This is the top three AoS lists for CTC Age Of Sigmar Championship Open that took place in Ottawa, Canada on the 13th and 14th of May. It involved 22 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament. The tournament was broken into 2 rounds, one of 3 games and one of 2 games (2nd day). The results are for the combined placings, overall winners are slightly different reflecting standings after day 1 (first 3 rounds).
As this event had less than 25 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Fyreslayers – Subfaction: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)** – General – Command Traits: Blood of the Berzerker – Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve – Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient Auric Flamekeeper (90)** Auric Flamekeeper (90)** Battlesmith (150)*** – Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runeson (80)*** – Ancestral War-axe – Artefacts of Power: Axe of Grimnir Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Prayers: Curse
BATTLELINE Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* – Karl Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* – Karl Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* – Karl Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* – Karl Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Karl – Berzerker Broadaxe
Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Mortal Realm: Chamon – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)* – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)** – Artefact: Corpsefane Gauntlet – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Crypt Haunter Courtier (110)* Crypt Haunter Courtier (110)** Varghulf Courtier (160)** – General – Command Trait: Grave Robber – Artefact: The Bilious Decanter – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
BATTLELINE 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** -1 x Crypt Ghast 9 x Crypt Horrors (330)*** – Reinforced x 2 – 1 x Crypt Haunter 9 x Crypt Horrors (330)*** – Reinforced x 2 – 1 x Crypt Haunter
Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble! – Triumph: Inspired – Fierce Loathings: Idiots with Flags
LEADERS Gatebreaker (520)* – General – Command Traits: Rabble Rouser – Artefacts of Power: Extra-calloused Feet – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Gatebreaker (520)* – Artefacts of Power: Amberbone Totem
CORE BATTALIONS *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Footsloggas – Unified
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Ironjawz – Army Subfaction: Da Choppas – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist – Artefacts: Armour of Gork – Mount Traits: Smelly ’Un 1 x Orruk Megaboss (140)* – Artefacts: Destroyer – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)** – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Waaagh! – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork 1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)** – Warbeats: Killa Beat 1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)** – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
BATTLELINE 10 x Orruk Brutes (300)* – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka – Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha – 2 x Gore-choppa 10 x Orruk Ardboys (160)* – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 4 x Orruk-forged Shield 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* – Ardboy Boss – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
OTHER 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Gore-grunta Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
This is the top three AoS lists for Welsh Open that took place in the Cardiff, Wales on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 51 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: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Big Chungus(450)* Frostlord on Stonehorn – General – Command Trait: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder Queen Divine(330)** Huskard on Thundertusk – Blood Vulture – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Keening Gale
BATTLELINE Netflix Comedy Special (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture Lesbian Bed Death (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture The TERF Eater (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture White Male Privilege (270)** Thundertusk Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Torrbad
TOTAL: 1980 / 2000
Taking down the Welsh Open in a SPICY meta (it’s the stomping ground of the Team Lit folks, among many other reputable gaming clubs around the greater area) is this Monster truck list from competitive stalwart, Hazel Moon.
vroom vroom! Aside from the galaxy-brain race-horse style names, there’s not a tonne unusual about this list. Big Stonehorns never really go out of style – but one thing that makes them especially interesting in this season is their vulture attacks – it’s 1 MW on a 2+ per stonehorn but it doesn’t actually count as a shooting attack and can therefore target those lovely squishy GCs with, on average, 5 MWs per shooting phase.
Other than being strong on objectives, having fantastic charge mortals (especially helpful in this -1/2 hit meta we’re seeing), this is a super reliable list with all the tools to do well – the fact Hazel took down BoC, KO and Fyreslayers twice is testament to the that. Keep on truckin’ Hazel!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Auric Runefather (120)** – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir Auric Runemaster (130)** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Forge Key – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
BATTLELINE 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2
ENDLESS SPELLS AND INVOCATIONS Molten Infernoth (40)
Kevin Lathers: Now you may ask yourself, have I seen this list before? Well, sort of.
Slight permutations of this list have been making the rounds. Sometimes it’s Greyfyrd, but I think Vostarg has taken over a bit: it’s easy to see why with its huge bonus to vulkites (+1 to hit and wound on charge). That usually trumps two extra artefacts.
Pulling the previous summary of the list: it relies on blocks of infantry holding objectives and looking for openings to run + charge (ember storm prayer) into important units. The 10-man Vulkite units are both screens and hammers while the Hearthguard are immovable block that can strike first into anyone thinking charging it is a good idea.
The smaller Vulkites and HGB feed into the 30-man Vulkite unit which can pick anything in the game up off the board with dual-flamekeeper buffs. Between 90 and 120 attacks (if Runefather buff is active) on that 30-man black at 3-damage each means even if an opponent is saving on a 2+ they are going to get toasted.
Once the engine of the flamekeepers gets going it’s hard to stop unless opponents can somehow take them out. But they can be well protected behind the infantry and focus on them means Vulkites are staying alive. And with how many Vulkite and Hearthguard Berserkers there are, this is a lot of wounds to chew through.
It’s notable that Alex had to play against not one, but two, Helon LRL lists. LRL usually can give FS a tough time with their AoE spellcasting and precision MWs, but Alex managed to massage that Nulsidian Icon (4+ spell ignore) to a win against both opponents. Further, this list has the benefit of high wound amounts which can sometimes thwart LRL attempts at unit removal.
His other three opponents used combat armies (Khorne, Ogors, and NH) which always struggle into FS lists like this. Once they get stuck in and start killing vulkites it only makes the next combat even worse for them and they quickly getting burned to the ground by the incredible damage stacking of flamekeepers.
As long as we remain in this GHB I will expect to continue seeing this list, or ones very similar to it, show up.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant(120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Seed of Rebirth (Universal Artefact) – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
BATTLELINE 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
UNITS 5 x Gossamid Archers (210)*
ENDLESS SPELL AND INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40) Season: Dwindling
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1990 / 2000
The Mathmallow version of the current Sylvaneth hotness adds a unit of Gossamid archers as an additional, incredibly mobile, screen to prevent opponents from interfering with the backline artillery station of 9 Kurnoth hunters.
This style of list has only gotten more popular as the way Sylvaneth is built in GTs has been honed to a fine edge, Alarielle creates a terrible problem for an opponent with her self-recursion and enormous wound count demanding answers, and quickly, to prevent Sylvaneth stabilising on board state and achieving enough positive trades to begin to take over in the late game when Alarielle returns. This long-game style of play, combined with enormous range of influence, excellent mobility and uninteractive trading make sylvaneth more than capable of taking all comers – an absolute must for a GT.
This list is relatively well-spoken about so I’ll avoid going into it too much but in this humble writer’s opinion the Gossamid archers are the most interesting inclusion in this list, an obvious answer to alpha-strike style combat armies, the gossamids are intended to give an extra layer of screening to objectives and provide time for the relatively medium output of the kurnoths to do their work. They do decent damage on their own but strike me as a tech piece aiming to address one of the major flaws of the list: it being so light on bodies. I’d be interested to hear what Mathmallow thinks of them after using them consistently in a few GTs.
