A change is afoot for the Woehammer stats. We’re going more in depth. You’ll still find the tournament results for GT’s in the last week below along with links. Then there is statistic sections for the rolling four weeks stats and the current Age of Sigmar version (i.e. since the most recent update in terms of GHB or Battletome release).
The following stats are for the week ending 14th August only, essentially GT’s that took place on the 13th and 14th August.
Rolling 4 Week Stats
The rolling stats includes all GT’s since the weekend of 23rd/24th July to the 13th/14th August. This covers a total of 831 players (-13 players) across 21 Grand Tournaments (+2 GT).
As the new release of the GHB takes hold it looks as though the overall effect is a positive one on the overall win rates for each Grand Alliance as they all get close to that 50.0% mark.
This is the first time in a rolling four week period where only two factions have fallen below the 45% win rate. Are things getting even better for AoS?
Here are the rolling four weeks win rates since we began tracking this information:
Faction Stats (Version)
The below stats are for every match in a grand tournament since the release of the new General’s Handbook.
Daughters of Khaine, Seraphon and Maggotkin of Nurgle now have both achieved 4 5-0 wins a piece.
Meanwhile at the lower end of the tables factions who have gone a whole tournament with five losses…
As for the win rates of each faction since the release of the new GHB:
Bonesplitterz relinquish their top spot to Beasts of Chaos, however they both have win rates of over 57%, as do Maggotkin of Nurgle and Big Waaagh!
At the other end of the table Gloomspite Gitz are the only sub 40% faction, their new book can’t come soon enough.
In terms of faction popularity:
By rights, each faction should have an equal share of the player base, however we know this will not be the case due to either the appeal of the miniatures or the rules for the factions. Here we can see the most popular factions are Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Sylvaneth, Daughters of Khaine, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Seraphon and Skaven.
Currently it would appear that Big Waaagh! players have the highest chance of going 5-0 at an event, however this is from a small player base so will fall as more players register under the Big Waaagh! banner.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Strom of Magic GT that took place in Preston, England on 13 and 14 August. It involved 24 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: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Celestial Vindicators (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Draconith Defiance – Triumphs: LeadersKnight-Draconis (300) – General – Command Trait: Battle-lust – Artefact: Mirrorshield – Mount Trait: Thunderous Presence Neave Blacktalon (110) Battleline2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s LanceUnits 1 x Stormdrake Guard – Single (170)Behemoth Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) – AlliesCore Battalions *Bounty Hunters Holy Command: Final Thunderstrike Total: 2000 / 2000 Reinforced Units: 0 / 4 Allies: 400 / 400 Wounds: 80 Drops: 7
Brett: Prime hunters is gone and the dragons have returned. We haven’t seen a lot of Dragon lists at the top yet and they probably aren’t as bad as many people feared but they can be very hard to deal with. The army includes 2 different choices, Neave Blackthorn and Krondspine. Interestingly that just hammers how mobile this army is, Neave can ride the aetheric winds without a mount (remove her from the board and place her back 9″ from the enemy). It makes her a really good choice to take out a small important hero or jump on an uncovered objective. Everything else moves 10″ to 12″.
Army wide Luke went with the Lance on the Drakes, it’s the high damage option on the charge, they are in bounty hunters which will help them in sustained combat. They bring high durability with reasonable damage, their shooting is swingy (but if it hits, it hits), the Lance on the charge is doing 2 or 3 damage but there are only 3 attacks each, 4 on the drake. What they do well though is move fast and destroy smaller (MSU) units. The loss to Giants demonstrates this, they just don’t have the damage to drop a Gargant without a 4 drake unit. Celestial Vindicators really helps by giving exploding 6s in the combat phase.
This includes their best attack (the drake) which is 4 attacks, -2 rend and 2 damage. They want to avoid being tarpitted by big blocks of things like Bladgheist, but otherwise the unit is very durable (9 wounds on a 3+). Across the weekend most of the armies Luke faced could be picked apart down to a lot of low wound models (Dragged into the Tempest). It’s good to see the drakes flying high and Luke is to be congratulated for bringing and interesting variation.
Allegiance: Sons of Behemat – Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspire Leaders JOTEK (525)* Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant – General – Command Trait: Louder than Words THE DARK DESTROYER (525)* Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant – Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact) BURGEON (525) Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant Bonded to Incarnate – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Behemoths THE BASTARD (400) Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – Allies Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20) Core Battalions *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent Total: 1995 / 2000 Reinforced Units: 0 / 4 Allies: 400 / 400 Wounds: 105 Drops: 4
Brett: Winning the head to head clash of Giants with Sean (3rd) but unfortunately losing 2nd round to Nighthaunt, Adam otherwise had a great tournament. Adam took the time to name everything but I’m not sure why he called Krondspine the bastard. That’s normally what opponents call him. Despite the cost of Gargants, the army manages to squeeze in an Endless Spell, the Burning Head. It’s a very cheap source of Mortal wounds potentially a way of dealing with Bastilidons (if Kroak isn’t around). Flaming weapon for an extra damage on the Flail on Burgeon and Manticore Venom for +1 to wound on The Dark Destroyer are solid ways to increase the reliability of their attacks.
Beating Seraphon and Fyreslayers as well as a near mirror match confirms the approach. His single loss was to the ultimate 7th (see below) which combines NH heroes with large battle line units. Those Grimghast are capable of demoting a Incarnate or Gargant (into the grave). This is a really well considered list and plays well into the meta with the one issue around scoring, I discuss that more below.
Allegiance: Sons of Behemat – Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags) – Grand Strategy: Stomping Order – Triumphs: Inspired Leaders Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)* – General – Command Trait: Louder than Words – Artefact: The Great Wrecka Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)* – Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact) Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)* Battleline
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) – Allies Core Battalions *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent Additional Enhancements Artefact
Brett: This is the army that brought down both 1st but lost to 2nd finishing 3rd. That’s down to scoring and highlights one of the issues for Gargants in AoS 3.1 – Battle Tactics. Their book ones are average and really depend on the map and the opponent; forcing them to rely on the season Battle Tactics and they are harder to achieve. Complementary trait and artefact on the General granting more attacks and mortal wounds on 6s. Manticore venom (+1 to wound) is a another good call, the Gatebreaker’s Flail has 10 attacks with flat damage 3 on his top profile.
Across the event the army presented a damage check which a lot of the newer style MSU/Bounty Hunter armies fail and did. Sean didn’t score strongly but only lost to a similar list to his down to the Krondspine. The most significant difference was Flaming Weapon on a Gatebreaker. And no Kraken-eater. Great to see the stomping boys back and performing well. It would be interesting to know if these results will affect the local meta.
