Category Archives: Hammers of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Cities of Sigmar, Death, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowheart, Hammers of Sigmar, Knights of the Empty Throne, Legion of Blood, Order, Slaves to Darkness, Soulblight Gravelords, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII

March 20, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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This is the top three AoS lists for Sparkle Party Deathmatch VIII that took place in the USA on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 52 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: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (350)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)**
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Expertise: Arcane
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares (280)***
– Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale

Battleline
5 x Black Knights (100)***
5 x Black Knights (100)***
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)*

Units
10 x Blood Knights (400)***
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Grave Guard (280)**
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (80)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Command
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

Some of our readers may remember that we interviewed Jeremy Veysseire some time ago on General Speaking. We reached out once more, and ever the gentleman, Jeremy agreed to give us a rundown of his list.

Jeremy Veysseire: The important thing about the Legion of Blood army I played at Sparkle Death party is that it was designed originally roughly 1 year ago to counter the hyper aggressive meta that was around Maggotkin Flies, Dragons and Ironjawz through the following important mechanics of Neferata’s spell allowing a unit of mine to ignore negative modifiers to saves (aka REND) for either Neferata and the Blood Knights on a 3+ save platform making them easily 2+ save during the crucial fights and the minus 1 to hit Aura from Neferata’s Command Ability, the reduction in attacks to 1 unit with the book spell. The additional mechanics that were more of a bonus such as the Bravery Reduction, the additional models fleeing and the Horrorghast combo really punished in some cases Dragons and the flies themselves since my army does not do straight raw damage per say but more of this “I will kill you by a thousand slow cuts while you scream for the hills.”

So we fast forward to Spark Death Party, why bring this army since the meta has evolved so much since then? Well, I wanted to see if the combo was a good counter to Gitz, Slaves and Mawtribes, which all fit those hyper aggressive archetypes. The difference being that all of those armies have abilities to deal out a lot more MW consistently than the previous meta (yes, even more than dragons) and still punch very hard. I made some tweaks by incorporating Lauka Vai and the Corpse Cart for the +1 to cast aura, hoping that in some games I could get Lauka Vai’s spell off allowing me to really control how my opponent could choose the engagement and the additional thought process was if the Gitz armies went deep in Squig Herd since they can’t reroll charges, it could potentially stop them when they want to charge.

Now lets cover some of the additional combos in the list that are less obvious, Levitating Blood Knights to always be able to move any enemy units when they retreat and plant themselves easily where they want while removing terrain to clunk them up. Making the Grave Guards Sworn protectors allows me the ability to do another Battle Tactic “A Matter of Honor” with them and just in the off chance I can get them to activate in the Hero Phase with the Vampire Lord. Lauka Vai’s MW on the Charge really allows me to sometimes get Neferata out of combat or lets me remove a GC consistently with her as she can be kind of a surgical strike unit and she provides the Blood Knights coverage if Neferata fails to cast her spell.

At the event itself, I played in order into FEC, Fyreslayers, Mawtribes, Gitz, Cities of Sigmar. My first 4 matchups were exactly the type of army I wanted to face, aggressive melee armies and man oh man did the combo work. Some highlights, keep Gotrek debuffed with less attacks and half charges while the army picked up everything else around him, into Mawtribes watching Stonehorn hit on 5’s with Neferata’s minus 1 to hit, into Gitz watching BK just absolutely lock units up and the Black Knights blocking avenues up the board. Neferata slayed a Terrorgheist, a Phoenix, a Grimwrath, and terrified the Heroes on Stonehorn with her dagger. The army obviously got to play the type of armies it was designed to fight into and it did incredibly well due mostly to its ability to keep my opponent’s army locked away and debuffed as I cut him ever so slightly to drain him of his life essence like perhaps…a Vampire. But honestly, all it took was probably a non Static shooting army like KO or Seraphon to just ruin my day. What a great last ride for this army before the new battletome.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Lord-Castellant (160)*
– Artefacts: Quicksilver Draught
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Lord-Relictor (150)***
– General
– Command Traits: High Priest
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Battlemage (100)****
– Ally
– Realm: Ghur

BATTLELINE
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
5 x Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows (190)**
– Judicator-Prime
– Thunderbolt Crossbow
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)****
5 x Drakespawn Knights (110)****
– Dread Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower

OTHER
10 x Protectors (440)*
– Protector-Prime
– 4 x Starsoul Mace
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)**
– Raptor-Prime
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (170)***
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Galletian Command
**Galletian Sharpshooters
***Vanguard
****Vanguard

Total Points: 1990/2000
Total Drops: 10
Total Units: 10
Total Wounds: 109

Through our friends at Stormkeep, we were able to reach out to Stark and ask if he’d give us a rundown of his list. Thanks again, Stark, for the comments, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again in the future!

Stark Pister: This list is a natural evolution of my HaXbows list from last season, with which I topped out at 4-1. Last season I played 15 Judicators + 3 Longstrikes in a 3 drop with double chariot bounty hunters and so this list pulls back on the shooting and chariots for a more durable anvil/hammer in the block of 10 protectors to fit the more midboard grind battleplans of this season.

In my opinion the strongest Stormcast lists tend to be mixed arms builds with durable screens protecting efficient shooting and high damage melee hammers to riposte threats that try to get through the screens to threaten the shooting, all supported by minimal characters since our faction synergies tend to be minimal. I tend to build my tournament lists with this a general philosophy as the balanced nature allows the flexibility to deal with most types of opponents. In a similar vein, I try to have units with diverse types of damage to have the tools to minimize polarized matches. I find Stormcast’s incredibly deep roster tends to provide the options to really customize what you want available in any given meta.

This new season presents a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges for Stormcast lists. Fortunately, our main minimal support characters are all GCs (except Gardus). One of our big strengths is the ability to snipe out small enemy buff heros and now that is even better with enemy GC’s being critical for half the non-book tactics and several battle plans, incentizing use of the Sharpshooter battalion. However, they balanced sharpshooters well by forcing it to be 3 required units so you can’t be very low drop. High drops can be problematic for shooting armies because an early double can allow melee to close the gap and for opposing shooting to gain the upper hand in output, so this needs to be compensated for somehow. Longstrikes make the perfect GC hunters, and with scions, translocate, and Thunderbolt volley, they provide very flexible turn one threat that helps offset those high drops. The added threat of the Judicators forces conservative screening of heros while they efficiently clear those screens from a safe distance.

The Gallatian Command battalion provides the opportunity for a very strong combo in Stormcast when used alongside a Galatian Champion with the Quicksilver Draught and the new Tunnel Master makes it easy to set up even with a hero like the Castellant who wants to be on the board in the hero phase for his ability. More importantly, it allows the combo to be down at the start of the game as part of your initial deployment castle, and with the help of the Relictor, it can be anywhere it needs to be on turn one. This allows you to defend from alpha strike armies that choose to go first against you (or the rare person you outdrop), while being able to get them buffed and into the optimal position when given top of one. Lord Castellant is the perfect hero for this job not just because of his ability to buff them to a 1+ save but critically because he has a 40mm Gryph Hound that enables the whole 10 block to fit within the 2.5″ bubble to allow them to strike first with him when someone charges them. This provides a HUGE deterrent to hitting your midbaord castle from the front and specifically acts as protection of your main melee hammer against the double turn.

The Ghur Battlemage helps make up for the paladin speed issues in the mid game and pairs well with the Relictor for melee units in general throughout. I often lead with Mystic shield on one of the screens to help with weathering the potential double as well, before flipping to wildform to go on the offensive. He also provides the bare minimum magic defense, which coupled with heroic willpower and the relictor Dispel at least let you disrupt the low hanging fruit.

