This is the top three AoS lists for Welsh Open that took place in the Cardiff, Wales on the 29th and 30th of April. It involved 51 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: Ogor Mawtribes – Mawtribe: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Big Chungus(450)* Frostlord on Stonehorn – General – Command Trait: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder Queen Divine(330)** Huskard on Thundertusk – Blood Vulture – Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide – Prayer: Keening Gale
BATTLELINE Netflix Comedy Special (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture Lesbian Bed Death (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture The TERF Eater (310)* Stonehorn Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture White Male Privilege (270)** Thundertusk Beastriders – Weapon: Blood Vulture
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Torrbad
TOTAL: 1980 / 2000
Taking down the Welsh Open in a SPICY meta (it’s the stomping ground of the Team Lit folks, among many other reputable gaming clubs around the greater area) is this Monster truck list from competitive stalwart, Hazel Moon.
vroom vroom! Aside from the galaxy-brain race-horse style names, there’s not a tonne unusual about this list. Big Stonehorns never really go out of style – but one thing that makes them especially interesting in this season is their vulture attacks – it’s 1 MW on a 2+ per stonehorn but it doesn’t actually count as a shooting attack and can therefore target those lovely squishy GCs with, on average, 5 MWs per shooting phase.
Other than being strong on objectives, having fantastic charge mortals (especially helpful in this -1/2 hit meta we’re seeing), this is a super reliable list with all the tools to do well – the fact Hazel took down BoC, KO and Fyreslayers twice is testament to the that. Keep on truckin’ Hazel!
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers – Lodge: Vostarg – Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Auric Runefather (120)** – General – Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir Auric Runemaster (130)** – Artefact: Volatile Brazier – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Battlesmith (150)** – Artefact: Nulsidian Icon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Auric Runesmiter (120)*** – Forge Key – Prayer: Ember Storm Auric Flamekeeper (90)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) Auric Flamekeeper (90)***
BATTLELINE 30 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (480)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)* 15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (450)** – Poleaxes – Reinforced x 2
ENDLESS SPELLS AND INVOCATIONS Molten Infernoth (40)
Kevin Lathers: Now you may ask yourself, have I seen this list before? Well, sort of.
Slight permutations of this list have been making the rounds. Sometimes it’s Greyfyrd, but I think Vostarg has taken over a bit: it’s easy to see why with its huge bonus to vulkites (+1 to hit and wound on charge). That usually trumps two extra artefacts.
Pulling the previous summary of the list: it relies on blocks of infantry holding objectives and looking for openings to run + charge (ember storm prayer) into important units. The 10-man Vulkite units are both screens and hammers while the Hearthguard are immovable block that can strike first into anyone thinking charging it is a good idea.
The smaller Vulkites and HGB feed into the 30-man Vulkite unit which can pick anything in the game up off the board with dual-flamekeeper buffs. Between 90 and 120 attacks (if Runefather buff is active) on that 30-man black at 3-damage each means even if an opponent is saving on a 2+ they are going to get toasted.
Once the engine of the flamekeepers gets going it’s hard to stop unless opponents can somehow take them out. But they can be well protected behind the infantry and focus on them means Vulkites are staying alive. And with how many Vulkite and Hearthguard Berserkers there are, this is a lot of wounds to chew through.
It’s notable that Alex had to play against not one, but two, Helon LRL lists. LRL usually can give FS a tough time with their AoE spellcasting and precision MWs, but Alex managed to massage that Nulsidian Icon (4+ spell ignore) to a win against both opponents. Further, this list has the benefit of high wound amounts which can sometimes thwart LRL attempts at unit removal.
His other three opponents used combat armies (Khorne, Ogors, and NH) which always struggle into FS lists like this. Once they get stuck in and start killing vulkites it only makes the next combat even worse for them and they quickly getting burned to the ground by the incredible damage stacking of flamekeepers.
As long as we remain in this GHB I will expect to continue seeing this list, or ones very similar to it, show up.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant(120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Seed of Rebirth (Universal Artefact) – Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
BATTLELINE 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
UNITS 5 x Gossamid Archers (210)*
ENDLESS SPELL AND INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40) Season: Dwindling
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1990 / 2000
The Mathmallow version of the current Sylvaneth hotness adds a unit of Gossamid archers as an additional, incredibly mobile, screen to prevent opponents from interfering with the backline artillery station of 9 Kurnoth hunters.
This style of list has only gotten more popular as the way Sylvaneth is built in GTs has been honed to a fine edge, Alarielle creates a terrible problem for an opponent with her self-recursion and enormous wound count demanding answers, and quickly, to prevent Sylvaneth stabilising on board state and achieving enough positive trades to begin to take over in the late game when Alarielle returns. This long-game style of play, combined with enormous range of influence, excellent mobility and uninteractive trading make sylvaneth more than capable of taking all comers – an absolute must for a GT.
This list is relatively well-spoken about so I’ll avoid going into it too much but in this humble writer’s opinion the Gossamid archers are the most interesting inclusion in this list, an obvious answer to alpha-strike style combat armies, the gossamids are intended to give an extra layer of screening to objectives and provide time for the relatively medium output of the kurnoths to do their work. They do decent damage on their own but strike me as a tech piece aiming to address one of the major flaws of the list: it being so light on bodies. I’d be interested to hear what Mathmallow thinks of them after using them consistently in a few GTs.
A man that needs no introductions, posting another truly LIT performance, well done Mathew
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Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Hagg Nar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (280)* – General – Command Trait: Zealous Orator – Prayer: Sacrament of Blood High Gladiatrix (90)** – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master High Gladiatrix (90)** Bloodwrack Medusa (140)** – Artefact: Crystal Heart – Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
BATTLELINE 20 x Witch Aelves (240)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives – Reinforced x 1 20 x Witch Aelves (240)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Witch Aelves (120)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives 10 x Witch Aelves (120)** – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
UNITS 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)* 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (100)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)** – Allies
DoK have seen a fairly dramatic fall from grace this season since their points hikes, a shallow book and a number of strong new tomes, but they’re still fundamentally a good army – especially, for my money, when they focus on Aelf swarms.
Those scantily glad murder-vixens don’t look like much on paper – but buffed with +1 to wound by the Gladiatrix, +1 to save by proximity to the Blood Wagon, and starting at Blood Rites 2 in Hagg Nar, they can really perform. If Mindrazor goes off on them too, which the Krondspine’s +1 to cast will help with, they can reach silly level of output, with 3 attacks at 2/3/-2/2 on the charge.
Speaking of Spinedog, we haven’t seen him around these parts for a while, but here he acts as a Morathi-proxy who is, under some scenarios, actually harder to kill and can really allow the Aelf hordes to get into position and choose favourable engagements.
A smart list which I don’t envy having to push around – dems a lorra liddle bases! Makes me wonder – are DoK in line for some new units (and I don’t mean useless Underworlds warbands etc) – perhaps with the Dawnbringer books? That little extra depth could be what they need to shine/bathe in blood again!
This is the top three AoS lists for Valleycon 2023 that took place in New Zealand on the 22nd and 23rd of April. It involved 26 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: Khorne – Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! -Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)** – General – Command Trat: Firebrand – Artefact: Argath the King of Blades Skarbrand (380) Realmgore Ritualist (100)* – Prayer: Blood Sacrifice Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)* Bloodsecrator (110)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)** – Artefact: Halo of Blood
UNITS 30 x Bloodletters (540)** – Gore Drenched icon 10 x Bloodreavers (80** – Reaver Blades 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** – Reaver Blades 10 x Bloodreavers (80)** –Reaver Blades
Peter: We’ve corrected this article to say that Bloodlords can be buffed to cause mortals on 5+ and not 4+ as previously stated.
Hero-hammer is alive and well in the land of Khorne. While I think their book was initially overlooked due to the insane rules from Slaanesh, there is a lot of potential in the new Blades of Khorne battletome. They remain a very tech-y army with a moderate to high skill level, but in the right hands they can get a lot of work done.
In this case, Shaun has packed more than half the points for his army in heroes, and a further quarter of his points in a single, massive unit of Bloodletters.
Working from the top of the list, we’ll start with the Fury Thirster. I think you’ll see this unit + command trait combination a lot. The Thirster starts as a great force mulitplier, allowing one unit per round the chance to roll 3D6 for a charge, as well as providing a -1 to hit debuff for enemies within 8″. Giving him Firebrand allows him the ability to chant prayers as well, and Khorne’s Prayer Scriptures are good enough that you’ll want to pack as many priests as possible. He’s also taken Argath, which will cut ward from nearby units, allowing those aura mortals to go through more easily.
