This is the top three lists for the Gallant Games AoS Store Championship, a 14 player event held in Singapore on the 7th and 8th of April. I think this may be the first time we’ve had the chance to cover an event from Singapore.
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: Slaves to Darkness – Subfaction: Host of the Everchosen – Grand Strategy: Take What Is Theirs
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – General – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Daemonic Speed, Binding Damnation – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (220)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
BATTLELINE Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Cursed Lance – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Rage Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Doom Knight – Cursed Lance – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon Varanguard (580)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – 6 x Ensorcelled Weapon Spire Tyrants (80)* Spire Tyrants (80)*
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Subfaction: Jaws of Mork – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (140)* – General – Command Traits: The Clammy Hand – Moonclan Stabba – Artefacts of Power: The Clammy Cowl Squigboss (80)* Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)* – Spells: Itchy Nuisance – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Squigboss (80)** Skragrott, the Loonking (160)** – Spells: The Hand of Gork
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Lord-Imperatant (170)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades 1 x Celestant-Prime (330)** 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard 1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard
BATTLELINE 6 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (480)* 10 x Freeguild Guard (80)* – Sergeant – Standard Bearer – Drummer – Freeguild Sword and Shield 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 5 x Vindictors (130)**
This is the top three AoS lists for the AoS OGR CUBBthat took place in Poland on the 1st and 2nd of April. It involved 18 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Slitherwrack Helm – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline 6 x Bullgors (390)** – Great Axes – Reinforced x 1 3 x Bullgors (195)** – Axes & Bullshields 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (230)* 3 x Morghurite Chaos Spawn (230)
Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Subfaction: Koatl’s Claw – Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Lord Kroak (450)** Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)** Skink Starseer (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Hand of Glory – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Skink Starpriest (140)*** – Spells: Hand of Glory Saurus Sunblood (130)*** – Artefacts of Power: Eviscerating Blade Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (200)*** – General – Command Traits: Dominant Predator – Celestite Warspear – Artefacts of Power: Blade of Realities – Mount Traits: Beastmaster
BATTLELINE Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer – 2 x Wardrummer Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer – 2 x Wardrummer Saurus Warriors (200)* – Saurus Warrior Alpha – Celestite Club and Powerful Jaws – 2 x Wardrummer – 2 x Stardrake Icon Bearer
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70) 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) 1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)
Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Underguts – Grand Strategy: Defend whaťs Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Butcher (140)* – General – Command Traits: Reluctant Rabble-rouser – Cleaver – Artefacts: Gruesome Trophy Rack – Spells: Blubbergrub Stench – Aspects of the champion: Leadership of the Alpha 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder
BATTLELINE 6 x Ogor Gluttons (260)* – Bellower – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Crusher – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 6 x Ogor Gluttons (260)* – Bellower – Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar – Crusher – Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades 4 x Leadbelchers (170)* – Thunderfist
ARTILLERY 1 x Ironblaster (200) 1 x Ironblaster (200) 1 x Ironblaster (200)*
This is the top three AoS lists for the Straigyt Edge Wargaming GT that took place in Sweden on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 14 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.
Leaders Swampboss Skumdrekk (290)* Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)** – Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)** – Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)** – General – Command Trait: Supa Sneaky – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex Skragrott, The Loonking (160)* – Allies
Battleline 10 x Gutrippaz (150)* 10 x Gutrippaz (150)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
Units 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70) The Burning Head (30)
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation 6 x Varanguard (580)* – General – 6x Fellspear – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Reinforced x 1
Battleline 10 x Chaos Knights (460)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon – Reinforced x 1 5 x Chaos Knights (230)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 9 x The Unmade (80)* – Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Legion: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)* Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – General – Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefact: Godbone Armour – Lore of Mortisans: Reinforce Battle-shields – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 30 x Mortek Guard (420)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield – Reinforced x 2 30 x Mortek Guard (420)* – Nadirite Blade and Shield – Reinforced x 2 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)* 3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*
This is the top three AoS lists for the GT Wargame Garrison Madrid that took place in Spain on the 27th and 28th of January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Engine of the Gods (300) – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Prayers: Curse 1 x Lord Kroak (450)* – Spells: Stellar Tempest 1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)* – Aspects of the champion: Tunel master 1 x Skink Priest (120)* – Prayers: Heal 1 x Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (200)** – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Celestite Greatblade – Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration – Mount Traits: Beastmaster 1 x Knight-Zephyros (100)**
Do comets rain on the plain in Spain? They do when Kroak is around! He’s fallen a little out of fashion recently in favour of the no-name, whipper-snapper Slann, but he still does the job, as evidenced here – supported by the ubiquitous Engine, Priest, Astrolith (even more important for Special K given his spammable but short range spell) and…
checks notes
A Scar-Vet on Carnosaur!? Fair play to the lad, with their recent points drops they just might cut the mustard as a fast, whiffy but potentially killy monster. Of course, now we’re into the new season, we see the inevitable allied Knight-Zephyros, who is just a stone-cold scoring piece due to her constant teleporting.
Overall, a pretty interesting twist on the Lizards with their new points, and a good result for Alfonso. Get ready to see a lot more of the little Azyros…
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Hosts Duplicitous – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Curseling (180)* – General – Command Traits: Cult Demagogue – Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (140)* – Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion 1 x Kairos Fateweaver (440)** 1 x Magister (120)** – Spells: Shield of Fate, Glimpse the Future 1 x Changecaster (150)** – Artefacts: The Eternal Shroud – Spells: Levitate, Bolt of Tzeentch
BATTLELINE 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Pink Horror Hornblower – Split and Split Again 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Pink Horror Hornblower – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Split and Split Again 10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)* – Pink Horror Hornblower – Iridescent Horror – Pink Horror Icon Bearer – Split and Split Again
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70) 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Daemonic Simulacrum (70)
The future is here with the new GHB, and the future is pink…at least as far as Disciples of Tzeentch are concerned. With Bounty Hunters gone away, Pink Horrors are very much back on the menu as one of the top tarpits in the game, and Juanma has taken 3 x 10 Pinks to really maximise their board control. In addition, by choosing the sub-faction Host Duplicitous, an enemy can be prevented from retreating if the Tzeentch unit has 10 or more models, keeping them in place for some incoming spells. Host Duplicitous can also bring back 5 Pink Horrors once per game on a 4+, but it’s only once per battle regardless of how many units are destroyed and there’s no re-roll: this is Tzeentch, not Gitz!
