Tag Archives: Aos3

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

December 14, 2022 Top 3 Lists 2 Comments

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 31^st 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, 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

November 15, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

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.

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, 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

October 27, 2022 Brett & Peter Leave a comment

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.

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, Army Lists, big Yellers, Chaos, Danny & Peter, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Harvestboon, Heartwood, Kieron Bailey, Kruleboyz, Legion of the First Prince, Order, Orruk Warclans, Sylvaneth, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Hammerfest 2022 GT

October 23, 2022 Peter & Danny Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Hammerfest 2022 Grand Tournament that took place in Texas, USA on the 17th and 18th September. It involved 88 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Harvestboon
– Season: The Dwindling
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deepwood: Treesong
– Bonded to Incarnate

Battleline
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
6 x Spiterider Lancers (420)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Spiterider Lancers (420)**
– Reinforced x 1

Units
5 x Skaeth’s Wild Hunt (110)*
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*
– Allies

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

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 92
Drops: 3

Danny: A big win for Sylvaneth at a time they’ve still got something to prove on the competitive circuit! Some patterns are beginning to emerge for the evil trees – Warsong Revenant is rooted in place, and Skaeth’s Wild Hunt (a good value and mobile wizard+retinue with a tasty +1 to wound spell) have come out of retirement – if you can find them!

Zach here however eschews evilest single tree Durthu for 2x 6 Spiteriders, again slightly unusual given the tanky and self-healing Revenants were seeking the position of ‘meta bug cavalry’. It makes sense though – Spiterider Lancer’s 14″ movement and fight first on the charge allows for a devastating weight of rend 2 attacks. In Harvestboon they gain a 12″ pre-game move too, which is huge for establishing board control or setting up the alpha.

With the usual brace of Tree revs for teleport based scoring and the unfortunately ubiquitous Spinedog to pin stuff in place while the Warsong bombs you with MWs, this is a potent list that took down some very challenging armies en route to first. I think even with the Spinedog nerfed into oblivion (or, at least, a shallow hole) it’s still a capable core – kudos to Zach for leafing with gold!

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Army Faction: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Kairos Fateweaver (435)*
– Spells: The Master’s Command
1 x Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (280)**
– General
– Command Traits: Ruinous Aura
– Artefacts: Armour of the Pact
1 x Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)**
– Hellforged Sword and Malefic Talons
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
1 x The Contorted Epitome (245)**
– Artefacts: Fourfold Blade
– Spells: Flaming Weapon, The Master’s Command
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur

BATTLELINE
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*
– Gore Hound
– Burning Roar
10 x Bloodletters (110)*
– Gore-drenched Icon Bearer
– Hornblower
– Bloodreaper
5 x Flesh Hounds (105)*

BEHEMOTH
1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Umbral Spellportal (70)
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Danny: Legion are enjoying a bit of a twilight resurgence since their nerf – although ‘rumour’ (i.e. leaks) have it that their current format will drastically change in the new year.

In the meantime, this is a still-excellent version of the army that employs the favoured combo of Kairos (for spellz!) a Bloodthirster (for many MWs in an 8″ aura on 6s!) and a Daemon Prince – who until the new Slaves book is still rocking Blood Slick Ground for that really quite sweet halves-charges aura. Flesh hounds provide great value screening and utility – their free unbind/dispel attempt is an added bonus – aaaaaaaaand of course there’s a Krondspine for even more of that sweet, sweet control.

You may also notice there’s no Be’lakor in this list – I guess he’s learned to delegate? Taking down DoT, Nurgle, NH and the board control of SBGL is no mean feat so big up to Matt for this swan song – this list is not long for this world.

