As you may have noticed, we’re very behind on our Top Three lists. So, to correct this, we’ll be posting top threes over the next couple of weeks without comments. Many of the lists you’ll have already seen in past articles, so hopefully, you won’t miss the comments too much!
This is the top three AoS lists for Raccoon Rumble 2023: Age of Sigmar that took place in Germany on the 3rd and 4th of November. It saw 166 players vying to be crowned champion in a 6-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: Big Waaagh! – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs:
Leaders Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (240)** Orruk Warchanter (120)*** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)** – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)* – General – Command Trait: Shaman of the Chilled Lands – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Wurrgog Prophet (170)* – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost – Artefact: Glowin Tattooooooz
Battleline 10 x Orruk Brutes (280)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 2x Gore Choppas – Reinforced x 1 10 x Orruk Brutes (280)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 2x Gore Choppas – Reinforced x 1 5 x Orruk Brutes (140)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 1x Gore Choppas 5 x Orruk Brutes (140)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 1x Gore Choppas
Units 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)** 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Skragrott, The Loonking (230)* Webspinner Shaman (65)** Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (110)** General Command Trait: The Clammy Hand Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Battleline 15 x Boingrot Bounderz (450)* Reinforced x 2 15 x Boingrot Bounderz (450)* Reinforced x 2 20 x Moonclan Stabbas (120)* 20 x Moonclan Stabbas (120)
Units 5 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)* 5 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (110) 5 x Gobbapalooza (170)* Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Leaders Great Unclean One (430)* – General – Plague Flail & Doomsday Bell – Command Trait: Nurgling Infestation – Artefact: The Witherstave – Lore of Virulence: Fleshy Abundance Sloppity Bilepiper, Herald of Nurgle (120)** Poxbringer Herald of Nurgle (130)* – Lore of Virulence: Fleshy Abundance
Battleline 30 x Plaguebearers (360)** – Reinforced x 2 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)**
Units 3 x Plague Drones (200)* 3 x Nurglings (100)**
Roland Rivera: A very straightforward Nurgle list, this one is trying to do one thing and one thing only: clog the board with a bunch of hard-to-kill bodies and dominate the objectives. The singleton Beasts of Nurgle run interference while the Plaguebearers occupy the center of the board. The Nurglings pressure backfields and rack up contagion points in order to summon even more Daemons
In the Hero department, The Great Unclean One provides support in the form of Fleshy Abundance (for extra Wounds on the Plaguebearer brick) and The Witherstave (for more efficient disease damage), and Monstrous Rampages by virtue of being a Hero Monster. The Poxbringer provides a backup Fleshy Abundance caster, and the Sloppity Bilepiper has the usual pile-in denial shenanigans to give other melee armies fits.
While the gameplan is simple, the success is laudable – this sort of list was not considered to be a serious contender just a few months ago. This result, aided by the Battlescroll shaving down the points on most of the units in the list, clearly argues otherwise.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs:
Leaders Dreadblade Harrow (110)** – General – Command Trait: Terrifying Entity Guardian of Souls (150)** – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard Krulghast Cruciator (150)** Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (270)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Spectral Tether
Battleline 10 x Chainrasps (100)** 10 x Chainrasps (100)** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)**
Units 5 x Craventhrone Guard (80)* 5 x Craventhrone Guard (80)* 5 x Craventhrone Guard (80)*
This is the top three AoS lists for the Sugar & Dice Annual AoS Tournament that took place in the US on the 21st and 22nd of October. It saw 16 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: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Lady Olynder (270) – Spells: Spirit Drain 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Spells: Merciless Blizzard 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Artefacts: Midnight Tome – Spells: Shademist 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)** – General – Command Traits: Terrifying Entity 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)** – General – Command Traits: Terrifying Entity
BATTLELINE 10 x Chainrasps (100) 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Black Coach (270)** – Reaper Scythe
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Mortalis Terminexus (80)
OTHER 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90) 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90)**
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos – Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Belladamma Volga (220)* – Artefacts of Power: Ulfenkarni Phylactery – Spells: Spirit Gale Vampire Lord (150)* – Spells: Soulpike Necromancer (100)* – Artefacts of Power: Terminus Clock – Spells: Fading Vigour Radukar the Beast (290)** – General – Command Traits: Hunter’s Snare Vampire Lord (150)** – Spells: Hoarfrost Torgillius the Chamberlain (180)** – Artefacts of Power: Standard of the Ulfenwatch – Spells: Waste Away
BATTLELINE Deathrattle Skeletons (220) – Skeleton Champion – 2 x Standard Bearer Deathrattle Skeletons (220) – Skeleton Champion – 2 x Standard Bearer Dire Wolves (150) – Doom Wolf
OTHER Grave Guard (160)* – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade Grave Guard (160)** – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade
CORE BATTALIONS *Warlord **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: None – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs:
LEADERS Butcher (140) – Cleaver – Lore of Gutmagic: Blood Feast Firebelly (120) – Lore of the Sun-Eater: Billowing Ash Slaughtermaster (140) – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost Tyrant (150) – General – Command Trait: Killer Reputation – Artefact: Splatter-cleaver
UNITS 8 x Ironguts (480) 4 x Ironguts (240) 4 x Ironguts (240) 6 x Ogor Gluttons (240)** – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 6 x Ogor Gluttons (240)** – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
CORE BATTALIONS *Andtorian Acolytes **Wizard-Finders of Andtor
TOTAL: 1990/2000
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Arch-corruptors of the Mortal Realms – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Grey Seer (120)* – Spells: Death Frenzy Grey Seer (120)* – Spells: Hoarfrost Lord Skreech Verminking (370)** Plague Priest (100)*** – Prayers: Heal Plague Priest On Plague Furnace (270)*** – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts of Power: Blade of Corruption – Prayers: Disease-disease! Skabbik Plagueseeker (140)***
The Six Nations AoS Teams Tournament is coming up soon, where England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Wales will compete against each other and the lists have just been released. To give you an overview of the kinds of matchups that will be coming up and what we can learn from the submissions of these national teams, we’ve come up with six takeaways from the lists.