Pink Horrors are also an excellent screen for the Galletian Champions that want to be slinging spells from the back lines while scoring battle tactics for not being dead and there is one unit for each of the Champions: Curseling, Magister and Changecaster, with the option to summon in additional Changecasters if necessary. The importance of keeping those Pinks around for as long as possible is clear from the Shield of Fate spell cropping up three times on the list to try and get that 5+ ward save. Arcane Suggestion can also be helpful here, with one of the options that Tzeentch players can pick being to reduce hit and wound rolls by 1. Park the Changecaster or Kairos wholly within 12” of a unit of Pinks, then there is an additional -1 to hit on the unit, meaning that All Out Attack would be wasted. Though still only with a 5+ save, a 5+ save followed by a 5+ ward with -1 to hit and wound makes those little daemons hang around a lot longer than they should. A really hammer unit like 10 chosen can still get through them with double fight, but then they’ll be well within spell range and with no 5+ ward against mortals on their warscroll, that’s a trade that favours the Tzeentch player significantly.
In terms of the tech on each Champion, the Curseling general has Cult Demagogue as their command ability, meaning that a double on the dice makes the first casting roll unbindable (and worth a bonus fate point). While lesser (more honest?) armies would roll the dice, Tzeentch can just pick two Destiny Dice and, even if it’s a pair of twos, the casting value 8 Arcane Sacrifice would still go off. The Curseling also has what seems to be the Aspect of the Champion of choice (at least so far): Tunnel Master. This Aspect allows a model to redeploy anywhere on the battlefield outside of 9” of the enemy during the movement phase instead of moving normally. With some armies, this could leave a hero isolated, but Tzeentch can just summon up some Horrors to be the bodyguard for this unit. On some of the new battle plans, that could mean an extra point here or there to turn a loss into a win or at least a draw in close games.
On the subject of close games, Juanma did really well going 3.5/5 with their only loss being against Teclis and Lumineth Realm Lords and even that was only with an 11-9 differential score (that is, a 1-2 point scoring difference at the end of the game). Three more points across two games could have been enough for the 5-0 at the event, underlining what a great weekend Juanma and the Disciples had.
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Army Faction: Nighthaunt – Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER 1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)* – General – Command Traits: Cloaked in Shadow – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Seal of Shyish – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage 1 x Guardian of Souls (150)* – Chill Blade – Artefacts: Pendant of the Fell Wind – Spells: Shademist 1 x Spirit Torment (120)* 1 x Lady Olynder (340)* – Spells: Shademist
BATTLELINE 5 x Hexwraiths (170)* – Hellwraith 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)** – Slasher Crone 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)** – Slasher Crone 6 x Spirit Hosts (260)**
BEHEMOTH 1 x Black Coach (290) – Reaper Scythe
CORE BATTALIONS: *Warlord **Galletian Veterans
TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)
Nice little twist on Nighthaunt, with the less seen Quicksilver Dead. The list also saw the return of the Black Coach and Lady Olynder, both of whom haven’t had a lot of airing with the Scarlet Doom lists. The Nighthaunt face off against Scarlet Doom in round 4, saw a stalemate so we can’t say which is better yet.
Still, other than Olynder, we have all of the usual suspects to increase the Harridan’s resistance. They’re still a great warscroll, so 30 is no hardship, especially with the points increase on Bladegheist. Harridan’s are a bit harder to use, but ideally, you want to get them close and charge. Preferably after inflicting some wounds through either mortals or ranges (another reason for the Black Coach). Charge or shoot a unit with the Black Coach and then hit it with the Harridans, they will now be hitting and wounding on 3s, and cause -1 on to wound rolls, adding protection for themselves, and the Black Coach.
A well thought out list, and fun to play. Bringing some different models to the table, Andres is to be commended.
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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER 1 x Vampire Lord (140) – General – Command Traits: Pack Alpha – Spells: Soulpike 1 x Belladamma Volga (200)* – Spells: Spirit Gale 1 x Necromancer (130)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Overwhelming Dread – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Vampire Lord (140)* – Spells: Amethystine Pinions – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
BATTLELINE 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)* 10 x Dire Wolves (130)* 20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)* 10 x Dire Wolves (130)*
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
OTHER 20 x Grave Guard (280)* – Seneschal – 2 x Standard Bearer – 2 x Hornblower – Great Wight Blade
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
2-2-1 is an odd scoreline, and those must have been some nail-biting games! Guillermo has opted for a slightly heavier GC presence than Soulblight would normally bother with, packing double vamp lords, which makes sense as their Tome Celestial battle tactics are definitely not going to help them with scoring this season.
Now that bounty hunters have gone the way of the dodo, blobs of zombies are back on the menu! Dire Wolves continue to be fantastic either way – and here backed up by Belladamma for the fluffy (pun intended) bodyguard rule they provide.
Sadly, there’s a Spinedog – but to be fair to the ‘Blight, they’re in a tough spot in the new season due to their fragile and slow GCs – until the new book comes out, we may see them struggle, so kudos to Guillermo for a strong finish out of the gate.
This is the top six AoS lists for the CanCon 2023 that took place in Australia on 21st and 22nd of January. It involved 202 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Six 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 Six AoS Lists
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Protect the herdstone – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades Great Bray-Shaman (100)** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage Beastlord (95)** – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Units 6 x Dragon Ogors (290)* – 6x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Gors (70)*** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 10 x Gors (70)*** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175) – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175) – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**
Bests of Chaos (sic) run roughshod over another big tournament. And why shouldn’t they? Unthinking beasts – they’re just following their nature, going with the flow – what fault is it of theirs if no puny tree-man, hungry-man, rat-man, green-man or hungry-man-but-further-away can stand up to them?
Composition wise, we have the core HQ, the usual dragon ogors, but only to the tune of 6 to make space for twelve Enlightened on Discs and 2x 10 Tzaangors. Plus, of course, some of the annoyingly good little chaps who don’t cost enough.
Anyway, the previews have started for their new book, so speculation is rife as to whether they’ll receive the necessary re-writes to corral the herd. I hope they do, because there’s only so many times I can think of new ways to sneak my ‘NERF BoC FOR THE LOVE OF GORS’ agenda into these top 3s.