A man that needs no introductions, posting another truly LIT performance, well done Mathew
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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Hagg Nar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (280)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Prayer: Sacrament of Blood High Gladiatrix (90)** – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master High Gladiatrix (90)** Bloodwrack Medusa (140)** – Artefact: Crystal Heart – Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
BATTLELINE 20 x Witch Aelves (240)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives – Reinforced x 1 20 x Witch Aelves (240)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Witch Aelves (120)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives 10 x Witch Aelves (120)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
UNITS 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)** – Allies
DoK have seen a fairly dramatic fall from grace this season since their points hikes, a shallow book and a number of strong new tomes, but they’re still fundamentally a good army – especially, for my money, when they focus on Aelf swarms.
Those scantily glad murder-vixens don’t look like much on paper – but buffed with +1 to wound by the Gladiatrix, +1 to save by proximity to the Blood Wagon, and starting at Blood Rites 2 in Hagg Nar, they can really perform. If Mindrazor goes off on them too, which the Krondspine’s +1 to cast will help with, they can reach silly level of output, with 3 attacks at 2/3/-2/2 on the charge.
Speaking of Spinedog, we haven’t seen him around these parts for a while, but here he acts as a Morathi-proxy who is, under some scenarios, actually harder to kill and can really allow the Aelf hordes to get into position and choose favourable engagements.
A smart list which I don’t envy having to push around – dems a lorra liddle bases! Makes me wonder – are DoK in line for some new units (and I don’t mean useless Underworlds warbands etc) – perhaps with the Dawnbringer books? That little extra depth could be what they need to shine/bathe in blood again!
This is the top three AoS lists for the Hampshire Grand Tournament that took place in the UK on the 14th and 15th of April. It involved 82 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Auric Runemaster (130)* – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Battlesmith (150)* – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Flamekeeper (90)** Auric Flamekeeper (90)** Auric Runesmiter (120)** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm
Battleline 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)*** 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)*** – Poleaxes
Endless Spells and Invocations Molten Infernoth (40)
Kevin Lathers: This list, or ones like it, have been making the rounds recently. The recent changes on rally limits (to 10 wounds maximum per rally) will certainly put a ding in the list, but not one big enough to knock it out.
While occasionally Greyfyrd, Ricky has taken the list as Vostarg in order to buff the Vulkite Berserkers when they charge (giving them +1 to hit and wound).
The list relies on blocks of infantry holding objectives and looking for openings to run + charge (off ember storm prayer) into important units. The 10-man Vulkite units are both screens and hammers while the Hearthguard are immovable block that can strike first into anyone thinking charging it is a good idea. Ricky played 3 different Sylvaneth players and all 3 would have found the combination of fight on death and fight first quite troublesome. Making matters worse for Sylvaneth, a flamekeeper can allow a Vulkite unit to charge them in their own combat phase and then fight first on them, killing things before they can bounce out.
The smaller Vulkites and HGB feed into the 30-man Vulkite unit which can pick anything in the game up off the board with dual-flamekeeper buffs. Between 90 and 120 attacks (if Runefather buff is active) on that 30-man black at 3-damage each means even if an opponent is saving on a 2+ they are going to get toasted.
Once the engine of the flamekeepers gets going it’s hard to stop unless opponents can somehow take them out. But they can be well protected behind the infantry and focus on them means Vulkites are staying alive. And with how many Vulkite and Hearthguard Berserkers there are, this is a lot of wounds to chew through.
Further, this GHB has a lot of low objective count, or tight objective location, battleplans. This means the lack Magmadroths is less of a hamstring than normal. Adding to that, the current GHB disallows shooting into foot heroes. There’s a lot of reasons the current meta favors such a list.
There’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of auras to keep track of, but an experienced Fyreslayers player can navigate these to pull out some fantastic plays.
Oh, and the Molten Infernoth, a staple which can end any GC’s whole career quickly.
I expect this list to continue to see play, even if it has some slight changes, for as long as this GHB lasts.
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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Underguts – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Inspired
Leads Firebelly (130)* – Lore of the Sun-Eater: Billowing Ash – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Butcher (140)* – Cleaver – Artefact: Gruesome Trophy Rack – Lore of Gutmagic: Molten Entrails Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – General – Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder – Prayer: Keening Gale Huskard on Thundertusk (330) – Harpoon Launcher – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm
Battleline 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists 2 x Mournfang Pack (170) – Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists 2 x Mournfang Pack (170) – Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
Artillery Ironblaster (200) Ironblaster (200)
Core Battalions *Warlord
Additional Enhancements Mount Trait
Total: 1960 / 2000
Now that Ironblasters are 200 points, Ogors really seem to have settled into their groove as an army that can do well in the right hands but isn’t the meta boogeyman, and I’m here for it. While it looked for a while like monster trucks (as in, nearly/all Stonehorns) was going to be the competitive go to, various lists – like this one from Russ – are proving that there’s plenty of play in a nice balanced mix.
So we have the two big Stonehorns here, with Keening Gale on the Frostlord to ensure maximum speed on him or the 3×2 battleline Mournfang – who themselves present a nice middle-ground of speed and killing power, while also being -1 to wound vs shooting weapons and a great way to bypass unleash hell threats with their ‘UH only hits on 6s’ ability.
The 2nd Stonehorn is a Huskard for buff and further prayer support, and then you have the magic number (I reckon!) of two Ironblasters – and this list is in Underguts to ensure they have the extra rend to really be worth their points.
A cheeky FIrebelly also makes an appearance as a cheap caster and GC who has a nice -1 to hit aura spell, which I’m also surprised we don’t see more of. He is Finecast, mind you…
All in all, a lovely balanced list from Russ that proves spam may be tasty (especially for a hungry Ogor) but isn’t always strictly necessary to compete!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Greyfyrd – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired
Auric Runemaster (130)** – General – Command Trait: Master Priest – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Auric Runemaster (130)** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Prayer of Grimnir’s Fury Auric Runefather (120)*** – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Battlesmith (150)*** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)*** – Allies
Battleline 5 x Auric Hearthguard (120)* 5 x Auric Hearthguard (120)* 5 x Auric Hearthguard (120)* Grimwrath Berzerker (110) Grimwrath Berzerker (110)** Grimwrath Berzerker (110)** Grimwrath Berzerker (110)*** – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Grimwrath Berzerker (110)*** – Artefact: Draught of Magmalt Ale
Endless Spells and Invocations Molten Infernoth (40) Zharrgron Flame-spitter (40)
Kevin Lathers: Now, here’s a list with some chest hair! And wow, it played into two different KO opponents, notorious counters to almost all Fyreslayers lists.
This is a rarely played list archetype that has seen some tournament success in the past: Grimwrath Berserker spam with MSU AHG for cheap battleline.
Five Grimwrath Berserkers (GWB) and a Celestant Prime add hammers that can be dificult to deal with for opponent. Target priority for opponents becomes difficult as splitting damage can leave a GWB on low wounds but putting all your attacks/damage into one means you’re overkilling a unit with only 7 wounds. Meanwhile, the Celestant Prime is deepstriking anywhere and immediately becoming a problem for anything lacking the right depth of screens.
Speaking of screens, they will be having a difficult time. AHG, while not the hardest hitting units, when combined with a Flamespitter and Infernoth can quickly clear screens or put opponent’s heroes on a countdown. The projected damage combination can’t be underestimated as it will create openings for the GWB and CP. The infernoth particularly can be a nightmare for KO players if it tags a ship and rolls doubles instantly dunking on everything inside.
Further, the AHG are slowing opponent’s units and handicapping their movement plans if they are not taken care of in promptly. The AHG slow combined with a well-placed infernoth can often stop large-based units (like a gargant) from going where they need to.