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Grieving Legion – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Spirit Drain Battleline 30 x Grimghast Reapers (480)* – Reinforced x 2 20 x Chainrasps (220)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Chainrasps (220)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hexwraiths (160)* Units 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)* Endless Spells & Invocations Chronomantic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70) Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Total: 1975 / 2000 Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Brett: Dan’s Nighthaunt (NH) army is a bit different to a lot of the NH armies we are seeing. He’s brought some of the bigger heroes and leaning into them for their special abilities. Still have big blocks of ghosts and the Purple Sun, the procession is unusual. Grieving Legion prevents opponents from retreating. It’s great if you can absorb their attacks and replace lost models but for NH that means Guardian of Souls and Spirit Torment normally. Lady Olynder has a really powerful ability to replace D6 models in every Summonable NH unit but it’s once per game. All of the troop units count.
Acrane tome on Krulghast to increase his utility along with Master of Magic, it’s a good play with an otherwise unbuffed caster but makes Cogs a little redundant. Could Geminids or Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws been better? Reiknor can reliably get the Purple Sun out with the ability to add 3 to casting rolls. Late game that might be less reliable if he’s taken damage. All up 4 casts and good combat potential in the heroes but you don’t really want any of them in combat, particularly early in the battle. Their value is in their abilities, and with 7 wounds and a 4+ save (and either a 4+ or 6+ ward) they are potentially vulnerable to anything with a high number of attacks (since rend isn’t a thing).
The rest of the list includes all of the good things – Grimghast x 30 (89 attacks) and 2 x 20 Chainrasps – playing into Grieving Legion’s ability. Hexwraiths for mobility, objective stealing and screening and Banshees for their spell deny and annoying attacks. A really good army and a slight change, it passed the DPS check (Gargants) only losing to an army with a lot of Magmadroths and a heavy shooting Cities list. The Cities army had some very nasty elements. Good to see something a little different and a solid performance with a 3/2.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Kings in the North Grand Tournament, the northernmost Warhammer Tournament, that took place in Tromso, Norway on 13 and 14 August. It involved 31 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. I had to do a bit of research because I didn’t know where Troms og Finnmark was, I knew the separate counties but not that they’d been joined. And having just found it I’ve discovered they are going to separate it all over again, I wonder if I can make it over there before it happens.
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: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Guardian of Souls (150)*** – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)*** Spirit Torment (115)*** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Battleline 30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)* – Reinforced x 2 30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Chainrasps (110)** 10 x Chainrasps (110)** 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)**
Units 3 x Fell Bats (75)***
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: I’m running a little late this week so I am going to keep this shorter than normal (or try to). First up we have travelled to Tromso in Norway for Kings in the North which claims to be the most Northerly Tournament in the world. And now I want to go. No one went 5/0, Ben winning with a 4 wins and a draw. The list was similar to a few we’ve seen do well recently for Nighthaunt. The normal 3 heroes with Krulghast (-1 damage), Guardian and Spirit Torment for spells and returning models. Making the Spirit Torment General is a little unusual, Master of Magic is really good and having that reroll every round is very good. Acrane Tome to make the Spirit a wizard so 2 spells and 2 unbinds/dispels. The spells and artefacts all check out.
Running 2 x 30 blocks of Bladegheist is also unusual and difficult to cover with the heroes in this list. Normally lists sacrifice some of the hammer unit to get heroes that can buff them. It’s hard to overstate how devestating those 30 strong units are with 90 to 120 attacks. Rend isn’t important with that many dice. Chainrasps and Spirit Hosts are Eternal Conquerers – I don’t think enough people have been using them enough, it can be risky but paid off here. The Fell Bats are a great move, they replace Hexwraiths as a super fast unit to grab an objective or harrass a unit or even screen/block. Very useful to have in any list.
Take notice of the Grand Strategy – I don’t know how many times it was scored but it means Ben was looking to kill all of your Battleline every time. Really top notch performance in an interesting tournament and good to see some changes to a solid list.
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360) Bloab Rotspawned (300)* – Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease Lord of Afflictions (210)* – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
Battleline 4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)** – Reinforced x 1 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)** 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
Brett: Nurgle, loaded up with Blightlords and 3 big baddies, this is not a list to make friends but is brutally efficient. Drowned Men for an 8″ pre-game move and resonable casting with Bloab and Be’Lakor giving 3 casts. This list is meant to make things very difficult. It’s generally a good idea to focus fire as much as possible but there are 2 units (Bloab and Be’Lakor) that need to be focused but which do you take first. Chip damage isn’t effective against Be’Lakor if he can kill things near him. And both are mobile, for very elite armies that can be a problem if they split their focus. The Blightlords are capable of independent action as well, the combination makes it hard for an opponent to deny Battle Tactics.
His one loss was to a Beasts of Chaos Dragon Ogre army. Big chunky beasts that can absorb the disease mortals and hit back hard enough to over come the save, wounds and wards of the Blightlords (or Be’Lakor). This is another great army that is seeing a lot of play for good reasons. It’s also interesting to play with mobility and output.
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Allherd – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – General – Command Trait: Dominator – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)* – Artefact: Blade of the Desecrator – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline 10 x Ungors (65)*** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)*** – Mauls & Half-Shields 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)* – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)** – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 3 x Dragon Ogors (125)* – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)** – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Chronomantic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: Beasts of Chaos have seen a strong return to the competitive scene, King in the North included several armies. A few people don’t like the older models that make up the bulk of hte army but they are fairly unique and dynamic. The Herdstone isn’t shown but I’ll assume it was part of the army. All of the leaders are wizards (3 casts/dispels), beyond their interesting warscroll spells they debuff opponent’s saves, increase rend and do mortal wounds. He’s taken Chronomantic Cogs for rerolls to clutch spells or dispels (one per turn), since none of the wizards have bonuses to cast. The Dragon Ogre units are durable and mobile bringing a lot of potential damage with them as well.
The Tzaangor have extreme mobility (16″ and fly) and reasonable attacks. Sticking to the interesting warscrolls of previous editions though they have a special moral rule that means they lose an extra model if they fail moral. They gain a reroll to hit and wound rolls if they attack after an enemy unit within 3″ attacks first. Risky with a bravery of 6. The Ungors are cheap screens but contribute to the 164 wounds this army brings. In a meta where 100pt armies are the midpoint the is something to be said for bringing a lot of additional wounds. As an army that brings good quality attacks with amazing rend it’s not surprising when they struggle into an army that switches off rend (Nighthaunt).