Nevertheless, taking down any tournament this big deserves praise so well done to Geordie. And to be fair, you don’t see Tzaangors that often, and they’re cool.
Leaders Slann Starmaster (285)**** – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration – Spell: Stellar Tempest Engine of the Gods (285)*** – Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Skink Starpriest (130)**** – Spell: Hand of Glory Skink Priest (120)**** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Skink Priest (120)**** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Units 30 x Skinks (225)** – Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 5 x Saurus Knights (110)* – Lances 5 x Saurus Knights (110)* – Lances Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*** Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)***
So Seraphon just got a lot more expensive, and Corey’s list here will be one of the last to enjoy their old ‘bargain’ prices.
In the meantime, it works as we’ve come to expect. Slann as magic powerhouse, Engine of the Gods as a mixed phase utility, well, engine, and a mixture of skink support priests, one of the starry variety.
(Slightly) interestingly, Corey brings so many skinks you’d expect them to be in Fangs of Sotek – but no! We’re in Thunder Lizard still, so one of those two bastiladons can still double fire, stacked with Skink priest buffs. The big skink blob I imagine is meant to capitalise on the durable prayer platform that is the Engine, getting Curse off on a juicy target (on a 3+ while near terrain within their own territory due to their Primeval Domain rule) for the 60 skink shots to fish for some 6s.
We also have 2x 5 knights here, who made a surprise comeback this season as cost-efficient bounty hunters with weight of attacks – but obviously, that’s a tactic going more extinct than the dinosaurs dodo.
Big gratz on the 5-0 with a balanced Seraphon list – shame it’s now about 75 pts more expensive, lacking its most useful battalions, and doesn’t play nicely into the new realm rules. Seraphon could be about to experience a serious lull going into their new book – but that’s fine, they’re cold-blooded, they will have their time in the sun again.
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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Bloab Rotspawned (320)** – Lore of Malignance: Plague Squall Morbidex Twiceborn (320)*** Orghotts Daemonspew (320) Lord of Afflictions (230)** – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm Plague Priest (100)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Units 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*** 5 x Chaos Chosen (240)*** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
I hope everyone enjoyed those Expert Conquerors while they lasted. While not as egregious as Bounty Hunters, I can’t say that I’m sad to see it go. Joel made use of them with a triple Rotmire in the same way that many Nurgle players do. It’s interesting to watch Nurgle over the course of this edition since they evolved from pure fly spam to bringing hero hammer + Rotmire creed.
And what a hero hammer this list is. 5 heroes are in play, with all of them being the classic nurgle combination of decent damage output and great resilience (you could even say they are disgustingly resilient). Joel has also brought along a couple of Slaves to Darkness allies to fill in the gaps that Nurgle armies tend to have. The Corvus Cabal brings some much-needed mobility to grab early objectives and the Chaos Chosen are an excellent vehicle for damage output.
Looking forward, I’m not sure that this list will need much adjustment for the new season. Joel already has a pair of solid Galletian Champions, some excellent potential Bodyguards, and the ability to reliably score three or four battle tactics without sweating too much. Overall, I’m excited to see what changes are made for the next GT.
Congratulations to Joel. He brought a well-crafted list, and played it effectively to achieve a 5-0.
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Allegiance: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Slann Starmaster (285)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Spell: Stellar Tempest Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spell: Hand of Glory Saurus Astrolith Bearer (155)* – Artefact: Serpent God Dagger
Units 30 x Skinks (225)* – Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1 Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Another 5-0 Seraphon list, this time with added Spinedog! Boy, am I glad that’s become a rare occurrence. Of course, it’s still a powerful piece, and on paper, it does make sense for Seraphon, given they lack an otherwise durable bully piece.
Henry has also brought some Salamanders in this particular iteration of the standard Fangs list (buff pieces, loads of skinks), which play really well into the Starborne teleport and provide an excellent dual-phase threat.
All in all it’s clear how this list hurts you – it’s a kind of techy twist on the ‘pin-cushion’ archetype, with excellent objective play in a handy one drop for, most likely, forcing opponents to move up into a much easier charge range of the Spinedog.
Gratz to Henry, and here’s hoping the new Seraphon book makes it less appealing than ever to take the ‘dog!
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120)* Branchwych (130)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Drycha Hamadreth (335)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth
Units 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (235)* 3 x Aetherwings (65)*
Drycha! You love to see it. The evil tree spirit in a mech suit is still a relatively rare sight given her competition in Durthu and Alarielle, but her ability to choose between 10 extra melee or shooting attacks makes her a fast, durable and flexible piece that I don’t think gets enough love.
Gary here has gone heavy with Kurnoh – a reinforced blob of both the shooty and scythy variety (both of which, as always, are backed up by the +1 to wound aura of the Arch-Revanant). Then, just the one unit of teleporty tree revs and a fantastic support unit of Seekers. It’s a nice balanced list with huge reach, two big blobs that will keep regrowing (via Seekers and Verduous Harmony) if you don’t have the ability to take them down fast enough, and the tactical Drycha option.
The fact it could handle such a diverse set of opponents – the magic dominance of Tzeentch, through the ranged punch of Underguts Ogors and even a semi-mirror – en route to the rare Sylvaneth 5-0 is testament to the general and how adaptable the list is. It’s really cool.
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard Lord-Relictor (145)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Thundershock – Prayer: Translocation
Units 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)* 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)* 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)** 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)** 5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)* 5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
If you follow Stormcast chat on Australian servers, this list might not be a surprise. Why such a skew list and why does it work – first credit to the General, but this is a durable shooting list which doubles down on Mortal Wounds. Each Vexillor can grant a re-roll charge to a unit within 12″. And each Vexillor can be deployed from Azyr (Scions of the Storm). So one play is to use the Vexillors to buff important charges after moving just outside 9″ (no redeploy). Or drop both just beyond 9″, allowing the Tempestors to shoot, then charge. Enormous flexibility and mobility. Backed by Judicators with a double shoot potential. The strength of this list is the extreme difficulty opponents have in stopping or limiting scorring. The Tempestor units with 12 wounds need serious attention to remove. They will tie up big threats turn after turn, unlike the larger units that some of the biggest hitters can remove in a turn.
