Category Archives: Barak Zilfin

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Urbaz, Barak Zilfin, Cities of Sigmar, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowheart, Kharadron Overlords, Order, Seraphon, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the London Open

2 Comments

This is the top three AoS lists for the London Open that took place in the UK on the 15th and 16th of July. It involved 12 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: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord Kroak (410)*
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*
Skink Starseer (150)*
– Spell: Speed of Huanchi
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Slann Starmaster (275)**
– General
– Command Trait: Lord of Celestial Resonance
– Artefact: Spacefolder’s Stave
– Spell: Drain Magic
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost

Battleline
10 x Skinks (90)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (90)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
5 x Saurus Guard (140)**
10 x Saurus Warriors (180)**
– Clubs
5 x Raptadon Chargers (150)**

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (180)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (50)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

Faction Terrain
Realmshaper Engine

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1965 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 111
Drops: 4

Mo’s Fangs of Sotek here went all the way, beating some TOUGH lists en route, most notably KO, OBR and – what should be a really hard counter – Khorne.

Again, it’s the new dooble-forg archetype which drops the trog, since Arcane Vessel was nerfed, for…other stuff. In this case, mo Brings 5 Raptadons who can be sped up to super speed with the Speed of Huanchi spell on the Starseer, and in general are just a great trading piece, especially if they’re able to engage near an objective for the extra damage.

An Ark of Sotek is also a fantastic pick for Starborne, as it can be teleported onto an objective where it can sit, being hard to shift, until the star power and Kroak can rev up.

Interestingly, we see three endless spells: the maelstrom is quickly becoming a fan favourite due to how quickly Seraphon can power it up and send it off to explode – possible THROUGH the Spell Portal in this instance? And if not, it’s a cheap way to project at least one of Kroak’s MW spells. And Cogs, despite losing the casting re-roll, remains an excellent pick for Seraphon due to the extra ‘free’ cast, which still contributes to star points.

Big congrats to Mo on the challenging path to 5-0

Advertisements

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Army Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Stick To The Code (Amendments): Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Stick To The Code (Artycles): Settle the Grudges
– Stick To The Code (Footnotes): Without Our Ships, We Are Naught

LEADER
1 x Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ex-Grundstok
– Artefacts: Celestium Burst-grenade
1 x Aether-Khemist (100)*
1 x Aetheric Navigator (100)*
– Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust

BATTLELINE
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Magnificent Omniscope
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (480)*
– 3 x Grundstok Mortar
– 3 x Aethercannon
– 3 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 3 x Decksweeper

BEHEMOTH
1 x Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
– The Admiral’s Flagship: The Admiral’s Flagship

OTHER
6 x Endrinriggers (240)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)

Jeremy Veysseire: Hello fellow Whiskey & Sky Duardins, this is your Duardrazhal speaking, Jeremy Veysseire, about two fellow Duardin privateers who recently descended onto the field at the London Open 2023.

We will start with 2nd place finisher Joshua Jenkins, who stuck to an age-old tactic of the Kharandron, being a 1-drop army. It is still very strong, as we will explain later in his commentary. Joshua finished 2nd, while fellow privateer Philip Springall finished 3rd at the same event.

As you can guess it KO fans, Joshua is a Barak-Zilfin man and he went with the tried and true 2D6” Run, +1 to Wound versus 1 enemy unit for the game and a 2 Command Abilities on 1 friendly boat that phase. His army can be described as: “I have all of these Thunderers laying around and I am down a Soulscream Bridge this GHB”.

Joshua’s army is quite balanced in his selection and could ever be called a Highlander build. His primary display of force is in the 15 Thunderers riding into his Ironclad with the Arkanaut Admiral and Aetherkhemist providing them Speed, excellent firepower and efficient CP consumption through the Admiral being able to CP the Ironclad for free once per turn and the Thunderers as well. He has back-up shooting and melee threat in the form of the frigate, and 6 endrinriggers with Navigator for some recursion in the form of boat healing.

The biggest utility options available to him is his ability to disengage and skyhigh a boat if he chooses to in a phase, or being able to sky high and combat disembark from the Ironclad for maximum punch in a turn (for Khemist and Admiral rend). He also is 50 points down allowing him most games to have a free +1 to wound for any of his units for 1 phase (we all know it’s for the Thunderers’ second round of shooting after they Ssttled DAT GRUDGE!).

