This is the top three AoS lists for War Under the Mountain that took place in Australia on the 25th and 26th of March. It involved 19 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
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: Kharadron Overlords – Sky Port: Barak Zon – Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies – Triumphs: Inspired
Kharadron Code – Artycle: Honour Is Everything – Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste – Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk
Leaders Arkanaut Admiral (125)* – General – Command Trait: Stormcaller – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Aetheric Navigator (85)** – Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Battleline 6 x Skywardens (260)** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Skywardens (260)** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Skywardens (260)* – Reinforced x 1
Other Units 1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)** – Main Gun: Sky Cannon – Gunhauler Modifications: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments 3 x Endrinriggers (120)** 3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
Behemoths Arkanaut Frigate (300)* – Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon Arkanaut Frigate (300)** – Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Battleline 6 x Varanguard (580)* – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1 6 x Varanguard (580)* – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1 6 x Varanguard (580)* – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1
Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Zainthar Kai – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Hag Queen (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master – Prayers of Khainite Cult: Crimson Rejuvenation Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320) – Allies Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (300)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor – Prayers of Khainite Cult: Sacrament of Blood
Battleline 15 x Blood Sisters (450)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Blood Stalkers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Blood Sisters (150)*
Units 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
Leaders Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)* Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290) – Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble – Mount Trait: Mean ‘Un Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (130)* – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Artefact: Eye-biter Ash Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)* – Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)* – Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)*** – Aspect of the Champion: TunnelMaster
Battleline 20 x Gutrippaz (300)*** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Gutrippaz (150)* 20 x Hobgrot Slittaz (160)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
Units 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Reinforced x 1
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 Stockholm Slaughter 9 took place in Sweden on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 18 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: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Fury of the Fyreslayers Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Battlesmith (150) – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runesmiter (120) – Forge Key – Prayer: Ember Storm
UNITS 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)* – Poleaxes 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Cabalists – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)** – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Spells: Chaotic Conduit, Daemonic Speed Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)** – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield – Spells: Binding Damnation – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (195)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Command Traits: Not to be Denied – Daemonic Axe – Wings – Artefacts of Power: Helm of the Oppressor – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE Corvus Cabal (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)* Chaos Knights (460)** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Cursed Flail – Ensorcelled banner: The Eroding Icon
OTHER Chaos Chosen (480)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Exalted Champion – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Skull Drummer – Ensorcelled banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh Ogroid Theridons (380)** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Thorakon – Goroan Great Axe – 2 x Banner Bearer – 2 x Charge-caller
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
Leaders Orruk Megaboss (140)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeat: Killa Beat
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 5 x Spider Riders (90)* 5 x Spider Riders (90)
This is the top three AoS lists for Wardolly Weekend that took place in Australia on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 16 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330) Gardus Steel Soul (170)* Lord-Castellant (160)** – Artefact: Mirrorshield – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Lord-Relictor (150)* – General – Command Trait: High Priest – Prayer: Translocation – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Yndrasta, The Celestial Spear (280)*
Battleline 5 x Liberators (120)** – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 5 x Vindictors (130)* 10 x Sequitors (240)** – 5x Stormsmite Greatmaces – Reinforced x 1
Units 5 x Retributors (210)** 5 x Retributors (210)***
Leaders Vengorian Lord (280) – General – Command Trait: Rousing Commander – Artefact: Fragment of the Keep – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Prince Vhordrai (460) – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions Radukar the Beast (310) Vampire Lord (140) – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 10 x Blood Knights (400) – Reinforced x 1 5 x Blood Knights (200) 5 x Blood Knights (200)
Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Ironsunz – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs:
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Destroyer – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Megaboss (140)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Orruk Warchanter (120)** Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)** – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)** – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* – 1x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* – 1x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers 5 x Orruk Brutes (150)* – Pair of Brute Choppas – 1x Gore Choppas
Units 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Pig-iron Choppas – Reinforced x 1
This is the top three AoS lists for the Straigyt Edge Wargaming GT that took place in Sweden on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
Leaders Swampboss Skumdrekk (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)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)** – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex Skragrott, The Loonking (160)* – Allies
Battleline 10 x Gutrippaz (150)* 10 x Gutrippaz (150)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
Units 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) The Burning Head (30)
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation 6 x Varanguard (580)* – General – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1
Battleline 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Reinforced x 1 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 9 x The Unmade (80)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)* Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – General – Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefact: Godbone Armour – Lore of Mortisans: Reinforce Battle-shields – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 30 x Mortek Guard (420)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield – Reinforced x 2 30 x Mortek Guard (420)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield – Reinforced x 2 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)* 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*
Tournament that took place in the USA on 25th and 26th February. It involved 30 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?
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Big Waaagh have been taking a bit of a back seat recently, with not many people playing it; but it’s great to see Gregory still repping it and grabbing the elusive 5-0 here. Big Waaagh is great, and often taken by people with Ironjawz armies who want to run a Wurgogg Prophet… and what has Gregory done? He’s taken 2! Great work here.
He’s also taken Skragrott which is interesting as he loses his access to the Gloomspite magic lore, and his Warmaster ability. However his spell (Fangs of Da Bad Moon) still has the potential to cause damage. I wouldn’t have considered it myself… but its an interesting shout.
The rest of the army is an Ironjawz core, with 15 Ardboyz and 15 Orruk Brutes as the reinforced units. They hit hard and the Brutes can cause great damage with the +1/+1 to hit/wound and extra damage from the Orruk Warchanter. Interestingly there’s no MawKrusha here, but that’s likely because of Galletian Champions – its good to see a GHB make some changes to army selection.
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Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Charge
Leaders Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)* – Artefact: Armour of Scorn Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (300)*** – General – Command Trait: Mage Eater – Artefact: Skullshard Mantle Skarbrand (390) Slaughterpriest (100)* – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Skarr Bloodwrath (110)* Slaughterpriest (100)** – Prayer: +1 to hit – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
Peter: We’re lucky that for such a small site, we’re followed by some of the competitive players in the US and UK. As such, Gareth agree to share how his list worked for the event (though remember, this won’t apply for long with the release of the new book imminently).
Gareth: I’ve been running the same variation of this list for a few years now. I don’t play many tournaments and don’t have the brain power to change lists too much, so I just tinker around the edges. This latest iteration was a change from the list I was running last season. I removed a Khorne Daemon Prince and an Incarnate, and put in a Cygor, a second Slaughterpriest, Skarr, the Unmade, and the incantations.
The list is built primarily around the idea of giving your opponent headaches and making them doubt every move they make. Khorne has possibly more tricks than any other army right now, and this list is built to take advantage of all of them.
First let’s start with the anti-magic element, which, as with any Khorne army, is extremely strong. First off, the list has 8 unbinds; 1 from each Slaughterpriest, 1 from each unit of Flesh Hounds, 2 from the Cygor, and 1 from the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury wearing the Skullshard Mantle. Although none of these unbinds have any bonuses to unbind the Skullshard Mantle does have the neat little rule that an unmodified roll of an 8 automatically unbinds the spell, and the caster suffers D6 MW. If you save that unbind for a wizard who has one or two wounds left, it can throw doubt into your opponent over whether they want to chance it. Rolling an 8 is only a 14% chance, but in their mind, it is much higher.