This is an aggressive list that will force opponents to make hard decisions about what they need to fight and if they choose wrong it can allow one Grimwrath to end their entire gameplan.
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Allegiance: Sons of Behemat – Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags) – Grand Strategy: Tame the Land – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (520)* – General – Command Trait: Monstrously Tough – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)* Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (520)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Battleline 1 x Mancrusher Gargants (150)
Regiment of Renown Big Grikks Kruleshots (310)
Core Battalions *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
Declan It’s fair to say that Sons have been struggling of late with the battle tactics. As an army of 4 big lads, or fewer and some smaller lads, the completion of the Champion required Batttle Tactics is impossible. Not good to wipe out many choices.
But with the release of the Regiments of Reknown into Age of Sigmar Connor has grabbed the Kruleboyz to make the army more interesting. Its difficult to say that warscrolls from the worst army in the ge should improve things but these bring shooting to the Sons… and that all important reach. I like the change up (although I dislike the Regiments of Reknown concept in general because it’s impossible to balance well.)
I’ll go out on a limb here though and say I don’t think this is the start of a resurgence in Sons. They’ll still struggle until GW changes the seasons or takes another look at the Battletome Battle Tactics – well done to Connor for trying something new and taking it to a 4-1.
This is the top three AoS lists for Broken Realms and Minis for War 3 that took place in Scotland on the 1st and 2nd of April. 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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Oakenbrow – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Season of War: The Dwindling
Leaders Drycha Hamadreth (320)** – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Spirit of Durthu (350)* – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Treelord Ancient (330) – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth Warsong Revenant (300)** – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Battleline 10 x Dryads (100)* Treelord (230)* Treelord (230)*
Scotland has a strong and friendly AoS community. Their Discord has many members, and I was lucky enough to be invited to join. All of our lists have player comments today after, and I want to thank the Scottish AoS community and all the players mentioned in the article for helping us out.
Reece Fraser: I was playing oakenbrow, which allowed my treelords to become battleline. This is good on its own, but the real benefit was that it allowed all the treelords / ancient / durthu to fight at their top bracket when you look at the damage table on the warscroll until they are reduced one wound, but there are various ways to heal in Sylvaneth.
The general combo in the list is to get plus 5 to charge through the spiteswarm hive endless spell, which gives plus 3 on a 2+ once the spell is successfully cast. This is followed by plus 2 from the battlemage of ghur. The bonuses went on Durthu 9 times out of 10. The combo start with the Greenwood Gladius combined with the ancient’s once per game ability to place a tree anywhere on the table. Then the warsong revenant, who can cast through trees thanks to the spellsinger command trait, casts treesong, guaranteed from the use of the vesperal gem. All this combined can really catch opponents out.
The list was also built around the idea that every major threat piece in the army can teleport. All treelords, including Durthu, have this ability on the warscroll, allowing them to teleport through woods and overgrown terrain 9” away. In addition to this, they have access to the once per turn teleport which allowed Drycha to follow.
This allows you to create a treelord castle for Drycha, which I found quite effective. You put Drycha in her shooting mode at the start of each turn which gives her 20 shots instead of the base 10 (3+/3+/-1/1, 6s to hit are a mortal wound). I would then cast mystic shield on a treelord to help him go to a 2+ save and teleport him and another treelord 9” away from enemies. Drycha would then teleport behind them, but still within her 12” shooting range.
This allows you to shoot into what is needed, 20 shots with drycha and 3 each with the treelords. When it is the opponents turn and tney try to charge into this castle you can unleash hell for another 20 shots. Then in the monsterous rampage phase, if positioned correctly, you can attempt to make one charging unit fight last on a 3+ with a treelord and either roar or stomp with the other two monsters. Combined with treesong on that tree they are huddled around, this gives them all extra rend (-2 and -3) on all of their attacks.
The general of the army was the warsong revenant which, as explained earlier, casts through trees. The general plan was to just sit in a corner near a tree or overgrown to get the bonus +1 to cast.
Turn one he casts spiteswarm most times. After that, unless it needed to be recast, he would use his artifact for the rend spell that can’t be unbound and his built-in spell Unleash Spites, which causes mortals on 5+ with a 9” range. The number of models in the target unit determines how many dice you roll.
The dryads where there mostly because I had to fill battleline, but still can be quite tanky with minus 1 to hit and wound
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runefather (120)** – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir Auric Runemaster (130)** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Battlesmith (150)* – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Forge Key – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
Battleline 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2
Alex travelled all the way up from Wales to the part in Broken Realms and we’re lucky enough that Alex agreed to give us a breakdown on how his list worked.
Alex Bruce: The list relies on two main bricks of the army, the unit of 30 Vulkites with Fyresteel Handaxes and the unit of 15 Hearthguard Berzerkers with Poleaxes who act as a strong brick and counter punch to the army. Being in Vostarg, the units of Vulkites get +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound on the charge along with the +1 Attack from the weapon option chosen. This means that they become 2+/2+/-/1 with 3 attacks per model on the charge. In the Galletian Veterans battalion, this lets the first two ranks fight, which makes both the big unit of 30 as well as the two units of 10 dangerous threats for your opponent.
Whilst these units work well on their own merits, the runes that you can use compliment the base profiles with a number of buffs. Additional Rend and Mortal Wounds on 6s to Wound are the most frequently used however rolling the enhanced effect of the +1 to Hit rune gives the Vulkites another +1 Attack taking them to 4 attacks each on the charge. 6+ Ward (or 5+ for the enhanced effect) as well as +2 Move (with +2 Charge for the enhanced effect) board wide are both really useful utility runes. On top of this, each of the units of Vulkites can fight on death once per game, which can really boost the output of these units even when they aren’t on the charge.
Backing this up is a good number of unique buff heroes. The Runefather allows the runes to be enhanced on a 5+ rather than a 6+ and can give another +1 Attack to all units wholly within 12″ once per game. The Runemaster has the Volatile Brazier artefact to make sure that your Molten Infernoth is reliably on the board and in the opponents army causing damage (which your Grand Strategy is also to have this on the board at the end of the game!). The Battlesmith provides a 4+ Spell Ignore and 6+ Ward, which can be pushed to a 5+ Ward once per game, both wholly within 12″ as well as Rally on a 4+ for any units wholly within 18″ thanks to him being a totem. The Runesmiter provides that backboard pressure with the deep strike ability, which he can take one unit with him and backup prayer for run and charge, which both the Runemaster and Runesmiter know. Finally, the two Flamekeepers provide the army with further flexibility and buffs either providing more fighting on death to any of the units, +1 Damage to their attacks for that phase (which can stack!), or allowing units to charge at the start of either player’s combat phase.
Overall, the army is very resiliant and controls the board space very well. Any opponent who dares come close to this army is quickly overwhelmed by the amount of output it can dish out. There are layers of flexibility and redundancy in the list even down to the fact that the terrain piece provides a bonus +1 to pray for all priests within 18″.
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (200)*** – General – Command Trait: Alpha Trogg – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Madcap Shaman (70)*** – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)** Skragrott, The Loonking (160)*** Grinkrak The Great (190)**
Battleline 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 40 x Moonclan Shootas (250)* – Reinforced x 1 30 x Squig Hoppers (540)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)* 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)** 10 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (220)** – Reinforced x 1
Nathan is starting to become somewhat of a regular on the Top Three’s now! Following up on his Brewdog result a couple of weeks back, he’s at it again, I asked him for a few words about his list:
Nathan Watson: It’s very much the same as my Brewdog list in how it plays, but I wanted to take the fanatics in a unit of 10 to better benefit from the all out attack to make them more consistent. I also swapped the loonboss to a Dankhold Troggboss to try and have the option to play for a guaranteed grand strategy. Chasing the moon involves keeping your general alive to the end of the battle, and the Troggboss is very survivable with a 4+ spell ignore and a 4+ ward.
