This is the top three AoS lists for the Quest of Champions Heat 4 that took place in the UK on the 12th and 13th of August. It involved 22 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: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: The Flayed – Triumph: Bloodthirsty – Grandstrat: Overshadow
LEADERS Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)* – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts of Power: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Killer Instinct Bloodsecrator (120)* Slaughterpriest (110)* – Bloodbathed Axe – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice Skarbrand (380)** Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh – Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust
Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Subfaction: Legion of Night – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs:
Leaders Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (460)* – General – Deathlance – Command Trait: Unbending Will – Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (460) – Deathlance – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Vampire Lord (140)** – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost Necromancer (100)** – Artefact: Morbheg’s Claw – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Battleline 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (200)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (100)*
Other 20 x Grave Guard (300)* – Great Wight Blades – Reinforced x 1
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Inspired, Indomitable
Leaders Grinkrak The Great (220)** Madcap Shaman (70)* – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost Webspinner Shaman (65)* – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (110)** – General – Command Trait: The Clammy Hand Skragrott, The Loonking (230)**
Battleline 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150) 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150) 36 x Squig Herd (420) – Reinforced x 2 36 x Squig Herd (420) – Reinforced x 2 20 x Moonclan Shootas (120)
This is the top three AoS lists for the Age of Ropecon that took place in Finland on the 29th and 30th of July. It involved 22 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: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Skullfiend Tribe Grand Strategy: Slaughter The Sorcery
LEADER 1 x Bloodsecrator (120)* 1 x Slaughterpriest (110)* – Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct – Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust 1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)* – General – Command Traits: Firebrand – Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades – Prayers: Killer Instinct, Bloodbind 1 x Skarbrand (380)** 1 x Bloodmaster (110)** – Prayers: Witchbane Curse, Blood Sacrifice
BATTLELINE 10 x Bloodreavers (80)* 10 x Blood Warriors (190)** 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** 10 x Skullreapers (190)** 8 x Claws of Karanak (100)**
INVOCATION 1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50) 1 x Wrath-Axe (70)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Not that we really though it would, but it’s good to see that the slight nerfs – which were fair enough, especially to Murderlust – haven’t stopped Khorne from having a good time against some tough opponents. Anttu here has brought the ‘mortals with double thirster back-up’ archetype, and it’s one close to my heart. Usually, the main choice with this kind of list is whether you double down on a big blob of Blood Warriors or go more MSU – and Anttu has opted for the latter here, with 5 battleline units.
The Reavers and Blood Warriors are staples, and the Claws of Karanak are, for my money, still one of the best units in the army, especially in the new season where turn 1 tactics are difficult for Khorne – their pre-game move makes Surround and Destroy a lot more viable. With the points saved by having less Blood Warriors or Crushers, for example, the list packs in a 3rd hammer in the form of 10 Skullreapers, who haven’t seen much love overall but represent a good wound density and the potential for a really decent number of MWs – plus in Skullfiend tribe they gain extra value by being battleline (useful for battle tactics) and the possibility of gaining fight first with a good charge roll.
It’s a great, balanced list that shows off a good amount of warscrolls and took down some serious armies en route to 1st and looks super fun to play.
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Subfaction: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Growing Kingdom – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – Mount Traits: Razor-clawed – Spells: Blood Feast, Flaming Weapon Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)* Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)* Abhorrant Archregent (240)** – General – Command Traits: Savage Chivalry – Artefacts of Power: Decrepit Coronet – Spells: Hoarfrost, Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (240)** – Spells: Deranged Transformation, Hoarfrost Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)** – Spells: Levitate, Merciless Blizzard
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Chalice of Ushoran (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Charnel Throne (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Warlord **Andtorian Acolytes
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
Hanna recently joined our Discord server to tell us about Finland’s Ropecon AoS GT, and we jumped at the chance to have her comment about her second placed list at the same time!
Hanna Leppänen: This list is based around lots of summoning and recursion with two Archreagents summoning 20 Beastflayers each and Ghoul King another 10 Beastflayers or 10 Crypt Ghouls. The Morgaunt subfaction lets you bring a Serf -keyworded unit (Beastflayers or Crypt Ghouls) back immediately when they die on a 4+, with the cost of a command point. Add in 2 Crypt Ghast Courtiers, a summoned Varghulf from the Zombie Dragon GK, and potential Heroic Action using muster (6 dice in your hero phase, for every 2+ you can return a Serf to a unit). With Varghulf and Heroic Action you can bring back a Crypt Horror model instead on a roll of 5+ if you wish).