He’s followed up by Skarbrand. Skarbrand’s role in the army didn’t change from the last tome. He’s still a massive beatstick character that suffers from some durability issues. Luckily he’s one of the few bracketing units in the game that gets better as he takes damage, so if your opponent happens to leave him standing with only 1 or 2 wounds they are in huge trouble. His damage output became more reliable in this tome, but he lost the ability to increase the number of attacks for Carnage, so you’re banking on that single die. At his bottom bracket that’s a guaranteed 8 mortal wounds, with a potential 16 mortal wound spike, so that one attack can still be very effective if aimed correctly.
I’ll lump the Realmgore Ritualist and Bloodsecrator in the same bucket, as they both have the same goal: time their once-per-game ability well, then die. The blood tithe points gained from their deaths will be 1 shy of summoning an extra GC to the field, and since their attack increases are once per game, it means they can be effective in death. If you don’t have the opportunity to have them killed, you still have two priests running around the field, both of which are GCs, so scoring some late-game battle tactics should be well within your reach.
The Bloodmaster and Herald are both Daemon priests (5 priests in this list!), and serve different purposes. The Herald can move quickly around the battlefield, and carries a healing prayer that can bring back a few of those bloodthirsters as they die, while the bloodmaster buffs them by giving them +1 to wound against an enemy unit. Tie the bloodletters unit near enough to the Bloodthirster to get a 3D6 charge and they’ll fling themselves across the field lightning-fast while setting off the Bloodlords army trait. Give them All-out Attack and you now have a 30-strong unit fighting in two ranks (thanks to their shiny new 2″ weapon range), hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, with mortal wounds happening on hit rolls of 5+! A large enough squad can reasonably survive most enemy’s Unleash Hell, so you’ve got a very powerful mobile unit that can dish out a ton of damage.
Past there you have three units of Reavers. They are decently cheap battleline, and work well for screens and blood tithe points. Shaun has also taken a Magnificent Command Entourage, bringing an extra artefact on the Bloodmaster, giving it permanent fight-first (note that this also gives the bloodletters fight first due to The Blood Must Flow in a roundabout way).
Congratulations, Shaun, on your first place win! I love to see Khorne come out strong, and I’m sure we will see more Khorne lists in the near future.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Treelord Ancient (330)* – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
UNITS 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (240)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 10 x Shadow Warriors (120)* – Allies
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1990/2000
Not the first, nor likely the last time I’ll find myself writing about Lee Wilmot’s Sylvaneth play, I feel it’s worth commenting on a thread of consistency between his Sylvaneth lists that is often glossed over in favour of unit to unit analysis: The kind of list Lee runs, and the reason he is so successful with Sylvaneth vs top factions such as Gitz, KotET, LRL and so forth, is that the lists he makes score well. Lee’s use of things such as the Vesperal Gem on the TLA (automatically cast once per round), tech choices like the Dweller’s below (Sylvaneth’s generic anti-horde spell) and frankly, the inclusion of a TLA at all (to create a tree 3″ away where-ever he wants, once per game) combine to form a picture of consistency. If piloted well, this kind of list will consistently flip objectives each turn and score Battle tactics, building to a trading advantage that allows Take What’s Theirs (the GS) to be scored at the end of the game.
I do have some questions about how this style of list handles some of the new fast – or spell dominant – books like Seraphon, Slaanesh and KO (always KO) so if you see this Lee, please reach out! That said, this list style allows a base formula to be applied each game, with little room to interact for the opponent (unironically a massive positive for tournament play, and the pillar of LRL’s general success) and provides great scope for adjustment on the fly based on battlefield conditions, Revenant Seekers provide mobility and improve consistency by resurrecting Kurnoths that are killed off by Fight On Death or long range chip damage effects while the combination of the pet Shadow Warriors unit and the Tree Revenants allow for objective sitting once the combination of spell damage, ranged damage and Strike and Fading Kurnoth Hunters clear the way. It’s an extremely well structured way to approach list building for the GT environment where a broad range of matchups will be played and a great show of Lee’s system mastery.
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz – Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Skragrott, The Loonking (210)*** – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Dankhold Troggboss (200)** – General – Command Trait: Loonskin – Artefact: Glowy Howzit Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (100)* – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Fungoid Cave-Shaman (90)*** – Artefact: Staff of Sneaky Stealin’ – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Webspinner Shaman (65)*** – Lore of the Spiderfang: Curse of da Spider God
UNITS 40 x Moonclan Shootas (250)** 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (160)** 3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)** 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (320)*** 24 x Squig Herd (260)* 5 x Gobbapalooza (160)** – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Gitz are back baby… although its perhaps more accurate to say that they have arrived for the first time. Sam has brought a ‘soup’ list to 4-1 here and snagged 3rd place. (A soup list in Gitz is one with a few keywords, so in this case Troggs, Squigs, Spiders and Gitz (in the form of the Gobbapalooza))
It’s great to see the Gobbapalooza popping up in lists now that it’s been made into a single warscroll which makes it much easier to understand and – more importantly – stop ‘gotcha’ moments because an opponents forgot which of the 5 scrolls the little green guy was in the last book!
The Webspinner is a fun addition in this list to also represent the Spiderfang, and he’s brought along a free scuttletide (well the Dankhold has!) This makes these three models very good value and we’ll definitely see it in a few more lists before the book has run it’s course.
The main backbone is the Troggs though – hitting like a freight train you’ll need to hit first and hit hard – and then kill them again when they come back from the Loonshrine. It’s a lot of muscle with a small number of attacks but good damage on the Rockguts.
Games Workshop via Wahapedia
They have the ‘elite infantry’ profile of 3+/3+ which routinely means 2+/3+ and have rend 2, damage 3. Sure you don’t get many attacks, but it makes your opponent sweat when they have to take those saving throws. Even Annihilators have cause for (some) concern.
It’s great to see the Gitz getting near the top now and to have so many players dust off their collections after 3 years in the attics. Hopefully I’ll get a game or two in with them soon… getting serious FOMO watching all my fellow Gitz get in the reps!
These are the top AoS lists for Adepticon that took place in the USA on the 23rd and 24th of March. It involved 204 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
There was some controversy around the scoring for Adepticon, so we decided as a team to focus on all those lists that went undefeated or were in a tournament winning position (4 wins from 4 after round 4).
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: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Guild of Summoners – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion Lord of Change (400)* – Artefact: Nine-Eyed Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)* – Lore of Fate: Glimpse of Future – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Magister (120)** – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
Battleline 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)** – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)** – 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3x Cursed Glaives 10 x Tzaangors (180)** – 8x Pair of Savage Blade
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)** – Allies – Bound to Magister
Endless Spells & Invocations Umbral Spellportal (80) Purple Sun of Shyish (90) Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (60)
Kaleb returns with a variation on his LVO list. Kairos is replaced with a Lord of Change; the extra 40pts are then used to upgrade the Changecaster to a Curseling and to enable Kaleb to take Burning Sigil instead of Tome of Eyes to get the summoning train rolling. The list goes up from 2 drops to 4 drops to allow the Lord of Change to have a re-roll casts relic to practically guarantee that those casts will go off, most likely Umbral Spellportal and then the Warscroll spell for a consistent 6 mortal wounds or so a turn.
The reason that Umbral Spellportal is the key spell is so you can feed it to the Krondspine. How the combo works is that the Magister successfully casts their first spell and then uses the Destiny Dice to cast a second, with the double killing the Magister, sending the Incarnate wild. Spellportal can then be chucked out near the Krondspine’s charge target. Obviously another spell could be cast through it (or even move the Purple Sun through it) but the main job of the portal is for the Krondspine to be able to charge in and then Devour the endless spell to go up to level 3. It is a slight risk as it goes down a level if it fails, but Kaleb would just need to roll a 4 on 2D6 for it to be successful. With it more than likely being successful, the Krondspine is hanging around for a bit, no matter what it goes into.
If not more important than an indestructible Krondspine is that the Battle Tactics and Grand Strategy for Tzeentch are among the most straightforward to achieve, demonstrated by Kaleb scoring all 5 Battle Tactics every turn and Master of Destiny being arguably the easiest Grand Strategy in the game to complete.
One of those Battle Tactics, the Guild of Summoners specialises in: Call for Change, which is to summon a Lord of Change. Normally these would need 27 fate points, but in Guild of Summoners, the first Lord of Change is only 9 fate points and the first fate point is the auto-cast at the start of the game with Arcane Armies.
Congratulations on another superb showing from Mr Tzeentch himself and very much a trendsetter for several Tzeentch lists doing well in tournaments…
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Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** – General – Command Trait: Egomaniak – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (120)*** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Megaboss (140)*** – Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)*** Skragrott, The Loonking (160)** – Allies
Battleline 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)* 5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)*
Other Units 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*** 24 x Squig Herd (240)* – Allies – Reinforced x 1
Big Waagh is enjoying a kind of thematically Ghurish resurgence, due to their access to great GCs and the simple fact they can also now take some Gitz allies, who, as you may have heard, have enjoyed somewhat of a glow up.