Then there is the Mortal Wound output, another nice trick, Everblaze Comet to drop a bomb on any castles, with a CV of 6, Master of Magic makes it almost certain to go off when you want it. That with Thundershock to short those charges (leaving a CP for Unleash). And each of the Vexillors has a mini Everblaze. The list is a 2 drop (all of the best SCE lists try for minimum drops) for that small advantage. Scoring wise, this list wasn’t just good at scoring it’s own Battle Tactics but preventing some of the opponents (sometimes a lot of theirs). This list was rated as one of the strongest at Cancon and scored extremely well in the first 3 rounds before falling away in the last 2. Still major victories but not as many “other” points as some of the higher ranked lists. To be expected with the final pairings being into stronger opponents. It’s innovative and effective, and it is fantastic to see SCE from a different angle.
Tournament Placings
For a full run down of all the tournament positions, why not visit Stats and Ladders. It’s a brand new site that allows tournament organisers to… well… organise their tournaments. I have to say, it’s incredibly easy to use, and the best bit, it’s free!
This is the Top Three AoS lists for the ‘Ere We Go Again Ladz’ that took place in the USA on the 14th and 15th of January. It involved 24 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: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hallowed Knights – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Gardus Steel Soul (150)* 1 x Knight-Draconis (300)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Scintillating Trail – Spells: Celestial Blades
BATTLELINE 5 x Vanquishers (110)* 4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)** – Stormdrake-Prime – Drakerider’s Lance 2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)** – Stormdrake-Prime – Drakerider’s Lance
OTHER 1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)* – Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
Daniel is known as an exceptional Stormcast player, and we’re lucky enough to have him as a member of our Discord community. You may know Daniel from his awesome YouTube channel; The Stormkeep. They focus on Stormcast tactics and lists and give great reviews of GW releases such as the new General’s Handbook. Daniel kindly agreed to give us a rundown on how his list works.
Daniel Gomez: The list clearly revolves around Stormdrake Guard. More specifically, it takes advantage of their high amount of attacks and the unique mix of characteristics the unit has. The attacks and mortal wound output are easy to see, but the important thing about Dragons is the monster keyword, fly, 3” coherency/attack range (fangs and talons), and that reinforced it is a 4 model 9 wound unit. Monster is more important than ever. You can block everything from important command abilities such as Fyreslayers fighting first against you after charging them, down to the mundane AoD effective counting as rend or removing the option of AoA as a psuedo -1 to hit buff.
Fly combined with the 3” coherency and 12” move is so important for them to take up the offensive/defensive control space they need, as well as hopping over large terrain. They’re really unwieldy models, and the unit wouldn’t work at all without all of these. The oblong base also allows you to do some pile in tricks and “slide” beside an enemy unit to reach a juicier target in the back. 3” reach is another awesome and under-appreciated trait that even makes it so charging a dragon from the side as long as those bases are touching they can reach across and help hit a problematic unit. Directly across each base is just under 3”. This can bait opponents into charging, thinking they’ll only take a bit of damage back by flanking them. Only to realize the rend 2 attacks can still assist and deal some damage.
Stormdrakes are also 9 wounds, which doesn’t seem too important until you see the limit to qualify for cover and wyldwoods from terrain is 9 wounds. Combined with AoD and a mystic shield, you can hit a 0+ effective save easily. Being a 4 model unit also opens up a very good chance of rallying and during the tournament I rallied a dragon twice, one of those times giving me huge momentum to finish the tough job of shoving Alarith LRL off the middle objective in a 3-objective plan. I pretty much highlight the Stormdrakes here because they are the make or break of the list. It’s really a Death Star list, and even including the points inefficient Knight Draconis was acceptable as it allowed for hero phase breath once per game to free me up to move to the next target.
The raptors were there for a similar purpose just to be that extra bit of very consistent damage to help the dragons continue conquering. Add in a complimentarily fast support all-rounder support piece like the Stormstrike Chariot (and I will say this has been my favorite SCE list so far). Gone are the mindless push across the board and win turn 1 dragons. This list takes a more methodical approach, and I hope to keep bringing a similar list into the next season.
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Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Starborne – Army Subfaction: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (155)*** – Artefacts: Serpent God Dagger 1 x Skink Starpriest (130)*** – Spells: Hand of Glory 1 x Slann Starmaster (285)*** – General – Command Traits: Arcane Might – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Stellar Tempest 1 x Skink Priest (120)*** – Prayers: Curse
BATTLELINE 30 x Skinks (225)* – Boltspitter and Moonstone Club 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitter – Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitter – Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)
OTHER 8 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)** 3 x Kroxigor (150)** 3 x Kroxigor (150)** 8 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)***
Seraphon will always struggle to lose the ‘OP’ label, but honestly we’ve not seen them pop up so much in recent months, and here we see darn near as unusual a variant as possible while still being competitive.
The high value core remains as ever the Astrolith Bearer (for boosting the Slann’s spell range and offering a ward bubble), the Starpriest for his re roll 1s to hit spell and ability to give something mortals on 6s to wound – most likely the big skink blob in this case – and the Priest with Curse to make that skink blob able to annihilate anything through weight of attacks and fishing for mortals.
And yes, lots of skinks, because this is Fangs of Sotek. But where this list goes wonderfully skewiff is the 2×3 units of Kroxigor! The monsters that time forgot! Their warscroll is thoroughly unimpressive and honestly I’d love to see the way in which Sean used them – my best guess is as Skink screens/counter punchers, given they’re fast enough to keep up, relatively tanky (4 wounds on a 4+) and get +1 to hit while near the skinkeroos.
2 units of reinforced Salamanders round things off, projecting serious threats in both the shooting and melee phases.
This list gets hit pretty hard with the new points, but as it stands it’s a pleasingly balanced Fangs list – and while I’m not sure Kroxigor are some overlooked, stealth-value meta pick, I still love seeing them get use. Here’s hoping the new book gives them some love and allows for even more variation in Seraphon list-building.
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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Celestant-Prime (325)* 1 x Lord-Relictor (145)* – General – Command Traits: Shock and Awe – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Celestial Blades – Prayers: Translocation 1 x Battlemage (100)* 1 x Lord-Imperatant (175)****
BATTLELINE 5 x Vanquishers (110)** – Vanquisher-Prime 5 x Liberators (115)** – Grandweapon – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*** 2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)***
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Everblaze Comet (90)
OTHER 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)*** – Annihilator-Prime 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)****
A different take on Stomrcast to Danniel’s bringing mobility through magic. This army counts on throwing multiple threats down and forcing you to either screen and spread or castle and remove threats as they arrive. The added wrinkle here is the Fulminator/Relictor/Battlemage combo that can easily see Fulminators hit anything that is isolated. The weakness is it’s hard to concentrate your force, and the MSU Fulminators/Annihilators at 12/9 wounds are one shots. Your opponent is likely to pick them up the turn after they are down. And 7” charges are still only a 58% chance without a reroll (Fulminators). You really want to try to shut down the 2nd turn when you are likely to get Fulminators, Annihilators, and the Celestant Prime all arriving.
