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.

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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

Behemoths
Chaos Gargant (145)*
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 145 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 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.

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)**

Core Battalions
*Galletian Sharpshooters
**Warlord
***Vanguard
****Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 199
Drops: 10

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.

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)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Troggherd Heavies (Magnificent-Additional Triumph- Indomitable)

TOTAL POINTS: (1915/2000)

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.

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)****

OTHER
Kosargi Nightguard (180)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Galletian Command
**Galletian Veterans
***Warlord
****Vanguard

TOTAL POINTS: 1930/2000
Drops 12

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.

Final Tournament Placings