This is the top three AoS lists for Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII that took place in the USA on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 52 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (350)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)**
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Expertise: Arcane
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares (280)***
– Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale

Battleline
5 x Black Knights (100)***
5 x Black Knights (100)***
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*

Units
10 x Blood Knights (400)***
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Grave Guard (280)**
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (80)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Command
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

Some of our readers may remember that we interviewed Jeremy Veysseire some time ago on General Speaking. We reached out once more, and ever the gentleman, Jeremy agreed to give us a rundown of his list.

Jeremy Veysseire: The important thing about the Legion of Blood army I played at Sparkle Death party is that it was designed originally roughly 1 year ago to counter the hyper aggressive meta that was around Maggotkin Flies, Dragons and Ironjawz through the following important mechanics of Neferata’s spell allowing a unit of mine to ignore negative modifiers to saves (aka REND) for either Neferata and the Blood Knights on a 3+ save platform making them easily 2+ save during the crucial fights and the minus 1 to hit Aura from Neferata’s Command Ability, the reduction in attacks to 1 unit with the book spell. The additional mechanics that were more of a bonus such as the Bravery Reduction, the additional models fleeing and the Horrorghast combo really punished in some cases Dragons and the flies themselves since my army does not do straight raw damage per say but more of this “I will kill you by a thousand slow cuts while you scream for the hills.”

So we fast forward to Spark Death Party, why bring this army since the meta has evolved so much since then? Well, I wanted to see if the combo was a good counter to Gitz, Slaves and Mawtribes, which all fit those hyper aggressive archetypes. The difference being that all of those armies have abilities to deal out a lot more MW consistently than the previous meta (yes, even more than dragons) and still punch very hard. I made some tweaks by incorporating Lauka Vai and the Corpse Cart for the +1 to cast aura, hoping that in some games I could get Lauka Vai’s spell off allowing me to really control how my opponent could choose the engagement and the additional thought process was if the Gitz armies went deep in Squig Herd since they can’t reroll charges, it could potentially stop them when they want to charge.

Now lets cover some of the additional combos in the list that are less obvious, Levitating Blood Knights to always be able to move any enemy units when they retreat and plant themselves easily where they want while removing terrain to clunk them up. Making the Grave Guards Sworn protectors allows me the ability to do another Battle Tactic “A Matter of Honor” with them and just in the off chance I can get them to activate in the Hero Phase with the Vampire Lord. Lauka Vai’s MW on the Charge really allows me to sometimes get Neferata out of combat or lets me remove a GC consistently with her as she can be kind of a surgical strike unit and she provides the Blood Knights coverage if Neferata fails to cast her spell.

At the event itself, I played in order into FEC, Fyreslayers, Mawtribes, Gitz, Cities of Sigmar. My first 4 matchups were exactly the type of army I wanted to face, aggressive melee armies and man oh man did the combo work. Some highlights, keep Gotrek debuffed with less attacks and half charges while the army picked up everything else around him, into Mawtribes watching Stonehorn hit on 5’s with Neferata’s minus 1 to hit, into Gitz watching BK just absolutely lock units up and the Black Knights blocking avenues up the board. Neferata slayed a Terrorgheist, a Phoenix, a Grimwrath, and terrified the Heroes on Stonehorn with her dagger. The army obviously got to play the type of armies it was designed to fight into and it did incredibly well due mostly to its ability to keep my opponent’s army locked away and debuffed as I cut him ever so slightly to drain him of his life essence like perhaps…a Vampire. But honestly, all it took was probably a non Static shooting army like KO or Seraphon to just ruin my day. What a great last ride for this army before the new battletome.

Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Lord-Castellant (160)*
– Artefacts: Quicksilver Draught
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Lord-Relictor (150)***
– General
– Command Traits: High Priest
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Battlemage (100)****
– Ally
– Realm: Ghur

BATTLELINE
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)****
5 x Drakespawn Knights (110)****
– Dread Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower

OTHER
10 x Protectors (440)*
– Protector-Prime
– 4 x Starsoul Mace
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)**
– Raptor-Prime
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (170)***
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Galletian Command
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Vanguard
****Vanguard

Total Points: 1990/2000
Total Drops: 10
Total Units: 10
Total Wounds: 109

Through our friends at Stormkeep, we were able to reach out to Stark and ask if he’d give us a rundown of his list. Thanks again, Stark, for the comments, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again in the future!

Stark Pister: This list is a natural evolution of my HaXbows list from last season, with which I topped out at 4-1. Last season I played 15 Judicators + 3 Longstrikes in a 3 drop with double chariot bounty hunters and so this list pulls back on the shooting and chariots for a more durable anvil/hammer in the block of 10 protectors to fit the more midboard grind battleplans of this season.