The efficient battleline slots provide the opportunity to pick up an all-star screen in the Drakespawn Knights, who pair well with the Chariot to safely claim objectives and pin large threats until their buffs are down. The Chariot even has vanguard battalion to reroll its first charge outside of hero range. Because the battleline are the riposte and ranged units, they can easily stay back to protect heros from shooting for a while.

Another critical consideration this season has been the battle tactics. The teleporting GC lineup and Sworn Bodyguard paladins make most of the new ones achievable with some planning, though This One’s Mine is rarely an option. Hammerstrike Assault and Draconith Desctruction can be good backup options, albeit riskier that come in handy against armies where killing the one thing needs to be your focus anyway. The spicy Drakespawn pick can even sneak a late game Pioneers of the Realms.

Shoutouts to my mentor Matt Beasley for helping refine the list and forcing me to get reps in (and for lending the Drakespawn), to my painting mentor Ricky Fischer whose squigs I beat in round 5 to finish the tournament, and to the whole of Dimensional Cascade. Special thanks to my partner Larc for the unending support of my unbelievably-high-time-commitment hobbies.

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Follow the Path to Glory
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Be’lakor (355)
– Spells: Binding Damnation
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Leadership of the alpha
1 x Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)*
– Rune-etched Blade and Chaos Runeshield
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

BATTLELINE
3 x Varanguard (290)*
– 3 x Daemonforged Blade
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Knights (230)*
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Splintered Fang (100)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Another notch on Be’lakor’s bedpost! If you’ve not met him on the table before, Be’lakor’s man schtick is being able to stop a key unit from doing stuff (on a 3+ each phase) until your next hero phase. He’s been hotly debated in (all 9) S2D player circles because, while he offers a great amount of short-term control, which potentially allows you varanguard/10 knights (as in this list) to do their work, it’s also entirely possible that you roll a few crucial 2s, and then you’ve basically paid 355 pts for a not very durable, not very killy and kinda fast hero.

He has been cropping up recently though, suggesting that, overall, he’s worth it for the time he buys the hammers to do their work. Ricky here has actually gone for KOTET, which will allow the two units of knights, the Varanguard, and the Sorcerer on Manticore to all make up plenty of ground by running and charging. Obviously, that’s going to allow a fair bit of early pressure, especially with daemonic power being cast on 3d6 with a re-roll by the Manticore Sorc, allowing one unit to charge with 3d6 as well. I imagine the spell-portal is also there to allow the Manticore’s warscroll spell – one of the few good offensive spells S2D has access to – to reach out across the board to soften stuff up.

Finally, we have an Exalted Hero, who is utterly garbage, but only 100 points, and I imagine it is mainly there for GC based scoring.

Taking down one of the two mirrors and also managing to chew through NH and a monster heavy Ogor list means this is a great result with a techy list from Ricky!

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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
– Army Type: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Battlemage (100)*
– General’s Adjutant
– Spells: Roaming Wildfire, Ignite Weapons
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Freeguild General (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Veteran of the Blazing Crusade
1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)*
– Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds
1 x Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)**
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Sear Wounds, Flaming Weapon
1 x Lord-Arcanum (140)**
– Spells: Warding Brand, Roaming Wildfire

BATTLELINE
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)*
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
– Long Rifle
20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)*
– General’s Retinue
– Marksman
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Piper
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
– Standard Bearer
– Marksman
– Piper
10 x Flagellants (80)**
– Prophet
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Standard Bearer
– Drummer
– Freeguild Halberd
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)**
– Sergeant
– Drummer
– Standard Bearer
– Freeguild Halberd

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Quicksilver Swords (60)

OTHER
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Once you get one player comment, you can often get two or three from the connections those players have. That was the case here as well when Stark said he could reach out to Louis-Philippe for his comments.

Louis-Philippe: The Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix should only have Flaming Weapon (The mistake has been spot before start of the tourney and opponents were dully advise).

Game plan: First of all, AoS is a dice game. Luck is part of the game, but careful planning can sway the odds in your favour. …sometime 😛

Flagellants are there for the easy ‘’Sanctify’’ battle tactic T1 (White dwarf). Since I always let my opponent go first (I was lucky not to face a 1 drop), he usually doesn’t kill anything. So that was a free one turn 1. (Aside from game 4, where the battleplan didn’t favour that BT (Position Over Power). Fun fact, that was the only game my opponent concentrated on his resource to kill my flagellant on his T1.

This list has 4 (double, cause Hallowheart) casters, meaning an 8 cast hero phase T1. The Hallowheart command ability lets you take D6 mortals for the same amount in casting bonus. Meaning this list is usually casting at +1, if not +2 or +3, but could reach a whopping +9! and since all your spells are cast on 6s (aside Flaming weapon) unless your opponent is able to unbind, everything goes flying out. Fun fact (not so fun for my opponent): In my 4th round T1 hero phase, I was casting with a +5 from that command ability since my phoenix failed all his ward saves. Got to heal 3 wounds back with Sear Wounds though.

I mostly face Melee lists (Fireslayer, Skaven (night/gutterrunners), Nighthaunt, nurgles (beast), Soulbright Grave lord)

So, the plan was to deploy away from their charge range. For the skaven, I deployed my shooting units 3’’ aways from the front of my shaft unit, so his deepstriking rats only had my shaft to shoot at (and my Fulminators which they killed with mortals). He also charged my shaft with his deceiver (one of them failed the charge). His deceiver didn’t like mortals from magic bottom of 1 (and the other rats didn’t like my shooting).

As for the Soulbright, well Jeremy is impressive, tactics wise and had a bit of luck, he stole initiative T2, forcing me to move forward by burning my ‘’back’’ objective, and had Neferata do 1 wound (yes only 1 unsaved wound to my Phoenix, mind you it was the dagger that got through, Phoenix was at 11 health, he rolled a 5… pouf no more Phoenix).

Units :
The goal was to use the Freeguild Guards and Flagellants as chaff around the Handgunners and Crossbowmen. My general and the battle mage from Ghur had to be close to each other for the adjutant rule and my general was in the middle of the range unit, providing +1+1 with his CP and a 18’’ wholly whiting immune to bravery. The Phoenix was there to act as tarpit and increase survivability (if there’s any) of the chaff unit since his -1 wound bubble affects any enemy unit within range.
Fulminators are there to act as a menace, which they did great since most of my opponents were scared of them and diverted resource to deal with them.
Finally, th Lord-Arcanum was there to :

Be an extra GV
Give 1 more (possibility of 2) HP to the fulminators
But mostly give 6’’ more movement range on the Quicksilver Swords, which make them a 20’’ threat range on cast (remember the casting bonuses I talked about earlier)

Battleplans :
R1-Prize of Gallet
R2-Ours for the taking
R3-Only the Worthy
R4-Position over power
R5-Jaws of gallet.

