With the release of the Battlescroll: Galletian Reinforcements I’ve been able to go back through the data from the release of the General’s Handbook and tidy everything up. In doing so, I though it may be cool to give you a run-down of how each faction performed under the current General’s Handbook until the Battlescroll took effect.
The data used for analysing these results was taken from 110 Grand Tournaments between 3rd July 2022 and 6th November 2022.
Cities of Sigmar
Region Comparison – Popularity
Cities of Sigmar saw their highest popularity in Europe with 3.5% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while their close neighbours in Scandinavia had the lowest take-up with only 0.3%.
Region Comparison – Win Rates
They may not have been popular in Scandianvia but their win rate there was the top of the pile at 60.0%. While players in Europe could only manage 43.2%.
Cities of Sigmar saw their only 5-0’s in the UK & Ireland and North America.
Subfaction Analysis
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Excelsis
1
80.00%
Phoenicium
7
66.13%
Hallowheart
40
57.21%
Hammerhal
8
50.00%
Har Kuron
1
50.00%
Tempest’s Eye
24
49.17%
Living City
14
43.57%
Misthavn
1
40.00%
Anvilguard
3
33.33%
Greywater Fastness
4
28.95%
None/Unknown
14
44.20%
Faction Total
117
50.77%
Out of the many, many factions that Cities have available to them, Hallowheart and Tempest’s Eye were the most popular with win rates of 57.21% and 49.17% respectively.
Top 10 Cities of Sigmar Players
You may notice that some players have a better World/Nation ranking than players above them in this table. This is due to players playing with multiple factions. These players have been ranked on their top 4 faction results only.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Immortal Masquerade that took place in USA on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
List 1
Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340)** Mortisan Soulmason (115)** – Artefacts of Power: Soul Reservoir – Spells: Drain Vitality Liege-Kavalos (170)** – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (50) 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Danny: OBR feel slightly like the faction that 3e forgot, with their weird version of command points and panoply of 2e style re-rolls. The army can definitely blend though – and recent points drops have given them even more list flexibility. Their main weakness is their red matchups are very red – something a two list format can massively help ameliorate.
Michael has a core of Deathriders in both lists – fast, relatively tanky if not particularly killy battleline that represent the ‘best’ objective grabbers the super slow Bonereapers have. The first list goes with two reinforced bone pone blobs backed up by the ever reliable MSU Mortek with their re-roll saves in Petrifex always making them difficult to shift. Arkhan, the currently favoured OBR utility hero rounds out the tried and tested core. This first list also bungs in a Mortek Crawler – they’re super swingy (pun intended) but do offer one long range piece with spike potential that helps try and deal with those pesky backline support heroes this faction has otherwise no way of interacting with.
List 2, meanwhile, is wild – primarily for the simple fact it contains Nagash!! The bone daddy himself is in need of some modernisation, but he’s still a super potent spellcaster. The main reason you don’t see much of him is his lack of ward save makes him super vulnerable to good ranged threats – something again the two list format allows Michael to make a good guess about the chances of facing such threats before choosing the list.
And WITHOUT good ranged firepower, Nagash can be a MW powerhouse able to keep bringing models back.
A fantastic result for an under-appreciated faction who are nonetheless slowly gathering a cult following. Still a shame Nagash is too unreliable to bring to a solo-list tourney – but in the meantime, great to see him put in a successful appearance!
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List 1
Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Gordrakk the Fist of Gork (540) Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260) Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)** – Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma Orruk Warchanter (115)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)** – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
Other Units Beast-skewer Killbow (110)*** Beast-skewer Killbow (110)*** Beast-skewer Killbow (110)***
Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Ironsunz – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Kragnos, The End of Empires (720) Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh! – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
Declan: Bringing 2 lists to a tournament is a great way to have a little more fun… but normally players either bring 1, or make very small changes… not so Rob with his Big Waaagh lists – they are completely different. I really like the idea of taking a shooting list and a charging list and then choosing which one would be best – and Rob clearly chose well.
The 2nd list is simple and straight forward, but three monsters are a great idea – Kragnos; Big Waaagh; Rogue Idol… all charging 3D6″ and smashing face. Big Waaagh aren’t always best of a turn 1 charge but these three may change all that.
The 1st list is much more techy; with lots of shooting and Gobsrakk. But the genius here is Gordrakk – what a brave play. He’s not seen as the best unit in the Orruk Warclans list, but it’s great to see him having an outing.
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Stormkeep – Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)* – General – Command Traits: Master of the Celestial Menagerie – Stormbound Blade – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Celestial Instincts – Spells: Flaming Weapon Yndrasta (280)* Averon Stormsire (230)* – Spells: Thundershock
OTHER Stormsire’s Cursebreakers (230) Castigators (210)* Castigators (210)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Everblaze Comet (90) 1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000
Brett: Smaller tournaments are a great place to see some really different lists like this. We don’t see Sequitors or Castigators a lot and here is a list with all of the Sacrosants. The Sacrosant chamber was introduced in 2nd Edition as the casters of the Stormcast, with Sequitors, Castigators, Stormsire and a Stardrake this is a full chamber in action. Thematic. Even though it’s the casting chamber there are only 3 casts in the list but that’s enough for the Everblaze and the Geminids. Everblaze has been popular recently for decent MW at a distance and Geminids are amoung the best of the Malign Sorcery Spells. The Stardrake offers one of the few casting buffs that Stormcast can receive.
Sequitors spell abilities are limited to choosing between exploding 6s or a 5+ ward. Castigators can do the same and either give themselves +1 to hit or increased rend. But they are still using random (D3) shots which is not ideal. Interesting but the damage here is the Stardrake and Yndrasta. This is really more of a durable list, Stormkeep and Celestial Warbringers compliment that approach. But it is a slow moving list which seems to have affected scoring. Both of Paul’s loses (to first and second) were to lists that mixed durable and fast units. Fantastic to see an alternative take on Stormcast.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Living City – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Nomad Prince (110)** – General – Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan – Artefact: Spear of the Hunt Anointed (110)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – City Role: General’s Adjutant – Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin Drycha Hamadreth (335)**
Battleline 5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)** – Lore of Leaves: Cage of Thorns 10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)*** 10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)***
Units 20 x Phoenix Guard (350)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vigilors (340)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Declan: Only one list for Matt, but it’s an interesting one – I’m not actually sure how it works. I assume the Pheonix Guard are the anvil (4+ ward save), and the Vigilors provide the hammer with the Fulminators being able to pick off a key unit or clear a screen or two. The battleline are interesting, with some reasonable range, but definitely fishing for 6s.