Either way, a 5-0 Waagh is a thing to be celebrated, so let’s dive into how it got there. The compliment of heroes has a few interesting surprises – you have ol’ laser eyes with his 4+ ward, a Warchanter and Megaboss as standard, and Gobsprakk for his anti-magic tech – but we also see here a Snatchaboss. Even though he’ll only be buffing one unit of 3 Boltboyz, he’s a well rounded solo operator, and Rob has slapped Egomaniak on him – I wonder if some of the Ardboyz acted as a bodyguard, making him a relatively fast and very durable monster with MW spike potential.
Then there’s the newly much-more-expensive Skagrott. At 210, I wonder if Ron would still ally him in – but as it stood, he’s an insanely high value allied spellcaster with a nasty, long range MW spell.
The other allies on loan from Gitz are the Squid Herd – a super cheap way to gain access to a high volume of attacks and further mid-range MWs when they fail a battleshock test – although they also have a recursion mechanic, meaning if you don’t kill the whole unit, the pain train keeps on comin’.
Overall, it’s a fantastic hero-hammer Waagh that makes great use of their spicy new allies. The points don’t quite add up anymore, but the fact it took down high profile armies such as Ogors, NH, Slaves, and Gitz themselves speaks to the versatility of the list – and Rob’s prowess of course. The Orruk book as a whole might be a complete bin-fire, but Big Waagh clearly offers the best way to make like an Orruk and slap whatever manic, vaguely green muscle you can lay your hands on into a potent krump!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Mortal Realm: Hysh – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* – General Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse Scinari Loreseeker (160)* – Artefact: Tuskhelm (Galletian Champion) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Battleline 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (130)* 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
I call this list archetype the ‘can’t wait for the next Battlescroll’! Lead designer Matt Rose has highlighted that Helon and Sentinels are in line for an adjustment, for what should by now be fairly obvious reasons.
Tell you what though, it’s quite fun seeing the Tuskhelm on the Loreseeker. Imagine him popping up wherever he wants pre-game, then yeeting himself into you with a flaming weapon like a less sneaky version of the Masque.
Otherwise, there’s not much to say – it’s Sentinels projecting extreme prejudice at range and up close, with Teclis doing Teclis things. The only thing of interest left about this kind of list is how hard it’s going to get hit by the nerf bat!
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Army Subfaction: Boulderhead – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Kragnos (720) 1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)* – General – Command Traits: Voice of the Avalanche – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder – Spells: Flaming Weapon
BATTLELINE 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)* – Blood Vulture 2 x Mournfang Pack (170)* – Skalg – Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
TERRAIN 1 x Great Mawpot (0)
CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)
Since the Ironblaster points hike, bar the very occasional Stonehorn heavy podium, Ogors have settled comfortably into a ‘top 5’ army, as though they have a nice big dinner early on and then get a bit too sleepy to bother chasing the absolute top spot.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course – we don’t want every faction to be Lumineth Slaanesh! Taking down three tanky melee armies, the shooty Ogors and a summoning heavy Tzeentch list for a 5-0 is a great result, either way.
So how did Tony do it? Well, he took Kragnos and a bunch of Stonehorns. The name of the day here is killing stuff on the charge – why risk having to roll attacks? Kragnos is capable of a OHKO of a big monster with the right roll of course, but probably the main thing he offers is a 3d6 charge aura. Given Stonehorns do mortals on a 4+ for dice equal to their unmodified charge roll – which a 3d6 is – you can start to see the appeal.
That’s about all there is to it. Like the Ogors themselves, it’s big and not very clever, but gets the job done.
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Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Gnarlroot – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty – Seasons of War: The Burgeoning
LEADERS Spirit of Durthu (350) – General – Command Traits: Gnarled Warrior – Artefacts of Power: Greenwood Gladius The Lady of Vines (290) – Spells: Verdant Blessing Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* – Spells: Verdant Blessing
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40) 1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000
This list from Joey Trizenberg is so elite and character focused that it might be playable in Marvel Ultimate Crisis. The Lady of Vines and Alarielle’s summoning mechanics bulk out the wound count and utility this list needs with 30 dryads and a unit of tree revenants satisfying most of your objective-sitting needs. The reason such a limited selection of units can get away with this is that both Alarielle and Durthu demand answers, immediately, and can either murder or pin vast quantities of the opponent’s army, limiting their scoring options.
Durthu with the Gladius and Gnarled warrior is a brutal beatstick, and ethereal 3+ keeps him healthy over the game and the gladius makes him hit like a brick. Combine this with a 6+ ward and the number of wounds in this army gets a sneaky boost to keep it in the game. This said, the selection of the Burgeoning as the Season of war requires a 70 point investment in the form of Cogs to make the quantity of spellcasting in this list work, especially so, when you consider that Gnarlroot is being taken for 3d6 casting, messaging that Joey wants to ensure he’s spreading trees and getting up the very important LoV’s 5+ ward spell, which is rather inconsistent when raw-cast as a 7+ on 2d6.
Legitimate analysis aside, I’d pay good money to see this list smack around Sons of Behemat, that’d be a great table to watch. Great work Joey, a great achievement to get an uncommon 5-0 for sylvaneth, let alone with a list that is a major departure from what we usually see.
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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes – Subfaction: Meatfist – Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours! – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Tyrant (150)* – Big Name: Brawlerguts Kragnos (720)* Icebrow Hunter (120)** – General – Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter – Prayers: Keening Gale Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master – Big Name: Brawlerguts Tyrant (150)** – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon – Big Name: Brawlerguts
Continuing their recent hot-streak of great results is another 4-1 Alarielle finish! Oh how people bemoaned the Everqueen upon the book’s release – and in fairness, she takes a bit of figuring out, as her power doesn’t lie in her melee power but rather in her zoning and revival ability.
She’s backed up here by the standard Arch-Rev with Warsinger to make stuff speedy – make that extra-super speedy when also combined with the Spiteswarm Hive. It’s also nice to see a brace of Dryads as surprisingly effective screens – sure they turn into splinters once hit but, with -1 to hit and wound, the can be like reeds in a breeze…. and a reinforced blob of Seekers for doing Seeker things (namely pinning stuff at speed and just never, ever dying due to their abilities to heal themselves and bring their own models back automatically).
Overall, a nicely balanced list that gives Big Momma and her Fancy Beetle a good run out against a tough variety of opponents.
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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords – Subfaction: Helon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Archmage Teclis (700)* – Spells: Healing Zephyr Scinari Cathallar (110)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts of Power: Silver Wand – Spells: Total Eclipse – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
BATTLELINE Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Windspeaker Seneschal – Standard Bearer Hurakan Windchargers (130)* – Standard Bearer – Windspeaker Seneschal
OTHER Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Overwhelming Heat Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – High Sentinel – Spells: Speed of Hysh
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Rune of Petrification (60) 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
TERRAIN 1 x Shrine Luminor (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
More LRL! Funnily enough, this list has also opted for Helon, and who cares how many Sentinels. But they also go hard on WIndchargers! A cunning tactical ploy to have slightly fewer shots on slow bodies and slightly more shots on fast bodies. I’m sure the dilemma was agonising.
Since this tournament, and indeed my comments on the 3rd place list, Sentinels, Teclis, and Windchargers have gone up a few points. So lists like this will no longer be able to take quite so many endless spells! I’m sure the effect on their efficacy will be devastating.
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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch – Army Subfaction: Guild of Summoners – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Magister (120)* – Spells: Shield of Fate – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur 1 x Curseling (180)** – Spells: Glimpse the Future – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master 1 x Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)** – General – Command Traits: Arcane Sacrifice – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Arcane Suggestion 1 x Lord of Change (400)** – Staff of Tzeentch and Rod of Sorcery – Artefacts: Nine-Eyed Tome – Spells: Ghost-mist
BATTLELINE 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – Kairic Adept – Cursed Blade and Arcanite Shield – Scroll of the Dark Arts – Vulcharc – 3 x Cursed Glaive and Arcanite Shield 10 x Tzaangors (180)* – Twistbray – Icon Bearer – Brayhorn Blower – 2 x Tzaangor Mutant – Pair of Savage Blades
BEHEMOTH 1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Umbral Spellportal (80) 1 x Burning Sigil Of Tzeentch (60) 1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90)
Please read the review for Kaleb’s winning list and substitute the word ‘Kaleb’ for ‘Jonathan’! Seriously, I wasn’t kidding about Kaleb’s list being a trendsetter!
