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.
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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 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.
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 Devon Destruction II that took place in the UK on 26th and 27th November. It involved 44 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.
Allegiance: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Arch-corruptors of the Mortal Realms – Triumphs:
Leaders Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (325)* – General – Command Trait: Diabolical Schemer – Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy Plague Priest on Plague Furnace (335) – Artefact: Blistrevous the Living Cyst – Noxious Prayers: Rabid-rabid! Plague Priest (100)* – Noxious Prayers: Rabid-rabid! Plague Priest (100)* – Noxious Prayers: Filth-filth! Verminlord Corruptor (350) – Artefact: Blade of Corruption – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Units 20 x Clanrats (100)** – Rusty Blade – 2x Standard Bearers – 2x Standard Bell Ringers 20 x Clanrats (100)** – Rusty Blade – 2x Standard Bearers – 2x Standard Bell Ringers 30 x Plague Monks (270)*** – Foetid Blades – 3x Standard Bearers – 3x Plague Harbingers – Reinforced x 2 30 x Plague Monks (270)*** – Foetid Blades – 3x Standard Bearers – 3x Plague Harbingers – Reinforced x 2 Vermintide (40)
Declan: There’s still a few armies in Age of Sigmar that can genuinely run hordes… and thankfully Skaven remains one of them although it is rarely seen with Stormfiends being a more common choice.
Brandon has done very well to navigate this to a 5-0 helped by the 100 rats (40 Clanrats and 60 Plague Monks), but led by a complement of no less than 5 characters. As a horde player myself – I love this!
The Corrupter can hit like a ton of bricks:
From Games Workshop / Wahapedia
Sure it’s as swingy as a Mangler Squig but with 3+/3+ he’s definitely doing damage on the charge… and will be a good trading piece – especially if opponents forget the Gnawholes (allow teleporting between them – stand near them to stop this!)
Meanwhile the priests are trying to get the Pestilens +1 to wound… which conveniently includes the Corrupter. 2+/2+ with this and all out attack – that’ll make a mess. And in case you think the big characters are all he has, beware of the glass cannons of the Plague Monks. It’s not what it was back in AoS2 but it’ll still catch some people out.
Games Workshop & Wahapedia
With Filth-filth they are 3+/3+ – a good combat profile – and with +1 attack on the charge they are getting through 1.5 wounds each before saves – and whilst the rend ‘-‘ looks weak they get -2 rend on any 6s to hit.
So, to beat this you need to attack it first… simultaneously whilst hoping Brandon doesn’t know how to use his Clanrats as screens or objective holders – not much chance of that against someone who’s gone 5-0!
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Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: Show ’Em Who’s Boss! – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Gatebreaker (520)* – General – Command Traits: Monstrously Tough – Artefacts of Power: Glowy Shield of Protectiness Warstomper (450)* – Artefacts of Power: Amberbone Totem Kragnos (720)**
CORE BATTALIONS *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Danny: Devon was a tournament close to home (literally – a whole bunch of my club were there) – and despite its small size there were some heavy hitting lists. New SoB definitely count as ‘heavy hitting’ too – even though their damage output with the new book got swingier overall, they gained some extra utility and tactical flexibility.
Now, Kragos isn’t exactly ‘new’ but why fix what ain’t broken? What’s cool is that the ‘little’ guys are viable now, and Jon makes good use of their new points cost as objective/battle tactic grabbers. Meanwhile, Kragnos gets escorted by a Warstomper with the Amberbone Totem for a run AND a 3d6 charge (thanks to Krag-daddy) – while the Gatebreaker packs monstrously tough (for +5 wounds) and the Glowy Shield for minus 1 rend to incoming attacks, making the heavy-hitter also extra survivable.
All in all, it’s a simple, but well thought out and clearly effective package, losing only to the shenanigans of LotP and taking down 3 very good armies in the meta right now. Gargants run by my club-mate Cam also finished 4th – proving the big boys are very much back (well, settling) in town! Kudos to Jon!
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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Enough Grub for All – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)* – General – Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter – Prayer: Keening Gale – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder Frostlord on Stonehorn (445) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Metalcruncher – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Alice: A classic style Beastclaw Raiders list, consisting of (mostly) mounted cavalry instead of foot troops. boulderhead is a natural choice as it adds 2 wounds to each model and hands out an extra mount trait to the leaders.
Leading the charge are two Frostlords on Stonehorns, which have an extremely nasty attack repertoire. Most notably the 4 attacks from the Frost Spear for Rend -1 Damage 3 and 6 Rock Hard Horns Rend -2 Damage 3 (With an extra point of damage on the charge). These guys also add +1 to charge rolls for any Beastclaw Raiders, which is most of this list, and they do stack if you’re within the bubble for both of them. Beastclaw Raiders live and die by the charge phase, either they all get in on turn 1 or they’re left out in the open to be picked off. If they get that charge, it’s usually going to be over real quick.
Each one is kitted out differently to aid the group as a whole. The General’s mount trait makes it much more hardy, granting it -1 to be wounded against all attacks, potentially saving it against alpha shooting or charging. Touched by the Everwinter lets him function as a priest, with Keening Gale adding 3″ of movement to the Mournfangs so they can keep up with their Masters. The other Frostlord is a Scalpel to take out high defense units. Metalcruncher does D6 mortals to units with a 3+ or better save, and Levitate allows it to bypass any would be screens trying to stop them from getting to the juicy targets in the back row. With the General using the Unstoppable Charge to make a 3D6″ move after charging, it becames damn near impossible to screen them out.
