This is the top three AoS lists for HAST 2: Who Let the Dogs Out? that took place in Australia on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 11 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 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?
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: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Mor’Phann – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deeps: None Isharann Soulrender (120)* – Artefact: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)*** – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)** – Reinforced x 1
Units 3 x Aetherwings (70)* – Allies
Behemoths Akhelian Leviadon (460) – Mount Trait: Reverberating Carapace
LEADERS Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450) – Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite – Spells: Blood Feast Abhorrant Archregent (240)* – Artefacts of Power: The Dermal Robe – Spells: Deranged Transformation – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – Spells: Flaming Weapon Crypt Haunter Courtier (110)* – General – Command Traits: Dark Acolyte – Spells: Spectral Host
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Null Myriad – Mortal Realm: Shyish – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)** Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (430) Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – General – Artefact: Artisan’s Key – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 20 x Mortek Guard (280)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield – 2 x Soulcleaver Greatblades 10 x Mortek Guard (140)** – Nadirite Blade and Shield – 1 x Soulcleaver Greatblades 10 x Mortek Guard (140)** – Nadirite Blade and Shield – 1 x Soulcleaver Greatblades
These are the top AoS lists for Adepticon that took place in the USA on the 23rd and 24th of March. It involved 204 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
There was some controversy around the scoring for Adepticon, so we decided as a team to focus on all those lists that went undefeated or were in a tournament winning position (4 wins from 4 after round 4).
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: 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 Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: Nine-Eyed Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Magister (120)** – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
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)** – 8x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)** – Allies – Bound to Magister
Endless Spells & Invocations Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90) Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (60)
Kaleb returns with a variation on his LVO list. Kairos is replaced with a Lord of Change; the extra 40pts are then used to upgrade the Changecaster to a Curseling and to enable Kaleb to take Burning Sigil instead of Tome of Eyes to get the summoning train rolling. The list goes up from 2 drops to 4 drops to allow the Lord of Change to have a re-roll casts relic to practically guarantee that those casts will go off, most likely Umbral Spellportal and then the Warscroll spell for a consistent 6 mortal wounds or so a turn.
The reason that Umbral Spellportal is the key spell is so you can feed it to the Krondspine. How the combo works is that the Magister successfully casts their first spell and then uses the Destiny Dice to cast a second, with the double killing the Magister, sending the Incarnate wild. Spellportal can then be chucked out near the Krondspine’s charge target. Obviously another spell could be cast through it (or even move the Purple Sun through it) but the main job of the portal is for the Krondspine to be able to charge in and then Devour the endless spell to go up to level 3. It is a slight risk as it goes down a level if it fails, but Kaleb would just need to roll a 4 on 2D6 for it to be successful. With it more than likely being successful, the Krondspine is hanging around for a bit, no matter what it goes into.
If not more important than an indestructible Krondspine is that the Battle Tactics and Grand Strategy for Tzeentch are among the most straightforward to achieve, demonstrated by Kaleb scoring all 5 Battle Tactics every turn and Master of Destiny being arguably the easiest Grand Strategy in the game to complete.
One of those Battle Tactics, the Guild of Summoners specialises in: Call for Change, which is to summon a Lord of Change. Normally these would need 27 fate points, but in Guild of Summoners, the first Lord of Change is only 9 fate points and the first fate point is the auto-cast at the start of the game with Arcane Armies.
Congratulations on another superb showing from Mr Tzeentch himself and very much a trendsetter for several Tzeentch lists doing well in tournaments…
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Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** – General – Command Trait: Egomaniak – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (120)*** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Megaboss (140)*** – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)*** Skragrott, The Loonking (160)** – Allies
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)*
Other Units 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*** 24 x Squig Herd (240)* – Allies – Reinforced x 1
Big Waagh is enjoying a kind of thematically Ghurish resurgence, due to their access to great GCs and the simple fact they can also now take some Gitz allies, who, as you may have heard, have enjoyed somewhat of a glow up.
Either way, a 5-0 Waagh is a thing to be celebrated, so let’s dive into how it got there. The compliment of heroes has a few interesting surprises – you have ol’ laser eyes with his 4+ ward, a Warchanter and Megaboss as standard, and Gobsprakk for his anti-magic tech – but we also see here a Snatchaboss. Even though he’ll only be buffing one unit of 3 Boltboyz, he’s a well rounded solo operator, and Rob has slapped Egomaniak on him – I wonder if some of the Ardboyz acted as a bodyguard, making him a relatively fast and very durable monster with MW spike potential.
Then there’s the newly much-more-expensive Skagrott. At 210, I wonder if Ron would still ally him in – but as it stood, he’s an insanely high value allied spellcaster with a nasty, long range MW spell.
The other allies on loan from Gitz are the Squid Herd – a super cheap way to gain access to a high volume of attacks and further mid-range MWs when they fail a battleshock test – although they also have a recursion mechanic, meaning if you don’t kill the whole unit, the pain train keeps on comin’.
Overall, it’s a fantastic hero-hammer Waagh that makes great use of their spicy new allies. The points don’t quite add up anymore, but the fact it took down high profile armies such as Ogors, NH, Slaves, and Gitz themselves speaks to the versatility of the list – and Rob’s prowess of course. The Orruk book as a whole might be a complete bin-fire, but Big Waagh clearly offers the best way to make like an Orruk and slap whatever manic, vaguely green muscle you can lay your hands on into a potent krump!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* – General Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse Scinari Loreseeker (160)* – Artefact: Tuskhelm (Galletian Champion) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
I call this list archetype the ‘can’t wait for the next Battlescroll’! Lead designer Matt Rose has highlighted that Helon and Sentinels are in line for an adjustment, for what should by now be fairly obvious reasons.
Tell you what though, it’s quite fun seeing the Tuskhelm on the Loreseeker. Imagine him popping up wherever he wants pre-game, then yeeting himself into you with a flaming weapon like a less sneaky version of the Masque.
Otherwise, there’s not much to say – it’s Sentinels projecting extreme prejudice at range and up close, with Teclis doing Teclis things. The only thing of interest left about this kind of list is how hard it’s going to get hit by the nerf bat!
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Kragnos (720) 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – General – Command Traits: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Spells: Flaming Weapon
BATTLELINE 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
TERRAIN 1 x Great Mawpot (0)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)
Since the Ironblaster points hike, bar the very occasional Stonehorn heavy podium, Ogors have settled comfortably into a ‘top 5’ army, as though they have a nice big dinner early on and then get a bit too sleepy to bother chasing the absolute top spot.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course – we don’t want every faction to be Lumineth Slaanesh! Taking down three tanky melee armies, the shooty Ogors and a summoning heavy Tzeentch list for a 5-0 is a great result, either way.
So how did Tony do it? Well, he took Kragnos and a bunch of Stonehorns. The name of the day here is killing stuff on the charge – why risk having to roll attacks? Kragnos is capable of a OHKO of a big monster with the right roll of course, but probably the main thing he offers is a 3d6 charge aura. Given Stonehorns do mortals on a 4+ for dice equal to their unmodified charge roll – which a 3d6 is – you can start to see the appeal.
That’s about all there is to it. Like the Ogors themselves, it’s big and not very clever, but gets the job done.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty – Seasons of War: The Burgeoning
LEADERS Spirit of Durthu (350) – General – Command Traits: Gnarled Warrior – Artefacts of Power: Greenwood Gladius The Lady of Vines (290) – Spells: Verdant Blessing Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* – Spells: Verdant Blessing
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000
This list from Joey Trizenberg is so elite and character focused that it might be playable in Marvel Ultimate Crisis. The Lady of Vines and Alarielle’s summoning mechanics bulk out the wound count and utility this list needs with 30 dryads and a unit of tree revenants satisfying most of your objective-sitting needs. The reason such a limited selection of units can get away with this is that both Alarielle and Durthu demand answers, immediately, and can either murder or pin vast quantities of the opponent’s army, limiting their scoring options.
Durthu with the Gladius and Gnarled warrior is a brutal beatstick, and ethereal 3+ keeps him healthy over the game and the gladius makes him hit like a brick. Combine this with a 6+ ward and the number of wounds in this army gets a sneaky boost to keep it in the game. This said, the selection of the Burgeoning as the Season of war requires a 70 point investment in the form of Cogs to make the quantity of spellcasting in this list work, especially so, when you consider that Gnarlroot is being taken for 3d6 casting, messaging that Joey wants to ensure he’s spreading trees and getting up the very important LoV’s 5+ ward spell, which is rather inconsistent when raw-cast as a 7+ on 2d6.
