Category Archives: Kharadron Overlords

Top Three AoS Lists for SAGT 23

This is the top three AoS lists for the South Australia Grand Tournament that took place in Australia on the 20th and 21st of May. It involved 31 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists


Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
Sky Port: Barak Urbaz
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
Artycle: Settle The Grudges
-Additional Artycle From Barak-Urbaz : Honour Is Everything
– Amendment: Trust to Your Guns
– Footnote: Without Our Ships We Are Naught

Leaders
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aether-Khemist (80)*
Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Aether-Khemist (80)*

Battleline
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
5 x Grundstok Thunderers (135)*
– 1x Aetheric Fumigators
– 1x Decksweepers
– 1x Aethercannons
– 1x Grundstok Mortars
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
Main Gun: Sky Cannon
– Gunhauler Modifications: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
Main Gun: Great Volley Cannon
– The Admirals Flagship

Endless Spells & Invocations
Spell in a Bottle: Soulscream Bridge (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000

Today, we have the great Mark Nodge with Kharadron Overlords list who decided to choose violence. And guns, lots of guns… To hell with it, all the guns. In a trial run of the list, he is taking the Age of Sigmar World Teams Tournament representing Team Australia in early June. He blasted his way through SAGT like Michael Bay blasts through a blockbuster movie.

This list features Grundstock Thunderers, thirty-five Grundstock Thunderers, all packing special weapons for that extra sauce. Thunderers have been the go-to unit for Kharadron devastation of late, and this list skews about as hard into them as possible. The upgrades to their range and consistency with the new Battletome combined with the rend buff from the Khemist makes them deadly at eighteen inches and devastating at twelve. Furthermore, they have the ability for them to give a minus one to hit if they fail to kill something, or unleash hell, from suppressing fire, and finally if someone does tag them in combat if they survive, they get to dump up to 3d6 mortal wounds on their attacker.
The biggest issue with the unit overall is its slow speed, which Mark has offset with multiple ways of getting them where they need to be. First off, we have the traditional Ironclad, which is an excellent shooting platform in its own right. The ability teleport, and once per game, dump its cargo, making it the precision piece of this equation. Next up, we have a Soulscream bridge in a spell in a bottle attached to a Khemist. This is a unique endless spell that has two massive bases that must be set up within twenty-four inches of the caster, then at the start of the movement phase, a single unit wholly within six inches may teleport. Even though this can only be cast once per game and is easy to dispel, the utility beyond the teleport itself is amazing. The bases are massive, so you can use them to screen pieces or even lane blockers against armies like Gargants.

Lastly, we have a Gunhauler with a very cheeky “Coalbeards Collapsable Compartments” Endrinwork. This rarely seen contraption gives the Gunhauler the Transport Vessel keyword and a six-man capacity. This is perfect for the unit of five Thunderers to roam around in, and when combined with the Gunhaulers unparalleled movement in the army it can go camp out on an objective while still presenting enough of a threat that chaff units cannot easily shift them off.

Overall, this is an outstanding skew list that presents multiple tough units that are a must kill with just enough support redundancy to keep it all afloat. It should dominate the horde based undead that are currently running rampant, such as Soulblight Gravelords and Ossiarch Bonereapers. It might have some difficulty with armies like Beasts of Chaos and Slannesh, who can pressure the heroes outside of combat. I look forward to seeing how Mark does with it at Worlds.

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Allegiance: Skaven
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Verminlord Warbringer (400)***
General
– Command Trait: Devious Adversary
– Artefact: Rustcursed Armour
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Thanquol on Boneripper (430)*
4 Warpfire Projectors
– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap
Grey Seer (120)*
– Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy
Grey Seer (120)*
Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Warlock Bombardier (110)**
Artefact: Vial of the Fulminator
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
20 x Clanrats (100)*
Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)**
Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade

Units
1 x Doomwheel (160)***
1 x Doomwheel (160)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Warp Lightning Vortex (80)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Vanguard
***Linebreaker

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 10

Kieren Coates: The list was inspired by IronBlaze – a mad man who has been running doomwheels competitive rain hail or shine.

It’s designed to be a castle buster with still a strong core to finish out the game

Thanquol and verminlord make the base of the list, with thanquol being the key piece into magic dom and horde lists, and the verminlord being the primary physical damage output – if these two pieces are protected over 5 turns they can lift almost any army

Surrounding them to keep them safe is 3 sets of 20 clanrats acting as barriers and forcing the enemy to trade high value units into them, only to have them countered off and the lines rebuilt

For long-range damage, we have two grey seers who can be skitterleaped up the board to drop endless spells before taking gnawholes back.

Further to this, the doomwheels (or better known Zoomwheels) can have their movement doubled by the engineer, combined with 2 sources of death frenzy, levitate and MMWP they become a killing machine with an average movement of 28 inches.

Lob those doomwheels over the top to kill off key pieces that could threaten the life of the warbringer and thanquol, then keep them protected as they lift 2 units per turn and repeat for 5 turns to win the game.

The list is surprisingly concentrated with low health, so it’s best not to get too greedy and take it slow, killing 1-2 units per turn, but staying protected from the enemy counter is a must

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Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
Army Type: Ironjawz
– Subfaction: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line

LEADERS
Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)
General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Bash ‘Em Ladz
– Arcane Tome
– Touched by the Waaagh!
Orruk Megaboss (140)
Artefacts of Power: Destroyer
– Tunnel Master
Orruk Warchanter (120)
Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)
Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)
Warbeats: Killa Beat

BATTLELINE
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka

Core Battalions
– Vanguard
– Battle Regiment
– Command Entourage: Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

At first glance, this list looks typical for Bloodtoofs, Ironjawz with a Mawcrusha, Megaboss, and 18 Gore gruntas. But there is a little more depth to it. Kyle has tried to address the dismal output of Gore gruntas (Jagged Gore-hackas are 1 damage weapons) with Bash ’em lads and Killa beat. The Mawcrusha has Arcane Tome with Bash ’em ladz and Touched by the Waagh, pick a unit with 6″ and cause D3 wounds to them, the caster gets the number of wounds added to their casting roll. Now, the 8 is at least a 7 and more often than not a 6 casting roll. It grants +1 to wound rolls. Killa Beat (not often seen either) grants +1 to hit. With so many units spreading, the buffs will help, especially with Skull Shaking Bellow, to apply 3 commands for the cost of one (all out attack, for instance). 4 units can have +1 to attack.

The other benefit is that the 3 model units are much easier to move and pile in. It can make a difference to both mortals on the charge and just getting your attacks into the right unit. Shot off the board once by Kharadron it was otherwise an effective approach. The whole list is mobil (except the Warchanters) and can get up in your grill quickly. If the dice are hot, they are a real menance still, especially when you can buff the Jagged Gore-hackas.

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Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle
Subfaction: Befouling Host
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Great Unclean One (480)
General
– Command Traits: Nurgling Infestation
– Doomsday Bell and Plague Flail
– Artefacts of Power: The Witherstave
– Spells: Stream of Corruption
Bloab Rotspawned (320)*
Spells: Gift of Disease
Lord of Blights (150)*
Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

BATTLELINE
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
Putrid Blightkings (250)*

OTHER
Nurglings (100)*
Rotmire Creed (130)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Quicksilver Swords (60)

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Roland Rivera: Here, we have a spicy Nurgle list that successfully executed the submarine (lose Round 1, win the rest of the way to clinch the 4-1). The Befouling Host subfaction lets Nurgle focus more on summoning by letting them place 2 Feculent Gnarlmaws instead of 1 at the start of the game, thus generating more Contagion Points and hitting their summoning benchmarks a bit faster. This is important because (as we will see below), most of the combat blocks in this list are rather lacking in foot speed, and summoning will be necessary to complement your board presence.

In order to get an extra Gnarlmaw, Befouling Host demands a Daemon General, and that is where we see the rather uncommon inclusion of a Great Unclean One. While the big fella is a bit slow, he packs some utility with his chosen artefact in the Witherstave, which makes the mortal wounds from disease points go off on 3+ instead of 4+. It also provides even more summoning points via the Doomsday Bell. Last but not least, Stream of Corruption gives you a potent short-range horde clearing spell that can line up very well into armies with lots of foot troops.

Another interesting inclusion is the Lord of Blights, along with the 3 units of Putrid Blightkings. Blightkings are efficient volume attackers that are very good at chewing up weaker troops, and the Lord of Blights is a durable foot Hero (especially with Fuelled by Ghurish Rage acting as a backstop) that gives you a bit of shooting.

These interesting inclusions are rounded out with some mainstays in Bloab, Nurglings, and the Rotmire Creed. All in all, this is a very interesting list featuring some uncommon choices, but it has the result to back it up.

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Final Tournament Placings

For the full tournament break-down, visit Stats and Ladders.

Top Three AoS Lists for Spring Rubicon 2023 GT

This is the top three AoS lists for the Spring Rubicon 2023 GT that took place in Wisconsin, USA on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 40 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament. The event was organised by The Die is Cast crew from Youtube.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired
Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADERS

Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aether-Khemist (80)*
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*

BATTLELINE

15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Light Skyhooks
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope

UNITS

3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*

BEHEMOTHS

Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: The Last Word

CORE BATTALIONS

*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS 1970 / 2000

Today we have another Kharadron Overlords list, this time from Nicholas True who ran a very interesting Barak Zilfin list. A lot of the usual suspects are present here, with his Kharadron Code being +1 to wound, extra movement from runs, and a once per game 3d6 charge. Then we have our Admiral with Ex-Grundstock to make Thunderers battleline and a Celestium Burst-Grenade to turn off ward saves. There is also the requisite Thunderer buff machine we all know and love that goes by the name Aether-Khemist, who will be handing out -1 rend candy all game long. But the really interesting part of this hero lineup is a cheeky Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar, in a Barak-Zilfin list.
Brokk deserves special mention here because at first glance it looks off since his best ability, +1 to attack profiles in melee, only applies to Barak-Nar units. However, his Command the Fleet ability works just like the Admiral’s similar ability, but he can target up to three boats with this command which can really spread out the board. Kharadron Overlords lost its great positioning gameplay with the new Battletome, even if it kept its mobility, but Brokk’s command ability the army can overcome that and really take advantage of raw speed to get into position and still shoot. Unfortunately, the ability does not let the guys inside the boat shoot since the boat has already received the command it cannot use Combat Landing in the same movement phase. Combine all that utility with a powerful shooting and melee profile and Brokk can easily be an unexpected menace on the board especially in the mid-game when things tend to bog down.

The rest of the list is again what we would expect with a Battleline Frigate, an Arkanaut Company, and the monster nastiness of double reinforced Thunderers with Special Weapons. Woe be the opponent who thinks they can tank the output from this unit, especially when you add in the Khemist -1 to rend buff, and the Admirals once per game -1 rend ability. The sheer volume of rend -2/-4 ranged attacks will drop almost anything. Watch out, it slaps. Rounding out the troops are a couple of Endrinrigger squads to give a little frontline pressure and heal the boats.