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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Lineage: Legion of Blood – Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Vampire Lord (140)* – General – Command Trait: Sanguine Blur – Expertise: Arcane – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate Vampire Lord (140)* – Artefact: Oubliette Arcana – Expertise: Arcane – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate Radukar the Wolf (140)* – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions Necromancer (130)** – Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Necromancer (130)** – Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour Gorslav the Gravekeeper (80)**
Battleline 60 x Deadwalker Zombies (360)*** – Reinforced x 2 60 x Deadwalker Zombies (360)*** – Reinforced x 2 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)** 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)**
I saw this lost with 200 Zombies and couldn’t resist including it as out wildcard!
William Cruickshanks: Alright, 200 Zombies.
So when I first saw this list, my first thought was that it’d be a stupid idiot spam list. That said, after looking at the list a bit more, there’s actually quite a bit to it.
I will say, any idiot can play this list vs. LRL or something. You just need to box them in and have bodies for the most part. But vs melee matchups, there is so much nuance to having 200 bodies with 6″ pile in, access to flight / 9″ pile in and fight twice that you can actually pull off some pretty astonishing things.
Your general win condition is to just flood the board with Zombies, and make it so that even if your opponent kills stuff they’re only really denting screens of Zombies, and then a unit of 2-3 attack fight twice zombies punches back and takes zones back off them. Fight twice with a 9″ pile in is often used more for movement / leapfrogging off units than it is for anything else. My biggest tip would be to try and conserve models as long as possible, and never let your opponent kill your stuff on their turn if you don’t have to. Also, 6″ pile in has SO MUCH you can do with it, so learn it! It’s fall back and retreat, it’s free movement every combat phase even if you don’t end within 3″, it makes you a super useful movement blocker as you can end 3.01″ away, the applications are endless.
You don’t have to do anything crazy vs. guns, but vs. melee the skill ceiling is pretty high 😀
Oh, and zombies are really good in the new book too. Very different, but very good. Three games in and can’t wait til it comes out!
This is the top three AoS lists for Stockholm Slaughter 9 took place in Sweden on the 18th and 19th of March. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Fury of the Fyreslayers Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Battlesmith (150) – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runesmiter (120) – Forge Key – Prayer: Ember Storm
UNITS 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)* – Poleaxes 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Cabalists – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)** – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Spells: Chaotic Conduit, Daemonic Speed Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)** – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield – Spells: Binding Damnation – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (195)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Command Traits: Not to be Denied – Daemonic Axe – Wings – Artefacts of Power: Helm of the Oppressor – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE Corvus Cabal (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)* Chaos Knights (460)** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Cursed Flail – Ensorcelled banner: The Eroding Icon
OTHER Chaos Chosen (480)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Exalted Champion – 2 x Icon Bearer – 2 x Skull Drummer – Ensorcelled banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh Ogroid Theridons (380)** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Thorakon – Goroan Great Axe – 2 x Banner Bearer – 2 x Charge-caller
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
Leaders Orruk Megaboss (140)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeat: Killa Beat
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 5 x Spider Riders (90)* 5 x Spider Riders (90)
This is the top three AoS lists for the Midtcon GT that took place in Denmark on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Oakenbrow – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Inspired – Burgeoning
Leaders Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth Spirit of Durthu (350)** – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Knight-Zephyros (100)** – Allies Battlemage (100)** – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Allies
Sylvaneth are really putting their roots down recently – and the nice thing is it’s still with a variety of lists – it seems like a great season for them, which is allowing people to flex their list building muscles with them and still do well.
Sune here has gone big tree heavy – with two hero trees and a full complement of treelord battleline. Durthi with the Gladius just absolutely slaps, and when such a threat is backed up by an Ancient (for a source of auto-forest at the start of the game) and a Warsong Rev for nasty casting through said forest (usually) – it’s a hell of a pincer movement.
Making full use of some allied tech, not only has Sune employed the now fairly standard Ghurish battlemage for the additional charge bonus, but he’s also rocking a Zephyros, who is just an absolute bargain basement GC who can also teleport.
Overall, I can see the root to victory for this list just being so many hyper-mobile scoring threats backed up by a killer Durthu that it’s overwhelming trying to keep up. Gratz to Sune on the evil tree 5-0.
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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Battleline 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Reinforced x 1 15 x Chaos Chosen (720)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh – Reinforced x 2
A rare HOTE list! Often overlooked in favour of Cabalists casting shenanigans or the battleline and run/charge of KOTET, a HOTE list really wants something to take advantage of that 5+ rally – aaaand 15 Chosen might just be the unit to do it!
Interestingly, Jon has Marked the Chosen as Slaanesh – *outside* of Legion, meaning he’s committing to their native -1 rend being enough, combined with their weight of attacks, to act as the list’s main hammer. HOTE offers a free second banner – so as well as the ubiquitous Eroding Icon on the pinning unit of Knights, he’s taken the Slaanesh banner on the Chosen for an additional attack on the charge – quite possibly relying on the mortal fishing to deal with more heavily armoured targets.
I suppose Be’lakor – whiffy and unreliable as he’s likely to be – does offer the option of locking down the Chosen’s natural predator for a turn or two, allowing them to clean everything else up – although I do struggle to see the logic of not even being able to roll on the EotG table with such a heavy investment of a unit – still, it worked out, and congrats to Jon for a great result!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Battlesmith (150)** – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – General – Runic Iron – Command Trait: Master Priest – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)** – Allies
Battleline 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)* – Reinforced x 1
Kevin Lathers: Now we see how far someone can skew a Fyreslayer list. Gustav has decided to deal with Fyreslayer’s innate slowness by just being able to deepstrike nearly the entire army. This list also lacks the usual Flamekeepers which accompany Vulkite Berserkers in nearly all Vostarg lists.
Between the Celestant-Prime, who can not only deepstrike but guarantee a charge, and three Runesmiters, Gustav can deepstrike all but two units in the list. Vulkites further benefit from this with their built-in +1 to charge rolls, thus making it an 8 on the roll to make a charge out of deepstrike. Twenty of them in GV is quite potent as well, even without the usual Flamekeepers.
I’m not certain how Gustav played things, but it seems the typical action would be to deepstrike two units of Vulkites and a battlesmith, along with the Celestant, leaving another brick with a battlesmith on the field; or deepstrike all three Vulkites and use Tunnel Master to bring a smith closer. In both cases this ends up performing almost like a pseudo-Beasts of Chaos list, only with a lot more wounds on the field and the ability to fight on death.
Once your opponent is boxed-in by warded up blocks of Vulkites and their big-daddy Celestant, holding objectives should be easy enough for the remaining group. It also retains the option of just sitting on an objective with the battlesmiths and making the opponent have to move the vulkites off in order to score anything, which can be daunting with 40 wounds under a 5+/6+ ward and the ability to rally on 4+’s.