Legitimate analysis aside, I’d pay good money to see this list smack around Sons of Behemat, that’d be a great table to watch. Great work Joey, a great achievement to get an uncommon 5-0 for sylvaneth, let alone with a list that is a major departure from what we usually see.
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Meatfist – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Tyrant (150)* – Big Name: Brawlerguts Kragnos (720)* Icebrow Hunter (120)** – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Prayers: Keening Gale Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master – Big Name: Brawlerguts Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Big Name: Brawlerguts
Continuing their recent hot-streak of great results is another 4-1 Alarielle finish! Oh how people bemoaned the Everqueen upon the book’s release – and in fairness, she takes a bit of figuring out, as her power doesn’t lie in her melee power but rather in her zoning and revival ability.
She’s backed up here by the standard Arch-Rev with Warsinger to make stuff speedy – make that extra-super speedy when also combined with the Spiteswarm Hive. It’s also nice to see a brace of Dryads as surprisingly effective screens – sure they turn into splinters once hit but, with -1 to hit and wound, the can be like reeds in a breeze…. and a reinforced blob of Seekers for doing Seeker things (namely pinning stuff at speed and just never, ever dying due to their abilities to heal themselves and bring their own models back automatically).
Overall, a nicely balanced list that gives Big Momma and her Fancy Beetle a good run out against a tough variety of opponents.
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Archmage Teclis (700)* – Spells: Healing Zephyr Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
BATTLELINE Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Standard Bearer – Windspeaker Seneschal
OTHER Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Overwhelming Heat Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Speed of Hysh
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60) 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
TERRAIN 1 x Shrine Luminor (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
More LRL! Funnily enough, this list has also opted for Helon, and who cares how many Sentinels. But they also go hard on WIndchargers! A cunning tactical ploy to have slightly fewer shots on slow bodies and slightly more shots on fast bodies. I’m sure the dilemma was agonising.
Since this tournament, and indeed my comments on the 3rd place list, Sentinels, Teclis, and Windchargers have gone up a few points. So lists like this will no longer be able to take quite so many endless spells! I’m sure the effect on their efficacy will be devastating.
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Magister (120)* – Spells: Shield of Fate – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Curseling (180)** – Spells: Glimpse the Future – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)** – General – Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Arcane Suggestion 1 x Lord of Change (400)** – Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery – Artefacts: Nine-Eyed Tome – Spells: Ghost-mist
BATTLELINE 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – Twistbray – Icon Bearer – Brayhorn Blower – 2 x Tzaangor Mutant – Pair of Savage Blades
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (60) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Please read the review for Kaleb’s winning list and substitute the word ‘Kaleb’ for ‘Jonathan’! Seriously, I wasn’t kidding about Kaleb’s list being a trendsetter!
I should probably include a few more words on Jonathan’s path to 13th place so that Peter doesn’t get mad at me and assigns me 500 words on each variant of contrast paint. He did fantastically well to get to table 2 in Round 5 but then faced the Kryptonite of many Tzeentch lists: Kragnos and Stonehorns. With the ability to ignore so much magic AND the speed of Tony’s 4th placed list (see above) it was always going to be tricky. While having some monsters to eat would be handy for the Krondspine, Jonathan wouldn’t have been given the time to get the summoning going and so had to settle for a still very impressive 4-1 in the end.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Mortis Praetorians – Grand Strategy: Unrelenting Efficiency – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340) Katakros (430)* Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – Spells: Protection of Nagash – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – General – Command Traits: Katakros’ Chosen – Artefacts of Power: Artificer’s Blade – Spells: Drain Vitality
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Nightmare Predator (40)
TERRAIN 1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
A list reminiscent of classical pre-Stalkers as Battleline lists for Ossiarch Bonereapers. Obviously, this list was before the new battletome so a few things need to be considered. Katakros and Arkhan are the headliners, with Arkhan being one of the few legitimately good units in OBR with his +2 to casting and blazing fast speed. Katakros offers a ton of buffs from stealing a command point on a 4+, -1 to hit on an enemy unit, and giving +1 to hit and to saves for all units within 36″. Mortis Praetorians doesn’t see as much play as Petrifix Elite but if you’re going to run Katakros it’s about the same with his +1 to save aura, though you do lose the -1 Rend from Petrifix Elite. Rounding off the list is two Soulreapers, which while not very good allow him to slip in 2 Galetian Champions at 2000 points.
As for units this list doesnt really have much of a hammer. That’s clearly not the point though, with 60 Mortek Guard you can gum up the board pretty bad, 30 3+ Save, 6+ Ward wounds aren’t easy to cut through if you didn’t bring a Monster to roar them. While they may not hit nearly as hard as Stalkers, they’re not totally impotent either, and can usually win a grind out war over 2-3 turns of combat against nastier things. The Immortis guard are a workhorse unit to protect Arkhan from ranged fire, since an 11 wound 4+ Save Monster makes him a giant red bullseye for enemy fire.
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (240)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Host Option: General – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (210)* – Host Option: General Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture Infernal Enrapturess, Herald of Slaanesh (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)** 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)**
As Peter put it the other day, Old Slaanesh (the previous Battletome) was in play. This is a popular “old list” right now. Slaanesh, like all aelves, has always been very difficult to balance, at the moment though they are a bit of a sleeper. Mobile with mad summoning, decent shooting and surprisingly durable with Revel in Pain.
Laron’s doubled down on the Epitome with Fuelled by Ghurish rage on top of Oil (+1 wound) and Flaming Weapon. Glutos, the mobile road block, is here with Sigvald to snipe out annoying Galletian Champions and the Enrapturess to make sure those casts go off. Beyond wards, bravery and damage spells, the army is packing all 3 Hedonite Endless Spells. Mortal wounds for everyone and a fight last as well. Mandatory Blissbarbs and the soon to be extinct Cockatrice (the monster keyword isn’t on the new scroll). The Cockatrice still has a place to generate DP and for their fast movement, letting them score early points.
And that’s the conundrum of facing the chaos aelves – target the Blissbarb, and apart from being stung, you’ll give them a lot of DP (summoning points). And as you kill them, they’ll get harder to kill. Worse, Glutos and the Epitome will be free to act. Target the heroes, and the Blissbarb will make you look like a porcupine. The old HoS book is a dps check. You need to deal with them fast enough that their summoning doesn’t matter. Preferably from range.
Laron took the list to 4-1 handily defeating several top armies (and Stormcast). Pretty amazing with a list that shouldn’t have a lot of surprises and was at the time running with a 47% win rate. That success should tell you how good the general was.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Units 10 x Dryads (100)* 10 x Dryads (100)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 6 x Revenant Seekers (480)* – Reinforced x 1
Continuing the 4-1 with Alarielle trend – which I’m personally happy to see given Momma Nature is such a great model, is this Heartwood list that, well, pretty much follows the template.
Probably the most important synergy in overall playstyle here is the way the Seekers compliment what Alarielle can do. Beetle-bum is much more of a mixed phase zoning piece with her big’ ol….base and surprising speed, so you need something like the Seekers to be able to zoom in on smaller, more versatile bases, do a good amount of damage, and actually stay where they end up – something they’re willing to risk due to their built in healing, 5+ rally and ability to bring a model back. With Dryads and Tree Revs as annoying, teleporty objective grabbers and screens, and the 3 Greatbows doing plinky-plink damage at long range, this kind of list can be very difficult to actually navigate around. And of course, by the time you finally kill Alarielle, she’s liable to come back in later rounds when you no longer have the tools to take her off again.
Losing only to a Gnarlroot Sylvaneth semi-mirror, and taking down a good variety of other lists en route, this new list archetype (I’m calling it Beetle-Momma and the Seekers) clearly has legs/wings/roots…. I’ll leaf it there. Big up to Matthew!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Mor’Phann – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)* Isharann Soulrender (120)* – Artefact: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)* – Reinforced x 1
This list makes use of some of the best Idoneth units avaiable in the book, without relying on Lotann or the Leviadon. Two champs are there to support the Namarti units, both defensively and offensively, and the Artefact allows the Isharann character to summon a Gloomtide Shipwreck at the end of the first movement phase. This is particularly good with Tunnel Master, because the Soulrender can pop up anywhere on the board and drop a large piece of line of sight blocking impassable terrain.
The eels and king can work in tandem to deal a lot of damage. The eels can charge in first, eat the Unleash Hell while still getting their mortal wound bomb off, while the king can pop himself and possibly both eel squads into high tide, creating the possibility of an alpha strike against any enemy who may have deployed too aggressively.