In my opinion the strongest Stormcast lists tend to be mixed arms builds with durable screens protecting efficient shooting and high damage melee hammers to riposte threats that try to get through the screens to threaten the shooting, all supported by minimal characters since our faction synergies tend to be minimal. I tend to build my tournament lists with this a general philosophy as the balanced nature allows the flexibility to deal with most types of opponents. In a similar vein, I try to have units with diverse types of damage to have the tools to minimize polarized matches. I find Stormcast’s incredibly deep roster tends to provide the options to really customize what you want available in any given meta.

This new season presents a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges for Stormcast lists. Fortunately, our main minimal support characters are all GCs (except Gardus). One of our big strengths is the ability to snipe out small enemy buff heros and now that is even better with enemy GC’s being critical for half the non-book tactics and several battle plans, incentizing use of the Sharpshooter battalion. However, they balanced sharpshooters well by forcing it to be 3 required units so you can’t be very low drop. High drops can be problematic for shooting armies because an early double can allow melee to close the gap and for opposing shooting to gain the upper hand in output, so this needs to be compensated for somehow. Longstrikes make the perfect GC hunters, and with scions, translocate, and Thunderbolt volley, they provide very flexible turn one threat that helps offset those high drops. The added threat of the Judicators forces conservative screening of heros while they efficiently clear those screens from a safe distance.

The Gallatian Command battalion provides the opportunity for a very strong combo in Stormcast when used alongside a Galatian Champion with the Quicksilver Draught and the new Tunnel Master makes it easy to set up even with a hero like the Castellant who wants to be on the board in the hero phase for his ability. More importantly, it allows the combo to be down at the start of the game as part of your initial deployment castle, and with the help of the Relictor, it can be anywhere it needs to be on turn one. This allows you to defend from alpha strike armies that choose to go first against you (or the rare person you outdrop), while being able to get them buffed and into the optimal position when given top of one. Lord Castellant is the perfect hero for this job not just because of his ability to buff them to a 1+ save but critically because he has a 40mm Gryph Hound that enables the whole 10 block to fit within the 2.5″ bubble to allow them to strike first with him when someone charges them. This provides a HUGE deterrent to hitting your midbaord castle from the front and specifically acts as protection of your main melee hammer against the double turn.

The Ghur Battlemage helps make up for the paladin speed issues in the mid game and pairs well with the Relictor for melee units in general throughout. I often lead with Mystic shield on one of the screens to help with weathering the potential double as well, before flipping to wildform to go on the offensive. He also provides the bare minimum magic defense, which coupled with heroic willpower and the relictor Dispel at least let you disrupt the low hanging fruit.

The efficient battleline slots provide the opportunity to pick up an all-star screen in the Drakespawn Knights, who pair well with the Chariot to safely claim objectives and pin large threats until their buffs are down. The Chariot even has vanguard battalion to reroll its first charge outside of hero range. Because the battleline are the riposte and ranged units, they can easily stay back to protect heros from shooting for a while.

Another critical consideration this season has been the battle tactics. The teleporting GC lineup and Sworn Bodyguard paladins make most of the new ones achievable with some planning, though This One’s Mine is rarely an option. Hammerstrike Assault and Draconith Desctruction can be good backup options, albeit riskier that come in handy against armies where killing the one thing needs to be your focus anyway. The spicy Drakespawn pick can even sneak a late game Pioneers of the Realms.

Shoutouts to my mentor Matt Beasley for helping refine the list and forcing me to get reps in (and for lending the Drakespawn), to my painting mentor Ricky Fischer whose squigs I beat in round 5 to finish the tournament, and to the whole of Dimensional Cascade. Special thanks to my partner Larc for the unending support of my unbelievably-high-time-commitment hobbies.

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Be’lakor (355)
– Spells: Binding Damnation
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Leadership of the alpha
1 x Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)*
– Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

BATTLELINE
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3 x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Knights (230)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Splintered Fang (100)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Another notch on Be’lakor’s bedpost! If you’ve not met him on the table before, Be’lakor’s man schtick is being able to stop a key unit from doing stuff (on a 3+ each phase) until your next hero phase. He’s been hotly debated in (all 9) S2D player circles because, while he offers a great amount of short-term control, which potentially allows you varanguard/10 knights (as in this list) to do their work, it’s also entirely possible that you roll a few crucial 2s, and then you’ve basically paid 355 pts for a not very durable, not very killy and kinda fast hero.

