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.
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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!
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.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: 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.
With the release of the Battlescroll: Galletian Reinforcements I’ve been able to go back through the data from the release of the General’s Handbook and tidy everything up. In doing so, I though it may be cool to give you a run-down of how each faction performed under the current General’s Handbook until the Battlescroll took effect.
The data used for analysing these results was taken from 110 Grand Tournaments between 3rd July 2022 and 6th November 2022.
Big Waaagh!
Region Comparison – Popularity
Big Waaagh! saw their highest popularity in Oceania with 3.3% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while in North America and Europe the uptake was only 0.8% .
Region Comparison – Win Rates
Although they were unpopular in North America, Aaron Newbom et al guided them to great success with a win rate there of 54.4%. Meanwhile in Scandinavia, they could only achieve 30%.
Popularity in North America was backed up with two 5-0 results. In Scandinavia no player achieved more than two wins.
Top 10 Big Waaagh Players
You may notice that some players have a better World/Nation ranking than players above them in this table. This is due to players playing with multiple factions. These players have been ranked on their top 4 Beasts of Chaos results only.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Immortal Masquerade that took place in USA on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 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
List 1
Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340)** Mortisan Soulmason (115)** – Artefacts of Power: Soul Reservoir – Spells: Drain Vitality Liege-Kavalos (170)** – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (50) 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Danny: OBR feel slightly like the faction that 3e forgot, with their weird version of command points and panoply of 2e style re-rolls. The army can definitely blend though – and recent points drops have given them even more list flexibility. Their main weakness is their red matchups are very red – something a two list format can massively help ameliorate.
Michael has a core of Deathriders in both lists – fast, relatively tanky if not particularly killy battleline that represent the ‘best’ objective grabbers the super slow Bonereapers have. The first list goes with two reinforced bone pone blobs backed up by the ever reliable MSU Mortek with their re-roll saves in Petrifex always making them difficult to shift. Arkhan, the currently favoured OBR utility hero rounds out the tried and tested core. This first list also bungs in a Mortek Crawler – they’re super swingy (pun intended) but do offer one long range piece with spike potential that helps try and deal with those pesky backline support heroes this faction has otherwise no way of interacting with.
List 2, meanwhile, is wild – primarily for the simple fact it contains Nagash!! The bone daddy himself is in need of some modernisation, but he’s still a super potent spellcaster. The main reason you don’t see much of him is his lack of ward save makes him super vulnerable to good ranged threats – something again the two list format allows Michael to make a good guess about the chances of facing such threats before choosing the list.
And WITHOUT good ranged firepower, Nagash can be a MW powerhouse able to keep bringing models back.
A fantastic result for an under-appreciated faction who are nonetheless slowly gathering a cult following. Still a shame Nagash is too unreliable to bring to a solo-list tourney – but in the meantime, great to see him put in a successful appearance!
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List 1
Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Gordrakk the Fist of Gork (540) Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260) Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)** – Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma Orruk Warchanter (115)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)** – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
Other Units Beast-skewer Killbow (110)*** Beast-skewer Killbow (110)*** Beast-skewer Killbow (110)***
Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Ironsunz – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Kragnos, The End of Empires (720) Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh! – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
Declan: Bringing 2 lists to a tournament is a great way to have a little more fun… but normally players either bring 1, or make very small changes… not so Rob with his Big Waaagh lists – they are completely different. I really like the idea of taking a shooting list and a charging list and then choosing which one would be best – and Rob clearly chose well.
The 2nd list is simple and straight forward, but three monsters are a great idea – Kragnos; Big Waaagh; Rogue Idol… all charging 3D6″ and smashing face. Big Waaagh aren’t always best of a turn 1 charge but these three may change all that.
The 1st list is much more techy; with lots of shooting and Gobsrakk. But the genius here is Gordrakk – what a brave play. He’s not seen as the best unit in the Orruk Warclans list, but it’s great to see him having an outing.
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Stormkeep – Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)* – General – Command Traits: Master of the Celestial Menagerie – Stormbound Blade – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Celestial Instincts – Spells: Flaming Weapon Yndrasta (280)* Averon Stormsire (230)* – Spells: Thundershock
OTHER Stormsire’s Cursebreakers (230) Castigators (210)* Castigators (210)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Everblaze Comet (90) 1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000
Brett: Smaller tournaments are a great place to see some really different lists like this. We don’t see Sequitors or Castigators a lot and here is a list with all of the Sacrosants. The Sacrosant chamber was introduced in 2nd Edition as the casters of the Stormcast, with Sequitors, Castigators, Stormsire and a Stardrake this is a full chamber in action. Thematic. Even though it’s the casting chamber there are only 3 casts in the list but that’s enough for the Everblaze and the Geminids. Everblaze has been popular recently for decent MW at a distance and Geminids are amoung the best of the Malign Sorcery Spells. The Stardrake offers one of the few casting buffs that Stormcast can receive.