Speaking of boats, Nicholas brought along an Ironclad to finish off his list with the curious addition of The Last Word which has been unpopular compared to the Battle Ram in other KO lists. This does create something of a deterrent if an opponent correctly assesses the Thunderers as the real threat in the list and if the boat properly backs them up it means in addition to eating an Unleash Hell from the Thunderers, there is also a Great Sky Cannon. An interesting choice that makes the idea of charging Thunderers even less appealing.

Nicholas brought a great list with some unexpected threats in an army that already excels at keeping opponents unbalanced and on the back foot. Outstanding job and well played.

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Subfaction: The Flayed
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS

Bloodsecrator (110)*
– Artefact: The Crimson Plate
Dromm (180)*
– Prayers: Bloodbind, Curse
Realmgore Ritualist (100)*
– Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Unholy Flames
Slaughterpriest (110)**
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Prayers: Blood Sacrifice, Bloodbind
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Skarr Bloodwrath (100)**
Slaughterpriest (110)**
– General
– Command Traits: High-priest of Khorne
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

BATTLELINE

Blood Warriors (570)***
– Blood Champion
– Paired Goreaxes
– 3 x Icon Bearer
– 3 x Goreglaive
Claws of Karanak (100)***
Claws of Karanak (100)***

BEHEMOTH

Chaos Gargant (145)

ARTILLERY

Skull Cannon (140)

OTHER

Magore’s Fiends (120)*
Gorechosen of Dromm (180)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS

1 x Bleeding Icon (40)
1 x Wrath-Axe (70)

CORE BATTALIONS

*Warlord
**Warlord
***Galletian Veterans

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Amusingly losing only to another Khorne list, this is an interesting set up.

At first glance, it looks like a mad grab bag, but I think I see the logic. Claws of Karanak are obscenely useful pre-game movers for their points, and following on their heels is a triple reinforced unit of Blood Warriors, who I’m sure were hilarious to try and kill, all the while bouncing mortals back and putting out a non-trivial weight of attacks that could be buffed to rend 2 with Unholy Flames, and after activating – thanks to the Flayed sub-faction – capable of a 5 up ward.

Meanwhile, you have 4 priests, who’re the not-so-secret sauce to Khorne mortal lists. I mean, the entire Prayer lore is utterly banging, and with High-priest of Khorne on one of them, this list is praying out 5 (including the two excellent Invocations) per round.

The other tech on display is Skarr (who deep-strikes back alive on an 8+ when killed) for blood tithe farming, a Chaos Gargant who for the -1 save aura, who I imagine was kinda wrapped in Blood Warriors to make them really nasty to charge – and a skull cannon for a cheap way to pick off a few screens where necessary.

A really fun looking list, and I’m jealous of his Claws of Karanak, can’t buy those bastards for love nor money at the moment!

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Army Subfaction: Bloodlords
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!

LEADER

1 x Bloodmaster (110)**
– Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades
– Prayers: Killer Instinct
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
1 x Bloodsecrator (110)**
– Artefacts: Banner of Blood
1 x Aspiring Deathbringer (80)**
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)***
– General
– Command Traits: Embodiment of Wrath
1 x Bloodmaster (110)***
– Prayers: Blood Sacrifice
1 x Bloodmaster (110)***
– Artefacts: Halo of Blood
– Prayers: Unholy Flames

BATTLELINE

20 x Bloodletters (360)*
20 x Bloodletters (360)*
10 x Bloodletters (180)*
10 x Bloodletters (180)***

OTHER

5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)**

CORE BATTALIONS:

*Galletian Veterans
**Warlord
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

A more traditional Khorne Daemon list here, following the ‘loads of bloodletters in Bloodlords for MWs on 5+ to hit, supported by Bloodmasters and Bloodthirsters’ which I’m henceforth going to call the ‘Bloody Blood Bloods‘ archetype.

There’s not a huge amount more to it than that – but of note is the Grand Strat – have more GCs alive than opponent at end – which should be fairly locked in with 5 of them and a large swathe of horny bastards running at you in the meantime.

Another bit of tech to note is the Halo of Blood on the Bloodmaster – this allows him to strike first, and with his war-scroll ability to allow a unit of Bloodletters to fight immediately after him, when positioned correctly can mean charging him/them is essentially suicide. Nasty stuff and took down some savage opponents for a great result.

Peter: Danny failed his challenge. He had to mention Blood 10 times in the comment. 9 = Not acceptable.

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Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty


LEADER

1 x Warpgnaw Verminlord (275)*
– General
– Command Traits: Devious Adversary
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Deathmaster (140)*
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420)**
– Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Slynk Skittershank (220)**
1 x Deathmaster (140)**


BATTLELINE

5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**


OTHER

5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
4 x Skittershank’s Clawpack (220)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**


CORE BATTALIONS:

*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment


TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000
)

Brett: How do you describe this list? 8 Gutter Runner units, 8. Is this a secret Khorne list? No it’s Clan Eshin with poisoned weapons and a very rare Warpgnaw Verminlord (Forgeworld) – who also happens to be Eshin. That makes the Gutter Runners battleline, important to make this work. Teamed with the Deceiver this is a very nasty pair of hammers. Lots of Flaming Weapons to maximise their potential. Add a pair of Deathmasters and Slynk Skittershank, with his Clawpack (fights first) and there are so many threats. All with ranged and melee attacks and poison damage on 6s.

This list lets you be everywhere, you can easily hold objectives and most turns you will have a Battle Tactic available. With the Verminlord’s to capture your opponents attention or remove threats. The Deathmaster’s , Gutter Runners and Slynk all run and shoot making it easy to get with in 12″ for some throwing star magic. You’d expect this list to score very well, and it did, scoring better than the winners through to the last round. It’s weakness? Anything that can split fire and remove Gutter Runner’s quickly – like a shooting heavy army. KO’s combination of speed and shooting was too much in this case with both an Ironclad and Frigate with loads of Arkanauts. A great skew list but with Seraphon getting a new book it mightn’t be long lived.

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Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for Border War 2023

This is the top three AoS lists for Border War 2023 that took place in the Albury, Australia on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 43 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADERS
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)*

BATTLELINE
9 x Endrinriggers (360)*
1x Grapnel Launchers
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 2x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1

UNITS
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
Main Gun: Sky Cannon
– Gunhauler Modifications: Zonbarcorp ‘Debtsettler’ Spar Torpedo

BEHEMOTHS
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram

CORE BATTALION
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000

Sometimes, it pays off to lean into the highlights of a new Battletome, and Luca Foerster’s Barak Zilfin Kharadron Overlords list does this perfectly. One of the biggest loses to Kharadron Overlords was the loss of Aethergold in the new book, which was often used for an on-demand +1 to wound, Luca offsets this by taking the new Settle The Grudges Artycle which gives all Kharadron Overlords units a static +1 to wound against a target chosen at the start of the game. Less versatile, for sure, but often more impactful when multiple units are needed to ensure that something is made dead.

Luca starts things off with a classic Admiral taking Stormcaller and Leadership of the Alpha. Stormcaller allows for the rerolling of dice from the Navigator’s Read the Winds ability, which I will talk about in a moment. He follows that up with an Endrinmaster with Endrinharness, which pays the tax of allowing Endrinriggers to be battleline. Lastly, for heroes, he has taken a Navigator who gets an unbind/dispel and is carrying a Voidstone Orb, which is a once per game Artefact that will auto-unbind a spell. A powerful deterrent against trying to snipe heroes with spells or setting up crippling -1 to hit/wound auras. However, the real power of the Navigator is its Read the Winds ability, which allows it to roll six dice and then choose an effect. It can choose to either pick an enemy unit for each “one” it rolls to deal d3 mortal wounds and half movement until its next hero phase or for each “six” pick a friendly Boat and immediately normal move it D3+3 inches. The extra movement is great, but the real value is crippling fast enemy units, and combined with the reroll from the Admiral’s Stormcaller ability it can flat out win games by crippling the opponent’s ability to advance up the board to contest objectives or complete battle tactics. Sometimes, the best way to win is to not allow your opponent to play, and I especially feel for the poor Sons of Behemat player who ran afoul of this.

Moving onto his troop selection, Luca has taken a sample of the Kharadron mainstays. He has a double reinforced unit of Endrinriggers, which brings a bucket of rend -2 to the game both at range and in melee. They can also heal the boats, but that is just a bonus. The native rend -2 is the real benefit here. Next up, we have a common theme within Kharadron in this edition, the extremely efficient reinforced Thunderers with Special Weapons. They bring a massive amount of firepower at shotgun range, but back that up with a native 3+ save, 20 wounds, debuffs, and even mortal wounds in melee. They are a classic, “Move Me” objective holder with just enough range that they can not be ignored. A unit of Arkanauts rounds out the troop selection.

To finish off the list, Luca brought one of each of the Kharadron boats. An Ironclad toting around the Battle Ram to combo with the once per game 3d6 charge from his Footnote, a battleline Frigate courtesy of Barak Zilfin, and a cheeky Gunhauler to give the larger boats a 6+ ward save and a fast mover to cap objectives later in the game. He packages all of this into a one-drop Battle Regiment at an even 2000 points.

This is a classic list that can do well at range and in melee. It presents a difficult challenge for opponents as the Battletome Battle Tactics allow it to avoid interaction but greatly punishes opponents who spread out to score their own. Combined with Luca’s outstanding play, I pity the poor souls who had to face it.

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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
Mawtribe: Boulderhead
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)
Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
Frostlord on Thundertusk (400)
Mount Trait: Matriarch
Huskard on Thundertusk (330)*
Blood Vulture
– Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide
– Prayer: Keening Gale
Icebrow Hunter (120)*
General
– Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
– Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha

BATTLELINE
6 x Mournfang Pack (510)*
Gargant Hackers
– Reinforced x 2
2 x Frost Sabres (80)*
2 x Frost Sabres (80)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
Drops: 3

We’ve an absolute legend joining our team for the top three comments this week.

Peter Atkinson (AKA Plastic Craic) has recently made a return with a revamped website and a crack team of top AoS gamers to help him!


Peter Atkinson: Thanks for having me on gents – long time listener, first time caller.

“It’s gotta be Little Lisa Simpson, Springfield’s answer to a question NOBODY ASKED!”

– Ned Flanders

Well he’s pulled one out of the bag here, hasn’t he? The Thundertusk answers the question nobody asked, namely “how can I do chip damage to a chaff unit in the shooting phase?”. The whole point of shooting is that you get to pick where the damage goes, but the limitations around where (and how much) the Thundertusk can apply its output are usually seen as crippling in the hands of most players.

Well, up steps The Mayor to show he’s not most players.

The Factory-standard Frostlord is of course present, with the Manticore Venom artefact being a slightly unorthodox pick, but all Stonehorns will take consistency of output where they can get it. I like it. In fact, I might just copy it.