Rounding things off are a Reinforced unit of Mournfangs, Stonehorn and Thundertusk riders. Stonehorn are strong against tougher units, Thundertusk for hordes and Mournfangs for general purpose slaughter. The list struggle in battle tactics and missions requiring Galetian Veterans but solid at cracking through even strong foes. Of course, the meta darling Ironblaster also appears to rain down fire before the charge.
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Army Faction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280) – Artefacts of Power: Armour of the Pact Great Unclean One (495)* – General – Command Traits: Ruinous Aura – Bilesword and Plague Flail – Artefacts of Power: Fourfold Blade – Spells: Flaming Weapon, The Master’s Command Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons Changecaster (140)* – Spells: The Master’s Command Be’lakor (360)** – Spells: The Master’s Command
Alice: Quick disclaimer going forward, the new Slaves to Darkness book was not used in this tournament so any commentary will be referencing the old book.
The general design for Legion of the First Prince focuses on a strong core of Leaders and going lean on troops. Without their faction buffs, most rank and flank daemons struggle to do more than tarpit, but the faction’s strongest ability is to continuously to summon more so its ok to run a bit lean here. The Take What’s Theirs grand strategy starts making a lot more sense with that in mind.
So what do these heroes contribute? Be’lakor the man himself is an obvious staple, even without his bodyguard rule he’s still an excellent beat stick and The Dark Master is unmatched at locking your opponent’s most dangerous unit down for a unit. The Daemon Prince of Khorne serves one goal (remember we still have the old one here): to use its command ability to halve run and charge rolls. There’s no question why it was changed and I can’t blame someone for wanting to take it for one last run. The Changecaster is an extremely budget priced caster compared to the other daemon leaders and packs a spell that reduces Saves on a unit by 1, which is nice.
Both the Bloodthirster and Great Unclean One are meant to be beat sticks that are also difficult to take down. The Bloodthirster’s Armour of the Pact lets it reroll saves while the Great Unclean One has a 5+ Ward thanks to its command trait (Remember, you don’t get Disgustingly Resilient outside Maggotkin). The Great Unclean one can enflame its sword and use its artefact to do D3 mortals with its flail to do a surprising amount of damage with a hero most armies will struggle to kill. If you get stuck in fighting either of these Greater Daemons you likely will lose after a long, grinding fight
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GAF Jamboree that took place in the UK on 19th and 20th November. It involved 23 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine – Subfaction: Khailebron – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale (115)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Mindrazor Morathi-Khaine (680)* The Shadow Queen (680)*
Joshua: Baz gives us a different look into Daughters, with a very interesting Khailebron list.
First, let’s talk about Khailebron since this isn’t a top pick of the temples. This temple allows you to spend a command point and target a friendly unit. Remove them from the battlefield, and set them up anywhere on the battlefield 9” away from enemy units. This is very valuable in the sense that it opens up easy access to battle tactics and getting key units out of combat. This also allows the shadow stalkers to become battleline. After becoming a battleline you also get a very mobile unit for objective grabbing and back line threats.
The first thing that we take away from this list is that Morathi is still involved and we all know she is a force to be reckoned with. Now to add to her threat level you can’t lock her into combat and bog her down. She just uses the Khailebron command ability to teleport out of combat and sets herself up for another charge. Which keeps the scary mindrazor spell giving the plus 1 to damage on the charge. Or getting away to safety, stopping the clock of three wounds on the queen for turn. And for lists that already have trouble getting those three wounds a turn, now struggle even more.
Ironscale being the general allows the Blood Sisters and Blood Stalkers to become battleline. Which is a key piece to this list allowing the stalkers to get up to a 15 man unit. Throwing 30 shots 24” across the table. With morathi on the table allowing the hero phase shooting a total of 60 shots, doing mortals on sixes to hit. Ironscale also lets the Bloodsisters run and charge which increases their threat range to a staggering 24”. Add in the Horrorghast which prevents inspiring presence, units are not staying on the table for long.
To add to all the mobility this list already has, it has two units of Khinerai Heartrenders. Having these two units allow to complete a DOK book tactic, Cruel Delight. Having these two units set in reserve there is nothing your opponent can do to prevent you from completing this tactic. Which gives you an edge in a generals handbook that tactics are not easy to come by.
This list gives you the mobility to threaten the entire board, making no objective safe from your taking. Also it gives you, as the pilot the ability to control your targets a little easier. With the Rites Table giving you a Plus 1 to charge it makes those 9” charges a little easier to come by. Looking at this list it’s clear that it has many, many threats and can easily see it going 5-0 in the upcoming events.
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)** – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Mighty Waaagh! Leader – Artefact: Destroyer – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115)** – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Warchanter – Bonded (115)** Orruk Warchanter – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)** – 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480) – Allies
Declan: With the points increase from 400 to 480 points there was clearly a hope in the AoS design studio that it would reduce it’s appearance. We can’t tell yet, but Tom doesn’t seem to mind. He’s added in a Maw Krusha and 3 Warchanters! No doubt this is so he can power up the Maw Krusha and both 6 Gore Gruntas units. This is an alpha strike army of the highest order.
Add in the Ironjawz ability – Smashing and Bashing – you’re going to need big screens to stop this one steamrollering over you. It’s very, very quick; gets to you in turn 1, and hits like a freight train.
To stop it, you need to take out the bonded Warchanter or hit the Maw Krusha when it doesn’t have finest hour or Mystic Shield on. Shooting armies will definitely have a chance here, but I’m not surprised that Tom got a 4-1.
