’ scoring opportunities and really terrify them.

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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Subfaction: Jaws of Mork
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)**
Spells: The Hand of Gork
1 x Squigboss (80)**
– Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm
1 x Squigboss (80)**
1 x Grinkrak the Great (190)***
1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)***
General
– Command Traits: The Clammy Hand
– Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)*
Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
– 3 Barbed Nets
20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)*
Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
– 3 Barbed Nets
36 x Squig Herd (360)***
36 x Squig Herd (360)***

OTHER
1 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (190)*
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)**
1 x Gobbapalooza (145)***
Spells: Itchy Nuisance
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)***

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Galletian Sharpshooters
**Warlord
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

Our latest boogey man (for all of a month and then more demons arrived this week). Simon was keen to see a horde on the table and took over 100 models. Beyond that, though there is so much going on, it’s hard to know where to start. We’ve got a couple of sources of Hand of Gork (for teleports), and Grinkrak’s Looncourt can teleport themselves (if you don’t want the bodyguard). Fungoid Cave Shaman as General? Not sure I’ve seen that before, he’s a sneaky Tunnel Master as well, not sure you’d want to use that too early but he has a nasty Mortal Wound spell with a range of only 6″.

Squigboss’s for both Squigg units, of course, Skragrott (is he mandatory, certainly see him a lot) and a Sloggoth for monster action. The point, of course, is the heroes buff the Squiga (or Shootas), and you let loose the Squig’s. Individually, it’s not really an issue. The 30 Squiggs (and 6 herders) in each of the Squigg herds can hit, from the charge, 120 times. And if you kill some on the crack back, they do a mortal as they flee. With a 3 for bravery, there is a lot of fleeing. Their version of rally is once a game (2+ from each Squigherd) and kills the squiherd but unless you can clear the unit in a turn (difficult) you’ve probably got 2 turns of this from each unit.

That’s the name of the game for the squig build. Wear your opponent down in rounds 1 through 3 and then crack back. With the heroes handing out ‘shrooms granting wards or bonuses to the Shoota (only target) and the Sloggoth giving +1 to hit the Shootas start to be an issue. Sloggoth’s affect is an aura and will apply in any phase – charging the Shootas will be painful. Goes first, winds the squiggs up and unleashes them into your key units. Goes 2nd, hold the squiggs back at let’s the Shootas blunt your attack. If you try to hide, then the Shootas can even be teleported to punish you. If you injure them but don’t clear the unit, it can be rallied 3 times. If you do kill it, there is a 50% chance of them returning via the moon shrine.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but despite weak looking warscrolls, this is a very competitive army. 140+ wounds that can have multiple models or units returned is bad. Their overwhelming you with buckets of dice, which is worse. It’s probably a bit cheap with a lot of sources of mortal wounds. It’s an army that you have to try to outlast or watch them run away with things in the turn 4 and 5. Losing to Flesh Eater courts probably reflects the amount of damage even 3 Crypt Flayers (or 6 Crypt Horrors) can do with buffs and fight twice. They can kill anything in this list in a turn. Otherwise, more elite armies will struggle.

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Allegiance: Big Waaagh!
Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs:

Leaders
1 x Gordrakk the Fist of Gork (500)*
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
1 x Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)**
1 x Orruk Megaboss (140)**
– General
– Command Trait: Skilled Leader
– Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion)
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist

Battleline
10 x Orruk Brutes (300)***
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Orruk Brutes (150)***
Pair of Brute Choppas
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)***
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)*
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)**

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000

Tom & I spent much of late 2021 and 2022 battling each other for top Ironjawz and top Big Waaagh in the UK… and whilst he always beat me, my fun run last year got me the Big Waaagh title…! Woot. Since then Big Waaagh has suffered with the new General’s Handbooks and it’s great to see Tom bucking the trend with a 4-1 result (and top table game 5 match.

Tom’s taken a mostly traditional Big Waagh list with Ironjawz as the base, but he’s gone with Gordrakk and Gobsprakk. Two big flying models in the era of Gallatian Champions is a brave decision but it does allow Tom to stop spells with Gobsprakk and kill characters with Gordrakk.

It’s a great call to bring a model that can cause mortal wounds to Galatian Champions and has the reach to get them. Being able to avoid shooting doesn’t help when a Maw Krusha gets within 1″.

The rest of the army is standard Big Waaagh… but I like all the pieces and it’s made me consider actually painting my Gobsprakk – so a great double result. Well done Tom!