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Subfaction: Hallowed Knights – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
LEADERS Gardus Steel Soul (150)** Runelord (95)** Knight-Relictor (140)** – General – Command Traits: High Priest – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades – Prayers: Translocation Battlemage (100)***
Brett: There were quite a few Stormcast armies in the event, this was the highest placed. As a faction it remains one of the most played although maybe only middling power. People play a wide range of subfactions which is in contrast to most other factions. This is an interesting take, Hallowed Knights to make Gardus a thing. He provides 5+ ward to Hallowed Knight units. I’m assuming that Gardus would stay near the Protectors, they move slowly enough to make it worthwhile. Otherwise the mages are Cities units, the Battlemage is here for his Realm spell – Wildform – that gives +2 to run and charge. The Knight Relictor is taken over the Lord, the rank difference doesn’t apply to Prayers so that’s 5 points saved. However the Knight doesn’t have +1 to chants that the Lord does.
The choice of Hallowed Knights makes it harder to achieve battleline. Liberators are cheap screens, objective holders but they are very vunerable to Bounty Hunters. The Vanquishers have the same stateline as the Liberators without the shield but they gain attacks from the size of the unit they face (up to 4 attacks into a unit of 10). Unreinforced Raptors with Longstrikes – suggests that the Holy Command is Thunderbolt Volley. Aetherwings give +1 to hit a unit within 12″ to the Raptors. A lot of variety but outside of the Chariot and Aetherwings there is little mobility and that may have cost Simen.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Harambe’s Heroes and Goldmine Games Rumble in the Jungle held in Richmond, Texas, USA on 6th and 7th of August. 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.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Zainthar Kai – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders The Shadow Queen (340)* Morathi-Khaine (340)* Bloodwrack Medusa (130)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Artefact: Crown of Woe – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 15 x Blood Stalkers (540)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Blood Sisters (280)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Witch Aelves (115)* – Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
Units 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
Brett: Another strong showing from Daughters of Khaine, with all the sisters in the one army. This is a hardcore shooting list with solid melee and fast movers for grabbing objectives/completing battle tactics.The Grand Strategy indicates all strategies and battle tactics were in play.
The Bloodwrack Medusa has girded herself for war with Crown of Woe and Flaming Weapon but I don’t think you want her in combat with 6 wounds and a 6+ save. She serves as a totem for the Sisters and Stalkers though advancing Blood Rites and potentially allowing Turn 1 charges. A double reinforced Blood Stalker unit and a reinforce Blood Sister unit are the damage dealers and will take some moving. The Witch Aelves are a screening unit early on and a combat threat in their own right although this list doesn’t offer a lot of buffs for them.
DoK isn’t thought of as a casting army but casting is really important to them, elite and squishy they need to either max their damage or minimist blowback. They achieve that through their spells, Chronomatic Cogs is a good choice for reliability to things like Zealous Orator (rally on a 4+) or Mindrazor. Rember that Morathi knows the entire spell lore. Not much more to say really, it’s an effective and efficient way to go into a tournament. So long as you can choose your combats it should go fairly well. During his run Gavin took down 2 very different Nighthaunt armies and Maggotkin (including 2nd and 3rd). Solid effort and demonstrating the depth in the new DoK book.
Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)*** – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Seal of Shyish 1 x Spirit Torment (115)*** 1 x Spirit Torment (115)*** 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)*** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Chill Blade – Artefacts: Midnight Tome – Spells: Shademist
BATTLELINE 5 x Hexwraiths (160)* 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)* 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)* 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)** 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)** 10 x Chainrasps (110)**
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
OTHER 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)*** 2 x Chainghasts (95)***
Brett: An interesting Nighthaunt list focusing on Harridans this time, I almost this army had taken the tournament. We’ve gotten used to Scarlet Doom as the most popular procession choice closely followed by Emerald Host (also the most popular in late AoS2.0) so Quicksilver is an unusual choice. Beyond making Harridan’s battleline it turns off ward save’s for anything hit by a Harridan. Harridan’s have no rend but do come with 4 attacks each. In Bounty Hunters for the larger units.
Taking that further, you always want to be attacking with the Hexwraiths or smaller Harridan unit first. When attacking a unit with wounds or slain models they drop from 4s to 3s to hit and wound. Otherwise the army is much the same as we are seeing from Nighthaunt players at the moment with 4 small heroes (Kruleghast, Spirit Host and Guardian of Souls), Hexwraith for oppurtunistic actions, a leavening of Spirit Hosts and Myrmourn for body guarding and dispells. The army does include Chainghasts, which aren’t a frequent inclusion. They provide Nighthaunt units with an additional attack within 12″ of them.
It would take careful positioning and awareness of where any ranged units are but it should be possible for both 20 model blocks of Harridans to be putting out 101 attacks. Even without rend that’s 60 damage on average into a Galletian Veteran unit (any battleline) with a 4+ save. That was a pretty effective combination on the weekend removing Thunder Lizard and Big Waagh armies but Gavin’s Blood Stalkers proved too much. They have the capacity to remove the 20 x Harridan block in a single turn and the Blood Sisters could do the same. Good to see some variation in Nighthaunt lists and for being different paying off. Kel’s more patient than me – I’ve only ever managed to build 4 Harridans. And I got all this way without mentioning the Purple Sun.
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Bloab Rotspawned (300) – Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations Lord of Afflictions (210)** – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
Battleline 4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)* – Reinforced x 1 4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)* – Reinforced x 1 4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)* – Reinforced x 1
Brett: Maggotkin are very popular at the moment, interesting mechanics in even a simple build that isn’t going to tax you too much in how to play it. Interesting army in taking that extra Blightlord and only leaving enough for Gnashing Jaws, except that’s a pretty awesome spell. Rolling with 3 blocks of 4 Blightlords is an interesting idea as well, giving you a very durable block of hard to shift and damaging both to be near and also via their 44 attacks.
Using the larger unit groups limits mobility, you need to tie a few of the big units down to hold objectives or score no primary points. That means you also probably lose their MW on charges as well. All of those big blocks are in Bounty Hunters just to up that damage a lot more. Playing the army should be pretty straight forward and vary with the number of objectives. The single Blightlord is probably going to camp on a home objective while one or 2 of the large units hold another one or 2 objectives. That’s pretty intimidating unless you have ranged units to deal with them. The spell selection includes Rancid Visitations (short range MW spells) which isn’t as common at the moment and might surprise someone.
This is a popular army because this works, 4/1 in a strong field is a good effort only losing to the eventual winner. Well done and good work doing it a little differently.
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Vengorian Lord (280) – General – Command Traits: Driven by Deathstench – Artefacts: Cloak of the Night Prowler – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura 1 x Belladamma Volga (200)*** – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Radukar the Beast (315)*** 1 x Necromancer (125)*** – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Fading Vigour, Invigorating Aura
BATTLELINE 10 x Dire Wolves (135)** – Doom Wolf 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)** 10 x Dire Wolves (135)** – Doom Wolf
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x The Burning Head (20)
OTHER 3 x Vargheists (155)* – Vargoyle 5 x Blood Knights (195)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer 5 x Blood Knights (195)* – Standard Bearer – Kastellan
Brett: In 6th we had an interesting Soulblight army, an army I’m seeing in top 10s a fair bit but not quite getting to the top. In this case he came back from losing his first 2 rounds and won the last three with good scores. All of the battleline are in Expert Conquerors and the mobile units in Bounty Hunters. Back to the battleline it’s an interesting set up, as Conquerors those Zombies count as 120 on objectives. Combining that with the Dire Wolves is a strong move, they can act as independent operatives and still give up to 30 on an objective. Great for stealing something important with their speed.