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Heartwood (The Burgeoning)
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Alarielle the Everqueen (840)*
Arch-Revenant (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Warsinger
– Artefact: Seed of Rebirth

Battleline
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
3 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 82
Drops: 1

Danny: These successful Sylvaneth lists are sprouting up everywhere eh? And this one brings big ol’ thunder thighs herself! She’s backed up by the obviously strong combo of 2×3 Kurnoth bows backed up by Arch-Rev for +1 to wound even to their shooting – and in Heartwood they’ll also be naturally at +1 to hit three chosen targets meaning you don’t lose out by splitting the squads as AoA isn’t necessary. A big blob of Scythes absolutely blend and survive most attacks before getting a model or two back from Rally or the Verdurous Harmony spell.

That’s it really – a hugely tough and killy Kurnoth core escorting Alarielle for all sorts of spell casting and utility, screening and turning terrain into Overgrown for teleporting shenanigans. I’m happy to see a list with her in do well as, personally I think they did her scroll dirty but she deserves to be seen on top tables.

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Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Big Yellers
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (280)
Killaboss with Stab-grot (110)*
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105)*
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (315)*
– General
– Command Trait: Egomaniak
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un
– Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma

Battleline
20 x Gutrippaz (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Gutrippaz (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
9 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (360)*
– Reinforced x 2

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 148
Drops: 8

Danny: Those plucky Kruleboyz! Sitting pretty in the bottom 3 of win-rates, going 4-1 – meaning it was actually in a tournament winning position – and losing only to Sylvaneth who an army like this just can’t really interact with at all is really impressive and cool to see.

James here opts not to use the recently buffed Grinnin’ Blades to go all in (ish) on Boltboyz in Big Yellerz – bringing a big blob of 9 which really should punch through an awful lot of targets in the game. They’re commanded by no less than Gobsprakk himself – an ever-controversial pick who can nevertheless play mind games with enemy casters and generally fly around issuing double-commands to stuff and casting from the actually great Kboyz lore.

Wonderfully, he’s joined by the humble Killaboss on FOOT (not to mention his trust stab-grot, the real MVP of any list) – presumably a budget way to access All Part of Da Plan – to essentially make the 2x 20 blobs of Gutrippaz immune to battleshock. The shaman and Sludgeraker round off the ‘fishing for 5s/6s’ synergy package, with the latter rocking Egomaniak (essentially turning the hobgrotz into ablative bodyguard wards) making it super durable, with Arcane Tome and Sneaky Miasma for casting a hero-phase move on himself.

It’s a lovely list that can put out an eye-watering number of MWs up close and actually packs some real board control chops. It’s got overlapping synergies and plenty of movement options, and about as much durability as Kboyz can manage. Real big up to James for coming so close – can’t wait to see what he does with the faction after the Battlescroll!

P.s. according to the new Woehammer scoring metrics that take army win-rate into account, this was the winning list of the event!

Final Tournament Placings

As presented on BCP

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Barak Zilfin, Chaos, Danny & Peter, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kharadron Overlords, Legion of Night, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Soulblight Gravelords, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for the London GT

October 4, 2022 Peter & Danny Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the London GT that took place in the UK on 1st and 2nd October. It involved 76 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Leaders
The Shadow Queen (340)
Morathi-Khaine (340)
Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (270)
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor
– Prayer: Sacrament of Blood

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

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 81
Drops: 7

Danny: Darren Watson is a beast, unbeaten in 15 games and 3 GTs. He brought his DoK out for the HUGE London GT, opting for a relatively close to the chest but clearly brutally effective list centered around a double reinforced blob of stab sneks and the Spinedog.

The piece you don’t usually see at tournies these days is the Hag Queen on Cauldron. It’s a great piece full of utility – the Avatar riding shotgun is plenty killy and the Queen offers a prayer and separate ability to bump something up the Blood Rites table – meaning two units can go up 1, or you can double down on one unit…such as giving the 15 sneks +1 to hit and wound from BR 2. Better yet, it projects a +1 save aura and acts as the tankiest platform available to DoK for the Zealous Orator (4+ rally) trait. Arcane Tome obvs completes the combo, allowing something in the army to benefit from the Krondspine’s +1 – which makes getting Mindrazor – a completely devastating spell to get off (or not, as it’s CV 8) on stabbers – so getting it down to a 7 is potentially game changing.

