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Tournament Review: Blood in the Snow

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I recently asked Baz Norman Jr if he’d care to comment on his list from Blood in the Snow on 14th and 15th of January. I also asked him if he’d like to give a run-down of his games as part of that.

As always Baz’s response blew me away, and I thought it deserved an article in it’s own right. So thank you once again Baz!

Peter! Thank you once again for having me on the site. I attended Mark Ward’s Blood in the Snow at Hull’s Angels Gaming Club on the 14th and 15th January 2023. This was my second two day event already of 2023.

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
Morathi-Khaine (680)*
The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá
Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá
Blood Sisters (420)*
– Gorgai

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000

I have hit the competitive scene a lot, running Daughters of Khaine (DoK) over the last year so running them again at this event was no surprise to anyone, but what might be a surprise was that it isn’t my usual list.

The list above is a slight variation to the DoK list I ran last weekend on the 7th and 8th January, where I had the absolute pleasure of playing alongside the legends that are Team England at Brotherhood III at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, on Team England’s South team.

So let’s delve into it…

SUB-FACTION – I love my manoeuvrability. I’ve said on previous posts that movement is king, and I wholeheartedly stand by this. Being able to get into positions to threaten enemy units, objectives and push for future turns is huge, so Khailebron was a staple.

GRAND STRATEGY – This list revolves around being in combat, so Bloodthirsty Zealots matched perfectly.

TRIUMPH – At 1,965pts, +1 to wound when I wanted to hit hard just worked.

LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale – Having Khailebron as the sub faction doesn’t make Blood Sisters battleline, and knowing I wanted to run 15 of them meant that it would have to be the Melusai Ironscale as general. The Command Trait was a given at Zealous Orator. Who doesn’t love a 4+ rally? My Artefact of power being Arcane Tome and knowing the spell, Mind Razor. The bonding to the Krondspine provides a +1 to cast within domination range.

Morathi – because its Morathi.

BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves – Two units of 10. These give a decent screen, but also with the run and charge, reroll failed battleshock test, and buckets of attacks, they can still threaten wounded units or chip wounds off when needed. Not to mention being objective grabbers whilst the rest of the army is doing the heavy lifting.

Blood Sisters – One unit of 15. Yes they’ve only got a 5+ save and the DoK 6+ ward save, but that’s where the negatives stop in my opinion. Three attacks base (+1 for the Gorgai), 3’s to hit, 3’s to wound, -1 rend, damage 1, and then the turned to crystal effect after the unit has fought for the first time in a phase. This attack profile alone is spicy, 46 attacks base from this unit. Now we add in and start tuning this unit to another level. Factor in the blood rites table, run and charge from the Ironscale, all out slaughter, mind razor and Fury of the Shadow Queen ability, this unit can suddenly end up having 61 attacks, 2’s to hit with exploding 6’s, 2’s to wound, -2 rend, and 2 damage a piece, then the crystal touch on top… not much can come away from this to be honest.

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – You’ve probably all heard about it, 480 pts that can’t be auto killed, doesn’t allow retreats, is good, but not broken as there are some easy ways around it, but is still strong, especially coupled with the units above.

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Horrorghast – I had points left over, easy to cast, can certainly help finish off units if you’ve fluffed a couple dice rolls and left a few models alive.

CORE BATTALION
Battle Regiment – Works for this list, as I normally govern who takes 1st turn.

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Game 1 vs Kruleboyz / Mike Chadderton and Head-on Collision.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (220)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Spells: Nasty Hex
1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)**
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Choking Mist
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Sneaky Miasma

BATTLELINE
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
– Wicked Hacka
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
– Wicked Hacka

OTHER
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Mike (of Goonhammer fame – Peter) is a great player, we regularly converse over Twitter and I’ve had the pleasure of playing Mike before at Sheffield Slaughter 2022; one of my first bigger events. The result ended in his favour before, so he had that psychological benefit.

I deployed just over 24” away, and being a gentleman, I gave Mike turn 1.

Mike made a few little movement wiggles, buffed up his units with elixirs from the Swampcalla Shamans ready to receive the DoK threat.

My turn 1, and I moved my whole army up to threaten his position and to give him too many threats to deal with all at once if Mike got the priority for turn 2.

Turn 2 dice off. I won priority.

Taking the turn, I knew this was the opportunity I needed to hit his army hard, so I prepped for it. Mind Razored the Shadow Queen, withered key units, Black horrored a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, cast the Horrorghast and then at the end of the movement phase, teleported the 15 Blood Sisters 9” away from his Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz.

The shooting phase came and went, with a couple more wounds going onto the already wounded Gnashtoof. Big charge phase inbound. Started with Morathi who was 4” away; into the 2 Gnashtoofs. Krondspine going into a unit of Gutrippaz. 9” long bomb charge required for the Blood Sisters, needed 8 on the dice, due to the Blood Rites table, rolled a 9. Big charge phase ticked off.

The combat phase followed, having Morathi curb stomp the already wounded Gnashtoof, killing it, and making room for her to pile round into some tasty Boltboyz. I started the combat phase with the Blood Sisters to ensure maximum damage. The unit was split between the Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz, a couple of Blood Sisters went into the Vulcha, chipping 5 wounds off it, whilst the rest went into the Gutrippaz. Turned to Crystal, which is what I was wanting, all went into the Vulcha, killing it. I did take some damage from other units piling in, and with the misplay of the Horrorghast, 12” is huge! I lost 5 Blood Sisters to battleshock…. lesson here for sure lol

The dust settled from that turn and Mike calculated just over 1000pts lifted in one turn. Solid turn for me.

Being pinned in by Morathi, Krondspine and the Blood Sisters and losing all those units made it really hard for Mike to come back so he played for points and got what could. With me winning turn 3 priority again, the nail in the coffin. We ended the game 32-5 to DoK. So that’s 1 game a piece now Mike….until next time! 😉

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Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat / Rob Anderson and Battlelines Drawn.

Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
– Army Type: Breaker Tribe
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Gatebreaker (520)*
– Artefacts: Amberbone Totem
1 x Gatebreaker (520)*
– General
– Command Traits: Monstrously Tough
– Artefacts: Vial of Manticore Venom
1 x Warstomper (450)**
1 x Warstomper (450)**
– Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)

So no “remove from battlefield and set up again”, but I was playing into the Sons of Behemat; an army that just wants to get in your face and ‘Triple H Pedigree’ slam enemies, which, I am weirdly okay with. I screened out with Morathi-Khaine, the Shadow Queen and the Krondspine. And with the Witch Aelves on the flanks, I gave turn 1 away as before.

Rob moved his 4 big boys up to capture objectives (table quarters in this mission), capped the centre terrain piece with Desecrate and charged one of his Warstompers into a unit of Witch Aelves I had on the flank. He rightfully killed them and chipped 3 wounds off Morathi-Khaine.

My turn 1, I chose Gaining Momentum and committed to lifting the giant that had just slapped Morathi-Khaine and the Witch Aelves. Turn 1 finished, and I had lifted 2 giants.

Turn 2 priority was won by Rob, where he continued with the points increase and reducing Morathi to 6 wounds, and did enough damage to reduce the Krondspine to level 1. Another 5 points for Rob. Seeing the work that happened from the DoK turn 1, turn 2 was no different.

Game 2 finished 26-10 to DoK.

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Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.

Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Arch-Warlock (155)
– General
– Command Traits: Deranged Inventor
– Artefacts of Power: Esoteric Warp Resonator
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Warlock Engineer (105)**
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!