Sequitors spell abilities are limited to choosing between exploding 6s or a 5+ ward. Castigators can do the same and either give themselves +1 to hit or increased rend. But they are still using random (D3) shots which is not ideal. Interesting but the damage here is the Stardrake and Yndrasta. This is really more of a durable list, Stormkeep and Celestial Warbringers compliment that approach. But it is a slow moving list which seems to have affected scoring. Both of Paul’s loses (to first and second) were to lists that mixed durable and fast units. Fantastic to see an alternative take on Stormcast.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Living City – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Nomad Prince (110)** – General – Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan – Artefact: Spear of the Hunt Anointed (110)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – City Role: General’s Adjutant – Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin Drycha Hamadreth (335)**
Battleline 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)** – Lore of Leaves: Cage of Thorns 10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)*** 10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)***
Units 20 x Phoenix Guard (350)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vigilors (340)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Declan: Only one list for Matt, but it’s an interesting one – I’m not actually sure how it works. I assume the Pheonix Guard are the anvil (4+ ward save), and the Vigilors provide the hammer with the Fulminators being able to pick off a key unit or clear a screen or two. The battleline are interesting, with some reasonable range, but definitely fishing for 6s.
Matt has taken Dyrcha as well for some much needed punch, but this is definitely not a list you’ll see too often and that’s probably its strength… I wouldn’t really know what to do or what to target first. A strength of ‘off-meta’ lists.
Woehammer Winner: The Power of the Waaagh! is the undisputed champion in this slot and is one of the reasons that Big Waaagh! army that is Ironjawz + Wurrgog is arguably stronger that pure Ironjawz. At eight different points in a battle round, your army can earn Waaagh! points:
D6pts at the start of your hero phase
2pts at the start of your hero phase if a friendly Warchanter is on the battlefield
1pt at the start of your hero phase if a friendly Bonesplitterz Wizard (i.e. probably a Wurrgog Prophet) is on the battlefield
1-5pts as a heroic action in your hero phase
1pt in your charge phase for each friendly Orruk unit that finishes a charge move
1pt at the end of your combat phase for each friendly Orruk unit that is within 3” of an enemy unit
1-5pts as a heroic action in your opponent’s hero phase
1pt at the end of your combat phase for each friendly Orruk unit that is within 3” of an enemy unit
Arguably I’ve duplicated those last two, but I think it’s worth it to point out that if you lean into it, the points can mount up quickly. As for what you get for these points, they start at 8pts for +1 to run rolls; 10pts for +1 to charge rolls; 12pts for +1 to cast, dispel and unbind; 16pts for +1 to hit in melee; 20pts for +1 to wound. And here’s the magic: they are cumulative, so you get ALL the buffs at 20pts. At 24pts, you can release the Power of the Waaagh! which you should NEVER IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO! The reason for this is that your Waaagh! points revert to zero for the pathetic buff of +1 to attacks characteristics for ONE combat phase. Hitting and wounding on 2s is better than having one extra attack that hits and wounds on 3s. In addition, there is a battle tactic that requires you to have at least 24 Waaagh! points at the start of the turn and then have at least 30 by the end of the turn. If you release the Power of the Waaagh!, you give away one of the easiest, if not the easiest battle tactic in Age of Sigmar.
Honourable Mention: Although you don’t get the full benefits from each sub-faction when you include them as part of Big Waaagh!, you do get some of the juicy rules with Kunnin’, Brutal and Savage. Namely, you get Venom Encrusted Weapons for any Kruleboyz units (see Part 1 for more details); Mighty Destroyers for any Ironjawz units (see Part 2 for more details); Warpaint for any Bonesplitterz units (6+ Ward). This helps to give a little extra flavour and efficiency to each of these units, which is important as…
Warclans
…you don’t get any! The point of Big Waaagh! is that all the Orruks come together from many Warclans so there aren’t any rules for separate Warclans.