It will be interesting to see if this list survives the rumoured incoming Spinedog nerfs. Either way, it’s a powerful archetype, clearly able to take down the sheer volume of bodies BoC can field (twice!) and the movement and MW output of Fangs of Sotek. A huge tournament to win for Darren and the snek-ladies.

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

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (360)*
– Allies
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
– Dolorous Tocsin
– Incubatch

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

Units
3 x Nurglings (105)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 360 / 400
Wounds: 130
Drops: 1

Danny: Flies, and Be’lakor to probably shut down your one key piece with any hope of dealing with them. One of my club-mates faced Hadrien in the first round as KO, with predictable results – however he did say that Hadrien was frustratingly lovely and skilled as an opponent.

Flies were called out in the recent Metawatch article with good reason, and will clearly see nerfs soon – it will be interesting to see if they go as far as touching the Drowned Men pre-game move too. Either way, this exact list is probably not long for this world, with good reason – it’s completely oppressive and very, very few lists have any kind of answer to it.

Still, credit to Hadrien for 2nd at such a big event and for being a great competitor and a gentleman while he crushed dreams.

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Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (90)**
– General
– Command Trait: Collector
– Artefact: Spell in a Bottle
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
Arkanaut Admiral (125)**
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation
Aetheric Navigator (85)**
– Artefact: Svaregg-Stein Illuminator Flarepistol

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)*
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Units
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)*
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 1x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)*
– Main Gun: Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
Arkanaut Ironclad (490)
– Main Gun: Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram

Endless Spells & Invocations
Rune of Petrification (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108
Drops: 5

Danny: KO have gone from zeroes to heroes after a steady trickle of FAQs and generic enhancement tweaks have meant they can play the ‘3rd edition’ game properly now.

With an extreme paucity of unit types to choose from, there’s only so much flex and variations on the theme of ‘FLYING GUNS’ KO can manage, but this one doubles down on the Ironclad – the biggest, most flying of guns possible. One is endowed with The Last Word, allowing for double unleash hell – which is generally a good way to avoid there being a combat phase at all – while the other has installed the Dealbreaker Ram, allowing for a roll of dice equal to the charge roll, with 4+ doing a mortal. An amusing contrast of tactical roles – one you don’t want to get busy with, the other wants to charge in to finish off a weakened unit with a clutch of mortals.

Beyond that, there’s one very interesting piece of tech in the list. Usually, the Spell in a Bottle (a free cast of an endless spell that can’t be unbound) is stuffed full of Purple Sun for the extra rend (which, given KO are a majority rend 1 army, they love) or the warp lightning vortex – yep, ‘Any endless spell can be chosen (all restrictions are ignored)’. But Stephen has opted for the LRL endless spell ‘Rune of Petrification’ which has a 6″ aura of mortals on a 4+ and -1/-1 from run and charge rolls – presumably a handy way to slow down threats and cause key charges to fail, so the double-Ironclads can go to work from a safe range.

With some big wins against tough opponents, Stephen rightly takes 3rd, further cementing KO as back in the gunning (I mean, running) for a spot in the A tier of armies.

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Legion of Night
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (380)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify
Necromancer (125)*
– General
– Command Trait: Unbending Will
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)*
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions

Battleline
30 x Deathrattle Skeletons (240)**
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Dire Wolves (135)**
10 x Dire Wolves (135)**

Units
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)*
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 153
Drops: 4

Danny: We’ve talked before about how Soullblight are enjoying a resurgence – and while they’re not quite cracked the podium recently, in London or otherwise, they’re creeping closer. James here was in winning position – losing only to the eventual winner, which set him down the table a fair way.

He’s opted for a nice balanced list of tech – the ever-popular Mannfred for utility and teleporting/move blocking shenanigans, with some cheap supporting heroes behind a big blob of skellies and two units of our favourite, undead fluffy friends, the Dire Wolves.