His first-round opponent was Obaid Bin-Nasir with his 2-drop Legion of Blood Nagash, VLoZD and zombies/skeleton spam on Power Flux. A 4-objective mission in which the bottom player gets to choose which pair of objectives is scoreable while Andtorian Locus can score a bonus point by scoring an active objective while also gaining a bonus point that turn if you killed any Wizard. Looking at this match up, Joshua has prio going into game turn 1 easily picking bottom of the turn so he can freely choose which objectives to activate while being out of harm’s way and forcing his opponent to face a potential double, picking Nagash for his Grudge and saving his +1 to wound for the VLoZD. While the LoB player can get no bonus points from Joshua, Joshua can get 2 and basically auto win his Grand strat by killing Nagash and VLoZD. I imagine that Nagash died on turn 2 with the VLoZD being unable to impact the game and dying the following turn. Clearly a win for Joshua.

His second-round opponent was Daniil Osudin with a 5-drop Hallowheart list that can be described as a wizard ecliptic personality including Bundo your favorite maritime Miyazaki character… oh wait that’s Ponyo. Your favorite mercenary Whale catching Mega gargant. They were playing on Nexus Collapse, a mission with 6 spread out objective, which is a mission that should not be too problematic with KO’s speed and ability to clear objectives unless of course he got railroaded by 10 Evocators that rode on a dead dude boat aka Lauchon. While not having any details on the game’s event, I can only imagine that he focused on killing Bundo turn 1 and had his Ironclad and most of the Thunderers into the Evocators. Rough times were had for the pirates of the sky as they thought Bundo was the Rum carrying caddy as they take a loss.

His third-round opponent was the experienced Max Soule with a 9 (HOLY) drop Disciples of Tzeentch list that is looking to generate Fate Dice and blow you up with some shooting and a reserve, fast melee unit in the shape of Enlightened on Disk on The Frigid Zephyr. A 3 center objective mission which should punish KO as turn 1 limit Line of Sight to only 12” while removing Fly from everything (and can continue in later turn) but sadly it also limits the reach of the Disk turn 1 if they can’t fly while the range limitation punishes Tzeentch more than teleporting KO. Overall, I can only assume that Joshua was able to remove the important threats to his army effectively early and able to remove his opponent’s ability to score in the second half. Another win for KO!

His fourth-round opponent was Krzysztof Zylawy with an 8 (HOLY) drop Blades of Khrone list that is heavy in Bloodthirster and Bloodletters on Towers in the Tundra. A thematic 2 objective mission in which you gain bonus points by controlling 1 of your opponent’s terrain features, super advantageous for a teleporting fast army like KO. Sadly, Krzysztof brought just about the same amount of death dealing flyers that weren’t loaded with a lot of Buzzsaws and aetherbullets. I can imagine that Krzysztof was unable to deliver his Bloodthirster effectively while Joshua had prime pickings of targets. I assumed he settled the grudge on the 20 Bloodletters to make sure they died ASAP removing a lot of scoring power from the list while just picking apart the poor Bloodthirsters in later turns. Another KO win.

His final opponent is our next KO player, Philip on this article, I will cover that game last!

Advertisements

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

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Master The Skies
– Artycle: Settle the grudges
– Amendment: Trust your guns
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

Leaders
Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
– General
– Nullstone Adornement: Hand carved nullstone icon
Aetheric Navigator (100)**
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)**

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

Units
6 x Endrinriggers (240)**
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 2

Jeremy Veysseire: Philip Springall’s KO list is what happens when you collected way too many start collecting boxes. His two-drop army is a Barak-Urbaz fleet, and I do mean FLEET as it consists of 2 Frigates, 4 Gunhaulers, 6 endrinriggers, an Admiral, a Navigator and Brokk who seems to have lost his way to his Skyport and is just borrowing Barak Urbaz’s own fleet.

For those who don’t know where the Battleline units are, they are the Gunhaulers as they are Battleline for Barak Urbaz. He also gains 2 Artycles in which he chose +2” to move to all his many boats, +1 to wound against 1 enemy unit for the game, reroll 1 hit roll per shooting phase and a once per game 3d6” charge. The artycles make a lot of sense with 4 Drill Cannons in the Gunhaulers as any unmodified hit of 5 or 6 results is a flat 3 MW, thus the reroll gets most of its value there. The 3D6 Charge is to enable his ability to bring his Admiral, Brokk and 6 Endrinrigger from 1 Frigate into what he needs consistently. Man, Philip was so confident that he didn’t even take a Command Trait in his army. Ballsy. I would say that this list takes the A in creativity, uniqueness and AIRBORNE.