BATTLELINE
Skryre Acolytes (75)***
Skryre Acolytes (75)***
Stormfiends (640)****
– 2 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows
– 2 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows
– 2 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour

BEHEMOTH
Doomwheel (165)

ARTILLERY
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)*
Warplock Jezzails (120)*
Warp Lightning Cannon (150)**
Warplock Jezzails (120)**

OTHER
Doom-Flayer (65)****
Doom-Flayer (65)****

TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhole (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Grand Battery
**Grand Battery
***Expert Conquerors
****Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Duncan is a loyal member of the GAF gaming group and has been to several of our events run by the Warrior Lodge, and every interaction with Duncs is….how can I describe it….erm….lets just say that he is a character and a gentleman to boot, so I knew this game would be laugh regardless.

Skaven is an army that I’ve not played a lot of to be honest, and with him rocking up with two Warp Lightning Cannons and 6 Stormfiends, I knew I had to be on him asap.

No surprises here when I gave Duncs turn 1 and with me deploying out side of his shooting range, he moved some units up to cap objectives. I was surprised that he didn’t go through the Gnawholes with his 6 Stormfiends and try to shoot off the Blood Sisters turn one….maybe he knew something I didn’t…? My turn 1 was simple, move up, and prep for later turns.

Turn 2 priority went in my favour, meaning that Morathi and the Krondspine could get into position for a charge. I also teleported the Blood Sisters for a supportive charge. Dice rolls went back and forth. Duncs killing his own general and bombardier through Skaven antics finished the game 28-9 to DoK.

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Game 4 vs Hedonites of Slaanesh / James Mackenzie and The Silksteel Nests.

Allegiance: Slaanesh
– Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
The Contorted Epitome (245)*
– General
– Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation
– Artefact: Oil of Exultation
– Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy
Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)*
Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)*
– Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture

Battleline
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)**
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*

Units
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
5 x Centigors (85)*
5 x Centigors (85)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 3

Having not played Hedonites of Slaanesh before, meant I had had to do some homework the previous evening. High manoeuvrability, lots of units, a lot of shots, buffs from Glutos, the hindrance that Sigvald can bring meant this would be new to me, not to mention the 8 available objectives.

I set up so that each of my 4 objectives, had models touching it and gave James turn 1. He was on me straight away, his Blissbarb Archers being screened by the Centigors lifted both units of Witch Aelves that were on either flank. I had to play super aggressive and hit his key units right from the get go, as I was behind on points. Morathi moved up to just behind a building, being 9” from Glutos and the Krondspine moved up ready to ‘eat’ from Centigors. Charges were made and the Warrior Lodge dice rolled well, meaning that my turn 1, Glutos was dead, the Krondspine was in combat doing its thing.

Turn 2 priority was won by James and he played big for points scoring 7 points his turn 2. Bottom of turn 2 the score was 9 to me, 12 to James…

Turn 3 priority was again won by James and he kept on racking up the points, although he was behind with model count, if he could keep scoring points though, that could see him win overall. Turn 3 finished 15 to me and 18 to James.

Turn 4 priority was won by….James again…I must have used up all my priority rolls on day 1! Again more points racking up in James’s favour finishing turn 4 on 20 to me, 24 to James.

Turn 5 priority came and went….finally in my favour. I managed to get into positions in the previous turns to eventually pin him in and lift the pesky Hedonites which were so quick. Game 4 finished 29-24 to DoK. Phew.

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Game 5 vs Sylvaneth / Peter Twigg on Won’t Back Down.

Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Harvestboon
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
Celestant-Prime (325)*

BATTLELINE
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Revenant Seekers (705)**
– Revenant Soulwarden
– 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer
– 3 x Seeker Hornblower
Spiterider Lancers (420)**
– Spiterider Scion
– 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer
– 2 x Spiterider Hornblower

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

A little birdy had mentioned to me that Pete wanted revenge from our last meeting from across the table where we were both on table 1, game 5. That last game was also played over Won’t Back Down so things felt similar, even if our lists were different.

Sylvaneth have historically been a challenging match up for me as they’re really nimble and I struggle to pin them down, so knew this match up would be tough, not to mention the fact that Pete had 9 Revenant Seekers and 6 Spiterider Lancers…oh and the Prime!

I did my thing with deployment ensuring that the Witch Aelves were snaked (pun intended!) round the Blood Sisters at 3” just in case the Prime was to come down turn 1, and gave Pete turn 1.

Against the Odds was chosen and he moved units up to threaten, but also to take objectives for a solid 5 VP round.

My turn 1, I did some hero phase shenanigans as usual and ran the buffed Blood Sisters up so they were 5” away from the 9 Revenant Seekers and their pool of 45 wounds. There was no redeploy which I was expecting, even though I had explained the abilities at the start. Charge phase started and the Blood Sisters failed their 5” charge. CP reroll… then I rolled a 8. Here we go! Spending a CP for all out attack and burning my triumph for +1 to wound saw them lift the Revenant Seekers to the wound, nothing more nothing less…. a big dent made.

Turn 2 I got the double turn, which allowed me to move up into position again ready for another charge. The Shadow Queen failed her charge, but the Blood Sisters got another charge off, this time into the 6 Spiterider Lancers but without the Mind Razor buff. Lifting 4 of them meant that Pete could retaliate and then in his turn nip through the woods far away…. Far, far away to the other end of the board…. i.e., my deployment zone lol.

I slowly managed to take the lead with a couple of points difference but at the cost of Morathi dying and we shook hands finishing the game 26-21 to DoK.

Peter: What a result. Thanks again to Baz for sharing his tournament review. Hopefully we can get him on again in the future.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Beginners army, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Getting Started with..., Peter Holland, Slaves to Darkness

Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness – Beginners 1,000 Point Army

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Following on from Danny and Phil’s excellent chat about the new Slaves to Darkness Battletome, we thought it would be great to give you an option for a beginners army based on the new Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness.

Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness

This new boxed set priced at £85 through Games Workshop comes with 17 models in total to give you an (almost) complete beginners army. I say almost, the total points in this set amounts to 680 points.

Included in the box you have:

  • 1x Chaos Lord (115 points)
  • 10x Chaos Warriors (220 points)
  • 5x Chaos Knights (230 points)
  • 1x Gorebeast Chariot (115 points)

But we want a full 1,000 point army that we can start playing with, so to add to the above I’d possibly look at buying a Chaos Sorcerer Lord, a Darkoath Warqueen and a set of Darkoath Savagers.

What will it all cost?

  • Battletome: Slaves to Darkness £32.50
  • Vanguard: Slaves to Darkness £85
  • Darkoath Warqueen £21
  • Darkoath Savagers £35

That’s total of £173.50 at Games Workshop prices for everything you need to play at 1,000 points with Slaves to Darkness.

You can of course get these cheaper through your local retailers. Element Games in the UK offer between 15-25% off on these prices. Why not use our affiliate link below to start your army today?

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The List

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Host of the Everchosen

LEADERS
Chaos Lord (115)
– General
– Mark of Nurgle
– Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel
– Command Trait: Death Dealer
– Artefact: Hellfire Sword (Reaperblade)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)
– Mark of Nurgle
– Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Darkoath Warqueen (100)

BATTLELINE
10x Chaos Warriors (220)
– Mark of Nurgle
– Murderous Weapons
– Retinue
5x Chaos Knights (230)
– Mark of Nurgle
– Cursed Flail
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
10x Darkoath Savagers (100)

OTHER
1x Gorebeast Chariot (115)
– Mark of Khorne
– Lashing Whip & Chaos War-Flail

TOTAL POINTS: 1000/1000

This army is tough! and it has fast elements which can also pin units in place while you bring your Chaos Warriors and Darkoath Savagers to bear. We’ve gone for Host of the Everchosen as our subfaction, this will allow us to bring back slain models on 5+ instead of 6+ with our rally ability. This only applies to the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights, but these two units with the Mark of Nurgle are already going to be blighters to shift anyway, this will just make it even harder for our oppposition!

How it could play

Chaos Lord

Our general for this particular list. He’s tough and hits like a hammer. Giving him the Mark of Nurgle means the enemy have to subtract 1 from their wound rolls that target him when using melee weapons. It also gives him the ability to use the Command Ability: Bestow Contagion. This will allow our other Nurgle Marked units (Chaos Warriors and Knights) a chance to cause D3 mortal wounds to enemy units within 3″ on a 3+.