Skellies are often run MSU as cheap chaff who can pop back out of a gravesite – but the blob of 30, combined with their ability to bring back models that have died in the same phase on a 4+, before they attack – can make them truly resilient objective grabbers. Think you’ve killed 25? Well, on average 12 of them are coming back and now the unit counts for 51 on the objective again! No doubt this unit was supported with the corpse cart, projecting a -1 to wound aura, making them a bony nightmare to chew through.

Elsewhere of note is the DOUBLE Graveguard brick – 2 units of 20 – that would be putting out silly damage when supported by one or both the foot heroes.

Two big hammers, one giant anvil, some furry fast objective grabbers and screens – it’s a quality list and 10th feels like a harsh result when it came so close to winning the whole thing – big congrats to James!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Baleful Lords, Blades of Khorne, Bloodgullet, Celestial Warbringers, Chaos, Destruction, Ethan & Peter, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Greyfyrd, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Salt Lake Open 2022

September 5, 2022 Top 3 Lists Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Salt Lake Open 2022 that took place in the USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 33 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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: Fyreslayers
– Subfaction: Greyfyrd
– Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Auric Runefather (125)**
– General
– Command Traits: Spirit of Grimnir
– Artefacts of Power: The Daemon Slayer
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Runeson (80)**
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefacts of Power: Axe of Grimnir
Auric Flamekeeper (90)****
– Artefacts of Power: Draught of Magmalt Ale
Auric Runemaster (125)****
– Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier
– Prayers: Heal
Auric Runesmiter (135)****
– Forge Key
– Prayers: Prayer Of Ash

BATTLELINE
Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Karl
– Berzerker Broadaxe
Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Karl
– Flamestrike Poleaxe
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)***
– Fyresteel War-pick and Bladed Slingshield
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)***

OTHER
Auric Hearthguard (250)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (40)

TERRAIN
1 x Magmic Battleforge (0)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000

Ethan: Holy moly what a collection of lists this tournament presents! In the vein of Bill Souza this list uses many battalions in order to stack up bonus enhancements and abilities but that is where the comparison ends. Fyreslayers are uniquely suited to taking high drop lists in that they, unlike most armies, don’t care about taking first and can weather an enemy double turn thanks to their durability. This opens up a broad cadre of list building options with the sheer number of heroes present here not reasonable for those armies relying on Battle Regiment to have play.

Getting into the list itself, this Greyfyrd army runs a large contingent of cheap foot heroes, using a combination of the subfaction and battalions to outfit the heroes with a selection of the Fyreslayers’ rather stacked artefact list. Prayers are made more consistent, damage output is improved and items like the Nulsidian icon provide spell ignores in a meta still often visited by Nagash’s Favourite Sphere. At 1965 points this list will often get its triumph and the selection of inspired helps to ensure the large units of troops aren’t losing more than they need to to battleshock.
The hero selection here gives this lists an absolute keyring of tools ranging from forgekeys and latchkey grandaxes to the extra CP of the Runemaster and the deepstrike of the Runesmiter. Of particular note is the Flamekeeper, the hero released with the Fyreslayers’ recent FOMO box, which doesn’t often see play in the tournament scene. With such large units of foot troops, his abilities – which are activated at the start of the combat phase whenever 6 models have died near the Flamekeeper since the previous turn – are going off with alarming frequency to provide powerful effects such as:
– 6+ ward (meh)
– Fight on death (alright)
– Charge, including during the enemy turn (!!!!!!!)
– +1 damage (still !!! but less so)

The rest of the list is still exciting (when was the last time anyone saw Auric Hearthguard?) but less in-depth than the heroes. Auric hearthguard deepstrike with the runesmiter and shoot quite well while the remainder of the army racks up objective scoring with difficult to shift statlines and wound characteristics. Putting these in Expert Conquerors and Bounty Hunters is a nice bonus in a list that already has drops to high heaven and the list is capped off with the Molten Infernoth, which gives the list an easy way to achieve its Grand Strategy. The notable bonus of the infernoth over other options is that you aren’t obligated to move it meaning, as the game is coming to a close, you can elect to not attempt a move and thus eliminate the chance of rolling it off the board with hot dice.

