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Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Chaos, Destruction, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gavespawn, Gnarlroot, Grinnin' Blades, Kruleboyz, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Sylvaneth, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for GT ŁÓDŹ 2

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the GT ŁÓDŹ 2 that took place in Poland on 6th and 7th August. It involved 70 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.

As well as that, we’re holding out own GT in England in May next year. Why don’t you join us and meet the crew?

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: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)***
– General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)** + inkarnacja
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Doombull (110)***
Doombull (110)***

Battleline
9 x Dragon Ogors (375)*
– 2x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 6x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 2
6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*
– 3x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 3x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*
– 3x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 3x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 1

Other
1 x Chaos Spawn (55)**
1 x Chaos Spawn (55)**

Behemoth
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)**
– Allies

Endless Spells
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment
***Command Entourage – Magnificent
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 151
Drops: 7

Brett: The newly rejuvenated (Tome Celestial) Beasts of Chaos going 5 and 0 in a major again. Peter has anyone had a 5/0 Kruleboyz recently? (Nope – Peter) Dragon Ogres are one of the stronger units in the battletome, and need Dragon Ogre Shaggoths to make them battleline. Combining their wounds/number of attacks with the increasing Rend available from the Herdstone makes them a dangerous opponent for pretty much anything. With Gnashing Jaws and Krondspine there is a lot of board coverage for a low model count army. The Herdstone isn’t listed and he’s taken Sundering Blades (-1 rend for a unit) but surely you have to take the Herdstone (it’s no cost of course).

Gavespawn is an interesting Greatfray which makes having mulitple heroes a good idea (they return as a Chaos Spawn on a 2+) and a command ability for an extra attack. The mandatory command trait gives an additional unbind and the mandatory artefact (Mutating Gnarlblade) does damage to the bearer on a hit roll of 1. It also adds 2 damage, on a Shaggoth that’s a 5 damage weapon. Command Entourage is used here to gain an addtional artefact for Arcane Tome, giving the whole army 3 casts and 4 unbinds. Hailstorm halves an opposing units movement (including charges) to limit movement and charging sheningans. Combine the reduced movement with Gnashing Jaws you can easily see 10MW a turn out of Jaws if you aim at slow moving units (5″ and less)

The Shaggoth’s are very useful leaders with casting, healing (not spell dependent) and being reasonably tanky with decent attacks. The weapons mix on the Dragon Ogres is interesting, almost ensuring split firing? As one damage weapons they are a natural to be included in Bounty Hunters. The Chaos Spawn are a favourite unit of mine in Slaves or Beasts. 2D6 movement and 2D6 attacks mean that they are often underestimated but they are great at grabbing objectives and are surprising difficult to remove.

The Doombulls are another different choice in a Dragon Ogre army but they have a decent attack profile and 8 wounds with MW on 6s. Charge them in early with the hope they do some decent damage, your opponent is going to have to take them seriously and devote real resources to killing them. And they come back 83% of the time. Serious distraction for 2 or 3 rounds. Solid example of army building to take advantage of solid warscrolls and army abilities. A deserving winner with a strong and fun army.

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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)
– Allies
Bloab Rotspawned (300)*
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm

Battleline
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)**
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Terrain
Feculent Gnarlmaw

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 360 / 400
Wounds: 115
Drops: 4

Brett: An increasingly common army from Maggotkin, Lord of Affliction with Blightlords, as General so they are battleline twice (since Drowned Men lets them be battleline). Be’Lakor and Bloab to lend weight and casting to the army. This style of army has the advantage of avoiding Galletian Veterans to blunt Bounty Hunters with good mobility and very high resiliance. It forces your opponent to counter you and lets you spread or concentrate depending on the mission. Everythng except the Bloab can fly and he brings the flies.

Be’Lakor can work as an independent hammer but better is arguably better if supported by one or two of the smaller Blightlord units. That lets him control an entire flank and dare your opponent into an aggresive play to try to remove him. The Blightlords add mortals through disease points. Alternatively you can castle the lot and snipe objectives with the Blightlords. Be’Lakor can’t be too isolated since he represents half of the casts/unbinds of the army. Mariusz has taken advantage of the high bravery of chaos units to pick Bloodthirsty for a free charge reroll.

Bounty Hunters on 2 of the Blightlord units including the reinforced one, solid choice almost doubling their damage situationally. I’m expecting to see a move back to the lower drop battalions in coming weeks, it already looks like there is movement that way with so many armies avoiding Galletian Veterans. The army scored exceptionally well through the weekend coming second with only 3 vicotories (but no losses). The army had draws against a Maggotkin army with a Great Unclean One and large block of Plaguebringers, the other was a Bonesplitterz triple Wurgog/Big Stabba army. The damage output of this army might be a little low, particularly if Be’Lakor is destroied early and these armies play into that.

This is a very good army which plays into missions well. Taking it to second in a strong crowd is an amazing effort.

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Gnarlroot
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– The Dwindling
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Allies
Alarielle the Everqueen (840)**
– All spells
Spirit of Durthu (370)*
– Artefact: Greenwood Gladius (Guardian Sword)
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong

UNITS
10 x Dryads (100)**
– Branch Nymph
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
– FCG
– Enchanted Blades
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)**
– FCG
– Enchanted Blades

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Vengeful Skullroot (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 1995/2000

Brett: Hero hammer Sylvaneth with the those 3. You really don’t want a piece of any of them although I believe there is a thought that Durthu hasn’t benefitted from the new battletome. And there is a sneaky Battlemage of Ghur. This is a strong move giving you a decent chance of a 7″ charge for a teleporting unit. I’ll let you work out the details but it’s a great way to move some revenants into danger close quickly.

The power of the list is concentrated in the heros, and mostly Aliarelle, with the Tome they have 6 casts and unbinds available. Alarielle is almost half the army and the real trick to playing this army is knowing when to commit her. She is vunerable if she is focused by your opponent (and they can get to her) and while you can return her to the battle, that’s not reliable before Turn 3or even 4. Loose her on Turn 1 and it’s going to be very hard. On top of her spell casting though she has your highest quality attacks as well so when to throw her into combat is a mini game in itself.

Durthu offers early turn combat strength if you want and can help screen Aliarelle. The Greenwood Gladius awards D3 extra attacks, potentially near a Awakened Wood Durthu will have 7, 6 damage -2 rend attacks. He can also whiff terriably. The Warsong Revenant is also decent at combat, can use a mortal wound spell and buffs bravery of Tree Revenants or Dryads making her clutch at times. Surprisely survivable with a 4+ ward. Tree Revenants with the extra wound are a reasonable battleline unit but they melt to ranged attacks or mortal wounds. With only a 5+ save and bravery of 6 they really need support to shine.

A defensive army the new battletome makes them much more viable. The new terrain rules help their fire and fade shenanigans and make them much more flexible and mobile. Aliarelle is a high risk strategy which worked well here, his one loss was against a mobile Lumineth list with Teclis, otherwise a strong weekend.

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Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (240)*
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (315)*
– General
– Command Traits: Egomaniak
– Artefacts of Power: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)*
– Spells: Nasty Hex
Murknob with Belcha-banna (95)*
Swampboss Skumdrekk (320)***

BATTLELINE
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
– Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss
Gutrippaz (180)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Hornblower
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
Gutrippaz (180)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Hornblower
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)***
– Boltboy Boss
Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***
– Boltboy Boss
Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***
– Boltboy Boss

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Brett: Peter chooses the focus list and Peter plays Kruleboyz. Surprise another Kruleboyz list. The army focuses on their best warscrolls, their heroes and the Boltboyz. Choosing Grinning Blades is a good move with this many Boltboyz, they aren’t battleline so aren’t Galletian Veterans. They don’t have good saves so the extra damage will clear them really quickly. Grinning Blades also means they aren’t visible more than 12″ away. As we’ve seen with Idoneth this is surprisely powerful, ranged units need to get within the threat range of the melee units.

Unfortunately both the battleline (Gutrippaz) and Boltboyz are really very soft with 5+ and 6+ saves. They melt under pressure, with only one Swampcalla it’s likely that only the reinforced Boltboyz had poison most of the time. Boltboyz need special mention – they do MW on 6s so you want to use Hasty Shot when you can. But you need to move (it can be 1″) and be within 12″ of the enemy. That means they are very exposed. Aimed shot is only available if they don’t move. If they are caught out of position or without screens they are very vunerable. And finally their small unit size (3) limits the effectiveness of Unleash Hell.

The heroes in this army are the major source of combat capability. They mix reasonable quality attacks with interesting wars roll abilities. From being able spam commands to mortal wounds from their slime to snatch and grab there are a lot of things to track. Unfortunately this increases their cost. The snatchaboss or swampboss have a decent chance of one shotting small heroes. Still 14 wounds with a 4+ may struggle in sustained combat. In the end they fail the dps check which is known as the Sons of Behemet. All of this adds to an underperforming faction, unfortunately they are among the lowest on current stats. Going 3/0/2 is a great performance in a 70 strong field.