The Soulblight book is a little bloated at the moment and they have a lot of heroes, they rival Stormcast. For opponents it’s hard to keep track of all of the abilities. Since most (not the Necromancer) of the heroes in this army are vampires they have high mobility (Radukar only has 8″). They combine spells with reasonable combat meaning that there are a lot of threats to keep track of. And that’s without the Blood Knights and Vargheists. I know that both seem to underperform but really this army is quite aggressive. The Zombies can castle on something near the centre and out wait you. Attacking them may just strengthen them and unless you can do a lot of damage you aren’t going to shift them. That leave the wolves free to control other objectives and the Heroes to act as trading pieces.
Not an easy army to play and tracking all of the mobile elements is hard. Effective though and well done on bouncing back after losing to the Fyreslayers and Skaven. The Fyreslayers had 3 magmadroths which are hard to counter in this army and Skaven brought a Doomwheel and 2 Warp Cannons. If those roll well the Zombies are going to disapper and Thanquol or a Verminlord can deal with any of the heroes in this list. 3/2 is a good result with an off meta list and it’s good to see people pushing the edges of the meta.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the G&T GT2 that took place in England, UK on 6th and 7th August It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Guardian of Souls (150)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)* Krulghast Cruciator (150)** Spirit Torment (115)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Battleline 30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)*** – Reinforced x 2 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*** – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)* 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)*
Units 8 x Myrmourn Banshees (210)** – Reinforced x 1 2 x Chainghasts (95)**
Brett: Are things beginning to settle following the GHB Season 1 introduction? At least in the smaller events the same sorts of armies seem to be placing consistently and a few key elements standout. Of course this is anecdotal and I haven’t done the statisical analysis. What I do know is that if you start with Krulghast, Spirit Torment, Bladegheist and Scarlet Doom and you have the core of a good army with decent potential. Dennis dialled that up a bit giving himself 2 mini castles or tactical groupings to pursue points with.
Most Scarlet Doom lists have a sincle Krulghast backed by a collection of Spirit Torments and Guardian of Souls for the heals, to return models and debuff spells. That tends to mean you need to play with a castle around a fully buffed hammer unit. Dennis dialled back the Spirit Torments to take 2 Krulghast for that sweet damage reduction. WIth 2 units of Spirit Hosts to provide bodyguard or wound offset you can run the 30 model and 20 model Bladegheist as independant action units. You’d have to choose which healing character went with each or try to keep them close together to maintain ranges/auras. My preference is propoably the Spirit Torment with the Chaingasts on the 20 model unit and Guardian with the 30. That way the Chaingasts additional attack for units within 12″ offsets the fewer models.
It’s also easier to keep the smaller unit wholly within 12″ for the buff. This way the 20 model unit has 80 attacks on the Charge to the larger units 90. I would probably have split the Myrmourn as well given the 2 Battle Regiments on top of Bounty Hunters (this is a 4 drop list). They need to be wholly within 12″ to eat a spell so maybe only one unit will have their “favours”. Shademist and Seal of Shyish are the usual choices (for now) and including the Chainghasts (or extra Banshees) precludes the Purple Sun. I wonder if Dennis is like me and hasn’t secured a model yet? Top result with a flexible army that deserved to win. He’s beaten a selection, including 2nd and 3rd, of the top factions at the moment on his way to the win.
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Season: The Reaping – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong Arch-Revenant (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Battleline 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Brett: Sylvaneth are an interesting army, they have an awesome God model that is a bit prone to dying and their best offensive unit is best used defensively (Kurnoth). But this army is a bit more aggressive than that by adding +2 to charges, handy if a unit is going to teleport away (or walk the rootbourne paths or something). Choosing big blocks of Kurnoth limits some of your options because they are so expensive but they are a very effective unit. You know your opponent is going to try to remove those Greatbows because their range and hardiness can control the board.
Bounty Hunters don’t receive ++1 damage into the Kurnoth either (5 wounds) but they are able to be healed/have a model returned by the Seekers. Tree Revenants do what they always do, provide mobile threat with their ability to quickly grab an untended objective and they are ok in combat, certainly against other battleline units. Seekers are an interesting unit that despite being life given heals if it kills something – normally that is left to the death or chaos “healers”. The Battlemage, Arcane Tome and Warsong add up to 4 casts/unbinds. Listed with only the single spell the Warsong can take 2 and has Master of Magic for a reroll once per turn. The Arch-Revenents spell creates an interesting circle with the Tree-Revenants and Seekers (particularly the Seekers).
Verdurous Harmony is particularly good for healing revenants (returns D3 models instead of 1). So the Seekers maintain say the Kurnoth Greatbows and the Arch Revenant keeps the Seekers topped up so the Seekers can attack and hopefully heal themselves. The Arch Revenant isn’t finished there simultaneously buffing itself and giving Kurnoth Hunters +1 to wound, wounding on 2s in other words. The Warsong Revenant is another strong caster but also a fighter if need be. She has a 4+ ward and +1 to cast near activated terrain or Wyldwoods. Heartwood allows you to designate 3 enemy units at the start of the match and receive +1 to hit rolls against them. The army performed very well overall losing only to Dennis. Did the 2 units of Bladegheist spread the forces of the woods?
Brett: Since the release of their battletome in AoS 2.0 Tzeetch has risen and fallen in both popularity and power but mostly floated near the top. This is an interesting army because it is a pure Tzeetch list without horrors. The ubiquitous Purple Sun and almost as popular Chronomatic Cogs which makes sense in a casting army. As a pure Tzeetch army, it’s a very elite army with only 19 models. One reason there are no horrors is Krondspine, helping an army that otherwise has limited combat.
The army is in Hosts Arcanum granting a auto unbind/dispell in the 1st, 3rd and 5th rounds. As a 2nd Ed book there are mandatory traits and artefacts. Since these give you a redeploy for up to 3 units and 6 Screamers once per battle there isn’t a lot to complain about. Otherwise we have Fateweaver with his 3 spells, ability to change dice rolls for casts, auto dispel an endless spell every round. Oracle of Eternity isn’t as powerful as it is when he is paired with Archeon and can guarantee a death for something important. The Changecaster and Curseling bring more spells and unbind shenanigans including stealing a spell off their opponents warscroll. You only get Faith Points (the summoning currency for Tzeetch) if you successfully cast a spell and it isn’t unbound. So expect 6 casts per round from them.
