This is the top three AoS lists for the Boise Cup O AOS GT 2023 that took place in the USA on the 29th and 30th of July. It involved 46 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
We’re a little behind on commentary at the moment, so rather than hold things up further, we’ve published this one without comments.
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: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos – Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Vampire Lord (140)* – Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Necromancer (100)* – Spells: Merciless Blizzard 1 x Belladamma Volga (200)** – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Gorslav the Gravekeeper (120)*** – General – Command Traits: Spoor Trackers – Artefacts: Ulfenkarni Phylactery 1 x Torgillius the Chamberlain (150)*** – Spells: Fading Vigour
BATTLELINE 10 x Dire Wolves (140)** – Doom Wolf 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)** 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)** 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)** 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)** 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)***
OTHER 1 x Corpse Cart (80)*** – Corpse Goad – Unholy Lodestone 1 x Corpse Cart (80)*** – Corpse Goad – Unholy Lodestone
Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Army Subfaction: Zaitrec – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Scinari Cathallar (120)* – Spells: Total Eclipse, Hoarfrost – Aspects of the Champion (Archived): Tunnel Master (Archived) 1 x Scinari Enlightener (170)* – General – Command Traits: Loremaster – Artefacts: Rune of Senthoi – Spells: Protection of Hysh, Speed of Hysh, Hoarfrost, Merciless Blizzard 1 x The Light of Eltharion (230)** 1 x Ellania and Ellathor (190)** – Spells: Etheral Blessings, Overwhelming Heat 1 x Sevireth (270)**
BATTLELINE 10 x Vanari Bladelords (240) – Bladelord Seneschal 10 x Vanari Bladelords (240) – Bladelord Seneschal 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)** – High Warden – Spells: Total Eclipse, Solar Flare
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Hyshian Twinstones (30) 1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
TERRAIN 1 x Shrine Luminor (0)
OTHER 5 x Vanari Dawnriders (120) – Steedmaster – Standard Bearer – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh 5 x Vanari Dawnriders (120) – Steedmaster – Standard Bearer – Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh
CORE BATTALIONS: *Andtorian Acolytes **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Stormkeep – Subfaction: Astral Templars – Grand Strategy: Sacred Charge – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Knight-Incantor (120)* – Spells: Lightning Blast, Merciless Blizzard Battlemage (100)* – Spells: Levitate, Rupture – Magic of the Realms: Wildform (Ghur) Knight-Incantor (120)* – Spells: Hoarfrost, Starfall Assassin (80)** Lord-Relictor (150)** – General – Command Traits: High Priest – Prayers: Translocation Knight-Heraldor (100)** – Artefacts of Power: Luckstone
This is the top three AoS lists for the Dwellers Below AoS GT that took place in Canada on the 15th and 16th of July. It involved 20 players vying to be champion.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Null Myriad – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Mortisan Boneshaper (140)* – Artefacts of Power: Artisan’s Key – Spells: Merciless Blizzard Mortisan Soulreaper (110)* – General – Command Traits: Show of Superiority – Spells: Hoarfrost Katakros (460)**
Roland Rivera: A new season is upon us, and the Ossiarch Bonereapers are off to a great start with a tournament win. This list showcases one of the Bonereapers’ competitive advantages in this Wizard-focused season in Null Myriad, which gives units a 2+ spell ignore when within 9″ of Arkhan or one of their Mortisans. While this benefit might require some positional fiddling with some of the larger unit, it combines with the buffs and recursion provided by Katakros (who notably does NOT benefit from the Null Myriad spell ignore) and the Mortisan Boneshaper to make a potent defensive bulwark that covers the army’s advance (which is important, as this list is on the slow side).
And once they get into melee, they are quite formidable. A 30(!) man unit of Mortek Guard with the aforementioned buffs and recursion backing them up can own the middle, Immortis Guard are formidable on offense and defense, and Kavalos Deathriders are a very efficient utility unit that can screen or provide reach to threaten Heroes or finish off wounded units. Of course, any combat army worth its salt has access to some strong buffs, and this list is no exception. Katakros’ +1 to hit and +1 to save bubble is the bedrock most Bonereapers lists are built on, and Hoarfrost is very nice on large blobs of Mortek, as it is a way to make them wound on 2+, which is something that a mere +1 to wound could not accomplish.
An interesting choice in this list is the use of the Andtorian Acolytes Battalion. While this Battalion increases the drop count for the list, the extra primal dice are very important because both the Boneshaper and the Soulreaper are pretty mediocre casters, so they need all the help they can get in getting some of the tougher spells off (Hoarfrost casts on an 8, and Blizzard needs a whopping 12 to go off). All in all, Null Myriad Bonereapers lists look to be strongly positioned into the coming metagame, and I expect to see more of it going forward.
Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar – Army Type: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)* – Spells: Roaming Wildfire, Elemental Cyclone, Sear Wounds 1 x Battlemage (100)* – General’s Adjutant – Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Ignite Weapons, Elemental Cyclone – Magic of the Realms: Pha’s Protection (Hysh) 1 x Battlemage (100)* – Spells: Crystal Aegis, Warding Brand, Hoarfrost – Magic of the Realms: Wildform (Ghur) 1 x Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)** – General – Command Traits: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade – Artefacts: Whitefire Tome – Spells: Ignite Weapons 1 x Sorceress (90)** – Spells: Rupture, Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds
BATTLELINE 20 x Phoenix Guard (340)* – Keeper of the Flame – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Drummer 20 x Phoenix Guard (340)** – Keeper of the Flame – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Drummer 30 x Darkshards (330)** – Guardmaster – 3 x Standard Bearer – 3 x Hornblower
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30) 1 x Horrorghast (60)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Codrin: The new Cities of Sigmar battletome is getting close, and the pheonix guard are sadly going away when this book arrives, but Matt Kowalyk’s Hallowheart list is putting the Aelves to good use.
This list builds on a core that has been actually quite popular during AoS 2.0 – beginnings of 3.0, and seems well adapted to the new GHB rules.
This army is very synergistic, and almost all of its pieces benefit from being close to each other.
The backbone of the army are the two big blocks of Pheonix Guard that can get buffed to the heavens. They fare well in big formations due to their 25mm bases and 2″ reach halberds. A 4+ save and 4+ ward makes them quite durable while also packing a punch.
Potential buffs that could go on a unit like this are as follows:
Reroll wound rolls from a command ability coming from the Anointed on Frostheart Pheonix
-1 to be hit (Battlemage’s Pha’s protection spell) and – 1 to be wounded (from the Pheonix’s aura)
Dish out mortal wounds on a 4+, each time a model from this unit dies (ability coming from the Warding Brand spell)
The Hurricanum plays a very important role in this list, using it to suffer wounds in the hero phase for buffing the casting rolls of friendly wizards, while dishing out a significant number of mortal wounds through its shooting attacks, warscroll spell and the faction spells he’s been granted.
