This is the top three AoS lists for the Lone Star Open 2026 that took place in the US between the 1st and 2nd of August 2026. It saw 40 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Gloomspite Gitz
Troggherd
General’s Handbook 2026-27
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Little Waaagh!
Manifestation Lore – Dank Manifestations
Battle Tactics Cards: Blazing Onslaught and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment
Trugg, the Troggoth King (340)
• General
Dankhold Troggoth (140)
Rockgut Troggoths (340)
• Reinforced
Rockgut Troggoths (340)
• Reinforced
Rockgut Troggoths (170)
Regiment 1
Skragrott, the Loonking (200)
Gobbapalooza (150)
Loonboss (90)
• Leering Gitshield
• Loontouched
Moonclan Shootas (230)
• Reinforced
• Glitzy Bitz Rolla
Faction Terrain
Bad Moon Loonshrine
Jarod Brown (Rage Babies YouTube): Piloted by Ryan Rutherford, the Troggoth Brickwall list leans hard into the terrifying resilience of the Gloomspite Troggherd while leveraging optimized tech from the 2026-2027 General’s Handbook. Operating at a lean 2 drops, this army ensures you dictate the tempo of deployment right from the start. Backed by Trugg the Troggoth King and an absolute mountain of regenerating wounds, your opponent is forced to chew through an ungodly amount of effective health before even thinking about scoring primary objectives. The troggs themselves are absurdly tanky, with reinforced Rockgut Troggoths backed by Trugg’s aura and natural durability creating a multi-layered nightmare for opposing hammer units. High wounds, incredible saves, and innate regeneration mean opponents will pour entire turns of damage into a single reinforced brick, only to watch them shrug it off and smash back twice as hard. Support pieces like Skraggrot the Loonking provide crucial movement assistance for the Moonclan and keep the moon in the right spot for the prime moment, while his long-range magic helps ensure 3 damage across 3 phases. Meanwhile, the Loonboss is fully kitted with the Leering Gitshield as an interesting throwaway piece against high-attack enemy units, though Loontouched remains the best-use enhancement for the Wizard (1).
While everyone expects a Troggherd list to just walk forward and bludgeon people with clubs, Ryan has packed some seriously spicy, under-the-radar shooting tech into Regiment 1 that completely alters how this army trades. A reinforced block of Moonclan Shootas pumps out a staggering 81 attacks, and by utilizing the Glitzy Bitz Rolla enhancement, you inject a reliable wound modifier straight into the unit to fundamentally shift their damage output profile. The Gobbapalooza then steps in to hand out crucial buffs, adding plus 1 Rend to that profile. The resulting threat profile puts out 81 shots hitting on 3s, wounding on 4s, at Rend -1, operating on an 18-inch base weapon range that stretches out to a 23-inch total threat range with standard movement. For a Troggoth army that opponents usually try to screen or kite, dropping an 81-shot shooting bracket catches people completely off-guard to flush out chaff, strip defensive layers off elite screens, and claim unexpected mid-board dominance. Rounding it all out, the list utilizes the Lore of the Little Waaagh! and Dank Manifestations to manipulate the board, control space, and keep pressure off the advancing Troggoths, while battle tactics are configured around Blazing Onslaught and Siege of Ashes for extremely reliable tactic completion, all anchored by the Loonshrine as the ultimate safety net ensuring key models keep popping back up for relentless late-game pressure. Nice work Ryan, keep on loon’n on!
Idoneth Deepkin
Soul-raid Ambushers
General’s Handbook 2026-27
Drops: 3
Wounds: 134
Spell Lore – Lore of the Deeps
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy (10)
Battle Tactic Cards: Siege of Ashes, Flanking Firestorm
General’s Regiment
Ikon of the Storm (130)
• General
• Dritchleech
• Abyssal Dweller
Namarti Thralls (180)
• Reinforced
Akhelian Ishlaen Guard (170)
Akhelian Allopex (160)
• Retarius Net Launcher
Akhelian Leviadon (450)
• Aqshian Sea Nettles (10)
Regiment 1
Isharann Tidecaster (Scourge of Aqshy) (120)
Namarti Reavers (Scourge of Aqshy) (200)
• Reinforced
Namarti Thralls (180)
• Reinforced
Isharann Soulscryer (100)
Faction Terrain
Gloomtide Shipwreck
Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (290)
Callis and Toll
Toll’s Companions
Cities of Sigmar
Stalwart Guardians
General’s Handbook 2026-27
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane
Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries
Battle Tactics Cards: Blazing Onslaught and Siege of Ashes
General’s Regiment
Cannonade Cogfort (530)
• General
• Grapple-Net Launcher
Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120)
• The Last Blade of Embergard
• Beloved Leader
Freeguild Cavaliers (300)
• Reinforced
Freeguild Cavaliers (300)
• Reinforced
Freeguild Command Corps Adjutants (200)
Freeguild Command Corps Auxiliaries
Freeguild Command Corps Whisperblade
Regiment 1
Alchemite Warforger (130)
Freeguild Fusiliers (240)
• Reinforced
Freeguild Steelhelms (90)
Freeguild Steelhelms (90)
Faction Terrain
Dawners Triumph
David Rodriguez: At the core of the army, Cogfort and fusiliers utilize their shooting to let the rest of the list breath and give the cavaliers opportunity to land killing blows, hold objectives, and hold the board. Steelhelms are always MVP as they threaten counter charge taunts, can stay back with the rest of the army and again, help let the cavaliers operate as needed. Cavaliers are the bread and butter of cities lists, as they do most of the heavy lifting in virtually every match up. They take buffs well and slowly open up the board and take objectives allowing you to get ahead in primary and set up secondaries. The cav marshal and warforger are common takes as they flow easy with the rest of the list with cav marshal helping the cavaliers become even more of a threat and also giving attack and mortal buffs to the cavilers which is much needed given their stats. The heroic traits are also built around a shooting/mixed arms list, beloved leader I feel is crucial as you want your cogfort and units in general being able to avoid debuffs. The cogfort I felt was important to not only provide shooting but able to use the big base to hold space, be annoying in combat and help score tactics as well, I used so much more than a mobile cannon. The command corp is a flex piece that I also really enjoyed. While pricey, the provided a lot of utility to this list, such as shutting down healing/revival , OC bonus, and most importantly revival on my own units. Overall, the list is a moving castle that holds board and takes the primary game well. The tactics chosen were specific for this list as the list is mobile enough and does enough damage enough to do siege as well as blazing.