Screamers and Skyfires are ok but they don’t have a lot of attacks, this is an army that is mostly going to wait for you to come to it, use spells to weaken you (and bows) before engaging. The Skyfires do D3 damage on a hit with their bows, but it’s only 3 shots each time. Both do mortal wounds for 6s. Having Krondspine to either attract fire or just block something in conjunction with a casting castle. So long as they can stay back and have a chance for a few Tzeetch’s Firestorms or more summoning they are going to be difficult to handle.
Looking at the path through the event it was the alpha striking armies (Nighthaunt and Ironjawz) that caused issues. Nighthaunt in particular were in a good place to counter Tzeetch, their large blocks can easily absorb the hits from spells and heal back the lost units.
Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Ironsunz – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Kragnos, The End of Empires (720) Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (525) – Allies Chad Longjohnson (480) Megaboss on Maw-Krusha – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Hulking Brute – Artefact: Destroyer – Mount Trait: Mean ‘Un
Brett: An Ironjawz list with a view to the future? Lower drops by choosing bigger models maybe? Either way this is an interesting idea which probably didn’t quite work out but worth a go, Kragnos, Mega Gargant and a Mawcrusha. 3 MSU Ardboy units at the rear. The Mega doesn’t benefit from Mighty Destroyers but they do receive Kragnos’s buff to charge range,
Hold the back line and slap anything that looks tasty, strong or important. The Mega Boss has all of the important things to give him a 36″ move and still hit unreasonably hard. I’d tend to use the Gargant/Kragnos to clear screens exposing the underbelly to the Mawcrusher. It looks like the army struggled into summoning armies mostly. That makes sense because as Ironjawz you lose steam after Turn 2 maybe 3 just when Tzeetch and Beasts start bring extra friends. Still a good performance and really awesome to see people testing the meta.
A change is afoot for the Woehammer stats. We’re going more in depth. You’ll still find the tournament results for GT’s in the last week below along with links. Then there is statistic sections for the rolling four weeks stats and the current Age of Sigmar version (i.e. since the most recent update in terms of GHB or Battletome release).
Harambe’s Heroes and Goldmine Games Rumble in the Jungle – USA 28 Players
Position
Faction
Subfaction
Result
1st
Daughters of Khaine
Zainthar Kai
5-0-0
2nd
Nighthaunt
Quicksilver Dead
4-0-1
3rd
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Drowned Men
4-0-1
4th
Sons of Behemat
Stomper Tribe
4-0-1
5th
Seraphon
Thunder Lizard
4-0-1
Harambe’s Heroes and Goldmine Games Rumble in the Jungle
Summer of Sigmar – Gamers Guild Grand Tournament – USA 15 Players
Position
Faction
Subfaction
Result
1st
Daughters of Khaine
Zainthar Kai
5-0-0
2nd
Sylvaneth
Gnarlroot
4-0-1
3rd
Slaves to Darkness
Ravagers
4-0-1
4th
Kharadron Overlords
3-0-2
5th
Idoneth Deepkin
Dhom-Hain
3-0-2
Summer 0f Sigmar – Gamers Guild Grand Tournament
This Weeks Stats
The following stats are for the week ending 31st July only, essentially GT’s that took place on the 30th and 31st July.
Rolling 4 Week Stats
The rolling stats includes all GT’s since the weekend of 16th/17th July to the 6th/7th August. This covers a total of 844 players (+177 players) across 19 Grand Tournaments (+4 GT).
As the new release of the GHB takes hold it looks as though the overall effect is a positive one on the overall win rates for each Grand Alliance as they all get close to that 50.0% mark.
Here are the rolling four weeks win rates since we began tracking this information:
Faction Stats (Version)
The below stats are for every match in a grand tournament since the release of the new General’s Handbook.
Daughters of Khaine and Seraphon now have both achieved 3 5-0 wins a piece.
After the last weekend, all the factions have now achieved at least one weekend where they’ve had an army go to 4 wins.
Meanwhile at the lower end of the tables factions who have gone a whole tournament with five losses…
As for the win rates of each faction since the release of the new GHB:
Bonesplitterz increase their win rate to over 60%, while at the other end of the table Gloomspite Gitz fall to 35.8%
In terms of faction popularity:
By rights, each faction should have an equal share of the player base, however we know this will not be the case due to either the appeal of the miniatures or the rules for the factions. Here we can see the most popular factions are Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Sylvaneth, Daughters of Khaine, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Seraphon and Ironjawz.
Currently it would appear that Kharadron Overlords players have the highest chance of going 5-0 at an event closely followed by Beasts of Chaos and Hedonites of Slaanesh
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Season of War Grand Tournament that took place in Ontario, Canada on 6th and 7th August. It involved 65 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. The tournament was hosted and organised by Seaon of War, you can find out more on their youtube channel.
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: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Slann Starmaster (265)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Stellar Tempest Skink Starpriest (130)*** – Spell: Hand of Glory Skink Priest (90)*** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*** – Artefact: Serpent God Dagger
Battleline 10 x Skinks (75)** – Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)** – Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 30 x Skinks (225)** – Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs – Reinforced x 2 5 x Saurus Guard (115)***
Units 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)*
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (70) Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
Brett: Seraphon but, interestingly, not Thunderlizard. The Seraphon book hasn’t been brought up to 3rd Edition standard yet but remains one of the best and most complete battletomes. We haven’t seen a lot of Skinks at the top recently but maybe Eternal Conquerors will bring them back into the light.
Lots of heroes starting with the Saurus Astrolith Bearer, buffing casting and providing a ward within 12″ his Celestial Conjuration Point (CCP) generation is probably amount the most powerful ability. CCP let you summon units, if you have more than 6 you can summon. A Slann General and Astrolith together give 2D3 CCP a turn making at least 6 CCP a turn feasible. That’s 10 Skinks as a minimum. The Starmaster is a nasty wizard with an inbuilt Spell Portal, 3 casts, +1 to cast/dispel/unbind and unlimited range on his dispel/unbind. Both his warscroll spell (Comet’s Call) and Stellar Tempest deal MW. His command trait allows 1 reroll for a cast/dispel/unbind in each hero phase (2 per turn). He’s built to get both the Purple Sun and Gnashing Jaws out on command and make if difficult to get your spells off.
Supporting him are another wizard and a priest, granting another 2 dispel/unbind attempts as well on top of their casts. The Starpriest is granting rerolls for hit rolls of 1 to a unit. The army has a range of offensive options, the salamander hunting packs with high quality attacks for targets with good saves, the Bastilidon for a little of everything. And the large Skink pack for removing low wound, poor save blobs. Having the 2 loadouts on the Skinks is an interesting play, 2 of the units are ideal for screening or taking objectives (where they count as 30) and the other for damage. With curse the 30 strong unit is on average able to produce MW. Special mention to the Purple Sun (MVP this season so far) and Gnashing Jaws.