Then Mat goes off script with the double Tusks: one as a Frostlord for the 3+ save and at least some kind of melee output, and the other packing the 5++ ward Trait. Coupled with the Boulderhead extra wounds and neg -1 to wound on the big lad, Mat has layered up the durability buffs in this army, but he’s done the same with his charge bonuses too. Both Frostlords add stacking +1s to charge in an aura, and the 3rd Mount Trait does the same (for Thundertusks only), so they’re all supporting each other to charge at +2” or +3”. It won’t boost the charge mortals, but it can blow the game wide open with some unexpected long bombs.

And how about those Mournfang? He has the prayer for extra movement on them, so with dual Frosties nearby and their native plus 1” to charge, they’re often gonna be zipping around at +3” to move and +3” to charge. This unit is a ride-on lawnmower, and your army is the mole poking its head out of the ground.

They give zero fucks about overwatch too, so with all their charge mortals added in, KO might not be as scary as you think; and speaking of KO, those Thunderers make a prime target for Thundertusk shooting. You don’t want the pricks rallying back, but bringing them into combat means they can’t use Rally anyway.

In fact, expensive combat units with good saves are where Thundertusks want to be generally, and there’s a lot of that in the meta right now; so if they will ever have a time to shine this is it. They won’t go too badly into Khorne’s Mighty Skullcrushers for example, with a double-tap putting enough mortals into them that a decent charge or two could clean them up without even worrying about that stupid 0+ save. OBR springs to mind too.

In practice though, I think I’d use the Thundertusks just as often to bludgeon through a support hero. 2 mortals, another 2 mortals, Blood Vulture, bam. That’s a 5-wound hero gone. The chances of spiking off a 6-wound hero are not trivial, and across two turns of shooting it’s very likely they’re toast. Efficient sniping? No, but sometime’s a Tyrant’s gotta do what a Tyrant’s gotta do. And something like a Krulghast or Death Frenzy can just switch off your win condition, so efficiency goes out the window at that point and you just do what you have to.

The kitty cats are an ace in the hole, popping up to secure Desecrate and then (because they can’t be shot in cover) usually forcing a far-more-expensive combat unit to hit reverse gear and clear them up. They’re not half bad at soaking up a mortal-wound overwatch too.

I know Mat has owned this army for aeons but it rarely sees the tabletop in competitive play. So I’ll be honest, I looked at this list and thought Mat was bringing a palette-cleanser pick for his hometown GT, so he could relax into his games with no pressure.

Well the more you look at it, the better it gets. It’s surprisingly strong into a couple of dominant new books and you write it off at your peril. Strutting onto the podium with such a unique list is a great achievement – well done mate.

If you found this write-up informative, check out our site over at Plastic Craic where we’re smashing out regular, high-quality Age of Sigmar coverage. See you there.

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Archaon the Everchosen (860)*
The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Chaos Familiar
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit

BATTLELINE
6 x Varanguard (580)*
5x Fellspear
– 1x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1
9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*
Mark of Chaos: Undivided
5 x Chaos Knights (220)*
Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Blasted Standard

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 89
Drops: 1

Ok folks, we’ve reached the Slaves sass threshold. What that means is we’ve now seen enough good results, with similar-enough lists, in a short enough time period, that I get to be a little bitch about them.

So what we have here is lots of the two good units in the book (cavalry) in the sub-faction that makes cavalry able to run and charge, with Archaon slapped on top for good measure. Archaon does offer a lot of tactical flexibility thanks to his picking a mark before deployment and not in the list building stage, and even though he’s always been frustratingly easy to kill and frustratingly bad at killing when I’ve run him, when he inevitably gets the Nurgle mark he’s definitely an annoying man-mountain that can stomp an objective while the 6 Varanguard do their thing.

I’ve also spotted that the Chaos Knights have been marked Tzeentch so that they can be yoinked around a bit by the Tzeentch Sorceror Lord. I wonder if that ever actually went off? At least it’s new!

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Karazai, The Scarred (550)*
Lord-Castellant (160)*
Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion)
Lord-Relictor (150)*
General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Prayer: Translocation
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)*
Reinforced x 1
5 x Liberators (120)*
Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
10 x Vanquishers (220)*
Reinforced x 1

UNITS
6 x Praetors (280)*
Reinforced x 1

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 1

Joel’s a really knowledgeable Stormcast Player and has been running a version of this list for most of the edition. You can check out the development of the list and how it plays on his channel Measured Gaming. Some of the most entertaining Battle Reps you’ll watch, but I warn you, it’s very definitely NSFW.

The concept is simple, go first and jam Karazai into something. He is either going to be a wrecking ball or serve as a fantastic distraction (you can’t let him run around). There are still 2 Galetian Champions for battle tactics, the Lord Castellant is one of the strongest here, with a 5+ ward to make him harder to shift. Scions of the Storm lets you get him where you want him if you keep him off the board. There is the choice of either the Vanquishers or the Fulminators to accompany him. 7 Units, only half are allowed in the storm chamber, giving a few options. The Praetors are along to provide their bodyguard to Karazai. Staying close to Karazai is the trick though.

The Praetors are probably a surprise for anyone who hasn’t played against them. With 3 attacks and 2 damage, they have solid output, especially into 4+ and 5+ saves. If your army relies on a big block of something or a couple of models, Karazai is your worst nightmare. Most of the lists Joel faced suffered from that issue or would struggle to affect Karazai as MSU (Bladegheists). If you have a lot of threats and enough units though, you can overwhelm this list and score where they aren’t. I’ll let Kieron cover how the Skaven list worked against Karazai. I’m predicting disposable clan rats helped clog up the works.

If you have the chance it’s worth watching how Joel plays this list, it’s fun if nothing else. He’s also one of the few people that seem to be perfectly fine with the standard Liberator.

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Final Tournament Placings

Path To Glory Battle Report (Kharadron v Kruleboyz)

You may have seen both Ian’s post and my own in the last couple of weeks showing our Path to Glory armies for the campaign we’re running at Woe Towers.

With our armies set, I challenged Ian to a quick game at our local gaming club (shout out to Battlefield Hobbies).

Gollok’s Plan (Kruleboyz)

Da plan is ded simple, right! All we’z gotta do iz shoot dat big boat ov derz outta da sky. Den we goes and stikk da rest of da stunties before dey noes wot ‘it ’em, right! – Gollok Spleenchewa

I’m not going to lie. Seeing where Kharadron sits in the stats, I was dreading going up against the list Ian had in mind. With an Aether-Khemist, Arknonaut Company, Endrinriggers, and a frigging Frigate, my hopes are pinned on removing the Frigate early game and hoping that my army isn’t too badly damaged to then mop the rest of the Dwarfs up. Luckily, I do have a killbow, which could be ideal for taking on a multi wound model such as the Frigate.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades

LEADERS
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (Gollok Spleenchewa) (130)*
General
– Command Traits: Slippery Skumbag
– Artefacts of Power: Eye-biter Ash
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un

BATTLELINE
Gutrippaz (Gollok’s Rippaz) (150)*
Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
Hobgrot Slittaz (Gollok’s Grots) (80)*
Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss

ARTILLERY
Beast-skewer Killbow (Gollok’s Killbow) (100)*

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (Gollok’s Skewers) (120)*
Boltboy Boss

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 580/1000

Glory Points: 5
Quest: Tornado of Destruction
Territory
Settlement

Khreld’s Strategy

Buck up, lads! My bones are tingling which means only one thing, a prize to be won! And all there is between us and the loot to be recovered is a rabble of greenskins. Lets pump them full of metal and grab our prize. Though we may need to wash the smell off it before we trade it in… – Khreld Thundergust

Going in to my first proper game of Sigmar I will admit I did not have high hopes. Peter is an experienced player who knows his army and has an idea of mine, whereas I am completely new and barely know my own. I know the Killbow needs to be avoided by my Frigate, and taken out quick, but otherwise I will just be seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (Khreld Thundergust) (80)*
General
– Command Traits: Cunning Fleetmaster
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-Grenade

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (Stoutstock’s Company) (100)*
Company Captain
– Aethermatic Volleygun
– Light Skyhook
– Skypike
Arkanaut Frigate (The Crafty Dispute) (300)*
Heavy Sky Cannon
– Magnificent Omniscope

OTHER
Endrineers (Keelborne’s Riggers) (120)*
Mizzenmaster
Grapnel Launcher

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 600/1000

Glory Points: 5
Quest: Negotiate Endrin-Contract
Territory
Forgotten Mine

Battleplan and Deployment

The Table with Deployment areas (Blue Kharadron, Red Kruleboyz)

We decided to play a standard battle plan, rolled on the tables in Season 2 to get Battle lines Drawn. So we would need to claim each table quarter. Ian had only four units to do so, but things weren’t much better for me with five!

Being a sneaky Orruk, I used all the tools in my arsenal and broke out the Dirty Tricks. With the recent Battlescroll update, I’m able to choose two of these. The first I chose Noisy Racket, which meant that the Kharadron would be -1 to wound against my units in the first battle round (which we promptly forgot!). I then chose Disappearin’ Act and rolled well to delay both the Endringriggers and the Arkonaut Company. This left just the Frigate and the Endrinmaster on the table. Ian, having the choice of priority elected to give me the first turn.

Kruleboyz Turn 1

Battle Tactic: Desecrate their Lands (Woods in centre)

Having the first turn, I moved and ran the hobgrots to secure the tactical woods in the centre of the table and also put them inside the lower left table quarter. The Rippaz followed them and took up position on the hill behind them while Gollok ran off up the right flank to secure that table quarter. Everything else I left still as a statue as they got ready to unleash all they had at the frigate. I got so excited about shooting my killbow at the frigate and carrying out Gollok’s genius plan, only for Ian to use Cunning Fleetmaster to move his Frigate to the other side of the hill, and out of reach! With his Aether-Khemist hiding out of sight of my Skewers, there wasn’t much else I could do this turn as Ian’s cleverness of giving the first turn to me became apparent.

Points
Kruleboyz:
5
Kharadron: 0

Kharadron Turn 1

Battle Tactic: Opening Salvo

Ian, confident in his shooting (and why wouldn’t he be?), chose Opening Salvo as his battle tactic, meaning all he had to do was destroy one of my units in the shooting phase. He moved his frigate back across the hill near to the Hobgrots in the centre, along with his Aether-Khemist, once this had moved he bought on the other units I’d delayed through Disappearin’ Act and set them up around his Aether-Khemist.

Starting with the Khemist, he generated eight shots against the poor defenceless Grots in the centre. Luckily for me these all whiffed spectacularly (You’ll notice a trend emerge soon-Ian). He chose to shoot everything he had on the frigate at the grots as well, but unlucky rolls saw only four of the Hobgrots lifted from the table. The Arkanauts and Endrinriggers kill a further 2, meaning unfortunately for Ian, he was unable to achieve his battle tactic that turn.

