This is the top three AoS lists for Wargames for Warriors that took place in Utah, USA on the 20th and 21st of May. It involved 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Short Announcement
As a group, we’re finding it increasingly difficult to find the time to write commentary on the tournaments as they crop up. You may have seen this through a few days where there isn’t an article posted at all.
To combat this, the decision has been made to publish the top three without comments. Where possible, writers will then revisit in the future to add comments if they feel its necessary.
I’m sorry that this is the route we’ve had to take. The only other option in the shirt term would have been to stop producing top 3 articles, but we really didn’t want to do that.
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?
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh – Army Type: Pretenders – Grand Strategy: Selfish Desire – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Glutos Orscollion (480)* – Spells: Phantasmagoria 1 x Contorted Epitome (190)** – General – Command Traits: Strength of Godhood – Artefacts: The Crown of Dark Secrets – Spells: Born of Damnation – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Lord of Pain (135)**
BATTLELINE 11 x Blissbarb Archers (150)** – High Tempter 11 x Blissbarb Archers (150)** – High Tempter 11 x Blissbarb Archers (150)** – High Tempter
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Mesmerising Mirror (60)
TERRAIN 1 x Fane of Slaanesh (0)
OTHER 5 x Slickblade Seekers (200)* – Hunter-Seeker 5 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (140)* – Egopomp 5 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (140)* – Egopomp 5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)** – High Tempter
Lots of head winds for Slaanesh since their book dropped with SBGL, KO, OBR and Khorne all vying for attention. We’ve seen a lot of Slaanesh armies podium but not always take first. Here we have first, with with an absolutely gorgeous army of mortals making this very accessible. We don’t often talk about this but apart from the Leaders and twinsouls you can build the rest of the army from the Vanguard kit.
So many sacrifices, I mean mortals, this list is designed to generate as many DP as quickly as possible while spreading you out. Whether its from Temptation (Archers), Euphoric Killers (Twinsouls) or Born of Damnation (Epitome) this list is going to generate a lot early. But the Grand Strategy is Selfish Desire, summon no daemons during the battle, no instead this army is taking advantage of Revel in Depravity. They are gambling you can’t kill them fast enough to avoid them gaining enough DP for the whole army to be at -1 to hit, Mortal wounds (MW) on 6s and a 5+ ward. At that point all of these frail mortal units become very tanky.
The list makes a lot of sense when you look at it like that, the Seekers can take objectives early with their movement and if targetted grant DP. The Blissbarbs stay back and pepper you forcing Temptaions with the Twin Souls as a screen. At the centre there is Gluttos who buffs the army and makes it hard to charge but can allow units to fall out of combat before they are struck back (in their and your combat phases) with Phantasmagoria. Then there is the Epitome to hunt any GCs or be a GC, Dark Crown lets him reduce attacks to 1 for something at the start of the game. That’s on top of extra rend and damage from Strength of Godhood.
This isn’t some fancy list tech, the army had to be handled and moved very carefully, until they generate enough DP it’s very fragile, except Gluttos and the Epitome. They are also a bit of an emergency button, if that’s all you have left you are still going to be able to push out a lot of damage and still score Battle Tactics. In the end this combination did very well beating out eveything except Sylvaneth treelords. There may be justice here, First beat second head to head and lost to third while second lost to first and beat third.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Cado Ezechiar (135)* 1 x Radukar the Beast (290)* 1 x Vampire Lord (130)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Wight King (135)** – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Necromancer (90)** – Spells: Waste Away
BATTLELINE 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)* 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)* 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (230)**
OTHER 20 x Grave Guard (280)* – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Great Wight Blade 5 x Blood Knights (230)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer – Templar Lance 5 x Blood Knights (230)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer – Templar Lance 1 x Corpse Cart (70)** – Unholy Lodestone – Corpse Lash
Turns out Vyrkos is pretty damn rad as well huh? The fluffier sub-faction of the book (although…troubling, this list has no wolves…) is the home of choice for chaff, given it can utilise a heroic action to bring models back over a deadwalker’s starting strength and also, once per game, just summon a pack of 10 direwolves.
The zombie and Deathrattle wall is backed here by the usual synergy-foot heroes, Graveguard blob, plus Radukar as a fantastically annoying (with his -1 to hit and wound) harassment piece who can also act as a nice trigger for the ‘hero then another unit fights’ Vyrkos ability.
Paired with two units of Blood Knights as fast movers who are part anvil, part hammer and packed neatly into a 2 drop double bat-reg, this is a much more flexible take on Soulblight that excels at board control and has mad levels of chaff recursion.
Of course – it lost to Slaanesh, which is the problem in this meta – this many bodies is just an irresistible depravity party for the purple pervs – an unfortunate scissors/rock scenario perhaps which is, of course, why Legion of Blood is the premier tournament choice at the moment. A shame that the one match up is probably keeping the other Soulblight factions from succeeding at a tourney level. Kudos to Aaron either way!
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Army Subfaction: Oakenbrow – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – Seasons of War: The Dwindling
LEADER 1 x Spirit of Durthu (350)* – Artefacts: Greenwood Gladius 1 x Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts: The Vesperal Gem – Spells: Regrowth – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Treelord Ancient (330)* – Spells: Treesong
BATTLELINE 5 x Tree-Revenants (110) 5 x Tree-Revenants (110) 1 x Treelord (230) 1 x Treelord (230)* 1 x Treelord (230)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Quicksilver Dead – Mortal Realm: Shyish – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Guardian of Souls (150)*** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artifact: Midnight Tome – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – Artefact: Pendant of the Fell Wind Spirit Torment (120)*** Awlrach the Drowner (170)***
Battleline 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (340)** – Reinforced x 1 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Chainrasps (110)*
Units 2 x Chainghasts (90)* 4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)*
Behemoths Black Coach (290)*
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
This is the top three AoS lists for the Alberta Classic that took place in Canada on the 6th and 7th of May. It involved 19 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: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
LEADERS Katakros (440)* Mortisan Ossifector (120)* – General – Command Traits: Dark Acolyte – Artefacts of Power: Lode of Saturation – Spells: Protection of Nagash – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Mir Kainan (250)*
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Stormkeep) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Knight-Incantor (120)* – Spell: Celestial Blades Knight-Relictor (120)* – General – Command Trait: High Priest – Prayer: Translocation – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Lord-Imperatant (170)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome
UNITS 5 x Vanquishers (110)* 5 x Vanquishers (110)* 5 x Vindictors (130)* 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240) 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Lance 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (170)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Holy Command: Call for Aid Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos – Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Radukar the Beast (290)* – General – Command Traits: Hunter’s Snare Torgillius the Chamberlain (125)* – Spells: Fading Vigour Necromancer (90)* – Spells: Waste Away – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Belladamma Volga (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Ulfenkarni Phylactery – Spells: Spirit Gale
BATTLELINE Deadwalker Zombies (230)* Deadwalker Zombies (230)* Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* – Skeleton Champion – 3 x Standard Bearer Dire Wolves (130)** – Doom Wolf Dire Wolves (130)** – Doom Wolf
LEADERS Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)* – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Mount Trait: Weird ‘Un Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)* – Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)* – Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)* Killaboss with Stab-grot (100)* – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
BATTLELINE 20 x Gutrippaz (300)* 20 x Gutrippaz (300)** 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
UNITS 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)* 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)* 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***
This is the top three AoS lists for the Dazmaul Wargaming Tournament that took place in the UK on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 29 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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.