The Recursion means that you have to kill a unit outright to prevent them from mustering back, and even then there is a chance the unit comes back full health wholly within 6″ of a table edge, 9″ away from opponent models. This means you can lose an objective if you’re not careful on your turn. There is the usual restriction of only one of each command per phase, so only one unit can be brought back each phase. The command itself can be used by any model capable of issuing a command. Old books have weird, janky rules and FEC is a prime example of this. Worth to note is that Muster rules allow models to be stringed out and you can muster one unit to get it within 10″ of another source of muster. Chalice of Ushoran is another thing that brings back models at the end of turn, so it can also lead to some weird interactions with objective control, especially on your turn.
Crypt Ghouls and Horrors (also Flayers which are not present in this list) have new warscrolls in Dawnbringers book 1, making Crypt Ghouls more streamlined to play with (re-roll 1’s change to -1 rend when near heroes and 5+/6+ auto-wound instead +1A). Unfortunately this breaks the Morgaunt Bloody Loyalty ability since the Boundless Ferocity ability is always in effect (used to be +1 attacks when over 20 models, Morgaunt Bloody Loyalty gave it on a unit of 10+ when near Courtiers). Crypt Horrors got +1 attacks and – 1 rend near Heroes. Crypt Horrors don’t benefit from Morgaunt CA, but they give you access to the “United Court” battle tactic and are a reasonably punchy unit, especially when buffed. Overall the changes didn’t change the damage numbers too much, but made both less tedious to play.
There is something to be said about FEC spellcasting. Andtorian Acolytes gives extra primal dice on a 3+ at the start of the hero phase, which helps with getting FEC spells off. Most FEC spells are buffs that can lead to a lot of damage with +1/+D3 Attacks and Zombie Dragon 16″ bubble of re-roll wound rolls. Hoarfrost is exceptionally good spell for FEC units, whose biggest downfall is – to hit debuffs with most things having 4+ to hit as baseline. 30 buffed up Crypt Ghouls do quite a lot of damage, especially if you use Feeding Frenzy on them. FEC warscroll spells are great, so for most spellcasters the spell choices were picked to be situational at best, Spectral Host giving the option for ZD to have run & charge, Deranged Transformation giving Horrors +4″ move and Merciless Blizzard for a Hail Mary BT if nothing else was available.
The MVP’s of this list were definitely the Serfs, with Beastflayers being excellent tarpits against damage 2 monsters and Ghouls who do tons of damage when buffed a bit. The list power projects really well and makes it hard to play against since there are multiple threats that don’t fold to an average backline objective holder.
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Allegiance: Interns to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne (run and charge for mounted units) – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: Overshadow – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (160)* (strike first when he charges, grants it to knights) – General – Command Trait: Idolater Lord (Priest) – Artefact: The Conqueror’s Crown (Enemy models with < 3 wounds cannot contest objectives w/in 6″) – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle (-1 to wound in melee) – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse (6’s to hit are MW in addition) Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (340)* (Can shut down a unit for 1-2 turns) – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed (3D6 charge for mounted units) Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* (can give +1 to hit and wound to a unit) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided (reroll Eye of the Gods) – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost (D3 to replace melee profile Hit, wound, or rend to that value)
Battleline 10 x Chaos Knights (440)* (Tanky) – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle (-1 to wound in melee) – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon (reduce rend by 1 from melee attacks) – Reinforced x 1 18 x Spire Tyrants (140)* (immune to battleshock when within 3″ of enemy) – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle (-1 to wound in melee) – Reinforced x 1 3 x Varanguard (290)* (Killy, can fight twice once per game) – 3x Fellspear (+1 to wound and rend on the charge) – Mark of Chaos: Khorne (+1 Attack on the charge) 22 x Blissbarb Archers (320)* (Ranged death, 41 shots, 18″ 3+/3+/-1/1) – Reinforced x 1
Units 3 x Ogroid Theridons (160)* (Smashy glass cannons) – Mark of Chaos: Khorne (+1 Attack on the charge)
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Total: 1970 / 2000
Slaves to Darkness have settled quite comfortably into the ‘also rans’ groove in recent months, with a ‘woops all Varanguard’ or ‘Archaon + HOW MANY Splintered Fang!?’ skew lists occasionally nabbing a cheeky podium – and their recent shot in the arm from the battlescroll seems to have been more of a little jab to the foot.
But! Here we have Damien mixing things up in a way I’ve not seen before but makes a lot of sense. He’s brought Be’lakor, who’s become a relative staple of S2D lists to help them out with control, and the usual must-takes of a Sorceror and 10 Nurgle knights. What’s more surprising is a reinforced blob of Spire Tyrants – presumably because they’re just so cheap now and make for a good pile of bodies, also with -1 to wound from the Nurgle mark via Idolator Lord on the Mounted Lord – who also carries the Conquerors Crown for a cheeky objective stealing play and the abililty to bestow fight-first on the knights, allowing for a double activation with the cavalry units.