This is the top three AoS lists for Silverstream Smackdown 2 that took place in New Zealand on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 26 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: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
UNITS 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (240)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
This solid list from Lee Wilmot is almost a who’s who of Sylvaneth mainstays. The TLA and WSR combination allows aggression from turn 1, using the free tree placement to enable maximum value Warsong bombs followed by either use of the new realmspell Teeth of Gallet, or Dwellers below for better value on horde units like Squigs or massed cultists. This hero combo works with the strike and fading Kurnoth hunters – buffed by the Spiteswarm Hive – and the revenant seekers to ensure the Sylvaneth hammer is kept healthy and outputting maximum damage while the bows sit on a back objective and pick off wounds, or soften up targets, at artillery ranges. Tree revenants sneak off to pick up objectives and provide shooting protection for the warsong and archrevenant, little scamps that they are.
This lists’ real value is in how few truly poor matchups it has, it is a one drop, can alpha decently and loves the double turn, can score 5/5 Battle tactics consistently and really gives opponents few opportunities to interact with the list on their own terms. Even against lists which push the sylvaneth for board space early, like KotET and BoC the Sylvaneth units are often durable enough to weather the early storm and punch out, or alternatively simply relocate key pieces to safer locations and return to playing the objective game. Well done to Lee on his piloting – 5 games of sylvaneth is quite exhausting and mistakes are heavily punished – he’s done excellently to manage the tournament win with a 4-1-0!
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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Darkwalkers – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
UNITS 10 x Ungors (80)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 20 x Ungor Raiders (230)* 6 x Bullgors (390)* – Pairs of Axes 10 x Ungor Raiders (115)* 6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
Brett: With the new book Beasts haven’t set the world on fire but are providing consistent results even if a little back from their recent peak. Jimmy has gone with the Ungors and a Doombull which aren’t common picks but they have their reasons. The Ungors (and Ungor Raiders) are relatively cheap and meet battleline leaving enough points for an Incarnate. That’s important. With BoC’s herdstone increasing rend on turns 2 and 4 you don’t want to commit too early. Because BoC can ambush (deploy to reserve and bring them on in the first or second round) and fade into the shadows (teleport from within 9″ of the board edge to another location 9″ from the board edge and 9″ from enemy units) they can hide very well. But to do that you need something for your opponent to focus on – the Incarnate.
They need at least 2 rounds to do that and that means you can wait until you have at least -1 rend on everything to commit. The Tzaangors can still score a Battle Tactic first round (Desecrate seems likely) while your opponent tries to deal with the Incarnate. If they don’t then he can make their life hell pretty quickly. Still the list might be a little slow without the teleport. They have access to book tactics which are pretty competitive. The Doombull’s had a bit of a glow up, one of his most useful talents is a command that allows a unit to charge in the combat phase – avoiding unleash hell. He’s a Tunnel Master (teleport) and can use his trumpet to summon Ugors (or raiders) to the cause. The Bray Shaman is along to provide exploding 6s. If anything is alive to reach -3 rend from the Bullgors or Doombull (turn 4) pretty much nothing on the opponents army is going to survive.
Only drawing to Sylvaneth and otherwise winning all of his matches is a great effort. Sylvaneth with their fire and fade, mortal wounds and desire to make you come to them is a solid counter. Otherwise an unblemished run with a new books is a great effort.
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Allegiance: Skaven – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
LEADERS Verminlord Corruptor (350)* – General – Command Trait: Devious Adversary – Artefact: Blade of Corruption – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Grey Seer (120)* – Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy Master Moulder (90)* – Artefact: Rabid Crown – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 20 x Clanrats (100)** – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 6 x Rat Ogors (420) 10 x Gutter Runners (200)** 10 x Gutter Runners (200)**
We’re honoured to have Skaven aficionado and all-around top bloke Kieren Coates join our team. Kieren is well known on the tournament circuit down under and has featured in past editions of our top three. Who better to talk about the ratmen than him?!
Kieren Coates: A classic mixed arms MSU list with the unique twist of no clan Skryre, the list features 6 independently operating threats able to choke up the board while dealing surprisingly large amounts of damage.
Opting against the 1 drop race, the list has no issues in being forced to go first with 6 rat ogres able to hop through a gnawhole with death frenzy, mystic shield, +1 to wound and +3 to charge, leaving it with an impressive 82% chance to land its charge with one reroll.
If youre able to piece through 36 wounds of pure rat meat, that will fight on death to trade back you may just be unlucky enough for the Master Moulder to roll a 3+ upon the units death to bring the whole pack back to life again for round 2
Even beyond the alpha rat ogres, there is still 20 gutter runners skirmishing with ranged mortals, 2 hell pits ready to clear out any hordes or MSU which are not able to piece through 14 wounds in one swing, one of which is likely to get a mutation for 16 wounds at a 4+ save. at only 210 points, it’s incredibly efficient, and when it dies for some unfortunate souls, it has a 1/3 chance to come back to life with D6 wounds ready to swing again.
If you do manage to hit through respawning, death frenzied rate ogres, skirmished gutter runners and horde clearing hell pits, you still have to deal with the big boss which is the verminlord corruptor with the blade of corruption, 2D6 + 2 attacks (with command trait), often hitting at 2’s, 2’s, -2 rend, 2 damage with 6’s to wound being a whopping rend 3 damage 6. Did I mention he has another horde clearing spell to back up the two hell pits?
Once youre through all of that the real humble MVP of skaven, 40 clanrats for 200 points holding the objectives still need to be dealt with, healing D3 clanrats per pack in every battleshock phase.
Overall it’s lots of melle power with chance to revive, horde clearing power and MSU skirmish combined that many lists cant manage to crack through – well done to Locky
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Sokatra, Leviadon Keeper (140)* Isharann Tidecaster – Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Allopleuron The Turtle Emperor (250)* Akhelian King – General – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Bladed Polearm – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
UNITS Turtle Trappers (170)* 10 x Namarti Reavers
BEHEMOTHS Archelon the Ancient (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Mount Trait: Ancient – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Carbonemys the Cleaver (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Definitely also a Turtle (480)* Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – Allies
Monster mash hasn’t been the soup of the day for a couple seasons, so it’s nice to see a few heavies make their way back into the Idoneth’s menu. The turtles are going to be very heavy hitters, especially in Nautilar where they count as batteline and get a monstrous action increasing the rend on two of their weapon profiles to -3. Ancient is present to get some extra durability out of the first turtle, but both are there to absorb damage and dish it back out.
The third “turtle” is a krondspine. The addition of the Arcane tome means that the incarnate can be bonded to either the King or the Tidecaster, depending on what the match requires. The lack of druability on Idoneth’s heroes also opens up the option of getting the Incarnate as afar away from the friendly units as possible then just shrugging your shoulders when the bonded hero eventually dies.
Past there the list is self-explanatory. The King does King things. The Tidecaster casts some tides (Steed of, specifically). The reavers fill out the last battleline slot, and act as a decent harassing unit, with the ability to make good use of the turtles’ auras.
Tournament that took place in the USA on 25th and 26th February. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Big Waaagh have been taking a bit of a back seat recently, with not many people playing it; but it’s great to see Gregory still repping it and grabbing the elusive 5-0 here. Big Waaagh is great, and often taken by people with Ironjawz armies who want to run a Wurgogg Prophet… and what has Gregory done? He’s taken 2! Great work here.
He’s also taken Skragrott which is interesting as he loses his access to the Gloomspite magic lore, and his Warmaster ability. However his spell (Fangs of Da Bad Moon) still has the potential to cause damage. I wouldn’t have considered it myself… but its an interesting shout.
The rest of the army is an Ironjawz core, with 15 Ardboyz and 15 Orruk Brutes as the reinforced units. They hit hard and the Brutes can cause great damage with the +1/+1 to hit/wound and extra damage from the Orruk Warchanter. Interestingly there’s no MawKrusha here, but that’s likely because of Galletian Champions – its good to see a GHB make some changes to army selection.
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Allegiance: Khorne – Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Charge
Leaders Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)* – Artefact: Armour of Scorn Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (300)*** – General – Command Trait: Mage Eater – Artefact: Skullshard Mantle Skarbrand (390) Slaughterpriest (100)* – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Skarr Bloodwrath (110)* Slaughterpriest (100)** – Prayer: +1 to hit – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battleline 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*** 5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**
Peter: We’re lucky that for such a small site, we’re followed by some of the competitive players in the US and UK. As such, Gareth agree to share how his list worked for the event (though remember, this won’t apply for long with the release of the new book imminently).