Secondly, we have the Skull Altar, which causes any miscast to do D6 MW instead of D3 MW to the caster. Came in particularly handy this weekend in one of my games: a Master of Magic rerolled a miscast into a miscast, and then promptly died!
Thirdly, we have the use of 2 blood tithe points to auto stop a spell. Note that this is not an unbind, so even if the caster has a rule that says their cast can not be unbound, we can still use 2 blood tithe to say NO!
Fourthly, we have the Hexgorger Skulls. A handy incantation that has two nice rules – wizards within 12” get a -2 to cast debuff, plus if they’re within 8” and they roll an unmodified 8 to cast, the spell is unsuccessful, the caster, and any other wizards within 12” suffer D6 MW, and the wizard can no longer cast that spell for the rest of the game! Again, that 8 is only 14%, but in their mind, it is much larger.
Fifth, we have the ignore-magic on a 6. Any time any of your units are affected by a spell or endless spell, you can ignore its effects on a 6 (and you gain a blood tithe!). In one famous game against a Teclis-Sentinel list a few months back, Teclis managed to put Searing White Light through a portal to cause D3/D6 MW to my whole army during turn 1. I rolled well, and he caused a total of 4 MW across my whole army, and I gained 5 blood tithe. Thanks!
Finally, there is the Cygor’s ability. Any time a spell is successfully cast by a wizard within 30” of the Cygor, that wizard suffers 1 MW. Now that isn’t going to dent a huge monster-hero-wizard like, say Teclis, but I faced both Gitz and Skaven this weekend, and both had 5 wound wizards with two casts a turn. Quite a few times, I was willing to not even attempt an unbind, preferring to chip off 20% of their health for free. Again, it puts doubt into your opponent’s mind – “How much do I really need to cast this spell?”
The next trick we have is the use of blood tithe. Prior to this GHB, I almost exclusively used blood tithe for hero phase move and hero phase fight. That’s changed a little now that Galletian Champions are important – our ability to summon one for just 2 blood tithe is pretty great, so I’ve been doing that a lot. Before going into detail on blood tithe, let’s talk about Skarr. He’s in the list for one reason and one reason only – to die. He has an amazing ability that once he is dead, at the end of any movement phase (including your opponents) you can roll two dice and, on an 8,+ he comes back alive, anywhere on the board, 9” away from enemy units. That’s an amazing tech piece. I try to kill him as early as possible, and then during each of my opponent’s movement phases just take out my 9” stick and start measuring things, just to put doubt into their mind about where they can or cannot move safely.
Of course, to make sure he dies early, you need ways to kill him. That’s where he ties into blood tithe. One of my Slaughterpriests has the Blood Sacrifice prayer, which allows you to target a friendly BoK unit and cause them D3 MW in return for a blood tithe point. I was lucky that in four of my five games over the weekend, I had mystical in my deployment zone.
I placed the Skull Altar (which allows priests to re-roll prayers) within 8” of the mystical terrain, placed Skarr inside the Altar, and the Priest on the mystical. Turn 1 sacrifice Skarr, gain a tithe, and give him D3 MW. Then, since he is in the Skull Altar he can chant to bring out the Wrath-Axe, I use the Axe to cause another D3 MW on Skarr, and possibly another D3 with its secondary damage ability. Generally, this killsthis kills him, meaning I get 2 blood tithe (1 from his death, 1 from the sacrifice) in my first hero phase.
The blood tithe are then used later in the game as either a threat – using 3 to move the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage or Skarbrand in my hero phase, giving them a much larger threat range, or, more commonly, to deny battle tactics. In your opponent’s hero phase they declare a battle tactic that involves killing something , and so you counter that by moving the thing they need to kill, out of range or behind a screen. Or, if you’re in combat in their hero phase, you spend 4 blood tithe to fight and generally cause carnage to their carefully laid out plans. Finally, there’s the summoning aspect. Many of the new GHB battleplans or battle tactics require GCs to be on an objective for extra points or to score the tactic. Rarely are they “starting army” GCs. The ability to just summon one onto an objective for just 2 blood tithe (a Blood Master) is fantastic. Particularly if you pair it with Skarr’s revival. End of your movement phase, you revive him on to one objective, and then use him to summon a GC on to either the same objective or sometimes a second one!
Now let’s talk about the actual units that do stuff during the game. The Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury is there for one reason and one reason only – his command ability. At the start of the combat phase he can issue his command and all friendly BoK daemon units can pile-in 6”, and it’s the good 6” pile-in, meaning they can do it even if they’re outside of 3”. Note that this is an aura, but since the book is so old, none of the affected daemon units count as receiving a command ability, so are able to use other abilities at the same time. This is huge. Having, essentially, your whole army able to pile-in 6” is bonkers good. I very rarely charge any of my daemons during a game. Just move them to 3.1” away from their target unit, and then pile-in 6”. This has multiple benefits. First if you’re going against a monster, they cannot roar you (although the reverse is also true – you cannot perform a monstrous rampage). Second, you avoid any unleash hell. Third you can play activation games – although you’re going to fight with every single one of your units, your opponent is only able to activate their units which are within 3”, which is very often none (you activate first, put in a Bloodthirster, it kills the unit, it’s your opponent’s activation, they have nothing within 3”, so then you activate with your next 6” pile-in, and so on).
The 6” pile-in also interacts with the other tech piece in a Reapers of Vengeance list – all daemons have the start-of-combat-phase command ability to fight twice, and it’s an immediate fight twice. Note this command ability can only be used if you are within 3” of an enemy. The general idea is that you pile-in 6” with a Rage thirster or Skarbrand into two units, kill a bunch of stuff in one unit on the first fight, and then activate a second time, again going 6” to kill another unit. That second 6” pile-in often allows you to jump over a screen to target something more juicy. The Fury thirster is not that great in combat itself, typically doing only 5 or so wounds. But it does have a neat shooting attack – 4 attacks 3s/3s/-1/D3dmg that can kill a solo support hero or chip off some wounds from a screen etc.
Skarbrand is there to kill big monsters/heroes. It is relatively easy to keep Skarbrand at maximum rage for rounds 2-5. When at maximum rage, he does a guaranteed 8 MW per activation with his Carnage axe, and then has 9 attacks with Slaughter that are 4s/3s/-2/3dmg. That 4s to hit is horrible, even with the Locus of Fury ability that allows re-rolls of 1s to hit. We can mitigate that somewhat with either an All-Out-Attack (with the 6” pile-in he won’t have been roared), or earlier in the turn by using the Killing Frenzy prayer on him to give him +1 to hit. Skarbrand generally kills most heroes or does enough damage to seriously wound. If you’re going against multiple units, or a tough monster, you can use the double activate ability on him to cause a guaranteed 16 MW (with the potential of 24 or 32), and have 18 attacks.
Most seasoned Khorne players are surprised to see I don’t have a Bloodsecrator or Wrathmongers in my list. Either of these units give Skarbrand an extra attack, which works on Carnage, causing him to do a guaranteed 16 MW per activation instead of 8. That’s obviously a very nice buff, but I find Skarbrand generally kills everything he touches anyway, or is scary enough that people avoid him. Plus I hate the aesthetic of Khorne Mortals, so try to have as few mortals in my list as possible. Even my priests and Skarr are converted to look more daemon-like!
The Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage is the real scary piece in the army. His job is to clear hordes and support heroes. Particularly useful in this season where both are common. His basic attack profile is 5 attacks, 4s/2s/-2/D6dmg. That D6 damage is painful, as is the 4s to hit. But, he has this one little rule that changes everything. Any 6s to wound cause 4 MW (at top bracket) to all enemy units within 8” of him. That’s bonkers. If you roll two 6s, you’re doing 8 MW. That’s enough to kill most support heroes. And 8” with a largeish base is a big area. Couple it with the 6” pile-in and a double activation, and you can wreak havoc. I tend to use Killing Frenzy (+1 to hit prayer) and the double activation on him more than on Skarbrand. 3s to hit RR1s is actually fairly consistent to get enough hits through to then get one or two 6s to wound per activation. In my first game this weekend I faced the dreaded squig heavy Gitz list. Gitz have lots of over-lapping buffs, so tend to want to castle. They also have lots of support heroes. My Rage thirster killed 60 models in one combat phase.
Next is the Cygor. Although I’ve already spoken about his great anti-magic potential, he’s also a pretty handy monster. I tend to like monster-mash lists, so when I knew I had to include more GC in my list this season, I was looking for a non-leader monster to throw in. Cygor is the perfect match. 16 wounds means he’s tanky (even with the 5+ save). His flat 5dmg shooting attack is pretty good at finishing off a unit or solo support hero. He’s also decent in combat. For magic heavy armies he’s a good distraction. He usually is the first thing to die in my army (other than Skarr), but that means that my ‘Thirsters are not being targeted, which is fine by me! The Unmade are included for their debuff aura. Any enemy units within 12” (which is a crazy range for a unit of 9 models) can not redeploy or rally. Redeploy is the bane of the 6” pile-in. If you run your Bloodthirsters up the table, counting on the 6” pile-in to get into combat, a 4” redeploy kills you. Unmade for 80 points is a bargain to stop that. Also, with so many 4+ rallies in the game now, stopping that is handy, too!
The only remaining piece to describe is the Wrath-Axe. As well as being there to potentially first turn kill Skarr, it is handy to just have around all game doing chip damage and move blocking. Although incantations can be moved through as if they aren’t there, you still can not end a move on top of them. The Wrath-Axe has a large base, and being able to put it on one side of your army to prevent anyone charging from that side is pretty handy.
My choice of 2nd artefact is probably worth some discussion. Many Khorne players swear by Ar’gath, the King of Blades, as the artefact of choice on a Rage Thirster. This weapon gives changes the to-hit profile on the Rage Thirster from 4s to hit to 2s to hit. But only when targeting heroes. Since I generally use Skarbrand to hit big heroes and use Rage to target hordes (hoping to kill support heroes with the booms), I don’t like this choice. Harvester of Skulls is another choice – increase the number of attacks from 5 to 6 per activation. That’s a decent choice. An extra attack means more chances to get that 6 to wound. There’s also The Crimson Crown. This army is very command point dependent, so being able to use a command for free once per round is very useful. I can definitely see the attraction of that on the Fury Thirster. But I go for Armour of Scorn on my Rage. This gives him a 6+ ward, but 4+ wards against magic MW. I want my Rage thirster to live, and that 6+ ward is the nice little extra toughness to keep him alive a little longer. I’m very sympathetic to those who prefer Crimson Crown or Harvester of Skulls though.I’m pretty happy with this list at the moment, although with a new book on the horizon I think last weekend was probably my last competitive outing with it. Across two RTTs and the GT, I’m 10-1 with the list, which is pretty decent!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Lotann + Leviadon + Big Namarti Parties are the soup of the day for Idoneth. The combination is a great way to improve the Namarti (Reavers or Thralls) in both offense and defense. The Leviadon provides an aura giving Namarti +1 to hit so long as the target is within 12″ of the Leviadon. With the Leviadon’s large base size, that 12″ is generous. He also provides a +1 to save aura in the same zone, meaning that the Namarti may be able to hold back and reap the benefits of the save and hit bonuses from the turtle while enjoying a bonus to wound from Lotann. Ultimately, a squad of 20 will be firing 40 arrows hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, with rend -1 and 1 damage.
The King and Morsarr Guard are here to do King and Morsarr Guard things. Both like to move fast to get in their opponents’ faces. Both like to hit insanely hard for their cost. Both like to die if you sneeze near them while unsupported. a 6-strong unit of Morsarr can blend large blobs of chaff units using their once-per-game mortal wound bomb, and the king is one of the best duellists in the game. Careful positioning can lead to a blistering number of attacks, and on-demand strike first is nothing to sniff at.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Legion of the First prince is starting to establish itself as ‘the third way’, after Cabalists and KOTET, and for good reason – it’s a much harder and more subtle sub-faction to get your head around. It does some offer some baked in synergy – and Kyle here (for the first time in this column that I’ve seen) has leant all the way into the fluffy, synergistic version.
The core fluff of a Legion list is the overlapping benefits to taking Be’Lakor, the Centaurion, Eternus, Legionnaires (double reinforced in this instance) and plenty of furies. The synergies are thus: Legionnaires gain +1 to wound while near Be’Lakor (making them a pretty respectable sub-hammer while relatively durable for their points); Eternus gets +1 to his ‘comes back from the dead’ roll while Be’lakor is still alive – and he gains a free CP while near either Legionnaires or Furies – the latter being more likely to keep up with him while Legionnaires guard Be’lakor; lastly, the Marshal allows the big blob of Legionnaires to rally on a 5+.
The rest of the list is worth commenting on to – it’s an early example of allying in the Cockatrice from the new Beasts book, for ability on a 4+ after one of its shots connects to make the enemy unit hit on 6s – which as you can imagine, could wildly swing the outcome of a key engagement – and at only 105 pts, it’s not a hugely risky gamble.
Ths list lost only to a no-doubt more traditional Slaves list, and again to Khorne – who love lists like this without ranged threats – with the most notable win being the on-form Sylvaneth for a 3-2, which is a good result with both a highly thematic and off-meta list. Gratz Kyle!
I thought as Woehammer often struggles to get all the event results out for any given week, it may be a good idea to do one post with all of the lists we intended to cover.
Below, you’ll find all the top three lists this week (that we’re aware of), along with my wildcard choices. We will post individual event results as well, and I will link them to the results below where possible.
Wildcard – Slaves to Darkness (Legion of the First Prince)
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Warhammer World: Matched Play Event (UK) – 74 Players
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Greyfyrd – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Battlesmith (150)*** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm
Battleline 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)* – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Trait: The Clammy Hand – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Grinkrak The Great (190)* Skragrott, The Loonking (160)* – Lore of the Moonclans: Nikkit!Nikkit! Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)** Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**
Battleline 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)* 6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (145)** – Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Be’lakor (355) 1 x Lord of Plagues (140)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Gift of Disease – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Bloab Rotspawned (320)* – Spells: Blades of Putrefaction 1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Incubatch – Dolorous Tocsin – Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm 1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Liege-Kavalos (160)* – General – Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefact: Helm of the Ordained Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Lore of Mortisans: Arcane Command Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – Artefact: Godbone Armour – Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 10 x Mortek Guard (140) – Nadirite Blade and Shield 10 x Mortek Guard (140)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield 5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180) – Nadirite Blade and Shield
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)
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Holy Commands: Thunderbolt Volley – Holy Commands: Call for Aid – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Bastian Carthalos (300)** 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)** – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Thundershock – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)** 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield – Grandweapon 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
OTHER 3 x Aetherwings (70)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime
Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Army Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Archmage Teclis (700)* 1 x Scinari Calligrave (110)* – Spells: Overwhelming Heat – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse
BATTLELINE 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Protection of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Etheral Blessings 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Solar Flare
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420) – Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Verminlord Warbringer (400)* – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts: Warpstone Charm – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Thanquol (430)** – 4 x Warpfire Projectors – Spells: Skitterleap
BATTLELINE 10 x Night Runners (90)* – Nightleader 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Warp Lightning Vortex (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for DaBoyz Golden Sprue GT that took place in the USA on the 4th and 5th of February. 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.