We’ve got Death Dealer as our Command Trait, and this will allow our General to fight for a second time in the fight phase once per battle. Admittedly it’s with the Strike-last effect, but even so, well worth having.

With Chaos Lords you’re also allowed to choose a retinue which you can pass wounds off to on a 3+ (the reasons for this shown in the Chaos Warriors section), for this I’ve chosen the Chaos Warriors, as really he should be sticking to them like glue throughout the game. The other benefit from being retinue is they can fight immediately after our Chaos Lord if they haven’t fought yet. Essentially giving you two fight activations for the price of one!

As an artefact, I’ve gone for Hellfire Sword, which will allow our Reaperblade to cause two mortal wounds for each hit roll of 6.

Giving him the Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel does mean that the damage output is slightly better than that of the Daemonbound Flail when you also take into account the mortal wounds caused by Hellfire Sword:

Weapon– Save6+ Save5+ Save4+ Save3+ Save2+ Save
Reaperblade222222
Daemonbound Steel111110
TOTAL333332
Daemonbound War-Flail222222
Average Damage after Saves
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Chaos Sorcerer Lord

This lovely fellow is a good buff to your forces. He’s a single cast and single unbind wizard which isn’t anything to write home about, but what he does provide is his spell Daemonic Power. With a casting value of 6 and a range of 18″ it should be fairly easy to cast each turn, and when you do you’ll be able to give ANY of your other units in this list +1 to hit and +1 to wound for their melee attacks. That’s nothing to be sniffed at!

As well as this he can give a 6+ ward to one of your other units in this list until the next hero phase. Hopefully you’re starting to see the tankiness of those Chaos Warriors now with their Mark of Nurgle (-1 to wound them) and a 5+ Ward Save against mortals and 6+ Ward against everything else.

Darkoath Warqueen

I absolutely love this model, which is mainly why I’ve chosen it (never discount rule of cool!). Like the Chaos Lord, this unit can allow the Darkoath Savagers to fight immediately after herself (as long as they haven’t already fought), another twofer!

She has an ability where if issuing the inspiring presence command while inside the enemy territory she can give it up to 2 Darkoath or Cultist units. We only have one for this list, but perhaps consider buying one of those awesome Warcry warbands when you look to expand to 2k?

Chaos Warriors

The first of our three battleline units. Keep these near your Chaos Lord so that they can benefit from the Retinue rule and fight immediately after the Chaos Lord in the fight phase.

With a 3+ save, a 5+ ward against mortals and a 6+ ward against everything else using the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Oracular Visions, AND the ability to have slain models return from the rally command on 5+, this unit is going to take A LOT of punishment before it goes away! In fact they would need an average of 72 damage from zero rend weapons to be allocated to them before saves, for the enemy to have a chance of destroying them.

By getting the Chaos Sorcerer Lord to cast Daemonic Power on them as well you’ll soon see their average damage output after saves is not to be ignored:

Weapon– Save6+ Save5+ Save4+ Save3+ Save2+ Save
Murderous Weapons1414121075
Murderous Weapons (Enemy Territory)*21211814117
*Chaos Warriors gain +1 attack while wholly within enemy territory
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Darkoath Savagers

Another unit I absolutely love. These guys have an added benefit of causing mortal wounds on hit rolls of 6 when in combat. This is the perfect unit to try and take objectives with, because if you manage to claim one previously held by the enemy then this unit will get a 5+ ward save until the end of the game. They won’t stand up to much punishment though, so if you’re going to commit them make sure you can win!

Weapon– Save6+ Save5+ Save4+ Save3+ Save2+ Save
Darkoath Weapons874411
Average Damage Output after Saves

Chaos Knights

Another tanky unit. They also benefit from the 5+ ward save against mortal wounds. We’re also giving them Mark of Nurgle (who is Mark anyway?) so the enemy is at -1 on their to wound rolls.

These guys are quick as well, we’ve given our Chaos Sorcerer Lord the spell Daemonic Speed. This will allow to roll 3D6 for their charge rolls when within 18″.

We’ve also chosen to give these chaps The Eroding Icon Ensorcelled Banner, this will worsen the rend of melee weapons used against them by 1, making them even harder to kill!

You’ll want these guys quickly claiming objectives and tying up units you want to hold in place ready for your Chaos Warriors to pummel.

Weapon– Save6+ Save5+ Save4+ Save3+ Save2+ Save
Cursed Land (Charging)888664
Cursed Lane*443321
Cursed Flail*322110
Trampling Hooves*322110
TOTAL*1087541
Average Damage Output
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Gorebeast Chariot

Another flanker unit for our army. We’ve given this the Mark of Khorne which allows us to add 1 to the attacks of its melee weapons when it charges.

Don’t forget that at the end of the combat phase it can make a normal move even if still within 3″ of the enemy. If it does so, it can cross across models with wound characteristics of 4 or less as though it can fly. If you do so, pick a unit that this model passed over and roll a dice, on 3+ that enemy suffers D6 mortal wounds! You’ll probably do an average of 3 or 4 mortal wounds… And it only costs 115 points! Bargain!

Weapon– Save6+ Save5+ Save4+ Save3+ Save2+ Save
Lashing Whip100000
Chaos War-Flail322110
Crushing Fists222200
TOTAL644310
Average Damage Output

Where to go next?

Everything in this book looks cool and you certainly couldn’t go wrong by possibly buying a second Vanguard box! If not, have a look at the Varanguard and Chosen, both heavy hitting units if that’s what you like. There’s also a certain bloke named Archaon…

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Destruction, Fantasy, Fuethan, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Idoneth Deepkin, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts, Ymetrica

Top Three AoS Lists for GT Bilbao

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for GT Bilbao that took place in Spain on 10th and 12th December. It involved 26 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Ymetrica
– Grand Strategy: Alarith Afterschock
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (700)
Alarith Stonemage (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Unyielding Toughness
– Artefact: Molten Talisman
– Lore of the High Peaks: Unbreakable Stoicism
Avalenor, the Stoneheart King (420)*

Battleline
5 x Alarith Stoneguard (120)*
– Diamondpick Hammers
10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)**
– Diamondpick Hammers
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Alarith Stoneguard (240)**
– Diamondpick Hammers
– Reinforced x 1

Units
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Rune of Petrification (40)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 110 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 4

Ed: This is typical of the kind of lists we’ve been seeing since the new Lumineth Realmlords tome. It is tricky to run properly as Teclis has a whopping 18 spells to choose from and takes up so much of your points that what’s left really has no room to make mistakes. You need to know your rules inside and out – not a list for players who take 10 mins to read their warscrolls each round! However, the versatility of Teclis coupled with the hardiness and output of his Alarith entourage can accomplish a great deal even with so few models on the board.

Avalenor is a certified beatstick, especially with his pet stonemage in tow keeping him on top bracket for as long as possible. He and Teclis have the ability to dictate the course of the battle, while the Stoneguard will do most of the actual heavy lifting. Even as Galletian Veterans, Stoneguard are hardy anvils which gain a 4+ ward against mortal wounds while contesting an objective they control and the ability to ignore rend of -1 and -2! Plus in the Expert Conquerers battalion they count as 3 per model, meaning their hold over that objective and access to their ward are extra secure. They’re not too bad on the offensive either, though certainly the support from Avalenor and Teclis is crucial.

Then there are the Tree Revenants. A cheeky little unit that can pop up in unexpected places and secure objectives without much investment. It forces your opponent to play a little defensively and deploy their forces in less than ideal positions to prevent a catastrophic backdoor teleports. Even if they don’t steal an objective or assassinate a vulnerable unit, just having them on the board can be worth it for how it changes your opponent’s behaviour in your favour. I can’t speak highly enough of these guys as a list filler for any order faction who can ally them in.