Anything that can punch its way out of this is going to prove formidable and without Flamekeepers the Vulkites lose their incredibly hard punch-back ability, fighting on death more than once, and their combat phase charging. Further, having two battlesmiths eats up a lot of points that could move toward other heroes or more Vulkites. This list is sacrificing a lot for its strategy. This may have resulted in the two losses to both Ogors and Big Waagh who, depending on their build, should have no trouble weathering the storm and fighting their way out.
Still, it’s an interesting list with a great performance. Definitely an interesting way to take Fyreslayers.
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – City: Hallowheart – Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead – Triumphs: N/A
Battleline 30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)* – 1 x Marksman – 3 x Standard Bearer – 3 x Piper – Reinforced x 2 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)* – Swords and Shields – 1 x Sergeant – 1 x Standard Bearer – 1 x Drummer 10 x Flagellants (80)* – City Role: Honoured Retinue – 1 x Prophet
Units 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – 1 x Drakerider’s Lance (Stormdrake-Prime) – 3 x Drakerider’s Warblade – Reinforced x 1 Gotrek Gurnisson (480)* – Allies
With a new book almost here, Adam has proven there is still life in one of the oldest, and probably never the strongest battletomes. In the end, it’s a pretty conventional approach, drawing on really mobile Stormcast allies (Dragons, of course). 3 very magical and small heroes leave a lot of room for a real hero, and Gotrek, at his current 480 points, fits well. Hallowheart really helps the wizards. Each gets an extra spell. That means 2 instances of +1 to wound (Ignite), a heal (Sear Wounds), 4+ ward (Warding Brand), and a mortal wound ward. Soulscream gives a useful teleport if required, and everything is in a Battle Regiment to give options for the initial priority.
The army is really planning to castle. The heroes are effectively buff machines, mostly for the Crossbowman. The Flagellants and Guard are there to screen, and Gotrek can prowl around, ready to pounce on anything that trys to deal with them. They can stand and deliver (with 2 shots each) at 24″ with a fantastic unleash hell. There is still the option to Wildform Gotrek and send him through the Soulscream bridge to harrass something important. And all the while, the Drakes are there to cap and harrass your enemy. With Breathe and Lance, they are very dangerous and hard to manage. Adam lost to fire and fade (Sylvaneth), who really make you go to them, a weakness. And a faction that out castles castles, Fyreslayers. 6th is a very respectable result for cities.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Sheffield Slaughter that took place in the UK on the 21st and 22nd of February. It involved 98 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: Gloomspite Gitz – Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Indomitable x2
LEADERS Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Squigboss (80)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand Madcap Shaman (70)* – Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet – Spells: The Hand of Gork – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE Boingrot Bounderz (420) – Bounder Boss Squig Hoppers (540) – Squig Hopper Boss Squig Hoppers (180) Moonclan Stabbas (125)** – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Moonclan Boss – 3 Barbed Nets – Stabba Moonclan Shootas (125)** – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Moonclan Boss – 3 Barbed Nets
OTHER Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
It’s amazing what a new book can do, and Dan Bradshaw has pivoted from Beasts of Chaos to Gloomspite Gitz following their (near-) simultaneous release. Guess we know which one he thinks is better in the current meta. A lot of the army will be familiar with those who played Gitz through the dark times of the last 3 years, and indeed much of the ‘tech’ that is used has been hardened on the crucible of defeat throughout that time.
Dan has no doubt benefitted from his knowledge of the game and the other armies, but it’s still good to see Gitz doing well with an immediate 5-0 out of the gate. Some of this is going to be ‘what does that do’ as people get used to the new army. Other Gitz players did not perform so well, with long term Trogg player – Stuart – going 1-1-3 (but close in all 5!)
So how does it work, and how do you beat it? Well I may leave the 2nd question for a few weeks yet (got to have some time under the light of the moon), but Dan has gone for a toolkit of toys. Skragrott is much improved, and much cheaper – gaining the Warmaster trait and so being able to play with the moon. The Squigboss gives out helpful bonuses and makes Boingrot Bounders battleline (allowing Dan to take 15 of them). The final character is the Madcap with the two stalwarts of Hand of Gork and Moonface Mommet. Both of which are back and both of which are still as good as ever (dare I say essential).
There’s some support in the Marshcrawler and Snufflers both of which buff the other units. The stabbas and shootas are for objective control (within 9″!) and the hitting power comes from Hoppers and Boingrots. Now they have consistent movement (10″+D6 and 7″+D6″) respectively, can run and charge under the moon and cause mortal wounds… plus the squigs can do some real damage. In the previous book I was very happy if my hoppers moved 10″ as (with run) this was normally enough for a maximum attempt at mortal wounds. Now there’s limited risk and the 10″+D6 is much more generous than I expected.
It’s a great start, but we’ll see if this is a ‘flash in the pan’ or a genuine 5-0 consistent battletome. Only time will tell, but well done to Dan for a really good start.
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Battleline 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2
Kevin: With Bounty Hunters out and foot heroes in, there’s a resurgence in non-Magmadroth Fyreslayers. This list abandons the ‘droths entirely for an all-foot list. Its plethora of GCs means it has a solid footing in this season’s tactics.
Andrew’s running Vostarg, the sub-faction for buffing Vulkites, and his six heroes rounding out the leaders are the usual suspects for any Vostarg list, excepting the foot-father. No Fyreslayer can leave home without a Nulsidian Icon Battlesmith for the 4+ spell ignore, and double flamekeeper is basically a must-have for any Vostarg list. Flamekeepers allowing out of phase charging – the combat phase in this case – is absurdly powerful, as is adding damage to the high amount of attacks Vulkites enjoy. The runefather can further pump up those attacks once per game.
In a bit of an oddity for Vostarg, Andrew has added 15x Hearthguard to support his Runefather. This not only gives him some bodyguards, but also some objective holding power that can hit back hard. Those poleaxes’ mortal wounds can rack up fast. Further, with ember storm (prayer to run and charge) and Tunnel Master, the Hearthguard can speed ahead and have the runefather simply teleport to them without fear of them losing their ward or him losing his bodyguard. Tunnel Master can also allow the runefather to position perfectly to share his once-per-game buff with the vulkites. The hearthguard can also be pumped up or charged by the flamekeepers if need be.
The Vulkites do what Vulkites do in any Vostarg list: die while doing damage, pump the flamekeepers, then punch back absurdly hard – either by running and charging or combat-phase-charging. The 30x Vulkite unit will receive buffs excellently as well as Rally’s from the Battlesmith. 30 charging Vulkites with the runefathers and flamekeepers can output, theoretically, 121 attacks of 3 damage (especially with GV battalion allowing them to fight through each other). Those high attack numbers certainly spell trouble for his Nighthaunt opponent. There’s nothing quite as sweet as charging that into an opponent in their combat phase and then activating strike first to wipe out a unit before it gets off its activation. The two units of ten Vulkites can either be deepstriked by the Runesmiter or stay on the field to act as screens, food for the flamekeepers, or objective holders.
The infernoth accomplishes the beautiful Grand Strategy of keeping an invocation on the field while also chasing around Galletian Champions. It can also be used as a poor-man’s fyrewall in some cases, particularly against large bases like Archaon or Mawkrushas.