Leaders 1 x Necromancer (130)* – General – Command Trait: Pack Alpha – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha 1 x Radukar the Beast (310)* 1 x Vampire Lord (140)* – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Battleline 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)* – Reinforced x 1 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)* – Reinforced x 1 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)* – Reinforced x 1
Units 1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)* 20 x Grave Guard (280)* – Great Wight Blades – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Zombie Dragon (270)*
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
I can’t in good faith make any more jokes about Soulblight rising back up, so I’ll just jump right into it.
What we’ve got here is a Vyrkos list that gleefully flips off the last season and screams ‘RIP BOUNTY HUNTERS’ while pushing 120 zombies up the board and, presumably, cackling gleefully. They’re all backed up by the usual buff pieces allowing them to get extra attack (Radukar, if he makes a charge) and fight twice (Necromancer, with danse macabre) – and remember they do MWs on 6s to hit and bring back models killed as zombies on a 2+. So it’s not like they can’t spike a few rolls and do a surprise bunch of mortals to whatever tries to chew through them or pull from the front and rally back up.
On top of that, they’re backed up by a Corpse Cart, which projects a -1 to wound aura, making those zombos even more infuriating to kill, and the pretty standard 20 Graveguard – who also make an excellent target for the hero buffs – who always have and still absolutely slap. A newly bargain-priced Zombie Dragon provides access to monstrous rampages and some nice targeted damage, while fitting neatly into the battle regiment!
5 wins for Soulblight at the moment is a great result, and it seems like loads and loads of meat is well and truly back on the menu, boys (and girls).
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450) – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)* – General – Command Traits: Grave Robber – Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Spectral Host 1 x Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Artefacts: The Dermal Robe – Spells: Deranged Transformation – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)* – Spells: Blood Feast 1 x Varghulf Courtier (160)*
BATTLELINE 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 6 x Crypt Horrors (220)** 6 x Crypt Horrors (220)**
Having just called a list with 9 x Flayers “the list” we’ve got one of the best variations. I say that because I played against a version of this a lot. 2 Dragons and 2 blocks of Crypt Horrors is a smart way to play the faction. It gives you more threats to push an opponent. You still have the ability to bring 9 x Crypt Flayers/Horrors (Flayers are probably better) on through summoning. You might have to do it earlier if the Terrorgheist are in combat though.
Still no Cogs, taking the risk that a spell will fail, and only one of the Crypt Horror units will have all of the buffs. The 6 strong units are a risk as well, against a Rend -2 attack even with a 5+ ward (and only one should have it), it’s only 36 effective wounds. A block of fulminators can overcome that on the charge easily. Still, they have fight twice near one of the Dragons on top of rerolls to hit. And additional attacks – they are very nasty threat.
Tunnel Master on the Archregent is surprisingly useful. He can grab an unattended objective easily and then summon friends. But just as easily, it lets him stay within range of either the dragons or Crypt Horrors. Lots of mobility and stacks of board control, it’s a very effective way to control your opponents’ scoring opportunities and really terrify them.
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)** – Spells: The Hand of Gork 1 x Squigboss (80)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm 1 x Squigboss (80)** 1 x Grinkrak the Great (190)*** 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*** – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet – Spells: The Hand of Gork – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – 3 Barbed Nets 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – 3 Barbed Nets 36 x Squig Herd (360)*** 36 x Squig Herd (360)***
OTHER 1 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (190)* 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)** 1 x Gobbapalooza (145)*** – Spells: Itchy Nuisance 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)***
Our latest boogey man (for all of a month and then more demons arrived this week). Simon was keen to see a horde on the table and took over 100 models. Beyond that, though there is so much going on, it’s hard to know where to start. We’ve got a couple of sources of Hand of Gork (for teleports), and Grinkrak’s Looncourt can teleport themselves (if you don’t want the bodyguard). Fungoid Cave Shaman as General? Not sure I’ve seen that before, he’s a sneaky Tunnel Master as well, not sure you’d want to use that too early but he has a nasty Mortal Wound spell with a range of only 6″.
Squigboss’s for both Squigg units, of course, Skragrott (is he mandatory, certainly see him a lot) and a Sloggoth for monster action. The point, of course, is the heroes buff the Squiga (or Shootas), and you let loose the Squig’s. Individually, it’s not really an issue. The 30 Squiggs (and 6 herders) in each of the Squigg herds can hit, from the charge, 120 times. And if you kill some on the crack back, they do a mortal as they flee. With a 3 for bravery, there is a lot of fleeing. Their version of rally is once a game (2+ from each Squigherd) and kills the squiherd but unless you can clear the unit in a turn (difficult) you’ve probably got 2 turns of this from each unit.
That’s the name of the game for the squig build. Wear your opponent down in rounds 1 through 3 and then crack back. With the heroes handing out ‘shrooms granting wards or bonuses to the Shoota (only target) and the Sloggoth giving +1 to hit the Shootas start to be an issue. Sloggoth’s affect is an aura and will apply in any phase – charging the Shootas will be painful. Goes first, winds the squiggs up and unleashes them into your key units. Goes 2nd, hold the squiggs back at let’s the Shootas blunt your attack. If you try to hide, then the Shootas can even be teleported to punish you. If you injure them but don’t clear the unit, it can be rallied 3 times. If you do kill it, there is a 50% chance of them returning via the moon shrine.
I’ve only scratched the surface, but despite weak looking warscrolls, this is a very competitive army. 140+ wounds that can have multiple models or units returned is bad. Their overwhelming you with buckets of dice, which is worse. It’s probably a bit cheap with a lot of sources of mortal wounds. It’s an army that you have to try to outlast or watch them run away with things in the turn 4 and 5. Losing to Flesh Eater courts probably reflects the amount of damage even 3 Crypt Flayers (or 6 Crypt Horrors) can do with buffs and fight twice. They can kill anything in this list in a turn. Otherwise, more elite armies will struggle.