Of the Six Nations, all countries took a Khorne variant apart from Scotland, underlining how powerful Khorne are in the current meta with their ability to march across the board and stomp their authority on any game. Prayers are clearly going to be a key part of the Khorne strategy alongside the ubiquitous Murderlust for those out of phase movements. Only one Skarbrand out of the five lists, but lots of Wrathmongers and Flesh Hounds with one Bloodlords list with waves of Bloodletters. Other popular lists included Soulblight Legion of Night with Manfred appearing in three of the four lists; Seraphon Fangs of Sotek with double Ark of Sotek Bastiladon; three King Brodd’s Stomps, with three bigs and three littles and three Disciples of Tzeentch Guild of Summoners lists with 12 Enlightened on Discs.
Give me ALL of the Primal Dice!
While there are lots of battle regiments in the lists as expected, the next most common battalion is Andtorian Acolytes for those extra Primal Dice. In most cases, the lists in question could not fit into a single battle regiment, but rather than going for a second battle regiment, those extra Primals seemed to be worth going to a three drop list minimum. Alongside a high frequency of Merciless Blizzard, the potential for a single hero phase to turn around what should be an easy win to a loss (or vice-versa) is definitely there. Even just being aware of the threat will impact on the opponent’s strategy, which might be enough to get a positive result for your team.
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Fight me, you coward!
We are clearly in a combat-heavy meta at the moment, with the vast majority of lists focusing on winning the battle by fighting in combat as opposed to relying on ranged shooting attacks. Both Daughters of Khaine lists have eschewed the Bow Snakes for the Fighty Snakes; there are no Lumineth Sentinels at the event; even Kharadron Overlords are much more focused on fighting out of a Frigate rather than Thunderers blasting away from range. There are a couple of exceptions, with all of the Idoneth lists having a healthy amount of shooting, with even the Namarti-heavy list having 40 Reavers and the Shark lists having a huge number of attacks that will also explode on 6s. It will be interesting who these will be matched up with because the lack of return shooting from their opponents could really swing the matchup in the fish-elves favour!
OB – Where?
One of the more underrepresented armies of the top echelon recently are Ossiarch Bonereapers, with only two nations choosing to collect the Bone Tithe and both of these being Null Myriad lists. The points increases on Immortis seem to have done the trick as there are only two units at the event, with Deathriders and Mortek picking up the slack. Perhaps this isn’t surprising as only a quarter of the armies at the event are heavy magic-users and the pairings process can potentially avoid a single anti-magic army. Other notable missing armies include Beasts of Chaos, Ogor Mawtribes and Kruleboyz – just kidding! As recently as a few months back, there would be less variation than we have represented, with nineteen of twenty-four battle tomes in attendance, showing how healthy the meta currently is.
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An Age of Heroes.
Across the lists, there is definitely a flavour of what unique heroes can bring to an army, not only narratively, but competitively too. Named characters who will be fighting it out include Gobsprakk, Katakros, Skarbrand, Brokk Grungsson, Kairos Fateweaver, Manfred Von Carstein, The Glottkin, Severith, Morathi and everyone’s (least) favourite angry dwarf, Gotrek. One of my favourite aspects of AoS is how cool it looks on the tabletop to have these centre-piece models battle it out and there will be ample opportunities for epic showdowns across the event with this array of heroes.
Skewl List, bro!
Most of the lists submitted are relatively close to a take-all-comers singles list too, but there are a couple of more skew lists that look really interesting that will cause absolute headaches for whoever gets paired into them. The IDK shark lists come close to this, but they’ve become a bit more mainstream, with several players running this list successfully. What might become more of a meta-list after this event and with the arrival of Belthanos on the scene is Andreas Angermund’s 18 Spiterider and 6 Seeker list. Firstly, respect to Andreas if he is transporting that many models with fragile and awkward wings but then to also give your opponent the dilemma of having these 24 flies be able to pre-game move 12″ before the game even starts…yikes! Another interesting list that could very quickly get across the table and punch you in the mouth is Greg Shelton’s 30 Black Knight list. Black Knights appear in several of the Soulblight lists, but no-one has gone as hard in as Greg has. If all three Black Knight units make a charge, Greg will be rolling 60 dice and expecting at least 20 mortal wounds as his return – scary stuff indeed.
So that’s six takeaways from the Six Nations lists. Best of luck to all competitors at what I’m sure will be a great event. Are there any interesting combos that I’ve missed? Please comment below if I have and let us know which list(s) you think will do the most work!
This is the top three AoS lists for Resurgence that took place in the Philippines on the 7th of October. It saw 10 players vying to be crowned champion in a 3-game tournament.
We’re very lucky to have gotten to know the Wartilyo crew quite well since their GT we covered back in May. When Lance reached out about producing a Top Three for a recent one dayer in the Philippines, I jumped at the chance. Thanks to Lance for sending the information through and to the players for sending their list writeups!
If you would like your 1 dayer to be covered by Woehammer, join our friendly Discord Server and contact Peter.
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
Heneral Custard: The list started out as a copy of Liam Kavanaugh’s list from Gymhammer last July, but tweaked to my playstyle. I swapped out Chainrasps for bigger chunks of Spirit Hosts to act as a more imposing anvil, fit in a second Guardian of Souls to spread around the +1 to wound aura (and to attempt Merciless Blizzards), and put Pendant of the Fellwind on the Krulghast because I like them sticking with the Spirit Hosts. The points drop was also a big help, and with an odd 80 points, Craventhrone Guard could accomplish skirmishing, activating Harridans, and completing the odd Surround and Destroy.