Command Traits
Woehammer Winner: There are lots of command traits available for your Big Waaagh! general, but it does depend on which sub-faction (Kruleboyz, Ironjawz or Bonesplitterz) your general comes from. Who your general is probably depends on what else your army is trying to do, so there are a few ways you could go here. Assuming that we’re going with either an Ironjawz Warchanter or even a Megaboss on Mawkrusha, Touched by the Waaagh! not only has Waaagh! in the name (so it must be good), but also allows an Ironjawz Wizard (thanks Arcane Tome!) to do D3 wounds to a unit within 6” of itself and add that to the cast roll. Once you’ve got to 12 Waaagh! points then that’s D3+1, allowing a relatively straightforward cast of your key spell: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork.
Honourable Mention: Maybe you have Chronomantic Cogs to help with spells going off or maybe you want to go full aggro, but an honourable mention is Supa Sneaky from the Kruleboyz part of the tome, probably put on a Mirebrute Troggoth with Fast ‘Un. Just as with Kruleboyz, this means you can put this very angry trog 9” away from the enemy and then move them 5” forward for an almost guaranteed charge. You can potentially combo this with Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork and Mighty Destroyers to start movement phase one with the Mirebrute and six Gore Gruntas 4” or less from your opponent’s front lines, possibly with a Mawkrusha about to move an extra 12” to be able to absolutely decimate your enemy. The caveat with this combo is Big Waaagh! lists often want to have multiple artefacts and/or mount traits so you may not have the option of who goes first, which puts your general at a disadvantage if you do Supa Sneaky him. However, if you stick with just one artefact (Glowin’ Tattooz), take a Weirdnob Shaman for Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork in place of Arcane Tome and the other options listed above, you can get to a double battle regiment, two-drop list.
Artefacts
Woehammer Winner: If you’re taking the Wurrgog then you need to take Glowin’ Tattooz to improve the Ward save of a hero to 4+ instead of 6+. For your opponent, this takes the Wurrgog Prophet from a threat to an absolute nightmare to get within 12” of, knowing that it can kill absolutely anything in the game.
Honourable Mention: Almost every Big Waaagh! list will feature Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork and almost none of them will feature a Weirdnob Shaman to cast it. Instead, the Arcane Tome fills in, allowing a Warchanter or Megaboss to ping any Orruk unit (i.e. not just Ironjawz) 9” away from the enemy.
Mount Traits
Woehammer Winner: By this point, you can probably guess what’s coming…that’s right, it’s Fast ‘Un! One of the reasons for going Big Waaagh! vs. Ironjawz is to be able to take the Wurrgog Prophet, but almost as compelling is the ability to take the Breakaboss on Mirebrute Troggoth. And as Glowin’ Tattooz is practically compulsory on a Prophet, Fast ‘Un is practically compulsory on a Mirebrute. It’s obviously also amazing on a Mawkrusha and even a Sludgeraker as a budget version of the Mawkrusha.
Honourable Mention: As command traits are at an absolute premium and you won’t be taking Hulking Brute over the options above, the next best option is Smelly ‘Un for that extra survivability on (likely) your Mawkrusha. With a 3+ save base, add in -1 to hit when not charging, +1 to saves from Their Finest Hour, All out Defence for an extra +1 and even Mystic Shield, that Mawkrusha is not going down short of getting in trouble with Kragnos and it will hit back tremendously hard, possibly clearing the unit that had the temerity of attacking it, ready to move on to some fresh victims!
Spell Lore
Woehammer Winner: It has been mentioned several times already, but Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork is the first spell that should be on your army list. Mawkrushas and Gore Gruntas are relatively quick without it, but practically everything else you’ll be taking in Big Waaagh is slow. Add in the combination explained in Part 2 of these reviews where you Hand of Gork Gore Gruntas 12.1” away from an enemy and then Mighty Destroyers it 9” in the hero phase, circumventing Redeploy, then you’ve got a winning combo. It also works on anything with the Orruk keyword, not just Ironjawz, so throw those Boltboyz in danger-close or even some Big Stabbas.
Honourable Mention: There is a very strong case for Nasty Hex taking this slot, particularly in the current meta with lots of ghosts and gross flies wafting around the place. But you do need to either take a Swampcalla Shaman to access it or put the Arcane Tome on a Kruleboyz character. It is much more likely that you’re going to have access to a Bonesplitterz wizard as the Wurrgog is also a wizard when there’s nothing to stare to death within 12” at the start of the hero phase. The spell you’d go for in this case, would probably be Gorkamorka’s War Cry in order to make an enemy unit fight at the end of the phase. Losing out on the Kruleboyz Waaagh! and Smashing and Bashing means that the fight phase is not in your control as you would ideally like. War Cry goes some way to redressing this balance in the favour of the Orruk player.