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Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs:
Leaders 1 x Gordrakk the Fist of Gork (500)* 1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat 1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork 1 x Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)** 1 x Orruk Megaboss (140)** – General – Command Trait: Skilled Leader – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 10 x Orruk Brutes (300)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 5 x Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Pair of Brute Choppas 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)*** 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)**
Tom & I spent much of late 2021 and 2022 battling each other for top Ironjawz and top Big Waaagh in the UK… and whilst he always beat me, my fun run last year got me the Big Waaagh title…! Woot. Since then Big Waaagh has suffered with the new General’s Handbooks and it’s great to see Tom bucking the trend with a 4-1 result (and top table game 5 match.
Tom’s taken a mostly traditional Big Waagh list with Ironjawz as the base, but he’s gone with Gordrakk and Gobsprakk. Two big flying models in the era of Gallatian Champions is a brave decision but it does allow Tom to stop spells with Gobsprakk and kill characters with Gordrakk.
It’s a great call to bring a model that can cause mortal wounds to Galatian Champions and has the reach to get them. Being able to avoid shooting doesn’t help when a Maw Krusha gets within 1″.
The rest of the army is standard Big Waaagh… but I like all the pieces and it’s made me consider actually painting my Gobsprakk – so a great double result. Well done Tom!
This is the top three AoS lists for the Brewdog AoS GT that took place in the UK on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 40 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: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Ravagers – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Idolator Lord – Prayer: Heal – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battleline 30 x Splintered Fang (300)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Reinforced x 2 20 x Splintered Fang (200)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Reinforced x 1 9 x The Unmade (80)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
Units 6 x Varanguard (580)* – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1
I’ve known of Geir for a while now. Some of you may remember that he attended the Honest Wargamers World Championship event last year. Geir is a high performing player in Scandinavia and so it’s nice to see him come to the UK to compete. I was personally very keen to get Geir’s comments on his list after following his performances for a while, I jumped at the chance to reach out to him.
Geir Vedeld: This is a very well-balanced list. It works well offensively and defensively. It is relatively fast with good damage output, with both mortal wounds, high volume of attacks and potentially high rend on the charge from Varanguard. It has a large footprint with high body count and wounds. Plenty of screening possibilities and supports different playing options into different matchups.
Ravagers When you play Splintered Fang and Cultists, Ravagers for the “Rally the Tribes” ability is very strong. I chose Idolator Lord instead of Master of Magic because I want to give a mark to the Splintered Fang. Slaanesh being a natural choice with the +1 to run/charge and the Run & Charge from the Command Ability. With only Move 6”, the list would not be fast enough imo.
Heroes It is a 5-cast 5-unbind list, ideally getting 4 spells off: Demonic Power, Demonic Speed, Mystic shield and bridge. Arcane Bolt on Be’lakor for the last cast. Fair to say: The bridge is there for 3 reasons: the threat early game, the possibility to heavy flank early game, and also mobility late game. I would never send my Varanguard crashing blindly into the enemy T1 unless I know I the benefits are high. But the Bridge is very difficult for the opponent to deal with, particularly lists without many screens.
The warscroll spell of the Chaos Sorcerer Lord is one of the strongest in the game. No-brainer really. The Heroic Action with the 3d6 cast gives reliability for the most important spells. Taking 2 CSLs to ensure “Rally the Tribes”.
Be’lakor is there for the following reasons: 1) Stop God-like characters and high-point units, 2) Defensively to protect my Varanguard when they charge in early, 3) Monster and Roar for the no-rend Splintered Fang, 4) Taking objectives alone, being stronger than most MSU, and 5) 2-cast mage.
Battleline 50 Splintered Fangs (30+20) has a very high output for 500 points. It gives the list board presence, mortal wounds, volume attacks, screens, recursion stagger strategy in gameplay, etc. Feels almost like playing Soulblight 😊. Lots of options come from those two units if you play them correctly.
9 Unmade are in my head a no-brainer in most S2D lists atm. The option to shut down redeploy when you rely on charging as your main output is truly strong. They are easily killed – but similarly easily rallied.
Units The Varanguard is probably the most important unit in the list. It needs the spell support, and it needs the support of Be’lakor. I either keep them behind the lines for countercharge, I bridge them with 3d6 charge to lock down the enemy or heavy flank with them. With the protection of Be’lakor on the heaviest countercharge piece in the other army, I feel I can use their utility quite well. Also, with mystic shield and demonic power they get the 1+ save from All Out Defence and are still 2+/2+ when they are charged themselves.
The Chaos Gargant is selected for these purposes: 1) Roar together with the Fangs, 2) -1 save with the no-rend Fangs, and 3) it keeps the list one-drop as it fills a spot in the Battle Regiment reserved for none. Against deep striking / teleporting armies, it can screen my backline. Pretty neat and useful!
The list has a lot more utility than described here. Happy to discuss over a beer. Enjoy trying it out for yourself. It is not necessarily an obvious 5-0 list into all tournaments, but it is difficult to play against when the general knows to utilize it.
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Loonboss (85)** – General – Command Trait: The Clammy Hand – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) Madcap Shaman (70)** – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**** Skragrott, The Loonking (160)** Grinkrak The Great (190)***
Battleline 30 x Squig Hoppers (540)*** – Reinforced x 2 60 x Moonclan Shootas (375)* – Reinforced x 2 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)*
Units 6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)* 5 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)**** 5 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)**** 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
Nathan is the vice captain of AoS Team Scotland, and his lists have appeared before in a number of our articles. This event had some true top-class players taking part. Nathan was also kind enough to share the design thoughts behind his list.
Nathan: Squig hoppers can threaten a huge distance and only ever need around half the unit to go in an kill something with 5-6 attacks a hopper, 6s to hit do a mortal in addition from squig boss and loonboss all out attack is 6s to wound is a mortal in addition too. Rest of the unit trails back to Grinkrak for fight on death and to allow me to remove casualties to break coherency and rally back at will.
60 shootas can actually do a lot of damage at 3s to hit and 5s to wound with all out attack. If I get hand of gork off I can get them denying massive swathes of the table to deny space and buy more time for hoppers. Also rally back tricks on them.
2 x 60 wound bricks that occupy large amount of the table and don’t really die.
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* 1 x Dankhold Troggboss (200)** – General – Command Traits: Loonskin – Artefacts: Glowy Howzit
BATTLELINE 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)* 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Malevolent Moon (80)
TERRAIN 1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
OTHER 5 x Sporesplatta Fanatics (90)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (145)* 2 x Dankhold Troggoths (360)**
As you can see, we’ve been extremely lucky in getting comments from not one, not two, but all four players featured in today’s article. Sean is a long time Gitz player, and has actually tabled Sons of Behemat with the old book!