I should probably include a few more words on Jonathan’s path to 13th place so that Peter doesn’t get mad at me and assigns me 500 words on each variant of contrast paint. He did fantastically well to get to table 2 in Round 5 but then faced the Kryptonite of many Tzeentch lists: Kragnos and Stonehorns. With the ability to ignore so much magic AND the speed of Tony’s 4th placed list (see above) it was always going to be tricky. While having some monsters to eat would be handy for the Krondspine, Jonathan wouldn’t have been given the time to get the summoning going and so had to settle for a still very impressive 4-1 in the end.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Mortis Praetorians – Grand Strategy: Unrelenting Efficiency – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340) Katakros (430)* Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – Spells: Protection of Nagash – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Mortisan Soulreaper (100)* – General – Command Traits: Katakros’ Chosen – Artefacts of Power: Artificer’s Blade – Spells: Drain Vitality
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Nightmare Predator (40)
TERRAIN 1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
A list reminiscent of classical pre-Stalkers as Battleline lists for Ossiarch Bonereapers. Obviously, this list was before the new battletome so a few things need to be considered. Katakros and Arkhan are the headliners, with Arkhan being one of the few legitimately good units in OBR with his +2 to casting and blazing fast speed. Katakros offers a ton of buffs from stealing a command point on a 4+, -1 to hit on an enemy unit, and giving +1 to hit and to saves for all units within 36″. Mortis Praetorians doesn’t see as much play as Petrifix Elite but if you’re going to run Katakros it’s about the same with his +1 to save aura, though you do lose the -1 Rend from Petrifix Elite. Rounding off the list is two Soulreapers, which while not very good allow him to slip in 2 Galetian Champions at 2000 points.
As for units this list doesnt really have much of a hammer. That’s clearly not the point though, with 60 Mortek Guard you can gum up the board pretty bad, 30 3+ Save, 6+ Ward wounds aren’t easy to cut through if you didn’t bring a Monster to roar them. While they may not hit nearly as hard as Stalkers, they’re not totally impotent either, and can usually win a grind out war over 2-3 turns of combat against nastier things. The Immortis guard are a workhorse unit to protect Arkhan from ranged fire, since an 11 wound 4+ Save Monster makes him a giant red bullseye for enemy fire.
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (240)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Host Option: General – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (210)* – Host Option: General Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture Infernal Enrapturess, Herald of Slaanesh (120)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)** 11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)**
As Peter put it the other day, Old Slaanesh (the previous Battletome) was in play. This is a popular “old list” right now. Slaanesh, like all aelves, has always been very difficult to balance, at the moment though they are a bit of a sleeper. Mobile with mad summoning, decent shooting and surprisingly durable with Revel in Pain.
Laron’s doubled down on the Epitome with Fuelled by Ghurish rage on top of Oil (+1 wound) and Flaming Weapon. Glutos, the mobile road block, is here with Sigvald to snipe out annoying Galletian Champions and the Enrapturess to make sure those casts go off. Beyond wards, bravery and damage spells, the army is packing all 3 Hedonite Endless Spells. Mortal wounds for everyone and a fight last as well. Mandatory Blissbarbs and the soon to be extinct Cockatrice (the monster keyword isn’t on the new scroll). The Cockatrice still has a place to generate DP and for their fast movement, letting them score early points.
And that’s the conundrum of facing the chaos aelves – target the Blissbarb, and apart from being stung, you’ll give them a lot of DP (summoning points). And as you kill them, they’ll get harder to kill. Worse, Glutos and the Epitome will be free to act. Target the heroes, and the Blissbarb will make you look like a porcupine. The old HoS book is a dps check. You need to deal with them fast enough that their summoning doesn’t matter. Preferably from range.
Laron took the list to 4-1 handily defeating several top armies (and Stormcast). Pretty amazing with a list that shouldn’t have a lot of surprises and was at the time running with a 47% win rate. That success should tell you how good the general was.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Units 10 x Dryads (100)* 10 x Dryads (100)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 6 x Revenant Seekers (480)* – Reinforced x 1
Continuing the 4-1 with Alarielle trend – which I’m personally happy to see given Momma Nature is such a great model, is this Heartwood list that, well, pretty much follows the template.
Probably the most important synergy in overall playstyle here is the way the Seekers compliment what Alarielle can do. Beetle-bum is much more of a mixed phase zoning piece with her big’ ol….base and surprising speed, so you need something like the Seekers to be able to zoom in on smaller, more versatile bases, do a good amount of damage, and actually stay where they end up – something they’re willing to risk due to their built in healing, 5+ rally and ability to bring a model back. With Dryads and Tree Revs as annoying, teleporty objective grabbers and screens, and the 3 Greatbows doing plinky-plink damage at long range, this kind of list can be very difficult to actually navigate around. And of course, by the time you finally kill Alarielle, she’s liable to come back in later rounds when you no longer have the tools to take her off again.
Losing only to a Gnarlroot Sylvaneth semi-mirror, and taking down a good variety of other lists en route, this new list archetype (I’m calling it Beetle-Momma and the Seekers) clearly has legs/wings/roots…. I’ll leaf it there. Big up to Matthew!
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Mor’Phann – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Akhelian Thrallmaster (110)* Isharann Soulrender (120)* – Artefact: Rune of the Surging Gloomtide – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Akhelian King (250)* – General – Bladed Polearm – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Mount Trait: Voidchill Darkness
Battleline 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (360)* – Reinforced x 1 20 x Namarti Reavers (340)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Namarti Reavers (170)* 20 x Namarti Thralls (260)* – Reinforced x 1
This list makes use of some of the best Idoneth units avaiable in the book, without relying on Lotann or the Leviadon. Two champs are there to support the Namarti units, both defensively and offensively, and the Artefact allows the Isharann character to summon a Gloomtide Shipwreck at the end of the first movement phase. This is particularly good with Tunnel Master, because the Soulrender can pop up anywhere on the board and drop a large piece of line of sight blocking impassable terrain.
The eels and king can work in tandem to deal a lot of damage. The eels can charge in first, eat the Unleash Hell while still getting their mortal wound bomb off, while the king can pop himself and possibly both eel squads into high tide, creating the possibility of an alpha strike against any enemy who may have deployed too aggressively.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Lords AoS Tournament that took place in Vietnam on the 25th and 26th of March. It involved 8 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this event had less than 20 players attending there won’t be any list comments here as the guys will be concentrating on the larger events of the week.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Allegiance: Nighthaunt – Procession: Quicksilver Dead – Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Guardian of Souls (150)*** – Artefact: Midnight Tome – Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist – Lore of the Underworlds: Spectral Tether Krulghast Cruciator (150)*** – General – Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts – Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)* – Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish – Lore of the Underworlds: Spectral Tether Spirit Torment (120)*** Spirit Torment (120)* Tomb Banshee (90)*
UNITS 20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)** 5 x Hexwraiths (170)*** 8 x Myrmourn Banshees (200)** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)** 3 x Spirit Hosts (130)**
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Knights Excelsior (Scions of the Storm) – Grand Strategy: Survivor’s Instinct – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Knight-Incantor (120)*** – Spell: Celestial Blades Lord-Imperatant (170)*** Lord-Relictor (150)*** – General – Command Trait: High Priest – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Lightning Blast – Prayer: Translocation – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)** 3 x Aetherwings (70)*** 3 x Aetherwings (70)*** 5 x Vanquishers (110)** 5 x Vanquishers (110)** 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)* 3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)*
ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS Holy Command: Call for Aid Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley
TOTAL: 2000/2000
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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum – Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADERS Kairos Fateweaver (440)** Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)** – Artefact: The Eternal Shroud – Lore of Change: Unchecked Mutation Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)* – Allies
UNITS 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)* 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7 x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3 x Cursed Glaives 10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)* – 7 x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield – 3 x Cursed Glaives 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires (190)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Chronomantic Cogs (70) Umbral Spellportal (80) The Burning Head (30)
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 The Lady of Vines (290)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Spirit of Durthu (350)* – Artefact: Greenwood Gladius Arch-Revenant (120)*
Battleline 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (250) 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (250) 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)
This is the top three AoS lists for Silverstream Smackdown 2 that took place in New Zealand on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 26 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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Lore of the Deepwood: The Dwellers Below Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
UNITS 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (240)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Spiteswarm Hive (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
This solid list from Lee Wilmot is almost a who’s who of Sylvaneth mainstays. The TLA and WSR combination allows aggression from turn 1, using the free tree placement to enable maximum value Warsong bombs followed by either use of the new realmspell Teeth of Gallet, or Dwellers below for better value on horde units like Squigs or massed cultists. This hero combo works with the strike and fading Kurnoth hunters – buffed by the Spiteswarm Hive – and the revenant seekers to ensure the Sylvaneth hammer is kept healthy and outputting maximum damage while the bows sit on a back objective and pick off wounds, or soften up targets, at artillery ranges. Tree revenants sneak off to pick up objectives and provide shooting protection for the warsong and archrevenant, little scamps that they are.