With so many drops Tim is giving the first round activation away to most opponents, most opponents are probably going to give him first turn any way to avoid the 1/2 double that could be very nasty. That would make for an interesting battle against the Seraphon army. Letting the Seraphon go first and letting them buff those skinks is a bad idea. As it happened, the Seraphon was Tim’s only loss. There is nothing critical in that list for any of his big hitters to challenge, and small units of Skinks are great screens. They are very similar lists in their equivalent factions (multiple mobile small unit).
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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)*** – Spells: The Hand of Gork Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)**** – Spells: Call da Moon Madcap Shamans (80)**** – Artefacts of Power: Moonface Mommet – Spells: Itchy Nuisance Dankhold Troggboss (220)**** – General – Command Traits: Mighty Blow – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon
BATTLELINE Fellwater Troggoths (155) Shootas (120)** Shootas (120)** Stabbas (140)** – Bad Moon Icon Bearer – Gong Basher – Stabba and Moon Shield – 3 x Barbed Net Rockgut Troggoths (145)*** Rockgut Troggoths (145)*** Rockgut Troggoths (145)***
I was so impressed to see a Gitz army go 4-1 at an event and be in a tournament winning position after Round 4 that I contacted Chris directly to ask him about the tactics he used. In my eyes, with such an out of date Battletome, this was such an exceptional performance it deserved the top spot! (No offense, Daniel!)
Chris Kennedy: My overall goal is to flood the board and give people bad choices and trades. I run my army in layers depending on the opponents. The 2 units of shootas are for sitting back and holding objectives. I normally set them in a corner on an objective each and forget about. Most people ignore them until they need to take the objective. The -1 to hit within 2 inches goes a long way in keeping them alive.
The rockguts work as hammer and anvils. Normally, having one unit out front to take a charge, then itchy Nuisance (fight last spell) and Moonface Mommet (-1 armor save) the unit on my turn to wipe big treats. I also keep the Rockguts in a Vanguard, so if I get off Hand of Gork (teleport spell), I can reroll the charge. Rockguts aren’t elite and have no leader.
My boingrots are used to flank and are in Bounty Hunters. They can effectively clear screens or shooters with doing mortals on the charge. Left alone behind enemy lines, they wreak havoc. The 4 plus save is as tanky as gitz gets, so they take time for the opponent to clear.
The Shamans sit back safely behind the shrine with long range Spells. A teleport, a line of sight table wide 3d damn to one target and scuttletide. I use those to either pick off heroes or shooters. Scuttletide can also be used to charge block because it does 1 mortal for every 5 up on 6 dice when you end a move or charge within 6 of it.
Last I have the Dankhold Troggboss and Marshcrawla that tow the back line. The marchcrawla tries to keep as many units under its 18-inch bubble as possible, giving everyone +1 to hit in melee, and the Dankhold gives out reroll 1s to hit for Troggoth units within 18. He also can hit pretty hard in melee if needed but pretty squishy.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter that took place in the China on 14th and 15 January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
LEADERS Engine of the Gods (285)* – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration – Mount Traits: Beastmaster – Prayers: Curse Celestant-Prime (325)* Lord Kroak (450)* Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spells: Hand of Glory
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Saurus units riding the crest of Seraphon power? Seraphon claiming number one with an Engine of the Gods and Kroak isn’t new. But Saurus Knights and Razordons in Thunder Lizard? It looks like Thunder Lizard was taken for double cosmic engine rolls and the Fusil of Conflagration. Thunder Lizard really boosts the power of an Engine and with Kroak can push out a lot of mortals. This is mostly a short range/melee army though, with the Engine’s 8” range working really well with the 9” range of curse. The Razordon’s bring 18” range (12D6 shots), but are most useful if the enemy gets close where they can both unleash hell and shoot at the end of the charge phase. Essentially, Seraphon Leadbelchers, you can’t leave them, but you can’t charge them.
The Saurus Knights are usually left at home, they don’t accept buffs as well as Skinks but this army is playing heavily into their Predatory-Fighter (+1 attack for Jaws attacks) and Scaly Skin (-1 damage). And they aren’t GVs. Combined with additional damage on the charge and the potential mortals on 6s, the double unit is pretty scary. A big part of the list, though, is the Celestant Prime – arguable if he is worth the cost in Seraphon, but it worked here. His guaranteed charge and damage profile is effective at removing key pieces like MawCrushas, Durthu, or Warsong Revenant. With Kroak shutting down spells it’s not hard to see why Sylvaneth struggled, the same for Skaven. Neither do well with Mortals. Damage reduction limits some of the impact of Ironjawz and the limited rend, but large number of attacks counters Nighthaunt. The army still has Seraphon’s ability to score while countering a lot of the unique abilities of his opponents army. It’s a really well thought out counter list.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Season: The Dwindling – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arch-Revenant (120)* – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing Treelord Ancient (360)* – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony
OTHER Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)* Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Vengeful Skullroot (60) 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Gladewyrm (50)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Nikola here has brought a fairly standard Gnarlroot magic build here, with the Treelord Ancient and Warsong Rev combo for putting down a set of trees early doors with the Ancient for Warsong to use Spellsinger to cast his nasty AoE through.
It’s backed up by a compliment of reinforced Sword ‘Noth – a less popular choice than scythes because of their lesser rend – but a more balanced one overall, I think, due to their potential for MW output against targets who scoff at even 3 rend (such as Nighthaunt for example).
Happily for me, an endless spell enjoyer, the list packs all three Sylvaneth specific ones, and why not? They allo have fantastic utility and get be got off nicely in Gnarlroot with the ‘3d6 pick best 2’ to cast and re-roll from The Dwindling. Not only are they some of the best looking faction specific spells but they really do give the army a lot of options – horrorghast effects, healing, charge bonuses and more – love to see it!
