This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Strom of Magic GT that took place in Preston, England on 13 and 14 August. It involved 24 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament..

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Brett: Prime hunters is gone and the dragons have returned. We haven’t seen a lot of Dragon lists at the top yet and they probably aren’t as bad as many people feared but they can be very hard to deal with. The army includes 2 different choices, Neave Blackthorn and Krondspine. Interestingly that just hammers how mobile this army is, Neave can ride the aetheric winds without a mount (remove her from the board and place her back 9″ from the enemy). It makes her a really good choice to take out a small important hero or jump on an uncovered objective. Everything else moves 10″ to 12″.

Army wide Luke went with the Lance on the Drakes, it’s the high damage option on the charge, they are in bounty hunters which will help them in sustained combat. They bring high durability with reasonable damage, their shooting is swingy (but if it hits, it hits), the Lance on the charge is doing 2 or 3 damage but there are only 3 attacks each, 4 on the drake. What they do well though is move fast and destroy smaller (MSU) units. The loss to Giants demonstrates this, they just don’t have the damage to drop a Gargant without a 4 drake unit. Celestial Vindicators really helps by giving exploding 6s in the combat phase.

This includes their best attack (the drake) which is 4 attacks, -2 rend and 2 damage. They want to avoid being tarpitted by big blocks of things like Bladgheist, but otherwise the unit is very durable (9 wounds on a 3+). Across the weekend most of the armies Luke faced could be picked apart down to a lot of low wound models (Dragged into the Tempest). It’s good to see the drakes flying high and Luke is to be congratulated for bringing and interesting variation.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspire Leaders JOTEK (525)*
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant
– General
– Command Trait: Louder than Words THE DARK DESTROYER (525)*
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact) BURGEON (525)
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant
Bonded to Incarnate
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Behemoths
THE BASTARD (400)
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
– Allies Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20) Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 105
Drops: 4

Brett: Winning the head to head clash of Giants with Sean (3rd) but unfortunately losing 2nd round to Nighthaunt, Adam otherwise had a great tournament. Adam took the time to name everything but I’m not sure why he called Krondspine the bastard. That’s normally what opponents call him. Despite the cost of Gargants, the army manages to squeeze in an Endless Spell, the Burning Head. It’s a very cheap source of Mortal wounds potentially a way of dealing with Bastilidons (if Kroak isn’t around). Flaming weapon for an extra damage on the Flail on Burgeon and Manticore Venom for +1 to wound on The Dark Destroyer are solid ways to increase the reliability of their attacks.

Beating Seraphon and Fyreslayers as well as a near mirror match confirms the approach. His single loss was to the ultimate 7th (see below) which combines NH heroes with large battle line units. Those Grimghast are capable of demoting a Incarnate or Gargant (into the grave). This is a really well considered list and plays well into the meta with the one issue around scoring, I discuss that more below.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags)
– Grand Strategy: Stomping Order
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
– General
– Command Trait: Louder than Words
– Artefact: The Great Wrecka
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact)
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)*
Battleline

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies
Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1940 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 105
Drops: 4

Brett: This is the army that brought down both 1st but lost to 2nd finishing 3rd. That’s down to scoring and highlights one of the issues for Gargants in AoS 3.1 – Battle Tactics. Their book ones are average and really depend on the map and the opponent; forcing them to rely on the season Battle Tactics and they are harder to achieve. Complementary trait and artefact on the General granting more attacks and mortal wounds on 6s. Manticore venom (+1 to wound) is a another good call, the Gatebreaker’s Flail has 10 attacks with flat damage 3 on his top profile.

Across the event the army presented a damage check which a lot of the newer style MSU/Bounty Hunter armies fail and did. Sean didn’t score strongly but only lost to a similar list to his down to the Krondspine. The most significant difference was Flaming Weapon on a Gatebreaker. And no Kraken-eater. Great to see the stomping boys back and performing well. It would be interesting to know if these results will affect the local meta.

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Grieving Legion
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)*
– Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist
Krulghast Cruciator (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)*
– Lore of the Underworlds: Spirit Drain
Battleline
30 x Grimghast Reapers (480)*
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Chainrasps (220)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Chainrasps (220)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Hexwraiths (160)*
Units
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)*
Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4

Brett: Dan’s Nighthaunt (NH) army is a bit different to a lot of the NH armies we are seeing. He’s brought some of the bigger heroes and leaning into them for their special abilities. Still have big blocks of ghosts and the Purple Sun, the procession is unusual. Grieving Legion prevents opponents from retreating. It’s great if you can absorb their attacks and replace lost models but for NH that means Guardian of Souls and Spirit Torment normally. Lady Olynder has a really powerful ability to replace D6 models in every Summonable NH unit but it’s once per game. All of the troop units count.

Acrane tome on Krulghast to increase his utility along with Master of Magic, it’s a good play with an otherwise unbuffed caster but makes Cogs a little redundant. Could Geminids or Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws been better? Reiknor can reliably get the Purple Sun out with the ability to add 3 to casting rolls. Late game that might be less reliable if he’s taken damage. All up 4 casts and good combat potential in the heroes but you don’t really want any of them in combat, particularly early in the battle. Their value is in their abilities, and with 7 wounds and a 4+ save (and either a 4+ or 6+ ward) they are potentially vulnerable to anything with a high number of attacks (since rend isn’t a thing).

The rest of the list includes all of the good things – Grimghast x 30 (89 attacks) and 2 x 20 Chainrasps – playing into Grieving Legion’s ability. Hexwraiths for mobility, objective stealing and screening and Banshees for their spell deny and annoying attacks. A really good army and a slight change, it passed the DPS check (Gargants) only losing to an army with a lot of Magmadroths and a heavy shooting Cities list. The Cities army had some very nasty elements. Good to see something a little different and a solid performance with a 3/2.

Final Tournament Placings