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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: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (130)* Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Levitate Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)** – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
BATTLELINE Orruk Ardboys (80)* – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Ardboys (80)** – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (300)*** – Brute Boss – Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha – Jagged Gore-hacka – 2 x Gore-choppa
OTHER Orruk Gore-gruntas (340) – Jagged Gore-hacka Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)*** – Boltboy Boss
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Soulsnare Shackles (40) 1 x The Burning Head (30)
Big Waagh, you love to see it! Rumblings of their increased effectiveness in this new season – given their access to some excellent GCs – seem to have been on the money!
Ross has stuck with a fairly traditional core HQ of the double Warchanter (great in general but also give Big waagh points for existing), double Wurrgog ‘laser eyes’ prophets, the Mirebrute and the now probably undercosted Gnashtoof.
MSU Ardboyz are usually crucial in Big Waagh as cheap screens you can overlap in engagements for more Waagh point generation – and they’re backed up by a reinforced unit of Brutes who, while never tanky, are certainly less vulnerable with bounty hunters gone.
A token unit of gore gruntas as ‘fast’ flankers and one reinforced unit of Boltboyz for savage unleash hell potential and some good ranged MW projection round things out, with Soulsnare shackles proving an interesting tech pick to ensure the Waaghers get to charge on their terms – it’s cheap, so why not?
Overall, a great result for a struggling army – taking a W against super tanky armies like Bonereapers and Nurgle show the MW output in this formation can really shore up the weaknesses of a mono-Orruk list. Gratz to Ross!
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Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Stomper Tribe – Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Warstomper (450)* – General – Command Traits: Eager for the Fight – Artefacts: Amberbone Totem 1 x Warstomper (450)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Gatebreaker (520)** – Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness 1 x King Brodd (550)**
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)
Sons are in an interesting place in the new season. They’ve always played a very different game from the rest of AoS’s armies, and the lack of Galletian Champions can prove difficult given the new GHB’s battle tactics largely relying on their presence and function in your list.
And yet here is Tyler, bringing in a 4-0-1 and taking second place at DaBoyz. His list is a fairly standard Sons list, choosing to bring the generally more competitive 4 Mega-gargants and leaving Mancrushers at home. His choice to pile Eager for the Fight and the Amberstone totem on his Warstomper General means that he is one fast giant. Getting an average run distance of 13.5″ at top bracket, followed by an average 10.5″ run means that Tyler doesn’t have to worry too much about mobility. If all else fails, a poorly placed enemy hero could mean that Tyler’s gargant is in their backlines on turn one. The other Warstomper is equipped with the fan-favorite Arcane Tome and Flaming Weapon combo, allowing Tyler to ramp up the damage output of the gargant by setting his feet on fire prior to stomping on the puny enemies.
The other half of the list is a Gatebreaker with the Glowy shield, providing a bit more tankiness to a unit that wants to make sure the enemy’s terrain doesn’t last long. The long trek to the back corner of the board takes a while, but the look on your opponent’s face when their Herdstone gets destroyed is pretty great. King Brodd also makes an appearance, bringing out the biggest priest in town to pray over his giant friends and buff their movement, rend, or health to keep the gargants stomping and smashing as long as possible.
Congrats to Tyler on his win, and I hope there will be plenty of other Gargants players to prove the doubters wrong.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth
Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
This list isn’t hard to parse – it’s a pin-and-cushion Sylvaneth variant.
Warsong rev is the MW output, hanging back with Spellsinger allowing him to pop his MW bomb spell out of a forward tree – hence the Ancient, for throwing it out there with his once per battle ability pretty much anywhere on the board. Meanwhile, Spinedog pins you down while 6 Kurnoth rain arrows from 30″ into you, and Tree-revs teleport around scoring. That’s it. That’s the tweet list.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340)* Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Spells: Arcane Command Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – Artefacts of Power: Lode of Saturation – Spells: Drain Vitality Mortisan Soulreaper (100)** – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour – Spells: Arcane Command – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Everyone’s favourite animated crypt with more arthritis than a Ulysses convention in 8th we have OBR. One of the oldest books (yes, yes, FEC and Cities we know) with some completely out of place mechanics (Discipline points), they are still very durable and can hit hard. All three of the Mortisan, unusual, but giving heals, reroll 1s to hit and potentially mortal wounds. Other than the guard, everything is reinforced to maximise the impact of the buffs. And a token Immortis Guard for a cheeky bodyguard. The list is built to allow a risky play for an objective with Stubborn as a Rhinox on the General who has Stalkers in the Galletian Command battalion to open the possibility of fight twice (the Stalkers straight after the Soulmason). This is also 16 units on an objective, forcing you to commit something decent to remove them.
What’s interesting is that the list either got max points or lost. I suspect priority may have been partly to blame. With time to get their buffs up, this list would be very nasty. Consistently dropping important pieces becomes a lot more difficult. And the counter punch is terrible. Bone-tithe Shrieker is an excellent example. If they get it off, it’s preventing Rally/Inspiring presence, making any wounds problematic. And it grants +1 to hit, making losses more likely. That on the double reinforced Stalkers with Precision Aspect – 9 attacks on 3s & 3s with -3 Rend and 3 damage each, 30 attacks (Galletian Veterans for additional reach) 2s & 3s with -2 Rend and 2 damage. You really want to get into this unit first. Awesome effort with the army, his loses were to 1st and 4th, making this list very competitive in this field.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Columbus Brewhammer GT that took place in the USA on the 4th and 5th of February. It involved 39 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
Jon Anderson (Aka Poro):
Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Archmage Teclis (700)* – General – Spells: Healing Zephyr Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand – Spells: Overwhelming Heat Hurakan Windmage (120)* – Spells: Transporting Vortex – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
OTHER Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Speed of Hysh
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Shards of Valagharr (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
We’ve another commentator join us recently, who has slipped under the radar. Jon joined us at the backend of 2022. So much so that when I sent a message on our writers WhatsApp asking who wanted to comment on the Lumineth list, Jon had to remind us all it was his list.
So, in his own words, here’s how Jon played his list.
Jon Anderson: News from the Realms!
With LVO behind us and a new GHB season in full swing, I decided to venture out into the wilds. A barren place, a forgotten place, a place with no hope where even the whisper of superior college football conferences will send the locals into a fuss. That’s right, I went to Ohio.
I was in Columbus, to be exact, and participated in the second annual Brewhammer event. This year, I was not stymied by two 12″ charges in Round 5, though, and I was able to go 5-0 and win the event for the “good” guys.
Today, I want to go over a quick list analysis of my Lumineth Realm-Lords, which went undefeated at the GT. My path to victory took down Sylvaneth, Ironjawz, Nighthaunt, the Flesh-eater Courts, and finally more Sylvaneth.