With revenge against both his dice and the plucky Hobgrots in mind, the frigate charged into them killing three of them. This left just one alive, which thanks to Inspiring Presence decided to stick around.

Points
Kruleboys:
5
Kharadron: 2

Kharadron Turn 2

Battle Tactic: Desecrate their Lands (Centre Woods)

Winning the priority and electing to go first this turn meant that Ian had the double, and the Kruleboyz were in serious trouble. Only needing to remove a single hobgrot, Ian wisely decided to try desecrate their lands and take the centre terrain feature away from my plucky hobgrot.

The Endrinriggers moved across the right to try and get into range of the Kruleboyz missile units while the Arkonauts moved to the south side of the northern hill and within range of the woods for the tactic.

Thinking it through, Ian designated three units for the target of his frigates attacks. The carbines at the hobgrot, the cannon at the Killbow and the skyhook at the Skewers. It didn’t take much to remove the Hobgrot and Ian knew his carbines on the frigate should be enough to do so, which they were. The poor hobgrot was transformed into a red mist giving Ian the objective. The cannon also did its job and left the Killbow as a mound of broken orruk and wood where it had previously sat. All eyes turned to the skewers, Ian rolled for the skyhook and…. missed! (Again…-Ian) However, it wasn’t over yet, the Endrinriggers and a few Arkonauts were still in range! Unfortunately Ian’s bad luck with his rolls returned and was only able to remove a single skewer and cause a wound on another.

With his forces having decimated mine with its shooting, Ian confidently charged his frigate into the Gutrippaz on the hill. Killing two of the Orruks and wounding another. The Gutrippaz replied in kind and with no less than 4 sixes on the to hit rolls, along with the other attacks the frigate suffered a mighty 10 wounds from the Rippaz. More was yet to come as we went into Kruleboyz turn 2.

Points
Kruleboyz:
5
Kharadron: 7

Kruleboyz Turn 2

Battle Tactic: An Eye for an Eye

Seeing my opportunity, I chose the tactic, an eye for an eye, with the hope that the Gutrippaz would finish off the frigate in combat that turn.

Before that though, I gave Gollok ‘His Finest Hour’ and used his mount trait Fast ‘Un to move him in the hero phase towards the juicy looking Endrinriggers, Arkonauts and Khemist. The movement phase saw him almost on top of the Endrinriggers, while the remainder of my skewers shuffled around to take a bead on the Endrinriggers and fish for those mortal wounds.

The shooting phase did not disappoint as the Skewers did enough damage to completely destroy the Endrinrigger unit. I chose to ignore the frigate, figuring that the Gutrippaz should have enough in their pocket to down it.

With the path to the Khemist and Arkonauts opened up Gollok let out a whoop of excitement as he and his doggo charged into Khemist and the surrounding Arkonauts. Using Unleash Hell, the Arkonauts managed to score 3 wounds on Gollok. Having the choice of first unit to fight, I didn’t want to risk the frigate killing enough Gutrippaz that meant I wouldn’t do enough damage back so I chose to go with these first. It was a formality as the 5 wounds were easy enough for the Gutrippaz to get through. The Khemist attacked Gollok but was unable to land a hit before his savage hound tore into the Khemist and left him for dead. The Arkonauts did what they could but were unable to get through the Gnashtoof’s tough hide.

Points
Kruleboyz: 10
Kharadron: 7

At this point Ian conceded the game, with little options left to him and only the Arkanaut company on the table any threat to the Kruleboyz had been removed.

Kruleboyz – Post Battle Thoughts and Sequence

Part of me feels very bad for Ian, this was his first proper game of Age of Sigmar and with the Kharadron Overlords only for it to end at the bottom of turn 2.

Going into turn 2 after Ian’s clever ruse in the the first turn I thought the writing was on the wall for the Orruks. I envisioned Ian shooting me from distance I tried to close with him, this was compounded when he removed the killbow and a skewer, I was lucky to have two left. He then chose to charge the frigate, and this was what turned the tide. With the venom-encrusted weapons, Kruleboyz don’t care too much about your armour saves and this showed why. With 10 wounds in thee first round of combat and then finishing it off in the second it was easy meat for the boyz. If Ian had put his Arkonaut Company inside it however, it would have been entirely different!

I gained a total of 9 glory points from the game and 3 quest points. Meaning next time I can attempt to try and do the Tornado of Destruction battleplan. After their performance against the frigate it only seemed right to give the Gutrippaz the favoured warriors and the additional D6 renown, and this tipped them up into Veterans. I decided to give them the veteran ability Backstabbaz which will allow them to immediately fight after another unit in my army does so inthe fight phase. They did however have 1 casualty point, which would mean I’m starting the next game with only nine of them on the table potentially. All my other casualty rolls went well, apart from the Hobgrots wo suffered two. Deciding to keep the Well Spring I rolled for on the territory table and with 3 glory points remaining, I used these to purchase a Swampcalla Shaman for my small force.

GOLLOK’S SWAMPCRAWLERZ
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (Gollok Spleenchewa) (130)*
General
– 16 Renown
– Command Traits: Slippery Skumbag
– Artefacts of Power: Eye-biter Ash
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Swampcalla Shaman (Grulb Da Mad) (100)*
– Spell: Choking Mist

BATTLELINE
Gutrippaz (Gollok’s Rippaz) (150)*
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikk
– 6 Renown
– Veteran Ability: Backstabbers
– 1 Causalty Point
Hobgrot Slittaz (Gollok’s Grots) (80)*
Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss
– 2 Casualty Points

ARTILLERY
Beast-skewer Killbow (Gollok’s Killbow) (100)*

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (Gollok’s Skewers) (120)*
– Boltboy Boss
– 1 Renown

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 680/1000

Glory Points: 0

Quest: Tornado of Destruction
Quest Points: 3

Stronghold Territory (Gollok’s Pad)
Settlement (Quagmire)
– Wellspring (Grulb’s Digz)

Kharadron – Post Battle Thoughts and Sequence

Well, that could have gone better. Yes, my rolls were against me in that first (and some of the second) shooting phase but that is all part of the game! I can pinpoint exactly where I went wrong, charging that Frigate in! I played with too much agression when, having the mobility, I could have out maneuvered Peter’s Orruks and pulled him out of position. Even used the Fly High command and repositioned my Frigate behind Peter’s weaker units. So, to sum up my learnings – use more commands, try putting my Company into the Frigate for a bigger impact (and better positioning), and don’t charge the unit that deals a lot of mortal wounds!

I gained 5 Glory Points from the game. I had to make casualty rolls for my Endrinriggers and my Aether-Khemist. The Aether-khemist I rolled a 1, which is death! Now that is a little harsh so I spent a Glory Point on a re-roll and ended up with no-effect. The Endrinriggers initially took a casualty point but I spent another Glory Point to reroll this (there are only three of them!) and got no effect. The Frigate rolled against the damage table from the Kharadron Battletome and also got no effect. Where were these good rolls during the game!

As for reknown, the Company gained 1 for surviving and the Frigate gained 2 as my nominated MVP which was a no-brainer. After all this I decided to add some Thunderers to my roster for 4 glory points, just to give me some more options and more boots on the ground.

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (Khreld Thundergust) (80)*
General
– Command Traits: Cunning Fleetmaster
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-Grenade

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (Stoutstock’s Company) (100)*
Company Captain
– Aethermatic Volleygun
– Light Skyhook
– Skypike
Arkanaut Frigate (The Crafty Dispute) (300)*
Heavy Sky Cannon
– Magnificent Omniscope

OTHER
Endrineers (Keelborne’s Riggers) (120)*
Mizzenmaster
Grapnel Launcher
Grundstock Thunderers (Steelbeard’s Gunners) (135)*
Gunnery Sergeant
Honour Bearer
Aethercannon
Grundstock Mortar

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 735/1000

Glory Points: 4
Quest: Negotiate Endrin-Contract
Territory
Forgotten Mine

Next

Dave and Ed have a game planned within the next couple of weeks. Then, the four of us will be meeting up for our second round of battles at the end of the month.

Top Three AoS Lists for The Icebreaker GT 2023

This is the top three AoS lists for the The Icebreaker GT by Renegade Gaming that took place in the USA on the 15th and 16th of April. It involved 39 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420)*
– General
– Command Traits: Devious Adversary
– Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Slynk Skittershank (220)*
1 x Deathmaster (140)*
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Deathmaster (140)**
1 x Deathmaster (140)**
1 x Deathmaster (140)**

BATTLELINE
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**

OTHER
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
4 x Skittershank’s Clawpack (220)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)*
5 x Gutter Runners (100)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Kieren Coates:This is the skaven list you get to point to when someone tries to tell you that clan eshin isn’t viable, the deathmaster is the worst warscroll in the book and mono-clan skavens is no longer viable

You now finally get to show them that you can indeed go 5-0 with your favourite ninja rats, but you might just need to be positioning like a madman to do so

With triple clan eshin the army gets board wide +1 to hit and wound in melle against heroes, and everything but your deceiver and 4 assasins can start off the board – sadly assasins can’t hide in gutter runners for whatever reason, GW fix this now!

Gutter runners have surprising mortal output at 3 shots per model with 6’s doing mortals, leading to a higher output per point than sentinels – and with 40 of them you’re looking at 120 shots with an average of 20 mortals per turn – before accounting for the extra 9 average mortals from assasins or slynk shooting in addition

Combine that with deepstrike and MSU positioning to clog the board and you’ve got a mean alpha to block the opponent in while slynk and the deceiver can surgically remove key pieces with a 6 inch deepstrike or teleport respectively

It takes a madman to pilot most skaven lists, and it takes one especially insane to run full eshin – well done on the 5-0 and for showing the naysayers everywhere just how viable off meta skaven builds can be.

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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: Glogg’s Megamob
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Dankhold Troggboss (200)*
– General
– Command Trait: Loonskin
– Artefact: Glowy Howzit
Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
60 x Moonclan Shootas (375)**
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Moonclan Stabbas (125)***
3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)**
3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)**
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)***
– Reinforced x 1

UNITS
10 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (220)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (130)***

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Loonskin Malevolent Moon (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Galletian Veterans

Total: 1990 / 2000

I’m going to start by saying I’m happy I wasn’t facing this from across the table. The core is the Troggoths, of course, regenerating as soon as they’ve fought (Glogg’s Megamob). You need to carefully manage your activations, but each turn 2 units will regenerate each turn before you can hit them. After the Troggoths, your eye is drawn to the Shootas – 120 attacks, only half will hit, but even with low quality attacks, you are probably rolling against 20 wounds. Into a 3+ save that’s still an average of 7 wounds. They threaten any GC, and you can’t hide your GCs ( Galletian Sharpshooters).