Possible upgrade : Swap ‘’Tunnel Master’’ from the battlemage to the Lord-Arcanum.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Hammers of Sigmar, Order, Skaventide, Stormcast Eternals, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Winterleaf

Top Three AoS Lists for the Norsehammer Open

March 11, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Norseshammer Open that took place in Norway on the 4th and 5th of March. It involved 36 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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

Leaders
Thanquol on Boneripper (430)*
– 4 Warpfire Projectors
– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap
Verminlord Warbringer (400)**
– General
– Command Trait: Devious Adversary
– Artefact: Warpstone Charm
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Warlock Bombardier (110)*
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!
Clawlord (110)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
20 x Clanrats (100)**
– Rusty Blade
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
6 x Stormfiends (640)**
– 2x Windlaunchers
– 2x Ratling Cannons
– 2x Doomflayer Gauntlets
– Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Warp-Grinder (60)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)

Terrain
3 x Gnawholes

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 5

Peter: Luckily, one of our Discord members had seen that Ben had discussed his list on the AoS Coach Discord channel. We reached out and asked if we could use the comments on Woehammer. Ben kindly agreed.

Benjamin Flodda: This was my list this weekend testing the rats for upcoming teams tournaments mostly. Nice bonus to go through the weekend undefeated! I think the list is pretty strong and has play into most things, although it’s pretty fragile and it doesn’t take too much poor positioning for things to start to fall apart. But played carefully, I think it has legs.

So, the warpgrinder is basically to give yourself some deployment flexibility. It gives one-drop opponents something to worry about in their deployment if they plan to give away first, and it requires them to always zone out the rattling cannons. Once the fiends are on the table, they are way too easy to play around imo. So they mostly go in deep strike regardless, although deepstriking clanrats is definitely valid in some cases. And if you place the grinder close to a gnawhole it’s amazing how many points it can score you late-game.

The most fun thing in the list is definitely the clawlord combined with arcane tome and launchon. Everybody expects the boat to be for thanquol (which it certainly can be), but early game you can sling the clawlord into the opponent with the boat (taking a mortal which gives him an extra attack) and with double death frenzy, flaming weapon and with +2 attacks from devious adversary. You can shoot down a screen and often get into fun stuff, turn 1, and with +1 to hit and wound from the warbringer, he can really do work! If you then position him within 3 of something after he fought, if he dies he can fight (this time with 13 attacks on 2+ 2+ and damage 3) or he rolls a 3+ and survives, at which point he can fight in the following hero phase AND when he dies. That little dude took down a megagargant on his own this weekend.

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

Leaders
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)**
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Draught of Magmalt Ale
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runesmiter (120)**
– Forge Key
– Artefact: Ash-cloud Rune
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash
Auric Runemaster (130)**
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
Battlesmith (150)***
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Doomseeker (80)**
Knight-Incantor (120)***
– Allies

Battleline
15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)*
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)*
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact – Greyfyrd
Artefact – Greyfyrd
Artefact – Warlord**
Aspect of the Champion – Warlord ***

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 120 / 400
Wounds: 117
Drops: 10

Kevin Lathers: The current GHB is starting to hit its stride and has allowed Greyfyrd to finally shine. This subfaction was always popular, but seldom winning, and now that’s changed. It gives Galletian Champions one extra wound and also two extra artefacts. That’s hard to pass up in the current GHN and Duardin glimmerlust always shines for more treasures.

Ole’s list has some interesting inclusions, particularly a Knight-Incantor and a Doomseeker. The Doomseeker is a cheap GC that can occasionally slap something hard if it can get near its “target.” The Knight-Incantor is a utility piece: he provides an automatic unbind for those pesky Lumineth, Skaven (and indeed, he saw two), and Sylvaneth matches while also giving the army a spellcaster for mystic shield. The biggest oddity here is the “Ash-Cloud Rune” which can block spell casting from targeting units wholly within 12” of the user for a turn. A very situational item that means he was very worried about spellcasting.

But the main crux of his list is the Hearthguard Berserkers and Runefather on Magmadroth. While the Hearthguard Berserkers can hold points and shred anything charging them, the DadDroth is the ultimate in Hammer Technology and with Blood of the Berserker can remove any one threat almost guaranteed. A common setup for the Droth is to use the rend rune, enhance it with the heroic action (or finest hour if the rune enhanced or you don’t need more rend), pray for +1 to wound rolls from the Runesmiter, and send him in as a missile of death.

The Hearthguard Berserkers see the common mix of one unit of poleaxes and one of broad. The broadaxes being buffed by a flamekeeper and benefitting from runes while Poleaxes provide much needed mortal wounds into matchups like Nighthaunt. The flamekeeper can really make Broadaxes shine giving them 3 damage swings, charge in their opponent’s combat phase, or fight on death.

The rest of the list reads as the usual suspects: Runemaster for prayers and fyrewall; Runesmiter for deepstrike and/or Runic Empowerment; and a Nulsidian Battlesmith for spell blocking and wards on the non-HGB.

Overall, the list is going to be a brick on objectives with a dangerous hammer inside.

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

Leaders
Knight-Incantor (120)*
– Spell: Celestial Blades
Lord-Relictor (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Allies

Battleline
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Liberators (120)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
5 x Vanquishers (110)*

Units
6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (480)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Protectors (440)*
– 4x Starsoul Maces
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 102
Drops: 1

Brett; Classic, at least in this meta, Stormcast (SCE) list giving probably the best combined arms approach in the current game. Except artillery of course but a combination of hammers from Cavalry (Fulminators), Fire support (Raptors – since artillery really isn’t an AoS “thing”) and Infantry (Protectors). Fulminators going up 10 points have made a lot of people look to Desolators and Tempestors but Fulminators on the charge are still the most consistent high damage hammer around. With Celestial Blades from the Knight Incantor and all out defence they are still hitting on 2s and wounding on 2s with -2 rend and 3 damage. Slightly down with the loss of Bounty Hunters they are good enough to make your opponent either tar pit them (looking at you Gitz) or try to manoeuvre around them.

The Protectors have similar tech piece and are another target for the same buffs. They really benefit from the Battlemage (+2 to movement/charge) and Lord Relictor giving them teleport with an effective 7″ charge. And Starsoul maces, mortals on a 2+. They are a great defensive unit as well with 2+ saves. The problem is that both the Fulminators and the Protectors need to charge and are vulnerable to Unleash Hell. And that brings the Raptors out to play. Their long range shooting could remove screens or, just as easily most other ranged units. Scions of the Storm so they can be kept in reserve, Liberators and even Protectors for screens if they are on the board and really only Sentinels to outrange them.

Has to be said that the Lord Relictor is a very busy fellow, what with prayers, spells and Tunnel Master as well as being the general. That’s a weakness of this list in the Galletian Champion era, all of these heroes are needed elsewhere and none are stellar in combat. Losing only to Lumineth in the second round and coming in a very respectable 3rd Simen proves there is still some life in SCE. Can they get a 2nd book this edition already please?

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Winterleaf
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Seasons of war: The Dwindling

Leaders
Warsong Revenant (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Allies

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Dryads (100)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*

Units
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Gossamid Archers (420)*
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Treelord (230)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 1

A nice ‘sampling platter’ list here from Thomas. As ever, the core threats are a big blob of Scythe-noth and a Warsong Rev to handle the arcane side of things. Now, traditionally, Kurnoth are pretty ponderous, but with +3 to normal moves *and* charges from the Spiteswarm Hive, and an additional +3 from the Ghurish Battlemage, they now have an average threat range of 21″ – which is somewhat scarier. Of course, because of when both these spells proc, it means the Hunters also retain their charge bonuses if they choose to teleport – so really, very little of the board is safe, and if you don’t have adequate screens or a way to delete the Kurnoth (much more easily said than done given their durability), then you can expect these things to reap the rewards.