Gnashing Jaws is a really strong choice now we are seeing a lot of armies with really strong but slow infantry (Fyreslayers, Kurnoth, Stormcast, Maggotkin). The potential MW output into a unit with a move of 4″ is eye watering. Something to remember is it can affect your foot heroes. This army is really set up to deal with hordes with massed 1 damage attacks but can, with a combination of spells/abilities and some stronger units pivot.
The range of lists taken down in the event shows the flexibility and balance of the army as well as the great generalship. More than just winning each round Ridge scored well in every round to secure the win over Rueben. A head to head between them would be interesting.
Allegiance: Sons of Behemat Tribe: Taker Tribe Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble Triumph: Inspired
Leader/Battleline Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525pts)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Flaming Weapon Kraken-Eater Mega-Gargant (490pts)* – General – Glowy Lantern – Very Acquisitive – Krakenskin Sandals
Core Battalions *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bounty Hunters
Total: 1,995pts
Brett: Another strong showing from the Sons, this time with the less popular Mancrushers in the army as well. The army build is quite clever, creating 2 wizards in an army with next to no magic but still maintaining key artefacts. With endless sells on the rampage Wizards and Priests are almost mandatory inclusions now for the dispel/unbind. The text for Glowy Lantern is pretty cool too, apparently this is a smart Kraken-Eater.
No Montrously Tough here but Flaming Weapon on the Gatebreaker takes the flail to flat 4 damage. Even on his bottom profile that +1 damage is still making a difference with -3 Rend. The Kraken Eater is both well equipped with Very Acquisitive giving both the extra artefact and allows equipping 2. The second is Krakenskin Sandals making the his stomp a more reliable. Bosses of the Stomp provides the 3rd artefact which is on the Gate Breaker. The Mancrushers being in Bounty Hunters is potentially a solid move, it doubles their effect on Galetian Veterans of course.
Mancrushers are typically more vunerable to ranged attackes with their lower wound counts. Pity no one really brought that many, the Thunder Lizard Seraphon list having the most. It goes to show that in a spell heavy infantry meta, even with the risk of a Purple Sun, the giants have a place. The weakening of some shooting (SCE) will help that and they were never bad, so after 6 months we might start to see quite a few back on tables. It will be interesting to see what effect there is on the meta if there are more Sons on the table. To state the obvious, a very effective army with interesting choices that double down on it’s anti infantry roll. Congratulations on 5/0 in a tight field. A head to head between Reuben and Ridge would be quite a spectacle.
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Krulghast Cruciator (150)* Guardian of Souls (150)* – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Spirit Torment (115)* Spirit Torment (115) – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist
Units 9 x Spirit Hosts (375)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Chainrasps (110)** 10 x Chainrasps (110)** 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*** – Reinforced x 1 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*** – Reinforced x 1 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)***
Brett: More familar territory here with a Nighthaunt Scarlet Doom army still it has it’s own quirks similar to the armies we’ve already looked at. From the Grand Strat (Fight or Flight – no enemies within 6″ of any NH unit contesting an objective) to the block of Spirit Hosts there are nuiances to the list. If you are going first the Grand Strat seems easy since NH can always fall back but with 10 drops going second is more likely. Inspired is a good choice for NH since battleshock isn’t really a thing for them.
4 reasonably standard heroes, providing damage reduction, spells and healing for multiple units. Master of Magic is particularly good with the Purple Sun allowing rerolls of a crucial spell. The unit selection is more interesting in this army. Spirit Hosts took a hit from 2nd to 3rd edition losing their MW on 6s ability for a body guard effect. With 3 wounds though a block of 9 is going to be tanky especially with Spirit Hosts to return a model every turn. The Myrmourn are here as stabby spell stealers, very useful in the Endless Spell era we are currently enjoying. The Chainrasps are really only here to meet battleline, they will probably provide some screening or more likely backline objective holding but will evaporate if pushed too hard.
The Bladegheist are here as the damage dealers, doing mortal wounds on the charge to fall back and charge again. Worse of course they get an extra attack and as bounty hunters are doing 2 damage into your GV units. I think people are getting a handle on Bladegheists now, you need to make sure you understand their threat range or try to remove them with shooting. They are devestating if they can hit you in full formation with the current rules meaning all will hit you most of the time. His only loss was against a Maggotkin list with 3 Lords and 12 Blightlords. With the Blightlords the Bladegheist wouldn’t get additional damage and the Maggotkin army would have superior magic. Their MW output and “shooting” would have been effective at blunting the NH.
Still don’t under estimate Bladegheist, putting down Sons in the first round and then the Hog spam in the last should give an idea of the damage potential. Nate’s first round match against Oliver from Season of War is now up on the Season of War website for anyone interested. Having watched it I am amazed at how tanky the Spirit Hosts turned out to be, great move.
Allegiance: Bonesplitterz – Warclan: Icebone – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones! – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Wurrgog Prophet (150)* – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks – Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar Maniak Weirdnob (100)* – Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks – Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar Savage Big Boss (65)* – General – Command Trait: Great Hunter Savage Big Boss (65)** Savage Big Boss (65)** Savage Big Boss (65)**
Battleline 5 x Savage Boarboys (140)** – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140) – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140) – Stikkas 5 x Savage Boarboys (140) – Stikkas
Units 4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)*** – Reinforced x 1 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)* 10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)*** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)*** – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: Wow where do I even start with this list, 181 wounds and 40 little pigs with more small heroes than most nations can handle. This list is making maximum use of Icebone’s MW on 6s to hit with melee weapon. Grand Strategy is to control a piece of terrain at the end of the battle. 3 casts from the Prophet and Shaman, including the Shaman is a great idea given the chance the Prophet will blow himself up. They concentrate on winding up their crazy mates with their spells.
The Savage Big Bosses have an ability to let another unit with 3″ of an enemy, wholly within 12″, fight immediately after this unit. That’s why there are so many, they are slow but they can fairly easily do 24, 2 damage attacks before letting so the Big Stabbas hit you (or more likely a small boar unit). With so many boars this is a solid tactic letting you concentrate a small castle of pain near an objective and the boars go wide. Combined with the Prophet lifting his mask and the Big Stabbas getting into combat this is enough damage to down a Gargant.
The boarboys and Maniacs are always going to be best on the charge so you want to make sure that isn’t an option first round. And I haven’t mentioned it but there is a reason for the 2 wizards, Purple Sun to eat something important. No shame in drawing against Maggotkin who could outlast most of the charges and blunt them with disease points. His only loss was to our 2nd place Gargants, again understandalbe because you are relying on swingy units to drop them.