His first-round opponent was Toby Resnick with an 11-drop Jawz of Mork with a TON, literal metric TON of Squigs on Power Flux. A 4-objective mission in which the bottom player gets to choose which pair of objectives are scoreable, while Andtorian Locus can score a bonus point by scoring an active objective. You also gain a bonus point that turn if you killed any wizards. While Toby had 1 Andtorian Locus, I doubt he had much choice into which objectives he got to pick to activate. No matter how many models you are, if you can’t score points. Impressive Ballsy Springall as he takes a win for this round against a match up, I feel many KO players don’t necessarily want.

His second-round opponent was Mo Ashraf (the event winner) with a 4-drop Fangs of Sotek that spells “Kroak/Skink is back baby!” on Nexus Collapse, a mission with 6 spread out objectives. Sadly, while I do not have any details on the game, it looks like Philip took a loss in that mission. I would surmise that Mo rolled more MW than the Drill Cannons and got to bring on a lot more points to score in the second half of the game than Philip. A loss to KO.

His third-round opponent was William Matthews with a 5-drop Skaven list with dual Verminlord and a lot of Gutterrunner/Clanrats with 1 Hellpit on The Frigid Zephyr. A 3 center objective mission that I feel once again should be a KO problematic map. But Ballsy Springall managed to “blow” out this rodent’s nest with a 20-0. I can surmise that the Skaven bodies were dropping too fast to retain board presence while the KO turn up “Blasting to Smithereens” to a new level. This is probably a story of how KO Battle Tactics are superior to Skaven Battle Tactics as well.

His fourth-round opponent was George Seymour with a 1-drop OBR army that is “Peak Dad Energy” as I like to call it. A limited set of models that want to police the meta between 2+ ignore spells and -1 to hit and wound against shooting aura. It’s all about reminding these young bucks who the real Bone Daddy is. Sadly, they were playing on Towers in the Tundra which can really punish a slower aura focused army such as OBR as their ability to spread and push board pressure without sacrificing units is limited. Additionally, Ballsy Springall has a high potential of MW out that really apply pressure to the Immortis Guard tankyness. If at any point the General is targetable and dies, the firepower of the army really turns up. Another impressive win for our favorite Command Traitless Admiral.

His final opponent, the match du jour, the battle to resolve who is the penultimate Privateer at the London GT, between Joshua and Philip. It can be surmised as the following as the mission probably did not matter. Joshua shot first. FIN

Advertisements

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: Control the Nexus
– Triumphs: –

Leaders
Lord-Arcanum (140)**
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Hoarfrost
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Bundo Whalebiter (460)
– Allies
Battlemage (100)**
– Mortal Realm: Hysh
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Sear Wounds
– Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand
Battlemage on Griffon (240)*
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: crystal aegis
– Mount Trait: Soaring Guardian
– Lore of Whitefire: sear wounds
Nomad Prince (110)**
– General
– Command Trait: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)

Battleline
5 x Wild Riders (120)*
10 x Dreadspears (90)*
5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)*
– Hallowheart 2nd Spell: Ignite Weapons
– Lore of Whitefire: Warding Brand

Units
10 x Evocators (440)*
– 10x Grandstaves
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Flagellants (80)*
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Aethervoid Pendulum (30)
Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Andtorian Acolytes

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 440 / 400
Wounds: 134
Drops: 5

Codrin: Daniil Osudin’s Hallowheart list is an interesting one as it doesn’t follow the castle build but instead it puts accent on mobile pieces, giving the army the possibility for a more adaptable playstyle.

The Kraken Eater mercenary is the anvil of the army on which using the Warding Brand spell is very efficient. Having a 35 wounds monster locking in battle enemy units that will not want to stay in combat with him because of the reflected mortal wounds, is a great way to shape the battlefield.

The other and probably most important unit of the list, are the evocators. These stormcasts count as a wizard if there’s at least two models in the unit, and if we pair them with the hoarfrost spell for extra rend, give them plus 1 to wound from their warscroll spell or Ignite Weapons from another wizard, and embark them onto Lauchon the Soulseeker we are getting a very fast and deadly unit.
Their stats would presume 41 attacks, potentially hitting on 2+ wounding on 2’s and with rend 2 or 3. After they finish their attacks they immediately roll 20 dice and each 4+ is a mortal wound.