Slaves to Darkness
Despoilers
Auxiliaries: 0
Drops: 2
Battle Tactic Cards – Siege of Ashes
• Legend of the Parch
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy (10)
Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned
General’s Regiment
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)
• General
Ogroid Myrmidon (120)
Chaos Chosen (500)
• Reinforced
• The Dread Banner
• 1x Champion
• 1x Musician
• 1x Standard Bearer
Chaos Warriors (Scourge of Aqshy) (410)
• Reinforced
• Brand of Apoplexy (10)
• 1x Champion
• 1x Musician
• 1x Standard Bearer
Mindstealer Sphiranx (140)
Regiment 1
Daemon Prince (230)
• Darkflame Pendant
• Deathmonger
• Pledged to Nurgle
• Wings
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (130)
Chaos Knights (240)
• 1x Champion
• 1x Musician
• 1x Standard Bearer
Raptoryx (100)
Faction Terrain
Nexus Chaotica
Anthony Richardson: This list has a few simple ideas behind it, take blocks of units with good base stats, pair them up with complimentary units, juice their defenses and damage, control strikes first/last, and force your opponent to make uncomfortable choices. The engine of the list similar to many other S2D lists is the 10 chosen with the dread banner. The sorcerer lord is there to give them a 5+ ward and cast 3d6 charge when the moment is right, and the mindstealer is there to provide strikes last within 6” against any units brave enough to test their luck. It also moves 10 and is control 5 so it has good positioning options. This is the first decision you force on opponents, getting charged by chosen with khorne mark and a ward sounds bad, so I have to go get them, but wait, its a 2+ or 3+ on most infantry and cav, and then I explode before fighting and now I lost my unit on my turn for nothing?
The second brick is 20 SoA warriors and a nurgle marked demon prince with deathmonger to fight twice and the darkflame pendant to set the damage of all incoming attacks to 1. With despoilers the prince will mark the warriors to give them a 5+ ward at the end of 1. The warriors also have the brand of apoplexy to go to damage 2 once you get to 7 rage, at which point they also gain strike first if they didn’t charge. The demon prince also has a 4+ to strike first, which combos very nicely with deathmonger so the second strike fight last is cancelled out. So now you have 2 big blocks of 3+ 5+ infantry the opponent really doesn’t want to charge but has to deal with or they concede the entire center of the board.
The last piece is the simplest, 10” moving raptoryx to screen and control space for the knights and horse lord that want to charge not get charged. Simple but effective. A myrmidon rounds it out to farm fury from a PoP, with the bonus that when you roll a 1 it feels a little less bad as you get 2 additional damage 3 attacks for your misfortune. The tactics are Siege of ashes and legend of the patch, which pair nicely together. Depending on the map, either warriors and the demon prince, or horse lord and raptoryx can score the first of siege. The prince and warriors in particular are excellent at surviving combats to get the first part of parch set up for the knights or chosen to come clean up.
The list has 3 main weaknesses, debuffs, dice, and great players. Reducing wards and turning off weapon abilities in particular stings. And as great as a 3+ save/5+ ward is, you still have to roll them. As far as great players, the thing about asking tough questions, is they are the ones who can find the answers to them. My first loss was to Chase Fair, who’s Seraphon have the ability to completely strip a ward off a unit, which sets up Kroak to fire off mortals that cut through the 3+ armor. And being a great player, he was able to use his speed and tricks to avoid the fights he didn’t want, score all of his tactics and outscore me, even at some points allowing me to control all the objectives. The second loss was to Jon Anderson, the king of the fish himself. His namarti reduced my wards, and he won priorities to give me a bad double, force me to come into his perfectly positioned castle to maximize his defensive buffs and debuffs, followed by another priority win to double me and cripple me with Idoneths big turn 3. It was a weekend of nothing but great games and great people!
Final Tournament Placings