Peter: We’re always looking for fresh bl… I mean writers to join our team and expand our range of content. Patrick is trying his hand at a top three lists before he moves on to writing about the content he loves….. Horus Heresy.
This is the Top Three AoS lists for Quest of Champions Heat 4 that took place in the Sanctuary Gaming Centre and Coffee Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, UK on August 6th and 7th. Quest of Champions is run by Warrior Lodge in Nottingham, UK. There was a total of 38 players competing in this five-round heat, the top twelve of which will be invited back for a grand final later this year.
Want to watch some top AoS games for free? Ben Bailey’s new YouTube channel, Dice and Ducks were at the event giving live coverage. Round 4 and 5 are available to watch for free here.
The Warrior Lodge always have events coming up so why not check out their Twitter page and book your self on to their next event?
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs:
LEADER Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955) Spirit Torment (115) – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350) 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175) 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)
OTHER 2 x Chainghasts (95)
ENDLESS SPELLS Chronomatic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
CORE BATTALIONS Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)
Patrick: One of the best parts of Age of Sigmar is seeing huge, god-tier centerpiece models not only regularly used on tables, but seeing those units perform to their points cost. Between the upgrades the Nighthaunt saw in their recent book, including their excellent spell lore, I imagine that we will begin to see Nagash show up in more Death lists as time goes on. Andrew’s list shows Nagash supporting (or being supported by) a big killy block of ghosts.
Nagash can produce an almost offensive number of spells in the Hero phase, and the re-roll from the Cogs makes those casts unlikely to be turned off by an early phase miscast. On top of that, Nagash is pulling double-duty by keeping the units of Bladegheists alive and closer to full strength throughout the fight.
Speaking of Bladegheists: there are 40 of them present in this list, including one reinforced unit. The buffs they can receive from the Chainghasts and Spirit Torment can turn them into a force to be reckoned with, and Andrew used them to great effect in this tournament. The units can be used both as mobile screens, protecting Nagash from incoming enemies, or as a melee threat while supported by the Spirit Torment and Chainghasts. The Scarlet Doom spirit host allows for the large unit of Bladegheists to reliably put out mortal wounds, leaning into one of the more common winning strategies in the current meta.
The Purple Sun makes an appearance in this list, as it does in most lists featuring wizards, and the forward push from the Arcane Tome wielding Spirit Torment allows for the Sun to be placed in a favorable position early in the game, rather than casting it and presenting opportunities for the opponent to dispel it as it works its way up the table 8” at a time.
This is also the only list featured today that uses a grand strategy other than No Place for the Weak. Fright or Flight seems to be leaning more towards a conservative defensive approach, relying on preventing enemies from contesting objectives rather than outright killing the opponent. Overall, a straightforward list, but one that saw Andrew win four of his games with a draw in the fourth round.
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560) – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560) – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness BATTLELINE 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
OTHER Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)
BEHEMOTH Chaos Warshrine (215) – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer: Heal
Patrick: What’s the best way to keep the Purple Sun from wiping your 500+ point leader on an unlucky roll? Have your 500+ point leader be a six-man squad of Varanguard! Or two of those units in Toby’s case. Toby is taking advantage of one of the stranger aspects of Knights of the Empty Throne, in that your leaders don’t need to be a single model, bringing a total of 12 Varanguard spread across two reinforced units. Both units carry Warpsteel Shields, providing them some resistance to spells and endless spells, and both have been improved through artefacts and command traits, allowing the two units to buff the defenses of nearby units, keep enemies locked in combat, and automatically dispel one spell. The leaders are rounded out through a pair of Sorcerer Lords, which can use Mask of Darkness to sling any given unit in the army to the other side of the board, allowing a unit of Iron Golems to catch a distant objective or place a 6-man unit of heroic Varanguard behind enemy lines.
The army wide Tzeentch mark and Chaos Warshrine give a clear image of how badly Toby doesn’t want his opponents to successfully cast, and when they do manage to get a spell off, he wants to make sure that it doesn’t hit as hard as his opponents expects. A Mindstealer is there to supplement the martial abilities of the already-proficient Varanguard, helping ensure that they can get the most out of the combat phase by delaying an opponent’s turn to fight.
The use of a Battle Regiment that doesn’t include all units in the army makes for an interesting addition, potentially preventing Toby’s priority but allowing him to deploy more reactively to his opponents. Those units may have been better placed in a battalion providing more utility benefits, such as an Expert Conquerors or Bounty Hunters battalion. Ultimately Toby drove this army to a top spot with the Battle Regiment, so it clearly worked. We can talk at length about the magic-heaviness of the current meta, but seeing a list that turns that around to focus on magical defense rather than output shows that there are hard counters present to arcane lists. The fact that Toby took this list to a 4/1 victory and 2nd place overall, with only a single loss to a Thunder Lizard list, shows that sometimes martial might makes right.
Army Type: Seraphon – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Lord Kroak (430) – Spell: Stellar Tempest Engine of the Gods (265) – General – Command Trait: Prime Warbeast – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Spell: Hand of Glory – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140) – Artefact: Fusil of Conflagration Skink Priest (90) – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
BATTLELINE 5 x Saurus Guard (115) 5 x Saurus Knights (110) 5 x Saurus Knights (110)
OTHER 5 x Chameleon Skinks (115)
BEHEMOTH Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250) Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)
ENDLESS SPELL Chronomantic Cogs (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Patrick: Ah, Kroaknado, how we miss thee. In such a magic and mortal wound heavy meta, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Lord Kroak remains such a strong presence in high-ranking Seraphon lists, going 4/1 with a second-round loss to Hallowed Knights. Tom takes advantage of Kroak’s 4 casting attempts, a stock +2 to casting, unbind, and dispelling rolls, and the ability to unbind spells cast anywhere on the map, Kroak is an arcane powerhouse. While this list does not take advantage of the ability to measure line-of-sight from skink wizards or Oracles, it does include some Saurus Guard to help beef up Kroak’s already impressive defenses. It’s a shame that the Balewind Vortex is no longer available, otherwise we could see Tom run the true insanity of 2nd edition Kroak.
A pair of Bastiladons are near constants in Thunder Lizard lists. Their tremendous defense and high-quality shooting always impress and taking two allows Tom to take advantage of Thunder Lizards command ability throughout the fight, leading the pair to push out an average of 18 wounds at their top bracket with more against Chaos armies or with the use of All-out Attack, enough to potentially wipe some reinforced squads of Galletian Veterans off a nearby objective.
The list includes a trio of utility heroes largely meant to improve the defenses and recover from heavy losses throughout the battle. A pair of non-reinforced Saurus Warriors act as excellent mobile screens to block the progress of enemy melee units. There is also a small cadre of Chameleon Skinks, which are an excellent harassing unit, and surprisingly durable when taking advantage of their “Perfect Mimicry” ability. While unreliable, the mortal wounds that can be caused by their dart pipes will always be appreciated when the dice are in Tom’s favor.