Final Tournament Placings

For the full tournament placings visit tabletop.to

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Big Waaagh!, Blades of Khorne, Bonesplitterz, Chaos, Destruction, Ethan & Peter, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Icebone, Lofnir, Order, Orruk Warclans, Reapers of Vengeance, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Steel City GT

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This article is the debut article for Ethan Armstrong who has joined us from our Discord Server. Ethan will be joining our list doctors, a small team of players who will talk you through your lists and give suggestions on how you may be able to improve.

If you’re interested in having the list doctors look at your army list, then please send it to thewoehammer@gmail.com and we’ll be sure to include it in a future article.

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Steel City GT that took place in Pennsylvania, USA on 6th and 7th August. It involved 24 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: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Lofnir
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Auric Runefather (125)**
– General
– Command Trait: Spirit of Grimnir
Auric Runesmiter (135)**
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Prayer of Ash
Runelord (95)**
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Flame-scale Youngblood
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Magmadroth Trait: Lava-tongue Adult

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 104
Drops: 8

Ethan: In a meta increasingly leaning towards magic dominance, recent tournaments have returned a suite of powerful results for a variety of armies running anti-magic tools. Bill Souza, in this vein, has expertly piloted his Lofnir Lodge to a 5-0 utilising a variety of tools tailored to meta-mancy. The inclusion of a Runelord as ally speaks to the prevalence of endless spells in the current game, with his +2 to dispel rolls and additional unbind giving the army tools to put a damper on the ability of purple sun (and other spells! They also exist!) to affect Bill’s hero and monster-reliant list. The easy scoring of Bill’s Grand Strategy (have an invocation on the field at the end of the game) solves a problem many armies struggle with under the new GHB neatly, taking advantage of the lack of banishment found across most armies to pick up a consistent source of VP to boot!

Bill has taken Lofnir into this tournament, unlocking Runesons on Magmadroths as battleline and allowing for inclusion of all three mount traits. Magmadroths provide a monster of a warscroll (pun intended) – taking hits well, providing huge amounts of output and being excellent carriers of the artefacts Bill has included (more on this later!). Looking at Bill’s path through the tournament, his army is well equipped to the challenges of both melee-focused enemies who struggle to displace his army off of objectives at the same time as preventing the magmadroths punching holes in their own lines. Trickier foes like the Lumineth are tempered at least in part by the Runelord and the sheer prevalence of powerful ward saves in Bill’s force.

An exceptionally clever layer of complexity in this list is the expert use of the new battalions Bill has used, using both his sub-faction and general selection to satisfy conditions of these battalion for the inclusion of powerful units in Expert Conquerors and Bounty Hunters. The selection of the Auric Runefather as the general, make the Auric Hearthguard battleline, allowing them to be Expert conquerers, counting as 3 models on objectives. On such a notoriously durable unit, so long as they remain close to their heroes to activate their 4+ ward, an opponent is forced to invest significant quantities of damage onto these units if they intend to displace them, losing primary points for every turn they fail to do so. Additionally, the Magmadroths becoming battleline allow them to be selected as bounty hunters, increasing their already incredible output further when paired up against Galletian Veterans. Having committed so heavily to the new battalions, it only makes sense to round things out with a Command Entourage, picking up an extra artefact in the process.

With a strong alternative to Battle-regiment focused lists and a suite of tools tailor made to handle current meta conditions Bill has proven the Ur-Gold fiends of the Fyreslayers have fight in them yet after many dismissed their most recent battletome. Things are looking up for the Dwarves!

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Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Bloodsecrator (125)*
1 x Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (295)*
– Artefacts: Skullshard Mantle
1 x Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
1 x Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (140)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mage Eater
1 x Skarbrand (380)**

BATTLELINE
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Skullhunter
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Hornblower
– Standard Bearer
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)*
– Hornblower
– Standard Bearer
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)**
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers (165)**
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Skullhunter
– Bloodglaive

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Ethan: What year is it?!?! The inimitable Thomas Guan has flown in from the top rope with a Khorne list that looks like it’s straight out of their second edition glory days with a few notable tweaks to continue with the current trend of anti-magic tech. Everyone knows Khorne is good at dealing with magic due to their Blood Tithe dispel but the White Dwarf update to how the tithe is used opens up the ability for Khorne to really lay the smackdown on caster-heavy opponents. As if this weren’t powerful enough, Reapers of Khorne seems to be the premium Khorne sub-faction under the new GHB providing a suite of excellent command abilities, artefacts and traits to their heroes. In the old book style, these traits and artefacts are mandatory selections, though with abilities like a 2+ spell ignore and an additional unbind attempt (auto-unbinding and causing d6 mortal wounds on an 8!) I doubt you’ll find many among the bloodied hordes complaining.

This list includes a selection of the well-known Khorne combos and all-star units with the ever-powerful combination of a Pile-in Thirster and Skarbrand appearing. Usually in this combination Skarbrand is held back on the first turn to place him at his top bracket before being flung into combat with a 6” pile-in, no charge required. This combination is brutally doubled down on by the Reapers of Vengeance sub-faction command ability allowing Skarbrand to then fight again in the combat phase, again piling in 6” so long as they remain within range of the other Bloodthirster. A bloodsecrator acts as a buff-piece and powerful priest, allowing for additional attempts to dispel endless spells and a STD Daemon Prince gives Thomas the capacity to choose who he fights, and where. The combination of this Daemon Prince with the Pilethirster provides a lot of control for a list that, on the face of it just wants to smash you in the face but it’s only after looking at the remainder of the list that the flashbacks of a time when Khorne was the meta darling of the day begin. A Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut and five (count ‘em!) units of Mighty Skullcrushers round out the list, blasting mortal wounds into opponents on the charge and providing tanky bodies for objective taking with good movement to ensure the army is able to make contact with the enemy before its lack of ranged tools become an issue.

Thomas has done well with an off-meta pick, only falling to Fyreslayers in the final round. Sadly for Thomas, the Duardin possess (or maybe Dispossess?) many of the tools required to stare down this combat army and ask them if that’s all they’ve got? Also lacking in magic of their own, the durable, high-ward Fyreslayers waste many of the strengths of Thomas’s Subfaction, drawing them into a sit-down, drag out combat slog where the Skullcrusher’s charge effects will lack the punch they would otherwise provide. To go 4-1 with an off-meta pick is nevertheless an incredible achievement and show a level of list-building mastery that seems to be the joy of many an experienced player in the new GHB.

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Allegiance: Bonesplitterz
– Warclan: Icebone
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)*
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks

Battleline
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)*
– Chompas

Units
5 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (145)*
4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)*
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 1

Ethan: Holy moley what a brutal list:

  • Kragnos
  • Wurrgog
  • Krondspine
  • Big Stabbas

Ben’s army asks you which problem you’d like to deal with first and like the multiple choice quiz from hell, you’re always wrong. With the number of threats this list presents you can only pity the opponents Ben stared down ( 😊 ) throughout his journey on this eternal quest to krump.

Continuing the trend of book-based Grand Strategies, Waaagh! Simply requires either a battleline unit or your general (Does Kragnos count?) to be wholly within enemy territory when the battle ends. Realistically, if this doesn’t naturally happen in the course of play in an Ork army, you may need to return to school to do some fingerpainting and commune with old mate Mork.

There’s not a huge amount to say about the list as a whole, Kragnos is a brutal combat monster, the Wurrgog’s usual trick of staring something off the table removes notable threats and, in combination with a bound Incarnate provides a wonderful problem for your opponent should you ever lose the staring match. Boarboyz fill out the battleline slot while a reinforced unit of big stabbas… well… they stab?

With so many points invested into the Incarnate and Kragnos, Ben does a good job of rounding out his army, ensuring that he has enough bodies to threaten various objectives and the speed to get there, only falling over (in much the same way as Thomas’s Khorne) to the sheer durability of Bill’s fyreslayers. With such a stable of experienced players I’d kill to be a fly on the wall throughout these games but don’t let the relatively heavy combat focus of these lists trick you into thinking the games look much as a toddler playing with dinosaurs (leave that to Seraphon players), without the tools such as shooting and casting that many armies enjoy mastery of both deployment and the movement phase would have been key to these players.