Spirit Hosts with the coherency change plus Hoarfrost have been a really fun way to play them. Coupled with the +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound auras, they’re surprisingly dangerous. Suddenly, they aren’t just batteries for Kurdoss or the Krulghast to fulfill Led into the Maelstrom; they do catch people off guard with their damage output. The 1-inch range proved to be a problem, but this is coming from someone who used to run 9 of them in a unit during the last season as Galletian Veterans. Regardless, when they survive the melee, they’re some of best targets for Bait and Trap, and then immediately Harridans can clean up.
Speaking of Kurdoss, he’s just fun to throw into the fray. I often forget that he steals command points, because all I want to do is throw him at a problem and see if he can go the distance.
I wanted to get more use out of the Banshees anti-magic effect, but I think many Nighthaunt players agree with me that there is a certain joy in telling people what the attack profile is. Depending on the match-up, they either made for good counter charging or just being happy little screens.
All in all, Nighthaunt’s current strength feel like their ability to accomplish battle tactics. With the points drop, most of everyone’s favorite tools are viable, and after seeing a list that was all Bladegheist Revenants, I think the ghosts are going to be alright.
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Commentary by Basa Mogul
Primary idea of the army: 1) Go for magical dominance + blocks of hardy tarpits making way for kroak to blast away
The primary idea of my army is to just step on the objectives and defend them by going for magical dominance in the form of buffs, debuffs, mortal wounds, and unbinding while supporting it with blocks of saurus. The slann is built as a support unit that can turn into a melee warrior (although it didn’t come up because the saurus always survived). The starpriests are also support units that can use merciless blizzards when the situation calls for it. Kroak’s role is to really maximize the magic denial and area denial. One of the main features of the army is the Wizard-finder 20-man spear saurus block that can have a maximum profile of 2″ 40/60A 2s 2s -2 1. Last note, 4+ bites from saurus blocks are no joke.
Notable match-up comments Khorne: The bloodthirster & skullcrusher is damage ok vs saurus, but bloodletters are painful. I will just let them try to do their 5+ spell ignores vs Kroak blasts.
OBR – Nagash: I will try stay away 30in from him, and just buff the team since the rest of the army not too painful. Main goal is to try and wizard-find nagash, and try to dish-out celestial deliverance via arcane vassal while being out of unbind range.
Behemat – I will just tarpit, and then blast with kroak.
Soulblight – I will just stand-on the gravesites, try to counter all spells, and try to do snipe damage on the heroes with kroak.
Nighthaunt – I will overwhelm them with the amount of attack dice to roll. Since they are using MSU, I think kroak will do well against them.
Stormcast – I will try to hide the heroes behind battle line, and protect kroak with all the buffs, if needed.
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BJ Recio: I started the list out with Nagash – the event poster had Nagash sitting on a throne, and as it happened my Nagash was also kit bashed to sit on a throne, so I felt it was fate heh. On a serious note though, what made Nagash worth the 900 points for me was less the 8 spells casting (it’s strong but not that central, I can afford to miscast), but rather the unlimited unbind attempts at +3 roll. That counters the Magical Dominance and Magical mayhem BTs so it seemed like the way to go with the list is battle tactic denial.
There wasn’t a lot of room for OBR units so the bonus command points were not as plentiful, which meant putting in liege kavalos for the free command per turn. Earlier versions of my list used the boneshaper as the general, but Diversionary Tactics didn’t work so well with it because mortisans are slow and hard to position. And I really wanted that command trait to make Bait and Trap and Led Into the Maelstrom hard for my opponent, so I made LK my general.
Battleline-wise, the spear mortek guard with harvester formed the core of my castle, the sword mortek guard was there to grab faraway objectives and force my opponent to split, and the kavalos deathriders were there for my round 1 battle tactic. They’re all expendable because Nagash brings them back half-strength anyway, and I was crematorians so I wanted them to die to deal mortal wounds.
I should note that while the harvester has been nerfed to the ground, it’s 160 points now which for a monster is not bad. The fact that it brings some mortek guard back is more of a bonus than a feature. And since Nagash is there, my opponents tend to think of the harvester as low priority.
Since I did not make my mortisan the general, I couldn’t use Spellcasting Savant as my GS. I went for Overshadow instead, which sucked against Seraphon and their super tough battleline. I anticipated Seraphon to be my weakest matchup overall, since they have bonuses to casting that weakened the point of Nagash’s +3 to unbind rolls. Then I matched against him at random battleplan 1 so I was off my game from the start. I was slightly ahead of him in points but had no chance on my GS. In the future I should consider another GS – maybe Control the Nexus? Still hard.
I did well against other matchups. I knew SBGL is all over right now with hordes of zombies, but between gravetide and the boneshaper’s warscroll spell, plus my harvester-protected mortek guard, I knew I could outlast and wipe those hordes and use the Soul Release spell to force their re-summons to deploy very out of place. Meanwhile, the mirror versus OBR went well because I just tarpitted his Katakros with deathriders buffed by Nagash spells and outscored him by denying BTs and smashing Nagash against his spellcasting savant general.
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Joshua Manalansan: First off, credit for the list and its playstyle goes entirely to Jarod Brown– THE top performing Lumineth Realm-lords player who has pioneered and piloted this list to a 5-0 and 4-1 finish. Much more than that, he has been a mentor to countless players in the Lumineth Discord and is the go-to person for all things Lumineth.
Standouts for this list include Rune of Senthoi, Eltharion, Sevireth, Ellania and Ellathor, double Dawnriders, and double-reinforced Bladelords.