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Ymetrica – Grand Strategy: Alarith Aftershock – Triumph: Inspired
Declan: Well this is different. Starts off with Teclis but then has none of the rest of the usual LRL army. Indeed in Ed’s absence I needed to look some of these units up… and that’s a great sign of an off-meta list.
Joe has done well to get to 4-1 with it built around Avalenor and Stoneguard although with Teclis doing his usual heavy lifting of course.
From Games Workshop / Wahapedia
Avalenor is designed to not die – not quite in the same way as Morathi, or a Bastiladon but he can still take some damage and the 3+/3+ combat profit shows he is expected to do some work in combat. At 420 points he’s not cheap but he’s not very slow and counts as 5 on objectives as well.
Meanwhile the Stoneguard and (arguably) more defensive with a 4+ ward if contesting an objective you control with Fortitude of Faith.
Games Workshop / Wahapedia
This will give even Orruks a run for their money and makes them very survivable as anyone who has fought Pheonix Guard will attest to. If they are on an objective, not much is shifting them. Well done to Joe and thanks for getting me to look at 2 different warscrolls!
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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne – Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Exalted Greater Daemon of Khorne (580) – General – Command Traits: Mage Eater – Artefacts: Deathdealer 1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)* 1 x Skarbrand (380)** 1 x Bloodsecrator (125)** – Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle 1 x Skullgrinder (90)**
Alice: Most Khorne lists rely on 3, sometimes 4 bloodthirsters. It’s one of the actually really good heroes in a faction that is struggling really hard. So Skarbrand and Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury are not surprising here.
What is surprising is the Exalted Greater Daemon, the Resin terror from Forgeworld. At 580 points this thing is not cheap, but it has power when your opponent is facing off against something they’ve probably never seen, let alone played against before. 20 wounds is hard to cut through, and the axe is incredible at 8 attacks at Rend -2 (rend -3 in this case, due to the command entourage’s extra artefact), Damage 3. The fun doesn’t stop there, either. It can nominate a unit in combat to be unable to retreat, able to function as an excellent tarpit. With 20 wounds it’ll be able to hang around a bit. The final perk is in the form of its command ability which lets any daemon unit pile in 6″, anywhere on the field. If your opponent thought he was being clever staying outside of 3″, it’s going to be a bad time.
Most of the roster rounding things off is pretty predictable. Bloodsecrators can help neuter enemy Wizards, and grant an extra attack to every unit within 16″.
The Skullgrinder helps support the foot troops, able to deal some mortal wounds to Enemy Heroes and Monsters on a 2+. Bloodreavers are a workhorse battleline, suitable for capturing objectives and sacrificing to opponents, while Wrathmongers can actually put in some work with their Flurry of attacks and mortal wounds on death.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Warhammer World: Matched Play Event that took place in Nottingham, UK on 24th and 25th September. It involved 72 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: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Lord of Afflictions (210)* – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm Orghotts Daemonspew (300)* Bloab Rotspawned (300) – Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
UNITS 10 x Putrid Blightkings (500)** 5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)** 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* – 1 x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* – 1 x Dolorous Tocsin
Declan: Maggotkin of Nurgle are appearing at the top of many a tournament at the moment with Blightkings and Pusslords distributed as wished. Marco’s list has two of the special characters – Daemonspew and Rotspawned. This gives him a little punch and a little range, but must also help in the mirror match; as Marco beat Nurgle at the beginning and the end of the tournament.
Finishing 1st with 5-0 is always a good result and particularly special at Warhammer World!!
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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Beastlord (95)* – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)* – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades Great Bray-Shaman (100)** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Savage Dominion
Battleline 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*** – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*** – 3x Paired Ancient Weapons – 3x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Ungors (65)**** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)**** – Mauls & Half-Shields 10 x Ungors (65)**** – Mauls & Half-Shields
Units 20 x Bestigors (250)*** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)** 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Declan: Well Beasts have well and truly made it, with some of the top players in the UK taking them and doing well with them… and Freddie is doing very well with them as well. He got his last win on the top table but was just pipped to the post by Marco.
Freddie’s version of the Beasts of Chaos army has a bit of everything… and lots of Dragon Ogres. Whilst they don’t hit too hard with the Paired Ancient Weapons (no rend), they have volumes of attacks over a relatively small area. The mix with the War Glaives (2″ reach) likely allows Freddie to get a few more of them into combat as they are on large bases. Being in Bounty Hunters doubles the damage against Galatian Veterans as well so be careful what you send against them.
From Games Workshop & Wahapedia
If you’ve not seen the Beasts of Chaos in your local area their other trick is summoning – with the Dragon Ogre Shaggoth taking damage from the herdstone and then healing most of it back – the summoning racks up quickly and just when you’ve started to make progress more appear. This makes the Beasts of Chaos army difficult to shift and with 194 wounds and summoning it’s a true DPS (Damage per Second) check. You need to do the damage!
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Knight-Draconis (300)* – General – Command Traits: Heroic Stature – Artefacts of Power: Mirrorshield – Mount Traits: Celestial Instincts Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205)*
OTHER Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Declan: They may have lost the first game, and the Stormdrake Guard scroll may have been rewritten (and again), but they are no longer giving away extra points and so they are back on top! The dragons are doing +1 damage to Galatian Veterans with incredible moving and mortal wounds at range (no +1 damage on these!), and the Liberators provide a single GV unit in case it’s needed for scenarios or Battle Tactics.
This is quick… I mean really quick! And anything that might survive gets shot off. Eagle eyed readers will notice that the teleport has gone, but the Vanguards are in smaller units to give some flexibility, so it’s not really needed.