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Allegiance: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (280)***
– Lore of the Swamp: All
Orruk Warchanter (115)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)***
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (150)***
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry

BATTLELINE
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)**
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*

OTHER UNITS
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)***

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies
– Bonded: Wurgog Prophet

ENDLESS SPELLS
Umbral Spellportal (70)

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

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 111
Drops: 12

Ethan: This tournament’s wildcard list, piloted by Ben Mulshine, utilises a variety of the tools we’ve mentioned throughout the other lists above, only losing once to Thomas’s Khorne in its path. Much like Bill, Ben (must resist!) has potted (sorry.) his units into the triple combination of Warlord, Expert Conquerers and Bounty Hunters, eschewing any hope of turn selection in favour of an extra artefact, CP, Count-as-three capturing and bonus damage against Galletian Veterans. ‘Ardboyz capture objectives while the suite of powerful heroes and the Gore-Gruntas team up with the Incarnate to grab the opponent’s neck and beat them down with pure combat efficiency.

The previously discussed combination of Wurrgog and Incarnate present a Russian Roulette-esque threat to the opponent where even playing the game is to lose it. The hero loadouts all work together to solve one of the lists major weaknesses with the Eye-pebble, Fast’un and the Great Green Hand of Mork getting in the opponents face quickly and mitigating the ability for shooting armies to punch holes in Ben’s units before they’re able to do that they do best, foightin’.

I’d love to ask Ben how he felt various aspects of the list performed, the battalions make deployment a challenge as, while Ben can deploy in reaction to his opponent, the risk of a double turn or being alpha struck himself create a schrodinger’s cat of a deployment, where Ben must be ready to react depending on whether his opponent decides to give him the turn or not. The list is finely tuned with tools for a variety of situations and draws on one of the biggest advantages Big Waaagh! provides by allowing an all-star cast of the Orruk Warclans various Warscrolls. Listbuilding is always a matter of refining however and I do wonder whether Ben feels he’d make any changes or stick with the current list after such a respectable result.

Incredible work to the players of all of today’s lists! The new GHB continues to deliver as a factional wunderkind with tournaments around the world giving a variety of factions their time in the sun. It only remains to be seen whether the current trend of anti-magic continues to dominate the magic-heavy lists going around currently or if upcoming tomes (LRL and Tzeentch, though still a ways off) can break through a meta which seems pre-designed to keep them under wraps.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Bonesplitterz, Death, Destruction, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Icebone, Nighthaunt, Order, Peter & Brett, Seraphon, Sons of Behemat, Taker Tribe, The Scarlet Doom, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Season of War Grand Tournament

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Season of War Grand Tournament that took place in Ontario, Canada on 6th and 7th August. It involved 65 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. The tournament was hosted and organised by Seaon of War, you can find out more on their youtube channel.

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: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Skink Starpriest (130)***
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Skink Priest (90)***
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)***
– Artefact: Serpent God Dagger

Battleline
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
30 x Skinks (225)**
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2
5 x Saurus Guard (115)***

Units
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 8

Brett: Seraphon but, interestingly, not Thunderlizard. The Seraphon book hasn’t been brought up to 3rd Edition standard yet but remains one of the best and most complete battletomes. We haven’t seen a lot of Skinks at the top recently but maybe Eternal Conquerors will bring them back into the light.

Lots of heroes starting with the Saurus Astrolith Bearer, buffing casting and providing a ward within 12″ his Celestial Conjuration Point (CCP) generation is probably amount the most powerful ability. CCP let you summon units, if you have more than 6 you can summon. A Slann General and Astrolith together give 2D3 CCP a turn making at least 6 CCP a turn feasible. That’s 10 Skinks as a minimum. The Starmaster is a nasty wizard with an inbuilt Spell Portal, 3 casts, +1 to cast/dispel/unbind and unlimited range on his dispel/unbind. Both his warscroll spell (Comet’s Call) and Stellar Tempest deal MW. His command trait allows 1 reroll for a cast/dispel/unbind in each hero phase (2 per turn). He’s built to get both the Purple Sun and Gnashing Jaws out on command and make if difficult to get your spells off.

Supporting him are another wizard and a priest, granting another 2 dispel/unbind attempts as well on top of their casts. The Starpriest is granting rerolls for hit rolls of 1 to a unit. The army has a range of offensive options, the salamander hunting packs with high quality attacks for targets with good saves, the Bastilidon for a little of everything. And the large Skink pack for removing low wound, poor save blobs. Having the 2 loadouts on the Skinks is an interesting play, 2 of the units are ideal for screening or taking objectives (where they count as 30) and the other for damage. With curse the 30 strong unit is on average able to produce MW. Special mention to the Purple Sun (MVP this season so far) and Gnashing Jaws.

Gnashing Jaws is a really strong choice now we are seeing a lot of armies with really strong but slow infantry (Fyreslayers, Kurnoth, Stormcast, Maggotkin). The potential MW output into a unit with a move of 4″ is eye watering. Something to remember is it can affect your foot heroes. This army is really set up to deal with hordes with massed 1 damage attacks but can, with a combination of spells/abilities and some stronger units pivot.

The range of lists taken down in the event shows the flexibility and balance of the army as well as the great generalship. More than just winning each round Ridge scored well in every round to secure the win over Rueben. A head to head between them would be interesting.

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Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
Tribe: Taker Tribe
Grand Strategy: Make the Land Tremble
Triumph: Inspired

Leader/Battleline
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525pts)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Flaming Weapon
Kraken-Eater Mega-Gargant (490pts)*
– General
– Glowy Lantern
– Very Acquisitive
– Krakenskin Sandals

Battleline
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Mancrusher Gargants (170pts)**
Warstompa Mega-Gargant (470pts)*

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1,995pts

Brett: Another strong showing from the Sons, this time with the less popular Mancrushers in the army as well. The army build is quite clever, creating 2 wizards in an army with next to no magic but still maintaining key artefacts. With endless sells on the rampage Wizards and Priests are almost mandatory inclusions now for the dispel/unbind. The text for Glowy Lantern is pretty cool too, apparently this is a smart Kraken-Eater.

No Montrously Tough here but Flaming Weapon on the Gatebreaker takes the flail to flat 4 damage. Even on his bottom profile that +1 damage is still making a difference with -3 Rend. The Kraken Eater is both well equipped with Very Acquisitive giving both the extra artefact and allows equipping 2. The second is Krakenskin Sandals making the his stomp a more reliable. Bosses of the Stomp provides the 3rd artefact which is on the Gate Breaker. The Mancrushers being in Bounty Hunters is potentially a solid move, it doubles their effect on Galetian Veterans of course.

Mancrushers are typically more vunerable to ranged attackes with their lower wound counts. Pity no one really brought that many, the Thunder Lizard Seraphon list having the most. It goes to show that in a spell heavy infantry meta, even with the risk of a Purple Sun, the giants have a place. The weakening of some shooting (SCE) will help that and they were never bad, so after 6 months we might start to see quite a few back on tables. It will be interesting to see what effect there is on the meta if there are more Sons on the table. To state the obvious, a very effective army with interesting choices that double down on it’s anti infantry roll. Congratulations on 5/0 in a tight field. A head to head between Reuben and Ridge would be quite a spectacle.

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

Leaders
Krulghast Cruciator (150)*
Guardian of Souls (150)*
– Artefact: Midnight Tome
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Spirit Torment (115)*
Spirit Torment (115)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist

Units
9 x Spirit Hosts (375)**
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Chainrasps (110)**
10 x Chainrasps (110)**
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)***
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)***
– Reinforced x 1
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)***

Endless Spells
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 10

Brett: More familar territory here with a Nighthaunt Scarlet Doom army still it has it’s own quirks similar to the armies we’ve already looked at. From the Grand Strat (Fight or Flight – no enemies within 6″ of any NH unit contesting an objective) to the block of Spirit Hosts there are nuiances to the list. If you are going first the Grand Strat seems easy since NH can always fall back but with 10 drops going second is more likely. Inspired is a good choice for NH since battleshock isn’t really a thing for them.

4 reasonably standard heroes, providing damage reduction, spells and healing for multiple units. Master of Magic is particularly good with the Purple Sun allowing rerolls of a crucial spell. The unit selection is more interesting in this army. Spirit Hosts took a hit from 2nd to 3rd edition losing their MW on 6s ability for a body guard effect. With 3 wounds though a block of 9 is going to be tanky especially with Spirit Hosts to return a model every turn. The Myrmourn are here as stabby spell stealers, very useful in the Endless Spell era we are currently enjoying. The Chainrasps are really only here to meet battleline, they will probably provide some screening or more likely backline objective holding but will evaporate if pushed too hard.

The Bladegheist are here as the damage dealers, doing mortal wounds on the charge to fall back and charge again. Worse of course they get an extra attack and as bounty hunters are doing 2 damage into your GV units. I think people are getting a handle on Bladegheists now, you need to make sure you understand their threat range or try to remove them with shooting. They are devestating if they can hit you in full formation with the current rules meaning all will hit you most of the time. His only loss was against a Maggotkin list with 3 Lords and 12 Blightlords. With the Blightlords the Bladegheist wouldn’t get additional damage and the Maggotkin army would have superior magic. Their MW output and “shooting” would have been effective at blunting the NH.