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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness – Army Type: Knights of the Empty Throne – Grand Strategy – Take what’s theirs
LEADERS Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Demonic speed
Varanguard (290)** – General – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Fellspear
BATTLELINE Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Varanguard (290)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Ensorcelled Weapon Splintered Fang (100)* The Unmade (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)* Corvus Cabal (80)*
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
OTHER Ogroid Theridons (190)* – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Great Axes
BATTALIONS Battle Regiment* Overlords of Chaos**
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Great to see a good run out with the new Slaves book! Although, less happy to see Spinedog – and do bear in mind that the new focus on foot heroes in the forthcoming season will likely mean a list such as this has to change in some big ways.
In the meantime though, it leans into the the obvious highlights of the new book – triple Varanguard in Khorne with lances for that sweet rend 3 charge in one unit, and two units of Ensorcelled Weapons for fast chaff/lower armour targets. With each unit able to fight twice, that’s potentially a lot of pressure coming at you early.
Andy also leans into a bevvy of tech cultists, which is a fantastic section of the new book. Splintered Fang for reliable MW output, The Unmade for running up and turning off Redeploy to help those Varanguard make their charges and not end up in no-man’s land, and double Corvus Cabal for deepstriking and scoring battle tactics. Note – in the new season we lose Barge – so one unit of Corvus for Desecrate is probably going to be the new jam.
It’s interesting that he’s packed in some Theridons – to be fair, they’re a cost effective if not at all durable counter-punch, so why not?
An interesting list that took down what I would imagine are some fairly green match ups, losing only to Nikola’s Sylvaneth, who are quickly proving to be a red matchup for the new chaos bois! Andy – be a hero and take 2nd place next time, without Spinedog! My commenting fingers are ready.
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Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Indomitable
BATTLELINE Skryre Acolytes (75)* Skryre Acolytes (75)* Stormfiends (960)* – 3 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows – 3 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour
OTHER Warp-Grinder (65)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50) 1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Skaven is one of those armies that I love to see pop up in these lists. Much like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
In this case, we get nearly half of the points of the list dumped into one 9-rat unit of Stormfiends with a weapon load-out that punishes at 24″, ruins days at 12″, and ruins lives within 3″. Combining their damage output with the additional wounds of Warpstone-laced Armor allows them to absorb the mortal wounds they will ultimately take when one of the two nearby Warlocks casts More-more-more Warp Power! Stormfiends absolutely love the ability to land those 9 Windlauncher shots at 3+/2+/-3/D3, 9D6 Ratling Cannons at 2+/2+/-1/1, and 12 Shock Gauntlets at 2+/2+/-1/2.
We also get to see two endless spells that will be standards for the new battletome. The bonuses to mobility brought into play by Lauchon and the Soulscream Bridge makes scoring first and second turn battle tactics easier, since it allows those foot heroes (who might normally have a hard time moving more than 9″ in a turn) to jump across the board to claim objectives. Thanquol’s casting bonus allows him to be a very expensive, but reliable taxi driver, with the ability to cast Skitterleap and one of the two endless spells in the same turn, throwing both of the Galletian champions wherever the they need to be.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the 2D6 Oslohammer tournament that took place in Norway on 27th and 28th December. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Battleline 5 x Liberators (115)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 5 x Liberators (115)* – Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield 4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)* – Reinforced x 1
Units 10 x Protectors (450)* – 4x Starsoul Maces – Reinforced x 1 6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (480)* – Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions *Battle Regiment
Additional Enhancements Holy Command: Call for Aid
Brett: Classic 3rd edition Stormcast army made up of 1st and 2nd edition units. Absolutely nothing here with the Thunderstrike Keyword. Geir has chosen Scions of the Storm here mostly for the Vanguard Raptors I think, it’s standard for SCE armies to keep them safe from their opponents shooting. The Battlemage and Lord Relictor can team up and grant teleport (Translocation) and a 7″ charge (Wildform grants +2 to move, run and charge). They can do that from outside of deny range, that can drop either the Fulminators or the Protectors close to your ranged units unless you have very good screens. Both can eat an Unleash Hell through either wounds (4 x Fulminators is 24 wounds at 3+, Protectors are 30 wounds at 2+) or saves.
Ideally the Knight Incantor gives the Fulminators +1 to wound rolls (Celestial Blades) before they are teleported to within 7″. They still have a shooting attack and then do 3 damage on the charge. Defensively the Lord Relictor has Thundershock to subtract 1 from the opponents wound rolls and the Liberators as screens and objective holders. The Holy Command, Call for Aid returns a Redeemer unit (the Liberators) outside of 9″ of enemy models and within 12″ of a Hero unit.
So long as those criteria are met you can place them anywhere on the board. Situationally, it’s great for moving a screen, protecting a hero or grabbing an objective. At at the worst it gives you back 10 wounds of Galletian Veterans. Looking at the opponents they really don’t have the answers. Only one of the Ogor lists included multiple Ironblasters and Leadbelchers but both units are badly outranged by the Vanguard Raptors. Fulminators would average 20 wounds on the charge into the Bladegheist and there are no screens in that army to prevent it. Combinde with the shooting it’s likely that they are gone in one turn. And for anything more durable, the Protectors and Raptors can all do mortal wounds in abundance. Without something like the teleport/fight on death of DoK or mortal wound shooting this is a hard list to counter directly. It has elements that want to hold back and pound you and others that are trying to get at you. Importantly, through Scions and Translocation, they have mobility on top of durability.
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Army Faction: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Engine of the Gods (285)** – General – Command Traits: Prime Warbeast – Artefacts: Incandescent Rectrices – Mount Traits: Beastmaster – Prayers: Curse 1 x Skink Priest (120)*** – Prayers: Heal 1 x Slann Starmaster (285)*** – Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration – Spells: Stellar Tempest 1 x Celestant-Prime (325)***
BATTLELINE 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitter – Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitter – Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler 5 x Saurus Guard (115)***
BEHEMOTH 1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)** 1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)** 1 x Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)**
Danny: Seraphon are in an interesting place at the moment – in the last year they’ve received new rules (Tome Celestial) and two rounds of point hikes (with more coming in the new GHB) – and yet they still occupy a strange space of having some busted 2e style rules in both good and bad ways, awful internal balanced and absolutely the ability to take down tournaments.