Starting things off with the list was my decision to field the Great Nation of Helon which gave me bonus shots with the Sentinels. Very nasty. Many arrows.
Some deviance from the path has been detected! I went with the Grand Strategy “Take Their Toys”, which works out well when the plan was to table the opponent every round.
One drop. Uno. Ein. Ichi. The Sith Castle wants to determine who goes first and none of the bonuses from other battalions are worth taking. Why take a Warlord battalion when I’m going to forget I even have a relic to begin with? The Cathallar had the silver wand which enabled her to cast an additional spell. Guess what I didn’t do all weekend? You guessed it! Read my scrolls.
I put Teclis as the general because the tournament DID NOT allow book tactics and/or Grand Strategies. Because of this, I needed to have access to This One’s Mine in a pinch. I never needed it, but the option was there. Cool list, have you heard? Nothing crazy at battleline; one pack of Wardens and two reinforced squads of Sentinels meant I just wanted to use the Roos as board control and move blockers.
In regards to the Windchargers, I’m rapidly becoming a bigger fan of them. I don’t think you spam them, they’re not the rock you build your church on, but they’re a great support piece and at 130 points you unlock 3/3 battleline very quickly. I’d recommend naming the Roos: Jack, John, Luke, Jacob, and Steve.
Oh yeah, endless spells. Shards of Valagar giving half move but also removing the ability to teleport a unit was what won me the Sylvaneth game. Great endless spell, super cheap, buy high, sell low. Diamond hands.
Fun tournament, with fun people. I am looking forward to going back next year.
I’m happy to talk shop on Discord or Twitter. My Discord handle is Poro#4444 and my Twitter is @33r2d2
Best Overall: Jeff Campbell Crowley Best General: Jon Anderson Best Order: Austin Thimesch Best Destruction: “Megaboss” Mike Westendorf Best Death: Jake Myers Best Sport: Everyone, because you should all strive to be the best sports you can be.
Until next time, Darth Poro
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Army Subfaction: Oakenbrow – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Drycha Hamadreth (320) – Spells: Verdurous Harmony 1 x Spirit of Durthu (350) 1 x Treelord Ancient (330)* – General – Command Traits: Gnarled Warrior – Artefacts: The Vesperal Gem – Spells: Regrowth 1 x Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Arch-Revenant (120)*
BATTLELINE 1 x Treelord (230)* 1 x Treelord (230)* 1 x Treelord (230)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)
Sylvaneth are settling into their gro(o)ve recently, and what’s great is that we’re starting to see a variety of builds do well.
Jeff here has gone against the grain and clinched a big 4-1 (losing only to the current…well, perennial boogeyelf) with an Oakenbrow treelord list! The sub-faction of choice for the big tree lover makes them battleline and helps them fight in top bracket – leaning into it therefore makes utter sense, hence the combo of Durthu, an Ancient, and 3 Treelords, backed up by the auto-take Spiteswarm hive for +3 to movement AND charges (not bad is it?).
We also see two Arch-revs here – most likely for scoring plays due to them being durable (when they select the 4+ ward option – and when wouldn’t they) and highly mobile GCs.
The increasingly popular mixed-phase output of Drycha rounds things out while fitting neatly into a battle reg – because the Treelords become troops in the sub-faction – making for a thematic and clearly powerful list. It’s great to see that Big Tree as an archetype is viable, and this is one of the first examples I’ve seen – so kudos to Jeff for staying true to his roots!
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Astral Templars (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Pennant of the Stormbringer – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Knight-Draconis (300)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Thunderous Presence – Spell: Celestial Blades Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Battleline 5 x Liberators (120)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield – 1x champion Grandweapon 5 x Liberators (120)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield – 1x champion Grandweapon 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – 2x Drakerider’s Lance – Champion lance – 2x swords – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Units 10 x Protectors (440)* – Reinforced x 1 – Champion
We’re back with Stormcast, who remain one of the most consistent factions throughout 3rd Edition so far. Dragons help. Lots of things we are used to, block of Storm Drakes in Scions of the Storm to get the drop on the opponent. No Lord Imperatant so no 7″ charges from off the board, but there is a clever use of the Vexillor. His banner gives a once a game teleport for a unit. Combine that with the Battlemage, and you could drop the Protectors somewhere with a 7″ charge (9″ with +2″ movement). A great way to move away from the almost autoinclude Relictor. Astral Templars ignore monstrous rampages, which are mostly for the drakes. They will be able to carry out a rampage and ignore the same from anything big. With both the Knight Draconis and Storm Drake, that’s potentially a big help.
This is a very mobile list with the Tree Revenants (Musician granting teleport), the Vexillor (Tunnel Master), and his Pendant. It might just be me but I like the idea of Galletian Command combined with the Vexillor’s Pendant, Wild form and Tunnel Master to throw the Protectors and Vexillor across the board to take advantage of Strike at the Opening.
This is a really bad idea, that’s a lot of rolls you need to go your way and you couldn’t rely on it. But. Anyway, the list did what it does, holding back lines with Liberators and giving freedom to the hammers (Protectors and Drakes). There is a nice balance of abilities to improve the Protectors’ mobility. And it worked, mostly anyway. Nicholas scored well in every round except against the Sylvaneth list with 6 Treelords (3 Lords and 3 Characters). Ents anyone? Ents are tough, and these fight and fade. It is very hard to counter with so few bodies.
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Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Bloodtoofs – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable, Indomitable
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Battleline 10 x Orruk Brutes (300)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 2x Gore Choppas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas
A cool variation on the Bloodtoofs list with 15 pigs and a Mawcrusha but 10 Brutes and Rippa’s Snarlfangs. More of a harassing unit that are only a little faster than the pigs, though. Their most useful trait, though, is only costing 70pts and finishing that Warlord battalion. Still, getting somewhere fast can be useful, and something that is small and not that threaten might go under the radar. The Brutes are a seriously powerful unit. Now that Bounty Hunters has gone, their issue is speed. Double Ironjaw’s fist is an interesting concept. With Might Destroyers, you could give All Out Attack to all of the Pigs and the Brutes in the same turn. Twice. For 2 CP each time.
Interesting concept, it failed in the face of overwhelming shooting (Lumineth) and a lower score in the 5th round (more shooting) but performed well throughout. It says as much about the power of consistent shooting into melee armies as much as anything. Bouncing back from the 2nd round loss to take 6th with a very solid 4-1 is a great result.
This is the Top Eight AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open that took place in Nevada, USA, on 27th, 28th, and 29th January. It involved a massive 324 players, all vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
We’re particularly lucky this week as six of the top eight players agreed to give us comments on how their lists work. On top of this, we’ve also got comments from the Head Judge at LVO, Gareth Thomas.
So, thank you to; Jiwan Noah Singh, Kaleb Walters, Gavin Grigar, Cody Saults, Nate Trentanelli and Gareth Thomas for all agreeing to give us your thoughts.
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95) – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*** – Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy Grashrak Fellhoof (150)*** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Battleline 30 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (525)** – 30x Pair of Savage Blade – Reinforced x 2 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 10 x Gors (70)** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)***
Jiwan Noah Singh: The heroes all serve a function against different matchups, and with the Gavespawn ability, they can then serve a secondary function when they die.