It’s a brilliant list, clearly played excellently to have reached first place. But time is running out to make use of it! With a new GHB just around the corner, and Expert Conquerors/Bounty Hunters almost certainly about to disappear will similar builds continue to reach the top of the podium?

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Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Butcher (135)*
– General
– Tenderiser
– Command Trait: Reluctant Rabble-rouser
– Artefact: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Lore of Gutmagic: Blubbergrub Stench
Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)**
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder

Battleline
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
4 x Leadbelchers (170)*
4 x Leadbelchers (170)**

Units
20 x Gnoblars (100)**
20 x Gnoblars (100)**

Artillery
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)*
Ironblaster (170)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 146
Drops: 4

Brett: The current Big Bad of AoS according to many threads, as always shooting is effective and controversial. The increase in range for the Leadbelchers (to 18″) means it’s a lot easier for them to stand still. Standing still now guarantees 2 shots (2D3 v 1D6), not a lot but it’s significantly more damage. Ironblasters long range shot moving to a guaranteed 4 damage at 30″ with -2 Rend and doubling the number of shots is a huge deal. Their Hail Shot (10 shots, Rend -1, D2) is effective in Unleash hell and both units are solid melee damage dealers as are their Leaders. Fittingly for Ogors they are tough (4+ save) multiwound (4W for Leadblechers and 9W for Ironblasters) models who also tank well. With multiple small units they also blunt the counter strike and limit carry over damage.

With two effective (and cheap) screens in the Gnoblars (who aren’t even GV) to keep opponents out of your hair, it’s a challenge to take apart. Only the event’s 1st place managed to do so in the 3rd round, a match up of the new tomes, with the Stoneguard coming out on top. Scoring 20 in 3 rounds it looks like Adrian might have tabled his opponents frequently, certainly a chance with this sort of shooting.

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Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin
– Enclave: Fuethan
– Grand Strategy: The Creeping Gloomtide
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Sea (325)*
– General
– Command Trait: Endless Sea Storm
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deeps: Steed of Tides
Isharann Soulscryer (150)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
20 x Namarti Reavers (340)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Namarti Reavers (170)*
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Akhelian Allopexes (330)**
– Razorshell Harpoon
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

Faction Terrain
Gloomtide Shipwreck (0)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 95
Drops: 4

Patrick: What a strange list, and yet here we are in the top 3. Fuethan opens up the ability to take Allopexes as Battleline as well as bringing in Bloodthirsty Shivers (which gain some bonus attacks if they are within a certain distance of one another). In Jordi’s Case, they have opted to take three squads of 2 without bringing any Shivers at all. Allopexes are already excellent “independent operator” units, and placing them in a Bounty Hunters battalion improves their ability to clear objectives, allowing for the slower Namarti to move in.

Speaking of Namarti, Jordi has brought 2 units, both fairly small. 30 Reavers spread across 2 units is decent if you’re pushing for a skirmish force, but the frailty of the Namarti will sting if anything focuses on them for very long. The Soulscryer’s ability to deep-strike will allow all of the Namarti to start the game off the board, which would allow for better early survival.

The final unit is an Eidolon general, bringing the Arcane Tome and Endless Sea Storm. The Eidolon innately has full re-rolls for casting, unbind, and dispelling, and Endless Sea Storm allows the ability to cast an additional spell for each successful casting attempt with a result greater than 7. The Eidolon has some solid warscroll spells, and with these upgrades he becomes a high-quality support hero that will do a lot to keep the Allopexes alive.

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

Leaders
Auric Runesmiter (135)*
– Runic Iron
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Auric Runeson (80)*
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
Battlesmith (150)*
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)**
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runemaster (125)**
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Battleline
15 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (480)***
– Poleaxes
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)***
– Broadaxes
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Molten Infernoth (40)
Runic Fyrewall (40)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge (0)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Warlord
***Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 9

Brett: Straight forward enough, the foot heroes provide a 4+ ward (in Greyfyrd) and can use their prayer (heal) to get the Hearthguard close enough to charge. The triple reinforced Hearthguard averages 10 mortal wounds (MW) in addition to their normal damage. Both Hearthguard are Expert Conquerors to give some solid objective play for really elite army. This is a great way to play into the current meta and try to deal with long range shooting. The primary hammers have the option of rending or non rending weapons to manage armies like Nighthaunt and the Vulkites are a risk for melee army with their fight on death.

As always though there are trade offs, this is such a slow army that you might be better to not engage the central castle forcing them to come to your or spread. Either works giving you the chance to weaken them piecemeal. Score wise I think that lack of movement may have cost him dearly.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hosts Arcanum, Knights of the Empty Throne, Morgaunt, Order, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.

Ranked Players

Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.

Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.

Faction Breakdown

The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
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

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (215)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

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

Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind.

The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport).

The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine.

As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.

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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)*
– General
– Command Trait: Cult Demagogue
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
Lord of Change (400)*
– Artefact: The Eternal Shroud
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist

Battleline
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 69
Drops: 7

Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches. 

Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast. 

The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster! 

The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead! 

It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards. 

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
The Triceracop (285)
Engine of the Gods
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Lord Kroak (450)***
Bert the Banner Waver (155)***
Saurus Astrolith Bearer
An Undercosted Priest (120)***
Skink Priest
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Starseer (145)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory

UNITS
Skinkrunner Chariot (85)**
1 x Scourgerunner Chariots
Saurustrike Chariot (165)**
1 x Stormstrike Chariot
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
Kroak’s Ablative Wounds (115)*
5 x Saurus Guard
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

BEHEMOTHS
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Vanguard
***Command Entourage – Magnificent

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 1990/2000
WOUNDS: 103
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 0/4
DROPS: 11

Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see! 

The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed. 

All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.  

I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it. 

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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Morgaunt
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)*
– General
– Command Trait: Savage Chivalry
– Artefact: Decrepit Coronet
– Mount Trait: Razor-clawed
– Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud
Varghulf Courtier (160)**

Battleline
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Crypt Flayers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chalice of Ushoran (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 120
Drops: 4

Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).

Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).

As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.

Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Boulderhead, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Hagg Nar, Lofnir, Nighthaunt, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, The Scarlet Doom, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Big Bristol Brawl

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Big Bristol Brawl that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 41 players (Including our very own Danny) 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.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.

Ranked Players
Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Bristol GT.

11 Players had already taken part in 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Luke Churchus) being 22nd in the UK. Remeber these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.

Faction Breakdown

The Bristol Brawl saw an unusually high number of Daughters, Blades of Khorne and Slaanesh armies, with all three seeing double their expected representation based on the current worldwide meta.

On the flip side of this, the tournament saw no representation from Ironjawz, Slaves, Cities, Kharadron and Big Waagh where we would have expected at least one army to be present.

Of the high win rate factions Beast of Chaos and Disciples are as expected while Ogor Mawtribes and Soulblight see a slightly higher number than compared to the meta.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)*
Spirit Torment (115)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts
– Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon

Battleline
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bladegheist Revenants (350)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)*

Units
2 x Chainghasts (95)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 74
Drops: 1

Declan: Greg has been using Nagash since AoS3 dropped, and quite a bit before that. In early AoS3, there was a period we met 3 or 4 times and he beat me every time with a Soulblight version…. here he has taken Nighthaunt instead which allows him to use the Nighthaunt alleginace abilities on the charge and back it up with Nagash’s magic dominance.

Games Workshop / Wahapedia

When they charge the Bladegheists are almost certain to roll 4+ and get one of the debuffs on the table. But the truly frightening thing is that these debuffs stack. I’m not a fan of the mechanism, but it’s the core of how Nighthaunt work and it is scary when a 10+ is rolled followed by a few 8+ (because you can always go down the table).