The rest of the list is basically supporting tech – a lone Treelord to fill the behemoth slot of the batreg while also offering Rampage access and the sneaky ‘enemy can’t pile in’ tech – Gossamids (reinforced no less!!) to potentially force melee armies to curl up and cry every time they want to charge something useful, or threaten a fair chance of some nasty spike damage – and plenty of dryads for board control and further screening. Never understimate how powerful -1 to hit and wound is by the way – doesn’t matter if you have a rubbish save if you don’t have to roll any dice.

Well done to Thomas for the 4-1 with a balanced list.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Big Waaagh!, Blades of Khorne, Blessed Sons, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Greyfyrd, Hammers of Sigmar, Helon, Idoneth Deepkin, Jaws of Mork, Legion of the First Prince, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nautilar, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter Holland, Petrifex Elite, Reapers of Vengeance, Skaventide, Slaves to Darkness, Stormcast Eternals

Top 3 Lists BCP Megapost 26th February 2023

March 4, 2023 Peter Holland Leave a comment

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I thought as Woehammer often struggles to get all the event results out for any given week, it may be a good idea to do one post with all of the lists we intended to cover.

Below, you’ll find all the top three lists this week (that we’re aware of), along with my wildcard choices. We will post individual event results as well, and I will link them to the results below where possible.

Events

Warhammer World: Matched Play Event Top 3 Article: Here
- 1st – Fyreslayers (Greyfyrd)
- 2nd – Gloomspite Gitz (Jaws of Mork)
- 3rd – Maggotkin of Nurgle (Blessed Sons)
- Wildcard – Ossiarch Bonereapers (Petrifex Elite)
Cherokee Open Top 3 Article: Here
- 1st – Gloomspite Gitz (Jaws of Mork)
- 2nd – Stormcast Eternals (Hammers of Sigmar)
- 3rd – Lumineth Realm-Lords (Helon)
- Wildcard – Skaven
Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water Top 3 Article: Here
- 1st – Big Waaagh!
- 2nd – Blades of Khorne (Reapers of Vengeance)
- 3rd – Idoneth Deepkin (Nautilar)
- Wildcard – Slaves to Darkness (Legion of the First Prince)

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Warhammer World: Matched Play Event (UK) – 74 Players

Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Greyfyrd
– Mortal Realm: Aqshy
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Auric Runefather (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
Battlesmith (150)***
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Auric Runemaster (130)***
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Auric Runesmiter (120)***
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Ember Storm

Battleline
15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)*
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)**
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Aspect of the Champion

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 162
Drops: 10

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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– General
– Command Trait: The Clammy Hand
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Grinkrak The Great (190)*
Skragrott, The Loonking (160)*
– Lore of the Moonclans: Nikkit!Nikkit!
Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**
Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (80)**

Battleline
20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)*
20 x Moonclan Shootas (125)*
36 x Squig Herd (360)**
– Reinforced x 2
36 x Squig Herd (360)**
– Reinforced x 2

Units
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)*
6 x Grinkrak’s Looncourt (0)*
5 x Gobbapalooza (145)**
– Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 250
Drops: 2

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Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Army Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Be’lakor (355)
1 x Lord of Plagues (140)*
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Gift of Disease
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Bloab Rotspawned (320)*
– Spells: Blades of Putrefaction
1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)*
– General
– Command Traits: Overpowering Stench
– Incubatch
– Dolorous Tocsin
– Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm
1 x Orghotts Daemonspew (320)**

BATTLELINE
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
– Blightlord
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
– Blightlord
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
10 x Rotmire Creed (130)**

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

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Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

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

UNITS
6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)**
– 2 x Dread Falchions
6 x Necropolis Stalkers (340)**
– 2 x Dread Falchions
10 x Mortek Guard (140)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
10 x Mortek Guard (140)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

ARTILLERY
Mortek Crawler (200)
Mortek Crawler (200)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Galletian Veterans

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 1980/2000

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Cherokee Open (US) – 79 Players

Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Army Subfaction: Jaws of Mork
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Squigboss (80)*
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
1 x Skragrott, the Loonking (160)*
– Spells: Itchy Nuisance
1 x Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: The Clammy Hand
– Artefacts: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’
– Spells: The Hand of Gork

BATTLELINE
10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280)
– Bounder Boss
10 x Boingrot Bounderz (280)*
– Bounder Boss
36 x Squig Herd (360)**
12 x Squig Herd (120)**

BEHEMOTH
1 x Mangler Squigs (260)

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Scrapskuttle’s Arachnacauldron (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

OTHER
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (110)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Galletian Veterans

TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Holy Commands: Thunderbolt Volley
– Holy Commands: Call for Aid
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Bastian Carthalos (300)**
1 x Lord-Relictor (150)**
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Lord-Castellant (160)**
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Thundershock
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)**
5 x Liberators (120)***
– Liberator-Prime
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
– Grandweapon
5 x Liberators (120)***
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
5 x Liberators (120)***
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield

OTHER
3 x Aetherwings (70)*
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
– Raptor-Prime
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
– Raptor-Prime

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

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Army Subfaction: Helon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Archmage Teclis (700)*
1 x Scinari Calligrave (110)*
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat
– Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
1 x Scinari Cathallar (110)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Silver Wand
– Spells: Total Eclipse

BATTLELINE
5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)*
– Windspeaker Seneschal
– Standard Bearer
5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)*
– Windspeaker Seneschal
– Standard Bearer
20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)*
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Protection of Hysh
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– High Warden
– Spells: Etheral Blessings
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)*
– High Warden
– Spells: Solar Flare

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
1 x Rune of Petrification (60)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

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

LEADER
1 x Verminlord Deceiver (420)
– Artefacts: Shadow Magnet Trinket
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Verminlord Warbringer (400)*
– General
– Command Traits: Devious Adversary
– Artefacts: Warpstone Charm
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Grey Seer (120)**
– Spells: Skitterleap
1 x Grey Seer (120)**
– Spells: Skitterleap
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Thanquol (430)**
– 4 x Warpfire Projectors
– Spells: Skitterleap

BATTLELINE
10 x Night Runners (90)*
– Nightleader
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Clawleader
– 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer
– 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (100)*
– Clawleader
– 2 x Clanrat Standard Bearer
– 2 x Clanrat Bell-ringer
– Rusty Blade

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Warp Lightning Vortex (80)
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhole (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

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Small Town Throwdown: Smoke on the Water (US) – 30 Players

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

LEADERS
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
– Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
– Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
Skragrott, the Loonking (160)*
Orruk Megaboss (140)**
Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
– Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
– Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm
– Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
– Aspects of the Champion: Abhorrant Ghoul King

BATTLELINE
Moonclan Stabbas (125)*
– Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
– Stabba
– 3 Barbed Nets
Orruk Ardboys (80)**
Orruk Ardboys (240)***
– Ardboy Boss
– 3 x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– 3 x Waaagh! Drummer
– 6 x Orruk-forged Shield
Orruk Brutes (450)***
– Brute Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Brutes (150)***
– Brute Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

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Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Charge

Leaders
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)*
– Artefact: Armour of Scorn
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (300)***
– General
– Command Trait: Mage Eater
– Artefact: Skullshard Mantle
Skarbrand (390)
Slaughterpriest (100)*
– Prayer: Blood Sacrifice
Skarr Bloodwrath (110)*
Slaughterpriest (100)**
– Prayer: +1 to hit
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)***
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)***
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)**

Units
9 x The Unmade (80)*

Behemoths
Cygor (210)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Wrath-Axe (70)
Skulls (50)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Vanguard
***Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Drops: 8

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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin
– Enclave: Nautilar
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Akhelian King (250)*
– General
– Bladed Polearm
– Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury
– Artefact: Potion of Hateful Frenzy
– Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness
Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers (110)*
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
– Allies