With Rune, Enlightener unbinds on a +4 with the Scinari heroes and Zaitrec. This can be powered up even further with the Optimal Focus realm rule giving another cast and unbind if you go second in the round. Eltharion has one of the best points-to-damage ratios not just in the Lumineth book, but in all of AoS. The twins function as half Enlightener and half Eltharion, growing stronger as the game goes on and getting the bodyguard interaction with the Bladelords. Sevireth just crushes the meta by assassinating Andtorian Locuses, going to the sides of the battlefield, and smashing opponent terrain. Dawnriders are the Swiss army knife of this list. Scores easy points, moves up the board to cast Overwhelming Heat, and provides Speed of Hysh for units that go deep. Bladelords provide the bodyguard rule for our Scinari units and ensures Spellcasting Savant. With Perfect Strike, they will on average deal 9 mortal wounds to whatever they touch.
This list utilizes the Andtorian Acolytes battalion and has overall better usage of primal dice compared to Teclis-based lists. Along with how common Locuses are, the changes to “Look Out, Sir!” and the Sentinel point increase, this list might just be the best way for Lumineth players to tackle the current GHB!
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Final Tournament Placings
To view all of the results for the tournament please follow the link below to Best Coast Pairings
This is the top three AoS lists for the Michigan GT that took place in the US on the 7th and 8th of October. It involved 90 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: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Meatfist – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Tyrant (150)* – General – Command Traits: Killer Reputation – Big Name: Brawlerguts , Fateseeker 1 x Tyrant (150)* – Big Name: Brawlerguts 1 x Slaughtermaster (140)** – Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)** – Artefacts: The Seat of Alvagr – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder 1 x Firebelly (120)** – Spells: Billowing Ash
BATTLELINE 6 x Ogor Gluttons (240)** – Bellower – Crusher – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 4 x Ironguts (240)** – Gutlord – Bellower – Rune Maw Bearer 6 x Ogor Gluttons (240)** – Crusher – Bellower – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
Well. Well well well. What have we got here? It looks like a well balance, non-skewy Meatfist list without Kragnos! And it’s only gone and gone 5-0!
So let’s try and break down how. The first obvious synergy is the two Brawlerguts Tyrants in Meatfists – what this means in practice is they’re doing charge mortals equal to on 3+s on dice equal to their charge roll. So that’s already a spicy little duo of pot-bellied rockets. The Firebelly is enjoying a bit of a resurgence in this season, mainly because of his Billowing Ash spell, which is a 12″ aura of -1 to hit, which is obviously fantastic and can now more reliably forced through with primals. You’ve also got the typical FloSH because it just represents too much utility and threat projection to leave home without.
Making up the ‘meat’ of the list are 2 units of gluttons and some Ironguts, who all received points drops recently making them much more viable. And with the +1 to charge mortal rolls from their sub-faction, are all looking for 4+ (while they’re over 2 models). The foot lads can be surprisingly slappy, and the Ironguts mean a once per game double-fight activation where necessary to tip the scales.
Rounding out the list and fitting nicely into a 2-drop, are two little bits of fun tech. Gnoblars are perennially fantastic screens who can punish people for getting close with yet more sneaky mortals, and the lone Gorger is an off-board piece for helping score Surround/Destroy or threatening a back objective. They also have the additional tech for turning off battleshock immunity and rally if they’re engaged, which in concert with another charge can potentially be devastating.
All told, the list clearly just works. It’s big, it’s slightly clever, and it’s frankly very honest. Love to see it going 5-0.
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Arch-corruptors of the Mortal Realms – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Grey Seer (120)* – Spells: Skitterleap, Merciless Blizzard 1 x Grey Seer (120)* – Spells: Hoarfrost, Death Frenzy 1 x Lord Skreech Verminking (370)** 1 x Plague Priest (100)** – Prayers: Rabid-rabid! 1 x Verminlord Warbringer (380)** – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts: Warpstone Charm – Spells: Flaming Weapon, Levitate 1 x Plague Priest (100)** – Prayers: Heal
BATTLELINE 20 x Clanrats (100) – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100) – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade 10 x Plague Censer Bearers (90) 10 x Plague Censer Bearers (90)
BEHEMOTH 1 x Hell Pit Abomination (180)
OTHER 1 x Warp-Grinder (60)**
CORE BATTALIONS: *Andtorian Acolytes **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
Keegan Graves: Essentially the list is built around superior combat tricks, counter charging, and threat saturation. I have 5 units that do good damage in melee, and 3 that do ranged mortal wounds from spells and prayers. Then the list is designed around enabling those damage sources.
Three clawsteps ahead is the strongest ability in the skaven battletome, by far. It gives the list so much consistency in movement, and so much flexibility in the combat phase. The extra pile ins, combined with 3” melee on the verminlords, fight on death, and the consistent charges, allows me to pick good activations to get the best value out of my melee troops, as well as extending my melee threat ranges significantly. This also combos well with the warp grinder, who usually deep-strikes a unit of censers to the battlefield, ready to fish for a 9” charge. With 3 clawsteps I essentially get 3 tries for the 9”, 1 with a prior unit, and the censers themselves with a reroll.
The plague priests and wizards give my army essentially a 13” kill box. Skreechs warscroll spell and the great plagues especially can gun down something with an average of 15 mortal wounds when I focus the two. It helps with dissuading people from charging my lines, as well as clearing space for my units to charge.
The list, simply put, just pumps out damage, everything in the army hits like a ton of bricks, from the verminlords to the hellpit to the censer bearers. The list can snowball very fast and is designed to secure games in the first 2-3 turns, to make up for skaven struggling on the tactic side.
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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Shield of Growths The Glottkin (580)* – Lore of Malignance: Blades of Putrefaction
Units 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (240)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (240)* – 1x Dolorous Tocsin 20 x Plaguebearers (240)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Rotmire Creed (300)* – Reinforced x 1 1 x Pusgoyle Blightlords – Single (120)*
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Total: 1950 / 2000
Roland Rivera: Another week, another Glottkin list with a podium result – seems like that points cut is making quite the impact. The metagame shifting to be more melee-centric doesn’t hurt, either. This list is an interesting spin on using the Glottkin, however, as Drowned Men is usually not the subfaction chosen for that sort of list, as going heavy on Pusgoyle Blightlords typically burns through your points allotment in a hurry. However, with a bit of compromising on his Fly count, Raymond has made it work.