Grand Strategies
Woehammer Winner: Applying the same logic as I did with the Command Traits, then Waaagh! has to be the option here and it’s definitely worth considering if your general is a Mawkrusha and/or you have taken a big unit of Brutes that can be dropped in by Gork. In almost all games, your Mawkrusha (if you take one) will be wanting to do work in your opponent’s territory and even on foot, Brutes (or even 15 Ardboyz) should be able to make it across the battlefield in five turns!
Honourable Mention: With the manoeuvrability of Big Waaagh! then an honourable mention is No Place for the Weak, particularly if you have included either a Warlord or Command Entourage battalion because then you’re not winning the drop game and you may as well also make the Gore Gruntas you take (and you will want at least six) to be bounty hunters. With a Warchanter buff on them, that’s 3 damage vs. Galletian Veterans, making those battleline units disappear very quickly. Alternatively, if you’re playing a bit more cagey in the first couple of turns with a Mawkrusha, then by turn three, anything that is a genuine threat to your big angry cabbage might already be dead, allowing him to roam the board, chewing up and spitting out any battleline he can find.
Battle Tactics
Woehammer Winner: As alluded to earlier, Big Waaagh! have a book battle tactic that is ridiculously easy to pull off with Wait For It, Ladz. You need to fulfil the following to conditions: have at least 24 Waaagh! points at the start of the turn; have at least 30 Waaagh! points at the end of the turn. It is very likely that you will be at 24 Waaagh! points by the start of battle round 4 and it’s practically guaranteed to be there by battle round 5. If you ever start a battle round with 30 Waaagh! points, then it’s already scored…even if you are tabled!
Honourable Mention: With Wait For It Ladz being our likely turn 5 battle tactic, Barge Through Enemy Lines is a great choice for turn 4 as Big Waaagh! is a melee-centric faction with the buffs from the Power of the Waaagh. Therefore you probably have one Galletian Veterans unit relatively close to enemy territory by this turn and a sneaky Hand of Gork could pop another one in, scoring not only the battle tactic, but the bonus point too.
Warscrolls
Woehammer Winner: The core of your Big Waaagh! list will most likely be Ironjawz as they have the best battleline and Gore Gruntas are great. The warscrolls we’re going to focus on are the two warscrolls that are the most common non-Ironjawz units chosen: Wurrgog Prophet and Breakaboss on Mirebrute Troggoth. Please check out Part 3 of the Orruk Warclans book for more information about what the Wurrgog does and why he’s so fun, but I’m going to give you an example of what he can do with Big Waaagh! If you also have a Mawkrusha in your list, then it is a high-value target that your opponent will want to take out, but sufficiently tanky that something quite substantial needs to be committed to remove it from the board. If you have a Wurrgog Prophet within 12” of your Mawkrusha, your opponent can still charge, but then you’re perfectly placed to ‘Hard Stare’ that unit out of existence if they succeed with the Mawkrusha. You could even point this out to your opponent to check to see if they really want to take that risk. If they choose not to charge, you win. If they choose to charge and the Mawkrusha destroys them, you win. If the Mawkrusha dies, then you win as you then get to play ‘Whose head will blow up first?’, which is fun whichever head pops first! Just don’t try this with Morathi as she ruins all our fun.
Honourable Mention: The other unit is the Breakaboss on Mirebrute Troggoth. You’re not going to find a much more efficient way of delivering up to five damage 2 attacks and ten (!) damage 3 attacks than the Mirebrute. With the Supa Sneaky or Hand of Gork + Fast ‘Un combo, you’re almost guaranteed to get into combat and then he can do some severe damage. In your opponent’s turn, popping Their Finest Hour and All out Defence can make him hang around longer than he really should and if (when) he dies, who cares! He was only 180pts and he probably wiped a fairly premium unit and held your opponent up a turn while potentially a Mawkrusha and Gore Gruntas hammered the other flank.
Final Thoughts
Big Waaagh! is what you choose if you like Ironjawz, but want a few more techy options; or if you like Kruleboyz but want to be a bit tougher and faster; or if you like Bonesplitterz but fancy having a big monster run around the place. It’s also a really fun army from a hobby perspective as you can take all these disparate sculpts and bring them together as a cohesive whole with which to stomp the enemy with. It’s also quite a rare army to see out in the wild, so if you have a few Ironjawz, half a Dominion box and some Savage Orcs from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, then maybe give them a try.