This list results in the classic Fyreslayer playstyle: a wave of naked dudes with axes that just can’t be removed from objectives. They trade incredibly well with anyone willing to try to remove them in the combat phase, making that route a daunting task. At the same time, shooting is hampered by a 4+ rally under a 6+ ward (5+ ward, occasionally) from the Battlesmith who can not be shot.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Treacherous Bond – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch Magister (120)** – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master The Blue Scribes (160)** Fatemaster (140)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 10x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
Endless Spells & Invocations Chronomantic Cogs (70) Purple Sun of Shyish (90) Umbral Spellportal (80)
With more chickens than a KFC basket, we have another Guild of Summoners list doing extremely well this weekend. While Kaleb called in the support of a Krondspine to give him time to get those Lords of Change on the board, Stephen goes the more traditional (and pink) tarpit of Horrors to slow his enemy down. Another big change to several other Guild of Summoners lists is that it doesn’t start with a LoC/Kairos on the board at the beginning, allowing more Arcanite casters to be taken instead. This is key, as one way of shutting down a Guild of Summoners list is to kill the mortal characters who the Lords of Change must be summoned through. With three such characters, it’s going to be hard to do that to Stephen’s list.
Once the summoning does get going, the shooty Lord of Change is great here as it’s up to 12 shots, hitting on 3s, wounding on 3s (or 2s if the Fatemaster is nearby), rend -1 BUT if you’re shooting at something in Purple Sun range (helpfully auto-cast by The Blue Scribes) now you’re at rend -2. Have the Curseling use a pair of Destiny Dice to make Arcane Suggestion’s armour debuff be unable to be unbound, suddenly those shots are up to rend -3.
Tzaangors being surrounded by wizards is also a great pick as they’re be doing mortal wounds on 4+ at range, rolling a number of equal to the number of wizards within range, so probably at least 5 dice T1, increasing as the game goes on. Twice. The last troops choice is Kairics, probably there for cheap screening, but get their warscroll spell off and shoot them at the Purple Sunned/Arcane Suggested unit and that’s another 10 rend -3 shots going down range.
All in all, a great take on Guild of Summoners, throwing in a couple of Galletian Champions for battle tactics and being able to quite easily access 4/5 of the Tzeentch specific ones.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)* – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)* – General – Command Trait: Hellish Orator – Artefact: Eye of Hysh – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Bonestorm Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Battleline 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)*
Discord user: gualtikhan: This list utilizes the full summoning power from the fec Heroes to maximize the number of summons it brings to the table. This adds some mass with which to take the board and pin the opponent off of the objectives. This helps counter the faction’s natural lack of durability as well.
There are some really good spells, mainly a couple of really strong unit buffs (+d3 attacks, +1 attack, 5+ ward, reroll to wound, +1dmg) but fec typically lacks the reliability to cast those often enough. In particular, this list relies on spectral host, combined by the +2 movement of the subfaction, to give the two dragons and the flayers an huge threat range.
Crypt flayers’ ranged attack has big variance but against the right unit can definitely pack a punch. I’m a bit surprised to see arcane tome for an extra unreliable cast instead of the more often taken garland, for -2 bravery, increasing both the efficiency of the scream attacks and the bravery damage.
The aforementioned buffs to damage output synergize really well with the fec command ability to fight twice, allowing one buffed unit to pack some serious damage, and also helping to burst open some bunkers against imperfectly deployed armies.
The teleport is great as it helps with scoring battle tactics and objectives greatly in this edition, and it can be used also to let the flayers scream the right unit at the right time.
All in all this is the best attempt l’ve seen at running Fec, which is a subfaction that is having an hard time right now, having several key units with poor durability and a weakness to alpha strikes, since killing the heroes would prevent their summoning.
The 2023 Las Vegas Open for Age of Sigmar had the most participants ever! It was a new experience for me, as it was my first Grand Tournament with over 50 participants and this one had over 300 competitors. This tournament used the 2022-2023 Season 1 GHB, with a standard 5 rounds, followed by a knockout tournament for the top 8 competitors.
The event was held at the convention hall connected to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. If Vegas is a “sinful theme park,” then the Rio can be described as a dumpster of depression therein. However, the convention hall was nice; silver linings or something.
I’d be attending with a fantastic group of beautiful people: The Georgia Warband. A big shout out to my friend Josh Bennet for finishing 10th! My team all did great, and it was a lot of fun. I’m personally very happy with my 12th place finish and 4-0-1 record for my first LVO.
As a preface, the exact details of matches are sometimes fuzzy or forgotten, so the reports are to the best that I can do with my awful memory.
The List
I had a few lists in mind for the event. I seldom take cookie-cutter lists and so indecision struck me hard; I like being a special snowflake. This was further compounded by being unable to practice while in COVID isolation. In the end I simply asked my wife, “what should I bring to LVO?” to which she responded, “lots of naked men.” Thus, Vostarg was selected with a list I had used variations of on a few occasions.
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Auric Runemaster (130)* – General – Command Trait: Master Priest – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)* – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient Auric Runesmiter (120)* – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon Auric Flamekeeper (90)** Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Battleline 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)*** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)*** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)*** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****
This list would hinge on how many Bounty Hunters I would face, but I was confident there would be few. This proved to be a correct assumption, as the tournament had very few Bounty Hunters overall. Part of me feared the mirror match against a 3-BH Runeson Lofnir list.
This Vostarg list operates by forcing opponents to make tough decisions where they often believe both are the bad choice. Killing the Vulkites – which must be done to capture points and slow damage – only counts up flamekeepers to make the remaining Vulkites more powerful. But focusing heroes, such as flamekeepers, means the Vulkites continue to hold objectives while still outputting high damage. Combine this with a Runic Fyrewall to block undesirable movement and a molten infernoth to pressure foot heroes/low wound units, and you have a list which forces opponents to be aggressive.
But aggression only leads to death between fight on death, first-strike, and flamekeepers. This is a high damage list and these Vulkites can table an army that is not playing carefully. For any higher save units, the Runefather can be juiced up to -4/-3 rend swings. When the Runefather goes full bane mode there’s few things he won’t kill.
In play the most important pieces seemed to be the Expert Conquerors which often held objectives against swarms or monsters while forcing opponents to fight them. The Molten Infernoth is the true MVP though: for 40 points it did more than it should in nearly every game.
Games Summary:
Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists – Major Victory Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords: Vyrkos – Draw Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts: Blisterskin – Major Victory Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory
Day 1: I Feel Chill, My Heart Says Otherwise
(Yes, that’s my heart rate on day 1)
Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists on The Presence of Idols
Opponents List:
Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Cabalists – Triumph: Inspired – Grand Strat: Take What’s Theirs
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)* – General – Mark of Nurgle – Master of Magic – Binding Damnation – Daemonic Speed Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Nurgle – Chaotic Conduit – Binding Damnation Chaos Lord on Manticore (270) – Mark of Nurgle – Flame Weapon – Sword and Spear Chaos Lord (115)* – Mark of Nurgle – Spite-tongue Curse – Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel
Battleline Chaos Warriors (440)* – Mark of Nurgle – Sword and Shield – Eroding Icon – Reinforced Once Chaos Marauders (85)* – Mark of Nurgle – Sword and Shield Chaos Marauders (85)* – Mark of Nurgle – Sword and Shield
Units Chaos Chosen (480)* – Mark of Khorne – Reinforced Once
Endless Spells Gnashing Jaws 70 Cogs 70
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Total 2000/2000
Karl is a great guy and was running an awesomely kitbashed army. It was probably one of the coolest armies I’d seen at LVO. I sadly took no pictures during LVO, I don’t know why, but I assure you his army was dope.
Karl’s list is interesting: two manticores! Reinforced Nurgle Warriors are also going to be no easy task to chew through. Luckily I am playingFyreslayers so few things can’t be murderzoned.