Matt has taken Dyrcha as well for some much needed punch, but this is definitely not a list you’ll see too often and that’s probably its strength… I wouldn’t really know what to do or what to target first. A strength of ‘off-meta’ lists.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Proving Grounds that took place in Canada on 22nd and 23rd October. It involved 15 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: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Lord-Imperatant (175)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Celestial Blades Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos (300)* Lord-Relictor (145)* – Prayer: Translocation Knight-Judicator with Gryph-Hounds (205)*
UNITS 3 x Annihilators (200)*** 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)*** 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*** 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* 5 x Vindictors (130)** 5 x Vindictors (130)**
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Holy Command: Call for Aid Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
TOTAL: 1995/2000 WOUNDS: 83 DROPS:10
Brett: Now we’re talking, 1 of almost everything really good in the SCE book, drops be damned. The result is some really powerful mortal wound projection and good mobility with Translocation, Annihilators and Fulminators. That combined with Bastian and 30″ shooting is punishing. He’s only lost to a list that could get close enough in the early rounds. With the Annihilators only coming in from reserve the Idoneth could really get an advantage in early rounds. We never see 2x Holy Commands, but I think they are underrated. Here they are giving an extra round of shooting and an extra 10 wounds.
This is just a fun list to play with and has some of the best or most interesting units SCE can bring.
Declan: Small tournaments are great in that you can win with a good 4-1 result, and it means the number of 0-5s is hopefully limited — in this case zero! But Matthew has come out on top with a SCE list that has teleporting, armour saves, and good shooting. It’s also a list we’ve seen before but Translocation has gone out of favour recently – so it’s good to see it still being good enough to get success.
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Army Faction: Idoneth Deepkin – Army Subfaction: Nautilar – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Eidolon of Mathlann Aspect of the Storm (355)** – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Arcane Corrasion 1 x Akhelian King (250)** – General – Command Traits: Unstoppable Fury – Bladed Polearm and Falchion – Artefacts: Armour of the Cythai – Mount Traits: Voidchill Darkness 1 x Lotann (115)**
BATTLELINE 1 x Akhelian Leviadon (500)* – Mount Traits: Ancient 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Thralls (130)*** 10 x Namarti Thralls (130)***
TERRAIN 1 x Gloomtide Shipwreck (0)
OTHER 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)* – Alpha Allopex – Razorshell Harpoon Launcher – Barbed Hooks and Blades
Brett: This is a very interesting top 3, this list beat the one in first and was beaten by the list below in third. I haven’t seen that before. Idoneth is still throwing up a lot of variety, they haven’t taken a lot of tournaments so there is no “net list”. Here there is a return to the Allopexes/Leviadon with a supporting cast of infantry. Of course Eidolon and the Ahkelian King are here as hammers. Turn priority is important for Idoneth and would have worked in Pendelton’s favour against first place. The heavy hitters here and Reavers could do devastating damage to the small SCE units in the first turn and then deal with Annihilators. Pretty much every other list would have suffered exactly the same way, unless they had Gotrek or a Big Dragon.
Declan: Good to see IdK still doing well – even if they are Aelves. This is a relatively ‘normal’ list since the new book with Leviadon (big turtle), some sharks, a king and a Eidolon. It’s an interesting list which seems to rely on the characters, sharks and turtle… although don’t underestimate the Thralls. I prefer them in bigger units, but they can still contribute to the game.
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Gardus Steel Soul (150)** Lord-Relictor (145)** – Prayer: Translocation Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)** – General – Celestine Hammer – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Celestial Instincts – Spell: Thundershock Gotrek Gurnisson (485)** – Allies
UNITS 5 x Liberators (115)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 5 x Liberators (115)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 5 x Liberators (115)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240) Everblaze Comet (100)
Brett: And so here is an army you don’t want to get close to, Gotrek , 5+ wards and fight on death for all of those enticing Liberators. Long range shooting and a dragon are always pretty effective. This list is really banking on Everblaze, Stardrake and the Longstrikes to weaken you at range (30″ to 36″). If there is a weakness it’s the crippling lack of mobility in this force. You can teleport (or translocate them) but their scoring opportunities are going to be fewer with only 4″ to 6″ on everything other than the dragon. You really want the enemy to be coming to you which looks like what happened. His only loss was to another fight on death army. Zainthar Kai is brutal with so many attacks and they get to you fast so it makes sense.
Declan: 2 big characters! We’ve not seen Gotrek in a while and the little dwarf is here to provide a big bubble that the enemy doesn’t want to go into. He’s still a monster in combat and can safely kill most things in the game if he can roll normally.
It’s also great to see a Stardrake doing well – it’s seen as overcoasted by most players but the model is great – even I own one. It’s also a great centre piece for drawing attention to the army – something Gotrek just can’t do.
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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar – Army Type: Living City – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Doralia ven Denst (115)** Freeguild General (100)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Lifesurge Freeguild General on Griffon (290)*** – General – Command Traits: Ironoak Artisan – Sigmarite Runesword – Artefacts of Power: Spear of the Hunt – Mount Traits: Soaring Guardian Galen Ven Denst (115)*** Haskel Hexbane (180)***
Brett: Is this someone that also plays Warhammer Fantasy battles? This looks a lot like a Fantasy army (also if you are checking on Best Coast Pairings this is listed as Beastclaw Raiders but as you can see, it isn’t). Good to see the Underworlds here with Hexbane, now go see if you can find his warscroll. Huge number of rank and file combat and shooting hampered only by it’s short range. And that’s what’s happened by the looks of it, every army that needed to charge died to a hail of fire. Even the Lumineth list which was Stoneguard following their glow up in the new book. Lists with long range shooting to hit those crossbow men did a lot better. This is the first of the 3/2 lists and scored really well in all rounds (that he won) other than the last. Stoneguard are really good now.
Hard to disassemble a castle like this without shooting or spells, your best option is to play the mission and try to get tactics where you can avoid engaging. Either way try to get rid of the Demigryph Knights as soon as possible to limit his movement and remove them as a threat to your smaller units.