Battleline
6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Namarti Reavers (340)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)**
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)**
Akhelian Leviadon (460)*
– Mount Trait: Ancient

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Galletian Sharpshooters

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Centaurion Marshal (145)*
– Artefacts: The Conqueror’s Crown
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Chaotic Conduit
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
1 x Eternus, Blade of the First Prince (235)*
1 x Be’lakor (355)***
– Spells: Daemonic Speed

BATTLELINE
24 x Chaos Legionnaires (330)**
6 x Furies (90)**
6 x Furies (90)***

BEHEMOTH
1 x Chaos Warshrine (185)***
– Prayers: Curse
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh

OTHER
1 x Cockatrice (105)*
3 x Gorebeast Chariots (345)***
– Exalted Charioteer
– 3 x Chaos Greatblade and Lashing Whip
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Galletian Veterans
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Hammers of Sigmar, Helon, Jaws of Mork, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Skaventide, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three Aos Lists for the Cherokee Open

March 2, 2023 Top 3 Lists 1 Comment

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Tournament that took place in the USA on the 25th and 26th February. It involved 79 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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Cherokee Open (US) – 79 Players

Dale returns with back to back 5-0s with Gloomspite Gitz. So there’s definitely something in the book. For those who didn’t catch that review, here’s what I said last time:

Dale has gone with Squigs for his main force with Bounders providing some great Spears of damage and the Squig Herd doing mortals when they run away, and the herders can get them back. The lack of command abilities on them worries me, however, a little as people get used to the army… especially with shooting. The buff pieces all have a place as well, with Squigs getting free moves, the moon doing as required, and 5+ward on one unit. It definitely requires some memory to keep all the moving parts in your head.

So, what to add? Well let’s use the time to talk about Skragrott:

Warscroll from Games Workshop via Wahapedia

He’s got loads of new abilities; most of which are build on the previous book. First up he’s a Warmaster so counts as a General in the army as well as your selected one. Great for Command Ability ranges. He’s still a 2 cast Wizard but he’s been reading those books in the last 3 years and now knows the full Lore (if in a Gloomspite List). This is great if the Fungoid is better placed to use his Hand of Gork.

He loses his extra command points, but gets a free command ability each turn – a great substitute. For me the best addition is that he also shines the Light of the Bad Moon so there’s a third source for the benefits – moon, shrine, Skragrott. He retains his 4+ ward and can move the moon… and then his new spell is great! 24″ mortal wound causer — you’re going to want some Mystic Terrain. I’ll do a deep dive into the Warscroll in the future, but he’s now a great addition to any Gitz army.

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Before I jump into the list breakdown, I would like to note that I attended Cherokee this year (78th place, please don’t look at me), and faced Matthew’s list in the first round. He was an absolute pleasure to play, and he stomped me into the dirt.

Matthew brought a fair number of mortal wound-dealing and heavy-hitting units. Bastion is insanely tough with great damage output and the Slann-esque ability to place mortals anywhere on the battlefield. The Fulminators use their breath weapon mortals to soften up tougher opponents before charging in to finish them off. The longstrikes are there to fish for 6’s to hit froma safe distance, to try to pick off a unit left out in the open (and their Aetherwing buddies to make those standard shots a little more reliable).

Past that the list focuses on standard-issue units to perform standard-issue jobs. The priest uses translocation to sling his GCs into position (or throw Bastion into you backline). The Lord-Castellant uses his lantern to buff the saves for the Fulminators, leading to the sweet 1+ save, and the addition of the Arcane Tome allows him to weaken his opponent’s heavy-hitters to further protect units like Fulminators and Bastion, who might otherwise be at risk from volume-of-dice attacks.

Great work from Matthew to grab 2nd spot at such a huge event, and great game from me as well! I look forward to seeing where this army goes as we progress more into this GHB.

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Jon: Jonathan made sure to get every drop of effectivity out of his list when he made the bold decision to only include one group of Auralan Sentinels in his list. With a maximum shooting range of 24″, requiring line of sight, and two massive obscuring terrain features in the middle of the board it’s very impressive that he was able to surgically pull off his HVT’s.

Two Galatian Champions enable him to consistently play for the generic battle tactics while the full endless spell suite means you can almost assuredly score three to four Lumineth Realm-Lords specific tactics. The Calligrave’s signature spell that ONLY affects heroes that are in line of sight clearly was a great pick.

An interesting decision of giving the Cathallar a Command Trait instead of giving Teclis the nod as General means “This One’s Mine!” is almost never going to be achieved, but it doesn’t seem that Roberts missed it. Great showing from Jonathan! I look forward to hearing about it from attendees and fans in the coming weeks.

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Peter: We previously states that the Skaven book was one of the oldest books. This is obviously a mistake, with it being under a year old.

Skaven are currently struggling, but with the right pilot, they are still able to compete in the meta… and this army is full of lovely Skaveny tricks. I played a very similar list at Warfare last year and got a small win, but it was touch and go, and a double would have killed me. The army has lots of strike and fade tactics and can hit you wherever Zachary wants. There’s not much you can do to stop them striking where they want with the Gnawholes and Skitterleap.

The Big Combo here is Thanquol and Lauchon. The Soulseeker can move Thanquol who normally can’t Skitterleap… and get him closer than 9″. This means he is superb at horde clearing. If you’ve got a Squig Herd it’s going to die quickly! Just hope there’s some left to flee and cause mortal wounds.

With 4 Warpfire Projectors Thanquol is doing 2 mortal wounds for each model within 8″… easily killing any hordes out there. The only protection I found was a cunning redeploy and then try to catch him with a double turn… but it’s risky especially with his Unleash Hell having no negatives… so he can move, fire, unleash hell, fight in combat…! Ouch.

It’s not all Thanquol, the Verminlords are great models and can really dish out damage when they need to. It’s a great list – don’t underestimate it!

Tournament Placings

For the full tournament placings visit Best Coast Pairings.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Astral Templars, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Hammers of Sigmar, King's Gitz, Order, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for Sydney Salt Smash

February 25, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Sydney Salt Smash that took place in Australia on the 18th and 19th of February. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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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: Astral Templars (Scions of the Storm)
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Lord-Veritant (140)**
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation
Knight-Zephyros (100)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)*
Lord-Arcanum on Tauralon (250)**
– Mount Trait: Celestial Instincts
– Spell: Starfall

Units
3 x Vanguard-Palladors (200)*
– Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins
3 x Vanguard-Palladors (200)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins
3 x Vanguard-Palladors (200)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins
6 x Vanguard-Palladors (400)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Starstrike Javelins
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Gryph-Hounds (90)*
6 x Gryph-Hounds (90)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Holy Command: Steadfast March

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 132
Drops: 2

Stormcast are in a tricky place. They have loads and loads of warscrolls, but many of them are sub-optimal. Whilst Games Workshop tries to correct this by tweaking points up and down, the good warscrolls remain good, and the bad remain bad… and so the ‘good warscroll spam’ armies come to the fore. The good news is that there are different versions of them, so you’ll not necessarily play the same one, but the bad news is that it is a lot of repeated Warscrolls.

That’s no criticism of Sean, who has taken this formula and got 5-0 from it. Sure I am going to criticise him for beating up Gloomspite Gitz (booo!) but in all seriousness he’s done very well with an army of Paladors (very quick, some shooting and reasonable combat effectiveness as well).