I get the chance to put terrain on the board. I put it such that two large impassable pieces lock both players from the long-ways objective from their deployment. This allows me to make use of invocations to block lanes.
Karl outdrops me (as does everyone in the tourney) and takes the top of 1. This is what I meant by “tough decisions.” He, correctly, sees that I’m going to drop a Fyrewall to completely lock off the center of the map from him. He has no priest and no way to stop it if I take top of 1. So he has to do it. I proving grounds (PG) the bottom-right objective, as the left is blocked to him by impassable terrain.
The only unit he can take the PG with is Chaos Warriors, forcing them onto it, while his Chosen and Manticores move up the middle. But I’ve deployed back far enough they cannot reach me. He plays it cautious and toes the objective.
In my turn I auto-run EC vulkites to the upper-left objective and put two units of Vulkites on the center with a 5+ ward up from the battlesmith. My molten infernoth goes off and slaps some wounds on various things.
Round 2 proves decisive for me. I push hard forward, wiping out his chosen down to one guy and holding the center, denying him the central objective. He counter punches and wipes out some vulkites, but that only powers up my army. He’s already behind and needs some big moves in round 3 to stage a comeback.
Instead, I take priority and my molten infernoth rolls doubles: this immediately kills both his manticores, one from full health, which was a very nice roll for me. Further, I finish off the remaining Chaos Warriors with some flamekeeper buffed vulkites. The game is basically over here, though he can still steal a couple tactics, there’s no way he can come back with no Chaos Warriors, Manticores, and one living Chosen.
Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 28 – 14.
Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords on The Prize of Gallet
Leaders Vampire Lord (140)*** – General – Command Trait: Pack Alpha – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions Radukar the Beast (310)*** Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (400)*** – Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour – Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify Cado Ezechiar, The Hollow King (140)*** – Spirit Gale – Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Battleline 10 x Dire Wolves (130)** 10 x Dire Wolves (130)** 20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (160)** – Reinforced x 1
Units 1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)*** 20 x Grave Guard (280)* – Great Wight Blades – Reinforced x 1 1 x Vargskyr (110)* 1 x Vargskyr (110)*
Alex is energetic and fun. He’s a good dude who offers me a Corsairs die at the start of the match. That dice proceeds to roll 6’s like no other! I’ve decided to stop using it, fearing it’s actually weighted. He is the first of two Corsair team members I play against.
Alex’s SBGL is exactly the type of list I fear: BH heavy and has a big, fast, disruptive control piece in Manny. Further, I have no way to shoot him off the board, the infernoth and axes will have to do the work.
I once again set up terrain, doing it in a way to block off lanes. He gives me the top of 1. I place the Fyrewall to block off his units, but don’t really pay attention and leave some spots open for wolves which come back to haunt me later. It pays to be precise with this thing! I spread out to lock out grave summoning from my lines and objectives while he activates the center objective.
He pushes forward in the bottom of two and we just trade the center objective doing little damage to each other. Mannfred does hit my left side and kills 5 or 6 Vulkites, but takes a couple wounds from their fight-on-death. His flying skeletons (via levitate) are the real MVPs here.
I’ll take the bottom of round two and activate my home objective. He moves to contain me fully within my starting zone with wolves on my right and basically everything that isn’t graveguard on my left and center. The vulkites, with fight on death, fight first, and a little tank manages to hold the lines.. Further, my nulsidian icon completely nullifies his offensive spellcasting and the center. This is a huge deal as it will enable my runefather to maintain high damage. I proceed to push onto the center objective and wipe out nearly everything on it, including Cado. The molten infernoth comes down and, in one of the best rolls of my life – rolled doubles into a lot of 6’s for d3 mortal wounds per 6, DUMPSTERS Mannfred. With him gone the game is now back in my favor, I’d say.
As round three kicks in, he takes the bottom and activates his own objective. The wolves are still flanking right and I clear them with the magmadroth as well as some Vulkites. His army has mostly begun being tabled except for some wolves and the grave guard still in the graves.
However, in round 3 he gets a very long charge on his graveguard to not only get into a unit of Vulkites, but spread out across three units of Vulkites. This proves to be disastrous positioning for myself and he proceeds to kill them all with BH Graveguard. Still, I hold both side objectives going into four. But we are basically out of time. Both of us are playing slooooow armies and we don’t have time for another fourth round.
It’s a close game, we talk it out. We both will get our GS for certain. It’s hard to say who would win with the grave guard coming in like they did. I’m confident I can kill them, but its possible I don’t. As we can’t really agree – and indeed, it’s hard to even say what would happen! – and don’t have time to play it out, we just score what we know we can do (tactics and certain objectives). The result is a true draw! What a fantastic game.
Alex is a super great guy, when my molten infernoth rolled that bonkers roll he kept whatever salt he may have had inside, which is better than I would have done! Great dude and lady luck paid off his sportsmanship with a dope charge later. He was also a fantastic general and I think he outplayed me for the most part. It was only by luck and vulkite power that I kept that game so tight.
Fyreslayers draw with SBGL.
Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts on Silk-Steel Nests
Opponent’s List
Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts – Army Subfaction: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Abhorrant Archregent (240)** – Spells: Spectral Host 1 x Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)** 1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)** – General – Command Traits: Hellish Orator – Artefacts: Eye of Hysh – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Deranged Transformation
BATTLELINE 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)** 10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
TERRAIN 1 x Charnel Throne (0)
OTHER 5 x Blood Knights (200)* – Kastellan 5 x Blood Knights (200)*
Cam’s list is an interesting one. Cam seems like a fun guy so I know this will be a fun match, which proves to be true! His list has three BH which will prove to be trouble for me as even the horses do 2 wounds. It’s also a list type I’ve never seen out of FEC and I’m not quite certain how it works to my own detriment.
The Molten Infernoth did so much in the last game but would do nearly nothing in this one, often rolling no mortal wounds at all. I guess luck comes and goes.
Cam lets me set up the terrain and I do what I always do: block lanes that a large base wants to be in. I set up defensively knowing he has speed and hoping if he does take first to bait him into bad positions.
Instead, he takes the bottom and I set up the usual castle with the battlesmith ward. He moves forward in the bottom and we both just get two points plus tactic. He gives me the top of two, sadly, and I push further up on the right to begin threatening those objectives. I accomplish little. Meanwhile on his turn he hits my left side HARD and wipes out my shield vulkites which take a few Flayers with them. He’s now a point ahead on VP.
I take the top of three and punish him for his aggressiveness. My magmadroth kills his general terrorgheist. I also kill a few Flayers and push the center and right to threaten his home objectives. Sadly, his Flayers double activate (didn’t know they could) and kill my magmadroth as well as most of my vulkites on that side, though on death they do kill his courtier.
On his turn the blood knights wipe out the vulkites threatening his objectives, taking some wounds in return. The decisive moment comes here though. He charges my line of foot heroes on the lower left. This allows me to combat-charge my vulkites that are behind the heroes into the flayers and pump their damage as well as activate their fight first. They kill the flayers down to one remaining.
He takes the top of four and retreats the flayers as well as brings up blood knights to wipe out more vulkites. On my turn I’m pushing back on the left and center while the right side has stalemated. But by auto-running a flamekeeper with the movement rune I take a center objective though. Movement rune once again being clutch late game. Funny, I used it and almost forgot to add the movement (2” is important!).