This lists’ real value is in how few truly poor matchups it has, it is a one drop, can alpha decently and loves the double turn, can score 5/5 Battle tactics consistently and really gives opponents few opportunities to interact with the list on their own terms. Even against lists which push the sylvaneth for board space early, like KotET and BoC the Sylvaneth units are often durable enough to weather the early storm and punch out, or alternatively simply relocate key pieces to safer locations and return to playing the objective game. Well done to Lee on his piloting – 5 games of sylvaneth is quite exhausting and mistakes are heavily punished – he’s done excellently to manage the tournament win with a 4-1-0!
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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Darkwalkers – Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Doombull (160)* – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Bray-Shaman (95)* – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
UNITS 10 x Ungors (80)* – Mauls & Half-Shields 20 x Ungor Raiders (230)* 6 x Bullgors (390)* – Pairs of Axes 10 x Ungor Raiders (115)* 6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (430)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL: 1980/2000
Brett: With the new book Beasts haven’t set the world on fire but are providing consistent results even if a little back from their recent peak. Jimmy has gone with the Ungors and a Doombull which aren’t common picks but they have their reasons. The Ungors (and Ungor Raiders) are relatively cheap and meet battleline leaving enough points for an Incarnate. That’s important. With BoC’s herdstone increasing rend on turns 2 and 4 you don’t want to commit too early. Because BoC can ambush (deploy to reserve and bring them on in the first or second round) and fade into the shadows (teleport from within 9″ of the board edge to another location 9″ from the board edge and 9″ from enemy units) they can hide very well. But to do that you need something for your opponent to focus on – the Incarnate.
They need at least 2 rounds to do that and that means you can wait until you have at least -1 rend on everything to commit. The Tzaangors can still score a Battle Tactic first round (Desecrate seems likely) while your opponent tries to deal with the Incarnate. If they don’t then he can make their life hell pretty quickly. Still the list might be a little slow without the teleport. They have access to book tactics which are pretty competitive. The Doombull’s had a bit of a glow up, one of his most useful talents is a command that allows a unit to charge in the combat phase – avoiding unleash hell. He’s a Tunnel Master (teleport) and can use his trumpet to summon Ugors (or raiders) to the cause. The Bray Shaman is along to provide exploding 6s. If anything is alive to reach -3 rend from the Bullgors or Doombull (turn 4) pretty much nothing on the opponents army is going to survive.
Only drawing to Sylvaneth and otherwise winning all of his matches is a great effort. Sylvaneth with their fire and fade, mortal wounds and desire to make you come to them is a solid counter. Otherwise an unblemished run with a new books is a great effort.
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Allegiance: Skaven – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
LEADERS Verminlord Corruptor (350)* – General – Command Trait: Devious Adversary – Artefact: Blade of Corruption – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Grey Seer (120)* – Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy Master Moulder (90)* – Artefact: Rabid Crown – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
UNITS 20 x Clanrats (100)* – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 20 x Clanrats (100)** – Rusty Blade – 1 x Standard Bearers – 1 x Standard Bell Ringers 6 x Rat Ogors (420) 10 x Gutter Runners (200)** 10 x Gutter Runners (200)**
We’re honoured to have Skaven aficionado and all-around top bloke Kieren Coates join our team. Kieren is well known on the tournament circuit down under and has featured in past editions of our top three. Who better to talk about the ratmen than him?!
Kieren Coates: A classic mixed arms MSU list with the unique twist of no clan Skryre, the list features 6 independently operating threats able to choke up the board while dealing surprisingly large amounts of damage.
Opting against the 1 drop race, the list has no issues in being forced to go first with 6 rat ogres able to hop through a gnawhole with death frenzy, mystic shield, +1 to wound and +3 to charge, leaving it with an impressive 82% chance to land its charge with one reroll.
If youre able to piece through 36 wounds of pure rat meat, that will fight on death to trade back you may just be unlucky enough for the Master Moulder to roll a 3+ upon the units death to bring the whole pack back to life again for round 2
Even beyond the alpha rat ogres, there is still 20 gutter runners skirmishing with ranged mortals, 2 hell pits ready to clear out any hordes or MSU which are not able to piece through 14 wounds in one swing, one of which is likely to get a mutation for 16 wounds at a 4+ save. at only 210 points, it’s incredibly efficient, and when it dies for some unfortunate souls, it has a 1/3 chance to come back to life with D6 wounds ready to swing again.
If you do manage to hit through respawning, death frenzied rate ogres, skirmished gutter runners and horde clearing hell pits, you still have to deal with the big boss which is the verminlord corruptor with the blade of corruption, 2D6 + 2 attacks (with command trait), often hitting at 2’s, 2’s, -2 rend, 2 damage with 6’s to wound being a whopping rend 3 damage 6. Did I mention he has another horde clearing spell to back up the two hell pits?
Once youre through all of that the real humble MVP of skaven, 40 clanrats for 200 points holding the objectives still need to be dealt with, healing D3 clanrats per pack in every battleshock phase.
Overall it’s lots of melle power with chance to revive, horde clearing power and MSU skirmish combined that many lists cant manage to crack through – well done to Locky
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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin – Enclave: Nautilar – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Sokatra, Leviadon Keeper (140)* Isharann Tidecaster – Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Allopleuron The Turtle Emperor (250)* Akhelian King – General – Command Trait: Unstoppable Fury – Bladed Polearm – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
UNITS Turtle Trappers (170)* 10 x Namarti Reavers
BEHEMOTHS Archelon the Ancient (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Mount Trait: Ancient – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Carbonemys the Cleaver (460)* Akhelian Leviadon – Idoneth Deepkin Battleline (Enclave: Nautilar) Definitely also a Turtle (480)* Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – Allies
Monster mash hasn’t been the soup of the day for a couple seasons, so it’s nice to see a few heavies make their way back into the Idoneth’s menu. The turtles are going to be very heavy hitters, especially in Nautilar where they count as batteline and get a monstrous action increasing the rend on two of their weapon profiles to -3. Ancient is present to get some extra durability out of the first turtle, but both are there to absorb damage and dish it back out.
The third “turtle” is a krondspine. The addition of the Arcane tome means that the incarnate can be bonded to either the King or the Tidecaster, depending on what the match requires. The lack of druability on Idoneth’s heroes also opens up the option of getting the Incarnate as afar away from the friendly units as possible then just shrugging your shoulders when the bonded hero eventually dies.
Past there the list is self-explanatory. The King does King things. The Tidecaster casts some tides (Steed of, specifically). The reavers fill out the last battleline slot, and act as a decent harassing unit, with the ability to make good use of the turtles’ auras.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for DaBoyz Golden Sprue GT that took place in the USA on the 4th and 5th of February. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
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 Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (130)* Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz – Spells: Levitate Wurrgog Prophet (170)** – Artefacts of Power: Gryph-feather Charm – Spells: Gorkamorka’s War Cry – Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)** – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
BATTLELINE Orruk Ardboys (80)* – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Ardboys (80)** – Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer – Waaagh! Drummer – Ardboy Boss – 2 x Orruk-forged Shield Orruk Brutes (300)*** – Brute Boss – Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha – Jagged Gore-hacka – 2 x Gore-choppa
OTHER Orruk Gore-gruntas (340) – Jagged Gore-hacka Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)*** – Boltboy Boss
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Soulsnare Shackles (40) 1 x The Burning Head (30)
Big Waagh, you love to see it! Rumblings of their increased effectiveness in this new season – given their access to some excellent GCs – seem to have been on the money!
Ross has stuck with a fairly traditional core HQ of the double Warchanter (great in general but also give Big waagh points for existing), double Wurrgog ‘laser eyes’ prophets, the Mirebrute and the now probably undercosted Gnashtoof.
MSU Ardboyz are usually crucial in Big Waagh as cheap screens you can overlap in engagements for more Waagh point generation – and they’re backed up by a reinforced unit of Brutes who, while never tanky, are certainly less vulnerable with bounty hunters gone.
A token unit of gore gruntas as ‘fast’ flankers and one reinforced unit of Boltboyz for savage unleash hell potential and some good ranged MW projection round things out, with Soulsnare shackles proving an interesting tech pick to ensure the Waaghers get to charge on their terms – it’s cheap, so why not?
Overall, a great result for a struggling army – taking a W against super tanky armies like Bonereapers and Nurgle show the MW output in this formation can really shore up the weaknesses of a mono-Orruk list. Gratz to Ross!
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Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Stomper Tribe – Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Warstomper (450)* – General – Command Traits: Eager for the Fight – Artefacts: Amberbone Totem 1 x Warstomper (450)* – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Spells: Flaming Weapon 1 x Gatebreaker (520)** – Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness 1 x King Brodd (550)**
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)
Sons are in an interesting place in the new season. They’ve always played a very different game from the rest of AoS’s armies, and the lack of Galletian Champions can prove difficult given the new GHB’s battle tactics largely relying on their presence and function in your list.
