BlackoVt (Blackout V) was held in Cardiff on the weekend of the 12th & 13th December. This was the return of a much moved event due to COVID and the restrictions in place by the Welsh government – and the organiser’s wish to keep everyone safe.
Unfortunately I couldn’t attend as it would have been my 4th week playing toy soldiers in a row… and may have got me in trouble!
The event is run by Chris Tomlin who has been in the community since at least 8th edition as part of a group from the South Coast of England called The Black Sun. Chris also runs the very successful team tournament – Brotherhood – which will return in 2022 for it’s second time.
The event was 5 rounds of Age of Sigmar and was attended by the great & the good of the Warhammer community, and was held at the new Firestorm Games location in Cardiff, Wales. Hopefully I’ll get there soon for some games!
Before I come to the lists I also wanted to shout out to a returning player who attended – Mo. For those who don’t know who Mo is he is the person who saved Age of Sigmar for the competitive community by bringing in ClashComp for his event Clash of Swords. He (and a team of supporting superstars) pointed every warscroll produced by Games Workshop and gave them a points value – whilst GW were running event where number of wounds mattered (so 2 goblins were the same as 1 chaos knight!). Mo saved us from having to play in this manner and his comp system was affectionately renamed MoComp.
So a cheer from me for Mo – it’s great to have you back and hope to see you at tournaments in 2022.
Now, without further ado – the winning lists.
1st Place – Cities of Sigmar – Mark Wildman(5-0)
Mark’s list appears to rely on the anvil of the Pheonix Guard – 4+ Ward – and the damage of the Fulminators… what a punch! As 4 drop it probably gave Mark the option of going first or second in some of his games – except against dedicated shooting lists. I’m told the Flaggelants made the army, so get painting them!
Look – still on Square bases on games-workshop.com
2nd Place – Soulblight Gravelords – Christian Moore(5-0)
Nagash before the recent changes was good (I would say very good), and the Knights must have provided the punch Christian needed. I wonder how many Hand of Dusts were attempted through the portal?
3rd Place – Stormcast Eternals – Adam Mumford (4-1)
Adam’s been playing a lot of Age of Sigmar since we were allowed to meet up again, and here he is again proving that the Dragons are definitely not good!! Wow – no idea how my Gitz would survive this; or my footslogging Brutes. Vicious.
Dragons… Coming to every tournament near you soon.
Thanks for Chris Tomlin for making the results available – including fighting through piles of paper army lists – and to AoS Shorts for collating them.
As this Friday is Christmas Eve my book review is just a simple look back at the ones already on the blog, if you’ll forgive the review format.
I’ve had a varied reading selection this year, some of which I managed to put some thoughts onto paper for the blog. Here they all are in case you missed any.
What releases are you looking forward to in 2022? For me it’s the new Sharpe book as it’s sort of Warhammer… and reading through some of the short story collections I’ve picked up.
Just a quick update this week, as I’ve not had a huge amount of time to get things done.
But I’ve fixed up the wall with green stuff ready for painting. I’m still in two minds about the bear rug though…..
So with all the pieces complete it’s just going to be a matter of making some posters and banners to go on the wall and then sticking the whole thing together. It’s only taken two months….
Note – this article is for AoS3. We are now in AoS4. Some of the article will still be relevant, but some of the rules may be different
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Age of Sigmar points were last released in June 2021 as part of the General’s handbook and – bar new books and a small Dragon issue – have remained the same since then.
Along comes the Winter FAQ to shake it all up…! I have reviewed some of the rules changes already, but I wanted to look at some of the points increases as well to see what impact it has.
Points, with movement
Thanks to the hero that is Hellsotrm Mikey on twitter we have the points adjustments above listed alongside the new points from GW.
Before I comment on the above, it would be good to find out from Games Workshop what they want this update to do – for example is there a different aim than the Warhammer 40k team had? Fortunately they have told us on Warhammer Community
Great aim!
Now I know the aim, I can try to judge the success of the work against that. As already stated in my previous article I think the overall changes to the core rules and Kragnos are great. I can’t really comment on Archaon & Nagash but they look like they are trying to make them easier to balance. I’ll let you be the judge of their level of success. But, onto the points review. Here’s that picture again:
Whilst I do go to a lot of tournaments in the UK I’m not at the ‘bleeding edge’ of tournament play and I don’t know enough about most of the armies so I’ll give impressions and then deep delve on the armies I know and care about.
First thing that is noticable is that every army has at least one adjustment. I realise that with the existence of some vocal people on twitter this was probably necessary some of the adjustments feel a little top level – particularly those for characters … which I’ll explain later.