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Kruleboyz – Army Subfaction: Skulbugz
LEADER 1 x Gobsprakk (280) 1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (240) – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105) – General – Command Traits: Supa Sneaky – Spells: Choking Mist 1 x Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180) 1 x Kragnos (720)
BATTLELINE 10 x Gutrippaz (180)* – Gutrippa Hornblower – Gutrippa Banner Bearer – Gutrippa Boss – Wicked Stikka 10 x Gutrippaz (180)* – Gutrippa Hornblower – Gutrippa Banner Bearer – Gutrippa Boss – Wicked Stikka 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x The Burning Head (20)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)
Declan: Well Kruleboyz are bottom of the pile with Gitz, making Eddie’s 4-1 a great achievement — and done without an Incarnate. Take A Bow! This is all about the characters and Kragnos charging monsters off the board… take it off!
Games Workshop & Wahapedia
Whilst Kraggy is doing his thing, Gobsprakk is scaring (or killing) enemy casters and the Mirebrute & Vulcha are charging alongside Kraggy. Of course a double turn might be the end of this army, but Eddie must have had a few against him to still get 4-1 — that doesn’t happen by accident with this list. A great wildcard.
And we’re back! Sorry about the long hiatus. I’ve been on holiday for the last two weeks which has meant a lull in the posts. We’ll be trying to catch up on what we missed over the next couple of weeks, so on many days you can probably expect two top three articles per day!
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Nova Open 2022 that took place in the USA on 2nd, 3rd and 4th September. It involved 135 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5/8 game tournament. After the first 5 rounds the top 8 contested an additional 3 rounds in a seeded event to determine overall winner. There was a separate “renaissance winner” for the winner, including modelling scores, from the first 5 rounds. Separately those outside the Top 8 had the option of playing a 3 round RTT on the last day. Nova attracts a lot of the top ranked players in the US (and overall) and it’s an important place to get a feel for what is working at least for the best players.
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: Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Duplicitous – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord of Change (400)* – General – Bound To The Incarnate – Command Trait: Will of the Phantom Lord – Artefact: Brand of the Spirit Daemon – Lore of Change: Treason of Tzeentch Kairos Fateweaver (435) – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (140)* – Lore of Change: Tzeentch’s Firestorm
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 10x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 10x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (175)* – 4x Savage Greatblade – 6x Savage Blade & Arcanite Shield
Behemoths (Spinedog) Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60) Umbral Spellportal (70) Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Brett: I caught up with his last of Kaleb’s games on a Season of War stream, he handled it masterfully and defeated his brother handily. The Incarnate provides some real impact in the early rounds allowing this list to avoid committing the Lords of Change too early (which he did against his brother) and maintain his screens for a while longer. No Horrors here to take advantage of the 5+ return 10 models once they are defeated. However the Will of the Phantom Lord command trait granting reroll casting and unbind’s within 9″. Backed up on the Lord of Change by a +1 to save (Brand of the Spirit Demon). That takes up the mandatory choices as well.
Between them there are 8 casts in the list, Kairos knows the spells of the other casters as well as his own and has 3 of them. That’s on top of his fate (dice) changing and automatic dispel (Purple Sun isn’t really an issue for Tzeetch). The Mortals are bringing their own, at least until some one hits them and drops a model or 2. The Lord of Change has a command ability to grant +1 to casting to a model within 18″ (often Kairos). The endless spells are 20% of the list but critical as well. The Purple Sun is included as much for the chance to eat something – Kairos can guarantee that will happen at least once per game. Umbral Spell Portal for that extra range and Gnashing Jaws – great into slow moving units (particularly punishing for infantry with a move < 6″).
The battleline aren’t combat power houses, although they can sting if you let them. Between the Tzaangors mortal wound on a 4+ for every wizard within 9″ (5 in the list alone), to the ability to add rend to their ranged attack both Tzaangors and Acolytes are very good at chip damage. The Greatblades on the Tzaangors can do more than chip. This list is mostly going to screen using the battleline and Incarnate to discourage charges while hitting you with mortal wounds from spells. Bolt of Tzeetch (D6 MW), Treason of Tzeetch (roll a die/model in a unit and 6s do MW) to Tzeentch’s Firestorm (9 dice, 6s do D3 MW). Ideally you want to deploy and let the screens take the damage, chipping away until it’s time for the coup de grace with the big chickens cleaning up.
Destiny Dice and summoning using Fate Points go a long way in helping Tzeentch (new screens from Turn 2?). They introduce an interesting game, you gain Fate Points if you don’t unbind your opponents spells. do you wan them to have the spell or do you what to deny it? All of this is at 18″ though so you can see how important Spell Portal is into longer ranged opponents. Once within that range there are spells and ranged attacks galore. The list is crafted to fit within a Battle Regiment to control the initial turn order with a general preference to go second. The list has all of the tools but is fragile as well in the right circumstances, it takes a lot of skill to take it to 8/0.