Here, Tom takes a relatively common spin on things – a core of the Engine of the Gods which just offers insane utility for its price, along with the ‘buff core’ of a Slann and Priest – supplemented by the lizards’ favourite ally, C-Prime. Seraphon in general have a good mixed phase output but lack something that can really hit hard and fast in melee – hence the big shiny boi’s inclusion.
Thunder Lizard battleline units are, as usual, built around the minimum taxation, which we see here with 2x 10 skinks and the Saurus guard to help keep the Slann alive.
And then we have the bastiladons. Double Bastis have fallen out of favour recently due to their lack of objective play but Tom opts for 3, 1 of which is the bargain-basement CHONK loadout – basically it’s a tonne of wounds on a 1+ save with -1 damage for 165 pts.
Now, you look at the the path to 2nd – double Disciples? One of the only armies able to out-magic a Slann? Top of the win-rate pile? And then you remember Bastiladons do +1 damage to chaos daemons. Losing to Ogors makes sense, as the shooting output in Underguts is easily enough to just blast through any lizard capable of holding an objective.
Without spoiling anything, let’s just also say this list gets WREKT by the incoming points changes. I don’t know where Seraphon go from there that isn’t a ditch until their new book to be honest, but for now, gratz to Tom for a podium finish¬!
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (175)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Magister (120) – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Bonded to Krondspine Kairos Fateweaver (435)* Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Lore of Change: Fold Reality
Battleline 6 x Screamers of Tzeentch (200)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (100)* 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives
Kieron: New book; same old Krondspine holding the line for Disciples of Tzeentch. Despite the points increase, Krondspines are still useful for Tzeentch as a combat anvil that can hold units in place long enough for the mortal wound hammer says hello (and goodbye shortly after!). Arcane Suggestion from the Ogroid can also make the Krondspine’s attacks more potent by reducing the armour of what it is currently trying to eat OR make what it is trying to eat less effective in combat by subtracting one from hit and wound rolls. Coupled with Mystic Shield and All Out Defense, that monster is probably hanging around for an annoying period of time. Another sneaky tricky the Tzeentch player can pull is to have the Magister, to whom the Krondspine is bonded, kill themselves by first casting a spell and then casting a second that is a double, guaranteed by the Destiny Dice. Instead of turning the Magister into a spawn, the Tzeentch player can choose to slay the Magister, turning the Krondspine wild for run and charge and +1 to hit. On top of that, if the Magister cast an Endless Spell, Burning Sigil, for example, the Krondspine can then eat that spell to go up a level. Please note, however, this cannot be done with the spell automatically cast at the start of the game with Arcane Armies until battle round 2 at the earliest.
In terms of the rest of the list, Screamers are very fast and can be brought back to full strength with the Fold Reality spell that both Kairos and the Fluxmaster can cast, but not as effective as they could potentially be in a unit of 9…but that would ruin the list composition as there would not be three battleline units. The 9 could have been handy for the only battleplan Danny failed to win – Lurkers Below – to be able to speed on to that third objective for the auto-win. As it happened, the second place army of Tom Kenneth Solli managed the auto-win instead (hence the 20-0 loss), the Celestant-Prime potentially being a great bit of tech to hold back in Azyr until that key turn to swoop in and snatch the opponent’s home objective and meet the auto-win conditions.
Otherwise, Danny cleaned up very effectively, with the next closest result being a 7 to 8 point victory over Nurgle and then 15+ margins of victory in every other battle. The ability to generate 2 spawn a turn (through Burning Sigil and the Magister’s warscroll spell) would have probably been key shutting down the Kruleboyz Boltboyz in Round 5 but the most impressive result has to be against the 7 dragons of Stian Engebretsen with their 4+ ignore magic ability on their warscroll, meaning that Danny had to beat them in other ways and not just magic (or was aided by some unlucky dice rolls from Stian!) It would be interesting to see what would have been the outcome were Lurkers Below not included in the pack as a 5-0 could have been on the cards. With this battleplan being one of the 6 carried forward into next season’s General’s Handbook, it’ll be interesting to see if it continues to be a bit of a wild card battleplan.
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Scarlet Doom – Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Awlrach the Drowner (175)* Guardian of Souls (150)*** – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist Krulghast Cruciator (150)*** Spirit Torment (115)*** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Battleline 5 x Hexwraiths (160)* 30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)** – Reinforced x 2 3 x Spirit Hosts (125)***
Units 3 x Fell Bats (75)* 3 x Fell Bats (75)* 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)** 10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)**
Endless Spells & Invocations Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Declan: Despite an increase in points and a reduction in power Eirik is still rocking the purple sun in this Nighthaunt army and it’s great to see it still getting use. The main benefit here is not the mortal wounds on a 1 (but that’s fun), it’s the -1 rend to all units within range… an effect that doesn’t change ethereal saves of the Nighthaunt. So all the benefit, none of the disadvantages – it’s a great piece of tech!
From Games Workshop / Wahapedia
And that’s before the Nighthaunt start charging to really rack up those negatives to armour saves (or increases to rend if you prefer)
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
Those 8-9 really hurt, but when you consider you can drop a level, it’s really 8+ (almost 42% before re-rolls). I’ve given my opinion on this before, but there doesn’t seem to be a FAQ and Nighthaunt players have definitely paid with their time in the wilderness (what is it with the non-Stormcast box armies? – Bloodbound, Nighthaunt, Kruleboyz!)
The army itself is all about the Bladegheists – if you can kill them in one turn (or in a double) then you’ve likely won… but wow what a unit to have to kill. And if it charges you, with any small units and characters also charging expect to have no armour. And how do you beat a Nighthaunt army… shooting! None-the-less great work from Eiric on a 4-1. I think Nighthaunt are much closer to a 3-2 army so he’s done well to get 4th here.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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Pre-Tournament Analysis
I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.
Ranked Players
Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.
Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.
Faction Breakdown
The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)* – General – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Command Trait: Inescapable Doom – Artefact: Grasping Plate – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)** – Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield – Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)** – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Spell: Mask of Darkness
Battleline 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch 8 x Iron Golems (75)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Units 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
Behemoths Chaos Warshrine (215)* – Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch – Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind.
The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport).
The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine.
As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – General – Command Trait: Cult Demagogue – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Kairos Fateweaver (435) Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)** 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**
Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches.
Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast.
The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster!
The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead!
It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards.
Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see!
The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed.
All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.