Sorceress and Darkshards are yet again an example of good synergies exploited to the maximum in this list. Thus this shooting unit can be given run and shoot (command ability of the Sorceress) and can potentially imbue their attacks with +1 to hit (if in the aura of the Hurricanum) and +1 to wound (from Ignite Weapons spell). To sum it up, we are looking at a unit with a range of 28″ that will put out 61 attacks, hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.
The malevolent maelstrom and aethervoid pendulum are very good and reliable additions that add to mortal wounds output this list has.
In a nutshell, we have an amazingly durable castle with walls made out of super buffed halberd wielding elves all while a storm of spells, mortal wounds and arrows are hitting enemies with surgical precision.
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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh – Army Type: Pretenders – Grand Strategy: Selfish Desire – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Contorted Epitome (210)* – General – Command Traits: Strength of Godhood – Artefacts of Power: The Crown of Dark Secrets – Spells: Hoarfrost – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Glutos Orscollion (480)* – Spells: Born of Damnation Sigvald (200)*
Joshua Bennett: Welcome readers to another event, Dwellers below, where we take a look at Slaanesh in the new GHB. Mitch Khwaja took 3rd in this event with the Pretenders subfaction. (not much has changed it seems) but with a breath of fresh air even though there are still three units of them its not a mass amount of the archers. This list likes models that are very hard to take down. The contorted is the general in this list. Even though losing Fueled by Gurish Rage hurts her effectiveness in combat, she still packs one heck of a punch. This list has her listed with the new hoarfrost spell that we can safely assume will be in every list that has a wizard that can take it.
The interesting part about this list is the Incarnate that is bound to the contorted. Where typically your opponent wants her dead as soon as possible this becomes a little more problematic when doing so causes the incarnate to go wild. Which is already going to be doing well with the obvious rise in endless spells that we are going to be seeing in this new GHB. The issue with the incarnate is that you can not pick it up in one turn, you have to wait at least two combats to kill it and by that time it may have already caused too much damage to your army.
Now the third issue you have to deal with when going up against this list is the Glutos. Not only is he super tanky with the ability to heal a ton of wounds, he also scales in power as the turns progress. Gaining new abilities at the start of each turn alongside the ever growing abilities of the Slaanesh army the more depravity the army gains. The other issue with him is that he is a great support for any Slaanesh army as he gives a minus one to hit for any enemy 12 inches around him. Stack that with the -1 to hit caused by depravity not even All out attack can help you.
Then the ever faithful blissbarb archers. Even at MSU you’re still looking at 60 shots at a thirty inch threat range hitting on twos wounding on threes. These units will still punish an army and can cripple hammers giving the list the edge that it needs. You also have to worry about not getting caught up into glutos and the incarnate which allows two units to tank your main hammers while the archers chip away from afar.
Last but not least you have the twin souls that reduce the number of attacks that you can throw into this army, tag that alongside the potentially -2 to hit your not having fun as a melee army trying its best to chew through this list.
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Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Emerald Host – Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave
LEADER 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Spells: Merciless Blizzard 1 x Spirit Torment (120)** – General – Command Traits: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts 1 x Spirit Torment (120)*** – Artefacts: Beacon of Nagashizzar
BATTLELINE 10 x Chainrasps (100)** 10 x Chainrasps (100)** 6 x Spirit Hosts (260)** 20 x Grimghast Reapers (300)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Black Coach (270)*** – Reaper Scythe
OTHER 2 x Chainghasts (90)*** 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (170)*** 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (170)***
Kel Pigg: Going into the new ghb with nighthaunt is something that should be applauded. While the army recently received some love in the form of some internal balancing that made some underutilized a touch cheaper the problem is that nighthaunt lost a lot going into this GHB. From the loss of galatian veterans in all forms, the recent arcane tome change, and even the loss of the previous ghb heroic action most players do not have a positive outlook going into this ghb. Michael here plans to prove that wrong!
His list follows a standard infantry hammer list that was common in the previous edition and has to make some concessions for the things we lost that I listed above. Using chainrasps and grimghast reapers Michael can get around needing galatian veterans and still fighting in two ranks. He also brings two units of harridans but they are left in 10 mans as it is still manageable to get that many into melee range using different methods. His big switch up here is bringing the black coach. A unit that nighthaunt players have all been dying to take off their shelf and put back onto their table it just now might be it’s time to shine. The black coach has dropped recently in points again but really it’s value to any nighthaunt list is in its tactic. It allows nighthaunt players to have one solid book tactic that they can rely on in any game and possibly one they could get on turn 1, albeit not the easiest turn 1 tactic.
2 spirit torments might be the standard for an infantry based nighthaunt list but 2 guardian of souls is something new. Likely a change to match the season the guardian of souls is the only nighthaunt wizard that isn’t unique, meaning he can get those juicy lore of frost spells, and that’s just what Michael did opting for hoarfrost and blizzard and hoping those primal dice will carry those spells home.
All in all the list is a modern ghb version of a recognizable nighthaunt standard and one we are likely to see other variations of. Only time will tell.
This is the top three AoS lists for the London Open that took place in the UK on the 15th and 16th of July. It involved 12 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: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord Kroak (410)* Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)* Skink Starseer (150)* – Spell: Speed of Huanchi – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard Slann Starmaster (275)** – General – Command Trait: Lord of Celestial Resonance – Artefact: Spacefolder’s Stave – Spell: Drain Magic – Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Battleline 10 x Skinks (90)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (90)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 5 x Saurus Guard (140)** 10 x Saurus Warriors (180)** – Clubs 5 x Raptadon Chargers (150)**
Mo’s Fangs of Sotek here went all the way, beating some TOUGH lists en route, most notably KO, OBR and – what should be a really hard counter – Khorne.
Again, it’s the new dooble-forg archetype which drops the trog, since Arcane Vessel was nerfed, for…other stuff. In this case, mo Brings 5 Raptadons who can be sped up to super speed with the Speed of Huanchi spell on the Starseer, and in general are just a great trading piece, especially if they’re able to engage near an objective for the extra damage.
An Ark of Sotek is also a fantastic pick for Starborne, as it can be teleported onto an objective where it can sit, being hard to shift, until the star power and Kroak can rev up.
Interestingly, we see three endless spells: the maelstrom is quickly becoming a fan favourite due to how quickly Seraphon can power it up and send it off to explode – possible THROUGH the Spell Portal in this instance? And if not, it’s a cheap way to project at least one of Kroak’s MW spells. And Cogs, despite losing the casting re-roll, remains an excellent pick for Seraphon due to the extra ‘free’ cast, which still contributes to star points.