The smart play is to remove them of course, from Turn 3, they are a serious threat to damaged units. With a 4+ l that’s a tall ask, 50% of everything you kill is going to return (on average) up to a maximum of 10. That means without very serious effort, they will be a problem for 2 or 3 turns at a minimum. Their probably hiding some Loonsmashas as well making charging and combat no sure thing. The Stabbas can control an objective from 9″ away unless you weaken them. And both Skragrott and the Fungoid have teleport to drop them somewhere annoying.

An annoying, sticky list with the ability to be everywhere you aren’t as well as out stay and out score you. No surprise it’s gone 5/0/0, it’s a little more of a surprise that the Skaven outscored him but both lists are just good at the game. They play the missions really well without needing to destroy the opponent.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Nar
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

KHARADRON CODE
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADERS
Runelord (100)*
– Allies
Arkanaut Admiral (125)**
– General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*
Aetheric Navigator (85)*
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb

BATTLELINE
6 x Endrinriggers (240)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)***
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)***
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

BEHEMOTHS
Flagship (300)**
– Arkanaut Frigate
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope
Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Linebreaker
***Galletian Sharpshooters

Total: 1930 / 2000

We’re lucky in that we have developed a number of relationships with top players around the globe. Some names that comment on here fairly regularly, such as Kieren Coates, Joshua Bennett, Kel Pigg, and Kevin Lathers, to name but a few. Jeremy Veysseire can now be added to this select crowd, and for those who are unaware, Jeremy has his own YouTube channel where he breaks down tactics in Age of Sigmar. Go subscribe!


Jeremy Veysseire: Hello everyone, thanks for Woehammer for letting me break down this KO army for you all. Let’s jump right into it. This Barak-Nar packs a mixture of punch and shooting, some core highlights:


• 4 Rolls of a 4+ for extra CP during their turn. (KO can be CP hungry)
• +1 to Wound (Melee and Shooting) against 1 enemy unit for the entire game
• 2D6 Run on 1 Unit a turn.
• Once per game 3D6 Charge.
• +1 Attack to all Barak-Nar units in combat within 12” of Brokk if he charges. (Massive buff to the Endrinriggers)
• Runelord is granting you an additional unbind at +2 and Blessing a unit for 6+ ward.
• Rerolling Navigator Reading the Winds (Stormcaller, Huge Value!)
• Once per game, Autounbind (Voidstone)
• Oncer per game on a 2+ remove Wards from an enemy unit during that shooting phase (Celestium Burst-Grenades)
• 70-point deficit for a near guarantee of +1 to Wound Triumph and prevent Indomitable Gitz builds.

Now, with those core concepts explained, let’s go over some overall packages. You have 1 Melee Frigate and 1 Shootey Frigate; the melee frigate is built around the 14” movement frigate (Magnificent Omniscope) with the Endrinriggers (no special weapons for more melee), Brokk, the Endrinmaster and the Admiral since the Boat is the Flagship thus the Admiral can give that boat a free CA per turn. The Shooty Frigate is built around the 10 Sharpshooting Thunderers and the Navigator as a great support platform to the melee one as it can effectively assist in clearing screens or pressuring heroes that provide some form of force multiplier. With the Celestium Burst-Grenade in the pack pocket, you can really have an effective take down turn of a specific target, especially with the +1 to Wound Artycle. One of the biggest highlights in this list is that while there are only 2 frigates, Brokk’s shooting profile is basically another frigate worth, so that melee frigate is very multiphase functional. There is a lot of magic defence between the Runelord, the Navigator, and the Voidstone, helping that KO power shut down key powers. The Runelord provides another low risk GC for some of the GHB battle tactics and provides a potential 6+ ward on a frigate early in the game. The Arkanaut make great screens and deckchair backfield units while able to move forward as the Frigate clear pressure upfront.

Thomas had an interesting path to 3rd place with a loss starting against Corey Anderson’s STD Host of the Everchosen with Be’Lakor, Eternus and Chosens. My guess is that perhaps Be’Lakor’s once per game shutdown mechanic was able to shut down the Thunderers long enough while the Cockatrice were able to debuff the Endrinriggers hitting on 6’s. He even perhaps suffered a double turn from his opponent since he had the choice of turn order. His second round opponent was a classic Hallowed knights list with a mixture of Dragons and some shooting piloted by Colin Jarrell, it honestly looked like an ideal list for Thomas to face as the majority of the SCE army has a hard time to set tempo against his superior shooting and melee. His third round opponent was a Kruelboyz list with Kragnos piloted by Isaac Kangas, and I can only imagine that this game was like shooting fish in a barrel (no offiense to Isaac). His round 4 opponent was a Hedonites army packed with Heroes, Slickblade Seekers and some Blissbard Archer piloted by Hugh Cunningham, I am curious to know how the game went personally but looking at the unit selection and not knowing the mission, either Hugh ran out of pressure early in the game or couldn’t catch the boats as they were raining death from above since it would appear very hard for that specific hedonite build to generate depravity in that match up to counter some of the teeth of that KO list. His final round opponent was an Ogor Boulderhead build piloted by Logan Wendt with 4 Stonehorns (1 Frostlord, 1 Huskard, 2 Normal) and 3 packs of Mournfang. I can only imagine that the removal of the Stornehorn and halving movement speed to various units made it easy for Thomas to control the tempo of the game early on. It would take a serious gungho approach by Logan to oversaturate his shooting targets and bank for a double to catch the boats.Ov

erall Thomas had a 4-1 record with a very good all comers KO list that plays multiple phases of the game. Congrats to him, and I wish the best of luck for the next event!

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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 Karkadrak (200)*
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Warp Reality
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Spells: Daemonic Speed, Warp Reality
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
Chaos Knights (440)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Flail
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
Varanguard (580)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– 6 x Ensorcelled Weapon
Varanguard (580)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 6 x Fellspear

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

Loyal readers of this column may be starting to notice certain trends with successful Slaves lists. At this point to be frank, we should probably rename them ‘Slaves to Varanguard’. But what’s a competitive player to do when faced with a super efficient cavalry unit that can fight twice and be battleline in a sub-faction that allows them to run and charge?

I mean, literally the only unusual pick here is the Geminids, a cute little ploy to turn off commands to stop those pesky redeploys and whatnot while the Varanguard bear down on them.

Solutions to list variety? I don’t think Varanguard need or deserve a nerf – they’re already expensive and fairly vulnerable to any decent amount of attacks with any kind of rend – soon as they lose a few models, and their own low volume of attacks starts to tell. I think the rest of the book just needs a better reason to be taken to be honest, but with the warscrolls and lack of synergies the way they are, I’m not sure pure points adjustments will do the job…

Either way, well done to Daniel here for wins over some super strong factions!

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Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for the London Open

This is the top three AoS lists for the London Open that took place in the UK on the 14th and 15th of April. It involved 23 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
Artycle: Honour Is Everything
– Amendment: Trust to Your Guns
– Footnote: Without Our Ships We Are Naught

Leaders
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
Aether-Khemist (80)*
– Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aether-Khemist (80)*

Battleline
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 2x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope

Units
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
– 1x Grapnel Launchers

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: The Last Word

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 117
Drops: 1

Russell Taylor: My list is designed around the ability to have one big turn so when I decide it’s the time to go which is usually turn 1 but can be delayed then I can devastate state my opponent’s army.

The key to this is being able to move my ships and get the thunderers out afterwards this is why I have included the soulscream bridge because it allows me to disembark the units inside the ironclad after bridging them meaning I can apply the extra rend from the khemist to my thunderers and also meaning that my 12 inch range guns are also in better range, I took the footnote that allows two commands to be given to a ship so I can fly high my frigate and disembark using two command abilities mirroring the use of the soulscream bridge. The admiral allows me to give another additional rend once per game which can also be used without disembarking if I don’t need to stack all the rend at once.

The combination of these tactics mean I can deploy in the corner out of range of my opponent and then strike with easy killing priority targets and then clearing up in the next few turns.

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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
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Holy Command: Call for Aid

LEADER
1 x Knight-Zephyros (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
1 x Aventis Firestrike (270)*
Spells: Thundershock

BATTLELINE
4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)*
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)*
5 x Drakespawn Knights (110)*
Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Dread Knight
10 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (380)*
2 x Thunderbolt Crossbow
5 x Sequitors (120)*
Sequitor-Prime
– Stormsmite Greatmace (Sequitor-Prime)
– 2 x Stormsmite Greatmace

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Dan Sidders: The One with the Goat
The list is built with 3 things in mind: it needed to be 1 drop because of the battle pack, it needed to unlock some tome tactics & I wanted it to be a combined arms force that had melee & ranged damage.

The fulminators are battleline in Hammers of Sigmar and delete anything they hit but need a delivery mechanism. That’s where the Drakespawn Knights come in. 10 wounds on a 3+ save for 110 points on cavalry bases. Turned sideways they can screen enough ground to cover a block of 4 large dracoth bases. They also have 10” move the same as the Fulminators so can move up at speed and maintain the screen. They unlock the Pioneers of the Realm battle tactic to contest enemy home objectives with a Cities unit which I completed in 3/5 games. There’s no requirement to control the objective and often one lone survivor would just sneak in during the late game to score the points.

I wanted to get away from the Wildform, Translocate option I had been running because i was throwing the Fulminators forward too early and recently I’ve been trying to slow my gameplay down slightly to force myself to make better decisions.

The shooting hammer came from 10 Crossbow Judicators who have the Rapid Fire rule giving them exploding hits, which when buffed to hit on 2’s provides the highest output shooting available to Stormcast into anything but a 2+ save. It also provides 10 models to stand on an objective and fills a battleline slot. The downside being that they only have 18” range; so I needed something to screen them in order to deepstrike within range.

So my third battleline slot was filled with 4 Tempestors who, like the Judicators have crossbows with exploding hits and the benefit of some rend and mortal wound breath attacks. These guys were deployed out of scions 9” away from my opponents front line – the Judicators sat behind. Lots and lots of shots poured into the enemy. The Tempestors could then risk a charge or simply stand there – the unleash hell they put out is like getting a free fight first! Averaging 10 wounds into any target without a ward. With 24 wounds on a 3+ they generally took up my opponents attention for a couple of turns while the fulminators closed in.

The utility pieces in the list were provided by the heroes; the Zephyros innately teleports and counts as 10 on objectives with Stubborn as a Rhinox but always started the game right on the back line. The comet has 36” range so can be deployed outside of unbind range turn 1 due to the Arcane Tome. The Goat, Aventis Firestrike who dropped to 270 points in the recent battlescroll gives me a 2 cast wizard allowing for a mystic shield and Thunderstrike for a -1 to wound aura within 18” boosting the survivability of the fairly elite force. The fact that he’s a 14” flying monster means he can get into the action to supply a well placed roar and also shift from deployment up behind the shooting units to hand out +1 to hit which solves the need for AOA on both units to maximise the damage potential.