The Gryph hounds sync in well here with Warning Cry, which allows units to shoot at deep strikers and summoned units. Effectively giving Sean some free shots against enemy units for limited outlay. If you make it through the shooting, you’ll then have to face a deep-striking unit of Sean’s own – the still great Celestant Prime. It’s good to see him representing the book he comes from!

A really thematic list that is likely to give any opponent pause (or just annoy them). Palladors have been overlooked for most of this edition (and 2nd) for a reason. But they are also 5 wound models with 12″ move and a built-in teleport. They are built for scoring, at least when there are this many backed by the Celestant Prime and the Lord Arcanum for the +1 to hit rolls for the closest Pallador. A well thought out dynamic list.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
Lord-Relictor (150)**
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Thundershock
– Prayers: Translocation
Knight-Heraldor (100)**
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)*
Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)*
Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)**
Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)**

OTHER
Shadow Warriors (120)*
– Shadow Walker
Castigators (90)*
– Castigator-Prime
The Farstriders (90)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Back from his Cancon insanity with fewer Vexillors and even more Tempestors. I admire his patience building and painting that them (the armour and arms take a while to eliminate gaps). There are plenty of tricks still, a Knight Heraldor (not often seen or even owned), Shadow Warriors, Castigators, and The Farstriders. All led by a Lord Relictor (with Translocate and Thundershock) who brings Master of Magic to hopefully get Everblaze Comet off. Essentially, this list is trying to deal with SCE mobility issues and damage output in the face of new more serious threats.

Scions of the Storm allows half of the units to be held in reserve and arrive in any turn, which prevents first turn shooting, removing a lot of important pieces. In this case, as a 2 drop army so Yangxue is probably deciding who has first turn, toss up whether to keep it or play for the early double. Everyone should know the Vexillor’s trick now. It’s not OP, but it is a 24″ version of the Stormdrake’s shooting attack with an area of effect. It’s once per game, so deciding when to use it is critical, but they remain a solid Galletian Champion for scoring once they are down, just not very mobile. The Knight Herald is here mostly as a quiet scoring piece with his Tunnel Master but can punish units near terrain, chip damage really but good into some armies that like to lurk near terrain. Of the units – Tempestors have been a very common choice in place of Fulminators lately.

Shadow Warriors duplicate the abilities of Scions of the Storm units on their own warscroll. They don’t count as a coalition force, though, because this is a Scions of the Storm army. Farstriders can teleport, and the Castigators are another cheap screen with Unleash Hell potential that can also be teleported by the Relictor. Very good at picking off any objectives that aren’t well covered. So movement is covered, and output, especially in the first turn or 2, is really good. Hit hard early and then outlast them. Unless the opponent is a horde army or has strong heals, this will probably work. Or Trolls, trolls (Troggoths) are probably a counter. They’re damn scary now

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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Chasing The Moon
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Dankhold Troggboss (200)**
– General
– Command Trait: Loonskin
– Artefact: Speaky-skull Fetish
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*
– Artefact: Leering Gitshield
– Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Mollog (130)*

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

Units
1 x Dankhold Troggoths (180)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Loonskin Malevolent Moon (0)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Troggherd Heavies
***Galletian Sharpshooters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 136
Drops: 9

On the same weekend as Sheffield Slaughter, Ben has guided a Trogg army (Gloomspite Gitz) to a spectacular 4-1. Not bad for an army that was languishing at the bottom of the rankings before the new book. It’s still too early to tell if the book will be above the magical 45%-55% level, but it definitely feels like it should be able to stay away from the mid-thirties it was in during the last incarnation.

The Troggs that Ben has taken also shows the advantage of giving people choices with battalions. Sure, there is only one in the Gitz book, but it is an innovative way of getting people to take Dankhold Troggoths… a great model, but before now, a very weak scroll. The increased regeneration helps here as well, but it comes with a free artefact as well, which is well worth considering for only 180 points. Treat him as a throw-away spear unit and hammer something to death. Just remember he doesn’t come back through the shrine at the end of the turn.

But the Rockguts and Fellwaters do, and with healing now automatic and every hero phase, you’ll need to kill units outright – not an easy thing for the 9 Rockguts.

It’s a great army, and it looks good on the board too – don’t be suckered in by the lack of bodies… these guys will hang around and stick on objectives. My only concern for them would be the mirror into a Squig list, but Ben fought one of those in game 5 and came out on top, so maybe this list can compete long-term.

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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Hag Queen (120)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (320)
– Allies
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
-Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor

Battleline
15 x Blood Sisters (450)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Blood Sisters (150)*

Units
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Heart of Fury (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 320 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 2

It’s always nice to see a Norathi list! Since her price hike, I think they make more sense than ever. Even though it will always be scary not taking the big momma, once you spread those points over more synergistic bodies, you can end up with a surprising amount of redundancy and board control.

And that’s _kinda_ what Liam has gone for here – by replacing the 700 pt Morathi with a Frostheart Phoenix – which is a durable, fast monster at less than half the points, and a newly-bargain priced Slaughter Queen on Cauldron. Between these two pieces, Liam brings to bear overlapping auras of -1 to wound and +1 to save, which, combined with -1 damage from the Heart of Fury, go a long way to making the fragile Daughters able to take a serious punch.

Beyond that, it’s the usual block of 15 stab sneks, but he’s also brought 10 bows – which I think are pointed for the double shoot but still offer decent ranged output – and the usual double khinerai for amazing scoring options.

A really nice balanced list that cleaned up some strong meta opponents, losing only to what is quickly becoming the clearly-over-tuned Gloomspite book!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Blessed Sons, Chaos, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gavespawn, Hammers of Sigmar, Heartwood, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Seraphon, Stormcast Eternals, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Six AoS Lists for CanCon 2023

January 29, 2023 Top 3 Lists 3 Comments

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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)**

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord
***Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 168
Drops: 11

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.

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion
– Triumphs: Inspired

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)***

Endless Spells
Horrorghast (40)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Linebreaker
****Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 11

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

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101

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

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 92
Drops: 1

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)*

Endless Spells
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Season
Season of Blugeoning

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 1

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)**

Everblaze Comet (90)
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Holy Command
Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 2

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!

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Disciples of Tzeentch, Eternal Conflagration, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Hammers of Sigmar, Order, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for Scottish Lasters

January 26, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Scottish Lasters that took place in Scotland on the 21st and 22nd of January. It involved 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– General
– Meteoric Standard
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Celestial Blades
Knight-Incantor (120)*
– Spell: Azyrite Halo
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos (300)*

Battleline
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)*
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (240)*
4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)*

Units
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

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

Another Stormcast with unusual choices, it’s good to see more diversity and a few different heroes. Knight Vexillor is being discussed in Discord a lot lately, but mostly for his teleport potential (Pendant of the Stormbringer). Here he’s been equipped with the Metoric Standard and also provides Celestial Blade support. The Standard gives a once a game Comets Call. Azurite Halo isn’t commonly seen, but on a 6 to save it inflicts a Mortal Wound (MW). Then there is Bastian, a great model with amazing abilities but slow movement. Otherwise, the list is very mobile with Drakes and Draconiths (12” and 10” movement, respectively). Tempestors are seeing a revival just now, short range, but they offer a lot of shots and are pretty tough to boot. Their mounts still have -2 rend 2 damage attacks. And the pairs of Fulminators and Storm Drakes for Mobil threat generation and scoring.

And there you have it, a lot of mobile small threats able to apply pressure centred on Bastian with a large hammer unit that can also perform as an anvil. Ranged MW for chip damage and multiple small units to charge, blunting the effectiveness of Unleash Hell. The icing on the cake is the Judicators, only 10 shots, but the ability to double shoot makes a sizeable difference. JJ scored well throughout and weathered everything thrown at home, proving again that mobility and flexibility are a winning combination.