Still don’t under estimate Bladegheist, putting down Sons in the first round and then the Hog spam in the last should give an idea of the damage potential. Nate’s first round match against Oliver from Season of War is now up on the Season of War website for anyone interested. Having watched it I am amazed at how tanky the Spirit Hosts turned out to be, great move.

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Allegiance: Bonesplitterz
– Warclan: Icebone
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Maniak Weirdnob (100)*
– Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Glowy Green Tusks
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Savage Big Boss (65)*
– General
– Command Trait: Great Hunter
Savage Big Boss (65)**
Savage Big Boss (65)**
Savage Big Boss (65)**

Battleline
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)**
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)
– Stikkas
5 x Savage Boarboys (140)
– Stikkas

Units
4 x Savage Big Stabbas (160)***
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)*
10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Savage Boarboy Maniaks (290)***
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Warlord
***Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Spell

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 181
Drops: 14

Brett: Wow where do I even start with this list, 181 wounds and 40 little pigs with more small heroes than most nations can handle. This list is making maximum use of Icebone’s MW on 6s to hit with melee weapon. Grand Strategy is to control a piece of terrain at the end of the battle. 3 casts from the Prophet and Shaman, including the Shaman is a great idea given the chance the Prophet will blow himself up. They concentrate on winding up their crazy mates with their spells.

The Savage Big Bosses have an ability to let another unit with 3″ of an enemy, wholly within 12″, fight immediately after this unit. That’s why there are so many, they are slow but they can fairly easily do 24, 2 damage attacks before letting so the Big Stabbas hit you (or more likely a small boar unit). With so many boars this is a solid tactic letting you concentrate a small castle of pain near an objective and the boars go wide. Combined with the Prophet lifting his mask and the Big Stabbas getting into combat this is enough damage to down a Gargant.

The boarboys and Maniacs are always going to be best on the charge so you want to make sure that isn’t an option first round. And I haven’t mentioned it but there is a reason for the 2 wizards, Purple Sun to eat something important. No shame in drawing against Maggotkin who could outlast most of the charges and blunt them with disease points. His only loss was to our 2nd place Gargants, again understandalbe because you are relying on swingy units to drop them.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hollowmourne, Knights of the Empty Throne, Nighthaunt, Order, Patrick & Peter, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, The Scarlet Doom, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Quest of Champions – Heat 4

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Peter: We’re always looking for fresh bl… I mean writers to join our team and expand our range of content. Patrick is trying his hand at a top three lists before he moves on to writing about the content he loves….. Horus Heresy.

This is the Top Three AoS lists for Quest of Champions Heat 4 that took place in the Sanctuary Gaming Centre and Coffee Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, UK on August 6th and 7th. Quest of Champions is run by Warrior Lodge in Nottingham, UK. There was a total of 38 players competing in this five-round heat, the top twelve of which will be invited back for a grand final later this year.

Want to watch some top AoS games for free? Ben Bailey’s new YouTube channel, Dice and Ducks were at the event giving live coverage. Round 4 and 5 are available to watch for free here.

The Warrior Lodge always have events coming up so why not check out their Twitter page and book your self on to their next event?

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: Nighthaunt
– Army Subfaction: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs:

LEADER
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)
Spirit Torment (115)
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome

BATTLELINE
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)
10 x Bladegheist Revenants (175)

OTHER
2 x Chainghasts (95)

ENDLESS SPELLS
Chronomatic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Patrick: One of the best parts of Age of Sigmar is seeing huge, god-tier centerpiece models not only regularly used on tables, but seeing those units perform to their points cost. Between the upgrades the Nighthaunt saw in their recent book, including their excellent spell lore, I imagine that we will begin to see Nagash show up in more Death lists as time goes on. Andrew’s list shows Nagash supporting (or being supported by) a big killy block of ghosts.

Nagash can produce an almost offensive number of spells in the Hero phase, and the re-roll from the Cogs makes those casts unlikely to be turned off by an early phase miscast. On top of that, Nagash is pulling double-duty by keeping the units of Bladegheists alive and closer to full strength throughout the fight.

Speaking of Bladegheists: there are 40 of them present in this list, including one reinforced unit. The buffs they can receive from the Chainghasts and Spirit Torment can turn them into a force to be reckoned with, and Andrew used them to great effect in this tournament. The units can be used both as mobile screens, protecting Nagash from incoming enemies, or as a melee threat while supported by the Spirit Torment and Chainghasts. The Scarlet Doom spirit host allows for the large unit of Bladegheists to reliably put out mortal wounds, leaning into one of the more common winning strategies in the current meta.

The Purple Sun makes an appearance in this list, as it does in most lists featuring wizards, and the forward push from the Arcane Tome wielding Spirit Torment allows for the Sun to be placed in a favorable position early in the game, rather than casting it and presenting opportunities for the opponent to dispel it as it works its way up the table 8” at a time.

This is also the only list featured today that uses a grand strategy other than No Place for the Weak. Fright or Flight seems to be leaning more towards a conservative defensive approach, relying on preventing enemies from contesting objectives rather than outright killing the opponent. Overall, a straightforward list, but one that saw Andrew win four of his games with a draw in the fourth round.

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)
– General
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
– Artefact: Grasping Plate
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

BATTLELINE
8 x Iron Golems (75)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

OTHER
Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)

BEHEMOTH
Chaos Warshrine (215)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer: Heal

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment
Command Entourage – Magnificent

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (2000 / 2000)

Patrick: What’s the best way to keep the Purple Sun from wiping your 500+ point leader on an unlucky roll? Have your 500+ point leader be a six-man squad of Varanguard! Or two of those units in Toby’s case. Toby is taking advantage of one of the stranger aspects of Knights of the Empty Throne, in that your leaders don’t need to be a single model, bringing a total of 12 Varanguard spread across two reinforced units. Both units carry Warpsteel Shields, providing them some resistance to spells and endless spells, and both have been improved through artefacts and command traits, allowing the two units to buff the defenses of nearby units, keep enemies locked in combat, and automatically dispel one spell. The leaders are rounded out through a pair of Sorcerer Lords, which can use Mask of Darkness to sling any given unit in the army to the other side of the board, allowing a unit of Iron Golems to catch a distant objective or place a 6-man unit of heroic Varanguard behind enemy lines.

The army wide Tzeentch mark and Chaos Warshrine give a clear image of how badly Toby doesn’t want his opponents to successfully cast, and when they do manage to get a spell off, he wants to make sure that it doesn’t hit as hard as his opponents expects. A Mindstealer is there to supplement the martial abilities of the already-proficient Varanguard, helping ensure that they can get the most out of the combat phase by delaying an opponent’s turn to fight.

The use of a Battle Regiment that doesn’t include all units in the army makes for an interesting addition, potentially preventing Toby’s priority but allowing him to deploy more reactively to his opponents. Those units may have been better placed in a battalion providing more utility benefits, such as an Expert Conquerors or Bounty Hunters battalion. Ultimately Toby drove this army to a top spot with the Battle Regiment, so it clearly worked. We can talk at length about the magic-heaviness of the current meta, but seeing a list that turns that around to focus on magical defense rather than output shows that there are hard counters present to arcane lists. The fact that Toby took this list to a 4/1 victory and 2nd place overall, with only a single loss to a Thunder Lizard list, shows that sometimes martial might makes right.

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Army Type: Seraphon
– Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Lord Kroak (430)
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Engine of the Gods (265)
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Hand of Glory
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflagration
Skink Priest (90)
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

BATTLELINE
5 x Saurus Guard (115)
5 x Saurus Knights (110)
5 x Saurus Knights (110)

OTHER
5 x Chameleon Skinks (115)

BEHEMOTH
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

ENDLESS SPELL
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
Bounty Hunters
Linebreaker
Warlord

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Patrick: Ah, Kroaknado, how we miss thee. In such a magic and mortal wound heavy meta, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Lord Kroak remains such a strong presence in high-ranking Seraphon lists, going 4/1 with a second-round loss to Hallowed Knights. Tom takes advantage of Kroak’s 4 casting attempts, a stock +2 to casting, unbind, and dispelling rolls, and the ability to unbind spells cast anywhere on the map, Kroak is an arcane powerhouse. While this list does not take advantage of the ability to measure line-of-sight from skink wizards or Oracles, it does include some Saurus Guard to help beef up Kroak’s already impressive defenses. It’s a shame that the Balewind Vortex is no longer available, otherwise we could see Tom run the true insanity of 2nd edition Kroak.