This list has paired The Glottkin with some interesting dance partners, as it features both a reinforced unit of Plaguebearers (useful for pinning opponents in place with big blobs of bodies) and Rotmire Creed (useful for peppering the opponent with shooting). It also features a Lord of Afflictions with Overpowering Stench as a way to shut off commands.
In summary, this list seems to be the result of mashing the two best-performing styles of Nurgle together to see what happens, but the end result seems to be strong enough to perform well.
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Mortal Realm: Shyish – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs:
Leaders Krulghast Cruciator (150) – General – Command Trait: Terrifying Entity Guardian of Souls (150)* – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Guardian of Souls (150)* – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (270)** – Lore of the Underworlds: Spirit Drain
Units 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (160)** 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90) 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90) Black Coach (270)
Craig Ellis: In terms of support there are 2 GoS with their excellent +1 to wound aura, healing spell & one with Merciless Blizzard (extra primals needed from the acolytes battalion) & Shademist (-1 to be wounded on a unit) on the other making a unit extra hard to kill. This durability is helped with the Krulghast -1 to damage in melee aura. The Generals command trait extends the Aura of Dread trait to 6” away, meaning he’s extending the range of denying Inspiring Prescence, helping with battle tactics and also adding a bit more damage (Lady O’s lifting the veil ability adds +1MW if the enemy is terrified!) Lady O herself provides that once-per-battle bringing back models to every unit in the army to keep stuff around a bit longer, and a 5+ Command Ability deny from 12” away to help deny crucial Redeploys or AoD’s. Her Lifting the Veil is great for sniping foot heroes (don’t roll a 1!). The spirit drain spell she’s been given adds to the anti-horde theme. All of this helps charge up the Black Coach, as the dice ticks up every time a model dies within 12”, meaning he’s going to be getting multiple attempts in the game to unleash the 3d3 MW rocket from the Coach, with its Evocation of Death ability. The Suffocating Gravetide is the cherry on top for those hordes, providing a serious threat to large model count units, as well as being a giant base for controlling enemy movement. The main weakness is staying in power. If he gets drawn into any attritional lengthy combats, he’s going to lose. Anything getting a successful alpha into this is going to put some serious hurt in, too. Careful deployment is required as there aren’t too many screens unless you count the banshees. It’s will require careful positioning to strike at the right time without being left open to the double turn.
It’s aggressive, has high output, scores well, and doesn’t care about the Nighthaunts main weakness, being its susceptibility to the hit back. Very nice.
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Final Tournament Placings
To view all of the results for the tournament please follow the link below to Best Coast Pairings
This is the top three AoS lists for the CCBB2023 – Age Of Sigmar Championship that took place in the Canada on the 19th and 20th of August. It involved 38 players vying to be crowned champion in a 6-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: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Null Myriad – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant – Triumph: Inspired
Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Subfaction: The Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: A Soul to Claim – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Guardian of Souls (150)* – General – Command Traits: Lingering Spirit – Chill Blade – Artefacts of Power: Midnight Tome – Spells: Merciless Blizzard Lady Olynder (310)* – Spells: Seal of Shyish
This is the top three AoS lists for Gymhammer that took place in the UK on the 29th and 30th of July. It involved 21 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: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Zainthar Kai – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
LEADERS Bloodwrack Medusa (140)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor High Gladiatrix (90)** Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (300)* – Artefact: Khainite Pendant – Prayer: Sacrament of Blood
BATTLELINE 15 x Blood Sisters (450)* 10 x Blood Sisters (300)* 10 x Witch Aelves (110)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives 10 x Witch Aelves (110)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
OTHER 5 x Doomfire Warlocks (120)** 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* Avatar of Khaine (130)**
Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead – Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)* 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Chill Blade – Artefacts: Midnight Tome – Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Spirit Torment (120)** 1 x Kurdoss Valentian (190)**
BATTLELINE 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (170)* – Slasher Crone 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (170)* 20 x Chainrasps (200)* 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)* 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (170)** – Slasher Crone 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)** 10 x Chainrasps (100)**
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)
OTHER 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90)* 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90)** 2 x Chainghasts (90)**
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Befouling Host – Grand Strategy: Overshadow – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Horticulous Slimux (200)* 1 x Poxbringer (130)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: The Witherstave – Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Be’lakor (340)**
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)** 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)** 1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
TERRAIN 1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0) 1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
OTHER 6 x Plague Drones (400)* – Plaguebringer – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Bell Toller 3 x Nurglings (100)*
With a number of top players now inside our Woehammer Discord, it was suggested to me by a discord member that we should ask them a weekly question in regards to playing their respective factions.
With that in mind, I jumped straight into it this week and asked:
Which battleplan do you think favours your faction and why?
Raymond Lane (Maggotkin of Nurgle): As someone who has played too much Nurgle we generally don’t care about the battle plan… like at all… build list and play into your opponents list.
Colin Klaeren (Maggotkin of Nurgle/Nighthaunt): Playing Nurgle (Glottkin, Be’Lakor, BoN spam) a lot of these times and like Raymond mentioned, most of the time I don’t care about the battleplan. Of course it’s good if the deployment zone is big for generating summoning points. For my list I love ‘No Reward Without Risk‘ because Glottkin can cover most of the objectives very easily. With this list I don’t like battleplans too much where the objectives are spread out too wide.
Raymond: I love me a good Glottkin. You had a plan? I have a Glottkin!
Joshua Bennett (Hedonites of Slaanesh): Sure as hell not ‘Icefields‘! With Pretenders all the missions are great for us except ‘Icefields’. Considering we run and shoot that sucks lol.
Colin: Nighthaunt in the old GHB was an army which didn’t care about battleplans. All were solid. Now it’s a big difference because battleplans like ‘Icefields‘ and ‘Every Step Forward‘ are just horrible for them.