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Ironjawz – Army Subfaction: Bloodtoofs – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leader 1 x Orruk Warchanter (115) 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95) 1 x Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)** – General – Command Traits: Mega Bossy – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist – Artefacts: Armour of Gork – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un 1 x Orruk Megaboss (140)** – Artefacts: Destroyer 1 x Orruk Warchanter (115)**
Battleline 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hacka
Core Battalions *Bounty Hunters **Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: (1965/2000)
Brett: A list showing there’s still life in Ironjawz yet, it’s not all Big Waagh. Kaleb’s brother, as I mentioned you can see the pair of them play. Single Mawcrusha with as many pigs (Gore Gruntas) as possible. Nick has swapped the Weirdnob Shaman for a Fungoid Cave-Shaman, costs 5 points for a chance to get an extra command point (on a 4+) and an extra spell in one round. The extra command points make it a great 5 point upgrade. Megaboss on Mawcrusha is the General, with Armour of Gork and bearing the Boss Choppa and Rip Tooth fist, for a 6+ ward and 3+ save. The Mawcrusha is still using Fast ‘un to maintain mobility. 2 Warchanters and a foot Megaboss complete HQs.
The foot Megaboss has Destroyer, he’s more than capable of being teleported to deal with an MSU on an objective or holding the rear and can issue Mighty Destroyers. Most of the Gore-Grunta’s are in Bounty Hunters, the advantage is blunted a bit by how many people don’t have Galletian Veteran’s in their lists at the moment. 2 big and 2 small units of pigs (possible when you don’t go double Mawcrusha) is a really good choice. You have the option of throwing the big units down range (with or without the Mawcrusha) or holding them and screening them with the smaller units. The Mawcrusha has a defensive build while maintaining speed (36″ move is possible with Fast ‘un). Nick only dropped the last game all weekend (7/1) , a fantastic result for Ironjawz.
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Allegiance: Seraphon – Constellation: Thunder Lizard – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord Kroak (430)* Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)* – Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration Skink Priest (90)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Engine of the Gods (265)*** – General – Command Trait: Prime Warbeast – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Spell: Hand of Glory – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Battleline 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 20 x Skinks (150)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers – Reinforced x 1 5 x Saurus Guard (115)*
Behemoths Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*** Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)*** Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***
Brett: Gavin is currently the top ITC ranked player in the world so definitely a list worth paying attention to. Skinks as battleline with Bastiladons as the workhorses and Lord Kroak at the centre. Thunder Lizard for the 2 wounds on the big boys. Still a magic based list (with just 2 wizards and 2 priests) but Kroak with 4 casts, and a +2 dominates. He can shutdown endless spells anywhere on the board and use a Skink Wizard to cast through and extend the range of his mortal wound spell. He also knows the full Lore of Celestial Dominance and can very reliably provides Command Points throughout the battle. The Astrolith Bearer provides a 6+ ward wholly within 12″ and a +1 to cast (useful for the Engine of the Gods).
The Skink Priest is bringing a potential run and charge, +1 to save and + 1 to hit rolls and a Heal. Engine of the Gods for summoning, battleshock play and melee combat supporting the Skinks and backing the Bastilidons. Opting for the larger Skink unit gives them a lot more play, they have an extra attack and absorb buffs well. They don’t become as threatening as Fangs of Sotek but they are likely to do at least chip damage to even a 3+ save. With Horrorghast available that’s potentially very damaging. Skinks can also be summoned or teleported and as GVs they excel in grabbing uncovered objectives. All of the Skinks are Eternal Conquerors, making them much harder to clear away from objectives (you need to kill them all). The Skinks can achieve 2 or 3 battle tactics almost independently of the rest of the army or enemy.
The list has a lot of flexibility, strong melee punch of the Bastildons and Stegadon (Curse + free all out attack on a Ark of Sotek?) backed by artillery (Solar Engine) and magic. The bigger unit tends to need to castle to ensure short range buffs provide coverage. This isn’t an alpha strike army, it’s going to build up damage in the first few turns and hopefully force some moral issues. Once units are weakened the Bastildons, that are very hard to bracket initially, can go in. Some weakness to MW shooting (who doesn’t) but the teleport, Solar Engine with buffs with run and charge for Skinks makes it possible to play around the shooting. Really great tournament result for a favourite army, just pipped at the post.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Tempest’s Eye – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Runelord (95)*** – General – Command Trait: Hawk-eyed – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of Eagles: Strike of Eagles – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal – Bound to Incarnate Doralia ven Denst (115) – City Role: General’s Adjutant
Units 10 x Longbeards (105)** – Ancestral Weapons & Shields – City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models) 10 x Darkshards (115)** 20 x Irondrakes (340)** – Grudgehammer Torpedo 1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155)*** – Main Gun: Sky Cannon 6 x Skywardens (210)* – 2 x Aethermatic Volley Guns – 1 x Skyhooks – 1 x Grapnel Launchers 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)* 3 x Vanguard-Palladors (215)* – Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400) – Allies
Brett: First of the armies from the regular rounds, Nick only dropped his second round match, otherwise scoring well throughout the tournament. Doing so with a less favoured battletome (Cities) that doesn’t even use the Storm Drake/SCE coalition is a fantastic effort. Instead he’s chosen to make it a KO heavy army (Tempest Eye’s coalition partner), light on HQs with a small SCE contingent. Slimming the HQ slot frees up space for units and in this case Krondspine without compromising too much. Also unusual with the lack of spells from the HQs, instead this is an anti magic cohort. The Runelord can dispell an endless and normal spell with a +2, Doralia can take aim at an endless spell. Doralia is a witch hunters with bonuses to hit and number of attacks if she doesn’t move, doing double damage to wizards (and Daemons).
The Runelord isn’t finished yet, he takes Arcane Tome to be bound to the incarnate, and cast Strike of Eagles (a very long range mortal wound spell). His artefact provides +1 to hit for ranged attacks (within 12″) and his warscroll provides with 6+ or an extra point of rend. All for 95 points. The coalition units are the Gunhauler and Skywardens, that’s a really cheap way to provide one of your ranged units with dedicated teleport. Skywardens can hitch a lift on any Skyvessel before it flies high to move themselves to a location 9″ from the enemy. The advantage with this method is you can drop the Gun hauler further back and land the within 6″ which may keep them safe or let them deploy more aggressively. Say put the Gunhauler in Shrapnel range (18″) and the Skywardens further back (24″ range).