The MVP’s were the 5 sequitors who were a second screen for deployment and an objective holder in the early game. Activating their 5+ ward helped to make them stubborn when needed and then when they went down I used Call for aid to resurrect them further up the field and hunt a hero for the No Challenge too Great tome tactic using their exploding 6’s to hit. Perfect now there are lots of Galetian champions running around!

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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords
Great Nation: Helon
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (720)
General
Scinari Cathallar (120)
Artefact: Silver Wand
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
5 x Hurakan Windchargers (140)
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– Spell1: Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)*
Spell1: Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1

Units
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)*
Spell1: Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (70)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

Core Battalions
*Galletian Sharpshooters

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 81
Drops: 6

Mo Ashraf:It’s a fairly standard Teclis castle build with 2×20 sentinels doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The changes to the standard list were taking only one unit of Windchargers and also taking Gnashing Jaws/Horrorghast as endless spells.

The biggest change is that I took sharpshooters on the sentinels, which meant I wasn’t a 1 drop and instead a 6 drop. Throughout the event, I was out dropped by everyone bar 1 player, so didn’t get the choice often to choose 1st or 2nd. I realised this was a mistake though, and in the future, I will go for the 1 drop as the one game I lost could have potentially been avoided if I chose to make them go first.

The extra endless spell meant that one of the book battle tactics of having 2 endless spells on the field was fairly easy to achieve, especially in the late game when opponent wizards were killed off. But the lack of extra units of windchargers/screen meant that the army did feel fairly small.

The list starts really starts to excel later turns of the game when it can start moving up out of the castle to score more objectives, so early game is about killing from a distance as much as possible.

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Allegiance: Fyreslayers
Lodge: Greyfyrd
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Gotrek Gurnisson (480)
Allies
Auric Runefather (120)*
General
– Command Trait: Leader of the Duardrazhal
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
Auric Runeson (80)**
Ancestral War-axe
Auric Runemaster (130)**
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion)
Grimwrath Berzerker (110)***
Artefact: Draught of Magmalt Ale
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)*
Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)**
Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (320)***
Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Molten Infernoth (40)

Core Battalions
*Galletian Command
**Warlord
***Galletian Veterans

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 9

Kevin Lathers: A rare Gotrek list hits the upper ranks of a GT. Gotrek seems like a natural fit for Fyreslayers: he’s a duardin, they’re a duardin, etc. But he doesn’t really provide much FS don’t already have, such as the ability to kill things in the combat phase. So it’s uncommon to see him.

This list leans hard into him with the Runefather taking Leader of the Daurdrazhal, a CT which allows Gotrek to benefit from the Fyreslayers’ runes (most importantly the movement rune).

He also has a natural buddy in the Grimwrath Berserker, who is basically a mini-me for Gotrek. Between the two of them there’s basically nothing in the game that can stand up to them in the combat phase.

The rest of the list is two units of HGB, brick walls to both screen and hold objectives and Vulkite Berserkers, another objective holder and infantry with a little more mobility. These are supported by a flamekeeper to add a little utility and/or damage to them depending on the situation.

What’s conspicuously missing from the list is a Battlesmith, so this army will be without 4+ Rally, a 5+ ward once per game, and the very helpful Nulsidian Icon which can block offensive/endless spells on a 4+ (almost needed vs. Tzeentch, Seraphon, or LRL). Instead, this list is going to really rely on the 4+ wards from the HGB and Gotrek’s ability to soak up damage as a distraction carnifex.

Oh, and the Molten Infernoth, which does the thing it always does: knock MWs into anything and everything for 40 points.

Overall, this list will take some skilled piloting, but if done right the infantry can hold objectives while Gotrek and Mini-Gotrek clean the board of pests.

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Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for Smash & Bash 2023

This is the top three AoS lists for Smash & Bash that took place in the USA on the 22nd and 23rd of April. It involved 62 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: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Dankhold Troggboss (200)**
General
– Command Trait: Loonskin
– Artefact: Glowy Howzit
Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
9 x Rockgut Troggoths (480)*
Reinforced x 2
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
Reinforced x 1
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
Reinforced x 1
3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)*

Units
1 x Dankhold Troggoths (180)**

Terrain
Bad Moon Loonshrine

Endless Spells & Invocations
Loonskin Scuttletide (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Troggherd Heavies

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 129
Drops: 3

Well, there’s no doubt that the new Gloomspite Gitz book is better than the original, but I must admit that I’m still suprised to see Troggs smashing their way to a 5-0. Christopher didn’t have an easy route either ending on the other Destruction go-to army – Ogor Mawtribes.

The Troggs don’t have the bodies that you might expect in a Gitz list, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have sneaky tricks in abundance, and Christopher has brought along some Gobbos to help his Rockguts. The Fungoid can Hand of Gork – a great threat to his opponent – whilst Skragrott can do that, and can keep the moon where you need it to be – as well as giving a little ranged damage with his scroll spell.

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

A spell that wouldn’t be out of place in an Aelf book. Glorious stuff.

Meanwhile the Rockguts are healing in both turns, and if you can kill nine of them – 5 can come back! That’s a hell of a hammer piece appearing within 12″ of the Loonshrine near the end of game (because you’re not killing them early). It’s great to see the list do so well, and a list mostly unchanged from the Trogg lists before the new book (with the notably addition of Skragrott). Goes to to show what a few well placed warscroll re-writes can do.

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
Army Subfaction: Bloodlords
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)
General
– Command Traits: Firebrand
– Artefacts: Ar’gath, the King of Blades
– Prayers: Killer Instinct, Blood Sacrifice
1 x Skarbrand (380)**
1 x Realmgore Ritualist (100)**
– Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Bloodbind
– Aspect Tunnel master
1 x Bloodmaster (110)**
Prayers: Unholy Flames, Blood Sacrifice

BATTLELINE
20 x Bloodletters (360)*
Bloodreaper
– Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*

INVOCATION
1 x Bleeding Icon (40)
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Skull Altar (0)

OTHER
5 x Garrek’s Reavers (70)*
6 x Bloodcrushers (360)**
Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Bloodhunter

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Galletian Veterans
**Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Khorne’s new book is having a rush of blood to the head and starting to post results! This here is a forerunner for a very solid competitive archetype, and here’s how it works.

The big, daemonic blob of core synergy here is the Thirster of Unfettered Fury projecting a -1 to hit aura, and taking the command trait ‘FIrebrand’ that makes him into a priest. Because of the warlord battalion, each priest in the list knows two prayers – and the Khorne scripture is SO GOOD. With him is 20 Bloodletters, who in Bloodlords, are doing MWs on 5s to hit instead of 6s. The Thirster also has the ability to give a unit a 3d6 charge – meaning this blob is suddenly annoyingly hard to kill with the Thirster parked beyond, but also capable of long-bombing and handing you a whole bunch of MWs on a bronze platter.

Skarbrand is simply another very scary beatstick that can’t be ignored, meaning the other priests – the Ritualist and Bloodmaster, whose warscroll spell can give daemons +1 to wound vs a target – are probably free to do their thing, unmolested. Factor in two key Invocations, the Bleeding Icon to turn off inspiring presence in an aura and the Hexgorgers to absolutely lock down casting – and you have a very difficult equation to solve.

There are more moving parts to this list and a whole lot of strategy and further synergy based around Blood Tithe use that is all acts as a force multiplier but would take an essay to explain – but that gives you the core idea. A nasty, ‘everything is scary’ list full of movement shenanigans and board control. A great result and a sure sign of Khorne lists to come.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Urbaz
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
Artycle: Master The Skies
– Urbaz Artycle: Settle the Grudges – Amendment: Trust to Your Guns
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

Leaders
Aetheric Navigator (85)***
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)***
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)***

Battleline
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)**
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)**
1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)**
1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)***
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)
Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon

Core Battalions
*Galletian Command
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 105
Drops: 11

Kharadron and I have a love/hate relationship, I love the concept and like to see them do well, but I don’t love their play style or look. Jame’s list is brilliant, no attempt to outdrop you – he isn’t going to deploy near you anyway. 2 x Ironclads and a Gunhauler all with Sky Cannons is no joke, 50/50 to hit at long range (but all out attack can help) with only 2 shots but D3+3 damage. And through the artycles, amendments, and footnotes, those boats have +2″ movement, +1 to wound against a unit, a reroll of a 1 and once per battle 3D6 charge. Guess which Ironclad that’s going to go on (battleram rolls for mortals with a number of dice equal to the charge roll).

On top of the boats shooting, their embarked Akanaut’s are Galletian Sharpshooters. Very difficult to use their disembarked ability to give them +1 to hit to anything contesting objectives. But there is no reason they can’t target a GC from the boat with All Out Attack after a fly high command. The Galletian Command is an unusual choice for a non combat army but a decent way of accessing the season’s Battle Tactics. It might leave you open to the Bodyguard being killed, but the Admiral could contest an objective effectively particularly late game. But wait, there’s more – this is not just a shooting army. There are a lot of moving parts and buffs. From the Navigators reading the winds to the Admiral granting rerolls to the reading the winds, drops, movements, and profiles. It’s a lot to keep track of. Essentially, though, if they shoot, they will lift most units in the game.

They would have the drop on most of the armies James faced, the loss to Ogors is interesting – Ogors do have tricks to get close and if they do they can dominate. They are hard to put down as well. Poor Fyreslayers though, slow, forced into the open and gunned down.

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Allegiance: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Thanquol on Boneripper (430)
4 Warpfire Projectors
– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap
Verminlord Warbringer (400)*
General
– Command Trait: Devious Adversary
– Artefact: Warpstone Charm
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Warlock Engineer (100)*
Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Clawlord (110)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Aspect of the Champion: Fueled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)
Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)
Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)
– Rusty Blade

Behemoths
Hell Pit Abomination (210)

Artillery
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)

Core Battalions
*Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 147
Drops: 11

80 clanrats and 2 warp lightning cannons, who cares how you go, this army is going to be a laugh with lots of death. There is no special list tech here, just some really hard-hitting hammers (Thanquol, Warbringer, and even the Hellpit) with deep deep screens. Thanquol has his skateboard (Lauchon) and is built for maximum melee. He’ll hit harder than a Mawcrusher. The Warbringer will, with this build, hit as hard a Thanquol (8 x 3 damage attacks) with his melee weapons. It’s a great list for killing, but maybe not for scoring. That’s an issue for Skaven their heroes are either massive or very small (5 wounds), and season 3 battle tactics are hard work for them.

At that’s how Smash and Bash went down; 4/0/1 and finishing in 9th with a few close battles. The only one he didn’t overcome was 2nd place, Blades of Khorne. And when your army is all about trading bodies to maintain position and killing your opponent, your worst nightmare is an opponent that wants exactly that. The more you kill, the more bloodtithe, and Khorne isn’t fussy who died. Bloodthirster/Skarbrand on Thanquol is going to depend on who goes first and the dice. Brilliant to see on the tabletop. Fantastic list to see, maybe hindered by the new season, but it is still a very effective and bloody machine that will grind out wins.