Declan: I’ve not reviewed a Cities of Sigmar list in a while and this one’s interesting. With both the Ven Denst’s making an appearance and with Freeguild Crossbowmen there is a ranged threat here that is not to be ignored. I’m interested in the Greatswords though.
3+/3+ is the stat-line Games Workshop are using for models and units they want to be good in combat. So the Freeguild are going to hit, and the 4+ armour save is not to be ignored. They are not cheap at 150 points for 10, but with a unit of 10 and 20, they will be able to push out some damage. It’s not seen often, as they’re probably not good enough for a 5-0, but they are great if you want to have fun and have a good paint scheme.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Gateway Open that took place in USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 43 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: Knights Excelsior (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Battleline 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)*** 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 5 x Vanquishers (125)**
Units 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)** – Drakerider’s Warblade 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*** 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*** 3 x Aetherwings (65)*
Brett: A rare venture into top spot by Stormcast with an army composition that is showing a lot of promise in the current meta. A few subtleties in the construction of the list though. Firstly the Grand Strategy – that will force you to hunt down the opponents battleline. It’s a fair chance that you’d be doing that to win anyway, and an equally fair chance that the drakes (Bounty Hunters) will be doing that if any try to hide. The Magnificent Bonus from Warlord is important, Warlord is rarely used by Stormcast, but they probably benefit the most from it with their Holy Commands. The chosen 2 are amoung the best, in one turn one of the raptors are shooting in both the Hero and Shooting phase.
That gives you an effective 9 Raptors worth of shooting (one turn, 18 shots for 36 potential damage). Call for aid returns the Vanquishers the first time they are killed (recycling if you will). The heroes are the standard combination – Lord Imperatant for 7″ charges, Lord Relictor for Translocate (here with the Tome to increase utility) and the Knight Incantor for casting an a clutch dispel (one guaranteed/battle). The 7″ charge applies to any Thunderstrike unit (includes the Lord, Storm Drake and Vanquishers as well as the Annihilators) put only one unit per turn. This list is sometimes called a gambler’s list – you are banking on the 7″ charge (82% chance with reroll) otherwise you have 10 wounds with a 4+ save waiting to die.
This list is a bit low in durability with 85 wounds, mostly on a 4+ vs the normal SCE 3+. And 3 Galletian Veteran units make 28 of those wounds. The Aetherwings and Vanquishers are valuable as screens to begin with to keep the raptors safe. Later turns their mobility (Aetherwings) and damage is useful for board control and grabbing objectives. The drakes provide mobile, swingy damage – their breath weapons can hit hard or whiff horribly. Even the number of drops plays into the strategy – does your opponent make you go first? Or do they try to blunt your shooting (unlikely)? His matches were basically melee armies and the DoK armed (10 Blood Sisters) are overmatched by the Raptors.
Quite a few good players are using variants of this list, with Prime Hunters gone it should see man improvement in SCE win rates. It’s not instant win by any measure but gives you the tools to get the job done. The high drops is a nice touch, as is Horrorghast to maximise the impact on low bravery units of that long range shooting.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Living City – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Bastions of Hope – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (315)* – General – Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin Sorceress (90)* – Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge Gotrek Gurnisson (485)** – Allies
Battleline 10 x Dreadspears (85)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models) 10 x Dreadspears (85)* 10 x Dreadspears (85)*
Units 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)** – Drakerider’s Warblade – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: Living cities with SCE based hammers was popular before Prime Hunters so no surprise they are back with the new season. Gotrek is arguably a Cities character since he hangs there between adventures. The book Grand Strategy is interesting, you need to control more terrain features than your opponent at the end of the battle. Interesting since that implies keeping the Dreadspears alive, 1 W and a 4+ save makes that “fun”. Doubly so since the Sorceress is likely taking wounds from them to empower her spells (kills a model for +2 to cast). Overall with the Tome there are 3 casters and 3 casts. Lifesurge can heal D6 wounds and Ironoak Skin makes incoming attacks -1 to wound.
The Battlemage has Wildform which you could put on Gotrek (+2 to run and charge) to make him more mobile. Otherwise the Stormdrakes or Anointed could benefit. The Stormdrakes and Gotrek are in bounty hunters (so Gotrek is rocking a 4 damage axe). Using the Anointed early might be risky but he is quite tanking particularly with Ironoak Artisan that also grants +1 to wound rolls with melee weapons, it shouldn’t apply to the mount unfortunately. A big block of Dragons to threaten any open flanks or open objectives, they can also be covered by the Anointed (and cover the Anointed). Lifesurge is very useful healing the 9 wound dragons for D6 every turn. A very mobile hard hitting block. And of course the Purple Sun for both it’s debuff and it’s board control abilities. Your opponent will normally try to avoid it as much as possible.
A dependable list, Gotrek is an interesting addition even though he suffers from a lack of mobility. It’s possible to play around him but with the Dragons and Purple Sun there isn’t that much board to play with. In this case Ryan’s opponents for the most part needed to come to him to play making it much easier to get Gotrek into combat.
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295) – General – Command Traits: Mage Eater – Artefacts of Power: The Crimson Crown Skarr Bloodwrath (105)** Slaughterpriest (100)** – Hackblade and Wrath-hammer – Prayers: Blood Sacrifice Skarbrand (380)** Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)*** – Artefacts of Power: Skullshard Mantle Bloodsecrator (125)***
Brett: Ahead of a possible new book (40k is getting new Daemons codex and Tzeentch is due soon, does that mean a new Khorne tome?). Khorne is another faction that really benefited with the end of Prime Hunters, it gives them more freedom with their Greater Daemons. Reapers of Vengence subfaction granting a Horrorghast effect (D3 extra fail battleshock) and a 3″ pile in and fight again command. Mage-Eater and Skullshatter are the mandatory trait/artefact but grant a spell deny and a 2+ spell ignore. The Crimson Crown effectively grants a free CP every round (5) that can only be used on the bearer’s warscroll ability (if they have one). In this case a 6″ pile in within 16″.