A pair of Bastiladons are near constants in Thunder Lizard lists. Their tremendous defense and high-quality shooting always impress and taking two allows Tom to take advantage of Thunder Lizards command ability throughout the fight, leading the pair to push out an average of 18 wounds at their top bracket with more against Chaos armies or with the use of All-out Attack, enough to potentially wipe some reinforced squads of Galletian Veterans off a nearby objective.

The list includes a trio of utility heroes largely meant to improve the defenses and recover from heavy losses throughout the battle. A pair of non-reinforced Saurus Warriors act as excellent mobile screens to block the progress of enemy melee units. There is also a small cadre of Chameleon Skinks, which are an excellent harassing unit, and surprisingly durable when taking advantage of their “Perfect Mimicry” ability. While unreliable, the mortal wounds that can be caused by their dart pipes will always be appreciated when the dice are in Tom’s favor.

Two of the top three placing armies at this event included the Chronomantic Cogs and Purple Sun. These endless spells are highly effective at their current points cost, and the added boost the Cogs provide to any magic-heavy army cannot be understated. The Purple Sun remains ever-present in the meta and will probably be here to stay until the next General’s Handbook gets released.

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Army Type: Flesh-eater Courts
– Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADER
Abhorrent Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)
– Artefacts: Corpsefane Gauntlet
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrent Archregent (245)
– Spell: Spectral Host
Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)
– General
– Command Trait: Grave Robber
Varghulf Courtier (160)

BATTLELINE
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)
9 x Crypt Horrors (330)
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)

ENDLESS SPELL
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Patrick: Hero-hammer is a thing of beauty and dropping half of your army’s cost on fitting four different rotting corpses into the leader slot of your roster is an excellent place to start. Thomas took an uncommon FEC list to the top ten, going 4/1 with a loss in the second round to a Scarlet Doom Nighthaunt list (I suppose Nagash is allowed to have a favorite child for the moment).

Thomas is using Hollowmourne to its full effect by taking two double-reinforced units of Crypt Horrors, with the right support from the Archregent the damage potential of these units can quickly build from fearsome to terrifying. The ability for the Terrorgheist to keep up with the extra speed provided to one unit by Deranged Transformation makes sure to keep the unit in the aura of hit roll re-rolls. The summons from both Abhorrent units can also help supplement the army’s relatively low model count by bringing large blocks of Crypt Ghouls to the field (up to 40 between the two).

The Crypt Infernal Courtier’s high Movement characteristic and artefact make it an excellent hero hunter. The Varghulf pulls its weight both by being a support hero for the Ghouls and Horrors, but also by being a melee threat by itself.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Authors, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kieron Bailey, Tournaments

Bringing a Man-Skewer Crossbow to a Gunfight (Sticking with an Underperforming Army)

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2022 was the year that I hung up my inferno combi-bolters (at least for the time being) and decided to give AoS a go. I found an army I liked the aesthetic of, a way of painting them that worked for me (thank you Slap-chop) and got some tournaments booked in.

As I learned more about AoS, I discovered that my chosen army, Kruleboyz, were not exactly setting things alight on the tournament scene, but I had already got cracking on the painting and had most of the army I needed, so I decided to persevere.

This short blog is about the benefits of sticking with an underperforming army, aka bringing a Man-skewer Crossbow to a gunfight.

1) Lots of cheap models on eBay! While there may not be a start collecting box for Kruleboyz, I managed to pick up lots of models extremely cheaply on eBay, despite the sculpts being great (should have wondered more about that in retrospect!).

10 Gutrippaz can be found on eBay for just £6.50

2) You can never be called ‘That Guy’ with an underperforming army. It can make the social interaction of pickup games and/or tournaments quite straightforward if your opponent is less nervous as they know they aren’t about to be ROFLstomped by the latest hotness.

3) You can catch your opponent unawares. I’m not talking gotcha moments here, but people tend not to build towards defeating your underpowered army because a) their meta representation is quite low and b) to be frank, they probably don’t have to! This can mean that sometimes you’ll have a shot against someone who expects to beat you as soon as they pair into you.

4) Knowing your army. This goes for all armies really, but while the temptation might be strong to switch (and Big Waaagh has been buying me drinks all night), sticking with your army means you know how to get the most out of it.

5) The pressure is off in tournaments. If your army is languishing in the 30% win range, 2 wins in a 5 round tournament is you over-achieving! Well done, you! The same number of wins for an army at the absolute top of the meta, however, might be disappointing.

So there we have it: five reasons for sticking with an army that can seem to be hard work at times. And remember, once you’ve hit bottom, there’s only one way up and just imagine how match-fit you’ll be after receiving a balance update or White Dwarf glow-up!

Any more reasons for sticking with a struggling army? Pop them in the comments below.

Age of Sigmar, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Meta Analysis, Order, Peter Holland, Player Ratings, Tournaments

Age of Sigmar Player Ratings w/e 31st July 2022

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The Age of Sigmar Player Ratings are calculated using the Elo System, most known for creating the Chess Rankings. Players begin with a rating of 1,000 then gain or lose points based on their opponents rating.

The ratings are awarded according to your opponents rating. Beating an opponent with a rating of 1,030 will give you more points than beating an opponent with a rating of 1,010.

Ratings will be given to players who attend a two day event with at least 8 players. Those players must be using 2,000 point armies.

Rankings Update

This week we had an additional four GT’s and an additional 111 players joined the world rankings.

Last week, Josh Bennett led the way with a rating of 1,081.4 followed by Thomas Zhennan Guan with 1,065.9. further down and Jeremy Veysseire was sat in joint 5th with 1,050.0.

Why am I telling you about this? Well, this week both Thomas and Jeremy were involved in the same tournament. Would they cross swords? Would it decide a new world number 1? I think I’ve made the answer pretty obvious….

The Crunch

Round 5 of the Boise Cup in Texas, USA. Both Thomas Guan and Jeremy Veysseire having performed well in previous GT’s already this month find themselves with four wins a piece going into round 5. Thomas playing his Stormcast Eternals and Jeremy his Soulblight Gravelords. Both have high ratings at this point compared to the other players around then (Thomas: 1,099.2 and Jeremy: 1,084.5), both have a shot of taking the title and it all comes down to the last game.

Thomas was playing Stormcast Eternals as the Hammers of Sigmar and Jeremy the Soulblight Gravelords as the Legion of Blood. The Result?

This result let Jeremy climb to the top of the AoS Elo rankings after what was the first big name matchup we’ve seen under the new General’s Handbook. The result saw Jeremy take 10.4 points from Thomas and take the top spot.

I was lucky enough to be able to talk to Thomas about this match over twitter and he gave me his thoughts on the game.

“I felt pretty good in that matchup playing sce into sbgl on silk nest, the army I chose is very mobile and capable of taking out any kind of target from long distance. The mission felt pretty good to me as well, since my list spreads out really well and can score the mission with aether wings and teleporting units.

The turning point of the game was when I committed both the Protectors and Fulminators to wipe out the Blood Knights. With thunder bolt volley, one unit of longstrikes and 3 Fulminators I was unable to kill Mannfred which led to a cascade of unfortunate events. He brought up the graveguard and was able to use the Purple Sun, Horrorghast, Neferata, Mannfred aura and +1 attack command he was able to wipe out both units.

Luckily I was mobile enough so I was able to put score him on primary but late game I fell behind on tactics and he eventually won.

Jeremy is a challenging opponent that plays to the limits of his list very well and can set up intricate plays at a quick pace. Very enjoyable to play against and hope to match up more in the future.”

This Week’s Ratings

Formula

Here’s how the formula works for the maths geeks among you.

For those wanting to check my maths, the k factor we are using is 20.

Here’s my file:

Ratings to 31.07.22Download
Age of Sigmar, Allherd, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Big Waaagh!, Chaos, Destruction, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zaitrec

Top Three AoS Lists for the Shropshire Slaughter: Telford Onslaught AoS GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Shropshire Slaughter: Telford Onslaught AoS GT that took place in England, UK on 30th and 31st July. It involved 32 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: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Allherd
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Dominator
– Artefact: Blade of the Desecrator
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Great Bray-Shaman (100)**
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)***
– Allies

Battleline
6 x Dragon Ogors (250)*
– 6x Paired Ancient Weapons
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Ungors (65)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)*
– Mauls & Half-Shields

Units
1 x Cockatrice (95)*
1 x Cockatrice (95)*
1 x Cockatrice (95)**
1 x Cockatrice (95)**
1 x Cockatrice (95)**
1 x Cockatrice (95)**
1 x Cockatrice (95)**
1 x Cockatrice (95)***
1 x Cockatrice (95)***
1 x Cockatrice (95)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 360 / 400
Wounds: 159
Drops: 3

Brett: Beast of Chaos fresh (?) from their Tome Celestial update in the new infantry meta, at least according to GW, with a full monster list. Imagine being at the table, first round, and your opponent starts unpacking this. Finally a chance for Yndrasta to shine. If you are SCE anyway. It happened to Dan in the last round.