The general has to be the Tzaangor Shaman to unlock Galletian Veterans for the big block, but also has the extremely helpful big cast once per game, and moves 16/19” if I need to go hold and up a huge threat. Mostly, I used the big cast for the bull spell, but in other matchups, I considered he would have used tendrils of atrophy to break armor stacking. His speed let’s him get there for that short ranged spell.
Grashrak gives out the +3 move, and because he can pass wounds, it is helpful against ranged threats who losing the move bonus would be difficult against. His spell is also a super combo with Gavespawn if I need to lift a gargant or something in one activation.
The shoggoth was there for his spell and having a starting monster, and the pre-phase move made anyone worried about that going off have to deploy really far back.
Beastlord was the newest addition but was a pretty fun vehicle for the gnarlblade. With run and charge, he moves 15” on an auto run, so throwing him across and 18” deployment means he can also make people worry about making me take top, for small only investment on my part. Additionally, if he got his attacks off and the bull was on something, it was a less likely but still redundant plus to wound, or hit and wound.
Gors are 10 potentially deepstriking bodies on a 4+ in combat for 70 points. They also have plus to run and pile in, which is so strange that it just confuses people when you tell them, but it is actually helpful.
Tzaangor are 60 wounds, have mortal banners, can zoom across the board and fight something with a billion attacks, but also rally on 4+. I generally deploy them in a cloud, all about 1” from each others bases, to maximize the board space, but also to be able to pull them out of 3” against things that shut down inspiring, and if I need to rally, recharge, ect. Let’s me save bodies if I pull them out of coherency too, which I did intentionally several times to be able to rally again.
The rest of the list is enlightened, in blocks of 6, in bounty hunters. These have tons of uses and can pump out massive damage. Turning off all our defense is like another rend in many cases. So with the fight last bull running around, some plus to hit (always try to end on damned if you can) from multiple sources, and the throwing an extra attack on them from a spawn, they are such a threat that an opponent must deal with them. When you stack a plus to hit, going second, and gavespawn attacks, I know of very few things with that output. And at 2/3 rend no cp, few things can eat it with saves.
The beasts summoning on top of all the threats to kill or hold things, and ability to run a hero into something, die, and lock them up, meant that in almost all my games I can lose tons of things and still keep taking points. I built in some tech to deal with specific matchups that concerned me, most of which didn’t happen, but in general it’s a 5 turn army with a ton of flexibility and lots of different things going on. Good proving ground usage was hugely helpful with the ability to summon Galletian Veterans, and the output meant the main armies I expected to see, Ogors, Gargants, Nurgle, Nighthaunt, all had something that was a big problem for them that I didn’t mind sacrificing.
That’s pretty much it.
That, and having distractingly beautiful hair, that helped too.
This list – piloted by Nicholas ‘Scooter’ Walters – is testament to the difference reps and familiarity with an army can make. Even if that army is considered underpowered.
Scooter nearly went all the way with what is a pretty common IJ list, with a sneaky ally in the shape of the Fungoid Shaman for the extra CP generation. I mean, it’s an ‘obvious’ list – but if you watch back the stream of Scooter playing Gavin Grigar’s Cities list for example, you can see the difference skill and knowing the intricacies – the limits, the averages – of your army can make. Keeping the Maw Krusha back until it’s absolutely needed – knowing when to smash that ‘Destroyer’ button on the foot boss – and making all the right calls with your pigs are all key to playing IJ well.
Even though the list will be hurt by losing bounty hunters, making the pigs half as effective, the inclusion of the Megaboss makes sense going into the new season – he’s a great, durable and fighty Galley champ. The speed and activation potential with smashing/bashing of the feral hogs will never go out of style.
Ironjaws might be suffering from a lack of units and power creep these days but Scooter is out here to prove that if you love your army, and you’re prepared to stick with it and get the reps in, ‘the meta’ be damned, you too can damn well near win LVO.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (440)* Magister (120)* – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Incarnate is Bound to the Magister Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150) – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Tome of Eyes (40) Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Kaleb Walters: My main goal was to create a Swiss Army Knife style list. Bring as many solutions to the answers in my faction as possible.
Reason For Family: Guild of Summoners: 1 FREE Battle Tactic: Summon Lord of Change. LOC have 14 wounds, -1 Rend shots, 18 inch range, movement 12, +1 To casting for all Tzeentch casters, -1 to hit naturally and monstrous rampage abilities. While other families have more flexibility, the norm is to summon Blue Horrors that have 20 wounds, Movement 5, shoot 12 inches at 0 rend but have good board presence.
List Design: Min Max: Minimum Battleline Maximum Hero’s/Monster Damage. My list is designed to castle up and react to the deployment of my opponent. By staying low drop I normally have the option to decide how I want to engage. I either sacrifice my Acolytes (120pt a unit) to an alpha strike list, or I position aggressively with a front and center incarnate primed to go wild and level up. Either formation still allows me to throw powerful spells that can turn off Command abilities and unleash a possible 15 mortal wounds at 27 inches or more. In addition, as the game goes on, I become more magically dominant with the additional LOC while reducing the overall strength of my opponent.
The next part of my list design is increasing/ reducing my opponents armor. I have 2 spells & 1 Endless spell that can reduce my opponents armor and with the rend stacking of the Acolytes or the LOC natural -1 Rend shots and of course the already powerful incarnate -2/-3 rend I am able to turn normal attacks into Mortal Wound equivalent attacks.
I also know the future with my lame sauce guaranteed Grand Strategy & Destiny Dice…….
Opportunities of The Design: I have a difficult time dealing with Hordes and / or armies that can summon cheap disposable models on a mission with more than 4 objectives. I also find it difficult to face armies like KO that can stay outside my threat range and then engage on their terms.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Tempest’s Eye – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)* – General – Command Trait: Hawk-eyed – Lore of Eagles: Strike of Eagles Arkanaut Admiral (140)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory Battleline 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)* 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
Units 20 x Arkanaut Company (180) – 2x Light Skyhooks – 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1 4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)* – Reinforced x 1
Core Concept Bring guns… lots of guns. We recently had 2 books introduced into the meta (Ogors and Slaves to Darkness), and the resurgence of some old foes (Dragons, Ironjaws and Nurgle), that generate a ton of kill pressure and melee engagement on Turn 1. Tempest’s Eye combats this with great Turn 1 buffs (+1 Save/+3 Move) and efficient shooting (+1 Hit/+1 Wound) supplemented by a healthy number of mortal wounds (Hurricanum, Dracoth Breath). All these elements together are hopefully enough to keep even the scariest melee threats at bay.
Strengths Shooting Volume from Crossbowmen, Tempestors and Arkanauts combined with force multipliers centering around the Hurricanum (+1 Hit/+1 Wound). Adaptable Tech from the Admiral (+1 Rend/Ward Removal/Charge Debuff). Drop Control (2 Drops) typically allows the list to immediately threaten a double turn and forces your opponent to make hard decisions on Turn 1. Horrorghast allows the list to hit crucial damage break points against large units such as Tzaangors, Chosen, or Blood Sisters or spread damage across multiple units for greater efficiency.
Weaknesses 1 Drop armies or specifically being disconnected from the double turn, which forces the list to overextend and expose its firebase. Melee armies whose movement outranges the threat ranges of the list’s shooting units. Middling mobility limits the army’s ability to play proactively and aggressively.