The key to Khorne in AoS are the big Daemons,, the Bloodthirsters and Skarbrand. Unusually there is no (Slaves to Darkness) Daemon Prince to affect movement/charges. Each of the Greater Daemons can do appalling levels of damage but each has an element of chance so they can also whiff horribly. The Unfettered Rage is probably the least damaging with a 12″ ranged attack and 6 melee attacks all doing D3 damage. The Insensate Range. His number of ranged attacks and to wound chance in melee degrade with wounds. Insensate Rage does D6 damage with his axe, and the number of attacks plus the Mortal Wounds (MW) caused on 6s degrade. The MW are to all units within 8″. Your best tactic against these is to get some damage in early to degrade them. Skarbrand needs to be treated differently though.
Skarbrand’s attacks increase as he degrades, and if he isn’t engaged in combat he fights next round as if he was in his lowest bracket. His main weapon is a flat 3 damage, his 8″ ranged attack is a 50% chance to inflict 1 MW for each successful attack and his Carnage 8MW. At lowest bracket it does that on a 1. Skarbrand either needs to be engaged all the time or removed early. Haven’t even mentioned the smaller heroes – Skarr can return to the field after death on a 8 (2D6) and is an anti horde fighter (either 5 attacks or the number of models within 3″), the Bloodsectator forces wizards to reroll successful casts within 16″. He also grants an additional attack to Khorne units within 16″. The Slaughter Priest is here to farm Blood Tithe points for summoning.
Finally we finish with the troops and summoning. Reinforced Bloodletters get +1 to hit (for 20 models in the unit), 6s do MWs, they can force rerolls on successful bravery rolls for the enemy and on a battleshock roll of 1 return D6 models to this unit. They only have 1 wound and a 5+ save so die easily. Bloodreavers are even more fragile but double up on the bonus attacks from the presence of a Bloodsectrator. Unnamed Beasts are very fragile but bring a lot of mobility and potentially grab outlying points or Battle Tactics. The Hexgorger is a nice touch, it is a prayer that is an endless spell. It inflicts a -2 to casting within 12″ and if a wizard within 8″ casts an 8, the spell fails, they forget the spell and take D6 MW. Nice.
That’s a lot to take in for a simple army that wants to get close,bash, stab, slash and generally maim you. You are best to shoot them from afar and hope for the best. When you look at his opponents though almost all of them had decent shooting (not the Skaven, those poor rats) but only one was able to use it effectively. That’s the difference between 24″ and 30″ range I suspect.
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Allegiance: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)* – Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280) – General – Command Trait: Ruinous Aura Kairos Fateweaver (435) – Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command The Blue Scribes (160)* – Lore of Ruinous Sorcery: The Master’s Command The Contorted Epitome (245)* – Artefact: Fourfold Blade – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 5 x Flesh Hounds (105)* 5 x Flesh Hounds (105)* 5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*
Endless Spells & Invocations Emerald Lifeswarm (60) Purple Sun of Shyish (70) Umbral Spellportal (70)
Brett: Another hero based list with 3 combat and 2 caster heroes, all with 10″+ movement. 3 Greater Demons is fairly common, we’ve already covered The Unfettered Rage above. Otherwise, and even with the Khorne elements, this is a casting army with 7 casts. The “Masters Command” on most of the leaders lets model, if slain, fight on Death. Otherwise Be’Lakor’s warscroll spell is enfeeblement giving an opposing unit -1 to wound. That’s on top of his once a game ability to stop pretty much all actions from a unit on a 3+ in each phase. Kairos is the epitome of a caster, his key ability is everytime he casts, dispels or unbinds he can set the lowest D6 (of the 2D6 roll) to match the highest D6. To summon the Purple Sun or his warscroll spell he only needs one 4 on 2 dice.
His Oracle of Eternity is also clutch, allowing him to set the number on a dice once per battle. It doesn’t have to be his roll, there is no range and no limit on what type of roll it’s used on. That’s on top of his 3 spells. You may be wondering why there is no Cogs in this list, the Blue Scribes are why. They have a warscroll spell with a casting value (CV) of 4 that allows other wizards to reroll. They can also copy spells and ensure successful casting once per hero phase on a 2+. Kairos then summons whatever Endless Spells are needed that turn. Umbral Spellportal to extend spells range, Purple Sun for threat and Lifeswarm for healing. The Contorted Epitome is mostly a combat unit but Ghost mist is a good choice to hide it’s approach.
The Flesh Hounds are here because outside of Gargants you need battle line. They are somewhat durable (2 wounds on a 5+), fast (8″) and annoying in combat. They are expendable and of course more units can be summoned. For LoFP it’s a battleline unit based on the Chaos god they represent (Bloodletters, Horrors, Demonettes etc). Belakor can summon any of these or 6 Furies. Chose which hero based on what you need and where it on the board (the reinforcements are arriving within 12″). A very broad range of abilities that it would be hard to track and apply but that means the list plays well into almost anything. The only loss was to 2nd place, Gotrek is great into daemons and the Stormdrake block is capable of clearing anything in this list in a turn. Once the Greater Daemons start dying this list is pretty fragile.
Here are the AoS Meta Stats for all the Grand Tournaments that have taken place between Monday 4th July and Sunday 10th July 2022. These are all the GT’s that I can locate on Tabletop.to or BestCoastPairing, if you know of any others please send me a link and I’ll add them.
Once again, another quiet week, with only 3 Grand Tournaments.
Kingdom of Skrappa Spill – England/UK 28 Players – Generals Handbook: Pitched Battles 2022-23 Season 1
Position
Faction
Subfaction
Result
1st
Cities of Sigmar
Hallowheart
5-0-0
2nd
Daughters of Khaine
Khailebron
4-0-1
3rd
Cities of Sigmar
Hammerhal
4-0-1
4th
Skaven
4-0-1
5th
Maggotkin of Nurgle
3-1-1
6th
Seraphon
Thunder Lizard
3-1-1
7th
Daughters of Khaine
Khailebron
3-0-2
8th
Daughters of Khaine
Hagg Nar
3-0-2
9th
Nighthaunt
3-0-2
Kingdom of Skrappa Spill
Grand Alliance Stats
These stats reflect the last four weeks of GT’s that we’re aware of at Woehammer.
303 players (-182) took part in 12 GT’s (-4) over the last four weeks.
Grand Alliance
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
4+ Wins
Chaos
56.4%
62
20.46%
5
20
Order
51.0%
149
49.17%
4
21
Death
43.8%
50
16.50%
1
6
Destruction
43.8%
42
13.86%
0
3
Chaos continue to lead the way in the win rates, dropping only slightly from 56.7% last week to 56.4% this week. While Order pick up the most number of armies represented and most 4+. Chaos steal the crown this week for most 5-0’s.