Gareth: I’ve been running the same variation of this list for a few years now. I don’t play many tournaments and don’t have the brain power to change lists too much, so I just tinker around the edges. This latest iteration was a change from the list I was running last season. I removed a Khorne Daemon Prince and an Incarnate, and put in a Cygor, a second Slaughterpriest, Skarr, the Unmade, and the incantations.
The list is built primarily around the idea of giving your opponent headaches and making them doubt every move they make. Khorne has possibly more tricks than any other army right now, and this list is built to take advantage of all of them.
First let’s start with the anti-magic element, which, as with any Khorne army, is extremely strong. First off, the list has 8 unbinds; 1 from each Slaughterpriest, 1 from each unit of Flesh Hounds, 2 from the Cygor, and 1 from the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury wearing the Skullshard Mantle. Although none of these unbinds have any bonuses to unbind the Skullshard Mantle does have the neat little rule that an unmodified roll of an 8 automatically unbinds the spell, and the caster suffers D6 MW. If you save that unbind for a wizard who has one or two wounds left, it can throw doubt into your opponent over whether they want to chance it. Rolling an 8 is only a 14% chance, but in their mind, it is much higher.
Secondly, we have the Skull Altar, which causes any miscast to do D6 MW instead of D3 MW to the caster. Came in particularly handy this weekend in one of my games: a Master of Magic rerolled a miscast into a miscast, and then promptly died!
Thirdly, we have the use of 2 blood tithe points to auto stop a spell. Note that this is not an unbind, so even if the caster has a rule that says their cast can not be unbound, we can still use 2 blood tithe to say NO!
Fourthly, we have the Hexgorger Skulls. A handy incantation that has two nice rules – wizards within 12” get a -2 to cast debuff, plus if they’re within 8” and they roll an unmodified 8 to cast, the spell is unsuccessful, the caster, and any other wizards within 12” suffer D6 MW, and the wizard can no longer cast that spell for the rest of the game! Again, that 8 is only 14%, but in their mind, it is much larger.
Fifth, we have the ignore-magic on a 6. Any time any of your units are affected by a spell or endless spell, you can ignore its effects on a 6 (and you gain a blood tithe!). In one famous game against a Teclis-Sentinel list a few months back, Teclis managed to put Searing White Light through a portal to cause D3/D6 MW to my whole army during turn 1. I rolled well, and he caused a total of 4 MW across my whole army, and I gained 5 blood tithe. Thanks!
Finally, there is the Cygor’s ability. Any time a spell is successfully cast by a wizard within 30” of the Cygor, that wizard suffers 1 MW. Now that isn’t going to dent a huge monster-hero-wizard like, say Teclis, but I faced both Gitz and Skaven this weekend, and both had 5 wound wizards with two casts a turn. Quite a few times, I was willing to not even attempt an unbind, preferring to chip off 20% of their health for free. Again, it puts doubt into your opponent’s mind – “How much do I really need to cast this spell?”
The next trick we have is the use of blood tithe. Prior to this GHB, I almost exclusively used blood tithe for hero phase move and hero phase fight. That’s changed a little now that Galletian Champions are important – our ability to summon one for just 2 blood tithe is pretty great, so I’ve been doing that a lot. Before going into detail on blood tithe, let’s talk about Skarr. He’s in the list for one reason and one reason only – to die. He has an amazing ability that once he is dead, at the end of any movement phase (including your opponents) you can roll two dice and, on an 8,+ he comes back alive, anywhere on the board, 9” away from enemy units. That’s an amazing tech piece. I try to kill him as early as possible, and then during each of my opponent’s movement phases just take out my 9” stick and start measuring things, just to put doubt into their mind about where they can or cannot move safely.
Of course, to make sure he dies early, you need ways to kill him. That’s where he ties into blood tithe. One of my Slaughterpriests has the Blood Sacrifice prayer, which allows you to target a friendly BoK unit and cause them D3 MW in return for a blood tithe point. I was lucky that in four of my five games over the weekend, I had mystical in my deployment zone.
I placed the Skull Altar (which allows priests to re-roll prayers) within 8” of the mystical terrain, placed Skarr inside the Altar, and the Priest on the mystical. Turn 1 sacrifice Skarr, gain a tithe, and give him D3 MW. Then, since he is in the Skull Altar he can chant to bring out the Wrath-Axe, I use the Axe to cause another D3 MW on Skarr, and possibly another D3 with its secondary damage ability. Generally, this killsthis kills him, meaning I get 2 blood tithe (1 from his death, 1 from the sacrifice) in my first hero phase.
The blood tithe are then used later in the game as either a threat – using 3 to move the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage or Skarbrand in my hero phase, giving them a much larger threat range, or, more commonly, to deny battle tactics. In your opponent’s hero phase they declare a battle tactic that involves killing something , and so you counter that by moving the thing they need to kill, out of range or behind a screen. Or, if you’re in combat in their hero phase, you spend 4 blood tithe to fight and generally cause carnage to their carefully laid out plans. Finally, there’s the summoning aspect. Many of the new GHB battleplans or battle tactics require GCs to be on an objective for extra points or to score the tactic. Rarely are they “starting army” GCs. The ability to just summon one onto an objective for just 2 blood tithe (a Blood Master) is fantastic. Particularly if you pair it with Skarr’s revival. End of your movement phase, you revive him on to one objective, and then use him to summon a GC on to either the same objective or sometimes a second one!
Now let’s talk about the actual units that do stuff during the game. The Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury is there for one reason and one reason only – his command ability. At the start of the combat phase he can issue his command and all friendly BoK daemon units can pile-in 6”, and it’s the good 6” pile-in, meaning they can do it even if they’re outside of 3”. Note that this is an aura, but since the book is so old, none of the affected daemon units count as receiving a command ability, so are able to use other abilities at the same time. This is huge. Having, essentially, your whole army able to pile-in 6” is bonkers good. I very rarely charge any of my daemons during a game. Just move them to 3.1” away from their target unit, and then pile-in 6”. This has multiple benefits. First if you’re going against a monster, they cannot roar you (although the reverse is also true – you cannot perform a monstrous rampage). Second, you avoid any unleash hell. Third you can play activation games – although you’re going to fight with every single one of your units, your opponent is only able to activate their units which are within 3”, which is very often none (you activate first, put in a Bloodthirster, it kills the unit, it’s your opponent’s activation, they have nothing within 3”, so then you activate with your next 6” pile-in, and so on).
The 6” pile-in also interacts with the other tech piece in a Reapers of Vengeance list – all daemons have the start-of-combat-phase command ability to fight twice, and it’s an immediate fight twice. Note this command ability can only be used if you are within 3” of an enemy. The general idea is that you pile-in 6” with a Rage thirster or Skarbrand into two units, kill a bunch of stuff in one unit on the first fight, and then activate a second time, again going 6” to kill another unit. That second 6” pile-in often allows you to jump over a screen to target something more juicy. The Fury thirster is not that great in combat itself, typically doing only 5 or so wounds. But it does have a neat shooting attack – 4 attacks 3s/3s/-1/D3dmg that can kill a solo support hero or chip off some wounds from a screen etc.
Skarbrand is there to kill big monsters/heroes. It is relatively easy to keep Skarbrand at maximum rage for rounds 2-5. When at maximum rage, he does a guaranteed 8 MW per activation with his Carnage axe, and then has 9 attacks with Slaughter that are 4s/3s/-2/3dmg. That 4s to hit is horrible, even with the Locus of Fury ability that allows re-rolls of 1s to hit. We can mitigate that somewhat with either an All-Out-Attack (with the 6” pile-in he won’t have been roared), or earlier in the turn by using the Killing Frenzy prayer on him to give him +1 to hit. Skarbrand generally kills most heroes or does enough damage to seriously wound. If you’re going against multiple units, or a tough monster, you can use the double activate ability on him to cause a guaranteed 16 MW (with the potential of 24 or 32), and have 18 attacks.
Most seasoned Khorne players are surprised to see I don’t have a Bloodsecrator or Wrathmongers in my list. Either of these units give Skarbrand an extra attack, which works on Carnage, causing him to do a guaranteed 16 MW per activation instead of 8. That’s obviously a very nice buff, but I find Skarbrand generally kills everything he touches anyway, or is scary enough that people avoid him. Plus I hate the aesthetic of Khorne Mortals, so try to have as few mortals in my list as possible. Even my priests and Skarr are converted to look more daemon-like!
The Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage is the real scary piece in the army. His job is to clear hordes and support heroes. Particularly useful in this season where both are common. His basic attack profile is 5 attacks, 4s/2s/-2/D6dmg. That D6 damage is painful, as is the 4s to hit. But, he has this one little rule that changes everything. Any 6s to wound cause 4 MW (at top bracket) to all enemy units within 8” of him. That’s bonkers. If you roll two 6s, you’re doing 8 MW. That’s enough to kill most support heroes. And 8” with a largeish base is a big area. Couple it with the 6” pile-in and a double activation, and you can wreak havoc. I tend to use Killing Frenzy (+1 to hit prayer) and the double activation on him more than on Skarbrand. 3s to hit RR1s is actually fairly consistent to get enough hits through to then get one or two 6s to wound per activation. In my first game this weekend I faced the dreaded squig heavy Gitz list. Gitz have lots of over-lapping buffs, so tend to want to castle. They also have lots of support heroes. My Rage thirster killed 60 models in one combat phase.
Next is the Cygor. Although I’ve already spoken about his great anti-magic potential, he’s also a pretty handy monster. I tend to like monster-mash lists, so when I knew I had to include more GC in my list this season, I was looking for a non-leader monster to throw in. Cygor is the perfect match. 16 wounds means he’s tanky (even with the 5+ save). His flat 5dmg shooting attack is pretty good at finishing off a unit or solo support hero. He’s also decent in combat. For magic heavy armies he’s a good distraction. He usually is the first thing to die in my army (other than Skarr), but that means that my ‘Thirsters are not being targeted, which is fine by me! The Unmade are included for their debuff aura. Any enemy units within 12” (which is a crazy range for a unit of 9 models) can not redeploy or rally. Redeploy is the bane of the 6” pile-in. If you run your Bloodthirsters up the table, counting on the 6” pile-in to get into combat, a 4” redeploy kills you. Unmade for 80 points is a bargain to stop that. Also, with so many 4+ rallies in the game now, stopping that is handy, too!
The only remaining piece to describe is the Wrath-Axe. As well as being there to potentially first turn kill Skarr, it is handy to just have around all game doing chip damage and move blocking. Although incantations can be moved through as if they aren’t there, you still can not end a move on top of them. The Wrath-Axe has a large base, and being able to put it on one side of your army to prevent anyone charging from that side is pretty handy.
My choice of 2nd artefact is probably worth some discussion. Many Khorne players swear by Ar’gath, the King of Blades, as the artefact of choice on a Rage Thirster. This weapon gives changes the to-hit profile on the Rage Thirster from 4s to hit to 2s to hit. But only when targeting heroes. Since I generally use Skarbrand to hit big heroes and use Rage to target hordes (hoping to kill support heroes with the booms), I don’t like this choice. Harvester of Skulls is another choice – increase the number of attacks from 5 to 6 per activation. That’s a decent choice. An extra attack means more chances to get that 6 to wound. There’s also The Crimson Crown. This army is very command point dependent, so being able to use a command for free once per round is very useful. I can definitely see the attraction of that on the Fury Thirster. But I go for Armour of Scorn on my Rage. This gives him a 6+ ward, but 4+ wards against magic MW. I want my Rage thirster to live, and that 6+ ward is the nice little extra toughness to keep him alive a little longer. I’m very sympathetic to those who prefer Crimson Crown or Harvester of Skulls though.I’m pretty happy with this list at the moment, although with a new book on the horizon I think last weekend was probably my last competitive outing with it. Across two RTTs and the GT, I’m 10-1 with the list, which is pretty decent!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Lotann + Leviadon + Big Namarti Parties are the soup of the day for Idoneth. The combination is a great way to improve the Namarti (Reavers or Thralls) in both offense and defense. The Leviadon provides an aura giving Namarti +1 to hit so long as the target is within 12″ of the Leviadon. With the Leviadon’s large base size, that 12″ is generous. He also provides a +1 to save aura in the same zone, meaning that the Namarti may be able to hold back and reap the benefits of the save and hit bonuses from the turtle while enjoying a bonus to wound from Lotann. Ultimately, a squad of 20 will be firing 40 arrows hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, with rend -1 and 1 damage.
The King and Morsarr Guard are here to do King and Morsarr Guard things. Both like to move fast to get in their opponents’ faces. Both like to hit insanely hard for their cost. Both like to die if you sneeze near them while unsupported. a 6-strong unit of Morsarr can blend large blobs of chaff units using their once-per-game mortal wound bomb, and the king is one of the best duellists in the game. Careful positioning can lead to a blistering number of attacks, and on-demand strike first is nothing to sniff at.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Legion of the First prince is starting to establish itself as ‘the third way’, after Cabalists and KOTET, and for good reason – it’s a much harder and more subtle sub-faction to get your head around. It does some offer some baked in synergy – and Kyle here (for the first time in this column that I’ve seen) has leant all the way into the fluffy, synergistic version.
The core fluff of a Legion list is the overlapping benefits to taking Be’Lakor, the Centaurion, Eternus, Legionnaires (double reinforced in this instance) and plenty of furies. The synergies are thus: Legionnaires gain +1 to wound while near Be’Lakor (making them a pretty respectable sub-hammer while relatively durable for their points); Eternus gets +1 to his ‘comes back from the dead’ roll while Be’lakor is still alive – and he gains a free CP while near either Legionnaires or Furies – the latter being more likely to keep up with him while Legionnaires guard Be’lakor; lastly, the Marshal allows the big blob of Legionnaires to rally on a 5+.
The rest of the list is worth commenting on to – it’s an early example of allying in the Cockatrice from the new Beasts book, for ability on a 4+ after one of its shots connects to make the enemy unit hit on 6s – which as you can imagine, could wildly swing the outcome of a key engagement – and at only 105 pts, it’s not a hugely risky gamble.
Ths list lost only to a no-doubt more traditional Slaves list, and again to Khorne – who love lists like this without ranged threats – with the most notable win being the on-form Sylvaneth for a 3-2, which is a good result with both a highly thematic and off-meta list. Gratz Kyle!
I thought as Woehammer often struggles to get all the event results out for any given week, it may be a good idea to do one post with all of the lists we intended to cover.
Below, you’ll find all the top three lists this week (that we’re aware of), along with my wildcard choices. We will post individual event results as well, and I will link them to the results below where possible.
Wildcard – Slaves to Darkness (Legion of the First Prince)
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Warhammer World: Matched Play Event (UK) – 74 Players
Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Greyfyrd – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runefather (120)* – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** Battlesmith (150)*** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runemaster (130)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Runic Iron – Prayer: Ember Storm
Battleline 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)* – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)** – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Trait: The Clammy Hand – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Grinkrak The Great (190)* Skragrott, The Loonking (160)* – Lore of the Moonclans: Nikkit!Nikkit! Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)** Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**
Battleline 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)* 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2 36 x Squig Herd (360)** – Reinforced x 2
Units 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)* 6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (145)** – Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)**
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Be’lakor (355) 1 x Lord of Plagues (140)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Gift of Disease – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Bloab Rotspawned (320)* – Spells: Blades of Putrefaction 1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)* – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Incubatch – Dolorous Tocsin – Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm 1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Liege-Kavalos (160)* – General – Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefact: Helm of the Ordained Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Lore of Mortisans: Arcane Command Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – Artefact: Godbone Armour – Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)** – 2 x Dread Falchions 10 x Mortek Guard (140) – Nadirite Blade and Shield 10 x Mortek Guard (140)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield 5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180) – Nadirite Blade and Shield
Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Army Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Squigboss (80)* – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* – Spells: Itchy Nuisance 1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Artefacts: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Spells: The Hand of Gork
BATTLELINE 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280) – Bounder Boss 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280)* – Bounder Boss 36 x Squig Herd (360)** 12 x Squig Herd (120)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Mangler Squigs (260)
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Scrapskuttle’s Arachnacauldron (50)
TERRAIN 1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
OTHER 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150) 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Holy Commands: Thunderbolt Volley – Holy Commands: Call for Aid – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Bastian Carthalos (300)** 1 x Lord-Relictor (150)** – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Lord-Castellant (160)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Thundershock – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)** 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield – Grandweapon 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield 5 x Liberators (120)*** – Liberator-Prime – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
OTHER 3 x Aetherwings (70)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* – Raptor-Prime
Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Army Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Archmage Teclis (700)* 1 x Scinari Calligrave (110)* – Spells: Overwhelming Heat – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox 1 x Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse
BATTLELINE 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Protection of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Etheral Blessings 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – High Warden – Spells: Solar Flare
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420) – Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Verminlord Warbringer (400)* – General – Command Traits: Devious Adversary – Artefacts: Warpstone Charm – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap 1 x Grey Seer (120)** – Spells: Skitterleap – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Thanquol (430)** – 4 x Warpfire Projectors – Spells: Skitterleap
BATTLELINE 10 x Night Runners (90)* – Nightleader 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Clawleader – 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer – 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer – Rusty Blade
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Warp Lightning Vortex (80) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Orruk Warchanter (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork – Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* – Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Skragrott, the Loonking (160)* Orruk Megaboss (140)** Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King
BATTLELINE Moonclan Stabbas (125)* – Moonclan Boss – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba – 3 Barbed Nets Orruk Ardboys (80)** Orruk Ardboys (240)*** – Ardboy Boss – 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – 3 x Waaagh! Drummer – 6 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (450)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka Orruk Brutes (150)*** – Brute Boss – Jagged Gore-hacka
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)* Battlemage (100)* – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox – Allies
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)** – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Trait: Ancient
Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)* – Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown 1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Chaotic Conduit – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh 1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)* 1 x Be’lakor (355)*** – Spells: Daemonic Speed
BATTLELINE 24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)** 6 x Furies (90)** 6 x Furies (90)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)*** – Prayers: Curse – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
OTHER 1 x Cockatrice (105)* 3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)*** – Exalted Charioteer – 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for God’s of War 3 that took place in Italy on the 11th and 12th of February. It involved 84 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
The rankings for this tournament included other points that played around with the usual order of lists. We therefore decided to base the top 3 lists on the traditional method of wins and then battle points.