There’s no denying that Nagash is the centrepiece though and – although he is seen as weaker in the last update – he can still take on an army (and at 955 points he needs to). I’d love to tell you how to kill him, but the truth is I still don’t know but I imagine it’s got something to do with mortal wounds (preferably at range). It’s definitely not a Mangler Squig (last time I charged one in, I did no wounds to Nagash).

If you’ve not met him before he lives up to his role as the Lord of the Undead… with 8 spell casts, all with bonuses and the piece de la resistance… Arcane Bolt as many times as you like. (see you’ll be glad you brought the ranged mortal wounds. He’s a beast and sometimes the best thing to do is get ahead on points, stand on objectives and hope he and the Bladegheists can’t shift you. Good luck; you’ll need it!

Games Workshop / Wahapedia
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Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Lofnir
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)**
– General
– Command Trait: Blood of the Berzerker
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Battlesmith (150)**
Battlesmith (150)**

Battleline
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
– Magmadroth Trait: Lava-tongue Adult
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)*
– Ancestral War-axe
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)**
– Ancestral War-axe

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1940 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 90
Drops: 7

Edit: The maximum number of Magmadroths you can take in a Lofnir list is six, not five as the comment below eludes to.

Ethan: This Lofnir list leans on heavy on the idea that more is more, taking as many magmadroths as you can fit in 2000 points. It’s obviously an effective strategy, having worked out well for Alex, with his only loss being Hagg Nar where I can only predict Morathi’s unkillable rules made for a major issue for an army so light on units.

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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Boulderhead

LEADER
1 x Kragnos (720)
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)*
– General
– Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Prayers: Heal (🎶Living on a Prayer🎵)
1 x Butcher (135)*
– Cleaver
– Spells: Molten Entrails

BATTLELINE
2 x Mournfang Pack (175)*
– Skalg
– Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist
1 x Stonehorn Beastriders (310)*
– Blood Vulture
2 x Mournfang Pack (175)*
– Skalg
– Culling Clubs and Hackers and Ironfist

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)

Danny: Andy helped me out with our Ogor Tome Review – so it’s awesome and very interesting to see him go 4-1 and 3rd at this highly competitive event – WITHOUT cannons or Gnoblars. Andy has basically stuck with this tried and tested core of a Frostlord backed by Kragnos – the big(ger) man offering 3d6 charges for those sweet 3d6 MWs on the charge, along with a huge pressure piece while the Frostlord, specced out with Arcane Tome + Flaming weapon for more reliable damage and Touched by the Everwinter to also make him a priest with the ability to heal himself – or Kragnos. So he’s doing it all. Another ‘big cow’ joins the pressure party as the first battleline pick.

Two units of Mournfang fill out the tax, allowing for some excellent objective play, hardly inconsiderable damage and their new and improved resistance to shooting attacks.

Andy also included a Butcher for some utility spell casting and to babysit the mawpot, although he informed me that he regretted including him overall as he always ended up out of range to be useful and felt like wasted points overall.

Andy had a tough route to 4-1, remaining on top table most of the event, taking a big win against IDK to kick off, followed by a tough Blood Knight list, then the Kroak list that beat me, a grudge match over the ‘new’ 4x Ironblaster + leadbelcher Ogor list before finally losing to the event’s winner Greg. The amount of pressure this list can put out can clearly only be resisted by unrendable ghosts with Nagash bringing loads back and shunting fistfuls of MWs through Kragnos’ 2+ save – definitely a counter to what is otherwise clearly a list that very few armies in the game can really withstand.

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Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Army Subfaction: Hagg Nar
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts: Crown of Woe(hammer)
1 x Morathi-Khaine (680)*
1 x The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Sciansá and Bladed Buckler
15 x Blood Sisters (420)*
– Gorgai
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Krone

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

OTHER
9 x Khainite Shadowstalkers (150)*
– Shroud Queen
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
– Shryke

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Danny: It me! First things first, I’m working on an in-depth tourney report including some deeper thinking on my list and a breakdown of the games, so for now I’ll give you the digest of HOW the list works rather than get bogged down in the why.

It’s relatively simple – a twist on the Morathi on the bowsnakes. I took 15 spears and 10 bows to lean more heavily into the reliable MWs. Witch aelves are a cheap screen and battleline pick with bladed bucklers for some hopeful clutch saves and mortal wound bouncing. I took Ironscale to make the sneks battleline and enable the run+charge for some key threat projection, but also because I wanted Hagg Nar to speed up Blood Rites, which saves me loads of CP and helps Morathi perform a lot better in early rounds (when she’s still alive!)

This event didn’t allow book battle tactics, so instead of a 2nd squad of Khinerai, I opted for Shadowstonkers, who are also just a relatively tanky and super mobile scoring piece.

Jaws rounds out the list as a spare point filler and another source of MWs against slower targets that my spear sneks might be scared or unable to get into. It’s all wrapped up in a one drop bat reg because this list really, really wants to avoid getting doubled. Of course, sometimes you come up against another 1 drop in round 5 and lose the roll-off….more on that and other exciting, brain-melting moments in my full report.

Want to say a quick but big kudos to both the organisers (Alex and Jonny) from our club, Sigmar’s Pilgrims, and to all my opponents and everyone else there – it was a hugely competitive field but the vibe was friendly and jolly as all hell – a fantastic, super hard fought event!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Big Waaagh!, Celestial Warbringers, Cities of Sigmar, Death, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, living city, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Petrifex Elite, Stormcast Eternals, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Immortal Masquaerade

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Immortal Masquerade that took place in USA on 12th and 13th November. It involved 22 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

List 1

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (340)**
Mortisan Soulmason (115)**
– Artefacts of Power: Soul Reservoir
– Spells: Drain Vitality
Liege-Kavalos (170)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour

BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (380)*
– Necrophoros
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
Kavalos Deathriders (380)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2 x Necrophoros
Mortek Guard (140)***
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
Mortek Guard (140)***
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

BEHEMOTH
Mortek Crawler (200)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)
1 x Nightmare Predator (60)

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

List 2

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Subfaction: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: Tame the Land
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Nagash (955)*
– General
Mir Kainan (190)*
– Spells: Drain Vitality

BATTLELINE
Mortek Guard (140)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
Kavalos Deathriders (380)**
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2 x Necrophoros
Kavalos Deathriders (190)**
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

OTHER
Kainan’s Reapers (190)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Danny: OBR feel slightly like the faction that 3e forgot, with their weird version of command points and panoply of 2e style re-rolls. The army can definitely blend though – and recent points drops have given them even more list flexibility. Their main weakness is their red matchups are very red – something a two list format can massively help ameliorate.

Michael has a core of Deathriders in both lists – fast, relatively tanky if not particularly killy battleline that represent the ‘best’ objective grabbers the super slow Bonereapers have. The first list goes with two reinforced bone pone blobs backed up by the ever reliable MSU Mortek with their re-roll saves in Petrifex always making them difficult to shift. Arkhan, the currently favoured OBR utility hero rounds out the tried and tested core. This first list also bungs in a Mortek Crawler – they’re super swingy (pun intended) but do offer one long range piece with spike potential that helps try and deal with those pesky backline support heroes this faction has otherwise no way of interacting with.

List 2, meanwhile, is wild – primarily for the simple fact it contains Nagash!! The bone daddy himself is in need of some modernisation, but he’s still a super potent spellcaster. The main reason you don’t see much of him is his lack of ward save makes him super vulnerable to good ranged threats – something again the two list format allows Michael to make a good guess about the chances of facing such threats before choosing the list.

And WITHOUT good ranged firepower, Nagash can be a MW powerhouse able to keep bringing models back.

A fantastic result for an under-appreciated faction who are nonetheless slowly gathering a cult following. Still a shame Nagash is too unreliable to bring to a solo-list tourney – but in the meantime, great to see him put in a successful appearance!