The list is surely taking advantage of the primal magic dice adding them to the advantages that Hallowheart already has in casting magic. And speaking of which the Battlemage on Griffon is yet another key piece that will take wounds to buff casting rolls and provide with its big footprint a generous aura of enemy spell ignors on a 4+. This is also a Ghur mage and can cast Wildform, giving a +2 to charges on either the Kraken Eater or the Evocators.

The Lord Arcanum is a nice to have, but in this list his value increases because he becomes a double cast wizard. He is loaded with Hoarfrost and the scary Merciless Blizzard spells, and given all the pluses to cast this list has the reliability is very big on getting them off.

To sum it up, we have a big anvil, a lightning fast deadly hammer and a lot of mobile pieces that buff and and dish out mortal wounds, what’s not to love at this list!?

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Big Waaagh!, Chaos, Destruction, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Kharadron Overlords, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter Holland, Pretenders, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Giga-Con 2023

Leave a comment

This is the top three AoS lists for Giga-Con 2023 that took place in the USA on the 1st and 2nd of July. It involved 1 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.

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

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

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Pretenders
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Be’lakor (355)*
1 x Contorted Epitome (190)*
– General
– Command Traits: Strength of Godhood
– Artefacts: The Crown of Dark Secrets
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
1 x The Masque (140)*

BATTLELINE
22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)*
22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)*
22 x Blissbarb Archers (300)*

OTHER
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)*
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (200)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Advertisements

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Army Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Stick To The Code (Amendments): Trust To Your Guns
– Stick To The Code (Artycles): Settle the Grudges
– Stick To The Code (Footnotes): There’s No Reward Without Risk

LEADER
1 x Aether-Khemist (80)*
– Artefacts: Spell in a Bottle
1 x Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ex-Grundstok
– Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
1 x Brokk Grungsson (220)*

BATTLELINE
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Prudency Chutes
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 3 x Honour Bearer
– 3 x Aethercannon
– 3 x Decksweeper
– 3 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 3 x Grundstok Mortar
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
– Volley Pistol

BEHEMOTH
1 x Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Great Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
– The Admiral’s Flagship: The Admiral’s Flagship

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Soulscream Bridge (Spell in a Bottle)

OTHER
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
– Mizzenmaster
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
– Mizzenmaster

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)

Advertisements

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

Leaders
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)***
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)**
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Magnetised Runes
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Auric Runemaster (130)**
– General
– Command Trait: Master Priest
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Auric Runesmiter (120)***
– Runic Iron
– Artefact: Ash-cloud Rune
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash
Auric Runesmiter (120)***
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash

Battleline
15 x Auric Hearthguard (360)***
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)**
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Endless Spells & Invocations
Zharrgron Flame-spitter (40)
Molten Infernoth (40)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Warlord
***Galletian Veterans

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 133
Drops: 10

Advertisements

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!

LEADERS
Orruk Megaboss (140)*
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
– Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Touched by the Waaagh!
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wardokk (80)**
Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
– Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
– Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm
– Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry

BATTLELINE
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)
Orruk Ardboys (80)*
Orruk Ardboys (80)**
Orruk Ardboys (240)***
Orruk Ardboys (240)***

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Kharadron Overlords, Legion of Blood, Order, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Soulblight Gravelords, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for HWP Bloody Beach GT

Leave a comment

This is the top three AoS lists for the HWP Bloody Beach GT that took place in the USA 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

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumph: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Stick To The Code (Amendments): Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Stick To The Code (Artycles): Master the Skies
– Stick To The Code (Footnotes): Without Our Ships, We Are Naught

LEADERS
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ex-Grundstok
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspects of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Aetheric Navigator (85)**
– Artefacts of Power: Voidstone Orb
Codewright (90)**
Aether-Khemist (80)**

BATTLELINE
Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 3 x Honour Bearer
– 3 x Grundstok Mortar
– 3 x Aethercannon
– 3 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 3 x Decksweeper
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Zorbacorp Debtsetter spar torpedo Grundstok Gunhauler

BEHEMOTH
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
– The Admiral’s Flagship: Arkanaut Ironclad

OTHER
Endrinriggers (120)*
– Mizzenmaster
Endrinriggers (120)*
– Mizzenmaster

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

We have a mystery writer this week adding their comments for the Kharadron Overlords.