He has been cropping up recently though, suggesting that, overall, he’s worth it for the time he buys the hammers to do their work. Ricky here has actually gone for KOTET, which will allow the two units of knights, the Varanguard, and the Sorcerer on Manticore to all make up plenty of ground by running and charging. Obviously, that’s going to allow a fair bit of early pressure, especially with daemonic power being cast on 3d6 with a re-roll by the Manticore Sorc, allowing one unit to charge with 3d6 as well. I imagine the spell-portal is also there to allow the Manticore’s warscroll spell – one of the few good offensive spells S2D has access to – to reach out across the board to soften stuff up.

Finally, we have an Exalted Hero, who is utterly garbage, but only 100 points, and I imagine it is mainly there for GC based scoring.

Taking down one of the two mirrors and also managing to chew through NH and a monster heavy Ogor list means this is a great result with a techy list from Ricky!

Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
– Army Type: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Battlemage (100)*
– General’s Adjutant
– Spells: Roaming Wildfire, Ignite Weapons
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Freeguild General (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade
1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)*
– Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds
1 x Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)**
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Sear Wounds, Flaming Weapon
1 x Lord-Arcanum (140)**
– Spells: Warding Brand, Roaming Wildfire

BATTLELINE
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)*
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
– Long Rifle
20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)*
– General’s Retinue
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
– Standard Bearer
– Marksman
– Piper
10 x Flagellants (80)**
– Prophet
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Standard Bearer
– Drummer
– Freeguild Halberd
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Drummer
– Standard Bearer
– Freeguild Halberd

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Quicksilver Swords (60)

OTHER
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Once you get one player comment, you can often get two or three from the connections those players have. That was the case here as well when Stark said he could reach out to Louis-Philippe for his comments.

Louis-Philippe: The Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix should only have Flaming Weapon (The mistake has been spot before start of the tourney and opponents were dully advise).

Game plan: First of all, AoS is a dice game. Luck is part of the game, but careful planning can sway the odds in your favour. …sometime 😛

Flagellants are there for the easy ‘’Sanctify’’ battle tactic T1 (White dwarf). Since I always let my opponent go first (I was lucky not to face a 1 drop), he usually doesn’t kill anything. So that was a free one turn 1. (Aside from game 4, where the battleplan didn’t favour that BT (Position Over Power). Fun fact, that was the only game my opponent concentrated on his resource to kill my flagellant on his T1.

This list has 4 (double, cause Hallowheart) casters, meaning an 8 cast hero phase T1. The Hallowheart command ability lets you take D6 mortals for the same amount in casting bonus. Meaning this list is usually casting at +1, if not +2 or +3, but could reach a whopping +9! and since all your spells are cast on 6s (aside Flaming weapon) unless your opponent is able to unbind, everything goes flying out. Fun fact (not so fun for my opponent): In my 4th round T1 hero phase, I was casting with a +5 from that command ability since my phoenix failed all his ward saves. Got to heal 3 wounds back with Sear Wounds though.

I mostly face Melee lists (Fireslayer, Skaven (night/gutterrunners), Nighthaunt, nurgles (beast), Soulbright Grave lord)

So, the plan was to deploy away from their charge range. For the skaven, I deployed my shooting units 3’’ aways from the front of my shaft unit, so his deepstriking rats only had my shaft to shoot at (and my Fulminators which they killed with mortals). He also charged my shaft with his deceiver (one of them failed the charge). His deceiver didn’t like mortals from magic bottom of 1 (and the other rats didn’t like my shooting).

As for the Soulbright, well Jeremy is impressive, tactics wise and had a bit of luck, he stole initiative T2, forcing me to move forward by burning my ‘’back’’ objective, and had Neferata do 1 wound (yes only 1 unsaved wound to my Phoenix, mind you it was the dagger that got through, Phoenix was at 11 health, he rolled a 5… pouf no more Phoenix).

Units :
The goal was to use the Freeguild Guards and Flagellants as chaff around the Handgunners and Crossbowmen. My general and the battle mage from Ghur had to be close to each other for the adjutant rule and my general was in the middle of the range unit, providing +1+1 with his CP and a 18’’ wholly whiting immune to bravery. The Phoenix was there to act as tarpit and increase survivability (if there’s any) of the chaff unit since his -1 wound bubble affects any enemy unit within range.
Fulminators are there to act as a menace, which they did great since most of my opponents were scared of them and diverted resource to deal with them.
Finally, th Lord-Arcanum was there to :

• Be an extra GV
• Give 1 more (possibility of 2) HP to the fulminators
• But mostly give 6’’ more movement range on the Quicksilver Swords, which make them a 20’’ threat range on cast (remember the casting bonuses I talked about earlier)

Battleplans :
R1-Prize of Gallet
R2-Ours for the taking
R3-Only the Worthy
R4-Position over power
R5-Jaws of gallet.

Possible upgrade : Swap ‘’Tunnel Master’’ from the battlemage to the Lord-Arcanum.

Final Tournament Placings