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Army Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired
– Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

LEADER
1 x Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Thundershock
– Prayers: Translocation
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
1 x Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard

BATTLELINE
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**
– Judicator-Prime

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Everblaze Comet (90)

OTHER
3 x Annihilators (200)*
– Annihilator-Prime
3 x Annihilators (200)*
– Annihilator-Prime
1 x Stormstrike Chariot (165)*
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Ethan: I mentioned it in the Fyreslayers but my goodness we’re in funkytown. The subfaction here is largely irrelevant but useful for re-rolling a save?

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the fun bit. The completely normal general here is a translocating Lord-Relictor and that’s where our dose of normal ends. Five Knight Vexillors. Count ’em. Five. For those not in the know (and who would be?) the Knight-Vexillor is the little Stormcast bloke with a banner. His ability? Do d3 wounds to everything within 6″ of a point anywhere on the board. So that’s 5d3 Mortals, averaging around 8-10 mortals to everything in range. This is then topped off with the Everblaze Comet which does d3, or d6, Mortals within a large area at a 36″ range. What a combo. In a double battle-regiment this list comes in at 2-drop, being one of the few lists that is likely to take the first turn, hitting anything remotely resembling a castle like, well, a storm? (I’m so sorry).

The rest of the list backs up this combination with tools to turn this opening blow into a knockout with a stormstrike chariot thundering around the board (I’ve moved past shame) while the Annihilators and their 2+ save come crashing into the opponents lines and punch a hole while tying things up for the judicators to rain down a squall of shots (we’re still going).

The only loss for this list was against Gargants and honestly, that tracks, considering how the list functions. While the list does incredible damage spread across a huge number of units, it would struggle to deal the concentrated pain required to take down wound-dense Sons of Behemat. What a list. Noe Aquino should be absolutely thrilled with this exciting result.

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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Bloodgullet
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Huskard on Thundertusk (335)
– General
– Command Traits: ‘Nice Drop of the Red Stuff!’
– Blood Vulture
– Artefacts: Skullshards of Dragaar
– Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)*
– Artefacts: Splatter-cleaver
– Mount Traits: Metalcruncher
1 x Hrothgorn (170)*
1 x Butcher (135)**
– Tenderiser
– Spells: Ribcracker, Molten Entrails
1 x Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)**
1 x Slaughtermaster (140)**
– Spells: Ribcracker, Greasy Deluge

BATTLELINE
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*
3 x Icefall Yhetees (120)*

TERRAIN
1 x Great Mawpot (0)

OTHER
3 x Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers (170)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Peter: I’m starting this with a caveat! None of us know anything about Ogors…. Mind you we still get some of the comments wrong on lists we do know about so….

We have three characters on Stonehorns or Thundertusks who have a threat distance of 24″ (average 19″). These boys are tough with 13 wounds each, a 3+ save AND a 5+ ward. The Frostlords on Stonehorns can kick out an average of 18 damage before saves if they get a charge in.

The Huskard has the Blood Vulture which allows him to cause a free mortal each turn on any enemy unit within 24″. On top of this he has a tasty missile weapon which on its top bracket will roll 12 dice and will cause mortal wounds on 6’s (if the unit is less than 10 models), 5+ if the target had 10+ models or 4+ if it has 20+ models. He also has a command ability which allows other Beastclaw Raider (those Stonehorns) units within 12″ to re-roll their charges.

Hrothgorn and the Mantrappers are a clever inclusion for objective capturing and battle tactics as they can be set up in reserve and bought on in a friendly turn anywhere on the board more than 9″ from the enemy.