Big congrats to Mo on the challenging path to 5-0
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Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords – Army Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin – Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies – Triumphs: Inspired – Stick To The Code (Amendments): Prosecute Wars With All Haste – Stick To The Code (Artycles): Settle the Grudges – Stick To The Code (Footnotes): Without Our Ships, We Are Naught
LEADER 1 x Arkanaut Admiral (140)* – General – Command Traits: Ex-Grundstok – Artefacts: Celestium Burst-grenade 1 x Aether-Khemist (100)* 1 x Aetheric Navigator (100)* – Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust
BATTLELINE 1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)* – Heavy Sky Cannon – Great Endrinworks: Magnificent Omniscope 10 x Arkanaut Company (90)* 15 x Grundstok Thunderers (480)* – 3 x Grundstok Mortar – 3 x Aethercannon – 3 x Aetheric Fumigator – 3 x Decksweeper
BEHEMOTH 1 x Arkanaut Ironclad (500)* – Great Sky Cannon – Great Endrinworks: The Last Word – The Admiral’s Flagship: The Admiral’s Flagship
OTHER 6 x Endrinriggers (240)*
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)
Jeremy Veysseire: Hello fellow Whiskey & Sky Duardins, this is your Duardrazhal speaking, Jeremy Veysseire, about two fellow Duardin privateers who recently descended onto the field at the London Open 2023.
We will start with 2nd place finisher Joshua Jenkins, who stuck to an age-old tactic of the Kharandron, being a 1-drop army. It is still very strong, as we will explain later in his commentary. Joshua finished 2nd, while fellow privateer Philip Springall finished 3rd at the same event.
As you can guess it KO fans, Joshua is a Barak-Zilfin man and he went with the tried and true 2D6” Run, +1 to Wound versus 1 enemy unit for the game and a 2 Command Abilities on 1 friendly boat that phase. His army can be described as: “I have all of these Thunderers laying around and I am down a Soulscream Bridge this GHB”.
Joshua’s army is quite balanced in his selection and could ever be called a Highlander build. His primary display of force is in the 15 Thunderers riding into his Ironclad with the Arkanaut Admiral and Aetherkhemist providing them Speed, excellent firepower and efficient CP consumption through the Admiral being able to CP the Ironclad for free once per turn and the Thunderers as well. He has back-up shooting and melee threat in the form of the frigate, and 6 endrinriggers with Navigator for some recursion in the form of boat healing.
The biggest utility options available to him is his ability to disengage and skyhigh a boat if he chooses to in a phase, or being able to sky high and combat disembark from the Ironclad for maximum punch in a turn (for Khemist and Admiral rend). He also is 50 points down allowing him most games to have a free +1 to wound for any of his units for 1 phase (we all know it’s for the Thunderers’ second round of shooting after they Ssttled DAT GRUDGE!).
His first-round opponent was Obaid Bin-Nasir with his 2-drop Legion of Blood Nagash, VLoZD and zombies/skeleton spam on Power Flux. A 4-objective mission in which the bottom player gets to choose which pair of objectives is scoreable while Andtorian Locus can score a bonus point by scoring an active objective while also gaining a bonus point that turn if you killed any Wizard. Looking at this match up, Joshua has prio going into game turn 1 easily picking bottom of the turn so he can freely choose which objectives to activate while being out of harm’s way and forcing his opponent to face a potential double, picking Nagash for his Grudge and saving his +1 to wound for the VLoZD. While the LoB player can get no bonus points from Joshua, Joshua can get 2 and basically auto win his Grand strat by killing Nagash and VLoZD. I imagine that Nagash died on turn 2 with the VLoZD being unable to impact the game and dying the following turn. Clearly a win for Joshua.
His second-round opponent was Daniil Osudin with a 5-drop Hallowheart list that can be described as a wizard ecliptic personality including Bundo your favorite maritime Miyazaki character… oh wait that’s Ponyo. Your favorite mercenary Whale catching Mega gargant. They were playing on Nexus Collapse, a mission with 6 spread out objective, which is a mission that should not be too problematic with KO’s speed and ability to clear objectives unless of course he got railroaded by 10 Evocators that rode on a dead dude boat aka Lauchon. While not having any details on the game’s event, I can only imagine that he focused on killing Bundo turn 1 and had his Ironclad and most of the Thunderers into the Evocators. Rough times were had for the pirates of the sky as they thought Bundo was the Rum carrying caddy as they take a loss.
His third-round opponent was the experienced Max Soule with a 9 (HOLY) drop Disciples of Tzeentch list that is looking to generate Fate Dice and blow you up with some shooting and a reserve, fast melee unit in the shape of Enlightened on Disk on The Frigid Zephyr. A 3 center objective mission which should punish KO as turn 1 limit Line of Sight to only 12” while removing Fly from everything (and can continue in later turn) but sadly it also limits the reach of the Disk turn 1 if they can’t fly while the range limitation punishes Tzeentch more than teleporting KO. Overall, I can only assume that Joshua was able to remove the important threats to his army effectively early and able to remove his opponent’s ability to score in the second half. Another win for KO!
His fourth-round opponent was Krzysztof Zylawy with an 8 (HOLY) drop Blades of Khrone list that is heavy in Bloodthirster and Bloodletters on Towers in the Tundra. A thematic 2 objective mission in which you gain bonus points by controlling 1 of your opponent’s terrain features, super advantageous for a teleporting fast army like KO. Sadly, Krzysztof brought just about the same amount of death dealing flyers that weren’t loaded with a lot of Buzzsaws and aetherbullets. I can imagine that Krzysztof was unable to deliver his Bloodthirster effectively while Joshua had prime pickings of targets. I assumed he settled the grudge on the 20 Bloodletters to make sure they died ASAP removing a lot of scoring power from the list while just picking apart the poor Bloodthirsters in later turns. Another KO win.
His final opponent is our next KO player, Philip on this article, I will cover that game last!
Jeremy Veysseire: Philip Springall’s KO list is what happens when you collected way too many start collecting boxes. His two-drop army is a Barak-Urbaz fleet, and I do mean FLEET as it consists of 2 Frigates, 4 Gunhaulers, 6 endrinriggers, an Admiral, a Navigator and Brokk who seems to have lost his way to his Skyport and is just borrowing Barak Urbaz’s own fleet.
For those who don’t know where the Battleline units are, they are the Gunhaulers as they are Battleline for Barak Urbaz. He also gains 2 Artycles in which he chose +2” to move to all his many boats, +1 to wound against 1 enemy unit for the game, reroll 1 hit roll per shooting phase and a once per game 3d6” charge. The artycles make a lot of sense with 4 Drill Cannons in the Gunhaulers as any unmodified hit of 5 or 6 results is a flat 3 MW, thus the reroll gets most of its value there. The 3D6 Charge is to enable his ability to bring his Admiral, Brokk and 6 Endrinrigger from 1 Frigate into what he needs consistently. Man, Philip was so confident that he didn’t even take a Command Trait in his army. Ballsy. I would say that this list takes the A in creativity, uniqueness and AIRBORNE.