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: Idoneth Deepkin – Army Subfaction: Mor’phann – Grand Strategy: Dominion of the Deep Ones – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty LEADER 1 x Isharann Tidecaster (140) – Artefacts: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide – Spells: Steed of Tides – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)* – General – Command Traits: Lord of Storm and Sea 1 x Isharann Soulrender (120)* 1 x Lotann (110)*
BATTLELINE 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)* – Icon Bearer 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)* – Icon Bearer 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** – Icon Bearer 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** – Icon Bearer 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)** – Icon Bearer
BEHEMOTH 1 x Akhelian Leviadon (460)* – Mount Traits: Reverberating Carapace
Just in case it isn’t obvious by the time I finish this segment, I really love Idoneth Deepkin. They are the perfect army full of the best models with no bad builds, and you will never convince me otherwise. Luca’s list shines a spotlight on a handful of excellent units and clearly uses them to their greatest effect.
Let’s start with heroes. Luca has opted to leave the classic Murderking at home to fill in more slots for GCs. They are also focusing their heroes on the ability to buff and support their key units rather than shine by themselves. The Tidecaster brings two Isharann Rituals, the Thrallmaster is remarkably versatile (and has pretty decent solo damage output as well), the Soulrender keeps those Namarti alive, and Lotann provides some amazing buffs when stacked up with other heroes.
The Namarti thralls and reavers are supported by these heroes in key ways. Sticking the Tidecaster in a boat to give Riptide the widest possible reach, then pick your favorite Thrall unit and stick all of the remaining heroes into the middle. At that point the Soulrender is going to be resurrecting 4 to 6 Thralls per battleshock phase, the Thrallmaster is going to provide exploding 6’s to hit, Lotann provides +1 to wound, the Leviadon gives +1 to hit…
You see where this is going. Assuming the chosen unit doesn’t get destroyed on their way to their destination (which obviously didn’t happen, given Luca’s first place win) the 20 thralls will force a massive number of Rend -1 saves. And if it does happen that the thrall unit gets destroyed on the way to their destination, Luca has a backup castle right behind the first. On top of all this, Luca has 30 Sharpshooter Reavers running around the board as fast as (or faster) than other armies’ cavalry all the while able to pick off enemy GCs before they have the chance to score battle tactics.
All-in-all, this is an excellent showing from an army that we don’t get to see in top 3 articles very often, and Luca did an excellent job piloting them to a 5-0 win and first place!
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Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Guardian of Souls (150)** – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish Krulghast Cruciator (150)** – Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon Lord Executioner (130)*** – General – Command Trait: Hatred of the Living – Artefact: Slitter – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Spirit Torment (120)** Spirit Torment (120)
Battleline 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (180)* 10 x Bladegheist Revenants (180)* 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)***
No Harridans, no Hexwraiths, just a single-minded focus on some of the most effective murder machines Nighthaunt has. By now, everyone knows the Bladegheist trick, an extra attack on the charge. With Lightshard, that means up to 5 attacks as well as mortal wounds from the charge (Scarlet Doom ability). This is a variation on the 2 blocks of 30 Bladegheist that we saw early in last season. This list deals with one of the weaknesses of the 60 Bladegheist list by giving both more units and a non-trivial screen. The weakness, of course, is only 10 wounds for 180 points. They can issue discorporate on themselves to take advantage of a 5+ ward increased their effective wounds 30%. But even without rend, a 10/13 wound unit is pretty easy to pick up.
Unfortunately unless you have a double pile in/fight rule (Terrorgheist I see you) the unit that removes the screen is really only a trading piece with one of the large units likely to take advantage of your clearing the screen. Elite armies can’t afford that trade too often. The normal buffing heroes are here, Kruleghast gives -1 damage, and Guardian of Souls with 2 Spirit Torments to return models every turn. The Lord Executioner build is cute and very threatening, but with only 5 wounds, he can be removed a bit too easily to rely on. It will take a little effort, though, with his standard wards and once per game 3+ wards.
If combined with the Spirit Hosts, it will take quite a bit to shift him. He’s not a Megaboss but with Slitter (chance to one shot small heroes) and Hatred of the Living he’s a nasty bomb waiting for something to get too close. The points increase cost this list dearly – in Season 2, it costs more than 100 more than Season 1 neatly removing the Purple Sun (and other helpful spells). With a mix of defensive and offensive buffs and choices, this is still a very aggressive list that aims to win by destroying you more than playing for points. Isolated any of the core units are pretty weak. The lower Battlescore (still 5 and 0) reflects that it’s a bit harder to score in Season 2 just by killing your opponent. It’s still fun though.
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (170)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Cursed Warhammer Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Daemonic Speed – Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Spells: Chaotic Conduit
BATTLELINE Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Standard Bearer – Hornblower – Cursed Lance Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Cursed Lance – 2 x Hornblower – 2 x Standard Bearer – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon Varanguard (290)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – 3 x Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard (290)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – 3 x Fellspear Varanguard (290)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – 3 x Fellspear
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000
Slaves to Darkness players (myself included) are quickly finding that the new book has some definite power, even if from a fairly limited selection of warscrolls and allegiance abilities. However, the combos that do work, work.
Meme has kept things simple and leaned into a ‘2e Slaves but with no Archaon’ list, with loads of cavalry in Knights of the Empty Throne, which makes mounted units able to run and charge, and Varanguard battleline. Also, be aware, the 5+ Varanguard rally only applies if the GENERAL is a Varanguard model.
Slaves HQ picks are quickly consolidating to a lean selection of 1-2 Lords, with at least being the Sorcerer as we have here, for access to the fantastic Daemonic Power (+1 to hit and wound) spell, that he can cast on 3d6 thanks to a heroic action – hence the Arcane Tome and Master of Magic – also crucial to getting ‘Daemonic Speed’ off for those 3d6 charges.
Troop wise, Chaos Knights are rapidly showing Nurgle to be their favourite mark, so they can act as durable pinning pieces. Meme has them backed up by 3x msu Khorne Varanguard, as savage guided missiles, with each unit being able to fight twice.
You can probably see how it works – a wall of super hard to kill knights with run+3d6 charge to box you in, and death squads of Varanguard with – if all the buffs go off – 4 attacks each, 2/2/-3/2!