Mystery Writer: Currently a lot of KO lists tend to fall into either a melee focused, or a shooting heavy alpha strike archetype such as the feared “thunderbridge” list, that usually would bring 25 rend stacking Grundstock thunderers, that would essentially alpha strike turn one and blow your army to smithereens. Due to this It’s absolutely refreshing to see a super well thought out list that doesn’t put all its ather gold into one basket , but instead brings a lot of mobility, mortal wound output, one of each boat, some heavy shooting supported by some utility and melee options, as well as some very fun potential tricks!

As with most KO lists it is really worth looking at the “Sticking to the code” choices first, as it provides good insight into what the list might try to accomplish in the first couple of turns. For Artycles, we very often see the +1 wound vs a unit or the +4 rally (or both at once), however, this list has opted for the extra 2” movement on the boats! This coupled with the 2D6 run, and a boat being able to receive 2 commands in the same phase (meaning we can run a boat 2D6 and issue run and charge from the admiral) the Navigator hero phase move shenanigans, the humble Gunhauler could move up to 38” from deployment, for the most insane bombing run (as it can drop bombs on units it flies over), and still make a charge move for a potential 50” threat range and thats without the 3D6 charge! The list also has a handy Codewright, which I assume will try to swap to the 3D6 charge once the Gunhauler and the frigate ran up and down the board a few times to confuse the enemy!

KO have some incredible artefact choices, so picking them is fairly difficult as you might be giving up something potentially game-changing. We have a handy “Command encourage” battalion to help make the choice a bit challenging. Matthew has chosen to go with the “Celestium burst grenade”, which is a fairly standard choice as it turns off wardsaves for a unit, making them even more vulnerable to the incredible shooting of KO, along with a voidstone orb, for a potential game changing auto unbind. The command trait “Ex-grundstock” makes our Thunderers battleline, meaning we can double reinforce them to a huge 15 man stack that can receive a couple extra rend on their weapons, along with a potential +1 wound from inspired, making them incredibly scary.

The subfaction choice is also worth noting. Barak-Zilfn has become a fairly popular subfaction as of late, as it makes the Frigate battleline, making a one drop very achievable while also making the minimum 3 battleline requirement incredibly easy. However, the subfaction also provides 2 great endrinworks, which also provides some fun options. The ironclad received “The Last Word Arkanaut Ironclad”, giving it a free shooting action with one of its guns when charged, which along with “unleash hell” from the thunderers on board and the supremacy mine, makes the Ironclad incredibly resilient to charges. The other upgrade went to the Gunhauler, which, in the charge phase, gives it the ability to roll dice equal to the charge roll, and for each 4+, it inflicts a mortal wound. This could be combined with the 3D6 charge roll, for some very spiky damage output, meaning this speedy boat can go around the entire board (with its insane 56” threat range) , lifting screens off and/or stealing side objectives.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Protect da Shrine!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Dankhold Troggboss (200)**
– General
– Command Trait: Loonskin
Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*
Webspinner Shaman (65)*
– Lore of the Spiderfang: Sneaky Distraction
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Madcap Shaman (70)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork

Battleline
20 x Moonclan Stabbas (125)*
20 x Moonclan Stabbas (125)*
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Dankhold Troggoths (180)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Quicksilver Swords (60)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Troggherd Heavies

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 148
Drops: 3

Gitz is a great book if internal balance is your thing. There are some many viable factions, Troggoths builds are maybe the most common, but you still see people mixing up Leaders and the Battlelines. Curtis has done that here, going down the Troggoth line but adding in a Webspinner Shaman and running Stabbas (shooters would be the usual pick). The Webspinner is a cheap caster who can just give himself run and charge on a 4+ (on 2D6) as well as counting as 10 models on objectives. Look for him to be holding an out of the way objective.

The Stabbas are about objective control (they control an objective within 9″ if there are more than 20 models). This list can spread to cover a lot of objectives easily. It forces the opponent to make choices they probably don’t want to make – chase the Stabbas for easy clearance or pin down the Rockgut Troggoths? If you let the Troggoths (especially the Dankholds) roam, they’ll cost you, but the Stabbas are pontentially worth as much as a battle tactic each round.

Otherwise, the list is fairly standard, Skragrott, because you really have to even at 200pts. Madcap for possible teleport and CP along with the Dankhold to buff the Rockgut and cause havoc. Only Blades of Khorne created issues. Their output, if the dice run hot is epic, all others succumbed to the goblin tide.