The list goes on to have 2 more hammers, the Fulminators and Irondrakes. The Fulminators are well known, slightly fragile as a pair but it’s still 12 wounds at 3+ and they are still bringing 16 rend -2, 2 and 3 damage attacks on the charge (potentially 42 damage). With the Longbeards and Darkshards to screen the Irondrakes should have an extra attack and the Darkshards will be shooting earlier anyway making approaching them and charging either Longbeards or Darkshards costly. Palladors haven’t seen a lot of work lately, they are costly but they are extremely mobile and can potentially pick up exposed objectives or snipe out a character with their inbuilt teleport (Ride the Winds Aetheric). A more expensive prosecutor. All and all an innovative list with a high degree of complexity but plenty of tools.
Final Tournament Placings (Limited here to Top 32)
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Mancunian Carnage: Summer 2022 that took place in the UK on 20th and 21st August. It involved 73 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: Ironjawz – Grand Strategy: – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Master of the Weird – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat 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
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
Behemoths Rogue Idol (430)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Brett: Two variants of this list have had some discussion recently, 2 x Mawcrusha and either the Rogue Idol or Krondspine. Great to see a pure Ironjawz list at number one. That takes both skill and luck Both Mawcrushas have the durable build with 3+ saves. The general has the Arcane Tome, becoming a wizard and able to take Master of the Weird for an extra spell and only 2 spells are shown, Bash ‘em Ladz (+1 to wound within 16”) and Green Hand (teleport). His mount trait grants -1 to hit rolls targeting the general.
The Ardboyz are a useful screen but preserving at least one for a mid/late game teleport is equally useful. As a single drop this list is going to decide whether to go first or not, allowing Byron to play for the double on 1. With the Ardboyz as screens and the resilience of the Mawcrushas the list should handle the output in Turn 1 from your opponent. After that go hard and play for the double, assuming you can kill enough in Turn 1 you are in good position even without the double. The game is effectively decided by Turn 2. Shooting and redeploy can mess with you but if the dice are rolling hot there is little to stop this list.
With relatively few units this list might be better scoring early and trying to clear the opponent. In later turns it might be more of an issue to find Battle Tactics. A really well thought out tight list that shows melee is still alive; fantastic result against some pretty strong opponents.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Brett: A Tzeentch devoted Slaves to Darkness army (+1 to save and 5+ against spell damage) with 4 battlelines but still fitting tight in deployment with only 4 drops. Knights of the Empty Throne with 2 x 6 Varanguard headline this act, terrorising their enemies with a 2+ save. Their damage is swingy with exploding 6s but D3 damage for each wound with the sword. There can sometimes be issues getting all of those weapons in but if they do, on average, that’s 15 x D3 hits before the mounts strike and before saves. Inescapable Doom, units within 3″ can’t retreat, Grasping Plate, 6″ fight envelope and extra 3″ pile in, and an extra unbind (Nullstone).
The Chaos Sorcerers are relatively cheap sources of denies but more importantly both have a teleport and provide rerolls to hits and wounds rolls for a selected unit with their warscroll spell. That increases the mobility of the Iron Golems, although they are mostly a screen, objective campers. A unit of 8 with only a single wound each (except for the Ogor) it’s possible for them to enjoy a 2+ save (+1 from Tzeentch, and one from staying still). That makes them one of the best screens/campers in the game. That’s without considering the Warshrine (which can grant another +1 to save as well as rerolls). The Sphiranx is a cheap source of Monstrous Rampages, mobile and won’t die to stry damage (with it’s 10 wounds). It can also provide some Bravery play and cause a fight last although they are probably are more situational.
Another 5/0 list (both 1st and 2nd finished 5/0 but didn’t meet of course) that creates a lot of dilemmas. This isn’t a faction that is seeing a lot of play so people might not know what it can do and mobile blocks of 30 wounds that can put out solid damage are always a menace.
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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Drowned Men – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADERS Lord of Afflictions (210)** – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm – Incubatch Orghotts Daemonspew (300) Morbidex Twiceborn (320) Bloab Rotspawned (300)** – Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease Lord of Afflictions (210)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations – Incubatch
UNITS 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* – 1 x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* – 1 x Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)* – 1 x Dolorous Tocsin
Brett: No real surprises here with what’s become a very popular list in the last couple of months. Sometimes referred to as the Flies list it combines reasonable mobility the resilience Maggotkin are known for. WIth their consistent Mortal Wounds (MW) output and that resilience they can outlast and wear down most opponents. Except, as happened here, extremely durable armies with massive punch (the 2nd place list above). Drowned Men for the pregame move, Lord of Affliction as the General, both with incubatch for additional mortals, to make Blightlords battleline.
Very little magic (Bloab has a cast and Arcane Tome) the army is really looking to get close and stay there to share their charms. Damage output is concentrated in the Greater Daemons, unfortunately even with a 4+ save and 5+ ward they degrade pretty quickly. With so few Blightlords it’s hard to screen them from anything that charges (fights first), this is a potential weakness. On the plus side they hit very hard, each at least 5 (degrading) attacks -2 rend 3 damage attacks and between 3 and 7, -1 rend, 2 damage attacks. That power lets them deal with a lot of hammer units if they survive the first engagement. 6 x Varanguard with 30 wounds will generally survive though.