Two of the top three placing armies at this event included the Chronomantic Cogs and Purple Sun. These endless spells are highly effective at their current points cost, and the added boost the Cogs provide to any magic-heavy army cannot be understated. The Purple Sun remains ever-present in the meta and will probably be here to stay until the next General’s Handbook gets released.
Army Type: Flesh-eater Courts – Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADER Abhorrent Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445) – Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Deranged Transformation Abhorrent Archregent (245) – Spell: Spectral Host Crypt Infernal Courtier (130) – General – Command Trait: Grave Robber Varghulf Courtier (160)
BATTLELINE 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85) 9 x Crypt Horrors (330) 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)
ENDLESS SPELL Chronomantic Cogs (40)
CORE BATTALIONS Battle Regiment
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Artefact
TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)
Patrick: Hero-hammer is a thing of beauty and dropping half of your army’s cost on fitting four different rotting corpses into the leader slot of your roster is an excellent place to start. Thomas took an uncommon FEC list to the top ten, going 4/1 with a loss in the second round to a Scarlet Doom Nighthaunt list (I suppose Nagash is allowed to have a favorite child for the moment).
Thomas is using Hollowmourne to its full effect by taking two double-reinforced units of Crypt Horrors, with the right support from the Archregent the damage potential of these units can quickly build from fearsome to terrifying. The ability for the Terrorgheist to keep up with the extra speed provided to one unit by Deranged Transformation makes sure to keep the unit in the aura of hit roll re-rolls. The summons from both Abhorrent units can also help supplement the army’s relatively low model count by bringing large blocks of Crypt Ghouls to the field (up to 40 between the two).
The Crypt Infernal Courtier’s high Movement characteristic and artefact make it an excellent hero hunter. The Varghulf pulls its weight both by being a support hero for the Ghouls and Horrors, but also by being a melee threat by itself.
A change is afoot for the Woehammer stats. We’re going more in depth. You’ll still find the tournament results for GT’s in the last week below along with links. Then there is statistic sections for the rolling four weeks stats and the current Age of Sigmar version (i.e. since the most recent update in terms of GHB or Battletome release).
The following stats are for the week ending 31st July only, essentially GT’s that took place on the 30th and 31st July.
This weeks results by faction
Rolling 4 Week Stats
The rolling stats includes all GT’s since the weekend of 9th/10th July to the 30th/31st July. This covers a total of 689 players (+86 players) across 19 Grand Tournaments (+1 GT).
As the new release of the GHB takes hold it looks as though the overall effect is a positive one on the overall win rates for each Grand Alliance as they all get close to that 50.0% mark.
Results over the last four weeks
Here are the rolling four weeks win rates since we began tracking this information:
Faction Stats (Version)
The below stats are for every match in a grand tournament since the release of the new General’s Handbook.
Factions that have achieved 5 wins at a GT
Under this new General’s Handbook we can see a number of factions have achieved 5-0 wins. Following on from last week, Stormcast Eternals and Maggotkin of Nurgle now join Seraphon and Kharadron Overlords with 2 each.
Looking at factions with four wins and the table opens out vastly with only Flesh-eater Courts, Big Waaagh! and Legion of Azorgh yet to achieve a 4 win result over a weekend.
Meanwhile at the lower end of the tables factions who have gone a whole tournament with five losses…
Factions going 0-5 over a weekend
As for the win rates of each faction since the release of the new GHB:
In terms of faction popularity:
Faction Results Breakdown
By rights, each faction should have an equal share of the player base, however we know this will not be the case due to either the appeal of the miniatures or the rules for the factions. Here we can see the most popular factions are Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Sylvaneth, Daughters of Khaine, Maggotkin of Nurgle and Ironjawz.
5-0 Results as a % of the number of players for that faction
Currently it would appear that Kharadron Overlords players have the highest chance of going 5-0 at an event closely followed by Slaves to Darkness.
A change is afoot for the Woehammer stats. We’re going more in depth. You’ll still find the tournament results for GT’s in the last week below along with links. Then there is statistic sections for the rolling four weeks stats and the current Age of Sigmar version (i.e. since the most recent update in terms of GHB or Battletome release).
The following stats are for the week ending 24th July only, essentially GT’s that took place on the 23rd and 24th July.
Rolling 4 Week Stats
The rolling stats includes all GT’s since the weekend of 2nd/3rd July to the 23rd/24th July. This covers a total of 603 players (+151 players) across 18 Grand Tournaments (+2 GT’s).
Alliance Win Rates for a Rolling Four Week Period
As the new release of the GHB takes hold it looks as though the overall effect is a positive one on the overall win rates for each Grand Alliance as they all get close to that 50.0% mark.
Faction win rates over the last four weeks
Here are the rolling four weeks win rates since we began tracking this information:
Faction Stats (Version)
The below stats are for every match in a grand tournament since the release of the new General’s Handbook.
Factions that have achieved 5-0 wins
Under this new General’s Handbook we can see a number of factions have achieved 5-0 wins, but currently Seraphon and Kharadron Overlords lead the way with 2 a piece.
Factions with 4-0-1 or 4-1-0
Looking at factions with four wins and the table opens out vastly with only Legion of the First Prince, Big Waaagh! and Legion of Azorgh (Hey, someone played them so I’m including them ok!?) yet to achieve a 4 win result over a weekend.
Meanwhile at the lower end of the tables factions who have gone a whole tournament with five losses…
Factions with 5 losses at a GT
And as for each factions current win rate under the new handbook:
Bonesplitterz, Disciples of Tzeentch and Seraphon lead the way at present while Legion of the First Prince, Flesh-eater Courts and Ossiarch Bonereapers prop every one else up.
If you don’t like graphs, here’s their win rates in a table format:
Faction in Green are considered to have a healthy win rate, those in Red are considered (by me) to be unbalanced
But who do Bonesplitterz struggle against?
Skaven and Ironjawz seem to have the most success against Bonesplitterz, though whether these particular matches were against the Drakkfoot Big Stabba spam, I’m not sure.
Meanwhile a revitalised Disciples of Tzeentch is struggling in their matches against Idoneth Deepkin, Cities of Sigmar, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Daughters of Khaine and surprisingly Fyreslayers!
Results by Faction
In terms of faction popularity:
Faction Popularity
By rights, each faction should have an equal share of the player base, however we know this will not be the case due to either the appeal of the miniatures or the rules for the factions. Here we can see the most popular factions are Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Daughters of Khaine, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Sylvaneth, Ironjawz and Skaven.
Faction Breakdown
After only a week, I’ve removed the faction breakdown, but this is becuase we’ll start a new series called ‘Faction Focus’ where each day we’ll analyse a specific factions results for the previous month and lists that performed well.
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