Sean: The idea was to use Skraggrot, the Molevelant Moon and the shrine to accomplish the grand strategy keeping the Troggboss at the back under the light of the moon but within range to use the all out attack for the extra attacks for the dankholds. The Gobbapoloza and the sporesplatta fanatics are there to buff up the rockguts, giving out extra rend or charge bonus combined with the -1 to hit bubble. Skraggrot is used mostly to ensure that by turn 3, I have the moon covering the board, so I get the save bonus across all my troggoth units. The realm command was really useful at times for units that had ended up stuck in combat for even more additional attacks. The main aim was to move up and survive the initial charge from my opponent and use all the additional attacks to clear the unit before moving forward to tag the objectives.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Necromancer (130)* – General – Command Traits: Pack Alpha – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Invigorating Aura, Prison of Grief, Spectral Grasp – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Belladamma Volga (200)**** – Spells: Amaranthine Orb, Invigorating Aura, Soulpike Radukar the Wolf (140)*** – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura, Spirit Gale Torgillius the Chamberlain (90)*** – Spells: Decrepify, Fading Vigour, Invigorating Aura Gorslav the Gravekeeper (80)***
BATTLELINE Dire Wolves (260)** Dire Wolves (260)** Dire Wolves (130)** Dire Wolves (130)** Dire Wolves (130)*** Dire Wolves (130)****
Finally, but by no means least, we have the fantastic Cara Newby. When I saw this list, I had to include it as the Wildcard. A shed tonne of Wolves, Kosargi Nightguard and almost all of the Cursed City characters. What’s not to love!
Cara: So the list is very much themed around the Vyrkos bloodline of vampire and wolves, it was designed for attending the Brewhammer event in the Brewdog Brewery. Which was the concept for it all, really. But let’s be honest when looking at the new Dynasty that came out with the latest soulblight book and the Cursed City game, who hasn’t considered leaning into it and doing a full wolf list! That image of eighty wolves charging through snow,howling in the night, is just great, and I feel this list brings it to life quite well.
The main points of the army are speed, board space control and wounds, and endless amounts of wounds. While they only have a 5+ save and 6+ ward save you wouldn’t think wolves can last but with the 2 wounds each a basic unit for their points is 20 wounds and comes back with 10 wounds through gravesite or Gorslav after they died. The whole list is 210 wounds total and with 160 of being wolves, so another potential 80 wounds extra.. Coming to a grand total of 290 wounds, potentially. (maybe a few extra wolves too from Belladama’s lycan curse spell)
With two blocks of twenty wolves for holding the line and larger fighting blocks, then four units of tens for screens, mobility around flanks, it forms a solid core to the army. Now you might say, but what about damage? While each wolf only has two attacks base 4’s and 4’s it doesn’t seem much. But on the charge, they auto get +1,+1.. And the doomwolf getting an extra attack helps a lot, especially as most of the units are in Gally Veterans so they can fight through each other. In fact, you can have a Doomwolf per ten models, so in the larger units, there are two making a unit of twenty wolves on the charge, an impressive 42 attacks hitting on 3’s and wounding on 3’s. But that’s just the start of the damage because of the buffs the hero’s can give out to their puppies, all combined with the majority of the army being a move of 10 inches , so getting a bulk of the force of those units into combat isn’t too hard. But combat doesn’t win games, it can lead to it but its points that do that and this is where the wolves really shine a unit of ten can occupy a lot of space on an objective and stop an opponent getting on it, a unit of twenty can easily fill an objective and have some spare over the edge.
So what does the rest of the list do and help these simple goals you could say.
Belladama is a key piece being naturally a +1 wizard with two spell casts herself, both her warscroll spells are great , with under the killing moon being an almost auto want cast as it gives off a 12” aura of 6’s on hits explode into two hits for soulblight models. LycanCurse is a great spell for tying up units you want to charge so they can’t redeploy or suffer an unleash hell from (not to mention you get to place the replacement wolves before models are removed, so there is even a chance of bringing supporting heroes or other units into combat behind the original target.) She can pass off wounds to wolves nearby combined with her 4+ save and 9 wounds, she can be very hard to kill. Her command ability ‘pack alpha’ can give a unit of wolves that ability to pile/fight in 6 inches, just like a zombie unit so with a solid run a unit of wolves can get across that table first turn and into combat and again not suffer an unleash hell, but I will caution it isn’t a charge so you don’t get the on charge bonuses for the wolves, so best done with a ten wolf unit, to delay the opponent. Oh, did I mention she counts as a general too?
Radukar the Wolf again is mostly a buff piece with his command ability used at the start of the combat phase, giving off a +1 attack to all soulblight units wholly within 18”. He again is tough to kill as he can pass off wounds to his nightguard on a 2+, who are permanently next to him in this list. While he can fight and cause damage, his main focus is being that buff piece hence the Pinions spell to get him where he needs to be, and when he is there launching off spirit gale at the enemy for some range damage. (especially into low brav armies, like gitz). Again he counts as a general as well!
Torgillius is a cheap little necromancer and generally lives right next to Radukar , giving the army that 4+ chance of an extra command point (this army can be a very command point hungry one to get all the buffs you want up, so anything that helps is good!) as well as an extra spell. Throwing out his debuff spells at nearby enemies (which you cast depends on what you’re facing and would be best at the time) as he is generally in the thick of packs of wolves who are doing the fighting. He can last longer than expected with his 4+ ward save, but combat is not really where you want him to be.
Gorslav The Gravekeeper doesn’t really need much explanation, he is there for another hero and one who can make sure you bring back a unit a turn and with a bit more flexibility in there you bring them back as it isn’t fixed to gravesites. He can survive pretty long if still nearby the wolves as they are deadwalkers, but again, combat isn’t where you want him to be.
The actual picked general is just a lowly necromancer, but again provides that vital buffing role of being able to make a summonable unit fight twice.Command trait wise pack alpha gives him a way of giving out a free command per turn again helping with the command point usage for the army a great deal. Having the arcane tome he can cast that and also get an extra spell off , I went with movement debuffing spells for him mostly as they are good range and anything slowing down your opponent while your fast army moves around is good. He has tunnel master for those quick grabs of objectives and getting out of trouble, but generally lives near the rest of the heroes in the thick of things, passing off wounds again to nearby troops. He also has his sworn bodyguard nearby in case anyone tries to hunt him down, making him even more survivable. The last of the units I have is a reinforced unit of night guard who are not only a great looking model but with four wounds each and a 5+ save and 5+ ward, they can tank not bad.. But their main ability is to cause pain, nearby Radukar they get one extra attack, bringing them to three, 3’s and 3’s , -1 rend and 2 damage a swing 2” reach.. And when Radukar uses his command ability, which you pretty much do most turns, they go up to 4 each.. So that’s 32 damage for the unit potentially, which really adds a punch. For such a small unit.