His first-round opponent was Toby Resnick with an 11-drop Jawz of Mork with a TON, literal metric TON of Squigs on Power Flux. A 4-objective mission in which the bottom player gets to choose which pair of objectives are scoreable, while Andtorian Locus can score a bonus point by scoring an active objective. You also gain a bonus point that turn if you killed any wizards. While Toby had 1 Andtorian Locus, I doubt he had much choice into which objectives he got to pick to activate. No matter how many models you are, if you can’t score points. Impressive Ballsy Springall as he takes a win for this round against a match up, I feel many KO players don’t necessarily want.
His second-round opponent was Mo Ashraf (the event winner) with a 4-drop Fangs of Sotek that spells “Kroak/Skink is back baby!” on Nexus Collapse, a mission with 6 spread out objectives. Sadly, while I do not have any details on the game, it looks like Philip took a loss in that mission. I would surmise that Mo rolled more MW than the Drill Cannons and got to bring on a lot more points to score in the second half of the game than Philip. A loss to KO.
His third-round opponent was William Matthews with a 5-drop Skaven list with dual Verminlord and a lot of Gutterrunner/Clanrats with 1 Hellpit on The Frigid Zephyr. A 3 center objective mission that I feel once again should be a KO problematic map. But Ballsy Springall managed to “blow” out this rodent’s nest with a 20-0. I can surmise that the Skaven bodies were dropping too fast to retain board presence while the KO turn up “Blasting to Smithereens” to a new level. This is probably a story of how KO Battle Tactics are superior to Skaven Battle Tactics as well.
His fourth-round opponent was George Seymour with a 1-drop OBR army that is “Peak Dad Energy” as I like to call it. A limited set of models that want to police the meta between 2+ ignore spells and -1 to hit and wound against shooting aura. It’s all about reminding these young bucks who the real Bone Daddy is. Sadly, they were playing on Towers in the Tundra which can really punish a slower aura focused army such as OBR as their ability to spread and push board pressure without sacrificing units is limited. Additionally, Ballsy Springall has a high potential of MW out that really apply pressure to the Immortis Guard tankyness. If at any point the General is targetable and dies, the firepower of the army really turns up. Another impressive win for our favorite Command Traitless Admiral.
His final opponent, the match du jour, the battle to resolve who is the penultimate Privateer at the London GT, between Joshua and Philip. It can be surmised as the following as the mission probably did not matter. Joshua shot first. FIN
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Control the Nexus – Triumphs: –
Leaders Lord-Arcanum (140)** – City Role: General’s Adjutant – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Hoarfrost – Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard Bundo Whalebiter (460) – Allies Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds – Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand Battlemage on Griffon (240)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: crystal aegis – Mount Trait: Soaring Guardian – Lore of Whitefire: sear wounds Nomad Prince (110)** – General – Command Trait: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Battleline 5 x Wild Riders (120)* 10 x Dreadspears (90)* 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Ignite Weapons – Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand
Units 10 x Evocators (440)* – 10x Grandstaves – Reinforced x 1 10 x Flagellants (80)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
Codrin: Daniil Osudin’s Hallowheart list is an interesting one as it doesn’t follow the castle build but instead it puts accent on mobile pieces, giving the army the possibility for a more adaptable playstyle.
The Kraken Eater mercenary is the anvil of the army on which using the Warding Brand spell is very efficient. Having a 35 wounds monster locking in battle enemy units that will not want to stay in combat with him because of the reflected mortal wounds, is a great way to shape the battlefield.
The other and probably most important unit of the list, are the evocators. These stormcasts count as a wizard if there’s at least two models in the unit, and if we pair them with the hoarfrost spell for extra rend, give them plus 1 to wound from their warscroll spell or Ignite Weapons from another wizard, and embark them onto Lauchon the Soulseeker we are getting a very fast and deadly unit. Their stats would presume 41 attacks, potentially hitting on 2+ wounding on 2’s and with rend 2 or 3. After they finish their attacks they immediately roll 20 dice and each 4+ is a mortal wound.
The list is surely taking advantage of the primal magic dice adding them to the advantages that Hallowheart already has in casting magic. And speaking of which the Battlemage on Griffon is yet another key piece that will take wounds to buff casting rolls and provide with its big footprint a generous aura of enemy spell ignors on a 4+. This is also a Ghur mage and can cast Wildform, giving a +2 to charges on either the Kraken Eater or the Evocators.
The Lord Arcanum is a nice to have, but in this list his value increases because he becomes a double cast wizard. He is loaded with Hoarfrost and the scary Merciless Blizzard spells, and given all the pluses to cast this list has the reliability is very big on getting them off.
To sum it up, we have a big anvil, a lightning fast deadly hammer and a lot of mobile pieces that buff and and dish out mortal wounds, what’s not to love at this list!?
This is the top three AoS lists for the At least WE tried AoS GT that took place in Germany on the 8th and 9th of July. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords – Sky Port: Barak Urbaz – Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies – Triumphs: Inspired
Kharadron Code – Artycle: Settle The Grudges – Additional artycle: Honour is Everything – Amendment: Trust to Your Guns – Footnote: Without Our Ships We Are Naught
Leaders Arkanaut Admiral (125)* – General – Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Aether-Khemist (80)* – Artefact: Spell in a Bottle Aether-Khemist (80)*
Battleline 10 x Arkanaut Company (100)* – 1x Skypikes – 1x Light Skyhooks – 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns 10 x Arkanaut Company (100)* – 1x Skypikes – 1x Light Skyhooks – 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns 15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)* – 3x Aetheric Fumigators – 3x Decksweepers – 3x Aethercannons – 3x Grundstok Mortars – Reinforced x 2 15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)* – 3x Aetheric Fumigators – 3x Decksweepers – 3x Aethercannons – 3x Grundstok Mortars – Reinforced x 2 1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)* – Main Gun: Sky Cannon
Behemoths Arkanaut Ironclad (500)* – Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon – Major Installation: The Last Word – The Admiral´s Flagship: Ironclad
Endless Spells & Invocations Spell in a Bottle: Soulscream Bridge (0)
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Total: 1965 / 2000
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Null Myriad – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (370) Katakros (440)* Mortisan Boneshaper (120)* – General – Command Traits: Show of Superiority – Artefacts of Power: Artisan’s Key – Spells: Reinforce Constructs – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (50) 1 x Soulstealer Carrion (40)
TERRAIN 1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Winterleaf – Season of War: The Dwindling – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Colin the Everqueen (820)** Spirit of Durthu (350)* – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Branchwych (130)** – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Battleline 10 x Dryads (100)* 10 x Dryads (100)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
This is the top three 40k lists for the Grand Clash 2023 event that took place in the Canada on the 22nd and 23rd of April. It involved 47 players vying to be crowned champion in a 6-game tournament.
As we head into 10th edition and beyond we wanted to start providing a source for lists that are being used successfully in tournaments around the world. The size of the 40k community and the sheer number of events means we won’t be commenting.