Flies is a very solid list, this is another great performance where Max has dealt with some of the more common threats pretty well just falling to won of the toughest lists in the game right now (not winningest, just hard to deal with).
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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Subfaction: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Abhorrant Archregent (245)* – Artefacts of Power: The Dermal Robe – Spells: Spectral Host Abhorrant Ghoul King (165)* – Spells: Miasmal Shroud Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – General – Command Traits: Savage Chivalry – Artefacts of Power: Decrepit Coronet – Mount Traits: Razor-clawed – Spells: Flaming Weapon Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)*** – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Spectral Host Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)*** Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)***
Brett: A return to the more common Flesh Eater Courts list with the Dragon’s as the main damage dealers and the handfuls of cheap Crypt Ghouls for board control and objectives. But underestimating the Ghouls would be a mistake, both the 20 and 30 unit will have an additional attack due to their size. They get a 4th attack if a Courtier kills a model within 16″ and reroll their hit rolls of 1 within 18″ of an Abhorrant (4 in this list). The unmounted Ghoul King can grant another attack as well, there might be no rend but 150 attacks are going to do something. The Courtiers returns a model (serf) on a 2+ in the hero phase. 2 damage into any Galetian Veterans. Take that Nighthaunt.
Morguant is a core choice here, allowing any serf unit (Crypt Ghoul) to be returned on a 4+. You are going to fight one of those Crypt Ghoul units twice.The recent update also lets you return either a Serf or Knight model as an heroic action. Each of the Abhorrants is a wizard granting 5 casts/dispels. However the warscroll spells on the Archregent and the Ghoul King on Zombie are taking 2 of those casts, one to provide up to D3 attacks to a unit (Ferocious Hunger) and the other reroll wounds (Malefic Hunger). Each of the Abhorrants can summon an additional unit depending on their rank once per battle (and only one each round). This includes 1 x Courtier, 3 x Knights (includes Flayers) and 10 x Serfs. Extremely mobile and guaranteed to take 2 battle tactics each game (Against the odds and Desecrate the land)
I’m only scratching the surface here, as a faction it’s heavily dependant on their casting and buffs. If you can deny enough spells they are more vulnerable. Ideally you want to remove some of the bigger units before they summon, difficult to do with the depth of the screens in this list. 4/1 is a great result with a lesser seen faction.
Final Tournament Placings
Full tournament placings can be found on tabletop.to.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Southern Fried Open that took place in Georgia, USA on 16th and 17th July. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. A small tournament often means interesting results and that’s true this time with a pair of Cities of Sigmar lists and Fyreslayers. Peter sensibly included an Orc list, there haven’t been enough of those recently.
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.
Brett: There is so much happening in this army, it’s hard to keep this short. Really demonstrates how much is smashed into the Cities of Sigmar book. Thematically it’s exciting as well with Dwarves allied with Humans and Aelves. Tempest Eye brings additional movement and +1 save in the first turn as well as allowing a ranged unit to shoot even if it ran. Irondrakes are slow and have a shorter range (16″) than most ranged units but with this combination you can easily get within range on most maps. If they are more than 3″ from enemy units that’s 40 R-1 D1 shots.
The Hammerers are the hammer in this army though, the shooting of the Irondrakes and the mobility of the Pistoliers play a supporting role. The Hammerers with Aura of Glory are easily capable of putting out 62 R-1 D2 attacks a turn. This isn’t the only synergy, the Sorceress can boost either the Dreadspears or Black Spears but equally can use either to fuel her spells reducing the Purple Sun to a CV6. Even though this is a Tempest Eye not Hallowheart army it’s still built around spells and prayers. Curse is there to increase the lethality of the Black Guard and in a pinch the Irondrakes. Hammerers already have MW on a 6.
We have 3 wizards with Aura of Glory, only one is going to be used but that allows a lot of flexibility in positioning. With the 2 Endless spells to get out there are still 2 casts available, most likely on the Battlemage and Hurricanum. The Sorceress and Battlemage are both casting at +2 fairly easily so are the best for casting the Endless Spells. Ghurian Battlemage so Wildform is his spell, a great boost to a melee unit leaving the Hurricanum to cast Aura of Glory. In the perfect round. Not least is the Seerstone Amulet giving a CP per turn for nothing, a very powerful ability.
This is still an army full of one wound, low save units that can die easily so a 4/1 is a great result. A high risk, high reward army that delves deep into the Cities book and capable of some amazing action unless the dice turn.
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Lofnir – Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge – Triumphs: Inspired
Brett: Really great to have a Fyreslayers list on the podium. It’s been a bit of a surprise that the new book didn’t lead to more podiums but for a range of reasons they seem to have been held back. Kevin has chosen the Magmadroth lodge (Lofnir) that makes Runeson on Magmadroth battleline. It also gives them an extra 2 wounds and up to 3 may have mount traits. No accident that this army has 3 Magmadroths all with mount traits. Magmadroths are the books strongest unit with 18W and 12″ movement giving Fyreslayers much needed mobility. I should mention that Kevin has been restrained, there are Fyreslayers armies with 5 Magmadroths.
That isn’t all though, the prayers, traits and artefacts all combine to make this a very hard to kill army. It’s a great army for frustrating high damage but fragile opponents (DoK). They want to lure you in and then hit back hard. Even the Runelord is a good inclusion bringing a ward aura and increasing rend.
