This is the top three AoS lists for Thunderstrike GT II that took place in Canada on the 20th and 21st of July. It saw 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
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The Top Three AoS Lists
Grand Alliance Chaos
Slaves to Darkness
Godswrath Warband
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 1
Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned
Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Archaon, the Everchosen (890)
• General
Chaos Chosen (500)
• Reinforced
• 1x Khorne
Chaos Furies (100)
Chaos Warriors (200)
• 1x Nurgle
Varanguard (310)
• 1x Khorne
Faction Terrain
Nexus Chaotica
Roland Rivera: Archaon is off to a roaring start in 4th edition, and I couldn’t be happier to see the big guy dominating tables once again! While he still costs a ton of points, his innate durability, speed, spellcasting ability and ability to deal with opposing manifestations (both through his Three-Headed Titan rampage and by summoning the Krondspine Incarnate) make him a formidable center to build your army around.
Alongside him is a sampler platter of some of Slaves to Darkness’ best units: Chosen and Varanguard are potent hammers (especially when marked Khorne, as these are), Chaos Warriors are efficient, durable infantry that do more damage than you’d think, and Furies are a premier chaff unit that can frustrate melee opponents by just running away before they can be killed in combat.
Another benefit to Archaon is that because he costs so many points, he can get all of the other units in his army into his regiment, making this list a 1-drop. While this has some downsides (Priority Target is AMAZING against you, for example), this works best with Archaon’s Eye of Sheerian ability, since a 1-drop will have choice of turn against the vast majority of lists out there. In most cases, you will choose to go second and potentially set up an early double turn (one in which you still get to pick a Battle Tactic) and try to seize an early advantage.
All in all, I think this list is the rare confluence of good and fun, and I’m excited to see it do well in the early going in 4th edition.
Grand Alliance Death
Soulblight Gravelords
Bacchanal of Blood
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (410)
• General
Grave Guard (300)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Prince Vhordrai (480)
Deathrattle Skeletons (200)
• Reinforced
Fell Bats (90)
Regiment 2
Necromancer (140)
• Lash of the Sire
• Orb of Enchantment
Deathrattle Skeletons (100)
Dire Wolves (140)
Dire Wolves (140)
Craig Smith: This is a very interesting list to look at and I imagine may have been confusing to a lot of opponents mainly because in Bacchanal of Blood you’d usually expect to see more vampires and with Prince Vhordrai, usually some Blood Knights, so some may have been off guard from the start.
Let’s look at the offensive strengths. +1 to cast from the battle formation for Mannfred and Vhordrai that’s 3 casts all at +1 to cast per turn, which is awesome when trying to get the manifestations out and also for Vhordrai giving himself strike-first through his spell, ‘Quickblood’. Combine that with Mannfred rolling 3+ for his strike-first on the charge, and a well placed ‘Prison of Grief’ for a strike-last on whoever the Grave Guard are fighting, and you can easily make sure all your hammers are attacking before the units they are engaged with.
You’ve then got ‘Vanhel’s Danse Macabre’ allowing Deathrattle to fight twice but second time with strike-last, so probably on Grave Guard as well, and you can soon see how this list could go 4-1.
Defensively, with that much chaff it could be hard to get to hammers, if positioned well, and possible to guard against deep striking making life difficult for your opponent. This also provides opportunities to deny tactics through the mobility of the wolves (who can run and charge) and the bats (who can retreat and charge), plus Mannfred allowing a redeploy into combat. Lots of ways to get your opponent engaged in combat with units they don’t want in combat.
Grand Alliance Death
Soulblight Gravelords
Bacchanal of Blood
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (460)
• General
Blood Knights (460)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Prince Vhordrai (480)
Deathrattle Skeletons (200)
• Reinforced
Deathrattle Skeletons (100)
Regiment 2
Cado Ezechiar, The Hollow King (180)
Kosargi Nightguard (120)
Connor Irwin: An excellent performance by Cort Barker and Soulblight Gravelords at Thunderstrike shows off the powerful synergies on the vampire side of the army. The Bacchanal of Blood is a popular choice for the boost to vampire casting alone, with the extra +1 to wound on charges for when your vampires need to bring the pain. This list is designed to see just how much mayhem a reinforced unit of blood knights with extra attacks, damage, 2″ move and ethereal saves can cause.
Starting at the bottom, untethered from his dynastic aversion last edition, Cado is a versatile wizard that can easily get up to a +3 to cast if he finds a place of power. Perfect for pushing out that Krondspine every hero phase to clog up the table and gobble up the manifestation meta. Kosargi Nightguard on this list is an interesting choice, I’m guessing they served as babysitters for wayward vampire wizards and stole objectives and tactics where they could for a reasonable price tag.