This is the last part of the Orruk Warclans Battletome Review. Is there anything that we missed? Any combos not mentioned? Are any of our choices just plain wrong?! Please leave a comment below, in the Woehammer Discord or even contact me at @yeliabnoreik on Twitter. There’s just one thing left to say and that’s: WAAAGH!
My last outing with the Gloomspite Gitz ended with a 2-3 result and me playing against Gitz for game 5… so a good result for Gitz although not for most armies; but when it came to deciding which army to use for Warfare (12th – 13th November, 2022) I was very tempted to go back to Big Waaagh as it can smash (and bash) and win a few more games than the Gitz.
But, with the new Battlescroll and the reduction in points for Squig Herd and the Mangler Squig I couldn’t ignore GW’s attempt to make the Gitz playable – so I’ve gone back to them for a second time.
Games Workshop – Battlescroll
I tend to use a lot of Squig Herd models, and this was a significant cost saving for the lads. (100 points for the herd alone). It also meant I could look at an upgrade of my Grot on Giant Squig… (see below)
The List
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
Leaders Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (270)***
General Command Trait: Dodgy Character Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance Madcap Shaman (80)*** Artefact: Moonface Mommet Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Madcap Shaman (80)*** Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Battleline 36 x Squig Herd (420)** Reinforced x 2 12 x Squig Herd (140)* 12 x Squig Herd (140)* 10 x Squig Hoppers (180)** 10 x Squig Hoppers (180)**
Units 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105) 5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)***
This is similar to the previous list with a few small changes. The first is a reduction in the Boingrot Bounders from 10 models (reinforced units) to 5 models. This frees up 210 points to spend on more Gitz… I’ve gone for 2 Madcap Shamans with Hand of Gork to threaten the backfield of my opponent’s objectives. One of the little chaps also has the Moonface Mommet – effectively giving my Herd -1 rend against one unit each turn – not bad for a little chap.
My other big change, allowed by the reduction in points on Squig Herd, is to swap out the Loonboss on Giant Squig with a Loonboss on Mangler Squig. This allows me to assist all the Squigs in combat – a thing I struggled with at Warhammer World.
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
This turns the Squig Herd into 3+/2+ (with the Marshcrawler) and I won’t be low on command points whilst he is alive. And to help with that he is a ‘Dodgy Character’
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
Not helpful against spells, but he can mostly stay out of the way, or rely on the dispelling rolls of him and his mates. This does mean I lose two benefits in the last army. +3″ movement from the Giant Squig and re-roll random movements. But I think this more than makes up for that. At Warhammer World I didn’t advance far beyond my lines and doing damage was the main issue.
Having avoided ‘bottom Chump’ last time with 2 wins, I’m aiming for 2 wins again, but will be trying for 3! Let’s see if my last tournament of the year can be a fun one.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the SoCal Open that took place in USA on 22nd and 23rd October. It involved 45 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – holy command: thunderbolt volley – Grand strat- no place for the weak
LEADERS Celestant-Prime (325) Knight-Draconis (300) – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Thunderous Presence – Spells: Flaming weapon Slann Starmaster (265)
OTHER Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240) Aetherwings (65)
Battle Regiment
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Everblaze Comet (90) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Declan: Partying like it’s early 2022! Dragons and Longstrikes are back, but Ramon’s brought a Slaan as well. An interesting choice which shows the strength in depth within Order. Particularly with Stormcast Eternals.
The Celestant Prime is kept in reserve until needed so Ramon’s early turns are about the Dragons and Endless Spells and then when you’re reeling… bang goes the Prime. Its Prime Time!
Brett: Something to look out for, Thunderbolt Volley with the Longstrikes (edited). Real opportunity to remove a screen just about anywhere and then introduce the Prime.