Before I jump into the Top Three 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 40k Lists
Iron Hands Successor (Custom Chapter, Master Artisans, Whirlwind of Rage) Unbound Army (Faction) 0 CP, 1997 pts, 130 PL
HQ
Primaris Lieutenant [65 pts, 5 PL, -1 CP] – Neo-volkite pistol – Master-crafted power sword and Storm Shield – Rites of War, Stratagem: Warlord Trait, Warlord Primaris Techmarine [70 pts, 4 PL, -1 CP] – Stratagem: Hero of the Chapter – Target Protocols
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 Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII that took place in the USA on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 52 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: Soulblight Gravelords – Lineage: Legion of Blood – Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (350)* – Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour Vampire Lord (140)** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Expertise: Arcane – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares (280)*** – Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale
Battleline 5 x Black Knights (100)*** 5 x Black Knights (100)*** 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)* 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
Units 10 x Blood Knights (400)*** – Reinforced x 1 20 x Grave Guard (280)** – Great Wight Blades – Reinforced x 1 1 x Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (80)*
Some of our readers may remember that we interviewed Jeremy Veysseire some time ago on General Speaking. We reached out once more, and ever the gentleman, Jeremy agreed to give us a rundown of his list.
Jeremy Veysseire: The important thing about the Legion of Blood army I played at Sparkle Death party is that it was designed originally roughly 1 year ago to counter the hyper aggressive meta that was around Maggotkin Flies, Dragons and Ironjawz through the following important mechanics of Neferata’s spell allowing a unit of mine to ignore negative modifiers to saves (aka REND) for either Neferata and the Blood Knights on a 3+ save platform making them easily 2+ save during the crucial fights and the minus 1 to hit Aura from Neferata’s Command Ability, the reduction in attacks to 1 unit with the book spell. The additional mechanics that were more of a bonus such as the Bravery Reduction, the additional models fleeing and the Horrorghast combo really punished in some cases Dragons and the flies themselves since my army does not do straight raw damage per say but more of this “I will kill you by a thousand slow cuts while you scream for the hills.”
So we fast forward to Spark Death Party, why bring this army since the meta has evolved so much since then? Well, I wanted to see if the combo was a good counter to Gitz, Slaves and Mawtribes, which all fit those hyper aggressive archetypes. The difference being that all of those armies have abilities to deal out a lot more MW consistently than the previous meta (yes, even more than dragons) and still punch very hard. I made some tweaks by incorporating Lauka Vai and the Corpse Cart for the +1 to cast aura, hoping that in some games I could get Lauka Vai’s spell off allowing me to really control how my opponent could choose the engagement and the additional thought process was if the Gitz armies went deep in Squig Herd since they can’t reroll charges, it could potentially stop them when they want to charge.
Now lets cover some of the additional combos in the list that are less obvious, Levitating Blood Knights to always be able to move any enemy units when they retreat and plant themselves easily where they want while removing terrain to clunk them up. Making the Grave Guards Sworn protectors allows me the ability to do another Battle Tactic “A Matter of Honor” with them and just in the off chance I can get them to activate in the Hero Phase with the Vampire Lord. Lauka Vai’s MW on the Charge really allows me to sometimes get Neferata out of combat or lets me remove a GC consistently with her as she can be kind of a surgical strike unit and she provides the Blood Knights coverage if Neferata fails to cast her spell.
At the event itself, I played in order into FEC, Fyreslayers, Mawtribes, Gitz, Cities of Sigmar. My first 4 matchups were exactly the type of army I wanted to face, aggressive melee armies and man oh man did the combo work. Some highlights, keep Gotrek debuffed with less attacks and half charges while the army picked up everything else around him, into Mawtribes watching Stonehorn hit on 5’s with Neferata’s minus 1 to hit, into Gitz watching BK just absolutely lock units up and the Black Knights blocking avenues up the board. Neferata slayed a Terrorgheist, a Phoenix, a Grimwrath, and terrified the Heroes on Stonehorn with her dagger. The army obviously got to play the type of armies it was designed to fight into and it did incredibly well due mostly to its ability to keep my opponent’s army locked away and debuffed as I cut him ever so slightly to drain him of his life essence like perhaps…a Vampire. But honestly, all it took was probably a non Static shooting army like KO or Seraphon to just ruin my day. What a great last ride for this army before the new battletome.
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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 Command: Thunderbolt Volley – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)* – Artefacts: Quicksilver Draught – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)*** – General – Command Traits: High Priest – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Battlemage (100)**** – Ally – Realm: Ghur
BATTLELINE 5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)** – Judicator-Prime – Thunderbolt Crossbow 5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)** – Judicator-Prime – Thunderbolt Crossbow 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)**** 5 x Drakespawn Knights (110)**** – Dread Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower
OTHER 10 x Protectors (440)* – Protector-Prime – 4 x Starsoul Mace 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)** – Raptor-Prime 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (170)*** – Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear
Total Points: 1990/2000 Total Drops: 10 Total Units: 10 Total Wounds: 109
Through our friends at Stormkeep, we were able to reach out to Stark and ask if he’d give us a rundown of his list. Thanks again, Stark, for the comments, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again in the future!
Stark Pister: This list is a natural evolution of my HaXbows list from last season, with which I topped out at 4-1. Last season I played 15 Judicators + 3 Longstrikes in a 3 drop with double chariot bounty hunters and so this list pulls back on the shooting and chariots for a more durable anvil/hammer in the block of 10 protectors to fit the more midboard grind battleplans of this season.
In my opinion the strongest Stormcast lists tend to be mixed arms builds with durable screens protecting efficient shooting and high damage melee hammers to riposte threats that try to get through the screens to threaten the shooting, all supported by minimal characters since our faction synergies tend to be minimal. I tend to build my tournament lists with this a general philosophy as the balanced nature allows the flexibility to deal with most types of opponents. In a similar vein, I try to have units with diverse types of damage to have the tools to minimize polarized matches. I find Stormcast’s incredibly deep roster tends to provide the options to really customize what you want available in any given meta.
This new season presents a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges for Stormcast lists. Fortunately, our main minimal support characters are all GCs (except Gardus). One of our big strengths is the ability to snipe out small enemy buff heros and now that is even better with enemy GC’s being critical for half the non-book tactics and several battle plans, incentizing use of the Sharpshooter battalion. However, they balanced sharpshooters well by forcing it to be 3 required units so you can’t be very low drop. High drops can be problematic for shooting armies because an early double can allow melee to close the gap and for opposing shooting to gain the upper hand in output, so this needs to be compensated for somehow. Longstrikes make the perfect GC hunters, and with scions, translocate, and Thunderbolt volley, they provide very flexible turn one threat that helps offset those high drops. The added threat of the Judicators forces conservative screening of heros while they efficiently clear those screens from a safe distance.