With the Tome Celestial changes the Herdstone now provides a board wide -1 rend in turns 1 and 2 and then -2 from turn 3. The Cockatrice plays into this ability, it’s main attack has no rend but on the charge increases from 4 to 8 attacks. With 12″ move and fly they are hard to screen or stop from charging. As monsters themselves they aren’t subject to monstrous rampages (other than Titanic struggle) and aren’t Galletian Veterans. They also get access to Primal Roar – an extra summoning point and possibly 3. Potentially they could summon a Chimera a turn. Nice. Rally can return models on a 4+ (not 6+) within 12″ of the stone as well.

That lets you game the Bravery characteristic as well, you can render them virtually immune to battleshock and pull from the front removing them from combat. Rally them at the start of your turn and you have a very short charge to get them back into combat. The Dragon Ogors re-roll hit rolls of 1 within 12″ of the General as well. They are a little short on spell casting, Belakor doubles the number of spells/cast himself. There are few buffs to casting here so Geminids (casting on a 6) is a good choice putting out MW and stopping commands. Sundering Blades on the Shaggoth suggests he was kept forward most of the time (an additional Rend within 18″). Tendrils of Atrophy is more situational, the Bray-Shaman doesn’t want to get too close.

Lots of monsters to push up the board and, without Hunters in the Heartland available anymore, able to switch off commands at will. That makes taking damage both more likely and more risky. On top of that12″ movement with -1 Rend board wide, which near the Shaggoth was -2 and then -3, makes this very hard to contain. Structuring the army to fit into Battle Regiment battalion. A good example of a skew list taking advantage of the rules, well done on getting Beasts all the way to No 1.

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Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Zaitrec
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind (345)*
Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (265)*
Scinari Loreseeker (170)*
– General
– Command Trait: Fast Learner
– Artefact: Gift of Celennar
– Extra Spell: Total Eclipse
– Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light

Battleline
20 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (290)*
– Lore of Hysh: Protection of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)*
– Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)*
– Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light
30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (510)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 2

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Emerald Lifeswarm (60)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 96
Drops: 1

Brett: Big block of Sentinels, Wardens everywhere, Sevireth, Loreseeker and a Hurakan Spirit of the Wind. All of the favourites with Chronomatic Cogs and a Lifeswarm. The Lifeswarm making it much harder to remove those Sentinels.

I think most people know how this list works; Cogs is unusual but overall variations of this list have been around for a while. Battle regiment to try and go first (giving up the double), make sure you get Cogs out (for rerolls), apply Power of Hysh on the Sentinels and then use Lofted shot to fire 30″ ignoring terrain and line of sight. The plan is to get 5+’s for mortal wounds (around 12 per volley). Power of Hysh can be cast multiple times, here both the Sentinels and 20 man Wardens will probably cast it most turns. The two smaller Warden teams are screens that can also push out a bit to apply Lambent Light. That gives the Sentinels +1 to hit against one unit.

The Loreseeker, 20 man Warden and Sentinals are all hammers in this set up and very dangerous. Given his mobility the Loreseeker is a great choice for Lambent Light as well. The Sentinals extra spell is Speed of Hysh to double their movement if they are threatened or about to be out of range. It’s an effective list and played well into most of the armies until he met Dan. Dan’s army, they are team mates, is a counter to shooting lists. The Cockatrice are individual units so the wounds don’t carry across but you need the full 30 Sentinels to be sure of killing one with MW.

Since they fly it’s very hard to stop them reaching the Sentinels and from round 3 onwards they instakill Sentinels (rend -2 into a 5+ save). The Grand Strategy is an interesting choice, Lumineth aren’t the most interactive army and yet his GS requires him to have 2 units in the enemies territory. That said both Loremaster and Sevireth can easily accomplish that. With infantry and hordes more common will we see a Lumineth return?

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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Lord of Afflictions (210)***
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
Harbinger of Decay (140)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Festus the Leechlord (150)*
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)*

Battleline
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)****
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)****
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)**
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)**

Units
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (110)***
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (110)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 123
Drops: 10

Brett: Interesting variation on the popular Blightking/Blightlord armies we’ve started to see a fair bit in Season 1. More heroes and a mix of castle and some mobility through the Blightlords and Lord of Affliction. Also interesting to see a return to the high number of drops as if they didn’t care about turn order.

Aaron has chosen to take limited spell casting but included Geminids for that MW and command prevention utility. The spells double down on the rolling castle by increasing how many disease points are handed out. The Lord of Afflictions will provide his normal redeploy/teleport like abilities to the Blightlord allowing them to fly with him. That maximises their usefulness in Bounty Hunters. Festus provides heals, mostly to the Blightkings. Orghotts and the Beasts are a threat in themselves able to control an area and deny it due to their attacks and disease production. The Harbinger is a very interesting inclusion, his two warscroll abilities farm CP and deny commands.

Interesting approach, this is still a list that is going to try to outlast you but includes a reasonable mobile punch. With all of the big boys on the table they are going to take some time to kill and apply disease points all of the time making them a tough opponent.

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Allegiance: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Tame the Land
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Mean ‘Un
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)
– Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex
Wurrgog Prophet (150)
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry

Battleline
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)

Units
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)
– Jagged Gore-hackas
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)
– Reinforced x 1

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Mount Trait

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 127
Drops: 12

Brett: Alex has been talking about his Big Waagh lists for most of this year taking the best of Ironjawz and increasing their flexibility with Kruleboyz. Double warlord for mount traits. Does it work? Is it fun? I suggest you look up Alex in discord (AosCoach) to find out.

The Mawcrusha build is interesting, instead of the IJ approach of Destroyer and Fast ‘Un, Alex has built the Mawcrusha with Arcane Tome for the teleport. He’s then given his mount Mean ‘Un increase the damage done by stomp. The Break-Boss has Fast ‘Un to get it into the enemy quicker, in the end it’s only moving 10″ though without might destroys. Warchanters to hand out ++1 damage and increase the charge of the Gore-gruntas, the Shaman for poisons on the Boltboyz and finally the Wurrgog for his nasty stare. If you can pull it off it’s a very tough list to counter. Going with Tame the Land is a tough call to, you almost need to table your opponent to control all of the objectives outside your territory. It can also spread your army fairly wide.

Unfortunately I think people are beginning to have a good handle on Boltboyz. They need to move (it can be only 1″) to use Hasty Shot and even then with poison they only average 8MW or a dead Cockatrice. But if it was Stormdrakes or Fulminators then they would either not remove a model or only take one. And die the next turn. With only 24″(or 12″ on hasty) it’s hard to keep them out of trouble with out a lot of screens. I think that’s what the ‘ard boyz are doing, but that’s 345+ points tied up. Still it’s innovative army and has some solid punch. If the Wurggog goes off it will remove something important and provide space for the Breaka Boss/Mawcrusha to wreck face. Which is always fun.

Final Tournament Placings

The full tournament results can be found on tabletop.to

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Fantasy, Feast Day, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Legion of Blood, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Lurid Haze, Order, Soulblight Gravelords, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zaitrec

Top Three AoS Lists for Boise Cup O AoS GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Boise Cup O AoS GT that took place in Texas, USA on 30th and 31st July. It involved 52 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. A larger event with a good spread of lists in the Top 5. The tournament used the CORRECT scoring system which awards bonuses to the Battleplan scoring including for denying a Battle Tactic. Something for TOs to consider.

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: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Legion of Blood
– Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Neferata (365)
– Spells: Decrepify
1 x Vampire Lord (140)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Arcane
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Levitate, Invigorating Aura
1 x Mannfred Von Carstein (380)*
– Spells: Fading Vigour

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

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Horrorghast (40)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

OTHER
10 x Blood Knights (390)**
– Standard Bearer
– Kastellan
20 x Grave Guard (280)**
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Seneschal
– Great Wight Blade

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Brett: It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Soulblight in the spotlight it seems. Quickly checking the stats it’s still a popular faction at tournaments (right around the middle in entries) but is slowly dropping in performance against newer books. After spending a year around a 50% win rate it’s now dropped in the last month to a 38% win rate. This underlines how good a performance this is. While in the states the army is interesting for taking a less popular Sub-faction and an uncommon battle line.

What this army does bring though is three Flying Vampires wizards (thank you for that nightmare), a whole mess of spells and a murder of summonable (not sure that’s a word – Peter) units that will keep coming back. Six casts across the three heros and the current staple Cogs and Purple Sun. Cogs for rerolls before casting the Purple Sun for it’s typical debuff and potential to eat something important. Lets assume you drop it near two units everytime (10″ separation is required to prevent the sun touching two units) then over the course of a tournament it will eat something 8 times. With flying multi cast Vampire Wizards that could drop it in a home objective castle on turn 2. I’m not saying that did happen, but lets say it ate a Bastiladon or a Storm Drake. Or even Thanquol. That’s possible.