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Faction Stats
The below stat show the results for those factions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Slaves to Darkness
72.2%
6
1.98%
1
1
Beasts of Chaos
63.1%
13
4.29%
2
0
Nighthaunt
61.3%
17
5.61%
1
0
Blades of Khorne
60.0%
5
1.65%
0
0
Sylvaneth
58.5%
13
4.29%
0
0
Cities of Sigmar
57.1%
17
5.61%
1
1
Seraphon
56.3%
24
7.92%
2
1
Kharadron Overlords
55.0%
6
1.98%
1
1
Big Waaagh!
54.0%
5
1.65%
0
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle
53.8%
21
6.93%
1
2
Bonesplitterz
51.5%
7
2.31%
0
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
50.0%
12
3.96%
0
0
Daughters of Khaine
50.0%
17
5.61%
0
1
Sons of Behemat
50.0%
8
2.64%
0
0
Idoneth Deepkin
47.8%
18
5.94%
0
0
Sons of Behemat
48.5%
21
4.33%
0
1
Skaven
46.7%
6
1.98%
1
0
Legion of the First Prince
46.7%
6
1.98%
0
1
Stormcast Eternals
45.6%
26
8.58%
0
3
Ogor Mawtribes
44.8%
6
1.98%
0
1
Fyreslayers
43.0%
16
5.28%
0
1
Flesh-eater Courts
40.0%
5
1.65%
0
0
Soulblight Gravelords
37.8%
18
5.94%
0
2
Gloomspite Gitz
33.3%
6
1.98%
0
0
Ironjawz
32.8%
7
2.31%
0
2
Ossiarch Bonereapers
27.0%
10
3.30%
0
2
Slaves to Darkness and Blades of Khorne continue their run of good form in experienced hands. While the new battletomes of Nighthaunt and Sylvaneth can also be seen in the +55% area. Daughters of Khaine are smack in the middle with a perfect 50% win rate. While Skaven are beginning to climb.
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Subfactions
All factions listed below have been represented at tournaments by at least 5 players.
Faction
Subfaction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Drowned Men
69.1%
11
3.63%
1
0
Nighthaunt
Scarlet Doom
67.6%
7
2.31%
0
0
Beasts of Chaos
None
61.4%
7
2.31%
1
0
Cities of Sigmar
Living City
57.1%
7
2.31%
0
0
Seraphon
Thunder Lizard
55.7%
21
6.93%
2
1
Sons of Behemat
Breaker Tribe
53.4%
6
1.98%
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
Hallowed Knights
52.9%
7
2.31%
0
0
Fyreslayers
Lofnir
51.7%
6
1.98%
0
0
Nighthaunt
Emerald Host
48.3%
6
1.98%
0
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
Zaitrec
48.1%
11
3.63%
0
0
Daughters of Khaine
Zainthar Kai
47.1%
7
2.31%
0
1
Legion of the First Prince
46.7%
6
1.98%
0
1
Skaven
46.7%
6
1.98%
1
0
Soulblight Gravelords
Vyrkos Dynasty
43.3%
6
1.98%
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
Hammers of Sigmar
42.3%
15
4.95%
0
3
Soulblight Gravelords
Kastelai Dynasty
38.6%
7
2.31%
0
1
Fyreslayers
Greyfyrd
35.2%
9
2.97%
0
1
Ossiarch Bonereapers
Petrifex Elite
27.5%
8
2.64%
0
1
Drowned Men continue to lead the way with a win rate of 69.1% despite Maggotkin overall only having a win rate of 53.8%. Nighthaunt and Scarlet Doom find themselves near the top now as predicted by Danny some weeks ago. Meanwhile at the bottom of the table Ossiarch Bonereapers/Petrifex Elite are the only subfaction below 30% win rate.
Interestingly Fyreslayers have Lofnir (6 PLayers) with a win rate of 51.7% and the more popular Greyfyrd (9 Players) at 35.2%, are people playing the wrong subfaction?
Next Week
I’ll have graphs. Because nothing says stats like some graphs…..
Here are the AoS Meta Stats for all the Grand Tournaments that have taken place between Monday 27th June and Sunday 3rd July 2022. These are all the GT’s that I can locate on Tabletop.to or BestCoastPairing, if you know of any others please send me a link and I’ll add them.
Once again, another quiet week, with only 3 Grand Tournaments. Two of these were run using the new GHB, while the other was just a little event called the World tSports Champions…..
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Grand Tournaments
Ranked from largest to smallest.
From the Ashes – Scotland/UK 22 Players – Generals Handbook: Pitched Battles 2022-23 Season 1
As promised last week, I’ve changed the stats to reflect the last four weeks of GT’s that we’re aware of at Woehammer. Also if you read all the way to the end of the article I have a little surprise for you!
485 players took part in 16 GT’s over the last four weeks.
Grand Alliance
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
4+ Wins
Chaos
56.7%
94
19.38%
6
27
Order
50.7%
218
44.95%
8
34
Death
45.8%
82
16.91%
2
11
Destruction
45.0%
91
18.76%
0
8
Chaos continue to lead the way in the win rates. While Order pick up the most number of armies represented, most 5-0’s and most 4+. When you compare army share to the number of battletomes each Grand Alliance possess you can see that Order are overrepresented, while Chaos are vastly under represented:
Grand Alliance
Battletomes
Battletome %
Actual Rep %
Order
9
37.50%
44.95%
Chaos
7
29.17%
19.38%
Death
4
16.67%
16.91%
Destruction
4
16.67%
18.76%
What can we take away from this? Perhaps that Order factions are more appealing than Chaos? New players gravitate towards Order? The Chaos range needs updated miniatures? Or all of the above?