I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Morgaunt – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Artefact: The Dermal Robe – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (245)** – Lore of Madness: DerangedTransformation Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)* – General – Command Trait: Savage Chivalry – Artefact: Decrepit Coronet – Mount Trait: Razor-clawed – Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud Varghulf Courtier (160)**
Battleline 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)* – Reinforced x 1
Units 6 x Crypt Flayers (360)* – Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations Chalice of Ushoran (50)
Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).
Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).
As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.
Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.
This is the Top Three AoS lists for Borderlands 2k Bash that took place at Borderlands Comics and Games in Greenville, SC on November 19th. There were a total of 12 players competing in this three-round event.
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: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Underguts – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)* – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder Butcher (135)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Cleaver – Spells: Molten Entrails Slaughtermaster (135)* – Artefacts of Power: Gruesome Trophy Rack – Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
Patrick: When the Ogor Mawtribes Battletome was released it was a fair assumption that some unit spamming/abuse would come out of the new book. Tobias made this assumption as well and decided to test the waters by dropping as many Ironblasters as he could on the table. “Ironblasters are awesome,” Tobias told me. “I’m not playing Ogors because I want to play greenish stunted gitz… So none of that in my list.” He is also taking advantage of the -1 to wound from Rockmane Elder, providing some extra beef on the Stonehorn.
His Ironblasters played well into all of his matchups, although with some minor difficulty into Idoneth Deepkin due to shooting restrictions that the army carries with it. His Ironblasters killed Bloab Rotspawn in the first round of his second match. Two units firing the long range shot were able to remove him from across the table, and went on to table his Nurgle opponent by the bottom of round 2. “They will be a meta pick. If I had a big event I’d run them, but they weren’t great fun.” It may be too early to say if the warscroll needs some adjustments, but I think at the very least we will see a points increase in the future.
Congratulations to Tobias on his win, and we hope to see more lists from him in the future (the upcoming Cherokee GT, perhaps?).
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords – Army Type: Kastelai Dynasty – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER Manfred Von Carstein (380) – Spells: Fading Vigour Vengorian Lord (280) – General – Command Traits: Swift and Deadly – Artefact: Fragment of the Keep – Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amethystine Pinions Belladamma Volga (200) – Spells: Vile Transference
BATTLELINE 10 x Blood Knights (390)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer 10 x Blood Knights (390)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer 5 x Blood Knights (195)* – Kastellan – Standard Bearer 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)** – Skeleton Champion – Standard Bearer – Champion’s Mace or Halberd 10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)** – Skeleton Champion – Standard Bearer – Champion’s Mace or Halberd
Patrick: “After narrowing down to Soulblight, I went back and forth between a horde of Zombies and Skeletons and a mixed armes list like we have ssen across the meta. However, I thought ‘I own 25 Blood Knights,’ why not run all of them.” And run them, he did, to great effect. The list sees Manfred and a Vengorian Lord bringing buffs and spellcasting to round out his list, as well as some Expert Conqueror Skeletons for objective maintenance. Manfred’s base size came in especially handy due to his unique command ability, providing +1 to hit and wound wholly within 12”. His base size and careful positioning meant that Stuart could have at least 2 units of 10 knights with 2+/2+, -1 rend, and 2-3 damage lances.
Belladomma works to provide a quality fighter to deal with chaff units. Her ability to turn salin models into Dire Wolves worked in Stuart’s favor to keep the board saturated with threats, and can be used to bait an opponent’s dispel attempt to make room for casting from Mannfred and the Vengorian Lord.
Army Type: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Army Subfaction: Drowned Men – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Bloab Rotspawned (320) – Spells: Gift of Disease Orghotts Daemonspew (320) Lord of Afflications (230) – General – Command Traits: Overpowering Stench – Incubatch – Dolorous Tocsin – Artefacts of Power: The Splithorn Helm
BATTLELINE 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – Dolorous Tocsin 2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)* – Dolorous Tocsin 10 x Plaguebearers (150)** 10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
Patrick: Jake’s Nurgle list was tooled to the event. “With Prize of Gallet on the list it was going to be incredibly hard to score if I went first.” This meant that he had to break away from his original list (which included no Galletian Veterans) and build in two units of Plaguebearers. They are cheaper than Blightkings, and in this instance would perform the same duty. That left three units of flies, one to deep strike with the Lord of Affliction and one to Drowned Men across the table and lock his opponent down.
Jake feels that some better deployment of Bloab could have kept him alive longer. Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws would have done a lot of work into Tobias’s chaff units, and he may have been able to get a better performance in the third round. “Mawtribes are gross now,” he told me, but he is happy with the list and his performance. “The list did what I expected it too. Flies and Jaws eat the grunts and you aim the Maggoth lords at their heroes.”
He made some final notes in our conversation as well. “Nurgle is fine, the thing that bothers me the most is the lists that are winning are the same archetype. I’d love to see a non-Drowned Men win rate. The issue is everything in that book just pushed it towards that load out. Better units, better artefacts into the best subfaction.” His next event will see the use of a Great Unclean One in more close-range battleplans, one of which will include a “no deep strike” rule.
Army Type: Seraphon – Army Type: Coalesced – Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER Skink Starpriest (130)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration – Spells: Levitate
Patrick: This list is the perfect example of why I love one-day events. The fact that large prizes generally aren’t on the line means that people will be more willing to accommodate casual crowds and test off-meta lists. Jon’s list fits this perfectly.
“The idea…was to make a bad list” Jon told me during a discussion. The Greenville AoS community tends to be newer or more casual players than he normally plays. He didn’t want to create a list that would completely shut other players out. Jon told me “I like the idea of giant lizards stomping around, and this was the only time I would ever actually run them at an event.” Dread Saurians will certainly feel robust in a Thunder Lizard list, but overall they won’t accomplish very much. They’re an ideal unit for new players to feel good dumping wounds into without getting punched back too hard, but players also need to be sure to watch the Skinks, since it would be easy to focus on the big intimidating models while Jon’s battleline consistently scores VP. It’s a lesson in threat assessment and target priority for new players.
While Jon didn’t win the event, he certainly accomplished his goals. Hopefully we see more people approach play with this attitude in event in the future.
Note: Jon did not compete in the final round due to matchups. He was scheduled to face someone he plays multiple times a week, and he decided to give them a chance to play a different opponent (not to mention it is a pain to move three Dread Saurians around).