Finally the horrorghast is there to try and take advantage of chip damage from the force as there are no major hitters, but with the auto ability of reducing bravery from being nearby deadwalkers/deathrattle which soulblight have.. Even high bravery things can lose larger numbers to battleshock and with SB having 10 across the board, it affects the list little. Especially as keeping the points low (1930) to get that indomitable triumph, while that itself is good.. The main purpose of low points is to stop your opponent having that triumph instead or even two triumphs if they have leaned into it.
So to sum up with all the buffs working.. A unit of twenty wolves can have 3 attacks each (+1 for doomwolf) hitting on 3’s with exploding 6’s.. Wounding on 3’s then fighting twice. So a potential of 124 attacks, all while flooding the board and objectives with a presence and space occupying, restricting your opponent’s movements. As a General rule , two or three units of wolves are in the grave to start with, simply because it can be hard to fit them in the deployment zones and also provide that threat of coming up behind enemy lines. With that threat, people are forced to either ignore it or keep units back to stop it, either way it is a good thing.
The list does pretty well but it isn’t fast to move around the army and takes dedication and practice to keep things moving at a pace and make sure you can maximize buff’s. Hard opponents are ones where chip damage really doesn’t do much to their force or they have really high armour saves/ wards. Or indeed if they just hit so hard it doesn’t matter what you had that unit is dead.. Such as a big block of varanguard (but thats where screening with smaller units is key)
Thanks for reading if you have made it this far!
Miss Cara Newby,
Proud member of the Farmhammer Podcast team and part of the Scottish AoS scene.
This is the top three AoS lists for Colonial Carnagethat took place in the USA on the 18th and 19th of February. It involved 45 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: Gloomspite Gitz – Army Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Squigboss (80)* – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* – Spells: Itchy Nuisance 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Artefacts: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Spells: The Hand of Gork
BATTLELINE 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280) – Bounder Boss 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280)* – Bounder Boss 36 x Squig Herd (360)** 12 x Squig Herd (120)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Mangler Squigs (260)
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Scrapskuttle’s Arachnacauldron (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
OTHER 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
Three years of an old book with Gloomspite Gitz mostly being seen as a wild-card entry in the top threes… mainly because Peter wanted to give me something to write about… and then a second 5-0 in as many weeks. So, it’s definitely an improvement so far.
Dale has gone with Squigs for his main force with Bounders providing some great Spears of damage and the Squig Herd doing mortals when they run away, and the herders can get them back. The lack of command abilities on them worries me, however, a little as people get used to the army… especially with shooting.
The buff pieces all have a place as well, with Squigs getting free moves, the moon doing as required, and 5+ward on one unit. It definitely requires some memory to keep all the moving parts in your head.
A 5-0 is impressive regardless of army and so we’ll done to Dale.
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Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos – Army Subfaction: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Desecrating Brayherd – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Beastlord (145)* – General – Command Traits: Bestial Cunning – Artefacts: Slitherwrack Helm – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Great Bray-Shaman (95)*** – Spells: Wild Rampage 1 x Great Bray-Shaman (95)*** – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy 1 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman (115)*** – Artefacts: Brayblast Trumpet – Spells: Tendrils of Atrophy
BATTLELINE 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (Gibbering Congregation) (230) 20 x Bestigors (440)** 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Gors (110)** – Paired Hacking Blades 10 x Ungors (80)*** – Pitted Blade
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105) 1 x Cockatrice (105) 6 x Beasts of Chaos Slaangor Fiendbloods (260)*
Peter: We have updated this comment since initial publication. Ungors were initially referred to as ‘Hammers’, and this has been changed to Bestigors. A predicted text typo of ‘Tendrils of Apathy’ has been corrected to ‘Tendrils of Atrophy’. Finally, the reference to +2 to casting per game has been corrected to +3.
We all make the occasional mistake. Please remember our writers comment on a lot of factions and may not know each inside-out!
The Gor stampede emerges! This list takes a very interesting tact with the enemy in order to try and shut down and isolate enemy units to substantially blunt their output. With the Beastial Cunning trait, you can bring in a key unit within 7″ instead of 9, guaranteeing the charge. First, the Chaos Spawn charge in to reduce enemy unit attacks by 1, and since they can move separately, you can either spread them out or focus them on one unit as needed.
Bestigors, Cockatrice and Slaangors all function as hammers, with Bray-Shaman boosting them with Wild Rampage for exploding 6s to hit, and the other Bray-Shaman and Tzaangor Shaman casting Tendrils of Atrophy (with +3 once per game if you really need to get it off) to increase the damage. Even if the opponent survives this onslaught, they will still have to deal with the -1 to attacks from the Chaos Spawn, and are likely fighting last due to the Gors Gor Stampede ability and the General’s Slitherwrack Helm meaning any counter attack will likely bounce right off of you.
A clever and precise use of debuffs before charging in with the hammer makes this list very difficult to deal with in melee by all but the most hardy of targets.
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty Holy Commands Enhancement: Steadfast March
LEADER 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)* – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger (170)* – Mount Traits: Scintillating Trail – Spells: Azyrite Halo
BATTLELINE 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime 5 x Retributors (210)* – Retributor-Prime
OTHER 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – Stormdrake-Prime – Drakerider’s Warblade
3 x Vanguard-Palladors (200)* – Pallador-Prime – Boltstorm Pistol and Shock Handaxe
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
After the craziness that was Salt Smash, normal(ish) service returns. Still with Palladors as an action unit (everyone has some), with the points drop and ranged weapons on top of their movement, they are a great alternative to Draconiths. And dragons. A nice big block of 4. Beyond the Palladors JB threw in a Lord Arcanum on Gryphcharger (a personal favourite). He has his own built-in teleport and is both a decent caster and an ok combat character. He can keep up with and be covered by the Palladors and, in turn, cover for them with both his Cycle of the Storm (once per turn ignore a fatal wound) and Healing light. An effective way to deal with the 4+ save on the Palladors is a very efficient way to pick up remote objectives.
Conventional Lord Castellant (with celestial blades) and Lord Relictor. Celestial Blades can either be placed on the Dragons or a handy Retributor unit. Hitting on a 2+ is always welcome. Running 3 MSU Retributors as battleline reflects the points drops (they were 235) and some of their tricks. They lack the 2 up save of Protectors but with a Lord-Castellant that can be dealt with. They are slow, Steadfast March will help push them onto the middle or an objective out of deployment. They can be held in reserve and dropped via Scions. Most importantly, they are a solid 15 wounds with -2 rend and 16 attacks. That makes them harder to kill than an MSU Annihilator with Grandhammer while having more attacks, making them more reliable. Your opponent will have to make a serious effort to remove them, and if even one is left alive, the strike back is likely to have serious consequences.