I win the priority roll into five which allows me to take more objectives and gain more tactics. At this point there’s no way for him to outcap me on anything and he has to choose between objectives or tactics. My final vulkite unit which has been sitting holding the bottom right the entire game is Expert Conquerors ensuring his blood knights can’t auto-run to cap any objectives.
Another nail-biter against a death army. Cam played a great game. I feel like my ignorance of his army definitely hurt me here and I should have deployed more heavily to counter the flayers.
Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 27-26, a one point win.
Day 2: My Brain Has Finally Stopped Functioning
I head into day 2 after a night of drinking, eating, not-sleeping, and spending too much money.
Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Nurgle on Realmstone Cache
Opponent’s List
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Grand Strategy: Spread Rampant Disease – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Gutrot Spume (170)* Lord of Blights (150)* Lord of Blights (150)* – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Plague Squall
I’m confident going into this game against Seth. Fyreslayers generally don’t have issues with damage and there’s only one center objective to kill things on for two rounds. Seth’s cordial and we both seem burnt out from the previous day. Math becomes arduous for us both.
This game proves to be a quick one. Seth takes the top of one in order to prevent me locking him off the objective with a Fyrewall. A wise move considering which army he is playing. He pushes onto the center objective with two units of 10 blightkings, the other two units of five being off board at the moment. I push forward and simply take the center objective and knock a few wounds off some Blight Kings. I keep my walls up so he can’t deep strike into anything important.
Both Nurgle players I had as opponents made the same mistake: counting their blight kings as two on objectives even when they are four wounds each (the bonus wound spell not being on them at that time or on a different unit). I didn’t know they only should count as one until after the tournament. This forced me to commit too many models in both games against them, but it’s not a huge deal.
I gave him the top of two and he pushed into my lines. Between a 5+ ward, fight on death, and a gigantic molten infernoth blocking a huge lane, he doesn’t get much done. He hangs some wounds on the magmadroth and kills some vulkites which fight on death to kill a couple blightkings and push wounds onto a hero.
On the bottom of two I pop my flamekeeper buff, my Runefather +1 attack buff, the rend rune, and basically anything and everything else I have ready. This juices my army so massively that I kill all the remaining blightkings, I believe there were 18 or so on the board, and his general. Four damage swing Vulkites (BH + flamekeeper buffs) with four swings each is potent.
The game is basically over here. I’ve lost a unit of vulkites and he’s lost his general and both of his main blight king units. We talk it out and go grab a drink!
Fyreslayers win a major victory, 26-16.
Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Nurgle on Nidus Paths
Opponents List
Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Tend the Garden – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders The Glottkin (650)* – Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
Battleline 10 x Putrid Blightkings (500)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (130)*
Matt’s probably my most enjoyable opponent of the tournament. He’s a great dude and the second member of Corsairs that I play against. We both are clearly running on very tired hamsters at this point and will make frequent mistakes throughout the game. A couple of funny ones are me forgetting to even put my forge down and him choosing a tactic that can’t be accomplished (I let him pick a different one in like the charge phase and he lets me put the forge down when I notice something like round 3). Mostly the game is just a fun one at this point.
That said, Matt is probably the most skilled of any of my opponents (no disrespect to any of the others). While I usually find Nurgle an easy match for Fyreslayers, this one will prove difficult. It turns into a real chess match and Matt knows his army well. He also does not commit any of the mistakes the previous Nurgle opponent makes. He is crafty and knowledgeable, and this makes the game truly fun.
I place terrain and set the middle up with two large pieces exactly 6” apart to help block movement in the entire center of the board.
He gives me the top of round 1. I drop a Fyrewall to block the entire center of these terrain pieces ensuring his Glottkin and blightkings have to go around. I push hard to the top left, leaving one vulkite in the rear to block the nurglings. I also bring over some shield vulkites on the right to hold the objective.
In the bottom of 1 he brings his flying units left along with his rotmire and Glottkin. His blightkings go right but won’t be able to affect too much yet. On the left the attack kills some vulkites but doesnt take objective due to the 5+ ward basically. Positioning here is weird for us both as the table has a gigantic dip in it making our models fall over.
At this point my brain is fried and I don’t recall the exact order of how things go down. But I can summarize by location.
On the upper-left: his Glottkin is a true thorn in my side and I can’t retreat and rally Vulkites because he’ll movement-phase charge. This means I have to sacrifice any units already in combat. Still, my magmadroth and the vulkites in the area, combined with flamekeeper kill everything but the Glottkin at first, and eventually do take down the Glottkin. His Rottmire hangs onto the objective a bit longer than I’d like but will fold.
On the bottom-right: His blightkings fail a charge and can’t take the objective from my EC shield vulkites. They then make a charge and wipe out the vulkites. But by this point a bounty hunter group of vulkites makes its way there and nearly wipes out the blightkings. The remaining shield vulkites give enough wounds to hold the objective.
On the bottom-left: He never gets a chance to threaten this objective and I teleport in round four a unit of vulkites from here across the board.
On the top-right: The vulkites I’ve teleported here will take this objective in round four or round 5. There’s not a lot he can do to stop this as the rotmire he ran back to stop this can’t hold out if they do get charged and can’t out-cap the vulkites.
We talk it out and just due to objective holding power I take the win. A fantastic match! Not my closest, but probably the most fun.
Fyreslayers win a major victory, 25-19.
Conclusion
Some great games, some great players, and overall a fantastic experience for my first LVO. While I missed the 5-0, I went into this event with no expectations and would be happy with a positive finish. So ending 12th place with a 4-0-1 record had me thrilled. I nearly brought Lofnir, feeling it may have performed better, but it’s hard to argue with results.
The list itself ran great and while it was difficult to pilot, showed the true power of Vulkite Berserkers. If there’s one major downside, it’s how it makes you and opponents feel. I explained the flamekeeper before every single game. But when you use a combat round charge or fight on death with them, the opponents always feel like you have gotcha’d them. In fact, a lot of once per game abilities in FS feel that way and it’s difficult to talk about them all as there are so many.
The molten infernoth proves once again to be worth its weight in ur-gold. Killing Mannfred on its own was probably one of my favorite Fyreslayer moments.
The shield Vulkites proved to be a perfect inclusion. They were able to tank and hold objectives where axes could not. While axes can throw damage out on death, sometimes you just need to hold an objective with models, not with damage.
Expert Conquerors was critical to the list’s success and is/was probably the most underrated part of this entire GHB. Its loss going into the new season means this list loses a ton of power, even without BH still around.
Will I go to LVO again? Probably, but I hope it’s not in the Rio.
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.
Fyreslayers
Region Comparison – Popularity
Fyreslayers saw their highest popularity in North America with 4.2% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while at the opposite end of the world the uptake was only 2.4% in Oceania.
Region Comparison – Win Rates
Their highest win rates came in Europe with a massive 58.0%, while players in Scandinavia could only manage 30.0%.
Scandinavia was the location of the Blades of Khorne only 5-0 result piloted by Eirik Hilbom.
Subfaction Analysis
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Vostarg
9
51.19%
Lofnir
87
49.42%
Greyfyrd
46
43.97%
Hermdar
2
30.00%
None/Unknown
11
56.36%
Faction Total
155
48.11%
The go to faction of Lofnir (Because who doesn’t want to paint six Magmadroths?) managed a respectable 49.4%, while the 2nd most popular faction Greyfyrd could only manage 44.0%.
Top 10 Fyreslayers 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 Fyreslayers results only.