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Final Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists for Quest of Champions – Heat 2

This is the top three AoS lists for the Quest of Champions that took place in the UK on the 1st and 2nd of April. It involved 38 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (80)*
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope

Units
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: The Last Word

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 1

Fabian Quinn: List theory and design – The list was actually played the weekend before by Tom Mawdsley at the Justice Series GT at Just Play Games. When I saw some of Toms games on Twitter and saw how much fun he was having I immediately wanted to play the list. I have played KO before in a few tournaments so had a general grasp on the army but not with the new book.

The list and interactions – This type of list really wants to be one drop to decide who is going first due to how fragile the list can be and how close some of the deployments are. Zilfin allows the Frigate to become battleline helping to have two behemoths in a one drop list.

Heroes
Arkanaut Admiral – An absolute all star giving out +1 rend to a non Skyvessel, a free command ability to his flagship and the Thunderers every turn.
Aether Khemist – Handing out +1 to rend to a Skyfarer unit every turn helps getting through armour, especially if used injunction with the Admirals Grudgebreaker rounds (+1 rend) units in the army can get up to 4 rend!
Brokk Grungsson – He’s sooooooo much fun and adds a little combat punch to the list to help finish off units that may have been left after some bad rolls.

Units
Frigate + Endrinriggers -15 wounds on a 3+ save with the healing of the riggers is amazing, especially with the +2” to move (from the second free Endrinwork, thanks Zilfin!) meaning placing Brokk in here adds a close combat threat that has not been seen in KO before. When your opponent hears the words I’m declaring a charge they often have to do a double take!

Thunderers – These guys are amazing to kick out of a boat and point at your opponents biggest baddest unit especially with +2 rend!

Ironclad – Still good to help protect and transport the Thunderers plus heroes. The Ironclad in this list is also a great defensive piece to disrupt your opponents charges with the great Endrinwork ”The Last Word” and Supremacy mine!

Overall the list was very fun to use and it really does reward great deployment and positional play. I would definitely say its a double edged sword where poor rolls, deployment and placement can lead to losing very easily.

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Astral Templars (Stormkeep)
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Karazai, The Scarred (550)*
General
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
Meteoric Standard
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
Meteoric Standard
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
Spell: Celestial Blades
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
Meteoric Standard
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)**

UNITS
5 x Vindictors (130)**
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)**
Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)**
Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
6 x Praetors (280)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1990/2000

Brett: Hero hammer combined with some Vexillor madness for ranged Mortal Wounds. That doesn’t show how carefully this list has been crafted – Astral Templars has become the choice of Stormhost with the new books bringing monsters back on to the table. Vindictors for home plate and Vanguard Hunters to get out there and take exposed objectives. This is a Stormkeep so there is not air assault element, that inbuilt teleport is especially useful. You can back up the Tunnel Master easily. With ranged and melee attacks their output isn’t great but they have access to Unleash Hell and can prevent a Vexillor being sniped. The 4 Vexillors are all handy 6 wound Galletion Champions opening the new battle tactics to this list.

Hammers though, this list has them – Karazai is effective but needs protection and has it with the Praetors. 6 is unusual but will take a lot of punishment and can dish it out as well (19 attacks hitting on 3s). The biggest issue is keeping up with Karazai. And from Turn 2 or 3 the Prime is going to enter, auto charge and delete something. Stormcast are normally pretty worn down by Turn 3 normally so this is a really powerful way to preserve some offensive force. A very strong showing with a faction that isn’t seen as that competitive, drawing with Gitz is a very solid result. It says a lot that such a small army could hold Gitz back in their current state and with the pre data slate rally. Karazai is great anti-horde.

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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
Army Type: Pretenders
– Grand Strategy: Glutton for Depravity
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Contorted Epitome (190)*
Spells: Born of Damnation
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Sigvald (205)*
The Masque (140)
Keeper of Secrets (400)*
General
– Command Traits: Strength of Godhood
– Shining Aegis
– Artefacts of Power: The Crown of Dark Secrets
– Spells: Flaming Weapon

BATTLELINE
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
– High Tempter
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
– High Tempter
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
High Tempter

OTHER
Blissbarb Seekers (200)*
High Tempter
Slickblade Seekers (400)*
Hunter-Seeker

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Phil Marshall: Slaanesh Pretenders – How did it work?

I decided to run a fairly balanced list that could perform a role in each phase of the game. Pretenders sub faction jumped out to me off the bat as a faction that was very strong due to the command point mechanics that I took advantage of. In Pretenders you receive 3 command points instead of 1 if your general is alive. This combined with the strength of godhood command trait is a super strong combo as one part of this allows you to issue the same command 3 times in a phase for the use of 1 command point which is a super strong mechanic which is what the list was built around. The other aspect of the command trait is that it gives the general plus 1 rend and plus 1 damage when it issues a command till end of the turn, which can make my general slightly obnoxious at potentially rend 4 and 7 damage. The artefact that I feel will be the most common is the crown of dark secrets due to the ability to potentially shut down the best hammer in your opponenets army. You pick a unit at the start of the game and if they are within 6” of your general they count as only having 1 attack. Helps when your general is a keeper of secrets, so maximising the rang of this.

How did the list play then? I myself am quite an aggressive player and I chose to play this list as an aggressive castle, pushing down the board. The Masque works really well for this with the mechanic to set up in your opponents territory 3” away from units to pressure people who out drop you taking the turn to mitigate them taking the early double against you before you have enough depravity to make your units more survivable. The other way of using it is to capitalise on deployment errors and taking off key pieces of having a good target to start the depravity train as you are wanting to get to the 36 depravity as quickly as possible to give the army the 5+ ward. In all my games the masque was my turn 1 depravity generator, popping finest hour, avoiding monsters means that it was consistently 9 attacks 2s&2s rend 1 (or 2) damage 2. Then the rest of the army was making the most of impassable terrain and setting up a tight screen of the blissbarbs and utilising the generals ability to auto 6 run all 3 units to get the maximum range out of the, all out attacking all three in the shooting phase to be 2s & 3s and in some instance triple unleash hell! The Blissbarb seekers really compliment the Blissbarb archers and are looking to do some chip damage to the main shooting targets and the unit that you are looking to gain depravity from the Euphoric Killers trait in the combat phase. Blissbarbs split firing is also great at handing out temptation dice to also try and gain more depravity or do additional damage if they decline. Its looking to pressure the table turn 1 and assert an aggressive position on the board. The Blissbarbs with the 63 shots have most likely cleared the screens in the 1st turn and the army is well positioned to unpack with a double going into turn 2. With the Speed of the Keeper and the Slickblades you are in a great position to get where you need to be and take off key pieces in the corresponding turns. The list has two great targets for the Keeper with the once per game double fight in either the Slickblades or Sigvald (depending how big his charge is). With the Epitome’s warscroll spell giving plus 1 to wound against D3 units and the ability to shut off command abilities within 3 its looking to follow those combat pieces as it essentially makes the Slickblades potentially rend 4 with the Blissbarb Seekers and the ability to shut off of all out defence. The Slickblades then become 31 (or 41) attacks 2s 2s either rend 2/3/4 depending on what you have been able to accomplish in the turn so far. With the 2” reach and potential fight twice you could have already generated the 24+ depravity so that on the second swing you are doing MWs on 6s to hit as well. There is some serious damage that can come out of this unit. Sigvald is a great hunter of units as well, due to the strike first mechanic, with getting attacks equal to the charges it is great when you role high, a lot of the time I was, this meant that I could have a great option again in the double fight as he strikes first and then the strike last is countered out and normal sequencing resumes so he would activate twice before my opponent and allowing no ward saves. Highlight was charging an unwounded Thanqoul, lifting him, piling in to an unwounded Verminlord and lifting him as well. Siggy did me proud on my way to a 4-1. The list was great at striking in waves and generating the depravity needed to summon a keeper in 4 of my 5 games.

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Damned Legion: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– The Lore of the Damned: Levitate
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*
5 x Chaos Marauder Horsemen (105)*
Flails
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Reinforced x 1

Units
10 x Chaos Chosen (480)*
Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Dread Banner
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (185)*
Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 115
Drops: 1

Brett: Slaves to Darkness is currently the most played faction in AoS, Legion of the First Prince, though, isn’t being taken as often as some others. So it’s refreshing to see a very different list with a mix of units seen often and some less common ones (including BeLakor himself). Chaos Maruader Horseman and the Warshrine make a return with the more common Chaos Knights (and the OP Mark of Nurgle – how do you kill these things), Corvus Cabal and Chosen. Everything fits into a Battle Regiment to try and control priority. With 2 Chaos Sorceror Lords and Belakor, the Soulscream Bridge is a good investment to overcome the slow movement of the Chosen.

Mobile and tanky are a hard list to play against, particularly if it goes first and those chosen get to fight twice. But equally, avoid the knights and hit those Chosen hard, and this army will struggle (it’s relatively easy to take down an unbuffed Chosen unit). That’s why the Battle Regiment is such an important choice. With so few units and so few Galletian Champions, there is play to denying them battle tactics if you don’t think you can grind them down. The knights can move extremely long distances, making it harder to avoid them, though. Losing only to a Hedonites list that could both tie them up and doesn’t mind losing models (depravity baby) as well as archers (see Phil’s write up above for how he dealt with this list and the low drops). Taking both Kharadron and Gitz is fantastic. The shorter range on Kharadron and Deamonic Speed probably played into that result.

The steamroller that is Gitz doesn’t dominate the Nurgle Knights as well as they do other mounted units. And buffed Chosen on the charge with fight twice can clear a lot of chaff. 6th is a very commendable result, particularly with a unique list.

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Final Tournament Placings

Woehammer Path to Glory Campaign – Ian

As a currently casual 40k player I have always been interested in playing Age of Sigmar, especially the narrative based Path to Glory campaign. On joining the Woehammer team I saw an opportunity and prodded some of the others until they ‘volunteered’.

Now having the excuse to build a Sigmar army I had the difficult task of choosing a faction. I narrowed my shortlist down until I remembered my original entry point to Warhammer Fantasy way back when – Dwarves.

Now Dwarves, in their original Warhammer Fantasy format, don’t quite exist in the new Age of Sigmar setting. There are elements of them in the Cities of Sigmar faction but, seeing as this faction appears to be getting a major refresh, I didn’t want to risk buying an army to find the units become defunct. This left me with the choice between Fyreslayers and Kharadron Overlords. Out of these the Kharadron Overlords sold themselves with their very dwarvish tendencies (aethergold obsession, codes of honour, grudges) and big ships. Who doesn’t love a giant airship?

Yes, it helps that the Kharadron Overlords have just had a new codex Battletome released. It also has not passed my attention that they are performing especially well. These were not the main motivators behind my choice and, honestly, if they are overpowered currently all it will do is balance out with my lack of talent. So at best I may just scrape a couple of wins.