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List 1

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

Leaders
Gordrakk the Fist of Gork (540)
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (260)
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)**
– Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma
Orruk Warchanter (115)***
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (170)**
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry
Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)**
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un

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

Other Units
Beast-skewer Killbow (110)***
Beast-skewer Killbow (110)***
Beast-skewer Killbow (110)***

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Grand Battery

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 12

List 2

Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Ironsunz
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh!
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un
– Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz

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

Behemoth
Rogue Idol (430)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 88
Drops: 2

Declan: Bringing 2 lists to a tournament is a great way to have a little more fun… but normally players either bring 1, or make very small changes… not so Rob with his Big Waaagh lists – they are completely different. I really like the idea of taking a shooting list and a charging list and then choosing which one would be best – and Rob clearly chose well.

The 2nd list is simple and straight forward, but three monsters are a great idea – Kragnos; Big Waaagh; Rogue Idol… all charging 3D6″ and smashing face. Big Waaagh aren’t always best of a turn 1 charge but these three may change all that.

The 1st list is much more techy; with lots of shooting and Gobsrakk. But the genius here is Gordrakk – what a brave play. He’s not seen as the best unit in the Orruk Warclans list, but it’s great to see him having an outing.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Stormkeep
– Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (500)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of the Celestial Menagerie
– Stormbound Blade
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Celestial Instincts
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
Yndrasta (280)*
Averon Stormsire (230)*
– Spells: Thundershock

BATTLELINE
Sequitors (145)*
Sequitors (145)*
Sequitors (145)*

OTHER
Stormsire’s Cursebreakers (230)
Castigators (210)*
Castigators (210)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Brett: Smaller tournaments are a great place to see some really different lists like this. We don’t see Sequitors or Castigators a lot and here is a list with all of the Sacrosants. The Sacrosant chamber was introduced in 2nd Edition as the casters of the Stormcast, with Sequitors, Castigators, Stormsire and a Stardrake this is a full chamber in action. Thematic. Even though it’s the casting chamber there are only 3 casts in the list but that’s enough for the Everblaze and the Geminids. Everblaze has been popular recently for decent MW at a distance and Geminids are amoung the best of the Malign Sorcery Spells. The Stardrake offers one of the few casting buffs that Stormcast can receive.

Sequitors spell abilities are limited to choosing between exploding 6s or a 5+ ward. Castigators can do the same and either give themselves +1 to hit or increased rend. But they are still using random (D3) shots which is not ideal. Interesting but the damage here is the Stardrake and Yndrasta. This is really more of a durable list, Stormkeep and Celestial Warbringers compliment that approach. But it is a slow moving list which seems to have affected scoring. Both of Paul’s loses (to first and second) were to lists that mixed durable and fast units. Fantastic to see an alternative take on Stormcast.

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Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Living City
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Nomad Prince (110)**
– General
– Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan
– Artefact: Spear of the Hunt
Anointed (110)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
– Lore of Leaves: Ironoak Skin
Drycha Hamadreth (335)**

Battleline
5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)**
– Lore of Leaves: Cage of Thorns
10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)***
10 x Sisters of the Watch (180)***

Units
20 x Phoenix Guard (350)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Vigilors (340)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (230)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 102
Drops: 9

Declan: Only one list for Matt, but it’s an interesting one – I’m not actually sure how it works. I assume the Pheonix Guard are the anvil (4+ ward save), and the Vigilors provide the hammer with the Fulminators being able to pick off a key unit or clear a screen or two. The battleline are interesting, with some reasonable range, but definitely fishing for 6s.

Matt has taken Dyrcha as well for some much needed punch, but this is definitely not a list you’ll see too often and that’s probably its strength… I wouldn’t really know what to do or what to target first. A strength of ‘off-meta’ lists.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Destruction, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Heartwood, Kruleboyz, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Orruk Warclans, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for TCC: Age of Sigmar 2 Day Event

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the TCC: Age of Sigmar 2 Day Event that took place in Australia on 12th and 13th November. 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

Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Army Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand strategy: Blessed Desecration

LEADER
1 x Lord of Afflictions (230)*
– General
– Command Traits: Overpowering Stench
– Dolorous Tocsin
– Artefacts: The Splithorn Helm
1 x Be’lakor (360)*

BATTLELINE
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
4 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (500)*
10 x Plaguebearers (150)*

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Danny: Maggotkin are still good after the flies went up a few points, who’d a thunk it! We got drowned men here for the pre-game move with 10 flies, and a cheeky Be’Lakor to stop your main thing from doing whatever it does that MIGHT kill some flies for a turn (or two if they give away/lose the double).

Oppressive pinning list and attrition through disease points is the name of the game here. Be’Lakor is a cheeky inclusion but makes plenty of sense, given it’s a nightmare to claw back points from fly spam – and let’s be honest, it’s still fly spam – after a turn of your biggest piece sitting on their arse.

We’ll see how it goes – initial feelings are Drowned Men, not the price of flies, is the real problem. But in the meantime, gratz to Thomas for rolling with the punches and taking down some tough armies along the way.

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Heartwood
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

LEADERS
Alarielle the Everqueen (840)*
Spirit of Durthu (370)*
– General
– Command Trait: Gnarled Warrior
– Artefact: Greenwood Gladius

UNITS
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
6 x Spiterider Lancers (420)*
– Reinforced x 1
Spiteswarm Hive (40)
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 90
Drops: 1

Ethan:One of the real pillars of Sylvaneth currently is Alarielle + good stuff and this list fits it to a Tree (Sorry). Alarielle is a large, fast and durable beatstick that comes back after you deal with her the first time. Her durability is well supported by Durthu as a backup, teleporting spiteswarm recipient, using his warscroll teleport and the additional +3′ to charges to gain consistency on this hammer. Combined with gnarled warrior, durthu becomes quite durable making the 90 wounds of the list slightly misleading. Throw in 15-20 summoned wounds from alarielle and you’ve got quite the beefy core with which to gain board control and threaten across objectives.

Tree revs fill out the middle to complete battle tactics well but the more interesting unit here is the Spiterider Lancers. At 1 damage some people question their staying power after Bounty Hunters rotates but Mitch must think they don’t need the help, taking them in a battle regiment – absolutely key with this kind of list – controlling game flow is invaluable without durable anvils or notable shooting. The Spiteriders always strike first on the charge, allowing for some flexibility with Strike and Fade and giving the Matt a chance to make an educated call about whether he needs to make like a tree (Sorry, Sorry) before a reprisal happens or whether he can use his successive activations to clear an area and hold it safely.

I can see this list being quite swingy in some matchups, Alarielle is notoriously weak to MWs and shooting, but Matt has obviously piloted it well to a 4-1, only losing in the final game to a Maggotkin list. Perhaps Alarielle’s reputation of being pillowfisted coming to the fore against the extremely durable Nurgle units, though he has taken out great competition along the way with Snakes, Ogors, Rats and Bravery bombs under his belt. Well done Matt!

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

Leaders
Bloodwrack Medusa (130)**
– Artefact: Shadow Stone
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (315)**
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe
– Prayer: Sacrament of Blood
Hag Queen (110)**
– Prayer: Blessing of Khaine
Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix (315)**
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)
– Reinforced x 1
15 x Blood Sisters (420)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives

Units
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)**
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Heart of Fury (45)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 315 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 9

Danny: If you don’t take Spinedog, you probably take…. double takes a Frostheart on Phoenix allied in!? That’s some interesting tech – it’s not inconsiderably killy but I think the idea behind it is a mobile platform for a 9″ aura of -1 to wound in melee, which will obviously go a long way to keeping a fragile army like DoK alive. Combine that with the 12″ Heart of Fury aura for -1 damage, and a Cauldron of Blood for +1 save within 18″ and Blessing on Khaine prayer on the Hag Queen for re-roll ward saves and, funnily enough, you just make the glassiest of cannons into something resembling a…porcelain cannon! Hell, maybe even a solid oak cannon.