Advertisements

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Neferata (390)*
– Spells: Waste Away
1 x Vampire Lord (130)*
– Spells: Spirit Gale
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (440)**
– General
– Command Traits: Doomed Minions
– Deathlance
– Artefacts: Cloak of Mists and Shadows
– Spells: Vile Transference

BATTLELINE
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)*
– Skeleton Champion
– Standard Bearer
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)*
– Skeleton Champion
– Standard Bearer
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)**
– Skeleton Champion
– Standard Bearer

OTHER
10 x Blood Knights (460)*
– Kastellan
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– Templar Lance
20 x Grave Guard (280)**
– Seneschal
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Hornblower
– Great Wight Blade

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1955/2000)

I commented recently that we’ll be seeing a fair few variations on the Legion of Blood archetype – and here we are! Skip ahead if you’ve heard this one before…

It’s Neffie – who I think even after the FAQ ‘nerfs’ (I mean, did anyone really think they were going to remain that way?) is still a fantastic tactical pick – and tanky as all fuck VloZD (thanks to being ethereal from Cloak of Mists) – msu Deathrattle battleline tax and the two usual hammers, a brick of Blood Knights and a brick of Graveguard.

The way it works on the table is just a big push forward with a bunch of stuff almost no opponent will be able to easily deal with, thanks to Neffie’s -1 to hit aura, great healing potential on all the vamps, Deathrattle popping up on objectives all over the shop, and ethereal (with the FAQ, no longer ‘unrendable’) Blood Knights as the vanguard. It’s simple, tanky, and very effective.

Interestingly it lost only to Khorne, who I imagine have the sheer MW output in a demon list (which it will be given it’s Reapers of Vengeance) to cut through those ethereal saves and kill stuff off before it can heal back all the damage – but that says a lot about what you might want to bring to counter Legion of Blood lists!

Either way, congrats to Whitney for being two of the big bad meta threats along the way to a podium finish.

Advertisements

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Ivory Host
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Katakros (440)
Mortisan Boneshaper (120)
– Spells: Empower Nadirite Weapons
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Mortisan Soulmason (160)
– General
– Command Traits: Show of Superiority
– Spells: Reinforce Constructs
Mortisan Boneshaper (120)
– Spells: Drain Vitality

BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (170)
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
Mortek Guard (300)
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade
– 2 x Necrophoros
– 2 x Soulcleaver Greatblade
Mortek Guard (300)
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade
– 2 x Necrophoros
– 2 x Soulcleaver Greatblade
Kavalos Deathriders (170)
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade

BEHEMOTH
Gothizzar Harvester (210)

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Plenty of Mortek Guard and Deathriders backed by the typical heroes as part of an Ivory Host. Exploding 6s is always fun. Deathriders for mobility and pressure on objectives with a tough castle at the heart. With 2 Boneshapers and Katakros, the reinforced Mortek Guard will be very tough (impossible) to shift for most opponents. Add a potential fight last (from the crawler), and combat armies are in a world of hurt, especially if a guard unit gets both Nadirite Weapons and Soul Guide (+1 to wound). A wide, slow, and very tough castle to stake out the centre of the table and small units of Deathriders to snipe units or objectives. Tunnel master and Empower Nadirite Weapons on the same Boneshaper is interesting, probably signalling a late game Tunnel Master for either a Battle Tactic or to take an objective away from their opponent.

The list did struggle to score. Taking objectives isn’t easy with 4″ of movement, that’s why we have Deathriders. The combination of toughness and damage output worked well against the mostly melee opponents with the list dominating everything from Idoneth to Blades of Khorne). Unfortunately KOs shooting and mobility were too much to overcome, KO will probably remain a counter to OBR with their improved combat on top of their strong shooting and mobility (yes, I know it isn’t what it was).

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Blades, Blades of Khorne, Bloodlords, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kharadron Overlords, Order, Skaventide, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Spring Rubicon 2023 GT

Leave a comment

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.

Advertisements

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!

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Boulderhead, Chaos, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hammers of Sigmar, Kharadron Overlords, Knights of the Empty Throne, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Slaves to Darkness, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Border War 2023

Leave a comment

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

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!

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Barak Zilfin, Battle Report, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Kharadron Overlords, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans

Path To Glory Battle Report (Kharadron v Kruleboyz)

Leave a comment

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.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Hammers of Sigmar, Helon, Kharadron Overlords, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the London Open

2 Comments

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.