Khreld Thundergust

My warlord, an Aether-Khemist by trade, Khreld has worked for many aspiring captains over the years and now feels his talents warrant a higher cut of profit than anyone is willing to give. This left him with only one option, talk his way onto a skyvessel to call his own.

As I intend to have a fairly airship-heavy fleet it made Barak-Zilfin the obvious choice of subfaction – giving me more access to Great Endrinworks later down the line and allowing me to run Frigates as Battleline in my army. This also led me to give Khreld the Cunning Fleetmaster command trait so I can reposition my precious skyvessels to catch the enemy offguard. I have also given Khreld the Celestium Burst-grenade to maximise the damage of my mortal wounds.

Khreld Thundergust

The Crafty Dispute (Arkanaut Frigate)

Yes, I have taken the stupid brave choice to put a 300 point frigate in a 600 point army. Obviously I couldn’t have a Kharadron army without a skyvessel (they are gorgeous models) and Khreld needed a ship to start out on, so here we are!

Armed with a Heavy Skycannon, giving me more utility, the purpose of my frigate will be to disrupt the enemy battleline using bombs and firepower whilst, with 15 wounds and a 3+ save, drawing as much enemy fire as possible away from my other units.

Keelborne’s Endrinriggers

Led by a Mizzenmaster, Gryn Keelborne, the Endrinriggers will be providing repairs to The Crafty Dispute mid-battle whilst acting as fire support. I have forced Gryn to keep a Rapid-fire Rivet Gun to maximise the additonal attack he will get with the Aethermatic Saw. I have also decided against the volleygun on my second Endrinrigger as I feel the addional 3″ range and an average addition of three quarters of a wound per shooting phase is outdone by the -2 rend of the Rivet Gun. I may regret it but we shall see!

I have however chosen to give the third Endrinrigger the Grapnel Launcher. I love the idea of them just yoinking themselves away from an enemy charge. I can see the Skyhook being useful later in the campaign when more monsters appear but I think the battlefield movement will be key early on, especially as I only have four units total!

Stoutstock’s Company

Last, but definitely not least (apart from maybe in their cut of the profits) is the Arkanaut Company led by their Captain, Malkunn Stoutstock, wielding an Aetherflare Pistol. This time I will be maximising my weapon choices by taking an Aethermatic Volley Gun and Light Skyhook. The addional shots of the Volley Gun and the -2 rend and extra possible damage of the Skyhook seem like no-brainers to me. I will also be positioning them near my Aether-Khemist to the additional -1 Rend should have a nice impact. They will also have one Arkanaut armed with a Skypike just to give a little more danger in the inevitable melees.

The Stubborn Prospectors

And so, after some deliberation, The Stubborn Prospectors of Barak-Zilfin were born. At 600 points exactly it will be an interesting start to the campaign as I find out how much of a handicap forcing that frigate in will be. They will be organised in a Battle Regiment, as that is the only battalion I could see that would allow my array of units.

First Quest

The starting endeavour for my Stubborn Prospectors will be to earn The Crafty Dispute it’s own Great Endrinwork. I have opted tow rok towards Prudency Chutes as I inted to use the frigate as a transport later in the campaign. Assuming it survives that long…(of course it will, I’m not worried…)

As for collecting and painting my starting force – in true Kharadron Overlords fashion Khreld is having to hire his starting force. I will work on procuring forces of my own but, as I am sure my fellow hobbyists can sympathise with, time and money are both against me. On the plus side, Khreld himself is built, painted and ready for action!

Top Three AoS Lists for Cake or Death

This is the top three AoS lists for the Cake of Death tournament that took place in Vancouver, Canada on the 8th and 9th of April. It involved 32 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.

Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Army Subfaction: Eternal Conflagration
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny


LEADER 1 x Magister (120)*
– Spells: Shield of Fate
– Tunnel Master
1 x Kairos Fateweaver (440)* 1 x Fluxmaster (170)*
– General
– Command Traits: Daemonspark
– Artefacts: The Eternal Shroud
– Spells: Unchecked Mutation


BATTLELINE 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)*
– Iridescent Horror
– Pink Horror Icon Bearer
– Pink Horror Hornblower
– Split and Split Again
10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)*
– Iridescent Horror
– Pink Horror Icon Bearer
– Pink Horror Hornblower
– Split and Split Again
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
9 x Untamed Beasts (90)*

ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (60) 1 x Daemonic Simulacrum (70) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

OTHER 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (360)*

CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

So the last hurrah of Tzeentch before the Battlescroll update (which would actually knock this list up to 2030 points) and a refreshing list without a Krondspine!

While not being as summoning heavy as some Tzeentch lists have been recently, this list can still reliably have 10-15 fate points turn 1, just enough to throw some annoying Blue Horrors in the way and keeping them away from the juicier Pinks and/or wizards behind. The Untamed Beasts are handy to get that screen up early doors with their pre-game move. Kairos is lurking behind those screens, ready to throw out a fairly easy 10 – 15 mortal wounds.

The Enlightened are also lurking, with a potentially guaranteed 28″ move/charge with two Destiny Dice 6s. As a one-drop, Matt could more than likely give the turn away at the start of the game, guaranteeing that the Enlightened get the +1 to wound bonus for taking the bottom of the turn.

Add in some flexible Endless Spell support: Sigil to turn would-be chargers into spawn, keeping the enemy at arms’ length; Simulacrum to ruin any wizard’s day; Jaws to eat up Galletian Champions with their low movement, and you’ve got a great all-comers list that can take on and beat anything (even Gitz twice!)! Congratulations, Matt – can’t wait to see what you have cooking up for Tzeentch post Battlescroll.

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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Subfaction: Glogg’s Megamob
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumph: Indomitable


LEADERS
Dankhold Troggboss (200)*
– General
– Command Traits: Loonskin
– Artefacts of Power: Glowy Howzit
Skragrott, the Loonking (160)**
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
Madcap Shaman (70)**
– Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet
– Spells: Itchy Nuisance
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master


BATTLELINE
Rockgut Troggoths (320)
Fellwater Troggoths
(320)**
Rockgut Troggoths
(320)**
Fellwater Troggoths
(160)**

OTHER
Dankhold Troggoths
(180)*
Gobbapalooza
(145)**
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
Sneaky Snufflers
(110)**

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Troggherd Heavies
**Battle Regiment


TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Alice: A real bruiser list and a nice departure from the usual squig spam in Gitz as of late. The Troggs are naturally the focus of this this list, and everything is build around supporting them. The General, a Dankhold Trogboss sits at the core of the Troggoth hordes granting +1 to Attack when using All Out Attack on one of the (many) Troggoth units. Their Loonskin command trait is a free faction endless spell which is definitel a nice perk. The Trogboss is decent in combat as well, with their artefact giving them a 4+ Ward.

Supporting them is Skragrott who is just in general one of the best Wizards in the game, and the Madcap Shaman to fill a cheap Galetian Champion and a good debuff piece with Itchy Nuisance to put Strike-Last on the opponent.

Rounding things off is the Sneaky Snufflers to grant a trogg unit a 5+ ward or +1 attack, and the Gobbapalooza to teleport the very slow Troggs where they need to go, in addition to a repertoire of buffs and debuffs to hand out.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Nar
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired


KHARADRON CODE
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk


LEADERS
Aetheric Navigator
(85) *
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Arkanaut Admiral
(125) *
– General
– Command Trait: Stormcaller
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade

Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar
(220) *
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness
(90) **
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha

BATTLELINE
10 x Arkanaut Company
(100) ***
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

10 x Arkanaut Company
(100) ***
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

9 x Endrinriggers
(360) **
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Grundstok Thunderers
(270) ***
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 2x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1


BEHEMOTHS
Arkanaut Frigate
(300)
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope

Arkanaut Frigate
(300)
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Admiral’s Flagship


CORE BATTALIONS
* Command Entourage – Magnificent
** Galletian Command
*** Galletian Sharpshooters


Total: 1950 / 2000

Alice: The Kharadron Overlords book is still working itself through its paces, which is an exciting time to see people try different things. Navigators are a solid auto include with their ability to half movement. The Admiral is essentially a free CP each turn with its free command to one of the Frigates, and between him and Brokk the list is rewarded whether it causes the ships to run and shoot or stay in place and shoot better. The Endrinmaster is a cheap support GC that can keep the ships maintained and kicking.

The rest of the list functions as you might expect. The Arkanauts are cheap workhorse infantry that are great at holding points, while Endrinriggers and Thunderers can shoot extremely well. The Arkanauts and Thunderers in the Sharpshooters can snipe out any pesky Galetian Champions to deny battle tactics while the Endrinriggers in Galetian Command can work as a team with the Endrinmaster.

The two ships function as both shooting and support, carting all these units around. While a lack of Ironclad is noticeable, the Frigate can bring solid firepower to bear and allow more room for more infantry to hold objectives.

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– Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Ironjawz
– Subfaction: Ironsunz
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!


LEADERS
Orruk Megaboss (140)
– General
– Command Traits: Hulking Brute
– Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm

Kragnos (720)
Orruk Megaboss (140)*
– Artefacts of Power: Destroyer
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Orruk Warchanter (120)*
– Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
– Warbeats: Killa Beat

BATTLELINE
Orruk Ardboys (80)*
– Ardboy Boss
– Waaagh! Drummer
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield

Orruk Ardboys (80)**
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– Waaagh! Drummer
– Ardboy Boss
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield

Orruk Brutes (300)**
– Brute Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
– Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha
– 2 x Gore-choppa

Orruk Brutes (150)***
– Brute Boss
– Brute Choppas
– Gore-choppa
– Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha

Orruk Brutes (150)***
– Brute Boss
– Brute Choppas
– Gore-choppa
– Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha


CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Ironjawz Fist
***Ironjawz Fist

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Brett: With the death of Bounty Hunters the Brutes have returned in a lot of lists. Pretty straight forward with 20 Brutes, MSU ardboyz for screening and objective holds, 2 megabosses and Kragnos. That’s right it’s Ironsunz with Kraggy – ready for 3d6 charges at the end of your charge phase? Potentially 2 units with the Megabosses issuing commands. Hulking Brute and Gryph-feather charm is a great combo, encourages you to charge (mostly in support of Kragnos) but you should survive the clap back. Destroyer and Tunnel Master is fun to.

The rarely seen Killa beat on a warchanter and the even rarer double IronJawz Fist battalion (free all out attack/defence). This army is all about the smash. Unfortunately Tzeetch cares not for the smash and Ogres smash hard. Any shootin’ or magic and this army is going to struggle (not that Meatfist has much shooting). 3 from 5 is a solid showing with Ironjawz and an example of what a move away from the Pigs brings. In the end though 4+ saves, Bravery 6 and a 1 damage weapon are starting to a look a little dated for an elite army.

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