The list has a lot of mobile threats with the Knights combining with Manfred and Neferata to give a lot of options on positioning. The Vampire Lord is most likely going to stay close to the Summonable (Still not sure – Peter) units he can heal. Importantly for the Vampire Lords they all have heals if they kill something. Otherwise they work to weaken their enemy and reduce their bravery. Combining Horrorghast with the effects of the army is a nice touch, you can potentially lose a lot of 1 wound models in a turn that way. Their spells mostly reduce the combat effectiveness of their opponents and, like most Death armies there is a 6+ ward

The Grand Strategy is an interesting one, it’s book specific and requires you to control more gravesites than your opponent. They either need to disperse their forces to cover one or two of them and risk being attacked by summonable units (like the Black Knights) or cede the GS to you. You pick how many points there are and where they are. Nasty.

It’s good to see a different list from a faction that is struggling do so well, congratulations to Jeremy for taking it all the way to number 1.

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Army Faction: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Subfaction: Zaitrec
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Sevireth (345)**
Scinari Cathallar (110)***
– General
– Command Traits: Fast Learner
– Artefacts of Power: Gift of Celennar
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Protection of Hysh, Total Eclipse
Scinari Loreseeker (170)***
– Artefacts of Power: Blade of Leaping Gold
– Spells: Flaming Weapon, Lambent Light, Overwhelming Heat
The Light of Eltharion (220)***

BATTLELINE
Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Steedmaster
– Standard Bearer
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Total Eclipse
Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)**
– High Warden
– Spells: Lambent Light, Overwhelming Heat
Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)**
– High Warden
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (510)**
– High Sentinel
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh

OTHER
Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Standard Bearer
– Steedmaster
– Spells: Overwhelming Heat, Speed of Hysh

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment
***Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Brett: This tournament has been a bit of a blast from the past, Lumineth on the podium with a massive block of Sentinals and sporting Emerald Lifeswarm. So 2021. Still it’s hard to argue with 30 Archers that can shoot you even behind cover from across the map. That’s the heart of the list, a big block of archers with Wardens as screens. With Power of Hysh the 30 are still averaging 10 Mortal Wounds per turn. Unleash hell while they have Power of Hysh up is very painful. The Dawnriders in Bounty Hunters provide flexibility and threat across the board with much needed increased damage. No MSU is safe, particularly Galletian Veterans.

Severith is a unique threat piece with his extraordinary movement and fire and fade abilities. Exposing small heroes offers him opportunities, the Light and Cathallar are most likely going to remain near the shooting castle offering improved saves. increased bravery and spell protection. The Light of Eltharion is a good covering piece with his MW ranged attack and multiple attacks. The Scinari Loreseeker having Flaming Weapon (+1 damage) with Blade of Leaping Gold (+3 attacks) is very interesting combined with his Lone Agent ability. Drop him within 3″ of something important and apply 7 attacks hitting on 2s wounding on 3s with -1 rend and D3+1 damage.

Beaten into 2nd by one point this is a strong list harking back to the hey day of Lumineth. His opponents, apart from Nighthaunt, mostly had something big that would be a deserving target and without which the army would find it hard to recover. The final match up with Teclis would have been interesting, Dustin couldn’t have relied on his spells at all. The mobility of the Loreseeker, Seviarath and the Dawnriders would appear to be the difference. Loreseeker could do a lot of damage to a Sentinal block in one turn (and die).

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Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Invaders
– Army Subfaction: The Lurid Haze
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Sigvald (205)*
– General
1 x Bladebringer, Herald on Seeker Chariot (185)*
– General
– Spells: Hysterical Frenzy
1 x The Contorted Epitome (245)*
– General
– Command Traits: Feverish Anticipation
– Artefacts: Oil of Exultation
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur

BATTLELINE
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)*
– High Tempter
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)*
– High Tempter
11 x Blissbarb Archers (140)*
– High Tempter

BEHEMOTH
1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x The Burning Head (20)
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Fane of Slaanesh (0)

OTHER
5 x Centigors (85)*
5 x Centigors (85)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Brett: Archer meta? Krondspine, Purple Sun, 55 Blissbard and Sigvald, what a fun army. The Krondspine to threaten your heroes, block the board and eat endless spells. You don’t want to engage him but his movement makes him hard to ignore and you definitely don’t want to feed him. But if you do try to deal with him you give the opportunity for either the Epitome or Sigvald to wreck face. Sigvald is going to try to come from a board edge and the Epitome can move very quickly.

There aren’t a lot of buffs to their casting but the Epitome has reroll casts. That’s a big buff to getting the Sun out. Flaming Weapon with the Lurid Haze artefact and trait is good combo. 9 attacks at 2 damage particularly if it gets Overwhelming Acquiescence off. Sigvald will typically be entering from a board edge and using his charge to get into something important. Lots of damage, very small screens (Centigors) and a reason to get into your deployment. This is a fun army that is going to be very determined. It’s interesting that Matt’s only lose was to Lumineth.

That list was built around Teclis, so no Purple Sun and included a block of Sentials, the natural enemy of Blissbard. The Epitome and Sigvald would struggle with Teclis as well, this would have been a difficult army to engage. 3rd in a big tournament is a solid effort and reflects the value of Slaanehi lists.

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Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts: feast day
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– General
– Command Traits: Dark Acolyte
– Artefacts of Power: The Dermal Robe
– Spells: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)**
– Artefacts of Power: The Grim Garland
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Blood Feast
Varghulf Courtier (160)**

BATTLELINE
Crypt Ghouls (85)***
Crypt Ghouls (85)***
Crypt Ghouls (85)***

OTHER
Crypt Horrors (220)*
Crypt Horrors (220)*
Crypt Flayers (360)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Charnel Throne (0)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000
9 drops

Brett : An army that is currently among the lowest ranked in the current meta with some potential in this season 17th is a good result. Flesh Eater Courts work by applying overlapping buffs from their Nobles (or Heroes) to the Knights (Horrors and Flayers) and Serfs (Ghouls). That means, at least early on, you can expect a pretty big castle.

That makes a lovely target for some serious shooting if you have it. The army has 3 casts with the Archregent having +1 to cast, unbind or dispel from the Dermal Robe. The command trait appears to add a spell but they aren’t gaining the wizard trait (since it is a wizard) and he add Deranged Transformation to throw those Horrors further faster. The Ghoul King and his Terrorgheist have some “interesting” abilities but they are let down in the execution. Death Shriek is only really effective against Destruction armies or Cities but the other attacks inflict serious damage. The Gaping Maw/Gruesome bite combo is extremely nasty, reroll hit rolls, it has 3 attacks, where a 6 does 6 MW. Enough to one shot a Stormstrike Chariot. Twice. In the same game.

The Horrors have 3 attacks hitting on 4s that can be improved, doing 2 damage and 3 on wound rolls of 6. Flayers have 4 attacks only doing 1 damage but can redeploy quickly and does MW on 6s. The Archregent and Ghoul King can return models on top of their summoning which can make clearing the Horrors/Flayers more difficult. To stop the army you need to kill the heros or they will heal and summon. Unfortunately this army has effectively 6 screens to stop you doing that. You can play around the bigger units and pick up the screens through MW attrition and shooting. Like most death armies their strength is often in numbers and if you are patient you can deal with them.

Cody did very well taking the army to 17th dealing with Ironjawz, DoK and SCE all of who have strong play into this list, well done.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Chaos, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Meta Analysis, Peter Holland, Slaves to Darkness, Tournaments

Faction Focus – Slaves to Darkness

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Win Rate

Slaves to Darkness currently sit with a win rating of 42.22%. The only competitive subfaction at present appears to be Hosts of the Everchosen with a win rate of 64.71%. Despoilers sit in 2nd with a win rate of 42.86% which is below the threshold we’ve set at Woehammer of 45%.

5 wins Results

DateTournamentName
10th July 2022South Coast Series JulyMax Soule (UK)
Players who achieved 5 wins at a GT

4 wins Results

DateTournamentName
10th July 2022Summer on the Coast GTChris Hall (USA)
Players who achieved 4 wins at a GT

Other Results

Players using Hosts of the Everchosen should aim for 3 wins, while Despoilers players should aim for 2 wins. Ravagers should aim to chalk at least one win up on the board, though this may be difficult. Hosts of the Everchosen are the only subfaction to achieve the full five wins at a weekend, while none of the other factions are yet to achieve even four wins.