Advertisements

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!

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Astral Templars, Barak Zilfin, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Kharadron Overlords, Legion of the First Prince, Order, Peter & Brett, Slaves to Darkness, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Quest of Champions – Heat 2

Leave a comment

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

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.

Advertisements

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Barak Zilfin, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Ian Humpage, Kharadron Overlords, Order

Woehammer Path to Glory Campaign – Ian

1 Comment

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!

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Blisterskin, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Kharadron Overlords, Lurid Haze, Order, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter & Brett, Petrifex Elite, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Guts & Glory Club Tournament

Leave a comment

This is the top three AoS lists for the Guts & Glory Club Tournament that took place in the USA on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 48 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: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Unrelenting Efficiency
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Liege-Kavalos (160)*
– General
– Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian
Mortisan Boneshaper (110)*
– Artefact: Godbone Armour
– Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Mortisan Soulmason (120)*
– Lore of Mortisans: Arcane Command

Battleline
10 x Mortek Guard (140)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 1x Soulcleaver Greatblades
10 x Mortek Guard (140)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 1x Soulcleaver Greatblades
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

Units
6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)**
– 2x Dread Falchions
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)**
– 2x Dread Falchions
– Reinforced x 1

Artillery
Mortek Crawler (200)*
Mortek Crawler (200)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Veterans

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 4

You may be aware of our recent collaboration with Stormkeep and presenting out stats on YouTube. We’ll Mrigank of Stormkeep fame has managed an impressive 5-0, but not with Stormcast as you’d expect, but Bonereapers! I’ll let Mrigank explain the list.

Mrigank Jha: So pivoting away from the traditional Arkhan Magic + Infantry based lists , this list doesn’t focus on hordes of Mortek Guard. Roar makes them vulnerable and the meta has too many ranged horde killers (Ogors, Skaven, Stormcast, LRL). So, keeping the 2×6 stalkers for Blenders, this list goes towards Catapults. All out Defence and Armor may make it seem weak, but the special ammo is what is important. Ogors, LRL, and Gitz, the three big bad, are fairly low bravery, and Gitz in particular, has small wound heroes. Being able to wreck a giant Grot unit or Squigherd unit. Taking out Gnoblars entirely the same way is amazing. Sniping a Sentinel Captain to turn off empower, and in case of a Slaves to Darkness matchup, sniping an Ensorcelled Banner is amazing.
Stalkers are amazing with Mystic shield and re roll saves on defence or additional rend and damage on offence (can increase rend even further with Bludgeon)
So, for my matches, I mainly did that. Use catapults at key targets, and push Mortek guard out early as Stalker screens. Stalkers to counterattack. Necromantic Mastery (heroic action) with Bone Tithe Shrieker to add 1 to hit rolls and stop Inspiring Presence and Rally. In instances of where your opponent leaves a GC out in the open, the special ammo can help you snipe it on a lucky roll. You can also use this one to break coherency in entire units strung out as screens

I faced LRL, Ogors, Anvilgard Cites, Skaven and Gitz. The Catapult range and threat meant they often chose to target it instead of my other threats , the ones that take objectives and its fairly difficult to kill catapults with 12 W 4+ save and reducing a rend.
I used the Kavalos as a fast threat, objective taker, Mortek guard as screens / first line of defense, and stalkers to get into the thick of it.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Slaanesh
– Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos)
– Mortal Realm: Ulgu
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
The Contorted Epitome (240)*
– General
– Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation
– Artefact: Oil of Exultation
– Host Option: General
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (210)*
– Host Option: General
Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)*
– Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture
Infernal Enrapturess, Herald of Slaanesh (120)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation

Battleline
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)**
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)**

Other
1 x Cockatrice (105)*
1 x Cockatrice (105)*

Endless Spells and Invocations
Mesmerising Mirror (60)
Wheels of Excruciation (80)
Dreadful Visage (70)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Galletian Sharpshooters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 96
Drops: 9

Old book HoS take the podium! With a new book around the corner east to forget, this is just a current, often nerfed, HoS list. It has all of the stars, Sigvald, Epitome, and Glutos, with a lot of Blissbarb. Blissbarb are as much the heart of the list as the heroes, ok archery and a fantastic source of Depravity Points (DP). The Epitome build is very tanky (for HoS) with an extra wound and one of the new Ghurish enhancements – Fuelled by Ghurish Rage (once per battle 3+ ward). Add in the Flaming Weapon, and it’s still a very dangerous unit.