The Good
Irondrakes, Blood Stalkers, Sentinels, Bastilidons, Salamanders, Gore-Gruntas, Horrors, Chaos Warshrine and Chaos Sorcerer have all gone up in points to varying degrees. The thing you’ll notice about the first 5 of these is that they are all shooting units – so hopefully the change to Unleash Hell will also impact them.
Gore Gruntas were always going to go up since the FAQ gave them rend 2, but it’s a bit galling when other units get months of play, and Ironjawz get 2 months only! But that’s the way of timing and I’d prefer they were changed if due – and they were due an increase.
Horrors are still great value at 250 points for 50 wounds – now the equivalent of Gnoblars – and we all know which one we would prefer. I think another warscroll re-write is needed here, and my unpopular opinion is that the problem are the Brimstones. They were brought in with Silver Tower a small dungeon crawler and are now hamstringing the rules writers… just stop blues splitting – problem solved!
The changes to the Slaves to Darkness units seem reasonable given the number of times these units appear and I am told that the Sorcerer was far too cheap – but have never faced him.
The Bad
Foxes (LRL Windspirits) and Gargants are untouched… either on points or in the FAQ. The Foxes are bad because only other shooting armies have a reasonable chance of catching them – thanks to moving in the shooting phase – and Gargants are bad because their ability to hold objectives doesn’t deteriorate. This is especially confusing because GW have given Kragnos’ ability a deteriorating profile for Mightier Makes Rightier!
No movement on the Sons FAQ
The Ugly
Now here I may be accused of being unfair to GW, but they are a large company that charges a lot of money for the rules of their game… and they have stated that they will improve factions that could use a boost… so what has happened?
What nonsense is this?
I know Gloomspite very well, and have played them at four tournaments in 2021. 2 one dayers, one with Kragnos (oh dear!) and 2 5 game tournaments – Facehammer where we got an additional 150 points and BoBo where there was a best in race that Trogg & I fought for.
In neither of these did I do very well, and the stats from The Honest Wargamer show that I was not alone. They have a winrate of 31%. And this just isn’t a few incompetent fools playing with them (looking at myself)… they represent 2.4% of the meta in those same stats.
In order to improve an army that is doing badly it needs one of two things (and preferably both). It needs a better book & warscrolls and it needs lower points. Books take time to produce and GW have shown that they don’t often adjust warscrolls so that leaves points. Once this is decided – and it clearly has been in this update – then you need to meaningfully adjust the points… downwards… on units which are taken – a lot!
Sure the reduction of 20 points to my Mangler Squig is great… but all it does is get me a Triumph… maybe! Same issue with the Dankhold Troggoth – sure it’s a few points but not enough to make a difference. We need Battleline and Battleline IF to be reduced for armies to get better. Remember I played with 2,150 points at Facehammer and was lucky to go 1-1-3… and I’ve been playing this army a lot.
And reducing a unit that no-one takes (Skitterstrand) doesn’t help the faction get better. It gives another rubbish unit to throw at the enemy and give more points. Am I looking at the 3 Spiders and 4 Gigantic Spider riders on my desk? sure… but I also look at the Sentinels in LRL – still cheaper than a Skitterstrand!
So, as I feared, it’s turned into a tirade, but there are suggestions above, and what’s worse is that Games Workshop know what to do because they have done it with other armies:
Battleline and Battleline If… going down – well done!
And here too! – Clan Eshin Ahoy!
And again – Black Knights same points as Spider Riders
So, why when they know the problem and know the solution do they not enact it across the board? Does it matter if a few armies suddenly go from 31% to 35% (or even 40%) winrate? No.
I did initially think that Gloomspite got no meaningful reductions because of Kragnos being improved but: 1) Kragnos is better in Beastclaw; and 2) I shouldn’t have to go outside Gloomspite for a playable army… playability should be included in all books – or if not adjusted!
Games Workshop could have given the struggling armies: Gloomspite, Blades of Khorne, Beast of Chaos, Nighthaunt, and Skaven a points drop of every unit of 10% and these armies still wouldn’t be ruling the tabletops but maybe, just maybe, the players who play them would have more fun and be more likely to occasionally grab a 3-2 out of the hands of Seraphon, Gargants, Daughters of Khaine and Ironjawz. At the very least they should follow their own aims as stated on Warhammer Community and try to succeed in those aims.