Final Tournament Placings

Flesh-eater Courts – Faction Review (Jul-Nov ’22)

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

SubfactionPlayersWin Rate
Hollowmourne754.29%
Gristlegore1350.77%
Feast Day3247.20%
Morgaunt1246.67%
Blisterskin2943.45%
None/Unknown952.27%
Faction Total10447.60%

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.

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Top Three AoS Lists for Quest of Champions – Heat 4

Peter: We’re always looking for fresh bl… I mean writers to join our team and expand our range of content. Patrick is trying his hand at a top three lists before he moves on to writing about the content he loves….. Horus Heresy.

This is the Top Three AoS lists for Quest of Champions Heat 4 that took place in the Sanctuary Gaming Centre and Coffee Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, UK on August 6th and 7th. Quest of Champions is run by Warrior Lodge in Nottingham, UK. There was a total of 38 players competing in this five-round heat, the top twelve of which will be invited back for a grand final later this year.

Want to watch some top AoS games for free? Ben Bailey’s new YouTube channel, Dice and Ducks were at the event giving live coverage. Round 4 and 5 are available to watch for free here.

The Warrior Lodge always have events coming up so why not check out their Twitter page and book your self on to their next event?

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: Nighthaunt
Army Subfaction: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs:

LEADER
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)
Spirit Torment (115)
General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome

BATTLELINE
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)

OTHER
2 x Chainghasts (95)

ENDLESS SPELLS
Chronomatic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Patrick: One of the best parts of Age of Sigmar is seeing huge, god-tier centerpiece models not only regularly used on tables, but seeing those units perform to their points cost. Between the upgrades the Nighthaunt saw in their recent book, including their excellent spell lore, I imagine that we will begin to see Nagash show up in more Death lists as time goes on. Andrew’s list shows Nagash supporting (or being supported by) a big killy block of ghosts.

Nagash can produce an almost offensive number of spells in the Hero phase, and the re-roll from the Cogs makes those casts unlikely to be turned off by an early phase miscast. On top of that, Nagash is pulling double-duty by keeping the units of Bladegheists alive and closer to full strength throughout the fight.

Speaking of Bladegheists: there are 40 of them present in this list, including one reinforced unit. The buffs they can receive from the Chainghasts and Spirit Torment can turn them into a force to be reckoned with, and Andrew used them to great effect in this tournament. The units can be used both as mobile screens, protecting Nagash from incoming enemies, or as a melee threat while supported by the Spirit Torment and Chainghasts. The Scarlet Doom spirit host allows for the large unit of Bladegheists to reliably put out mortal wounds, leaning into one of the more common winning strategies in the current meta.

The Purple Sun makes an appearance in this list, as it does in most lists featuring wizards, and the forward push from the Arcane Tome wielding Spirit Torment allows for the Sun to be placed in a favorable position early in the game, rather than casting it and presenting opportunities for the opponent to dispel it as it works its way up the table 8” at a time.

This is also the only list featured today that uses a grand strategy other than No Place for the Weak. Fright or Flight seems to be leaning more towards a conservative defensive approach, relying on preventing enemies from contesting objectives rather than outright killing the opponent. Overall, a straightforward list, but one that saw Andrew win four of his games with a draw in the fourth round.

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)
General
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
– Artefact: Grasping Plate
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)
Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

BATTLELINE
8 x Iron Golems (75)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

OTHER
Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)

BEHEMOTH
Chaos Warshrine (215)
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer: Heal

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment
Command Entourage – Magnificent

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (2000 / 2000)

Patrick: What’s the best way to keep the Purple Sun from wiping your 500+ point leader on an unlucky roll? Have your 500+ point leader be a six-man squad of Varanguard! Or two of those units in Toby’s case. Toby is taking advantage of one of the stranger aspects of Knights of the Empty Throne, in that your leaders don’t need to be a single model, bringing a total of 12 Varanguard spread across two reinforced units. Both units carry Warpsteel Shields, providing them some resistance to spells and endless spells, and both have been improved through artefacts and command traits, allowing the two units to buff the defenses of nearby units, keep enemies locked in combat, and automatically dispel one spell. The leaders are rounded out through a pair of Sorcerer Lords, which can use Mask of Darkness to sling any given unit in the army to the other side of the board, allowing a unit of Iron Golems to catch a distant objective or place a 6-man unit of heroic Varanguard behind enemy lines.

The army wide Tzeentch mark and Chaos Warshrine give a clear image of how badly Toby doesn’t want his opponents to successfully cast, and when they do manage to get a spell off, he wants to make sure that it doesn’t hit as hard as his opponents expects. A Mindstealer is there to supplement the martial abilities of the already-proficient Varanguard, helping ensure that they can get the most out of the combat phase by delaying an opponent’s turn to fight.