The rest of the list is normal enough – a nice big 15 blob of Blood Sisters for putting out eye-watering mortals after they fight, and the obligatory 2x Khinerai for battle tactic scoring. But love to see the Frostheart tech for a really interesting alternative to the tankiness Morathi brings (to herself) – instead spreading it over a key unit or two.

On the way to 3rd. Liam lost only to the winner, and managed to beat out Fangs of Sotek, SCE and Slaves, who can all put some serious melee hurt, so the list clearly performed. Kudos!

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Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Big Yellers
– Grand Strategy: Demonstration of Strength
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (180)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
Murknob with Belcha-banna (95)
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble

Battleline
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)
10 x Gutrippaz (160)**
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)*
3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)
20 x Shootas (120)**

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 156
Drops: 16

Kieron: So, with the new Battlescroll buffs and the existing staples for almost all Kruleboyz lists, we’d be expecting Joel to write a list to make the most of these, yeah…well, maybe not! With most Kruleboyz lists focusing on some degree of castle, Joel decided to go all Realmstone Cache with his Boltboyz and spray them all over the battlefield.

There’s some logic to this though as Big Yellers means the Boltboyz are battleline, making Demonstration of Strength a solid Grand Strategy choice as you need to kill 11 of the 13 battleline units to prevent it. Big Yellers also get to re-roll one of the hit rolls in the first battle round. Combined with the extra shot from the Boltboy Boss that’s 32 shots, re-rolling 8 of them.

The Mirebrute is probably thrown forward with Supa Sneaky and then opponent has to take first turn to kill it (though with Noisy Racket for -1 to wound, Best Day Ever for +1 to save and then All out Defense) that might not be as easy as you think OR give the turn away and have the Breakaboss rampage through your lines.

All in all, a really interesting take on Kruleboyz that Joel clearly played extremely well in some very tricky matchups.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Big Waaagh!, Declan Walters, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Tournament Preview, Tournaments

Tournament Preparation – Warfare – Age of Sigmar

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Gloomspite Gitz

My last outing with the Gloomspite Gitz ended with a 2-3 result and me playing against Gitz for game 5… so a good result for Gitz although not for most armies; but when it came to deciding which army to use for Warfare (12th – 13th November, 2022) I was very tempted to go back to Big Waaagh as it can smash (and bash) and win a few more games than the Gitz.

But, with the new Battlescroll and the reduction in points for Squig Herd and the Mangler Squig I couldn’t ignore GW’s attempt to make the Gitz playable – so I’ve gone back to them for a second time.

Games Workshop – Battlescroll

I tend to use a lot of Squig Herd models, and this was a significant cost saving for the lads. (100 points for the herd alone). It also meant I could look at an upgrade of my Grot on Giant Squig… (see below)

The List

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance

Leaders
Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (270)***

General
Command Trait: Dodgy Character
Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Madcap Shaman (80)***
Artefact: Moonface Mommet
Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Madcap Shaman (80)***
Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork

Battleline
36 x Squig Herd (420)** Reinforced x 2
12 x Squig Herd (140)*
12 x Squig Herd (140)*
10 x Squig Hoppers (180)**
10 x Squig Hoppers (180)**

Units
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (105)
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75)
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (150)***

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 236
Drops: 13

This is similar to the previous list with a few small changes. The first is a reduction in the Boingrot Bounders from 10 models (reinforced units) to 5 models. This frees up 210 points to spend on more Gitz… I’ve gone for 2 Madcap Shamans with Hand of Gork to threaten the backfield of my opponent’s objectives. One of the little chaps also has the Moonface Mommet – effectively giving my Herd -1 rend against one unit each turn – not bad for a little chap.

My other big change, allowed by the reduction in points on Squig Herd, is to swap out the Loonboss on Giant Squig with a Loonboss on Mangler Squig. This allows me to assist all the Squigs in combat – a thing I struggled with at Warhammer World.

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

This turns the Squig Herd into 3+/2+ (with the Marshcrawler) and I won’t be low on command points whilst he is alive. And to help with that he is a ‘Dodgy Character’

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

Not helpful against spells, but he can mostly stay out of the way, or rely on the dispelling rolls of him and his mates. This does mean I lose two benefits in the last army. +3″ movement from the Giant Squig and re-roll random movements. But I think this more than makes up for that. At Warhammer World I didn’t advance far beyond my lines and doing damage was the main issue.

Having avoided ‘bottom Chump’ last time with 2 wins, I’m aiming for 2 wins again, but will be trying for 3! Let’s see if my last tournament of the year can be a fun one.

— Declan & Eeyore

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Bloodtoofs, Death, Destruction, emerald Host, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowed Knights, Ironjawz, Nighthaunt, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Petrifex Elite, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the South Coast Series – Southampton

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the South Coast Series Southampton that took place in the UK on 22nd and 23rd October. It involved 23 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: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hallowed Knights (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Gardus Steel Soul (150)*
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Thunderous Presence
– Spell: Thundershock
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate

Battleline
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 81
Drops: 1

Brett: Almost all of the dragons list with a Krondspine. Mobility and some decent punch, I like how Matt has dangled the MSU Liberators there just so you can kill something easily. That he can summon on to an objective or block a point with Call for Aid (return the Liberators once slain). Gardus for his 5+ ward, most likely near the 4 Stormdrakes, Knight Draconis so the Drakes are battle line. Hallowed Knights giving a 50/50 fight on death. This list can control a lot of the board, a 4 man drake unit can span 20″. The drakes can move 12″ and shoot 12″ making first turn priority important. He can dangle the Krondspine as a target and engage at will. The Knight Draconis is likely to stay close to the big drake unit as well for Thundershock to control the charge phase.

Depending on match up and mission going first might even be an advantage with this list, Blaze of Glory and fight on death is going to punish any successful attacks on the drakes. As the only 5/0 and with really high scores Matt tabled a number of his opponents. And that’s what this list really needs to do, in the early turns remove as many hammers as possible then clean up. The drake’s 9 wounds and profile make them very hard to shift. For opponents, what do you go after? None of his opponents had a lot of shooting or ranged shooting with MWs, the first list with drakes had pairs matching into the 4 drake unit. Hint – that doesn’t work well even with teleports.

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Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Emerald Host
– Grand Strategy: Dismantle the Brave
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Krulghast Cruciator (150)**
– General
– Command Trait: Cloaked in Shadow
– Artefact: Beacon of Nagashizzar
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (340)**
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish
Spirit Torment (115)**
– Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon

Battleline
10 x Chainrasps (110)***
10 x Chainrasps (110)***
5 x Hexwraiths (160)
5 x Hexwraiths (160)
5 x Hexwraiths (160)
10 x Grimghast Reapers (160)*
10 x Grimghast Reapers (160)*
10 x Grimghast Reapers (160)*
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Mortalis Terminexus (85)

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

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 107
Drops: 12

Brett: Nice to see Emerald Host back (and not Scarlet Doom) which means a few changes to the unit list. Emerald host slowly withers the opponent. This list plays into that, lots of units which take longer to clear (big hitting units don’t carry over their damage as far). Then Lady Olynder can once per battle brings back D6 models in every unit (they are all summonable). The Beacon also returns 1 model to each summonable unit (all of these). That will let the army stick around longer and score more. Mortalis Terminexus plays really well into this strategy as well (either heal or mortal wounds). There is still the Spirit Torment to help a unit that is being pressured and Krulghast for the damage debuff.

It’s great to see something different from Nighthaunt. Lots of options here with great speed from the Hexwraiths. It’s weakness is probably into something durable that does a lot of damage or the first round list he ran into. It would have removed a minimum of 2 units a turn and the Grimghasts are good, but not likely to kill Fulminators. Lady Olynder is vulnerable to long range shooting as well.