Fabien Barbusse (Blades of Khorne): Playing with Skarbrand I love ‘Spring the Trap’.
Justin Clark (Blades of Khorne): Mine failed the 3D6 9″ rerolled charge this weekend on Spring….
Brett Martin (Ironjawz):For Ironjawz, it’s list dependent. With the Crusha/Goregrunta list it doesn’t really matter because you have so much mobility. For infantry lists, anything that takes objectives away is a blessing and a curse (concentrated enemy but too slow to get to the new objective). And ‘Icefields‘ should die in a fire!
Raymond: I thought ‘Icefields’ would be terrible but every game I’ve played on it simply didn’t care about the run thing.
Colin: I think the 1 on charges is the problematic thing for armies like Nighthaunt for example.
Raymond: Eh, I’ve got wards 🙂
Brett: Nurgle doesn’t run or charge. Orruks don’t walk and only know how to charge. I’ve tried teaching them other tricks, but they really don’t like them.
Colin: I really want to play on ‘Icefields‘ with Beasts of Nurgle spam too….
Raymond: I usually do Rotmire Plaguebearer spam.
Colin: With that it’s totally fine of course!
Raymond: With Nurgle its more about getting reps and knowing your opponents army as well as your own.
Colin: 100% agree.
Brett: Fyreslayers on ‘Icefields‘……
Colin: Fyreslayers on ‘Every Step is Forward‘ sounds really good.
Keegan Graves (Skaven): Skaven’s best battleplan is probably ‘Geomanctic Pulse’. We have good power projection, have a doable turn one tactic on that map and we have bodies to stand and score well.
Fabien: For Khorne it really depends on the list since there are so many archetypes, but the biggest weakness of the army being current battle tactics I’d say battleplans that allow easy surround / intimate are the best for the army.
Aaron Newbom (Idoneth/Orruk Warclans): I would say ‘Spring the Trap‘ is probably best for the Idoneth. Wide spaced out objectives leave people strung out and easy to pick apart. Outflanking Reavers is powerful, but outflanking vs Idoneth isn’t very powerful as you’ll likely just get isolated and ripped apart. It’s definitely one of the better ones for the fish.
As for Kruleboyz it’s gotta be ‘Icefields’. You’re rarely, if ever running, and armies that want to apply heavy pressure to you get punished pretty hard. The ranges on the objectives leaves you with powerful firing lanes, and the narrow board let’s you utilize your auras, screens, and castle very easily.
Peter Dixon (Ogor Mawtribes):Ogors love ‘Geomantic Pulse‘, being exceptionally mobile and counting as a million models on objectives, we can follow the bouncing ball. The same with ‘Nexus Collapse’, where the usual thinking is score less as to control which objectives are lifted. But in my experience, I can just move onto the remaining ones easily unless I get stuck by Murderlusting Khorne units. This is also true on ‘Limited Resources’ where the standard idea is not to over cap your home objectives so as to score them later, but in my games in this battleplan I’ve just rolled up the board ending in my opponents deployment, as that’s where I wanted to be at the end of the game for the Grand Strategy.
Ogors feel a bit over costed currently, but I’ve had reasonable success at the tourneys I’ve attended with the new GHB. That said, Ogors still live and die by the Battle Regiment. This is still the case in my opinion for this GHB, stealing the initiative and deciding who goes first or second is too important for the faction.
I do believe this is the best GHB so far. There’s no clangers of a battleplan, such as ‘Lurkers Below‘ (I had a 100% win rate on that battleplan last season) where it was far too easy to just Stonehorn Monsterous actions onto the 3rd objective and auto win.
This is the top three AoS lists for Summer Slaughter that took place in the United States on the 22nd and 23rd of July. It involved 113 players vying to be champion in a 5 round 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: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (160)* – Spells: Glimpse the Future, Hoarfrost – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)** – Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Arcane Suggestion 1 x Lord of Change (380)** – General – Command Traits: Daemonspark – Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery – Artefacts: Nine-Eyed Tome – Spells: Ghost-mist, Flaming Weapon 1 x Magister (140)** – Spells: Rupture, Merciless Blizzard
BATTLELINE 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – Twistbray – Icon Bearer – Brayhorn Blower – 2 x Tzaangor Mutant – Pair of Savage Blades 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (80) 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (70)
Kieron Bailey: Kaleb Walters, the Lord of Lords of Change is at it again with yet another 5-0 and event victory in the bag. There are some Kaleb staples in this list: Guild of Summoners, a Krondspine, Kairics as screens that are just annoying enough to be a pain and a Lord of Change in place of Kairos.
Added to this are some tweaks added by the new GHB in the shape of all three new spells being represented. Hoarfrost in addition to Tzaangor could result in 30 rend -3 attacks from a unit that can run and charge; Merciless Blizzard for a close-range magical shotgun and, much to the relief of the Magister the Krondspine is bonded to, the spell Rupture can make the Krondspine go wild without having to kill the Magister using Destiny Dice. Just in case you haven’t come across this trick before, not only do you get the +1 to hit and run and charge but you can feed it the Umbral Spellportal each turn to keep it at top level for the whole game.
The Lord of Change load out also is a tip of the hat to the nerf to Chronomantic Cogs, with the Nine-eyed Tome being used to give the Big Bird full re-rolls to cast along with Daemonspark to give Kaleb a real headstart to getting the 9 Fate Points needed for a Lord of Change T1.
The other real strength of this list is its ability to pump up the rend in a variety of ways. We’ve already covered Hoarfrost, but the Ogroid also has Arcane Suggestion, with one of the options being to reduce the armour save by one of an enemy and then there’s the Purple Sun to subtract one from save rolls.
To summarise, you have a list that can really throttle the damage it can do, with a range of battle tactics at its disposal (all book tactics are achievable with this build) and driven by a general at the height of his powers. The end result – another well-deserved trophy for Kaleb!