Takeaways and Closing Thoughts As fun as it was to throw buckets of dice, the list has some glaring weaknesses that I was able to mostly avoid due to some fortunate pairings over the course of the weekend, but it does have undeniable strengths and when the list wins it really wins. Enjoy responsibly!
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Ironjawz – Subfaction: Bloodtoofs – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480) – General – Command Traits: Mighty Waaagh! Leader – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist – Artefacts of Power: Destroyer – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
BATTLELINE Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Shootas (120)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Cody Saults: Ironjawz, for me, was the only choice for LVO this year. My standard approach to tournaments is to not play the same game everyone else is expecting to play. With GV being a thing, and folks running bounty hunters, 2 drops kept me tied or out dropping every opponent, and with the list’s raw damage potential, it has the potential to cripple opponents before they get a chance to interact with your units. Second consideration, with a tournament with as many rounds as LVO potentially has for those who do well, avoiding burnout is key. The list only has 4 unit profiles, which helps with keeping rules front of mind and always knowing your options.
The Maw Crusher is an absolute engine for this list, as Skull-Shaking Bellow allows you to spread Mighty Destroyers out to multiple targets, which helps with board control and damage potential. Its melee profiles allow it to put out a punishing amount of wounds, while its solid armor save prevents it from being an easy removal target. Moreover, it has several ways to help clear screens to make sure you get to your target. Its shooting attack is only 4 potential wounds at rend 1, and very short range, but combine that with the impact hits from the pigs, and enhanced stomp monstrous action, the crusher stands a very good chance of clearing screens and getting to the target it truly wants. A quick Finest Hour passing to your opponent’s turn, with an All Out Defense means that even after they deal their damage, they will continue to gum up the works for your opponent, while taking a monstrous amount of extra attention to move. Having 2 allows for redundancy, protect the one in the most vulnerable position, and then respond with the second. The mighty destroyers move means they are never out of position, as if they clear targets and need to pivot to another flank, they almost always have the movement to get there.
Gore Gruntas also represent a solid damage investment, as buffed by the Warchanta, and under the Iron Jaws WAAGH, there is very little in the game they can’t chew through. I went with two units of three, and one of six. The 2 three-man units can take buffs and present good screen clearance in matchups where the opponent has good screening, and for matchups you don’t need the initial sacrificial salvo, they can be used for fast objective grabbing, or counter skirmishing. The post-combat movement abilities from Bloodtoofs also allow for re-establishing screens or locking up units safely.
Warchantas are a must in any IJ list, as they can pass out solid damage bonuses to units about to be in combat, give out charge bonuses, and even heal a key couple of wounds. They have a surprising amount of beef for small characters, and receiving their own buffs can dish it right back.
The last inclusion in the list was shootas, an easy inclusion to give me some cheap screens. Shootas in 20 man squads can be strung out to prevent enemy outflank or deep strike, and the nets, positioned well, can punish an opponent for under-committing resources to remove them or what they are near.
All in all, the list was tailored with so much mobility and relatively low drops to force an opponent to play defensively. This works out either way for us, as the number of hard to remove wounds makes sure they stay in their deployment zone while we grind down their units. Every unit in the army punches up, able to drag down more costly targets, with the post combat mobility to shift our positions, removing the need to choose between damage and objectives.
All in all, the list performed well. The meta we had until the GHB transition had a lot of lists with hard DPS checks, and this list put out enough damage to meet that need and then some.
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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired,Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95)* – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Great Bray-Shaman (100)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Battleline 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)** – Mauls & Half-Shields 6 x Dragon Ogors (290)*** – 2x Paired Ancient Weapons – 4x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 3 x Dragon Ogors (145)*** – 1x Paired Ancient Weapons – 2x Draconic War glaives
Units 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)** 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)* 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*** – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480) – Allies
It’s the ‘other’ BoC list from LVO! As you can see, it damn near went as far as Noah’s, losing only to Scooter’s incredibly well piloted IJ list.
It’s a relatively normal archetype – with the usual 3 HQs for their wide variety of utility – the Dragon Ogor Shaggoth especially proving critical due to his incredible warscroll spell (heal d3 to a Dragon Ogor and give them re-roll wounds) and the Dragon Ogor scroll allowing re-rolls of 1s while near him.
A mix of Ungors for super cheap and speedy (+3″ thanks to the Bray Shama) trading pieces (once the rend starts stacking) and the more out-of-the-box Dragon Ogors make up the battleline – offering speed, punch, and plenty of board control.
Beyond that, it’s basically ‘the spindog’ syndrome. 6 Enlightened on Discs also provide an absolute missile – if you read any of these, you know by now they’re an absolute staple of BoC lists.
The body count, speed, and Spinedog allow Rigolet to care less about dictating first, and so he packs in bounty hunters plus a warlord for additional utility. A savage list that will operate very differently (and be like, double the cost) with the new book – but there you have it!
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)* Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (150)* – General – Command Trait: Spiteful Spirit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)* 10 x Chainrasps (110)*
Units 10 x Craventhrone Guard (180)* – Reinforced x 1
Nate Trentanelli: The list began as a bit of a joke to include two famously “bad” units in the Black Coach and the Craventhrone Guard- or “Crossboos” as they’ve come to be known by. I decided that I couldn’t possibly take Top Nighthaunt in the ITC this season without ever having actually played these units. Not wanting to have no chance during games, I peppered in some more useful units in the Hexwraiths and the Krulghast- staples of Nighthaunt armies.
I’ve gone for an Arcane Tome Knight of Shrouds here for one reason. With his Command Trait “Spiteful Spirit”, when he takes damage in the Combat phase he will roll a number of dice equal to his wounds characteristic and do a mortal wound to all enemy units within 6” for each 4+ he rolls. Quite the useful little bomb. To make things even better, Arcane Tome makes him a wizard, allowing him to be moved by Lauchon. Almost guaranteeing a turn 1 charge wherever I want to maximize his chances of doing mortal wounds. Reikenor with his +3 to cast will almost guarantee Lauchon goes off.
Hexwraiths do what hexwraiths do – nearly unmatched speed to pin opponents in their deployment zones. With 4 units of them, I can either overload my opponent turn 1 with all 20, or simply move block them turn after turn. It may lose me all my hexwraiths, but I’ve functionally disallowed my opponent from actually scoring any objective points.
2 units of Chainrasp exist solely for 2 battle tactics. Start them in the underworld and bring them down on a turn. You don’t have a good battle tactic option. Put both in your opponents deployment zone for an easy Barge Through Their Lines with a bonus for 2 GVs. The next turn take Desecrate Their Lands for another Battle Tactic. 2 complete for no effort.
The unit of Craventhrone Guard I also put in the underworld. Though their damage output is poor, it is something Nighthaunt don’t really have access to anywhere else – shooting. Even that small amount of extra damage is noticeable and useful. They are also a great distraction piece, and the Spectral Bolts ability to shoot through terrain is better than it seems. I know, I know. It’s Crossboos. Trust me. They will work.
Last is the Black Coach. It really is the AoS equivalent to a tank. It’s base size makes it terrific at blocking key areas. With the Craventhrone Guard shooting it’s actually quite easy to power it up as well. Allowing you to shoot with the Craventhrone Guard first, slay 5 models from a screen, and fire the Black Coach into the thing you really wanted to shoot for 3D3 mortal wounds. Alternatively, keeping it on its 4+ ward makes it truly crazy at tanking. Keeping it in the Krulghast bubble also gives it -1 damage for even more craziness. It’s shocking how survivable it is.