And yet here is Tyler, bringing in a 4-0-1 and taking second place at DaBoyz. His list is a fairly standard Sons list, choosing to bring the generally more competitive 4 Mega-gargants and leaving Mancrushers at home. His choice to pile Eager for the Fight and the Amberstone totem on his Warstomper General means that he is one fast giant. Getting an average run distance of 13.5″ at top bracket, followed by an average 10.5″ run means that Tyler doesn’t have to worry too much about mobility. If all else fails, a poorly placed enemy hero could mean that Tyler’s gargant is in their backlines on turn one. The other Warstomper is equipped with the fan-favorite Arcane Tome and Flaming Weapon combo, allowing Tyler to ramp up the damage output of the gargant by setting his feet on fire prior to stomping on the puny enemies.
The other half of the list is a Gatebreaker with the Glowy shield, providing a bit more tankiness to a unit that wants to make sure the enemy’s terrain doesn’t last long. The long trek to the back corner of the board takes a while, but the look on your opponent’s face when their Herdstone gets destroyed is pretty great. King Brodd also makes an appearance, bringing out the biggest priest in town to pray over his giant friends and buff their movement, rend, or health to keep the gargants stomping and smashing as long as possible.
Congrats to Tyler on his win, and I hope there will be plenty of other Gargants players to prove the doubters wrong.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Mortal Realm: Ghyran – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs:
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120)* – Aspect of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox Warsong Revenant (300)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Treelord Ancient (330)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth
Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
Behemoths Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
This list isn’t hard to parse – it’s a pin-and-cushion Sylvaneth variant.
Warsong rev is the MW output, hanging back with Spellsinger allowing him to pop his MW bomb spell out of a forward tree – hence the Ancient, for throwing it out there with his once per battle ability pretty much anywhere on the board. Meanwhile, Spinedog pins you down while 6 Kurnoth rain arrows from 30″ into you, and Tree-revs teleport around scoring. That’s it. That’s the tweet list.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340)* Mortisan Soulmason (120)* – Spells: Arcane Command Mortisan Boneshaper (110)* – Artefacts of Power: Lode of Saturation – Spells: Drain Vitality Mortisan Soulreaper (100)** – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour – Spells: Arcane Command – Aspects of the Champion: Stubborn as a Rhinox
Everyone’s favourite animated crypt with more arthritis than a Ulysses convention in 8th we have OBR. One of the oldest books (yes, yes, FEC and Cities we know) with some completely out of place mechanics (Discipline points), they are still very durable and can hit hard. All three of the Mortisan, unusual, but giving heals, reroll 1s to hit and potentially mortal wounds. Other than the guard, everything is reinforced to maximise the impact of the buffs. And a token Immortis Guard for a cheeky bodyguard. The list is built to allow a risky play for an objective with Stubborn as a Rhinox on the General who has Stalkers in the Galletian Command battalion to open the possibility of fight twice (the Stalkers straight after the Soulmason). This is also 16 units on an objective, forcing you to commit something decent to remove them.
What’s interesting is that the list either got max points or lost. I suspect priority may have been partly to blame. With time to get their buffs up, this list would be very nasty. Consistently dropping important pieces becomes a lot more difficult. And the counter punch is terrible. Bone-tithe Shrieker is an excellent example. If they get it off, it’s preventing Rally/Inspiring presence, making any wounds problematic. And it grants +1 to hit, making losses more likely. That on the double reinforced Stalkers with Precision Aspect – 9 attacks on 3s & 3s with -3 Rend and 3 damage each, 30 attacks (Galletian Veterans for additional reach) 2s & 3s with -2 Rend and 2 damage. You really want to get into this unit first. Awesome effort with the army, his loses were to 1st and 4th, making this list very competitive in this field.
This is the top three AoS lists for the War of the Spider God that took place in the UK on the 11th and 12th of February. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
As this tournament has less than 20 players, there will be no commentary on the lists.
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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Survivor’s Instinct – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – The Burgeoning
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (820)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Warsinger – Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage Branchwych (130)* – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness – Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen – Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Archaon the Everchosen (860) – General – The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)** – The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation Exalted Hero of Chaos (100)* – Artefact: Nightflyer Cloak (Galletian Champion) – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (70)** – Allies
Battleline 3 x Varanguard (290)** – 3x Ensorcelled Weapon – Mark of Chaos: Khorne 5 x Chaos Chosen (240)* – Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh – Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Screaming Flesh 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)**
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Quakefray – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Khozrul Doomrender (160)* Doombull – General – Command Trait: Bestial Cunning – Artefact: Slitherwrack Helm Zhorthas Baletongue (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Artefact: The Knowing Eye – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns – Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master Ghorgrar Gnarlcurse (95)* Great Bray-Shaman – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Battleline Horns of the Gorefather (390)** 6 x Bullgors – Pairs of Axes – Reinforced x 1 Kaarosh Warplash (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Zyclor Fluxbane (210)* Quakefray Cygor – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Khrol Bladefur (240) Ghorgon Galarash the Gorger (240) Ghorgon Uzghal Bloodripper (240) Ghorgon
Units The Stalking Turnskins (115)** 10 x Ungor Raiders
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Befouling Host – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS Horticulous Slimux (220)* Sloppity Bilepiper (130)* Poxbringer (130)* – Spells: Stream of Corruption – Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master Great Unclean One (480)** – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Doomsday Bell and Bileblade – Artefacts of Power: The Witherstave – Spells: Fleshy Abundance
This is the top six AoS lists for the CanCon 2023 that took place in Australia on 21st and 22nd of January. It involved 202 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Six AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Six AoS Lists
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Greatfray: Gavespawn – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Protect the herdstone – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)** – General – Command Trait: Unravelling Aura – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades Great Bray-Shaman (100)** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage Beastlord (95)** – Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Units 6 x Dragon Ogors (290)* – 6x Draconic War glaives – Reinforced x 1 10 x Gors (70)*** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 10 x Gors (70)*** – Gor-Blades & Beastshields 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175) – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175) – 10x Pair of Savage Blade 10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**
Bests of Chaos (sic) run roughshod over another big tournament. And why shouldn’t they? Unthinking beasts – they’re just following their nature, going with the flow – what fault is it of theirs if no puny tree-man, hungry-man, rat-man, green-man or hungry-man-but-further-away can stand up to them?
Composition wise, we have the core HQ, the usual dragon ogors, but only to the tune of 6 to make space for twelve Enlightened on Discs and 2x 10 Tzaangors. Plus, of course, some of the annoyingly good little chaps who don’t cost enough.
Anyway, the previews have started for their new book, so speculation is rife as to whether they’ll receive the necessary re-writes to corral the herd. I hope they do, because there’s only so many times I can think of new ways to sneak my ‘NERF BoC FOR THE LOVE OF GORS’ agenda into these top 3s.
Nevertheless, taking down any tournament this big deserves praise so well done to Geordie. And to be fair, you don’t see Tzaangors that often, and they’re cool.
Leaders Slann Starmaster (285)**** – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration – Spell: Stellar Tempest Engine of the Gods (285)*** – Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Skink Starpriest (130)**** – Spell: Hand of Glory Skink Priest (120)**** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse Skink Priest (120)**** – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Units 30 x Skinks (225)** – Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 5 x Saurus Knights (110)* – Lances 5 x Saurus Knights (110)* – Lances Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)*** Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)***
So Seraphon just got a lot more expensive, and Corey’s list here will be one of the last to enjoy their old ‘bargain’ prices.
In the meantime, it works as we’ve come to expect. Slann as magic powerhouse, Engine of the Gods as a mixed phase utility, well, engine, and a mixture of skink support priests, one of the starry variety.
(Slightly) interestingly, Corey brings so many skinks you’d expect them to be in Fangs of Sotek – but no! We’re in Thunder Lizard still, so one of those two bastiladons can still double fire, stacked with Skink priest buffs. The big skink blob I imagine is meant to capitalise on the durable prayer platform that is the Engine, getting Curse off on a juicy target (on a 3+ while near terrain within their own territory due to their Primeval Domain rule) for the 60 skink shots to fish for some 6s.
We also have 2x 5 knights here, who made a surprise comeback this season as cost-efficient bounty hunters with weight of attacks – but obviously, that’s a tactic going more extinct than the dinosaurs dodo.
Big gratz on the 5-0 with a balanced Seraphon list – shame it’s now about 75 pts more expensive, lacking its most useful battalions, and doesn’t play nicely into the new realm rules. Seraphon could be about to experience a serious lull going into their new book – but that’s fine, they’re cold-blooded, they will have their time in the sun again.