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Top Lists

Top Three AoS Lists - 1st Place, Maggotkin of Nurgle

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen (Sixth Circle)
– Mortal Realm: Aqshy
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Archaon the Everchosen (860)**
– Aura of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Binding Damnation
Chaos Lord (120)**
– General
– Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

Battleline
3 x Varanguard (280)*
– Ensorcelled Weapon and Warpsteel Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
3 x Varanguard (280)*
– Ensorcelled Weapon and Warpsteel Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Units
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 88
Drops: 3

Brett: A return of a list that became common in AoS 2.0 with Archaon and Varanguard taking the tournament 5/0. Really demonstrates just how Archaon can dominate a lot of the board but don’t discount the Endless Spells either. With 3 wizards in the list (thanks to Arcane Tome) they are always going to be an option. Cogs offering rerolls for casters making Purple Sun, with it’s debuffs and wound potential more reliable, much more reliable.. Marking Archaon with Aura of Chaos – Tzeentch is a great way to increase his and the armies durability. So this list is all about durability and being hard to shift. Making the Varanguard Bounty Hunters improves one of their weaknesses (damage output) and is a solid move for removing MSU Galletian Veteran units. With both the Iron Golems (keep them stationary on a home objective in cover) and Untamed Beasts there are plenty of Galletian Veteran units in the army and 2 teleports (Mask of Darkness) to get them where they need to be. 6″ pregame move and the ability to run and charge make the Untamed Beasts unpredictable with a very long threat range. It would be great to see how the list plays into Nighthaunt. A very solid performance against some of the newer books we can only assume that Archaon wrecked face. 5/0 is an amazing performance with one of the older books and a range of characters that everyone knows well.

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Performance Against Other Factions

Its a very small data set with such a small number of Slaves to Darkness players. At first glance however, they appear to perform well against the Stormcast Eternals.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Bloodtoofs, Chaos, Destruction, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Gnarlroot, Ironjawz, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Orruk Warclans, Sylvaneth, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Peace Through Dakka AoS GT

3 Comments

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Peace Through Dakka AoS GT that took place in Delaware, USA on 30th and 31st July. It involved 16 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. As a smaller tournament we expect to see some different armies perform well, this time we have two destruction armies in the top 10 as well as some of the more popular recent books.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (300)*
– Lore of Malignance: Magnificent Buboes
Festus the Leechlord (150)*
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm

Battleline
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (440)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 123
Drops: 1

Brett: An army we have been seeing a lot lately, Blightlords paired with a Lord of Afflictions. In this case teamed with casting heroes all wrapped in a Battle Regiment for a chance at first turn (EDIT or more importantly decide who goes first). Their resilience is the key here, with a pair having 16 wounds and taking (an average) of 36 -1 rend, 1 damage attacks to chew through. Because they aren’t Galletian Veterans Bounty Hunters don’t work so the basic attack infantry of a lot of armies aren’t going to kill a unit of 2 in a turn. And they’ll heal with the Festus potentially increasing that a bit further.

With the Drowned Men pregame move they can be within charge range very quickly for additional mortal wounds (MW). That’s without considering the larger unit of 4 or the Lord of Afflictions. He is more useful at the back to begin with so he can take Blightlords into the sky and redeploy them (EDIT not that anyone does). The Bloab is the better option in this army for pushing forward, his Daemon-Flies and Windspeaker Bells need to be close to the opponent to impact.

A couple of useful spells, Magnificant Buboes to debuff a hero and Gift of Disease for extra disease points. This means they also have dispells and their ward gives some protection from spell damage.

Are Blightlords becoming a defacto DPS check? I certainly think if you are going into a tournament you should be sure you can drop a unit of 2 easily. Looking at Emma’s run it looks like most of the armies would fail that test. That makes it much harder to play the game around objectives and achieving battle tactics because you need to commit real resources to dealing with them

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Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Gnarlroot
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Alarielle the Everqueen (840)*
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: The Dweller’s Below

BATTLELINE
Dryads (100)*
Tree Revenants (110)*
Tree Revenants (110)*

OTHER
Spiterider Lancers (420)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Spiteswarm Hive (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Brett: New book and a new look with Spiterider Lancers instead of Kurnoth to support Alarielle. Not a lot of bodies in this army, it is very heavily reliant on Alarielle and the Warsong Revenant. Unfortuately you can’t afford to commit Alarielle too early, she returns on a 6+ with you adding the round number so losing her before the 3rd round is a huge risk. 2 wizards with 7 casts in the list covering a broad range of spells and the ubiquitous Purple Sun as well. The Gnarlroot grove helps get Purple Sun out with it’s 3D6 and discard the lowest near an awakened wyldwood or overgrown feature.

The army is struggling for damage with the Spitelancers, even reinforced, only really offering 29 damage 1 attacks. You can boost that with Bounty Hunters but into a lot of things (Blightlords, Fulminators or Stormdrakes) your mileage may disappoint. They are very durable, if they kill a model they can heal all wounds at the end of their turn. That’s twice a round, chip damage isn’t enough to end them. Alarielle can summon additional units, it’s not clear which Alex took but they would be clutch. The movement tricks that Sylvaneth are known for here would play their part in making Battle Tactics happen. Throughout the event the army scored well. The list for the army is deceptive only showing a damage spell for the Warsong. However Alairelle knows the whole lore and will return models or heal every turn.

As always there are lots of synergies particularly in concert with the trees/terrain. I feel you really want to control priority with this army, mostly to go second Turn 1 and play for the double reasonably often. That allows your army to get closer to you so you can operate near the woods for fight and fade, get spells up for Mortal wounds. And preserve Alairelle. Getting the double is a huge advantage here because you can commit her to combat knowing that if you need to bring here back it’s on Turn 3 with a 50/50 chance. I think this play style of drawing you in, hurting you with small bites all the way and then really damaging attacks deep in the forest is thematic as anything. It suits a very good player though and takes practice so well done Alex.

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Army Faction: Ironjawz
– Subfaction: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Orruk Megaboss (140)
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth Fist
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth Fist
– General
– Command Trait: Mega Bossy
– Artefact: Destroyer
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
Orruk Warchanter (115)*

BATTLELINE
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-Hackas
Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Reinforced: Once
– Pig-Iron Choppas
Orruk Brutes (160)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Brett: Double Maw-Krusha list that’s been around since the start of 3rd edition with two notable changes. One is the extra Megaboss sitting like a cherry on top and the other is the battalions. Early on the with the Double Maw-Krusha, warlords were preferred to give extra artefacts to the 2nd Krusha. This army has gone with the battle regiment for priority control side stepping the debate between Tough ‘Un or Weird ‘Un on the 2nd Krusha for durability.

Otherwise a Megaboss and 5 Brutes to control the home, nasty for anything trying to teleport although they are a slow moving block. 9 Gore-gruntas including a nasty block of 6 with the shorter range weapons, that might create some issues and two Warchanters, probably with Fix ’em and Get ’em beats. The biggest alpha strike list in AoS? The General moving up to 36″ and done properly the other Maw moving 24″. Unit of pigs with a 3D6 charge set up in first turn? Always a lot of muscle getting close fast that forces you to set up very carefully.

Ray’s only loss was to 2nd place after beating another Sylvaneth list in the second round. The first army is a Kurnoth centred tree terror list as compared to Alex’s Aliarelle’s spell slingers. I feel like the Purple Sun might have eaten something important. In any case deploying Aliarelle out of the Maw-Krusha’s reach. The other armies (Cities and SCE) may have struggled in the face of all of that damage. Nice work Ray.

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Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Subfaction: Glogg’s Megamob
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Dankhold Troggboss (240)
– General
– Command Traits: Shepherd of Idiotic Destruction
– Artefacts of Power: Aetherquartz-studded Hide
Kragnos (720)

BATTLELINE
Rockgut Troggoths (435)*
Rockgut Troggoths (435)*
Stabbas (150)*
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
– Pokin’ Spear and Moon Shield
– Barbed Net

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

Brett: Kragnos and friends? Does Kragnos have friends or just terrified/fascinated followers? Is this a Gloomspite alpha strike?

Whatever’s happening this army is getting into your personal space as quickly as possible and hugging you. Which you might find uncomfortable. There isn’t a lot of subtlety, the Dankhold makes the Rockgut battle line and grants a re-roll before smacking you in the face. Or whiffing – that’s the joy of Gloomspite, mad damage with bad saves and explosions. Double reinforced Rockgut units to take maximum advantage of their ability to return units (on a 4+ return a Troggoth unit at 1/2 strength). Lastly all of the troops are in Bounty Hunters just to hurt a little more.

A lot of fun but not without risk. Jakob’s 3rd round was an opponent that took No Place for the Weak making those battleline’s a primary target. With a reasonable amount of shooting that’s a problem. But this is Gitz, it’s about silly fun and not grinding out wins. The best part of this army is the way it’s going to hit you and either explode or explode you and it’s going to be a fun ride. There’s no overthinking things apart from where that moon is. 3/2 with an army like that is a very solid effort.

Final Tournament Placings