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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Bloodwrack Medusa (140)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Shadow Stone
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
Morathi-Khaine (350)*
The Shadow Queen (350)*

UNITS
10 x Witch Aelves (120)*
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
10 x Witch Aelves (120)*
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
15 x Blood Sisters (450)*
15 x Blood Sisters (450)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1980/2000

It’s Morathi and the Stab Sneks in a Zainthar Kai ‘pins and needles’ configuration – guaranteed to stab you even on death! Double the stabs, double the fun.

In all seriousness, it’s at least interesting in the sense that it’s using new points, so we can see a slight squeeze on bonus units such as Khinerai. This list is still going to rip, and tear – 30 Blood Sisters just asks the rather rude question to each opponent of ‘do you prefer an unkillable giant snake or 13 ish MWs per activation’. The question is whether sheer glass-cannon power (the whole army is on a 5+ bar the Morathis) can make up for lesser board control in the meantime?

Losing to the movement and strike/fade shenanigans of Sylvaneth suggests no, to some extent. Beating down on Seraphon, OBR, and Soulblight makes sense – although it’s interesting that Alastair was able to get the win against KO, who are typically able to just utterly neuter the stab-threat with early shooting. My guess based on my own games is that he was able to use Shadow Queen – and potentially Morathi with Steed of Shadows to make her super fast and more importantly fly – to tag the big boats and shut down their game. Certain KO builds are less vulnerable to this but in general, when tagged by a flying unit they lose a lot of their abilities – being one drop, I’d love to have seen whether Alastair dared the KO to come close and used the Witch Aelves to screen best they can, or whether he took first to capitalise on the KO player not deploying quite far away enough.

Either way, gratz on the new points win against some touch matchups.

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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Change Coven: Eternal Conflaguration
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Kairos Fateweaver (440)*
Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)*
– General
– Command Trait: Cult Demagogue
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
– Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
Fatemaster (140)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate

Battleline
20 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (500)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened (180)*
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (60)
Tome of Eyes (40)
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Warlord – Spell
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 83
Drops: 7

Craig’s list of 30 Pink Horrors and support is something I think we’re more likely to see in the new GHB without Bounty Hunters around to split those daemons fast enough to stay on top, but Craig gave them a final run-out with Expert Conquerors and was able to dodge Bounty Hunters in all but one of his matchups (that he still won!). What makes Pinks with Expert Conquerors such a challenge is that the situation on objectives just gets worse the first 20 wounds you do, with the unit going from counting as 60 on an objective to a maximum of 120! It is only at the point of the 81st wound, after killing the 21st Brimstone Horror, that the unit holds an objective less securely than when it started. So, do you bother early game? If you don’t, you might never get through it, but if you do, then you might not be scoring. This is exactly the dilemma that seems to have outfoxed all opponents until the ultimate winner, JJ, essentially passed the DPS check with Fulminators and Dragons at his disposal.

The support casters help buff that big unit up, with the Curseling knowing an extra spell via the Warlord battalion so it can cast Arcane Suggestion for -1 to hit and -1 to wound on the unit most likely to hit the Horrors and then Shield of Fate for a 5+ ward save on them too. The command trait Cult Demagogue is also there, making any cast on a double not only successful and worth two fate points instead of one, but also unable to be unbound. Low Destiny Dice are perfect for this roll, with double 2s or 3s getting the casting value 8 spell Arcane Suggestion off. Kairos will then give you a Destiny Dice back each hero phase and the Fatemaster, who also gives +1 to wound to all Disciples of Tzeentch units wholly within 9”, can cast Glimpse the Future to gain an additional Destiny Dice. Throw in Tome of Eyes for re-rolls, probably on the Curseling, and the key buffs the Pinks need to hang around are very likely to be in place.

Another cool little bit of tech that Craig has included is 6 Tzaangor Enlightened on foot. These hit as hard as their cavalry mounted beast-kin, but are half the price. Included in the list as well is the Soulscream Bridge, probably cast by Kairos, which can get these elites where they need to be, able to make a 9” charge with the Destiny Dice. While some sacrifices have to be made to get this combo off (no Cogs or Portal in the list), the Enlightened can be almost as mobile as the ones on disc for 100pts less – 100pts this army needs elsewhere.

All in all a fantastic result for Craig, spending 4/5 games on the top two tables and just slightly being edged out in the end.

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

Leaders
Auric Flamekeeper (90)*
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)*
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runemaster (130)*
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (330)**
– Runic Iron
– Magmadroth Trait: Flame-scale Youngblood
– Prayer: Wrath of Vulcatrix

Battleline
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)**
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (300)**
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)**
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Zharrgron Flame-spitter (40)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Mount Trait

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 128
Drops: 4

Many heroes make light work, at least with Fyreslayers. It is possibly one of the factions that will really take to Galletian Champions and the added mobility from Tunnel Master. Mobility is, of course, their biggest weakness, with most moving only 4″. Magmadroths help (16″), but Fyreslayers units remain pretty close for all of that overlapping buff goodness. Greyfyrd gives 2 extra artefacts, and each hero an extra wound. Sean’s answer to the mobility issue is to make the foot heroes hard as nails and let them buff +heal the infantry (Prayer: heal and 4+ Rally from the Battlesmith) and mitigate incoming spell damage resulting in a solid anvil that hits back. Then he has the Magmadroths tooled for war, the Runefather fights twice (once per battle), and has a 3+ ward (again once per battle). Funny if you trigger both on the same combat phase, normally Turn 2 or 3, to remove a big threat – hits once, weathers the incoming damage on the ward, and then destroys his target. The Magmadroth reduces incoming damage by 1. This is a tanky build.

The Runesmiter is more of a glass cannon, designed to charge, use Stomp as its monstorous rampage for extra damage, and can fight on its top row with a prayer (Wrath) The Berzerkers are nasty in combination with the Flamekeeper, especially the Poleaxe equipped unit. 2 Mortal Wounds on every 6, and they can be made to fight on death or give an extra attack. It’s a nasty combination to watch for. Really, you want to stay away and make them come to you to try to split up the heroes and the units. You really don’t want them to get into and hold the centre or a key objective because they’ll be very hard to move. With the Magmadroths to pin your screens and that hard centre, it can take serious work or magic/shooting to deal with a list like this. And your archers are likely to have to deal with MW from Zhaggron.

The second round draw is interesting, 2 very slow armies, one with range and the other with Cavalry – in the end, a high scoring draw, it makes me wonder how much fighting there was. The loss was to the winner, and we’ve covered that. That list has multiple units that would take down the elements in this list (Fulminators, Drakes).

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Top Three AoS Lists for Northern Masters

January 24, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Northern Masters that took place in Scotland on 21st and 22nd January. It involved 16 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Bloodpelt Hunter (140)**
Butcher (140)**
– General
– Cleaver
– Command Trait: Reluctant Rabble-rouser
– Artefact: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Lore of Gutmagic: Blubbergrub Stench
Huskard on Stonehorn (400)**
– Blood Vulture
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate

Battleline
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
6 x Ogor Gluttons (260)*
– Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades

Units
20 x Gnoblars (120)**

Artillery
Ironblaster (200)
Ironblaster (200)
Ironblaster (200)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 132
Drops: 10

Regular readers of this column (and if you’re not – why??) may remember some previous 1st place Ogor lists – and they may also recall that my response to them is, at kindest, best called ‘sassy’.