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Stormkeep – Subfaction: Hallowed Knights – Triumph: Inspired – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Their
LEADERS Lord-Castellant (160)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact of Power: Arcane Tome – Spell: Starfall Gardus Steel Soul (170)*** Knight-Zephyros (100)*** – Artefact of Power: Mirrorshield – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Krondys (550)*** – Spell: Thundershock
BATTLELINE 15 x Vindictors (390)* – Vindictor-Prime – 3 x Azyrite Signifier 5 x Vanquishers (110)** – Vanquisher-Prime 5 x Vanquishers (110)*** – Vanquisher-Prime
OTHER 3 x Aetherwings (70)** 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)** – Raptor-Prime
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Everblaze Comet (90)
With the news that small heroes were the focus of Season 2, SCE players rejoiced and began sorting through their 40 heroes for Galletian Champions to take up the challenge. And very quickly realised that despite only average performance, they’d gotten a nerf. The same 3 or 4 foot heroes that were already in the list were there for a reason. However, both the Knight Zephyros and the Knight Azyros. especially the Knight Zephyros, made a return. Only 6″ move, but he can teleport instead of move on top of run and charge. Only 5 wounds but equipped with Mirrorshield (can’t be shot unless you are within 9″) and Subborn as a Rhinox makes him both a great backfield but also a great unguarded objective unit. Really though this is the Krondys show with a supporting cast of heroes.
Both the Castellant and Steel Soul bring useful buffs (+1 to save and a 12″ 5+ ward). While Krondys is the big hammer, the Vindictors are a hammer in their own right. They are part of the Galletian Command battalion with the Castellant. You can expect them to hang around with a 2+ save. You can expect them to do an average of 5 mortal wounds at full strength (15 models), they need to lose 3 models before battleshock is an issue. They also fight on death, so combat is a real concern. They are part of an anti horde approach, including Starfall and the Vanquishers (they get more attacks the more models they face). At the same time, as including a hero that can snipe objectives, Ambrogio included some real snipers.
Aetherwings are not just spotters (+1 to hit for longstrikes if the target is within 12″ of them). They can, of course, take objectives or push scoring opportunities. The Longstrikes are a good choice for sniping out Galletian Champions. A well thought out list with solid scoring opportunities and the ability to apply pressure, including through remote mortal wounds (Raptors, Everblaze Comet, and Starfall) that will punish any horde or army that castles. 13th is low for a 4 and 1 record, demonstrating SCE’s frequent mobility issue and its impact on scoring.
Welcome to the first in a new series of articles where we run through the lore of the Age of Sigmar factions.
These are intended to give you a little flavour into the faction, and hopefully give you an understanding on what drives them.
The World That Was
The story of the Idoneth begins way back in the world that was, right after the forces of chaos forced their way in, and right before they ultimately conquered it. During this time there was a sect of Aelves who worshipped the god known as Mathlann. God of both sea and storm and known as the lord of the Deep, Mathlann was primarily worshipped by sea fairing Aelves, and explorers. When the Chaos gods began to consume the souls of all living creatures, Mathlann sought to protect the few he could from them, and so he took a contingent of his followers and hid them at the deepest depths of the oceans. Despite this, Slaanesh could sense more souls still, and would root out each remote enclave one by one until every single aelvan soul was devoured.
The Age of Myth
During the age of Myth, what remained of the Aelvan pantheon awoke, and sadly Mathlann was not amongst those who survived. Teclis, Tyrion, and Malerion awoke in a world which lacked any Aelves to rule over, and as such devised a plan to capture Slaanesh and pry the souls from his gullet. Each of the three main gods would receive a share of the souls, and Teclis would be the first to receive them. Those souls which were first pulled from Slaanesh, turned out to be those of the idoneth. Those original souls would come to be known as the Cythai.
No Rest for the Wicked
After escaping both from Teclis and Slaanesh, the Cythai found themselves within the throes of a new horror. The combination of Corruption from Slaanesh, Purification ritual from Teclis, and the lack of a God to draw from led the majority of Idoneth to be born with Waning souls. Many of their offspring fail to live past infancy, and those that do (the Namarti) , have drastically shortened life spans. Some would be born with proper souls (Akhelians) and this disparity between the two would go on to form the basic structure of Idoneth society. To ensure their survival something would need to be done. Adapting the magic that Teclis had taught them they would form a new school of magic revolving around the removal of and transmutation of souls. Unfortunately, the souls of Sea life would not be enough to sustain that of an Idoneth body for any more than a couple of days, the only alternative was to seek out greater prey. The Idoneth would form raiding parties that would ascend from the depths raid coastal settlements taking with them the souls of the fallen back to their enclaves. To ensure secrecy, the Idoneth would weave spells to erase the memories of survivors.
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.
Idoneth Deepkin
Region Comparison – Popularity
Idoneth Deepkin saw their highest popularity in Europe with 4.6% of players choosing the faction for tournament play, while at the opposite end of the world the uptake was only 1.2% in Oceania.
Region Comparison – Win Rates
Oceania had the highest win rate with 80.0% (insane!), while North America had the lowest with 44.0%.
Scandinavia was the only region which didn’t see the Idoneth achieve a 5-0 result.
Subfaction Analysis
Subfaction
Players
Win Rate
Briomdar
7
55.56%
Mor’Phann
30
55.33%
Fuethan
25
51.19%
Ionrach
34
51.18%
Dhom-Hain
9
47.78%
Nautilar
45
41.74%
None/Unknown
18
50.00%
Faction Total
168
49.23%
There appears to be a fairly even spread between 3-4 subfactions, with Mor’Phann being the most successful of those at 55.33% and Nautilar having the least success at 41.74%. These tables often go to show how much difference the subfaction allegiance abilities can make to an army.
Top 10 Idoneth Deepkin 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 Idoneth Deepkin results only.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Christmas Special that took place in the UK on 17th and 18th December. It involved 8 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: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Frostlord on Stonehorn (445) – Mount Trait: Metalcruncher Huskard on Thundertusk (330) – General – Blood Vulture – Command Trait: High Priest – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Keening Gale Frostlord on Stonehorn (445) – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Danny: When you take the new Ogor book to an 8 player, xmas themed event, you are essentially roleplaying. The Mawtribes like it best where its chilly, they love a good ol’ festive feast, and they have lots of reindeer Stonehorns to pull fat men with beards into the action, delivering ‘presents’ as necessary, and claiming their cookies’n’milk tithe as they go. It’s the only explanation for their being 3 OM players – just under half the field.
Thomas’s interpretation of the christmas myth packs 3 big beasties – who, let’s be honest, just generally ram into you and do very bad things in a variety of slightly different ways. They’re backed up by Yhetees who can run and charge while within 15″ of a Thundertusk, and are eligible to fight within 6″ – and two more non-hero murder-reindeer. Boy oh boy does this list want to deliver you your presents, forcibly and fast! Hope his opponents felt festive while being very roughly sleighed!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Briomdar – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness – Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides Isharann Soulscryer (150)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Scinari Loreseeker (160)* – Allies
Battleline 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)*
Units 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*
Endless Spells & Invocations Horrorghast (40) Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Patrick: The fact that half the lists at this event where the new golden child of AoS goes to show how versatile the Idoneth can be. The standard Murderking and Namarti Reavers are present, keeping the core of the army to a consistently powerful turn 2 and 3. This list would see a major advantage at an Ogor-heavy event, since the Ironblasters can’t take you off the table turn 1 if you aren’t on the table to begin with. A relatively small cadre of units will start on the board, while Briomdar allows the Soulscryer to keep three units to the side, who can come in at an advantageous moment.
This list deviates from the norm by taking advantage of some strong reinforcement units. The Scinari Loreseeker is going to make life difficult since it can be deployed up the board turn one, and at 160pts makes a decent sacrificial unit, since any ranged attacks would have to target him. His distance from the rest of the army also means that he’s siting on a 3+ save, and if he deploys in cover and uses all-out-defense he’s on a 3+ ignoring 2 points of Rend. The Fulminators round out the list by providing a relatively quick, tough unit that can consistently deal mortal wounds, which is something that Idoneth lack.
Overall this list has a high skill level to play well, but Kieron played well, and I imagine frutrated their opponents to no end.
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Underguts
LEADERS Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)* – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder Butcher (135)*** – General – Command Traits: Gastromancer – Tenderiser – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
Danny: Now, Leighton has opted for a slightly different kind of Christmas spirit, choosing to deliver coal to all the naughty children on the other side of the board from afar with great prejudice, from 3 Ironblasters and a unit of Leadbelchers, in the sub-faction that gives extra rend to ranged attacks, which let’s just say doesn’t take a tactical genius to see the appeal of.
In his defense, he also definitely does not leave the elves on the shelf (well, they’re more like mountain goblins but you get my drift) capable of doing d3 mortals to stuff within 6″ at the end of any move action, which the recent FAQ decided was clearly easily understood by all and not in the least bit troubling on a 20 body 100 pt unit.