Conclusion
The points adjustments are a start… but it seems that Games Workshop are worried about getting something wrong – small points adjustments on non-battleline or unique characters doesn’t achieve very much. I hope they continue with the Battlescrolls, release them quarterly and get brave – make changes – accidentally make Beasts of Chaos a 5-0 army for 3 months! Go Wild! ..please…
‘Shoot for the Moon, even if you miss you’ll land amongst the stars!‘ (Peale)
I’ve done a number of top 3’s now for Age of Sigmar, so today I thought I would branch out and cover a top three for 40k. This time we’re back in Europe and looking at the West Coast GT held in Bohus, Sweden.
Tom Ogden – Black Templars
Tom won the event with 5 wins from 5 and 491 battle points.
HQ ———- Chaplain Grimaldus (140 pts)+ – Litanies: Litany of Divine Protection, Fires of Devotion & Litanies of Hate High Marshal Helbrecht (160 pts)+ Primaris Chaplain (85 pts)++ – Litanies: Litany of Hate – Canticle of Hate – The Crusader’s Helm
Fast Attack ———- 5x Inceptor Squad (375 pts)+ – x2 Plasma Exterminator – The Crux Obsidian – Inceptor Sergeant: Champion of the Feast 3x Attack Bike Squad (180 pts)++ – 3x Multi-Melta
Heavy Support ———- 6x Eradictor Squad (270 pts)++ – 5x Eradicator: 5x Bolt Pistol – Eradicator Srgt
Detachments ———- +Patrol: Black Templars ++Patrol: Black Templars
Total Points: 1999 pts
John DeFrank – Orks
John managed 4 wins from 5 and 473 battle points.
No Force Org Slot ———- Nob on Smasha Squig (65 pts)+ – Proper Killy – Stratagem: Big Boss Nob on Smasha Squig (65 pts)+ – Headwoppa’s Killchoppa – Stratagem: Extra Gubbinz
HQ ———- Beastboss on Squigosaur (Warlord) (145 pts)+ – Big Killa Boss – Beasthide Mantle Warboss (105 pts)++ – Brutal but Kunnin – Attack Squig – Da Killa Klaw – Kombi-Scorcha, Power Klaw – Stratagem: Big Boss – Stratagem: Extra Gibbinz
These were the top three lists from General’s War #46 held on 19th December 2021.
Piotr Kurkowski – Lumineth Realmlords
Piotr won the event with threw wins from three and 79 points. Beating an off-meta Nagash Soulblight Gravelords army in the first round, a Nagash Petrifex Ossiarch Bonereapers list in the second round and a Sons of Behemat list in the final round with four mega-gargants.
Allegiance: Lumineth Realmlords – Great Nation: Syar – Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery – Triumphs:
Leaders ———- Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind (345)* Vanari Lord Regent (155)* – General – Command Trait: Goading Arrogance – Artefact: The Perfect Blade – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light Scinari Cathallar (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse
Battleline ———- 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light 30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450)* – Lore of Hysh: Protection of Hysh – Reinforced x 2
Units ———- 1 x Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (265)* 1 x Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (265)*
Core Battalions ———- Battle Regiment*
Total Points: 1985 pts
NB: – With the recent points update from Battlescroll: Gods & Heroes this list would now cost 2,085 points due to the +20 points for the Sentinels and is no longer a valid list for Age of Sigmar
Tomasz Litman – Ironjawz
Tomasz also managed three wins from three beating a Stormcast list with Vindictors and two units of reinforced longstrike crossbows in the first round, an off-meta Slaves to Darkness list in round two and a Soulblight Gravelords Grave Guard army in round three.
Leaders ———- Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)** – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Mega Bossy – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Destroyer – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)** – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline ———- 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)* –Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas
Core Battalions ———- *Warlord **Command Entourage – Magnificent ***Hunters of the Heartlands
Total Points: 1995 pts
NB: – With the recent points update from Battlescroll: Gods & Heroes this list would now cost 2,075 points due to the +20 points for the Gore-Gruntas and is no longer a valid list for Age of Sigmar
Robert Rajkowski – Soulblight Gravelords
Robert also managed three wins from three, facing off against a Tree-Revenant Sylvaneth list in the first round with Alarielle, a Kruleboyz Gutrippas spam list in round two and another Tree-Revenant Sylvaneth List with Alarielle in the last round.
Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Lineage: Avengorii Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders ———- Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (525)* – Allies Necromancer (125)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify Vampire Lord (140)* – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battleline ———- 60 x Deadwalker Zombies (345)* – Reinforced x 2 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (230)* – Reinforced x 1
Units ———- Zombie Dragon (295)* – Cursed Mutation: Urges of Atrocity Zombie Dragon (295)*
I love scenery, especially for games I don’t play enough of – Kill Team and Necromunda, so I was very happy to pick up a box of Thermic Plasma Regulators from Games Workshop recently.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
At £20 for 2 they are a little expensive, but may appear in a future Imperium Magazine so keep an eye out there
These are suitably silly terrain features but they do block line of sight to at least one model and have different levels on them. Perfect for a game of Kill Team. Plus you get to do cool source lighting (or if you are me, a bit naff source lighting). Terrain / Scenery is always fun for me because it is easy to paint, you can do as much or as little work on it as you like and – importantly – it can make the boards we play across look great.
So what did I do with my set:
Who doesn’t like Red & Blue!
Mine is a simple paint scheme with Leadbelcher and Ironbreaker for the silver, Mephiston Red for the red and Talassar Blue over a Corax White undercoat for the coil. There is also a little bit of highlighting following a tutorial from Duncan Roades when he was still working for GW.
They are great, and I hope to get them on the table top soon for my Genestealers to invade or my Guardsmen to hide behind!
And it’s here… ready to smash face and take names. But has it worked?
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Games Workshop has released an article and the Battlescroll Update for Age of Sigmar at the end of this year.
Despite COVID there has been a lot of tournaments in the UK (probably due to the pent up demand) with many 64+ player events occuring and some even bigger ones available. The USA has also seen some big tournaments and hopefull Oz & NZ will be able to have a few in the new year.
First up, the document:
What a lovely piece of design
Games Workshop are good at art and presenting things with pretty pictures and the Battlescroll shows that this is not just for battletomes and core rulesbooks. Well done GW.
Generic Changes
Heroic Actions – Heroic Recovery
Well I didn’t see this one coming, but it is a welcome change to reduce the healing of some heroes… especially those on monsters. I’m not sure it helps a huge amount to stop shooting and magic casting heroes, but it does mean if you can pin Nagash in combat he loses at least one of his healing abilities! A good change
Unleash Hell
Hurrah… Unleash Hell is reduced. Not what I’d hoped, but reducing it to units within 6″ and models within 6″ does at least mean the positioning of chargers can impact this, and no more defend in ridiculous depth. Shooting is still good… but this takes the edge off a little bit.
Amulet of Destiny
It appears that the Amulet of Destinies sold throughout the mortal realms have had a software update and they now only stop wounds on a 6+. This is much better, and at least makes you think during army building. It does hurt the armies at the bottom of the Meta that relied on it, but hurting the Maw Krusha & Gargants is no bad thing – and I say that as a Destruction player. Another change I’m happy to see.
Alliance Changes
Each of the alliances have a change to their god characters
Each Alliance has a change to their God characters, with buffs for Alarielle and Morathi-Khaine (more spells), a change to Archaon & Nagash, a significant nerf to collation troops following the Maggotkin of Nurgle release… and one for me – improving Kragnos!
I should finish him really!
As a Destruction player I’ll review Kragnos changes below, but for the others they seem like small changes which mean that collation has been hit hard – including Cities of Sigmar – and Nagash can now be part of Nighthaunt – probably a good thing.
Kragnos New Warscroll
Those who follow me on Twitter know I tried to get Kragnos working with my Squigs at a one dayer… and then gave up as he ‘won’ the wooden spoon for me – including losing to the Hobby Room’s Ceri’s lovely Squigs on the way… oh dear! So does this help?
He’s lost the anti-dragon synergy – with little time to trigger it – but he does gain two abilities and a 6+ ward save. This gives just a little more – especially if you get lucky and spike the rolls – and is a welcome addition.
End of Empires is great for helping his Destruction Bros (and himself)! A 3D6″ charge within 18″ is a great bonus and I’ll be writing some lists with him in a Ironsunz or Gloomspite (Squig) army to see if I can make him work… and maybe bring him along to Element Games in January (then again, maybe not!!). Just remember he can’t use allegiance abilities.
Avatar of Destruction means he won’t be autokilled by Nagash, Archaon or other instant kill abilities – well overdue and good to see.
The other benefit is a Mightiest Makes Rightiest getting onto the warscroll… starts as counts as 30 – brilliant – and degrades… like the MegaGargants should… but don’t seem to yet.
Is he good enough for 720? Probably not with Archaon being 860, but he’s not as bad as he was and there are benefits to him now rather than thinking your pushing his rock up-hill.
Oh, and in Ogors with Frostlords… a 3D6″ doing mortals based on charge roll seems great – fortunately I have one on a shelf… hmmm…!
Points changes
There are also points changes for each army, but I’ll review them later partly because they are underwhelming and this article is a positive to GW – let’s have more of this type of thing please!