Well, dear reader, I hope you like your sass piled high. Because even after the recent minor points hikes, we’re still looking down the meaty barrel of three giant shooting platforms with a 30″ 2x 4/2/-2 for D3+3 dmg (and +1 rend for 3 total in Underguts) profile and an arguably even scarier ‘short range’ (i.e. 12″ with a 9″ move factoring in the new Hungry rule) profile for 10 attacks at 3/3/-2/2 (that’s inc. Underguts bonus). Sass is my coping mechanism.

They’re supported by the typical 20 Gnoblar blob that do mortals (even post-FAQ…) each time you end any kind of move near them, 2 units of rend 2 Leadbelchers and a blob of Gluttons so greedy they’re prepared to literally eat lead – at least that’s my head-canon for why missile attacks are -1 to wound into them.

Rounding things off are a sneaky Bloodpelt Hunter, a support Butcher and the typical enhancement stacked Stonehorn – in this instance a lesser known Huskard, who enjoys a -1 to hit in melee ability, a healing prayer a +1 to wound prayer and the perennial Rockmane Elder mount trait for -1 to wound – good luck killing him, you’re going to need it.

Andrew’s route to 5-0 included the famously weak in melee Idoneth, that Kruleboyz faction with the rubbish rule that you can’t see them beyond 12″, a newly-extremely-expensive Thunder Lizard list, some Stormcast (who I imagine the Ogors opening like tin-cans) and the notoriously easy to kill Nurgle.

In all seriousness, gratz to Andrew as those were likely some tough opponents to beat out with such an elite army, but Ogors definitely still have the tools to continue their ravenous rampage it seems.

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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Indominatable

Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Father of the Storm
– Artefact: Horn of the Tempest
– Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*
– Axe
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields
9 x Dragon Ogors (435)***
– 6x Paired Ancient Weapons
– Reinforced x 2
6 x Dragon Ogors (290)***
– 6x Paired Ancient Weapons
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)***
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (180)*
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravening Direflock (30)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters
Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 305 / 400
Wounds: 164
Drops: 6

It’s Beasts of Chaos with 9 Enlightened on Disks. What do you want me to say? Their new book is about a month away, which will hopefully give me something new to write about.

It’s just all so old and janky. They get their own stuff, possibly the old Chaos stuff (depending on whether the event was allowing the technically illegal until yesterday Slaves tome) and the best of the new Tzeentch stuff, all propped up by a wildly over-tuned Tome Celestial.

GW are looking down from their ivory tower at these lists and holding their noses while the new book slowly hoofs its way into public existence to shake its wiry mane and proclaim, ‘Beasts are dead! Long live Beasts!’ Only they decided not to update the model range because fugly models are the price you pay for putting lipstick on a pig-monster. Pearls before swine? This metaphor is as broken and mixed up as the Beasts book itself.

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Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Spirit Torment (120)***
Guardian of Souls (150)***
– General
– Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts
– Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Spirit Torment (120)***
Krulghast Cruciator (150)***
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist

Battleline
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Spirit Hosts (130)**
5 x Hexwraiths (170)*
10 x Grimghast Reapers (160)**
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (180)**

Units
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (100)***

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 11

The Scarlet Doom terror strikes again, ticking all of the boxes, 50 Bladegheists, Myrmourn Banshees for spell shenanigans Spirit Hosts for Bodyguards, and Hexwraiths for mobility and a cast of minor, interesting heroes. The Grimghast are rarer, and there are no Chainrasps to the disappointment of true Nighthaunt fans. For anyone who doesn’t know this list, it will flow across the board, ignoring your high quality, high rend attacks, and striking fear into your units. With Hexwraiths to take any exposed objectives. The Guardian of Souls and Spirit Torments will return models (mostly to the Bladegheist) each turn, and Krulghast is an auto include for his damage reduction.

It controls the centre well, holding a back objective as well and ticks off Battle Tactics (or did, Season 2 might be different). However, if an opponent can lift one of Bladegheist units in a turn, then this army will struggle. To do that reliably, you need a lot of relatively low quality attacks (1 damage). Unfortunately, the 2nd (Tempestors and Drakes) and 5th (Dragon Ogres) round opponents had the means to shut down our heroes. Great performance and another army it will be interesting to see how they go in Season 2 after being a clear leader in the last 6 months.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Stormkeep
– Army Subfaction: Hammers of Sigmar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable
– Holy Command: Pray for Aid

LEADER
1 x Celestant-Prime (330)*
1 x Drakesworn Templar (400)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Tempest Axe
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Celestial Instincts
– Spells: Celestial Blades
1 x Slann Starmaster (290)*

BATTLELINE
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (480)*
5 x Liberators (120)*
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
5 x Liberators (120)*
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)
1 x The Burning Head (30)

OTHER
3 x The Farstriders (90)*

BATTLE REGIMENT *

TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)

Some real surprises here, a magic heavy (for Stormcast) list with 3 big heroes backed by a single big hammer unit and solid screens. There are not a lot of units, but extreme mobility/flexibility, and it does away with the need for a teleport in the list. The Drakesworn Templar works either as a hammer or an anvil for the Fulminators. With his ranged attacks (Unleash Hell) and the Tempest Axe reducing pile-ins, he is a dangerous anvil that takes serious force to move with a 4+ save. With the points drop in the latest GHB, we might see more of him. And if castled near the Slann (18”) he is granting +1 to cast on top of the Slann’s +1. With plenty of ranged Mortal wounds on offer (Comet’s Call, Burning Head and Everblaze Comet), this is a surprisingly deadly ranged army. Celestial Blades to give the Fulminators a well-deserved 2+ to wound.

The tricks don’t end there, Stormkeep making the Liberators effectively Galletian Veterans (count as 3 on objectives) while still in a Battle Regiment – Scions isn’t really useful in this list. Hammers of Sigmar for the blue and gold and a handy 6+ ward on objectives. Along with Call to Aid to return a unit of Liberators if necessary. And finally, there is the Celestant-Prime to remove something important and the equally mobile Farstriders. A very cheap unit with an inbuilt teleport. They aren’t likely to do a lot of damage, but they have a 12” range attack as well as melee, potentially creating a lot of issues for a lightly defended point. All of this is just to say this is a very flexible army that is difficult to counter. Reflecting that approach, Stu had 4 very close games, only losing or winning by a handful of points, tense close fought battles. This list would do well in a teams format, and with a little luck, it could have gone 5 and 0 (the 2 loses were by 1 and 3 pts). With the new GHB here now, it would be interesting to see where this list goes,

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Top Three AoS Lists for ‘Ere We Go Again Ladz

January 21, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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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.

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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)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

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)***

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Expert Conquerors
**Bounty Hunters
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

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)****

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters
****Vanguard

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

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)***

OTHER
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Boingrot Bounderz (105)*
Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)****

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Scuttletide (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Vanguard
****Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

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.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hammers of Sigmar, Hosts Arcanum, Nighthaunt, Order, Seraphon, Stormcast Eternals, The Scarlet Doom, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for 2D6 Oslohammer #2

January 5, 2023 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

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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.

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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

Leaders
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Allies
Knight-Incantor (125)*
– Spell: Celestial Blades
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation

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

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 102
Drops: 1

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)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Expert Conquerors
**Linebreaker
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

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

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)
Daemonic Simulacrum (60)
Umbral Spellportal (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 70
Drops: 2

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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)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 110
Drops: 8

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!

And that’s before the Nighthaunt start charging to really rack up those negatives to armour saves (or increases to rend if you prefer)

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.