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Faction Stats
The below stat show the results for those factions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Beasts of Chaos
67.1%
14
2.89%
2
0
Legion of the First Prince
61.5%
13
2.68%
0
0
Slaves to Darkness
61.1%
6
1.24%
0
1
Seraphon
59.7%
30
6.19%
5
2
Blades of Khorne
56.7%
6
1.24%
0
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle
56.6%
35
7.22%
3
2
Bonesplitterz
55.4%
10
2.06%
0
0
Cities of Sigmar
54.2%
24
4.95%
2
1
Daughters of Khaine
52.8%
22
4.54%
0
2
Nighthaunt
52.2%
32
6.60%
1
2
Idoneth Deepkin
51.8%
23
4.74%
1
0
Flesh-eater Courts
51.7%
6
1.24%
0
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
51.5%
21
4.33%
0
0
Kharadron Overlords
51.4%
7
1.44%
0
1
Sylvaneth
49.1%
11
2.27%
0
1
Sons of Behemat
48.5%
21
4.33%
0
1
Soulblight Gravelords
47.1%
28
5.77%
1
1
Stormcast Eternals
47.1%
60
12.37%
0
4
Ogor Mawtribes
47.1%
28
2.89%
0
1
Ironjawz
44.7%
16
3.30%
0
1
Kruleboyz
44.3%
11
2.27%
0
1
Hedonites of Slaanesh
44.3%
7
1.44%
0
0
Skaven
43.0%
9
1.86%
1
0
Big Waaagh!
41.3%
8
1.65%
0
0
Fyreslayers
39.5%
20
4.12%
0
2
Gloomspite Gitz
30.9%
11
2.27%
0
1
Ossiarch Bonereapers
28.2%
16
3.30%
0
2
Factions in Bold are those with 3rd Edition Battletomes published before or during this time period
I’ve highlighted all those faction win rates in red which are outside of the parameters that players have stated would make the game roughly balanced (45-55%).
I’m looking at the bottom of the table as I’m writing this, and its hard not to overlook Fyreslayers, Gloomspite Gitz and Ossiarch Bonereapers with win rates of less than 40%! Gloomspite Gitz are getting their new book this year, so hopefully we’ll see that improve. Fyreslayers have been mugged by Games Workshop rules writers, and it just shows how awful that book is. I feel for long term Fyreslayers players…
At the top of the table Beasts of Chaos now currently lead the way with a win rate of 67.1%! They’ve gone from trash tier to S tier in the space of 3 months. Slaves to Darkness are a bit of an anomaly at the top there, and this is primarily driven by a few high level players who vastly our performed the faction this month, much like Anthony Trentanelli did a few weeks ago with Skaven. Maggotkin of Nurgle and Seraphon win rates have both dropped, but its too early to tell why, as the new rules for Seraphon only really came into effect last week.
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Subfaction Stats
Faction
Subfaction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Beasts of Chaos
None
70.0%
5
1.03%
1
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Drowned Men
68.0%
20
4.12%
2
0
Legion of the First Prince
61.5%
13
2.68%
0
0
Nighthaunt
Scarlet Doom
60.0%
11
2.27%
0
0
Beasts of Chaos
Gavespawn
60.0%
6
1.24%
0
0
Seraphon
Thunder Lizard
59.6%
28
5.77%
4
2
Bonesplitterz
Drakkfoot
58.3%
6
1.24%
0
0
Cities of Sigmar
Living City
57.7%
13
2.68%
2
0
Ogor Mawtribes
Boulderhead
56.0%
5
1.03%
0
0
Kharadron Overlords
Barak-Zilfin
53.3%
6
1.24%
0
1
Idoneth Deepkin
Mor’Phann
53.3%
6
1.24%
1
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
Zaitrec
52.9%
15
3.09%
0
0
Sons of Behemat
Breaker Tribe
52.8%
15
3.09%
0
0
Idoneth Deepkin
Nautilar
51.3%
8
1.65%
0
0
Ironjawz
Ironsunz
50.0%
6
1.24%
0
1
Daughters of Khaine
Hagg Nar
50.0%
7
1.44%
0
1
Stormcast Eternals
Astral Templars
50.0%
6
1.24%
0
0
Daughters of Khaine
Zainthar Kai
49.2%
12
2.47%
0
1
Stormcast Eternals
Hammers of Sigmar
48.8%
33
6.80%
0
2
Soulblight Gravelords
Vyrkos Dynasty
48.0%
10
2.06%
0
0
Soulblight Gravelords
Kastelai Dynasty
45.5%
11
2.27%
0
1
Stormcast Eternals
Hallowed Knights
44.7%
15
3.09%
0
1
Kruleboyz
Big Yellers
43.4%
8
1.65%
0
1
Skaven
43.0%
9
1.86%
1
0
Fyreslayers
Lofnir
42.9%
7
1.44%
0
1
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Lurid Haze
42.0%
5
1.03%
0
0
Ironjawz
Bloodtoofs
41.7%
10
2.06%
0
0
Nighthaunt
Emerald Host
41.5%
13
2.68%
0
2
Big Waaagh!
41.3%
8
1.65%
0
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Befouling Host
40.0%
7
1.44%
1
1
Fyreslayers
Greyfyrd
35.8%
12
2.47%
0
1
Ossiarch Bonereapers
Petrifex Elite
28.8%
15
3.09%
0
2
Gloomspite Gitz
25.0%
8
1.65%
0
1
Factions in Bold are those with 3rd Edition Battletomes published before or during this time period
Maggotkin of Nurgle are a bit of a strange faction. While you have one of the meta leading Subfactions inside the tome with Drowned Men (68.0%, at the bottom of the pack you have Befouling Host (40.0%). It’s not an irregularity either as 7 players have played that subfaction and one claimed 5 wins at an event and another 5 losses. This suggests to me that while Drowned Men is a simple list to play, Befouling Host is completely the opposite and requires good memory and skill from the pilot.
After almost a year of publication now, both Stormcast and Orruk Warclan battletomes are beginning to show a little lag behind the other updated factions (apart from Fyreslayers of course). As the first of the Battletomes perhaps this has played into their stats slightly as the rules writers learn from their mistakes (apart from Fyreslayers of course) when writing the newer tomes.
Scarlet Doom shows that its the faction of choice for a reason in the new Nighthaunt battletome (60.0%) however, its still early days for this battletome and the other factions could be more complicated to pick up and play. However 60.0% win rate for any subfaction is too high and so they may need a future nerf at some point.
Going forwards as the weeks go on, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Grinin’ Blades beginning to get some more play with their updated allegiance abilities after not being placed at all due to all the Kruleboyz players choosing Big Yellers – this will change. I expect to see them nearing the 50% mark and above. Likewise with Skaven, I expect them to begin climbing the rankings as their new rules come into effect.