A very well crafted SCE list taking advantage of the recent points drops to make it more competitive. Losing to the new Gitz is probably not unexpected. They can build strength as they go, which is a weakness of SCE, as key pieces go down their scoring options shrink fast.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Radukar the Beast (310) Vampire Lord (140)* – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura – Aspects of the Champion: Butcher Belladamma Volga (200)* – Spells: Invigorating Aura, Soulpike Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (420)* – General – Command Traits: Kin of the Wolf – Deathlance – Artefacts of Power: Sangsyron – Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma – Spells: Flaming Weapon, Invigorating Aura
BATTLELINE Dire Wolves (130)* Deathrattle Skeletons (80)* Dire Wolves (130)*
OTHER Grave Guard (280)* – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower Grave Guard (280)* – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Seneschal – Great Wight Blade
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
Soulblight two seasons ago was a different vibe. That was when zombie blobs shambled care free and nigh on unkillable Blood Knights trampled dreams. Soulblight now, post points hike and during a season that rewards having good GCs – exactly the thing Soulblight don’t have – are a different matter, so it’s cause for celebration when a list cracks the top 10.
William has opted for a Vyrkos hero-hammer here, with Radukar and Balladamma following on the bone-tails of a VLoZD. It’s a techy combo – Belladamma can be bodyguarded by the Dire Wolves and set up an exploding 6s aura, while Radukar can summon additional wolves and, so long as he makes a charge, put out a +1 attacks aura, making for a pretty potent set of overlapping buffs. It can be tricky to set up but I imagine the plan was to run a kind of hero-castle, setting up the Zombie Dragon – or one of the two big blobs of Grave Guard, who are still a super value unit – as super-buffed up hammers at the centre of the auras.
It’s hard to pin point exactly why Soulblight just don’t quite have the tools to reach the top tables atm, but I suspect this is about as good a list as they can field at the moment! Kudos to William for the 3-2.
This is the top three AoS lists for the GT Wargame Garrison Madrid that took place in Spain on the 27th and 28th of January. It involved 20 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: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Engine of the Gods (300) – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Prayers: Curse 1 x Lord Kroak (450)* – Spells: Stellar Tempest 1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)* – Aspects of the champion: Tunel master 1 x Skink Priest (120)* – Prayers: Heal 1 x Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (200)** – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Celestite Greatblade – Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration – Mount Traits: Beastmaster 1 x Knight-Zephyros (100)**
Do comets rain on the plain in Spain? They do when Kroak is around! He’s fallen a little out of fashion recently in favour of the no-name, whipper-snapper Slann, but he still does the job, as evidenced here – supported by the ubiquitous Engine, Priest, Astrolith (even more important for Special K given his spammable but short range spell) and…
checks notes
A Scar-Vet on Carnosaur!? Fair play to the lad, with their recent points drops they just might cut the mustard as a fast, whiffy but potentially killy monster. Of course, now we’re into the new season, we see the inevitable allied Knight-Zephyros, who is just a stone-cold scoring piece due to her constant teleporting.
Overall, a pretty interesting twist on the Lizards with their new points, and a good result for Alfonso. Get ready to see a lot more of the little Azyros…
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Hosts Duplicitous – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Curseling (180)* – General – Command Traits: Cult Demagogue – Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (140)* – Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion 1 x Kairos Fateweaver (440)** 1 x Magister (120)** – Spells: Shield of Fate, Glimpse the Future 1 x Changecaster (150)** – Artefacts: The Eternal Shroud – Spells: Levitate, Bolt of Tzeentch
BATTLELINE 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Pink Horror Hornblower – Split and Split Again 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Pink Horror Hornblower – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Split and Split Again 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Pink Horror Hornblower – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Split and Split Again
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70) 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Daemonic Simulacrum (70)
The future is here with the new GHB, and the future is pink…at least as far as Disciples of Tzeentch are concerned. With Bounty Hunters gone away, Pink Horrors are very much back on the menu as one of the top tarpits in the game, and Juanma has taken 3 x 10 Pinks to really maximise their board control. In addition, by choosing the sub-faction Host Duplicitous, an enemy can be prevented from retreating if the Tzeentch unit has 10 or more models, keeping them in place for some incoming spells. Host Duplicitous can also bring back 5 Pink Horrors once per game on a 4+, but it’s only once per battle regardless of how many units are destroyed and there’s no re-roll: this is Tzeentch, not Gitz!
Pink Horrors are also an excellent screen for the Galletian Champions that want to be slinging spells from the back lines while scoring battle tactics for not being dead and there is one unit for each of the Champions: Curseling, Magister and Changecaster, with the option to summon in additional Changecasters if necessary. The importance of keeping those Pinks around for as long as possible is clear from the Shield of Fate spell cropping up three times on the list to try and get that 5+ ward save. Arcane Suggestion can also be helpful here, with one of the options that Tzeentch players can pick being to reduce hit and wound rolls by 1. Park the Changecaster or Kairos wholly within 12” of a unit of Pinks, then there is an additional -1 to hit on the unit, meaning that All Out Attack would be wasted. Though still only with a 5+ save, a 5+ save followed by a 5+ ward with -1 to hit and wound makes those little daemons hang around a lot longer than they should. A really hammer unit like 10 chosen can still get through them with double fight, but then they’ll be well within spell range and with no 5+ ward against mortals on their warscroll, that’s a trade that favours the Tzeentch player significantly.
In terms of the tech on each Champion, the Curseling general has Cult Demagogue as their command ability, meaning that a double on the dice makes the first casting roll unbindable (and worth a bonus fate point). While lesser (more honest?) armies would roll the dice, Tzeentch can just pick two Destiny Dice and, even if it’s a pair of twos, the casting value 8 Arcane Sacrifice would still go off. The Curseling also has what seems to be the Aspect of the Champion of choice (at least so far): Tunnel Master. This Aspect allows a model to redeploy anywhere on the battlefield outside of 9” of the enemy during the movement phase instead of moving normally. With some armies, this could leave a hero isolated, but Tzeentch can just summon up some Horrors to be the bodyguard for this unit. On some of the new battle plans, that could mean an extra point here or there to turn a loss into a win or at least a draw in close games.