Back to the DP – Hedonites are really a summoning army, everything is fragile (not Glutos), just now they can use Revel in Pain as well while they have the points. You’re forced into an unenviable choice of removing units (Generating DP) or heroes (and being shot) – very hedonistic. With the Cockatrice to act as blockers, objective getters and generally be pains it’s a very annoying army that can react to most situations. The list even has 2 ways to snipe out Galletian Champions – Galletian Sharpshooters for all of the Blissbarb and Mesmering Mirror, swingy but if it goes off…. Both of the other spells do mortal wounds as well based on 6 dice. Dreadful Visage is very effective against screens etc, if it does damage it reduces Bravery by 1. Orcs hate it.

That combination of threats was very effective. Laron’s opponents had limited or no shooting, that shooting was frequently shorter ranged. Combined with effective heroes and the mortal wound output it’s hard to counter unless played just right. That Epitome is a thing of nightmares….

Advertisements

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (90)**
– General
– Command Trait: Collector
– Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (160)**
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Arkanaut Admiral (140)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Gotrek Gurnisson (480)

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Units
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (260)*
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 1x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)
– Main Gun: Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word

Endless Spells & Invocations
Warp Lightning Vortex (80)

Core Battalions
*Galletian Sharpshooters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 9

One last hurrah for the old book, this time around we’re lucky enough to have Carl’s comments on hid list

Carl Stokes: This was the final ride of the Warp Lightning Vortex in KO and I was determined to send it off with a bang!
I’ve always felt that KO struggle into high tempo combat heavy armies that can either shrug off the heaps of rend -1 shooting I can bring to bear and/or close the gap in one turn to crack open my boats.

Enter Gotrek.

He completely changes the way opponents have to think about KO. The things I used to be very concerned about (Kragnos, Varanguard, Mawkrushas) are now the armies I feel extremely favored into. Gotrek forces combat armies to forfeit the alpha strike into my boat bunker and allow me to seize the initiative and dictate the flow of the game.

With old KO rules, this also meant that forcing me to go first just allowed me to perfectly lob a WLV into my opponent’s backfield and then hide the Ironclad behind a layer of 10 Thunderers and a Khemist who would guarantee my opponent was at -1 to hit in close combat. And of course, should they fail to kill the Thunderers and Khemist, a very angry dwarf was right around the corner…

The best part is how easily this list transitions to the new book! Not only is this archetype alive and well, but because the warp lightning vortex becomes a free soulscream bridge and a few characters are easily swapped around, I can add 5 more new and improved Thunderers (that rally on a 4+) to the list and make it a one-drop. I’m always trying to spread the Gospel of Gotrek and I think the new KO tome will really demonstrate his utility in the faction.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Check Header
– Grand Court: Blisterskin
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (240)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Abhorrant Archregent (240)
– General
– Command Trait: Hellish Orator
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)*
– Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)*
– Artefact: Eye of Hysh
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Varghulf Courtier (160)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)**
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)*

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Galletian Veterans

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 8

FEC is a statistical anamoly – both Metawatch and TSN have them as a 50%+ faction, we have them at about 43% win rate. Who’s right? Well we don’t write about them that often so there aren’t that many podiums in the events we cover. But that could just be the low player representation.

Anyway the list, this is the “list” or the most common way we see FEC. A double reinforced Crypt Flayer unit with 2 x Crypt Ghoul screens, Terrorgheist, Archregents and Ghoul Kings. This gives the widest range of spells and summoning. It can summon, during the battle, up to another 9 Crypt Flayers and 20 serfs – this is really a 2660 point list. That’s key to beating them – don’t commit too early, force your opponent to bring most of their units onto the table so you don’t face an overwhelming force in Turn 2 or 3. Not taking Chronomatic Cogs is an interesting choice.

FEC really needs to get their buffs off (adding up to 4 attacks and a 5+ ward) so Cogs is almost mandatory. Only losing to Fyreslayers though is a testament to what the faction is capable of. Roll well and the Flayers are terrifying, very hard to kill and rally really well. In the matchups here they’ve taken down almost everything including Varanguard. With the new book announced it’s likely we’ll see more interest in the faction and enjoy those damn Flayers.

Final Tournament Placings