THE SUPRISE
I said I had a surprise, and here it is!
Woehammer will be doing a player ranking system for the new General’s Handbook based on the Elo system used by Chess.
Who gets ranked?
Everyone who takes part in a two day event using the General’s Handbook: Pitched Battles Season 1 2022-23. Each week I’ll update the scores of the players as they happen and post them in a separate rankings post which will be published every Saturday.
All players will begin with a rating of 1,000 at the beginning of the season, player ratings will be carried over into season 2 and beyond in the future.
I’ve included the current rankings below (there’s only been two GT’s using the new Handbook) which includes everyone at present. However, I will limit this to the top 20 as more players are ranked. The full downloadable player rankings will be available on the site to download next weekend.
Here are the AoS Meta Stats for all the Grand Tournaments that have taken place between Monday 20th June and Sunday 26th June 2022. These are all the GT’s that I can locate on Tabletop.to or BestCoastPairing, if you know of any others please send me a link and I’ll add them.
There were only 2 Grand Tournaments last week, a quiet week! But both have 32 players with a nice mix of factions.
64 players took part in 2 GT’s over the last week.
Grand Alliance
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
4+ Wins
Chaos
55.6%
9
14.1%
0
4
Order
53.7%
30
46.9%
2
6
Death
50.0%
10
15.6%
0
1
Death
39.3%
15
23.4%
0
1
Faction Stats
The below stat show the results for those factions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Seraphon
80.0%
5
7.9%
2
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
60.0%
5
7.9%
0
0
Soulblight Gravelords
40.0%
5
7.9%
0
0
With very few tournaments this week there’s not enough data to draw reliable win rates from.
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Subfaction Stats
Next week, I’ll have built up four weeks worth of data and at this point I will transition the stats over four weeks rather than a single week. This will helpfully give us more reliable data. At some point I’ll go backwards as well to the start of AoS 3.
Here are the AoS Meta Stats for all the Grand Tournaments that have taken place between Monday 13th June and Sunday 19th June 2022. These are all the GT’s that I can locate on Tabletop.to or BestCoastPairing, if you know of any others please send me a link and I’ll add them.
There was a total of 3 Grand Tournaments last week, a quiet week! That being said, one of them was the awesome UK tSports Champions, which our very own Declan was invited to take part in. You can read up on his prep here.
286 players took part in 10 GT’s over the last week.
Grand Alliance
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
4+ Wins
Chaos
64.7%
19
21.59%
3
7
Order
49.2%
49
55.68%
0
5
Destruction
43.8%
8
9.09%
0
1
Death
34.2%
12
13.64%
0
0
Faction Stats
The below stat show the results for those factions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Maggotkin of Nurgle
66.0%
10
11.36%
1
4
Cities of Sigmar
58.6%
7
7.95%
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
54.0%
10
11.36%
0
3
Idoneth Deepkin
46.0%
5
5.68%
0
0
Seraphon
43.0%
10
11.36%
0
0
Fyrselayers
40.0%
7
7.95%
0
1
Soulblight Gravelords
33.3%
6
6.82%
0
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle top the charts this week in a very small data set. With a win rate of 66.0% Followed closely by Cities of Sigmar with a win rate of 58.6%. Seraphon, Fyreslayers and Soulblight Gravelords all struggling to make that magical 45% mark with Soulblight Gravelords being the only faction below 40%.
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Subfaction Stats
Only Seraphon/Thunder Lizard and Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men made the requirement for this table (min 5 armies represented). Thunder Lizard managed a win rate of 43% while Drowned Men achieved 72.5%……
San Diego Open took place in California, USA on 11th and 12th June. It involved 74 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three, 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.
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.
Danny: Sometimes a Seraphon list comes along that makes me do a little ‘whoop’ because it has something new to talk about! This list has the usual core HQ, but goes off piste by taking 6 Terradons! These super fast moving (16″) ‘tiny dragons’ pop up here and there because they can drop a once per game d3 mw bomb (aka ‘rocks’) over a unit they move over on a 4+. So a unit of 6 can zoom over something important and do an average of 6 mws. It even packs the Terradon Chief who makes the Terradons do their MWs on a 2+ instead of a 4+. That changes the maths to (checks calculations…) a boat load! 2 cheap-as-chips Ark Bastiladons form a durable objective grabbing core while the rest does what Seraphon do. But props for an unusual list that no doubt caught a few people off-guard on the way to 5-0.
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List name: Definitely not Gavin’s 2022 LVO list
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Living City – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Doralia ven Denst (115)* Sorceress (95)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin Freeguild General (100)* – City Role: General’s Adjutant
Battleline 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (315)* – Reinforced x 2 See it is different! He took crossbows. 10 x Freeguild Handgunners (105)* 10 x Dreadspears (90)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
Units 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)** – Reinforced x 1 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)** – Drakerider’s Lance – Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment **Hunters of the Heartlands
Danny: It’s hard to write about Cities lists, mainly because they have so many damn options. As you might guess from the list name, this one has been tried and tested and revolves around the great Living City trait of shooting units being able to move after shooting, which makes them all surprisingly fast and agile, and no doubt leads to many shenanigans and gnashing of teeth and whiffing of charges. Doralia also makes a cameo for wizard sniping, there’s a Sorceress for very cheap magic support, and a few other little tricks. Oh yeah, and 4 Fulminators and 4 Stormdrake Guard. Just a little kicker there. Just imagining playing this list gives me more of a headache than trying to remember what all the random cities units do!
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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar – Army Type: Living City – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (280)* – Spells: Lifesurge Celestant-Prime (325)** Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (280)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Ironoak Skin
BATTLELINE Longbeards (105)* – Ancestral Weapon and Gromril Shield Longbeards (105)* – Ancestral Weapon and Gromril Shield Longbeards (105)** – Ancestral Weapon and Gromril Shield
Danny: pops some headache meds Ok, another 5-0 Cities list with a bunch of odd units that synergise in a hundred ways I’m probably missing. At a glance, it’s a really smart list already – a sneaky unit of Khinerai who can now drop out of reserves, fire then move 6″ make for some very cheeky objective grabbers, while the Fulminators and Celestant Prime offer pure, fast moving hammers who wouldn’t have a huge amount of trouble taking down a gargant by themselves. Then there’s the artillery – 3 Celestial Hurricanums – who on top bracket roll 3 dice each and do d3 mortals on a 2+ and give out a 10″ +1 hit aura each – that’s a lot of CP saved with careful positioning over the course of a game. The Longbeards are a tanky battleline choice at a budget cost of 105 too. Is it thematic though? Is it fuck, dwarves would be well sus of all that human magic flying over their heads!