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Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Army Subfaction: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Arkhan the Black (340)**
– Spells: Protection of Nagash
1 x Liege-Kavalos (170)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefacts: Godbone Armour

BATTLELINE
20 x Mortek Guard (280)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– 2 x Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
20 x Mortek Guard (280)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– 2 x Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
20 x Mortek Guard (280)*
– Necrophoros
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (190)**
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Spear and Shield

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Nightmare Predator (60)

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

OTHER
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (175)**
– Dread Falchions
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (175)**
– Dread Falchions

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)

Brett: Arkhan and 3 x 20 blocks of Mortek. Need to say more? They aren’t going to go far but you aren’t going to shift them either. Deathriders and Necropolis Stalkers give a little more manoeuvrable but this is an army that is going to spread out slowly and dare you to charge. And that works (see Ironjawz above). Beasts of Chaos overwhelmed them through a combination of strong rend and bodies (including summoning). The first round draw is more interesting, the Tzeentch list is essentially Horrors and Flamers, hard to kill and a lot of shooting. But they’d have to come into range (charges) and it had less bodies than this list. The ability to control more of the board and force your opponent into an unfavourable match up is the way this list grinds out wins.

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Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Bloodtoofs
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Hulking Brute
– Artefact: Destroyer
– Mount Trait: Mean ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat

Battleline
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas

Behemoths
Rogue Idol (430)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 126
Drops: 1

Brett: Not a particularly techy list, Ironjawz with a Mawcrusha and Rogue Idol, 2 Warchanters and a mix of 12 gore-gruntas and ardboyz. In true orcish style, it either went off like a frog in a sock or didn’t quite get over the bar. Ironjawz struggle against armies that can bury them or screen them with cheap bodies, the pigs damage isn’t as prodigious as you might like. If you can feed screens to the Mawcrusha and Idol and pepper them with MWs as both of the Chaos lists did here you have a good chance. Still not an easy list to play against, particularly with how quickly the Idol can reach you, priority is key here. With only one Mawcrusha Matt hasn’t had to worry about giving himself another artefact. Interesting way Matt’s mixed tanky (Hulking Brute) and damage (Mean ‘Un) on the Mawcrusha.

This is still a solid Orruk list that can take a tournament (or close to) depending on the day and opponents.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Allherd, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Chaos, Danny & Peter, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Host of the Everchosen, Order, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Quest of Champions – Final

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Quest of Champions Final that took place in the UK on 22md and 23rd October. It involved 30 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

We have covered all of the previous four heats on Woehammer where players competed for a place in the finals. The system was devised by Dan from the Warrior Lodge in the UK and it makes for great competition each year. If you want to catch up on the games, the event was covered by Dice and Ducks 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: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Beastlord (95)*
– Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)****
– Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Great Bray-Shaman (100)****
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Savage Dominion

Battleline
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
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
– Mauls & Half-Shields

Units
5 x Centigors (85)*
5 x Centigors (85)****
20 x Bestigors (250)***
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Behemoths
Jabberslythe (150)*
Cygor (125)****

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors
***Bounty Hunters
****Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 194
Drops: 8

Danny: Freddie Leggett has a point to prove – and that point is ‘nerf Beasts’. The man even admitted himself after this event – his 3rd 5-0 with BoC in the self-proclaimed ‘Cygor meta’ – and far as we know, his wish is about to be granted… but in the meantime, you gotta take your hat off to the guy for running quite so rampant.

Beasts have a few things going for them. Not least of which is sheer numbers and efficiency. Dragon Ogors are just a brutally good hammer for their points – and in true 2nd edition fashion the Shaggoth allows them to re-roll 1s to hit, making their high volume of attacks uber reliable.

Ungors are fairly bad, but at 65 pts they’re one of the cheapest screens/battleline taxes going – they also make excellent Herdstone fodder, meaning a cheap way to rack up plenty of summoning points. Whereas Bestigors and Centigors fill out the niches of speed and slow good quality of attacks on a 4+ respectively.

The techy-cherry on top of this swarm is the two monsters, who each gain a unique monstrous action. The Cygor can try for an endless spell dispel – and if successful heal itself equal to the roll, making itself particularly tanky in this spell heavy meta. Whereas the Jabber can worsen the save of an enemy hero by 1 on a 2-5 or 2 on a 6 until the following combat phase – meaning even rend 1 weapons can utterly melt a priority target. Meanwhile the Mindstealer Sphiranx has a good chance of making something fight last.

It’s all tied together by the just all round great enhancements of Gavespawn. No one thing is particularly frightening on its own but the combined offensive weight and significant numbers of summoned models just tend to utterly overwhelm and establish massive board presence.

Good point, well made Freddie – time to put BoC out to pasture!

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Host of the Everchosen (Sixth Circle)
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Archaon the Everchosen (860)*
– Aura of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Call to Glory
Chaos Lord (120)*
– Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– 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
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 96
Drops: 2

Danny: With leaks of the new tome flooding the interwebs and the current Tome languishing at the bottom of the win-rate pile, Toby Meadows drops this bombshell on us – a 2nd place Archaon list! To be fair, it’s not a huge deviation from pretty much the only viable Slaves build at the moment.

Archaon is a big, tanky-ass utility provider, who is himself supported by the two lords for more buffs than you can shake a stick at. His role is usually as a super hard to shift distraction carnifex who can roll smaller units, making him a tricky tactical proposition. Meanwhile, 2 squads of Tzeentch marked Varanguard – meaning they’re re-rolling 1s to save on a nat 3+, and doing +1 damage in the 6th circle – act as twin hammers. 3 squads of super-bargain Iron Golems work on the board and objective control game – they hit more like pillow golems, but they’re a super cheap source of wounds on a 4+ with a natural +1 if they didn’t move.

And that cheeky kitty shows up again for the fight last shenanigans!

Big kudos to Toby as this list, while strong, is definitely suffering from being behind the times overall and takes a great degree of tactical acumen to pilot well. Losing only to the insane volume of attacks and bodies of 1st place Freddie is a great achievement.

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

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (265)**
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Engine of the Gods (265)****
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Skink Starpriest (130)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Skink Priest (90)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Battleline
10 x Saurus Knights (220)*
– Lances
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Skinks (75)***
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)***
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

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

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)****
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)****

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 100
Drops: 10

Danny: It’s Mike Stewart. It’s Seraphon. It’s double Bastiladons with a Purple Sun. And even that couldn’t beat Freddie. Ok i’ll throw you a bone if you’re not familiar with Seraphon lists – Slann provides magical domination, the Bastiladons can be buffed to re-roll 1s, have +1 to hit and do additional mortals on 6s. If the Engine manages to get Curse off on something (6s to hit do mws) and the Sun is nearby to make each shot rend 2 – and in Thunder Lizards, one of them can use a command ability to firre twice…it’s gonna burn. And Beasts still beat it.

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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Morgaunt
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (245)***
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Ghoul King (165)***
– Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (445)**
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Lore of Madness: Blood Feast
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)***
– General
– Command Trait: Savage Chivalry
– Artefact: Decrepit Coronet
– Mount Trait: Razor-clawed
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)**
Crypt Ghast Courtier (70)**

Battleline
30 x Crypt Ghouls (255)*
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Crypt Ghouls (85)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Mount Trait

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 109
Drops: 9

Danny: So, FEC aren’t eating good these days – so 6th place is a big achievement and sure to score highly on our Woehammer scoring system. This is really a ‘ghouls for days’ list – each of those ghoul squads can come back on a 4+ … as many times as you like! They’re underwhelming in general but with bounty hunters can still bring the weight of dice pain, and if you roll well can represent a fairly overwhelming amount of board control over the game. Backed up by the King on ‘Gheist and his well known spike damage potential, plus a slightly less royal zombie dragon, it’s a classic ‘swamp and chomp’ (yes I just coined that term) list that must have scored fantastically to end 6th with 3-1-1.

Well done to Tom, and please, James Workshop, for the love of all that’s unholy give this faction some new models and rules.

Final Tournament Placings