The Gallatian Command battalion provides the opportunity for a very strong combo in Stormcast when used alongside a Galatian Champion with the Quicksilver Draught and the new Tunnel Master makes it easy to set up even with a hero like the Castellant who wants to be on the board in the hero phase for his ability. More importantly, it allows the combo to be down at the start of the game as part of your initial deployment castle, and with the help of the Relictor, it can be anywhere it needs to be on turn one. This allows you to defend from alpha strike armies that choose to go first against you (or the rare person you outdrop), while being able to get them buffed and into the optimal position when given top of one. Lord Castellant is the perfect hero for this job not just because of his ability to buff them to a 1+ save but critically because he has a 40mm Gryph Hound that enables the whole 10 block to fit within the 2.5″ bubble to allow them to strike first with him when someone charges them. This provides a HUGE deterrent to hitting your midbaord castle from the front and specifically acts as protection of your main melee hammer against the double turn.
The Ghur Battlemage helps make up for the paladin speed issues in the mid game and pairs well with the Relictor for melee units in general throughout. I often lead with Mystic shield on one of the screens to help with weathering the potential double as well, before flipping to wildform to go on the offensive. He also provides the bare minimum magic defense, which coupled with heroic willpower and the relictor Dispel at least let you disrupt the low hanging fruit.
The efficient battleline slots provide the opportunity to pick up an all-star screen in the Drakespawn Knights, who pair well with the Chariot to safely claim objectives and pin large threats until their buffs are down. The Chariot even has vanguard battalion to reroll its first charge outside of hero range. Because the battleline are the riposte and ranged units, they can easily stay back to protect heros from shooting for a while.
Another critical consideration this season has been the battle tactics. The teleporting GC lineup and Sworn Bodyguard paladins make most of the new ones achievable with some planning, though This One’s Mine is rarely an option. Hammerstrike Assault and Draconith Desctruction can be good backup options, albeit riskier that come in handy against armies where killing the one thing needs to be your focus anyway. The spicy Drakespawn pick can even sneak a late game Pioneers of the Realms.
Shoutouts to my mentor Matt Beasley for helping refine the list and forcing me to get reps in (and for lending the Drakespawn), to my painting mentor Ricky Fischer whose squigs I beat in round 5 to finish the tournament, and to the whole of Dimensional Cascade. Special thanks to my partner Larc for the unending support of my unbelievably-high-time-commitment hobbies.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Be’lakor (355) – Spells: Binding Damnation 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Daemonic Speed – Mark of Chaos: Undivided 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Mark of Chaos: Undivided – Leadership of the alpha 1 x Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
BATTLELINE 3 x Varanguard (290)* – 3 x Daemonforged Blade – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Doom Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Cursed Lance – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Doom Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Cursed Lance – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 10 x Splintered Fang (100)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)
Another notch on Be’lakor’s bedpost! If you’ve not met him on the table before, Be’lakor’s man schtick is being able to stop a key unit from doing stuff (on a 3+ each phase) until your next hero phase. He’s been hotly debated in (all 9) S2D player circles because, while he offers a great amount of short-term control, which potentially allows you varanguard/10 knights (as in this list) to do their work, it’s also entirely possible that you roll a few crucial 2s, and then you’ve basically paid 355 pts for a not very durable, not very killy and kinda fast hero.
He has been cropping up recently though, suggesting that, overall, he’s worth it for the time he buys the hammers to do their work. Ricky here has actually gone for KOTET, which will allow the two units of knights, the Varanguard, and the Sorcerer on Manticore to all make up plenty of ground by running and charging. Obviously, that’s going to allow a fair bit of early pressure, especially with daemonic power being cast on 3d6 with a re-roll by the Manticore Sorc, allowing one unit to charge with 3d6 as well. I imagine the spell-portal is also there to allow the Manticore’s warscroll spell – one of the few good offensive spells S2D has access to – to reach out across the board to soften stuff up.
Finally, we have an Exalted Hero, who is utterly garbage, but only 100 points, and I imagine it is mainly there for GC based scoring.
Taking down one of the two mirrors and also managing to chew through NH and a monster heavy Ogor list means this is a great result with a techy list from Ricky!
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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar – Army Type: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Battlemage (100)* – General’s Adjutant – Spells: Roaming Wildfire, Ignite Weapons – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Freeguild General (100)* – General – Command Traits: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade 1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)* – Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds 1 x Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)** – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Sear Wounds, Flaming Weapon 1 x Lord-Arcanum (140)** – Spells: Warding Brand, Roaming Wildfire
BATTLELINE 20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)* – Marksman – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Piper – Long Rifle 20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)* – General’s Retinue – Marksman – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Piper 10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)* – Standard Bearer – Marksman – Piper 10 x Flagellants (80)** – Prophet 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)** – Sergeant – Standard Bearer – Drummer – Freeguild Halberd 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)** – Sergeant – Drummer – Standard Bearer – Freeguild Halberd
Once you get one player comment, you can often get two or three from the connections those players have. That was the case here as well when Stark said he could reach out to Louis-Philippe for his comments.
Louis-Philippe: The Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix should only have Flaming Weapon (The mistake has been spot before start of the tourney and opponents were dully advise).
Game plan: First of all, AoS is a dice game. Luck is part of the game, but careful planning can sway the odds in your favour. …sometime 😛
Flagellants are there for the easy ‘’Sanctify’’ battle tactic T1 (White dwarf). Since I always let my opponent go first (I was lucky not to face a 1 drop), he usually doesn’t kill anything. So that was a free one turn 1. (Aside from game 4, where the battleplan didn’t favour that BT (Position Over Power). Fun fact, that was the only game my opponent concentrated on his resource to kill my flagellant on his T1.
This list has 4 (double, cause Hallowheart) casters, meaning an 8 cast hero phase T1. The Hallowheart command ability lets you take D6 mortals for the same amount in casting bonus. Meaning this list is usually casting at +1, if not +2 or +3, but could reach a whopping +9! and since all your spells are cast on 6s (aside Flaming weapon) unless your opponent is able to unbind, everything goes flying out. Fun fact (not so fun for my opponent): In my 4th round T1 hero phase, I was casting with a +5 from that command ability since my phoenix failed all his ward saves. Got to heal 3 wounds back with Sear Wounds though.
I mostly face Melee lists (Fireslayer, Skaven (night/gutterrunners), Nighthaunt, nurgles (beast), Soulbright Grave lord)
So, the plan was to deploy away from their charge range. For the skaven, I deployed my shooting units 3’’ aways from the front of my shaft unit, so his deepstriking rats only had my shaft to shoot at (and my Fulminators which they killed with mortals). He also charged my shaft with his deceiver (one of them failed the charge). His deceiver didn’t like mortals from magic bottom of 1 (and the other rats didn’t like my shooting).
As for the Soulbright, well Jeremy is impressive, tactics wise and had a bit of luck, he stole initiative T2, forcing me to move forward by burning my ‘’back’’ objective, and had Neferata do 1 wound (yes only 1 unsaved wound to my Phoenix, mind you it was the dagger that got through, Phoenix was at 11 health, he rolled a 5… pouf no more Phoenix).