The Yhetees, while not great at dishing out damage can run and charge if they’re with 16″ of a Thundertusk when they do so. They also have the annoying ability to pile in from 6″ away instead of the usual 3″.

Both the Butcher and Slaughtermaster know additional spells thanks to their Bloodgullet allegiance and both have Ribcracker which deducts 1 from a an enemy units save. Molten entrails allows a Ogor Monster to add 1 to the damage of their mounts attacks (great on the Stonehorns), while Greasy Deluge forces an enemy unit to deduct 1 from their attacks.

Sprinkle in things like the Splatter-Cleaver which allows you to heal nearby Ogor units D3 wounds if you were successful with any of that models attacks. And a Nice Drop of the Red Stuff which is a command ability that allows units within 12″ of the general an additional 3″ pile in (9″ pile in for Yhetees).

All of this adds up to a tough and hard hitting army

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Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: Baleful Lords (Host of Chaos)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Bloodstoker (80)****
– Artefact: Talisman of Burning Blood
Bloodstoker (80)****
Bloodsecrator (125)***
– General
– Command Trait: Thirst for Carnage
– Artefact: Black Brass Crown
Skarbrand (380)***
Valkia the Bloody (135)***
Slaughterpriest (100)****
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
– Prayer: Blood Sacrifice

Battleline
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Meatripper Axes

Units
5 x Wrathmongers (145)*
1 x Chaos Chariots (100)***
– Greatblades
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
1 x Chaos Chariots (100)****
– Greatblades
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
4 x Khagra’s Ravagers (125)*
– Spell1: Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
– Allies
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)***
– Allies
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)****
– Allies

Behemoths
Jabberslythe (150)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Hexgorger Skulls (50)
Prismatic Palisade (40)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 265 / 400
Wounds: 135
Drops: 16

Ethan: I’m going to coin this list the “Skarbrand launcher”. A multitude of battalions provide a slew of artefacts to this list, mitigated by the untamed beasts’ pregame move ensuring that objectives are contested from word go. The Baleful lords subfaction is usually utilised by “Oops, All Bloodthirsters” builds, however this list has eschewed such choices in favour of a hectic collection of units which all seem to be built around the uniting goal of “Skarbrand runs and charges at anything on the board”.

In the Heroes section, the arcane tome and ghost-mist, in combination with the prismatic palisade create powerful counterplay against shooting lists, ensuring the army’s lack of ranged options aren’t punished before it has a chance to walk up and beat you to a bloody pulp. The combination of Bloodsecrator, Wrathmongers and Valkia ensure that the Reavers punch above their very cheap cost and, with the benefit of additional attacks, the chaos chariots become a threat, aided by their incredible movement to be a scary prospect across the board. Bloodstokers double down on the theme handing out more movement bonuses to their willing whipees. The keyword for this list is mobility and it has it in spades. Castle build? This is the trebutchet, and the keystone boulder is a running and charging Skarbrand, enough to put fear into the heart of even the most seasoned Living Cities player.

Now, let’s talk about the Jabberslythe. I don’t quite get it? For 150 points, Sean knows something I don’t. It can make a high-output unit absolutely self destruct with self inflicted mortals or kill something that is killing it, Magmadroth style, but I’ll be real with y’all: I’m not sure what this does in the list. That said, it’s a very cool inclusion and provides a wonderful end point for a top 3 article discussing some of the most thrillingly different lists I’ve seen in the last few years. AoS is feeling spicy right now for the Johnnys of the world, with the GHB’s maturation proving that initial overreactions to Bounty Hunters were exactly that. Exciting times!