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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle – Subfaction: Blessed Sons – Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Bloab Rotspawned (320)** – Lore of Malignance: Plague Squall Morbidex Twiceborn (320)*** Orghotts Daemonspew (320) Lord of Afflictions (230)** – General – Command Trait: Overpowering Stench – Artefact: The Splithorn Helm Plague Priest (100)** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Units 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 10 x Rotmire Creed (125)* 9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*** 5 x Chaos Chosen (240)*** – Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
I hope everyone enjoyed those Expert Conquerors while they lasted. While not as egregious as Bounty Hunters, I can’t say that I’m sad to see it go. Joel made use of them with a triple Rotmire in the same way that many Nurgle players do. It’s interesting to watch Nurgle over the course of this edition since they evolved from pure fly spam to bringing hero hammer + Rotmire creed.
And what a hero hammer this list is. 5 heroes are in play, with all of them being the classic nurgle combination of decent damage output and great resilience (you could even say they are disgustingly resilient). Joel has also brought along a couple of Slaves to Darkness allies to fill in the gaps that Nurgle armies tend to have. The Corvus Cabal brings some much-needed mobility to grab early objectives and the Chaos Chosen are an excellent vehicle for damage output.
Looking forward, I’m not sure that this list will need much adjustment for the new season. Joel already has a pair of solid Galletian Champions, some excellent potential Bodyguards, and the ability to reliably score three or four battle tactics without sweating too much. Overall, I’m excited to see what changes are made for the next GT.
Congratulations to Joel. He brought a well-crafted list, and played it effectively to achieve a 5-0.
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Allegiance: Seraphon – Constellation: Fangs of Sotek – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Slann Starmaster (285)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Spell: Stellar Tempest Skink Starpriest (130)* – Spell: Hand of Glory Saurus Astrolith Bearer (155)* – Artefact: Serpent God Dagger
Units 30 x Skinks (225)* – Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs – Reinforced x 2 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)* – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)* – Reinforced x 1 Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Another 5-0 Seraphon list, this time with added Spinedog! Boy, am I glad that’s become a rare occurrence. Of course, it’s still a powerful piece, and on paper, it does make sense for Seraphon, given they lack an otherwise durable bully piece.
Henry has also brought some Salamanders in this particular iteration of the standard Fangs list (buff pieces, loads of skinks), which play really well into the Starborne teleport and provide an excellent dual-phase threat.
All in all it’s clear how this list hurts you – it’s a kind of techy twist on the ‘pin-cushion’ archetype, with excellent objective play in a handy one drop for, most likely, forcing opponents to move up into a much easier charge range of the Spinedog.
Gratz to Henry, and here’s hoping the new Seraphon book makes it less appealing than ever to take the ‘dog!
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120)* Branchwych (130)* – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Drycha Hamadreth (335)* – Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth
Units 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 3 x Revenant Seekers (235)* 3 x Aetherwings (65)*
Drycha! You love to see it. The evil tree spirit in a mech suit is still a relatively rare sight given her competition in Durthu and Alarielle, but her ability to choose between 10 extra melee or shooting attacks makes her a fast, durable and flexible piece that I don’t think gets enough love.
Gary here has gone heavy with Kurnoh – a reinforced blob of both the shooty and scythy variety (both of which, as always, are backed up by the +1 to wound aura of the Arch-Revanant). Then, just the one unit of teleporty tree revs and a fantastic support unit of Seekers. It’s a nice balanced list with huge reach, two big blobs that will keep regrowing (via Seekers and Verduous Harmony) if you don’t have the ability to take them down fast enough, and the tactical Drycha option.
The fact it could handle such a diverse set of opponents – the magic dominance of Tzeentch, through the ranged punch of Underguts Ogors and even a semi-mirror – en route to the rare Sylvaneth 5-0 is testament to the general and how adaptable the list is. It’s really cool.
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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)** – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard Knight-Vexillor (120)* – Meteoric Standard Lord-Relictor (145)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Thundershock – Prayer: Translocation
Units 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)* 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)* 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)** 2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)** 5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)* 5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
If you follow Stormcast chat on Australian servers, this list might not be a surprise. Why such a skew list and why does it work – first credit to the General, but this is a durable shooting list which doubles down on Mortal Wounds. Each Vexillor can grant a re-roll charge to a unit within 12″. And each Vexillor can be deployed from Azyr (Scions of the Storm). So one play is to use the Vexillors to buff important charges after moving just outside 9″ (no redeploy). Or drop both just beyond 9″, allowing the Tempestors to shoot, then charge. Enormous flexibility and mobility. Backed by Judicators with a double shoot potential. The strength of this list is the extreme difficulty opponents have in stopping or limiting scorring. The Tempestor units with 12 wounds need serious attention to remove. They will tie up big threats turn after turn, unlike the larger units that some of the biggest hitters can remove in a turn.
Then there is the Mortal Wound output, another nice trick, Everblaze Comet to drop a bomb on any castles, with a CV of 6, Master of Magic makes it almost certain to go off when you want it. That with Thundershock to short those charges (leaving a CP for Unleash). And each of the Vexillors has a mini Everblaze. The list is a 2 drop (all of the best SCE lists try for minimum drops) for that small advantage. Scoring wise, this list wasn’t just good at scoring it’s own Battle Tactics but preventing some of the opponents (sometimes a lot of theirs). This list was rated as one of the strongest at Cancon and scored extremely well in the first 3 rounds before falling away in the last 2. Still major victories but not as many “other” points as some of the higher ranked lists. To be expected with the final pairings being into stronger opponents. It’s innovative and effective, and it is fantastic to see SCE from a different angle.
Tournament Placings
For a full run down of all the tournament positions, why not visit Stats and Ladders. It’s a brand new site that allows tournament organisers to… well… organise their tournaments. I have to say, it’s incredibly easy to use, and the best bit, it’s free!
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Nottingham GT that took place in the UK on 14th and 15th January. It involved 41 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: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty – Season: The Reaping
Leaders Alarielle the Everqueen (840)* Arch-Revenant (120)* – General – Command Trait: Radiant Spirit – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)* 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
Units 5 x Gossamid Archers (220)* 3 x Aetherwings (65)*
Mathew Davies – aka Mathmallow – is a rather good player. You don’t have to look at too many tournies to find his name in the podium, and he’s legendary for doing it with Sylvaneth – old and new!
The list is easy to parse due to the inclusion of Alarielle and her cost. The Arch-Rev is a crucial buff piece for the 6 bows due to his +1 to wound aura – and though BowNoth continue to be divisive, they do offer a TANKY source of long range chip damage. Which is handy when you’re trying to throw a base as big as Alarielle’s around and into priority targets that a small screen could otherwise stymie.
Nice to see Gossamids being used too – despite their potential to flunk and do nothing, their ability to block a charge then fly safely away after doing some MW chip damage can absolutely hard counter combat armies.
A well-deserved win to probably the best Sylvaneth player out there in a sharkpit of a GT!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Vanari Lord Regent (170)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat
Battleline 30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 2 10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 5 x Hurakan Windchargers (150)*
Adam Mumford – another Team LIT player here and the best of the LRL players in the top 10… all 5 of them, from 2nd to 7th place, no less! Is that an LRL meta resurgence I hear…
What we’ve got here is Teclis and 40 sentinels in Helon – allowing extra shooting at close range. It’s a blast from the past but with new rules – and now Sentinel’s sunmetal weapons also work in melee. Oh, and the Rune of Petrification is difficult to dispel (with a CV of 8) MW pump that you Teclis can auto-cast in a prime spot on the board.
Adam is another fantastic player, and there’s no denying there’s a lot to keep track of in terms of buff sequencing and aura ranges. Can’t say saying this list doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies though!
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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords – Great Nation: Helon – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs:
Leaders Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)* Scinari Cathallar (110)* – Artefact: Silver Wand – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat Vanari Lord Regent (170)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
Battleline 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (150)* – Lore of Hysh: Overwhelming Heat 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse – Reinforced x 1
Units 20 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh – Reinforced x 1
Another incredibly well-known player and a long-time LRL fan, Matthew brings…. Teclis, 40 sentinels and the Rune of Petrrification in Helon.
He brought more Wardens than Adam though! So you can’t say he copied his homework.