The Mortalis Terminexus gives you the flexibility to heal your heroes and Black Coach or use it more as I did, which is an aggressive mortal wound bomb. 26” total threat range from casting is great, and it can pump out quite a bit of chip damage.
All together, the armies Battle Traits of Ethereal and Wave of Terror combine to make even the weakest looking unit truly scary. Roll enough 8s on the charge, and even Kragnos will fall to simple chainrasp. The army has 5 different units that do D3 mortals on a 2+ on the charge. Don’t underestimate how much that is. Simple averages tell you that’s about 8 mortal wounds. Which, by the way, you can retreat and do all over again every turn.
Because of the movement of this army- Hexwraiths, Lauchon heroes, Black Coach teleports, and Underworld Reserves – you can be anywhere and everywhere. Movement wins games, and it’s no surprise to me that most of my opponents had issues with catching me. Even if it they were close, you can simply use one unit to block for the rest to move to safety. Keep your units alive until the exact moment your opponent is out of position. And then pounce all at once. Be careful not to allow your opponent to single out units and be careful. You don’t pull your units away from each others support. Aggressive movement with supporting units will win you games.
Happy haunting!
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Frostlord on Stonehorn (450) – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Metalcruncher – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm Butcher (140)* – Cleaver – Spells: Molten Entrails Huskard on Stonehorn (400)* – Blood Vulture – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Prayers: Keening Gale
Camaron has my thanks (but not quite my sword) for not taking any Ironblasters! What he’s taken instead is loads of big, angry cows! It’s almost a completely pure Beastclaw Raider army – love to see it.
This list essentially asks ‘can you handle 5 cows swamping you’, and the answer was ‘no’ for everyone other than Kaleb’s Tzeentch, who were able to puncture those super tough hides with his sneaky magic MW output.
Enhancement wise – which is where the tactics are in a list like this – you’ve got Metalcruncher on the Frostlord for dealing with tanky 3+ saves, along with Touched by Everwinter to make him into a priest and able to cast the excellent MW AoE ‘Pulverising Hailstorm’. The Huskard gets the Rockmane Elder (-1 to wound in melee).
A pack of Gnoblars act as a cheap add-on screen that still fits into the battle reg – crucial for a pressure list like this – in order to dictate first and almost certainly give it away every time to make an absolutely devastating round of turn 2 charges and a hopeful end-it-there double.
Big gratz to Camaron for losing only in the shadow round to a legendary player and a bad match-up.
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Head Judge – Thomas
Acting as Head Judge at LVO 2023 was a thrilling experience. I should begin by thanking both Front Line Gaming, and Scott Reed, the Head TO, for organizing such an amazing event.
LVO 2023 was the largest Age of Sigmar tournament in the world, by far, and 50% larger than previous LVOs. Whilst being involved in such a large event was a great experience, the logistics of organizing 325 players did throw up some challenges. To start, the release of the Battlescroll with new points one week before the list deadline (and after our rules cut-off) was a bit disruptive. We had to ensure that every player knew that we would be using the new points, and yet we still had quite a few lists submitted with the old points. Equally, we had to ensure that every player knew that we would not be using the new GHB, which was released the day after lists were due (and one week after rules cutoff). Of course, there were still a few players who submitted lists assuming the new GHB (comically enough, there was one player who we could not contact until round 1 to let them know that their Aspect of the Champion and Sharpshooter battalion had to go!).
The rest of the pre-event organization was handled by FLG and Scott, so my preparations beforehand were minimal. But I have been involved with the running of 36 events in the past 18 months and know that quite of bit of prep work is involved.
Due to the large number of players, LVO did not use the standard AoS GT format of 5 rounds. Instead, we used 5 rounds followed by a 3rd day of single elimination rounds for top 8 players. This year, 9 players went 5-0 which required us to run a Shadow Round 6th game for the players in 8th and 9th place to determine which of them would advance to Day 3.
The first five rounds were pretty straight forward from a rules judging point of view. The pack used at LVO, produced by Scott Reed, borrowed from the OTTD Generic Pack, which is something I was heavily involved in creating. Many of the players at LVO already have experience attending events that use the OTTD system, which helped keep rules and scoring questions to a minimum. When tricky questions did arise, I was able to fall back to the aosfaq.com website and team to provide answers.
The pressure as Head Judge only really started during the Shadow Round, which was the first round where we introduced active judging (where a judge watches the entire game and points out rules mistakes before and whilst they are made). Unfortunately, the game was a bit of a one-sided blowout – the choice to use Mighty and Cunning proved problematic when one player had essentially all GV and the other essentially none. Lesson learned! The only rules issue that cropped up was when one of the players declared Desecrate their Lands on a Defensible terrain piece. I had to remind him that you can only control Defensible terrain pieces by garrisoning them – the standard 3” rule does not apply. He was able to declare another terrain piece instead.
Day 3 was where the real excitement as Head Judge began, which entailed three rounds of active judging among the best players in the world. I was fortunate enough that James O’Brien who was a contender, had not made it to day 3, but as an experienced TO and judge was willing to jump in and judge half of the games.
When judging the final 8 of a 325-player event, there is really very little stress. These are fantastic players with a huge amount of experience and, more importantly, great sportsmanship. There was no confrontation to deal with, and all players played with intent at all times, meaning there were no disagreements to intervene with. If anything, I had to prevent players from giving too much benefit to their opponents!
Instead, the rule of table judging was just handling the occasional line-of-sight judging, pointing out often forgotten rules such as you need to jump into a garrison to control it (even the top players didn’t know that rule!) and mostly sitting back and watching some fantastic Warhammer being played. The biggest drama, up until the end of the final game, that is, was during the first round, when one of the games ended in a complete tie. With single elimination, a tie is not an option. It was also not something we had prepared for. Fortunately, the two players were able to agree that under any tie-break rules, there would be a clear winner. Of course, I couldn’t end without talking about that final game. What a game! I could watch both Noah and Scooter play Warhammer all day. Scooter is one of the great personalities to watch, and Noah is a fantastic human being. And their game was so close.
I suppose I should talk about the ending… By the end of the final game, the players had been through 3 days of extensive Warhammer. All with the backdrop of Las Vegas. I think it is fair to say that both players (and Judge) were drained. The game came down to control of an objective. Noah had a chaos spawn on it, Scooter had a goblin shaman. They fought in combat, but neither could kill the other (Scooter made the 4+ ward save to keep his Shaman alive on one wound – much to the crowd’s delight!). It was a great moment!
Of course, the spawn has 5 wounds, and so is worth 2 points on an objective, and the Shaman only has 4 wounds, so it is worth 1. But we were all too exhausted to notice. Noah assumed the Shaman was worth 2. Scooter assumed the spawn was worth 1 and I failed to notice the mistake (oh so easy to assume all heroes in the game are going to be 5 wounds or more!). That meant that they were tied on points, and Scooter won the match on battle tactics scored. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that we caught the mistake – where we had not considered that the Shaman was only 4 wounds (a friend texted me – thank you!). The way both players handled the turnaround in decision is a credit to them both. The level of joy each felt at the other being declared the winner was heartwarming.
The final, and LVO in general, left no doubt that Age of Sigmar has a fantastic community. And I am proud to be part of it.