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Null Myriad – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
LEADERS Katakros (460)* Mortisan Boneshaper (140)* – Artefacts of Power: Artisan’s Key – Spells: Empower Nadirite Weapons Mortisan Soulmason (160)* – General – Command Traits: Dark Acolyte – Spells: Hoarfrost
Walter Brock: Today, we are looking at a Null Myriad list. Null Myriad has been popping up for a while this season, and we can expect them to be a staple for Bonereaper lists. An important thing to note is that Katakros is Mortis Preatorians so he will not be able to benefit from the 2+ spell ignore while wholly within 9” of a Mortisan hero, but proper positioning can easily mitigate that.
The Grand strategy of choice is spell casting savant. Combining this with the Immortis Guard. Means that pretty much almost half the list must die before the General can even die.
Katakros is a powerhouse. Giving a massive 24” bubble on +1 to hit and +1 to save makes everything in the list better and perform above their weight. Katakros himself is no slaker either in melee. He starts slow, but when he takes damage, he gets better and better. When he sees an enemy hero, he gets to work and acts at the most “fighty profile” being able to take down even the toughest of targets.
The Boneshaper bringing the artisans key allows it to potentially use its healing ability twice. Combining this with Katakros’s healing ability could allow this list to revive four Immortis guard a turn. Boneshaper uses its ability twice and Katakros can pick both Immortis units. Its war scroll spell is also very powerful for clearing large units. Rolling a dice for every model in a unit and doing a mortal for every 5+ can lead to very large amounts of damage.
The Soulmason helps cranks the army up and over the hill for list support. Masons know every spell in the Bonereapers lore so they can take Hoarfrost without giving anything up in return. They have two casts and could potentially get more casts of their war scroll spell “Soul- guide” at the end of the hero phase. Giving a Deathrider or Mortek unit +1 to wound. Dark acolyte causes their first spell from the Ossiarch Lore not stoppable. Imagine a unit of death riders hitting on twos, wounding on threes, at a potential Rend three because of hoarfrost and exploding 5s to hit for the riders because of Empower nadorite. Ouch.
The Deathriders can do many things. From acting as screen to taking very far objective. With the above-mentioned combo they can hit incredibly hard. With the ability to do mortal wounds on the charge, being able to charge over models with three or less wounds for a command ability and having a 6” inch pile in on the charge they can get into vary hard to reach places and snipe out important models or get into places that are very inconvenient for an opponent.
Lastly, we arrive on the Immortis Guard. Two whole units of these beasts of bone. These take the hurt and can dish them out in Return. Being able to bodyguard for heros is very powerful and means that the important support models usually won’t die until the models they are supporting are already gone. Just be careful, the Immortis’s bodyguard ability is not optional. Meaning a player might be able to get around the Immortis and hit the Boneshaper or Mason in the back and find it easier to do damage to Immortis that way.
All of this fits nicely inside a battle Regiment. Giving the Bonereapers player most of the time the option of deciding who will go first. A very cool list and very hard to take down. Well done to this player!
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Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Artefacts: Midnight Tome – Spells: Seal of Shyish 1 x Reikenor the Grimhailer (170)* – Spells: Shademist 1 x Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (130)* – General – Command Traits: Spiteful Spirit – Artefacts: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE 10 x Hexwraiths (360) – Hellwraith 5 x Hexwraiths (180) – Hellwraith 5 x Hexwraiths (180) – Hellwraith 5 x Hexwraiths (180) – Hellwraith
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50) 1 x Mortalis Terminexus (80)
OTHER 10 x Craventhrone Guard (160) – Craven Huntmaster – 2 x Spectral Standard Bearer 5 x Craventhrone Guard (80) – Craven Huntmaster – 2 x Spectral Standard Bearer 5 x Craventhrone Guard (80) 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90)* 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (90)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)
We’ve little in the way of Nighthaunt specialists at the Woe Towers, so I asked for Nighthaunt volunteers from our friendly discord, and Craig was up for the challenge! We’ll no doubt be hearing more from Craig in the future!
Craig Ellis: at this, a 5-0 Nighthaunt list! I’ll preface the breakdown by pointing out this was piloted by Nate Trentanelli who, as the #1 Nighthaunt player in the world, should probably start with a 500pt handicap or something. Anyway, on to the list, and this list is absolutely bonkers.
Running the subfaction Emerald host means he’ll pick D3+1 units at the start of the battle and at the end of each battle round can do D3 Mortal Wounds (on a 2+) to each of them. This is going to be great to put on those pesky Andtorian Loci to chip away and start finishing them off by Round 3 or 4. Fright or Flight as the Grand Strategy is pretty standard at this point and easily achieved due to the mobility of this list.
He’s gone magic heavy with the heroes in this list, clearly trying to make use of the Primal mechanic and the excellent utility in the NH spell lore. The Guardian of Souls is an AL and carries the Midnight Tome artefact, which autocasts an endless spell once per battle that cannot be unbound. Seal of Shyish will provide a 5+ ward to a nearby unit for added tankiness for holding objectives and his built in warscroll spell can heal (or resurrect) up to d6.
Reikenor the Grimhailer is an underrated caster who can get +3 to cast in exchange for taking a MW. This means he’s going to be getting Shademist off pretty reliably for that sweet -1 to Wound on a unit, making that objective holding bubble that much tougher to shift. He’ll also be great for hunting down wizards with his 14″ movement and bonus to attacks with Fellreaper for fighting priests and wizards. Then there’s the Knight of Shrouds on Steed, which is a bit of an off meta pick (which this list specialises in!). He has the Arcane Tome to make him a wizard (as well as an AL), which means he can jump for a ride with Lauchon the Bringy Dinghy (which you’re autocasting with the GoS). The 12″ movement of the KoSoES means you’re pretty much getting into combat with whatever you want in turn 1. He has a decent combat profile, meaning he’s going to be making short work of any annoying screens or enemy ALs. The command trait Spiteful Spirit means he’s going to be rolling a d6 for each wound on his wounds characteristic and for each 4+ will be a MW for every unit within 6″. Adding wounds to his characteristic throughout the battle with the Sword of Stolen Hours ability means this can get real nasty, real fast. The trigger for this is that he has to take damage and not die, but as long as you pick targets wisely, this can be wicked.