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Lurid Haze, Order, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Peter & Brett, Petrifex Elite, Seraphon, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments, Zainthar Kai

Top Three AoS Lists for the Sacramento GT

September 4, 2022 Brett Martin Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Sacramento GT (Sacremento Slam) that took place in the USA on 27th and 28th July. It involved 12 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

LEADERS
Engine of the Gods (265)*
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Hand of Glory
– Prayers: Curse
Skink Priest (90)*
– Prayers: Heal
Doralia ven Denst (115)*
Slann Starmaster (265)**
– Artefacts of Power: Itxi Grubs
– Spells: Stellar Tempest
Stegadon with Skink Chief (305)**
– Skystreak Bow
– Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)**

BATTLELINE
Saurus Guard (115)*
Saurus Knights (110)***
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws
Stegadon (270)***
– Skystreak Bow

BEHEMOTH
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

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

TERRAIN
1 x Realmshaper Engine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Brett: All the big things Thunder Lizard list with minimum battleline. The Purple Sun to back up the Starmaster, this is more a combat list than casting after all. Just the 3 casts from the Starmaster, 1 from Arcane Tome and prayers from the Skink Priests (importantly they also have an unbind for Endless Spells). The Starmaster is casting at +1, +2 within 12″ of the Saurus Astrolith Bearer and most likely a +1 from the army. Doralia is along for her endless spell removal, the witch hunter is also very good at removing small casting heroes. A nice bonus with a lot of Nighthaunt lists around. 2 Stegadons, both crews are using the Skystreak Bow for a little 24″ shooting in addition to the Solar Engine (on Bastilidon). Great way to pressure all of the shorter range units.

3 Artefacts, from Warlord and Command Entourage. In series they create a wizard (Arcane Tome), heal and allow a recast (Itxi Grubs) and On top of the +1 to casting for coalesced the Battle Traits of Seraphon continue to be what makes the army so effective. -1 to incoming damage, an additional attacks for the Jaws, and summoning. 6 to 10 points are very easy to achieve each turn and give you the broadest range from Skinks, to Saurus (Guard or Knight) – screens and objective to a Salamander Hunting Pack for offense. Beastmaster on the Stegadon with Skink Chief in accordance with the Thunder Lizard mandatory requirements (+1 attack to the mounts weapon) is no penalty.

Overall Thunder Lizard continues to be successful because it’s a well rounded army with a lot of key abilities. Adding the Purple Sun (casting on a 5 most likely) just makes it that much more spicey and buffs all of the incoming attacks which is very useful to Seraphone (most of their attacks lack much rend). Since much of their damage is at range they avoid the issues with the Sun and can dispel it if it goes wild. John scored well through out and was the only undefeated entrant. Target priority would be hard to determine with this list and mortal wounds from ranged very useful to chip damage from it before closing. Most of his opponents were short on both shooting and mortals.

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Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
– Army Subfaction: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Hag Queen (110)*
– Prayers: Sacrament of Blood, Curse
1 x Slaughter Queen (130)*
– Prayers: Catechism of Murder, Sacrament of Blood
1 x Melusai Ironscale (115)***
– General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
1 x Bloodwrack Medusa (130)***
– Artefacts: Shadow Stone
– Spells: Mindrazor
1 x High Gladiatrix (90)***

BATTLELINE
5 x Blood Stalkers (180)*
– Krone
5 x Blood Stalkers (180)*
– Krone
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**
– Gorgai
20 x Sisters of Slaughter (270)**
– Handmaiden
– 3 x Death Pennant Bearer
– 4 x Hornblower
– Kruiplash and Bladed Buckler
5 x Blood Sisters (140)**

BEHEMOTH
1 x Avatar of Khaine (155)*

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Bloodwrack Viper (80)

INVOCATION
1 x Heart of Fury (45)

OTHER
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
– Shryke

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

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Brett: Having the misfortune to run into John in round 3 ended David’s run then. With only the 10 x Blood Stalkers in 2 x 5 model units this list would struggle to tackle the Stegodons and Bastildons. That leaves their heroes which aren’t the best trading pieces outside of the High Gladiatrix. With 10 wounds on a 5+ save and a 6+ ward the 5 model units are very fragile. The same is true of the Blood Sisters, this list would be difficult to play unless you were prepared to lose one or more of those units a turn. Ranged is best because Zainthar Kai fight again on death.