On the subject of close games, Juanma did really well going 3.5/5 with their only loss being against Teclis and Lumineth Realm Lords and even that was only with an 11-9 differential score (that is, a 1-2 point scoring difference at the end of the game). Three more points across two games could have been enough for the 5-0 at the event, underlining what a great weekend Juanma and the Disciples had.
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Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – General – Command Traits: Cloaked in Shadow – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Seal of Shyish – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Artefacts: Pendant of the Fell Wind – Spells: Shademist 1 x Spirit Torment (120)* 1 x Lady Olynder (340)* – Spells: Shademist
BATTLELINE 5 x Hexwraiths (170)* – Hellwraith 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)** – Slasher Crone 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)** – Slasher Crone 6 x Spirit Hosts (260)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Black Coach (290) – Reaper Scythe
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)
Nice little twist on Nighthaunt, with the less seen Quicksilver Dead. The list also saw the return of the Black Coach and Lady Olynder, both of whom haven’t had a lot of airing with the Scarlet Doom lists. The Nighthaunt face off against Scarlet Doom in round 4, saw a stalemate so we can’t say which is better yet.
Still, other than Olynder, we have all of the usual suspects to increase the Harridan’s resistance. They’re still a great warscroll, so 30 is no hardship, especially with the points increase on Bladegheist. Harridan’s are a bit harder to use, but ideally, you want to get them close and charge. Preferably after inflicting some wounds through either mortals or ranges (another reason for the Black Coach). Charge or shoot a unit with the Black Coach and then hit it with the Harridans, they will now be hitting and wounding on 3s, and cause -1 on to wound rolls, adding protection for themselves, and the Black Coach.
A well thought out list, and fun to play. Bringing some different models to the table, Andres is to be commended.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Vampire Lord (140) – General – Command Traits: Pack Alpha – Spells: Soulpike 1 x Belladamma Volga (200)* – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Necromancer (130)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Overwhelming Dread – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Vampire Lord (140)* – Spells: Amethystine Pinions – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)* 10 x Dire Wolves (130)* 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 10 x Dire Wolves (130)*
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
OTHER 20 x Grave Guard (280)* – Seneschal – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Great Wight Blade
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
2-2-1 is an odd scoreline, and those must have been some nail-biting games! Guillermo has opted for a slightly heavier GC presence than Soulblight would normally bother with, packing double vamp lords, which makes sense as their Tome Celestial battle tactics are definitely not going to help them with scoring this season.
Now that bounty hunters have gone the way of the dodo, blobs of zombies are back on the menu! Dire Wolves continue to be fantastic either way – and here backed up by Belladamma for the fluffy (pun intended) bodyguard rule they provide.
Sadly, there’s a Spinedog – but to be fair to the ‘Blight, they’re in a tough spot in the new season due to their fragile and slow GCs – until the new book comes out, we may see them struggle, so kudos to Guillermo for a strong finish out of the gate.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the PNW Masters that took place in USA on 15th and 16th October . It involved 32 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: Seraphon Army Type: Coalesced Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Lord Kroak (430)* 1 x Engine of the Gods (265)** – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Beastmaster – Spells: Hand of Glory – Prayers: Curse – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)* – Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration 1 x Skink Priest (90)* – Prayers: Heal
BATTLELINE 5 x Saurus Guard (115)** – Saurus Guard Alpha – Stardrake Icon Bearer – Wardrummer 10 x Skinks (75)** – Skink Alpha – Boltspitter, Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler 10 x Skinks (75)** – Skink Alpha – Boltspitter, Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) 1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)**
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90) 1 x Horrorghast (40)
Patrick: When I saw that a Seraphon list took first place I didn’t necessarily need to see the list in order to know what it contained.
Thunder Lizard? Check. Kroak? Check. Engine of the Gods? Check
The only item that breaks away from the “color by numbers” approach to making Seraphon lists right now is the addition of the Incarnate, where a second Bastiladon would normally go. Let’s be fair, though, the inclusion of an Incarnate doesn’t exactly put Stark at a disadvantage, or really challenge the standard approach to Seraphon list building.
This is not a critique on Stark, however. There is still a level of requisite talent needed to drive a list into a top slot, since reacting to the pace of a battle with Tactic selections is vital. These Seraphon lists don’t reflect poorly on their players, but the Battletome itself. Current Seraphon are an excellent case study in internal balance, and there is clearly an issue with the book, since your options are ThunderKroak or losing.
Congratulations to Stark on their win, and I look forward to seeing an updated Tome to see how these top-tier players shake up their successful lists.
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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Zainthar Kai – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders The Shadow Queen (340) Morathi-Khaine (340) Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (270) – General – Bonded to Krondspine – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Crown of Woe – Prayer: Sacrament of Blood
Battleline 15 x Blood Sisters (420)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Witch Aelves (115)* – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives 10 x Witch Aelves (115)* – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) – Allies
Danny: A last gasp of the ‘Morathi and the stab sneks with special guest, the Spinedog!’ list now that the Incarnate’s points were hiked by 80!
This list, as hinted at above, drops the more expensive bow snakes in favour of all out melee punch, going Zainthar-Kai to allow the 15 stabbers to fulfill the battleline requirement – on top of 2 cheap and cheerful Witch units – without paying the Melusai Ironscale Tax.
Of course, it allows that one big blob to fight on death, and given not much can do 30 wounds to a unit with a 6+++ and the +1 save aura from the Cauldron of Blood, the 4+ rally from ‘Zealous Orator’ is likely keeping them topped up well into the game, for some serious value and revenge kills. In the meantime, the Cauldron buffs the Witches with +1 to wound within 12″, putting them on 3x 3/3 natively, allowing for a good volume of attacks despite the lack of rend.
It’ll be interesting to see if the top players find ways to cut costs and retain the double whammy of two timed-invincible units from here on out – at 480, snek lovers will really feel the squeeze on bodies for board control.
Either way, congrats to Thomas and three cheers for the Spinedog nerf!
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Thanquol (415) – 2 x Warpfire Braziers – 2 x Warpfire Projectors – Spells: Skitterleap Warpgnaw Verminlord (275) – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts of Power: Vial of Manticore Venom – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Warlock Engineer (105)** – Spells: Warp Lightning Shield
BATTLELINE Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – Rusty Blade – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – Rusty Blade – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – Rusty Blade – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer
Declan: Third place and the Third Krondspine… I mean I’m not saying it was a mistake to release it to competitive play… but it doesn’t look like the best decision ever made. In Matthias’ defense he has chosen to use Skaventide with 30 Clanrats and 3 Warp Lightning Cannons. You need to get through the Krondspine quickly because those Warp Lightning Cannons do a lot of damage.