Just to reassure you, I can tell you that 2 of the remaining 3 LRL lists went Alarith with Teclis, loads of Stoneguard and Avalenor. So, it wasn’t all Sentinels…
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Grimscuttle Tribes – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Dankhold Troggboss (220)**** – Trev the Troggboss – General – Command Trait: Alpha Trogg – Artefact: Glowy Howitz Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)**** – Freddie the Fungoid – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Madcap Shaman (80)**** – Madcap Max – Artefact: Moonface Mommet – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)* – The Celestant Slime – Allies
Battleline 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (290)*** – Reinforced x 1 6 x Rockgut Troggoths (290)*** – Reinforced x 1 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (155)** 3 x Fellwater Troggoths (155)**
Units 5 x Spider Riders (90)* 3 x Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70)* 1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)**** – Drummer Dave
Behemoths Skitterstrand Arachnarok (160)* – Big Bert & Nipper
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20) – Steve the Swamp Trogg Mork’s Mighty Mushroom (40) – Marv the Misunderstood
Gitz Top 10 should be the headline for Nottingham. Not only running a credible 9th but taking down giants on the way, even running win, loss, and draw against LRL is a very credible effort. Troggoths (Trolls) are the answer, boosting the Gitz with a solid, regenerative punch. Backed by both a Breakaboss and a Sloggoth, both of which are also Troggoths. The Dankboss can give either reroll 1s to hit as well as the other Troggoths. The Marshcrawler gives +1 to hit to friendly units wholly within 18”. All of those Rockguts hit on 2s with -2 rend and 3 damage, that’s how giants die. Just as important, Dominic left some room for some very fast units that can be scoring (old GHB) around the outside and even a couple of casters. While not reliable if Ithcy nuisance goes off it’s potentially a game changer making a key piece fight last. And if they get bored (after getting the extra command point), they can always throw in the Burning Head or Mork’s lunch (mighty mushroom) for some mortals.
Lots of threats in the list with some great mobility, nothing is too resilient if focused but what do you focus on? And as the results show if you can’t lift key units quickly they can focus solid killing power including enough to drop Gargants in a turn. The loss to an LRL shooting list (see 3rd place above) is expected for such a melee focused army but still a very credible showing. It will be interesting to see where their new book places them and whether it boosts the Troggoths or the little Gitz.
This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Almost Loremaster that took place in Montreal, Canada on December 3rd. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 3-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
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Allegiance: Sylvaneth – Glade: Heartwood – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired – Season of war: Dwindling
Leaders Arch-Revenant (120) Branchwych (130) – Artefact: The Vesperal Gem – Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony Warsong Revenant (305) – General – Command Trait: Spellsinger – Artefact: Acorn of the Ages – Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)** 6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
Units 3 x Revenant Seekers (235)*** 10 x Gossamid Archers (440)* – Reinforced x 1
No stranger to podiums across Quebec and Ontario, Olivier Gandouet takes first in a scrappy field with his take on the familiar Sylvaneth Heartwood skeleton. Eschewing common pieces like Drycha, a reinforced Seeker unit, or the Celestant-Prime, Olivier instead gets the most out of a reinforced unit of Gossamid Archers – a unit often maligned by Sylvaneth players.
You’ll find many of the usual suspects in this list – teleporting Tree-Revenants easily score battle tactics and potentially Show of Dominance, the Warsong provides reliable access to the strong Sylvaneth spell lore and bursts of AOE mortal wounds, and the Kurnoths are an unholy anvil/hammer combo that can be launched through the Wyldwoods crunked out on Spiteswarm sap to send something to the shadow realm and then fade away. A reinforced unit of Gossamids is really the elephant in the room here. While their durability and expected damage is low relative to their cost, they are capable of truly gruesome spikes and can be difficult to interact with for armies lacking in ranged reach. They will always be a risky include just because their strengths and weaknesses are so polarized, but the risk paid off for Olivier in this case.
We’ve seen Sylvaneth lists slowly edge toward lower drops over time, but Olivier reverses course and instead opts for a high drop list with all the bells and whistles. It’s a strategy that paid off in this event – Sylvaneth can still have a productive and relatively risk-free turn 1 if given first thanks to the Warsong + Spellsinger combo and Strike and Fade, but are also naturally resistant to alpha strikes if given second due to how far back they can set up. A unit of Seekers and a Branchwraith auto-casting Verdurous Harmony provides a layer of insurance for any mistakes, effectively negating any incidental chip damage and enabling rapid recovery from failed kill shots.
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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts – Grand Court: Blisterskin – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)* – General – Artefact: Eye of Hysh – Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite – Lore of Madness: Spectral Host Abhorrant Archregent (245)* – Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
UNITS 9 x Crypt Flayers (540)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)* 10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)*
BEHEMOTHS Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)* – Allies
Season of War’s own Carl Ong really put Flesh Eater Courts on the map of the Canadian tournament scene when he went on a run with his own FEC-Krondspine list. Perhaps seeing no reason to teach an old spine-dog new tricks, Frederic proves the nerfed Krondspine is still very much a thing in deftly piloting his ghoulies to a 3-0 finish.
It’s not flashy, but it doesn’t have to be: the trifecta of the Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, a block of 9 Flayers, and the Krondspine provide the savvy general with the tools to be competitive in most matchups. The Terrorgheist is an infamously explosive rocket-powered scalpel, threatening to tear even the hardest targets down by fishing for mortals with his Gaping Maw. The Krondspine gives the FEC army the durable mid-board unit it desperately wants and a temporary answer for units the Terrorgheist may not want to engage. In tandem, the Gheist and the Krondspine can either remove or tie up the opposing pieces that have the damage (see: Bounty Hunters) to threaten the Flayers, letting them safely leverage their recursion capability and project their force across the table with Run and Charge from Spectral Host.
This list is here for a good time, not a long time. It will launch a new Archregent-buffed unit across the board each turn until someone runs out of threats. Blisterskin is required here to turn the Flayers into GVs, but is also a strong blanket option with +2 move and access to a teleport for shifty objective play. The Horrorghast is a smart take here, helping to ensure that the list gets the kills it needs on the turn the pilot pulls the trigger and commits. Kudos to Frederic for an excellent finish here.
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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers – Subfaction: Petrifex Elite – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Arkhan the Black (340) Katakros (450) Mortisan Soulmason (115) – General – Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian – Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour – Spells: Drain Vitality
Legends say that on one fateful night a secret cabal of OBR players got together, prayed to effigies of Nagash, Bill Souza, and Owen Jackson, and received the revelation that big bricks of Necropolis Stalkers in Bounty Hunters can do very bad things to almost anything in the game. Dan Fortin was obviously in attendance at this clandestine ritual and has successfully spread the Stalker gospel in Montreal with convincing wins over Sylvaneth, KragGitz, and the OBR mirror.
What DON’T stalkers do, besides disappoint? They’re relatively fast by OBR standards (mimicking the FLY keyword and re-rolling charges), have access to a vintage 2.0 mechanic in re-rollable saves, and scale hard with powerful buffs from Katakros and the Soulmason to drown juicy targets in a sea of hyper-accurate damage 2 and 3 attacks. Arkhan provides damage diversity with his own personal orbit of arcane bolts, while Katakros acts as a buff vector and a constant threat to the opponent’s precious CP. The Mortek Crawler is a good utility add-on, allowing this otherwise melee-range army to reach out and threaten opposing wizards, monsters, and buff characters with a frightening 5 flat damage projectile. It’s worth noting that the Crawler’s normal profile can benefit from Katakros’ attack buff as well, making the payload extremely deadly in concert with a synergistic Horrorghast to lock in the casualties.
No silly frills like “screens” here: just twelve very large and VERY angry skeletons ready to receive positive affirmations from Katakros and punch a few one-way tickets to the bone zone. Congrats to Dan and looking forward to seeing the Ossiarchs again!
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Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)* Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (270)* – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110)* – Moon-cutta
Battleline 20 x Shootas (120)* 20 x Shootas (120)* 20 x Shootas (120)*
Units 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210)* – Reinforced x 1 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)*
How cool is it that two Gloomspite Gitz lists finished back-to-back in 7th and 8th? In a true homage to the random nature of the Bad Moon, I rolled a dice to decide which I would cover. It seems Raphael Boyon continues to enjoy the moon’s fickle favour, though there was nothing lucky about his performance – he only dropped a game to Olivier’s winning Sylvaneth list!
A lot of the (justified) criticism of the Gloomspite tome boils down to it feeling like playing a losing game of keyword bingo: the juicy synergies seem to be there, but inevitably end up being just out of reach. Raphael’s Jaws of Mork list may represent the best combo this old 2.0 tome is capable of, solving the unreliable reach of Squig units with access to re-rollable movement, +3 movement, and 3d6 charging. On the offensive side of things, these Squigs can hit surprisingly hard: the Loonboss on Mangler provides a generous +1 to wound buff, while the Sneaky Snufflers are perhaps the cheapest source of the very powerful +1 Attack buff in the game. Kragnos ties the package together, serving as a cataclysmic melee threat and anchor that also allows the buffed Squig units to travel potentially shocking distances.
Interesting that Raphael opted for a 2-drop here, but it certainly makes sense for this configuration of the list. If the opponent makes a deployment mistake or fails to respect his movement, Raphael could potentially pull off an Ironjawz-esque alpha strike that pins the opponent at worst and cripples them at best. Going second, Raphael can sit behind the generous screening provided by the Shootas and then pierce the opponent on their weakest flank, threatening a deadly double with Kragnos. Props to Raphael for squeezing every drop of competitive juice out of a beleaguered battletome.