Looking at his journey through the competition it’s difficult to see a good counter to the magma lizards. The Incarnate would on the surface seem to be a solid choice but if you don’t feed it endless spells then it will struggle to level. Morathi would have been an obstacle but again she would struggle to clear the Hearthguard with Battlesmith support and the Magmadroths will clear the Blood Sisters quickly. We have 3 Priests and the Battlesmith to provide buffs (wards) and heals as well as denies. In Fyreslayers endless spells are actually invocations and summoned by the priests. The army has all 3 pumping out mortal wounds or making nearby units very tanky. All of the top armies went 4/1 and this army scored very well throughout.
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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Excelsis – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Freeguild General on Griffon (290)*** – General – Greathammer – Command Trait: Cunning Foe – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm Anointed on Flamespyre Phoenix (290)*** Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)** – Lore of the Ghurish Heartlands: Cower Runelord (95) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Ghurish Heartlands: The Amber Spear – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Runelord (95) – Universal Prayer Scripture: Guidance
Battleline 6 x Demigryph Knights (350)* – Lance and Sword – Reinforced x 1 6 x Demigryph Knights (350)* – Lance and Sword – Reinforced x 1 3 x Demigryph Knights (175)* – Lance and Sword
Brett: I just like this list, honestly anyone that brings a battalion of knights to a competition deserves to win. They are paired with some very killy leaders on Behemoths for the most part and protected by Runelords with their wards. Two wizards and two priests (one of the priests doubling down with the Arcane Tome). This is an army that wants to move fast and charge in most cases. However there are some interesting choices still, Cunning Foe, allows the General to retreat and charge. But he is equipped with the Greathammer that doesn’t receive a buff from charging.
Unfortunately the Knights aren’t benefiting from the Phoenix as much as some units. This is a conscious choice to allow access to the Lore of the Ghurish Hearthlands and the 2 potent spells included in the army. The Phoenix is 50% chance of returning with full wounds the first time it is killed. In a tournament that is huge, you are potentially using a 2290 point list.
The battalions are interesting with the rarely seen Monstrous Kill-Pack and overall choosing Excelsis is innovative. This is the city within Ghur introduced in Broken Realms. It has interesting mechanics that can grant +1 to hit rolls per phase for a unit (it doesn’t have to be the same unit in different phases) and there is a chance that a saving throw will cause a mortal wound to the attacker. Everything in the army moves at least 10″ except the Runelords giving them extraordinary threat range. A most impressive run including beating Thunder Lizards (twice) and only losing to the ultimate winner. A good looking list that would be a hoot to play (but maybe not against).
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Kruleboyz – Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (315) – General – Command Traits: Supa Sneaky – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un – Spells: Sneaky Miasma Killaboss with Stab-Grot (110)** – Boss‑hacka and Skareshield – Artefacts: Mork’s Eye Pebble Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Choking Mist Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Nasty Hex
Brett: An unusual take on Kruleboyz for your entertainment, I think that like Nighthaunt for most of AoS 2nd edition Kruleboyz haven’t really met our expectations. But for those who like something different the faction offers a lot of choices and a different style of play. This army defeated Thunder Lizard and Soulblight both considered stronger factions (one of them amoung the best) and includes the almost never seen Hobgrots. Really importantly, I think, this whole 2000 point list is made of 2 Dominion Launch Sets with the addition of a Snatchaboss. What a great way to quickly and cheaply build an army that has some competitive chops.
Alexander has chosen Grinnin’ Blades instead of the more common Big Yellerz (Boltboyz as battleline). This negates shooting very well; Grinnin’ Blades units aren’t visible if they are more than 12″ away. Additionally the Kruleboyz have a lot of “tricks” at the start of a battle giving surprise mortal wounds, mortal wounds on 6s, forcing redeployment and debuffing wound rolls as well as making themselves invisible in cover. Unfortunately most of these based on chance so you might not get everything you need from Battle Traits.
The Snatchaboss is a great inclusion providing a lot of punch in an army that is more of a witherer. His trait allows a redeploy before first turn so you can place something really aggressively and move it if you don’t go first. His mount trait and spell (thanks Arcane Tome) allow him to move twice in the hero phase and once in the movement phase – 24″ move without charges. A very aggressive play but a nightmare to screen against, it can also get him isolated and focused if the rest of your army is hiding. A lot of strong attacks, mortal wounds due to his belly slime and the once a game ability to one shot a small hero.
The Shaman highlight one of the issues you have in Kruleboyz, they have great spells which reduce the number of attacks of a unit (Choking Mist) or strip ward rolls (Nasty Hex) but they also hand out Poison/Elixirs if they don’t cast or dispel. They offer either MW on a 5+ or +1 to saves. In the current meta you can’t really have no dispels available so it is hard to decide how to use the Shaman in a given situation. The 2 Shaman let you choose to have one cast and the other use Poisons/Elixirs based on the situation. On the offence you want poison and Nasty Hex for one of the Gutripper units. Defensively you can switch.
Otherwise the units aren’t exceptional, Gutripper’s are fishing for 6s or 5s to make up for their poor weapon skills. Hobgrots are a screening speed bump and the Boltboyz are fun but limited by range, in Grinning Blades the profile you want (Hasty Shot) is only a 12″ range and they can’t last in combat. Kruleboyz have poor moral and poor saves so they struggle against sustained pressure. The army struggled with armies that got close and pushed in to melee and performed better against shooting based armies with the exception of the Soulblight.
2/3 isn’t really indicative of how strong this army can be but it is a very well conceived army with a lot of play if a bit too dependent on terrain and some lucky dice rolls.
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…..