It’s a little weird if you’ve never played it before, but effectively you want to roll low on your first roll to get mortal wounds… roll a 1 first up and that is 6 mortal wounds. But – wait – Matthias also has an Engineer and they make things more interesting.
There are two things that may not immediately clear here. The first is that the D3 mortal wounds on a 1 isn’t too bad. Average of 2 1s; means 4 wounds; and a Lightning Cannon has 8 so you can afford to do this. The second (and more important) is that one Engineer can trigger more than one Cannon in a turn. If Matthais deployed all three together it’s one hell of a mortal wound output. All at 24″ range – wow! I’ve played them with Kragnos before and he didn’t get too far.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Radukar the Beast (315) Prince Vhordrai (455) – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura, Soulpike Mannfred Von Carstein (380)* – Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura, Overwhelming Dread Necromancer (125)* – General – Command Traits: Pack Alpha – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Decrepify, Fading Vigour, Invigorating Aura Belladamma Volga (200)* – Spells: Amaranthine Orb, Invigorating Aura, Spirit Gale
BATTLELINE Dire Wolves (135)* – Doom Wolf Deadwalker Zombies (120)** Deadwalker Zombies (120)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Horrorghast (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
Brett: No Skeletons, no Ghouls and no Grave Guard, just Vampires and some strays that followed them in. Radukur and Belladamma are slow among the heroes (the Necromancer is very slow but no one expects him to move), with Prince Vhordrai and Mannfred mounted on dragons and both having spells to increase the mounts movement. A very high risk approach with very few units and limited board control. You are relying on your few, very mobile, but somewhat fragile units to remove threats. All good if they do but, if they fail to clear something there isn’t a lot else here to score or control the board.
A lot of Endless Spells as well giving rerolls, causing an extra model to flee combat and Ravenak’s MW bomb. It’s good to see something a little different and it must have been fun to face off against, who do you target?
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Rum and Rumble 2 Grand Tournament that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th September. It involved 10 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: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Ionrach – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Isharann Soulscryer (150)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (390)** – Reinforced x 1
Units 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)* – Razorshell Harpoon – Reinforced x 1 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)** – Razorshell Harpoon – Reinforced x 1
Danny: Hazel Moon is fast gaining a reputation as being the UK’s premier IDK player, and this result shows why. To beat Fangs of Sotek – quickly becoming the meta Seraphon sub-fac – along with grindy SBGL and tanky SCE, you need a balanced list and plenty of talent.
The fulcrum of the list is 30 reavers, who still represent some of the best value for points ranged power in the game, backed up by an Eel blob and 2 braces of Allopexes. It’s nothing out there, but threat project, mobility and the reliable mixed phase threats of the Allopexes just make sense. The leaders are minimalist – a slam-King and the Soulscryer for utility, wrapped up in the relatively uncommon Ionrach enclave, which affords the King huge tactical flexibility in choosing an additional tide to be in effect.
In this season, being 3 drops also allows choice of 1st plenty of the time too – meaning all the tools were there for an army that relies on rapidly adapting to threats and board states to triumph. Congrats to Hazel for a big win!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Syar – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (740)* Scinari Enlightener (165)* – General – Command Trait: Goading Arrogance – Artefact: The Perfect Blade – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
Battleline 20 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (290)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light 30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (510)* – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light – Reinforced x 2
Danny: Next in the list of ‘quickly becoming UK best in faction’ is Matt Gouldesbrough and his beautiful Lumineth, putting them on a tear while they wait…oh so very patiently…for their new book.
And he’s rocking Teclis! The big man is an expensive bet in this age of objective play and ranged threat, but the magical dominance he offers can never be underestimated. This list is clearly geared towards utterly control, with the standard 30 sentinel blob trying to point-and-delete the main threats, allowing the two warden units to go cap objectives – and their survivability with the ward Teclis offers and their potential to be doing mortals on 5s to hit – should never be underestimated.
Not much else of note beyond a great performance whose only non-win was against Hazel’s IDK – meaning Matt was super close to taking the gold – and the new Enlightener cropping up for additional magic overload and a cheap platform for Goading Arrogance for the few occasions something might get too close to Teclis for comfort. Well done to Matt for an undefeated campaign.
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Allegiance: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Engine of the Gods (265) – Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices – Mount Trait: Starborne – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Lord Kroak (430)*** – General Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*** – Artefact: Serpent God Dagger Skink Priest (90)*** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Skink Starpriest (130) – Spell: Hand of Glory
Units 5 x Saurus Guard (115)** 30 x Skinks (225)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers – Reinforced x 2 30 x Skinks (225)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
Endless Spells Purple Sun of Shyish (70) Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
Many of them in Expert Conqs, and In Fangs of Sotek meaning a turn 1 speed boost for the little guys helping them set up shop on objectives and move block, and crucially the ability to retreat after an Unleash Hell on a 4+. Sure this is good for keeping them alive, but factor in how frustrating this list could be to score battle tactics against without ranged threat projection.
If you haven’t played this kind of list before, the main gotcha is the way skinks can have plenty of buffs stacked on them by the Star/priest – including RR 1s to hit (not long for this world), and 6s to wound do mortals. Above 15 models in a unit and skinks have 2 shots, meaning the 30 blobs are putting out 60 shots at mid-range. The maths on that are already good, but notice the Engine of the Gods has the Curse prayer – if that goes off on a big target, allowing for 6s to hit doing mortals….and you essentially have a guaranteed deletion of almost any target in the game.
Understandably however, this list seems to have suffered against the speed and ranged output of Hazel and Matt’s list, who I presume were able to snipe the buff pieces, and whittle down the skink blobs with plenty of shooting. Well done to Jack either way.
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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Lineage: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955) Vampire Lord (140) – General – Command Trait: Kin of the Wolf – Artefact: Ulfenkarnian Phylactery – Lore of the Vampires: Soulpike
Battleline 20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (160)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)* 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
Units 20 x Grave Guard (280)** – Great Wight Blades – Reinforced x 1 5 x Blood Knights (195)**
Danny: Despite a very shaky start to the season, SBGL seem to be picking up the pace a bit these days, so 4th is a great result for Josh. _Especially_ as he done brought the big bone daddy, Nagash. Despite his utility and magic potential, the guy is surprisingly non-tanky these days, having a pitiful ward and a short range on most of his abilities. You’re almost forced into filling out the rest of a Nagash list with MSU pieces, and Josh has here opted for the pesky Deathrattles and the usual 20 GG blob as a pure hammer. Deathrattle are quickly gaining in popularity due to their cost effectiveness and potential ability to pop back out of a grave-site after being killed and yoink vacant objectives – especially in Expert Conqs.
Josh lost only to 1st and 2nd place, so big props for a great result with Nagash.
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.
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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.
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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.