As for the Units. Hexwraiths (25 of them!) and 20 Crossboos. I mean, why wouldn’t you!? The Hexwraiths are going to be scattering, capping objectives, scoring tactics, doing impact hits on the charge, and just generally giving the opponent a lot to think about. The ability to move up to 30″ in a turn means they’re going to be wherever they want to be, and having 4 separate units of them is just going to give the opponent nightmares. Whilst they’re figuring out how to deal with that, he has 3 units of Craventhrone Guard blobbing up, getting made more tanky by spells and just generally being a bit of a pain to shift and doing chip damage with shooting attacks. The ability to put up to 3 units in the grave at the start of the battle also means these can pop up anywhere on the field outside of 9″ for some extra chip damage. Two blocks of Myrmourn Banshees provide spell eating capability to shore up one of the main weaknesses here (taking MWs) and being a decent melee hammer in their own right. The Mortalis Terminexus provides an additional Mortal Wound threat to round off the high MW damage theme this army has going on. It can also reverse time, meaning it can provide healing for his heroes as required. The aim here is to remove the opponents’ support & tech pieces early on to reduce threats. It just so happens that wins versus Khorne, Kruleboyz, OBR & SBGL (x2) all armies that are prone to being reliant on auras and buffs from small foot heroes, wizards & priests. With the added impetus on ALs in this GHB means this list has been tailor-made to carefully dismantle an armies’ tricks & capabilities rather than fight a pitched battle in the middle. To win with this clearly takes skill & intrinsic knowledge of the movement abilities and just the sheer ability to force your opponent into mistakes by giving them too many decisions to make. Nate is clearly a master of the army, and to go 5-0 with this is absolute genius. Well done!
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Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble! – Triumphs: Inspired – Fierce Loathings: Bossy Pants and Clever Clogs
LEADER 1 x Gatebreaker (500)* – General – Command Traits: Monstrously Tough – Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness 1 x Gatebreaker (500)* – Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon 1 x Kraken-Eater (480)* – Artefacts: Extra-calloused Feet
BATTLELINE 1 x Mancrusher Gargant (140)** 1 x Mancrusher Gargant (140)** 1 x Mancrusher Gargant (140)**
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Footsloggas – Swift
TOTAL POINTS: (1900/2000)
Our next commentator needs no introduction! You’re probably on his discord and have watched all of his videos on the YouTubes. Coach is, as you’re all aware, a big Gargants fan, so I asked him if he’d be interested in commenting on this list and telling us a bit about Gargants in the new GHB.
G’day Stompers, let’s break down the deep options available to us Sons of Behemat players and how this list works.
Sons are in an interesting spot in the meta with the Generals Handbook ‘23. The latest Woehammer meta stats have shown that Sons of Behemat have a strong win rate but low representation at tournaments. We can’t play with Andtorian Locus (GW can we PLEASE ally some 70pt wizard) which not only stops me from Hoarfrosting my Gate-Breaker’s flail down to a 2+ to Hit but also restricts how many GHB battle tactics we can score. If you want to do well, you’ll need to build a list that makes the most of your Battletome BT’s.
The list starts with 2x Gate Breaker Mega Gargants who deals the most damage compared to the counterparts. Gate Breakers have recently enjoyed a points discount which has helped this list all but secure the +1 to wound Triumph at 1,900 points as it’s critical to getting the most out of their flail attack.
Sons power comes from staying alive as most armies struggle to claim an objective off a Mega Gargant. Monstrously Tough command trait adds +5 wounds to the General and the Glowy Shield of Protection will ignore rend -1 attacks and bounce some mortal wounds back on a save roll of a 6.
While we don’t get access to Hoarfrost or Merciless Blizzards we do get access to Primal Magic Dice and the Hand-carved Nullstone Icon is a great selection as it allows one of the Megas to attempt to unbind 1 spell or dispel 1 endless spell each round. Put some primal magic dice behind that unbind without fear of a primal miscast, and each time you unbind/dispel with this unit you’ll get 1 additional unbind.
Why not take a 4th Mega Gargant you might ask? The 3 independent Mancrushers bring a lot to a Sons army.
They can be left on an objective and will counting as 10 which makes it hard to steal from deep strikes and requires commitment to claim it off us.
In Breaker Tribe you can issue Ramming Speed to a Mancrusher for a 3D6” charge which brings greater consistency to your charge phase, be used to score Bait and Trap or Led into the Maelstrom battle tactic, as well as a few cheeky mortal wounds to your opponent when completing that charge.
Make the Land Tremble! grand strategy requires a unit to run or charge each turn and in a 4 Mega Gargant list you can find this hard to achieve if you’re grinding it out in combat.
Gargant players hate units that ignore rend and with ethereal vampire lords on zombie dragons or in the case of David’s first 2 matches, a really unfortunate double Nighthaunt match up, the Gate-Breakers come into their own with the ultimate gamble in Pulverising Strike where you trade your attacks for 1 single dice roll. If you can roll a 4+, 1 unit within 3” will suffer 4D6 mortal wounds. With the inconsistent attack profiles in Sons, this attack is worth the gamble because you’ll likely do more damage than trying to grind it out without rend.
I’d be curious to hear from David on the value that the Kraken Eater brought and if the army would have performed better with a Warstomper to clear the hordes or King Brodd with his 40 wounds and incredibly valuable set of prayers. Well done on stomping a mudhole mate!