Units : The goal was to use the Freeguild Guards and Flagellants as chaff around the Handgunners and Crossbowmen. My general and the battle mage from Ghur had to be close to each other for the adjutant rule and my general was in the middle of the range unit, providing +1+1 with his CP and a 18’’ wholly whiting immune to bravery. The Phoenix was there to act as tarpit and increase survivability (if there’s any) of the chaff unit since his -1 wound bubble affects any enemy unit within range. Fulminators are there to act as a menace, which they did great since most of my opponents were scared of them and diverted resource to deal with them. Finally, th Lord-Arcanum was there to :
Be an extra GV
Give 1 more (possibility of 2) HP to the fulminators
But mostly give 6’’ more movement range on the Quicksilver Swords, which make them a 20’’ threat range on cast (remember the casting bonuses I talked about earlier)
Battleplans : R1-Prize of Gallet R2-Ours for the taking R3-Only the Worthy R4-Position over power R5-Jaws of gallet.
Possible upgrade : Swap ‘’Tunnel Master’’ from the battlemage to the Lord-Arcanum.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Midtcon GT that took place in Denmark on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Oakenbrow – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired – Burgeoning
Leaders Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth Spirit of Durthu (350)** – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Knight-Zephyros (100)** – Allies Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Sylvaneth are really putting their roots down recently – and the nice thing is it’s still with a variety of lists – it seems like a great season for them, which is allowing people to flex their list building muscles with them and still do well.
Sune here has gone big tree heavy – with two hero trees and a full complement of treelord battleline. Durthi with the Gladius just absolutely slaps, and when such a threat is backed up by an Ancient (for a source of auto-forest at the start of the game) and a Warsong Rev for nasty casting through said forest (usually) – it’s a hell of a pincer movement.
Making full use of some allied tech, not only has Sune employed the now fairly standard Ghurish battlemage for the additional charge bonus, but he’s also rocking a Zephyros, who is just an absolute bargain basement GC who can also teleport.
Overall, I can see the root to victory for this list just being so many hyper-mobile scoring threats backed up by a killer Durthu that it’s overwhelming trying to keep up. Gratz to Sune on the evil tree 5-0.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Battleline 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Reinforced x 1 15 x Chaos Chosen (720)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh – Reinforced x 2
A rare HOTE list! Often overlooked in favour of Cabalists casting shenanigans or the battleline and run/charge of KOTET, a HOTE list really wants something to take advantage of that 5+ rally – aaaand 15 Chosen might just be the unit to do it!
Interestingly, Jon has Marked the Chosen as Slaanesh – *outside* of Legion, meaning he’s committing to their native -1 rend being enough, combined with their weight of attacks, to act as the list’s main hammer. HOTE offers a free second banner – so as well as the ubiquitous Eroding Icon on the pinning unit of Knights, he’s taken the Slaanesh banner on the Chosen for an additional attack on the charge – quite possibly relying on the mortal fishing to deal with more heavily armoured targets.
I suppose Be’lakor – whiffy and unreliable as he’s likely to be – does offer the option of locking down the Chosen’s natural predator for a turn or two, allowing them to clean everything else up – although I do struggle to see the logic of not even being able to roll on the EotG table with such a heavy investment of a unit – still, it worked out, and congrats to Jon for a great result!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Battlesmith (150)** – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – General – Runic Iron – Command Trait: Master Priest – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)** – Allies
Battleline 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1
Kevin Lathers: Now we see how far someone can skew a Fyreslayer list. Gustav has decided to deal with Fyreslayer’s innate slowness by just being able to deepstrike nearly the entire army. This list also lacks the usual Flamekeepers which accompany Vulkite Berserkers in nearly all Vostarg lists.
Between the Celestant-Prime, who can not only deepstrike but guarantee a charge, and three Runesmiters, Gustav can deepstrike all but two units in the list. Vulkites further benefit from this with their built-in +1 to charge rolls, thus making it an 8 on the roll to make a charge out of deepstrike. Twenty of them in GV is quite potent as well, even without the usual Flamekeepers.
I’m not certain how Gustav played things, but it seems the typical action would be to deepstrike two units of Vulkites and a battlesmith, along with the Celestant, leaving another brick with a battlesmith on the field; or deepstrike all three Vulkites and use Tunnel Master to bring a smith closer. In both cases this ends up performing almost like a pseudo-Beasts of Chaos list, only with a lot more wounds on the field and the ability to fight on death.
Once your opponent is boxed-in by warded up blocks of Vulkites and their big-daddy Celestant, holding objectives should be easy enough for the remaining group. It also retains the option of just sitting on an objective with the battlesmiths and making the opponent have to move the vulkites off in order to score anything, which can be daunting with 40 wounds under a 5+/6+ ward and the ability to rally on 4+’s.
Anything that can punch its way out of this is going to prove formidable and without Flamekeepers the Vulkites lose their incredibly hard punch-back ability, fighting on death more than once, and their combat phase charging. Further, having two battlesmiths eats up a lot of points that could move toward other heroes or more Vulkites. This list is sacrificing a lot for its strategy. This may have resulted in the two losses to both Ogors and Big Waagh who, depending on their build, should have no trouble weathering the storm and fighting their way out.
Still, it’s an interesting list with a great performance. Definitely an interesting way to take Fyreslayers.
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: N/A
Battleline 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)* – 1 x Marksman – 3 x Standard Bearer – 3 x Piper – Reinforced x 2 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)* – Swords and Shields – 1 x Sergeant – 1 x Standard Bearer – 1 x Drummer 10 x Flagellants (80)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue – 1 x Prophet
Units 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – 1 x Drakerider’s Lance (Stormdrake-Prime) – 3 x Drakerider’s Warblade – Reinforced x 1 Gotrek Gurnisson (480)* – Allies
With a new book almost here, Adam has proven there is still life in one of the oldest, and probably never the strongest battletomes. In the end, it’s a pretty conventional approach, drawing on really mobile Stormcast allies (Dragons, of course). 3 very magical and small heroes leave a lot of room for a real hero, and Gotrek, at his current 480 points, fits well. Hallowheart really helps the wizards. Each gets an extra spell. That means 2 instances of +1 to wound (Ignite), a heal (Sear Wounds), 4+ ward (Warding Brand), and a mortal wound ward. Soulscream gives a useful teleport if required, and everything is in a Battle Regiment to give options for the initial priority.
The army is really planning to castle. The heroes are effectively buff machines, mostly for the Crossbowman. The Flagellants and Guard are there to screen, and Gotrek can prowl around, ready to pounce on anything that trys to deal with them. They can stand and deliver (with 2 shots each) at 24″ with a fantastic unleash hell. There is still the option to Wildform Gotrek and send him through the Soulscream bridge to harrass something important. And all the while, the Drakes are there to cap and harrass your enemy. With Breathe and Lance, they are very dangerous and hard to manage. Adam lost to fire and fade (Sylvaneth), who really make you go to them, a weakness. And a faction that out castles castles, Fyreslayers. 6th is a very respectable result for cities.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Quest of Champions (Heat 1) that took place in the UK on the 4th and 5th 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.