The use of a Battle Regiment that doesn’t include all units in the army makes for an interesting addition, potentially preventing Toby’s priority but allowing him to deploy more reactively to his opponents. Those units may have been better placed in a battalion providing more utility benefits, such as an Expert Conquerors or Bounty Hunters battalion. Ultimately Toby drove this army to a top spot with the Battle Regiment, so it clearly worked. We can talk at length about the magic-heaviness of the current meta, but seeing a list that turns that around to focus on magical defense rather than output shows that there are hard counters present to arcane lists. The fact that Toby took this list to a 4/1 victory and 2nd place overall, with only a single loss to a Thunder Lizard list, shows that sometimes martial might makes right.

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Army Type: Seraphon
Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Lord Kroak (430)
Spell: Stellar Tempest
Engine of the Gods (265)
General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Hand of Glory
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)
Artefact: Fusil of Conflagration
Skink Priest (90)
Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

BATTLELINE
5 x Saurus Guard (115)
5 x Saurus Knights (110)
5 x Saurus Knights (110)

OTHER
5 x Chameleon Skinks (115)

BEHEMOTH
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

ENDLESS SPELL
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
Bounty Hunters
Linebreaker
Warlord

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Patrick: Ah, Kroaknado, how we miss thee. In such a magic and mortal wound heavy meta, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Lord Kroak remains such a strong presence in high-ranking Seraphon lists, going 4/1 with a second-round loss to Hallowed Knights. Tom takes advantage of Kroak’s 4 casting attempts, a stock +2 to casting, unbind, and dispelling rolls, and the ability to unbind spells cast anywhere on the map, Kroak is an arcane powerhouse. While this list does not take advantage of the ability to measure line-of-sight from skink wizards or Oracles, it does include some Saurus Guard to help beef up Kroak’s already impressive defenses. It’s a shame that the Balewind Vortex is no longer available, otherwise we could see Tom run the true insanity of 2nd edition Kroak.

A pair of Bastiladons are near constants in Thunder Lizard lists. Their tremendous defense and high-quality shooting always impress and taking two allows Tom to take advantage of Thunder Lizards command ability throughout the fight, leading the pair to push out an average of 18 wounds at their top bracket with more against Chaos armies or with the use of All-out Attack, enough to potentially wipe some reinforced squads of Galletian Veterans off a nearby objective.

The list includes a trio of utility heroes largely meant to improve the defenses and recover from heavy losses throughout the battle. A pair of non-reinforced Saurus Warriors act as excellent mobile screens to block the progress of enemy melee units. There is also a small cadre of Chameleon Skinks, which are an excellent harassing unit, and surprisingly durable when taking advantage of their “Perfect Mimicry” ability. While unreliable, the mortal wounds that can be caused by their dart pipes will always be appreciated when the dice are in Tom’s favor.

Two of the top three placing armies at this event included the Chronomantic Cogs and Purple Sun. These endless spells are highly effective at their current points cost, and the added boost the Cogs provide to any magic-heavy army cannot be understated. The Purple Sun remains ever-present in the meta and will probably be here to stay until the next General’s Handbook gets released.

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Army Type: Flesh-eater Courts
Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADER
Abhorrent Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)
Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrent Archregent (245)
Spell: Spectral Host
Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)
General
– Command Trait: Grave Robber
Varghulf Courtier (160)

BATTLELINE
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)
9 x Crypt Horrors (330)
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)

ENDLESS SPELL
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Patrick: Hero-hammer is a thing of beauty and dropping half of your army’s cost on fitting four different rotting corpses into the leader slot of your roster is an excellent place to start. Thomas took an uncommon FEC list to the top ten, going 4/1 with a loss in the second round to a Scarlet Doom Nighthaunt list (I suppose Nagash is allowed to have a favorite child for the moment).

Thomas is using Hollowmourne to its full effect by taking two double-reinforced units of Crypt Horrors, with the right support from the Archregent the damage potential of these units can quickly build from fearsome to terrifying. The ability for the Terrorgheist to keep up with the extra speed provided to one unit by Deranged Transformation makes sure to keep the unit in the aura of hit roll re-rolls. The summons from both Abhorrent units can also help supplement the army’s relatively low model count by bringing large blocks of Crypt Ghouls to the field (up to 40 between the two).

The Crypt Infernal Courtier’s high Movement characteristic and artefact make it an excellent hero hunter. The Varghulf pulls its weight both by being a support hero for the Ghouls and Horrors, but also by being a melee threat by itself.

Final Tournament Placings