Next there’s big Prince Vhodrai, a warmaster that sits this one out thanks to Neferata at the top of the list, this terrifying beatstick has the very important job of keeping those blood knights wholly within 12″ every time they score a kill. Feeding them +1 buffs to attack, damage and 2″ movement gets their output up to silly levels in short order. Sharing that battalion are a couple of units of deathrattle skeletons, which are perfectly serviceable screens and later objective stealers for their price tag and great tarpits when reinforced. Their ability to add models at the end of the turn means that if you leave even one of these guys standing they’re going to recharge very quickly.
At the top of the list there’s the queen and her knights. Neferata is a great utility piece that can surprise in combat in a big way by yeeting off prize pony heroes that take wounds from her Akmet-har on a 5+. Having used this on Be’lakor myself in the past, it’s awesome. She also adds durability to nearby units with a -1 to hit aura, but they’ve cut this down to 6″ now so the bubble is pretty tight. Her best use on this list is keeping her warscroll spell, Dark Mist, active on those reinforced blood knights. With a rend-proof 3+ save they will be very hard to move. Giving them one of the honor guard buffs, likely priority target, is just the icing on the cake.
Hats off to Cort for great generalship and a brutal list that shows off how vampire synergies make a bloody mess of the battlefield in 4th edition.
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Seraphon
Sunclaw Starhost
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Celestial Manipulation
Manifestation Lore – Krondspine Incarnate
Regiments
General’s Regiment
Skink Starseer (150)
• General
• Coatl Familiar
Engine of the Gods (210)
Hunters of Huanchi with Starstone Bolas (90)
Hunters of Huanchi with Starstone Bolas (90)
Kroxigor (440)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Saurus Scar-Veteran on Aggradon (180)
• Beastmaster
Aggradon Lancers (420)
• Reinforced
Aggradon Lancers (420)
• Reinforced
Xodious: Carl Ong’s list at the Thunderstrike GT is a very fun and exciting list that seems to want to capitalize hard on the new and improved Engine of the Gods. The first Regiment immediately starts off with a bit of a surprise for many Seraphon players in that the general isn’t a slann, instead opting for the skink starseer. I have to say, its a very clever choice for the list. You save about 130 points at the cost of 1 cast and no map wide deny, but if you’re moving up the board with the skink anyway to hand out its wards and shut off other wards, you’ll likely be in range to deny the casting the enemy has anyway. The skink is equipped with a coatl familiar, providing a 1/game d6 to casting, which i suspect is being used almost as soon as a pesky purple sun or other manifestation shows up to summon the krondspine Incarnate.
Accompanying that Skink is the aforementioned Engine of the Gods, 2 Hunters of Huanchi with bolas, and a reinforced unit of kroxigors, the likely recipient of the honor guard rule. (I suspect priority target so that Carl could give either of the aggradons AoA instead, but I can also see the Engine taking the bodyguard rule too!) The next regiment sees a scar veteran on aggradon with the beastmaster trait with 2×6 units of Aggradon Lancers. I’ve heard grumbles in the past that the Scar-Veteran is weak, but I believe he’s the perfect tool for delivering that beastmaster trait. It works on himself, so he can keep up with the same Lancers looking to put it to good effect! Between Beastmaster and the Asterism ‘Sotek the Deliverer’ both providing +2 inches of movement, these heavy calvary machines can jump an impressive 14 inches across the board, and that’s before you consider things like the fact that the spell lore of choice here, Celestial Deliverence, can provide a run and charge! You’re looking at a block worth 30 wounds on a 4+ running a terrifying 20 inches before the charge! This list is full of tricks, and can leverage any one of the Asterisms at any time.
My only suspects for the list however would first be the Engine of the Gods itself, which while improved, still has a bit of a swing on it if you’re really desperate for strike first. But with the ability to heal d3 or even return a slain model to up to 3 units (effectively a heal(5) to the aggradons or heal(6) for the kroxigors), there’s plenty in this list that love to have the engine supporting it. As an enjoyer of kroxigor and aggradons myself, Its a model I’ve been meaning to get into my lists! My other complaint with this list that I suspect may have made for some scary games is just the fact that the Generals Regiment is loaded with good units, making it susceptible to something like priority targets or Slay the Entourage. Theres not a lot this list could hope to do about it though without sacrificing some lancers or kroxigors to maybe bring in a another skink starseer.
Overall, its a great showcase that the versatility of this army can let it improvise, adapt, and overcome to any climate it finds itself in, losing only once to the soulblight gravelords. Impressive work, Carl!
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Final Tournament Placings