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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: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Underguts – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Icebrow Hunter (120) 1 – General – Command Traits: Voice of the Avalanche – Aspect: Leadership of the Alpha 1 x Slaughtermaster (140) 2 – Artefacts: Gruesome Trophy Rack – Spells: Blubbergrub Stench 1 x Bloodpelt Hunter (140) 3 1 x Bloodpelt Hunter (140) 3
BATTLELINE 2 x Frost Sabres (80) 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)** – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
ARTILLERY 1 x Ironblaster (200)* 1 x Ironblaster (200)** 1 x Ironblaster (200)***
OTHER 20 x Gnoblars (120)*** 20 x Gnoblars (120)***
Did you think Ogors were just Ironblasters and giant cows at ramming speed? Think again! Rory here leans heavily into the new season’s Galletian Champ rule by taking four of them – and Ogors happen to have an excellent selection to choose from.
In this instance, Rory starts with an Icebrow hunter – relatively unremarkable save for the fact they make Frost Sabres battleline as a General, and can also deepstrike along with one said unit of chill-cats. So already you can see the scoring potential – now add in two Bloodpelt hunters who are relatively slappy, invisible while in cover and can move at the end of an opponent’s movement phase (if 9″ away) – starting to feel insecure about your objectives?
Rory also opts to spread the meat-by-square inch between three msu Mournfang rather than packing it into one large Frosthorn, no doubt further aiding with the scoring heavy and board control game plan.
I mean, yes, sure, there are also three ironblasters and 40 Gnoblars – but the rest of the list is a really cool, Seasonal spin that shows off the Ogors’ diverse hero roster and really plays a balanced game of AoS – as evinced by taking down a motley crew en route to the 5-0: Slaves; Tzeentch; Ogors and Sylvaneth, all of whom ask very different questions, to which this list had all the answers!
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Kairos Fateweaver (440)* Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch (230)* – General – Command Trait: Daemonspark – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (110)*
Units 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc (360)* – Reinforced x 1 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
On to the second place list now and the one that pushed Rory, the eventual winner, the hardest, missing out on a 5-0 by only one battle tactic. Speaking to Sam after the event, it was the “Cast 3” tactic that just let him down with another book tactic being available and probably the easier option. While we’re talking about matchups, Sam also had an epic battle against Peter and his 9 (yes 9!) Revenant Seekers, so clearly Sam knows his Tzeentch!
Onto the list itself, Sam went for a one-drop list for this event and doesn’t plan to go back to more drops any time soon! The ability (most of the time) to make your opponent take the first turn and potentially come within range of those spells is excellent and, even if your opponent retains priority into turn 2 they have a really difficult choice: give it away and take Kairos bombarding you with spells into oblivion OR allow opponent to take advantage of the ‘going second’ battleplan bonuses.
Speaking of bonuses to going second, one of the MVPs of the list are the Enlightened on Discs. Lots of attacks with all of the profiles and with a couple of buffs on them and debuffs on opponent, they’re not going away any time soon. With the help of Destiny Dice, they could have a guaranteed 28″ threat range (move 16″ + 12″ charge) to reach out and wipe out whatever it touches. Combo that move with a double turn and you’ve got a unit that can take out two of your opponent’s key pieces and still be hanging around causing mayhem.
In terms of spells, Sam is a little limited in numbers, but Kairos knows all of the Lore of Change and the Gaunt Summoner (a Galletian Champion, by the way) knows all of the Lore of Fate. Combined with the Fluxmaster generating those Fate Points with his spell, it’s not unreasonable to be able to put 10 Blue Horrors down every turn.
Overall, a fab list that has given me a lot to think about in terms of how I build my own Tzeentch list (featured twice in the ‘L’ column of this rundown!) and one that I’m sure Sam will have a tonne of success with in the future.
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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – General – Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter – Keening Gale – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Slaughtermaster (140)* – Lore of Gutmagic: Molten Entrails – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Tyrant (150)* – Big Name: Deathcheater
Battleline 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Weapon: Blood Vulture Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Weapon: Blood Vulture
A little more of a traditional Ogor list here from Peter – with a big ol’ Frostlord, your top tier value Tyrant, and two large-and-in-charge Stonehorn Beastriders. It’s a pin and pressure list, the likes of which many of you will be familiar with by now – with one Ironblaster for a little sniping and lots of mortals on the charge.
One unit of Ironguts stomp along for the ride to double-fight and mince whatever is stupid enough to let them catch up to them. A good, honest, hungry list that avoids spamming anything but is still more than capable of just boxing you in and scoring you out!
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Battlemage (100)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Warding Brand – City Role: General’s Adjutant – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Lore of Whitefire: Ignite Weapons Luminark of Hysh with White Battlemage (270)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds – Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand Nomad Prince (110)** – General – Command Trait: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Ignite Weapons – Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Battleline 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Crystal Aegis – Lore of Whitefire: Sear Wounds 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)* – Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Crystal Aegis – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist 20 x Eternal Guard (240)** – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models) – Reinforced x 1
Units 6 x Vanguard-Palladors (400)* – Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins – Reinforced x 1 3 x Demigryph Knights (170)* – Lance and Sword 6 x Vanguard-Palladors (400)* – Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (30)
For the wildcard list at this event we have Freddie Leggett’s Cities of Sigmar list, variations of which he has been playing with great success over the last few months. Freddie not only specialises in being an absolute top bloke and lovely guy (David Wymer and I were fighting over who would get to ‘grudge’ Freddie round 1 – David got round 1; I got round 5) but also in taking units that most generals wouldn’t take and making them work.
The joke at the event was that it was the Eternal Guard who were the linchpin of the army, especially with the new Galletian battalion, it’s really the Palladors that make this list tick with the help of the Hallowheart wizards.
With the combination of spells Freddie has at his disposal, the unit of 6 can redeploy instead of move anywhere on the battlefield with Ride the Winds Aetheric at which point they can open up with their shooting attacks that all have +1 to wound. They can then attempt a 9″ charge, which is actually a 7″ charge thanks to the Battlemage of Ghur. The +1 to wound buff also helps in the fight phase and with All out Attack, this means that they’re all hitting and wounding on 2s. When they are hit back, they can have a -1 to hit from the Luminarch, have a bonus to their save with Mystic Shield and All out Defence (3+, ignoring rend -1) and, if the opponent does wound the Palladors, another spell turns them into little fluffy Magmadroths and bounce mortal wounds back on 4s. If a Sisters of the Thorn unit is nearby, they can boost the spell ignore for Hallowheart up to a 4+ to mean that not even magic can reliably clear them (I have personal experience of that).
But it’s okay. They did some damage and it took more resources than you’d like to take care of them, but they’ve been lifted now. Then Freddie sends in the second unit of 6!
Well done, Freddie, for a fab list, a great 4-1 and a huge congratulations on being named Captain of the UN Worlds Team. Fingers crossed the stars align to have you lead the team, maybe even with 12 Palladors along for the Ride Aetheric.
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.