He’s also packed in a reinforced unit of Blissbards on loan from Slaanesh, who aren’t cheap but still offer a good volume of reliable shooting attacks that Slaves just otherwise have no access to – plus, I bet they look good in black. The final notable pick is the now bargain-basement Theridons, who are squishy and un-synergistic as always but for 160 pts can bring some absolute pain if they do make it into combat.
Beating out Seraphon twice and KO means the path to 3rd was fraught with real danger, but this list seems to have had the bodies, speed and staying power to handle some serious ranged threat. Big kudos to Damien for an imaginative and successful Slaves list!
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Overshadow – Triumph: Inspired – Holy command: Call for aid
LEADERS Knight-Incantor (120)* – General – Command Traits: Eater of Magic – Spells: Merciless Blizzard Lord-Castellant (160)* – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome Battlemage (100)* – Magic of the Realms: Wildform (Ghur) Lord-Relictor (150)** – Prayers: Translocation
Brett: Stormcast (SCE) have been a rarity for us lately, overtaken by more recent books, but they are still a solid faction, just not the easiest to play. The new GHB may help them with primal dice to buff their otherwise lacklustre casting and the Knight Incantor’s guaranteed deny. No surprises with Liví’s list having one then as well as the Lords Relictor, Castellant and a Battlemage. Essentially, the standard leadership group for SCE. Livi likes living on the edge, taking a 5 wound hero to set up a chance (on a 5+) of removing a spell from their opponent with Eater of Magic. Then doubling down with Merciless Blizzard.
4 leaders means Andtorian Acolytes is easily filled and primal dice are available on 3+. That small change means at least one extra primal dice in the course of a game. With Blizzard needing a 12 to cast that’s a strong bonus. The rest of the list is fairly standard, 4x Tempestors as the hammer unit backed by Retributors and Stormdrake. The Stormdrake’s mobility is their key asset while the Retributors and the Tempestors can benefit (once down) from the combination of Translocation (Lord Relictor) and Wildform (Battlemage) to get anywhere on the board with +2 to charge. That’s better than the Lord Imperatant’s 7″ strat because you can drop just outside 9 (say 9.2″), preventing redeploy but still having an effective 7″ charge.
Price drops (from 140 to 120) on Sequitors have seen them return to lists. They can do a surprising amount of mortal damage and can be a threat. More unusually, Livi has chosen to take Vanquishers, probably to save 20 points for Endless Spells. This is why the Lord Castellant has Arcane Tome. He has a built-in Mystic Shield with his lantern, leaving him free to deploy an Endless Spell. And in a move for innovation, this list has 2 Endless Spells to make up for the lack of ranged. Firstly, the Pendulum for a chance to snipe small heroes and cause annoying wounds and also Gravetide for some more anti horde. As always, the weakness for SCE is scoring from turn 3 onwards when they finally wear down your units. Being able to return a Battleline unit (Call for Aid) helps of course, especially Sequitors, that means you can return a threatening unit.
Solid hammers and a lot of answers make this a tight list in the end and allowed a solid recovery from the first round loss. Great work taking SCE this close to the podium.
This is the top three AoS lists for Feud on the Fens that took place in the UK on the 22nd and 23rd of July. It involved 32 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
Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine – Army Subfaction: Hagg Nar – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Morathi-Khaine (700)* 1 x The Shadow Queen (700)* 1 x Melusai Ironscale (120)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE 15 x Blood Sisters (450)* – Gorgai 10 x Witch Aelves (110)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá 10 x Witch Aelves (110)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá
BEHEMOTH 1 x Treelord (230)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
OTHER 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000) Drops: 1
If there was one thing it always felt was holding DoK back, it was their terrible casting/casters – especially given their excellent lore. If only there was a way to make Mindrazor more reliable…
Russel here has taken a fusion list – The Big Lass is here with her double-reinforced stab-snek retinue – who at that number become an insta-kill button with their MW output and can be surprisingly hard to chew through – and msu, newly cheapened Aelves to fill out the battleline. Then there’s the double Heartrenders, who never go out of style as scoring pieces – in this season, they’re especially good for Surround and Destroy into Intimidate the Invaders.
Then comes the twist. A Treelord! At 230 it’s quite expensive allied tech, but their ability to stop a unit from piling in can wreak absolute havoc with an opponent’s plans, and against a squishy army like DoK could – and presumably did! – mean the difference between an enemy unit piling and killing half the sneks, or getting those extra wounds on Morathi – and not, which is a big deal.