A Stonehorn is also there because why wouldn’t you? And he’s got a Butcher for company, whipping up all the trimmings for those hungry Ironguts and packing Blubbergrub Stench, allowing Rhinox units to be treated as Monsters, which gives them all sorts of cool shit. Oh – did you forget that Ironblasters are pulled by Rhinoxes? Oh yes – now they roll dice equal to their charge roll + 2 and do MWs on 6s after pumping you full of lead, just in case a small part of your body was still twitching, cold and alone in the dirt.
Also 2 units of Ironguts waddle around just obliterating anything they get into combat with with 3 rend 2 damage 3 attacks each and a once per game double fight.
I wonder if GW just really wanted to see lots of Ogors around xmas (and under various xmas trees, preferable wrapped up…) because it certainly is their season!!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Lofnir – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)* – General – Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir – Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)* – Ancestral War-axe – Magmadroth Trait: Flame-scaleYoungblood Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)* – Ancestral War-axe – Magmadroth Trait: Lava-tongue Adult Auric Runemaster (125)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Gotrek Gurnisson (485)* – Allies
Battleline 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)*
Brett: When the book dropped I thought we’d see a lot more Lofnir/Magmadroth lists, but it seems Lofnir lodge hid it’s secrets well. Greyfyrd is a bit more common, probably down to the difficulty in assembling 3 to 6 Magmadroths. Runeson on a Magmadroth is battleline in Lofnir, there are 4 battlelines in the army. They’re expensive, but a Magmadroth has as many wounds as a Mawcrusha (18), and have a better breath weapon. But their damage output isn’t as impressive. And the Runeson is no Megaboss. In Lofnir each Magmadroth gains a mount trait (up to 3 anyway) and they come with burning blood just in case you wound 1 in melee. The biggest advantage of Lofnir and Magmadroths is the additional mobility they bring. But that mobility makes it easy to outstrip your support (Vulkites and Runemaster). If you aren’t careful it’s easy for an army to engage each as separate pieces instead of an army.
The same is true of Gotrek, great model but with only 4″ of movement he can be played around. And that slow movement means scoring is hard and they are vulnerable to shooting. Jon lost to 2nd and 3rd who had a lot of firepower. Jon also drew with Rob in his 3rd round, notable against Tzeetch. Durable with some fun tricks it will be interesting to see what the next GHB offers Fyreslayers who don’t love the current missions and Galletian Veterans. With very few warscrolls the centre of most armies with either Vulkites (1W with a 4+ save) or Hearthguard (2W, 4+ save) who suffer against bounty hunters.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GT Bilbao that took place in Spain on 10th and 12th December. It involved 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Ymetrica – Grand Strategy: Alarith Afterschock – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700) Alarith Stonemage (120)* – General – Command Trait: Unyielding Toughness – Artefact: Molten Talisman – Lore of the High Peaks: Unbreakable Stoicism Avalenor, the Stoneheart King (420)*
Battleline 5 x Alarith Stoneguard (120)* – Diamondpick Hammers 10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)** – Diamondpick Hammers – Reinforced x 1 10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)** – Diamondpick Hammers – Reinforced x 1
Units 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* – Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations Rune of Petrification (40)
Ed: This is typical of the kind of lists we’ve been seeing since the new Lumineth Realmlords tome. It is tricky to run properly as Teclis has a whopping 18 spells to choose from and takes up so much of your points that what’s left really has no room to make mistakes. You need to know your rules inside and out – not a list for players who take 10 mins to read their warscrolls each round! However, the versatility of Teclis coupled with the hardiness and output of his Alarith entourage can accomplish a great deal even with so few models on the board.
Avalenor is a certified beatstick, especially with his pet stonemage in tow keeping him on top bracket for as long as possible. He and Teclis have the ability to dictate the course of the battle, while the Stoneguard will do most of the actual heavy lifting. Even as Galletian Veterans, Stoneguard are hardy anvils which gain a 4+ ward against mortal wounds while contesting an objective they control and the ability to ignore rend of -1 and -2! Plus in the Expert Conquerers battalion they count as 3 per model, meaning their hold over that objective and access to their ward are extra secure. They’re not too bad on the offensive either, though certainly the support from Avalenor and Teclis is crucial.
Then there are the Tree Revenants. A cheeky little unit that can pop up in unexpected places and secure objectives without much investment. It forces your opponent to play a little defensively and deploy their forces in less than ideal positions to prevent a catastrophic backdoor teleports. Even if they don’t steal an objective or assassinate a vulnerable unit, just having them on the board can be worth it for how it changes your opponent’s behaviour in your favour. I can’t speak highly enough of these guys as a list filler for any order faction who can ally them in.
It’s a brilliant list, clearly played excellently to have reached first place. But time is running out to make use of it! With a new GHB just around the corner, and Expert Conquerors/Bounty Hunters almost certainly about to disappear will similar builds continue to reach the top of the podium?
Brett: The current Big Bad of AoS according to many threads, as always shooting is effective and controversial. The increase in range for the Leadbelchers (to 18″) means it’s a lot easier for them to stand still. Standing still now guarantees 2 shots (2D3 v 1D6), not a lot but it’s significantly more damage. Ironblasters long range shot moving to a guaranteed 4 damage at 30″ with -2 Rend and doubling the number of shots is a huge deal. Their Hail Shot (10 shots, Rend -1, D2) is effective in Unleash hell and both units are solid melee damage dealers as are their Leaders. Fittingly for Ogors they are tough (4+ save) multiwound (4W for Leadblechers and 9W for Ironblasters) models who also tank well. With multiple small units they also blunt the counter strike and limit carry over damage.
With two effective (and cheap) screens in the Gnoblars (who aren’t even GV) to keep opponents out of your hair, it’s a challenge to take apart. Only the event’s 1st place managed to do so in the 3rd round, a match up of the new tomes, with the Stoneguard coming out on top. Scoring 20 in 3 rounds it looks like Adrian might have tabled his opponents frequently, certainly a chance with this sort of shooting.
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Fuethan – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Sea (325)* – General – Command Trait: Endless Sea Storm – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides Isharann Soulscryer (150)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Battleline 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)** – Razorshell Harpoon – Reinforced x 1 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)** – Razorshell Harpoon – Reinforced x 1 2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)** – Razorshell Harpoon – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Patrick: What a strange list, and yet here we are in the top 3. Fuethan opens up the ability to take Allopexes as Battleline as well as bringing in Bloodthirsty Shivers (which gain some bonus attacks if they are within a certain distance of one another). In Jordi’s Case, they have opted to take three squads of 2 without bringing any Shivers at all. Allopexes are already excellent “independent operator” units, and placing them in a Bounty Hunters battalion improves their ability to clear objectives, allowing for the slower Namarti to move in.
Speaking of Namarti, Jordi has brought 2 units, both fairly small. 30 Reavers spread across 2 units is decent if you’re pushing for a skirmish force, but the frailty of the Namarti will sting if anything focuses on them for very long. The Soulscryer’s ability to deep-strike will allow all of the Namarti to start the game off the board, which would allow for better early survival.
The final unit is an Eidolon general, bringing the Arcane Tome and Endless Sea Storm. The Eidolon innately has full re-rolls for casting, unbind, and dispelling, and Endless Sea Storm allows the ability to cast an additional spell for each successful casting attempt with a result greater than 7. The Eidolon has some solid warscroll spells, and with these upgrades he becomes a high-quality support hero that will do a lot to keep the Allopexes alive.
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Greyfyrd – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Auric Runesmiter (135)* – Runic Iron – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Auric Runeson (80)* – Ancestral War-axe – Artefact: Axe of Grimnir Battlesmith (150)* – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon Auric Flamekeeper (90)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)** – General – Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker – Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve – Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient Auric Runemaster (125)** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (480)*** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2 10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*** – Broadaxes – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)**
Brett: Straight forward enough, the foot heroes provide a 4+ ward (in Greyfyrd) and can use their prayer (heal) to get the Hearthguard close enough to charge. The triple reinforced Hearthguard averages 10 mortal wounds (MW) in addition to their normal damage. Both Hearthguard are Expert Conquerors to give some solid objective play for really elite army. This is a great way to play into the current meta and try to deal with long range shooting. The primary hammers have the option of rending or non rending weapons to manage armies like Nighthaunt and the Vulkites are a risk for melee army with their fight on death.
As always though there are trade offs, this is such a slow army that you might be better to not engage the central castle forcing them to come to your or spread. Either works giving you the chance to weaken them piecemeal. Score wise I think that lack of movement may have cost him dearly.