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Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos – Army Subfaction: Allherd – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)** – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Sundering Blades 1 x Tzaangor Shaman (135)** – General – Command Traits: Dominator – Artefacts: Blade of the Desecrator – Spells: Wild Rampage – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Grashrak Fellhoof (150)** – Spells: Wild Rampage
BATTLELINE 30 x Tzaangors (525)* – 3 x Icon Bearer – 3 x Brayhorn Blower – 6 x Tzaangor Mutant – Pair of Savage Blades 10 x Ungors (65)* – Brayhorn – Banner Bearer – Ungor Blade and Half-shield 10 x Ungors (65)* – Brayhorn – Banner Bearer – Ungor Blade and Half-shield
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40) 1 x Ravening Direflock (30) 1 x Wildfire Taurus (70)
OTHER 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (360)*** 5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (150)***
Declan: A list from before the Battlescroll, it’s still great although now more expensive. A great swansong for this version by Matt, but don’t expect Beasts to stop getting 5-0s. I still think they are very good.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Army Subfaction: Winterleaf – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Arch-Revenant (120)* 1 x Branchwych (130)* – Artefacts: Acorn of the Ages – Spells: Verdant Blessing, Regrowth 1 x Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts: The Vesperal Gem – Spells: Verdurous Harmony, Verdant Blessing 1 x Celestant-Prime (325)*
Declan:it’s great to see a proper submarine effort and Roberto has done well here. It’s easy to get disheartened but he didn’t. Sylvaneth are difficult to get to 5-0 so a 4-1 is a great result.
Again showing the versatility of Order with Allies from Stormcast and it Prime Time again. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone full Destruction!!
Brett: Combining the Prime and Gossamid is a brave change, that’s equivalent to 6 more Kurnoth or Durthu. Always good to see something new and Roberto almost pulled it off. If you are planning on using the Prime it’s always worth remembering that you have 300+ points off the table for 2 or 3 rounds. It’s hard to make his cost up, the Prime works well with Stormcast because they are often short of units after round 3.
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: bloodthirsty
LEADERS Wurrgog Prophet (150)* – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)* – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)* – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon Orruk Warchanter (115)** Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (240)** – General – Command Traits: Supa Sneaky – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un Orruk Megaboss (140)** – Artefacts of Power: Destroyer
BATTLELINE Orruk Ardboys (255)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – Ardboy Boss – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
OTHER Orruk Gore-gruntas (170) – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)* – Boltboy Boss Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Boltboy Boss
Declan: Talking of Destruction, Aaron came in 6th with a 4-1. His Big Waaagh list takes the Kruleboyz and the points increases and decreases nett out in the new Battlescroll.
Aaron’s Big Waaagh works in most phases so there’s no hiding with the Boltboyz giving much needed range support and the Wurgogg staring down the world. Another great result.
Brett: The weakness of both Boltboyz and the Wurgogg is combat, they need to be screened. Screens don’t come much heavier than 15 Ardboys, that’s tough to deal with.
Tomorrow the Age of Chumps club is travelling en-masse to Warhammer World to take part in a two day Age of Sigmar tournament. It’s my last for a while, so I was torn about what to take.
After the success last year of the Big Waaagh, they were the obvious decision – brute force, cunning application – all backed up by an improving profile which means that 2+/2+ doesn’t take long to get to…
But… I haven’t used my Gitz in a while and there is a new GHB, as well a small change to the Loonshrine warscroll.
Games Workshop FAQ
It’s not much, and it’s not a White Dwarf article like Beasts, or Khorne… but it does make a small difference. The Moon allows Moonclan to rally, and Squigs to charge after running. Perfect for getting Boingrot Bounders into the right place, or bouncing over units with Hoppers before finishing off lone heroes! Sure it’s range isn’t perfect, but it’s large on the smaller table.
Finally, the General gets an extra command point each turn – great resource benefit.
Squigs, Spiders, Trogs, or Grots
I have options for all Gitz forces, but my favourite has always been the Squigs… especially as they trigger the rally benefit and the run and charge… also; red looks great.
The List
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110) – General – Moonclan Stabba – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig
Battleline 10 x Squig Hoppers (180) 10 x Squig Hoppers (180) 36 x Squig Herd (480)* – Reinforced x 2 12 x Squig Herd (160)** 12 x Squig Herd (160)**
Units 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) – Allies
It’s not going to chose first or second, has no magic, lacks the punch to get out of a wet-paper bag, and the battle tactics are difficult but who’s counting! It has 242 wounds, Squigs come back in my battleshock phase on a 4+, and if I can get the foot squigs into all quarters I get my Grand Strategy… this includes the ones that come back thanks to the FAQ:
Games Workshop, GHB FAQ (Sep-22)
So that’s a bit of a trick – I’ll be sure to make my opponents aware at the beginning of the game, as it’ll be my aim all tournament.
I’m hoping for 1 win, and to avoid being bottom Chump but the Gitz will be a challenge – Tune back next week to see how I got on!