With wins against the current meta-horrors SBGL AND OBR, this list and Russell’s skill clearly have legs. And tails.
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Subfaction: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Nagash (900)* Abhorrant Archregent (240)** – General – Command Traits: Savage Chivalry – Spells: Hoarfrost Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Decrepit Coronet – Spells: Levitate
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Avengorii – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination
LEADER 1 x Lauka Vai (300) – Spells: Soulpike 1 x Vengorian Lord (280)* – General – Command Traits: Monstrous Might – Artefacts: Breath of the Void Maw – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Necromancer (100)* – Spells: Waste Away 1 x Necromancer (100)* – Spells: Fading Vigour
BATTLELINE 1 x Zombie Dragon (260)* 1 x Terrorgheist (240)* 1 x Terrorgheist (240)* 1 x Terrorgheist (240)* 1 x Terrorgheist (240)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000) Drops: 2
Terries! So many terries! With the advent of the new Soulblight book, Avengorii was written off as non-comp even faster than people started complaining about VLoZDs – but their recent points drop seems to have tipped them into ‘viable’ territory, as evidenced here!
It’s a simple but effective list, built around 5 giant undead dragons who can do nasty damage and plenty of MWs – but the real synergy is in the Vengo Lord’s ability to allow them to ‘borrow’ the Hunger ability, healing up damage and going a long way to mitigating their usual lack of durability. Backed up by Lauka Vai’s key ability to allow Avengorii monsters a 6″ pile in – and with both Vengos capable of reducing rend by 1 (doesn’t stack sadly) – and you have a lot of monsters, capable of healing, mitigating your offence – supported by two devastating debuffs from the pair of Necromancers.
Beating the mirror, Khorne and Sylvaneth along the way is no easy feat, and this list only lost to the meta-terror Seraphon. A fantastic result for the ‘forgotten’ SBGL sub-faction.
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Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Befouling Host – Grand Strategy: Overshadow
LEADER 1 x Bloab Rotspawned (330) – Spells: Gift of Disease 1 x Morbidex Twiceborn (300) 1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320)* 1 x Great Unclean One (450)** – General – Command Traits: Nurgling Infestation – Doomsday Bell and Bileblade – Artefacts: The Witherstave – Spells: Flaming Weapon
BATTLELINE 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)* 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)* 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)* 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)** 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)** 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
TERRAIN 1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0) 1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
Roland Rivera: This list is a blast from the past – Befouling Host lists with lots of Beasts of Nurgle were all the rage back in GHB 2021-era AoS, but have been dropping off since. However, Beasts of Nurgle just got a much-needed points trim, so this result may be an indication that this style of list can come out to play once again.
As far as playstyle goes, this list is using Beasts to run interference as mobile, durable annoyances that generally force overcommitting while the Hero Monsters (of which there are many) do the dirty work. The list is a strong summoner between starting with 2 Gnarlmaws and the Bell, so it can very quickly reach the contagion points needed to summon a Sloppity Bilepiper to prevent pile-ins against the Beasts or the GUO, or blobs of Plaguebearers to take objectives.
Another piece that got a points trim in this list is the Great Unclean One, and Max has kitted his out for utility. The Witherstave makes mortal wounds from disease trigger on a 3+ (which is a tangible improvement in their reliability), the Nurgling Infestation makes the GUO more durable by imposing a -1 to hit penalty on any attacks targeting it, the Doomsday Bell gives the player extra contagion points to summon with, and the Bileblade gives it an extra casting attempt in a pinch. He is a nice, durable complement to the hitting power of the Maggoth Lords, all 3 of which are present in this list.
This list requires a lot of careful positioning decisions, as its primary strategy is to physically block the opponent from getting close enough to the objectives to score them. However, in the hands of a skilled pilot, this list can be very hard for some armies to deal with, as demonstrated by this strong result.
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 the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 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.
Pre-Tournament Analysis
I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.
Ranked Players
Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.
Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.
Faction Breakdown
The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders 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
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind.
The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport).
The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine.
As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (435) Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**
Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches.
Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast.
The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster!
The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead!
It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards.
Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see!
The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed.
All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.
I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Lore of Madness: DerangedTransformation Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – General – Command Trait: Savage Chivalry – Artefact: Decrepit Coronet – Mount Trait: Razor-clawed – Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud Varghulf Courtier (160)**
Battleline 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1
Units 6 x Crypt Flayers (360)* – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Chalice of Ushoran (50)
Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).
Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).
As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.
Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.