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Allegiance: Bonesplitterz – Warclan: Drakkfoot – Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones! – Triumphs:
Leaders Savage Big Boss (65)** – General – Command Trait: Great Hunter Wurrgog Prophet (150)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (150)** – Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
Battleline 10 x Savage Orruk Morboys (155)* 10 x Savage Orruk Morboys (155)* 10 x Savage Orruks (165)* – Chompas
Units 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)** 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Core Battalions *Hunters of the Heartlands **Warlord
Danny: Big. Stabbas. Lots. And Lots. Of. Big. Stabbas. I don’t normally applaud spam lists but going 4-1 at a major with Savage Orruks right now – no Big Chadnos in sight! – is definitely a feat. Props to the double Wurrgog too for what assuredly would be a series of hilarious staring contests and heart-stopping dice rolls (for this list’s opponents).
It’s clever, but it is hilarious. And bloody successful!
On Reddit Warhammer 40k has the Meta Mondays posted by the brilliant u/JCMS85 on r/WarhammerCompetitive. So why can’t we have one for AoS? Well we can….
Here are the stats for all the Grand Tournaments that have taken place between Monday 6th June and Sunday 12th June 2022. These are all the GT’s that I can locate on Tabletop.to or BestCoastPairing, if you know of any others please send me a link and I’ll add them.
There was a total of 10 Grand Tournaments last week, however only 9 had data available to analyse. Valleycon 2022 was a 26 player tournament but no lists were available at the time of publishing these stats.
286 players took part in 10 GT’s over the last week.
Grand Alliance
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
4+ Wins
Chaos
54.5%
56
19.6%
2
13
Order
51.0%
119
41.6%
6
22
Death
46.6%
48
16.8%
1
7
Destruction
46.1%
56
22.0%
0
5
Faction Stats
The below stat show the results for those factions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Win Rate
Armies
% Share of Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Seraphon
66.2%
13
2.27%
3
1
Legion of the First Prince
65.0%
8
1.40%
0
0
Maggotkin of Nurgle
58.6%
21
3.67%
2
0
Idoneth Deepkin
58.5%
11
1.92%
1
0
Soulblight Gravelords
57.7%
13
2.27%
1
0
Cities of Sigmar
57.0%
10
1.75%
2
0
Daughters of Khaine
56.4%
14
2.45%
0
1
Lumineth Realm-Lords
52.1%
10
1.75%
0
0
Ironjawz
50.8%
13
2.27%
0
0
Sons of Behemat
48.5%
14
2.45%
0
1
Ogor Mawtribes
47.2%
11
1.92%
0
0
Nighthaunt
46.7%
21
3.67%
0
2
Stormcast Eternals
45.0%
43
7.52%
0
3
Kruleboyz
44.3%
11
1.92%
0
1
Sylvaneth
40.0%
5
0.87%
0
1
Hedonites of Slaanesh
38.3%
6
1.05%
0
0
Skaventide
37.9%
7
1.22%
0
0
Fyreslayers
34.4%
9
1.57%
0
1
Ossiarch Bonereapers
31.1%
11
1.92%
0
1
Gloomspite Gitz
30.0%
6
1.05%
0
1
Despite Nighthaunt and Daughters of Khaine being released now for a couple of weeks, we still see Seraphon, Legion of the First Prince and Maggotkin of Nurgle topping the win rates. On top of that Seraphon managed to grab three 5-0 results this week.
As a rough guide factions should have win rates of between 45-55% to ensure the game is roughly balance (true balance being impossible). The above shows that 7 factions have exceeded this band (including the new Daughters of Khaine) with Seraphon and Legion of the First Prince have exceeded the 60% win rate barrier. There are also seven factions below this ideal range, including one of the new battletomes for 3rd Edition (Fyreslayers). While Stormcast Eternals have a win rate of 45% we have to bear in mind that this is the most popular faction and is often the ones new players use when first playing Age of Sigmar, so the range of skill of the players inside this faction will vary widely, while many of the other faction will have a dedicated fan base or have tournament players looking for a faction that provides them the best chance at good results.
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Subfaction Stats
The below stat show the results for those subfactions represented by 5 armies or more only.
Faction
Subfaction
Win Rate
Armies
5-0 Wins
0-5 Losses
Seraphon
Thunder Lizard
67.3%
11
2
1
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Drowned Men
65.5%
11
1
0
Legion of the First Prince
65.0%
8
0
0
Lumineth Realm-Lords
Zaitrec
60.9%
5
0
0
Idoneth Deepkin
Nautilar
58.6%
6
0
0
Cities of Sigmar
Living City
58.3%
6
2
0
Nighthaunt
Scarlet Doom
54.3%
7
0
0
Daughters of Khaine
Zainthar Kai
54.3%
7
0
0
Soulblight Gravelords
Vyrkos Dynasty
53.3%
6
0
0
Sons of Behemat
Breaker Tribe
53.1%
10
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
Astral Templars
50.0%
6
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
Hammers of Sigmar
49.1%
23
0
1
Ironjawz
Bloodtoofs
44.2%
9
0
0
Kruleboyz
Big Yellers
43.4%
8
0
1
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Lurid Haze
42.0%
5
0
0
Nighthaunt
Emerald Host
41.5%
13
0
2
Fyreslayers
Greyfyrd
38.6%
7
0
0
Skaventide
37.9%
7
0
0
Stormcast Eternals
Hallowed Knights
35.6%
9
0
1
Ossiarch Bonereapers
Petrifex Elite
32.3%
10
0
1
Gloomspite Gitz
24.0%
5
0
1
The faction stats are pretty much replicated above with Lumineth Realm-Lords/Zaitrec joining the +60% club this week. Meanwhile despite Anthony Trentanelli’s heroics with Skaven recently (claiming two GT’s and going 4-1 this week) they still sit below 45% with a miserable 37.9% win rate. Will their new battletome and the Generals Handbook see a change in this though? A new tome can’t come soon enough for Gloomspite Gitz and Ossiarch Bonereapers….