2 Priests with 4 spells including Sacrement to advance the Blood Rights table, Curse (MW on a natural 6 to hit) and Catechism of Murder for exploding 6s. Only one wizard with a single cast, the Bloodwrack Viper might not be used a lot. Particularly with Mindrazor being so good. There heroes are mostly in place to buff the larger infantry units, advancing Blood Rites and improving damage dealing. The High Gladiatrix brings a interesting, if difficult to use, assassination ability.

Ultimately David was able to score well throughout, looking at the run through the tournament quite a few of the the lists were susceptible to the sort of pressure DoK are good at. It’s an interesting take on DoK with so many MSU blocks, it would be good to see more games with it.

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

LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (340)
– General
– Spells: Protection of Nagash
Mortisan Soulmason (115)
– Artefacts of Power: Godbone Armour
– Spells: Mortal Contract

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

OTHER
Morghast Harbingers (360)*
– Spirit Halberd
Necropolis Stalkers (175)*
Necropolis Stalkers (175)*

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

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Brett: The current meta is wide open and there have been a few sightings of Ossiarch Bonereapers but they are still far from common, 3rd is a strong effort going 3/5 losing to 1st and 2nd in the final 2 rounds. A pretty traditional Ossiarch list, with Arkhan the Black and a Soulmason as the only heros. The points are tied to the Battleline (Mortek Guard are beefy and dear) with a large unit of Harbingers in bounty hunters to punish the unwary. 5 spells base but Arkhan has additional spells as well as buffs to casting on a degrading profile from his staff. Arkhan is the natural choice for Purple Sun (casting on a 6 for him). He is also a solid combat hero but you don’t want to get him into combat too early due to his casting.

The Soulmason offers re-roll hit rolls of 1, he has an ability where at the end of the hero phase he could apply it to up to D3 models which is a good reason to have him. The points saved on heroes have gone to the combat units, 2 x 20 Mortek Guard (40 wounds) and the reinforced Harbingers (4). Harbingers are very dear, they have a great stat-line but are pretty expensive per wound. Deathriders (and the Harbingers) for some mobility. Again there are a few MSU in the list that are vulnerable to being pickup relatively easily. The idea behind the list is pretty simple, the Mortek Guard camp objectives and you try to bait your opponent into you. They have a 4+ save and 6+ ward but most units have a movement of 4″ to 6″. They are vulnerable to shooting (as happened here).

Scott did see off a few of the meta’s current stars in the first 3 rounds. This list does give you quite a few options and at least some units that can seek to go wide if needed.

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

LEADERS
Sigvald (205)*
Keeper of Secrets (400)*
– General
– Command Traits: Feverish Anticipation
– Sinistrous Hand
– Spells: Slothful Stupor
Synessa (260)**
– General
– Spells: Born of Damnation
Soulfeaster Keepers of Secrets (385)**
– Artefacts of Power: Oil of Exultation
– Spells: Progeny of Damnation
Infernal Enrapturess (130)**

BATTLELINE
Blissbarb Archers (140)*
Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*
Blissbarb Archers (140)**
Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)**

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

TERRAIN
1 x Fane of Slaanesh (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Brett: Double Keeper of Secrets in a 2 drop list with Synessa (for her wonderful gaze) and a Purple Sun just to make your opponent’s life difficult. But wait there’s more – in a spell heavy meta let’s introduce a character that forces opposing Wizards within 24″ to reroll successful casts and cause them D3 mortal wounds every time they cast a double. I give you the Infernal Enrapturess. Like Tzeentch, Slaanesh armies usually have a reasonable number of casts, 5 this time, and an extra dispel from the Enrapturess. Invaders allow up to 3 generals in the army (for command point and command purposes), only 2 are listed for this army though.

Feverish Anticipation (re-roll run rolls within 12″) from the mandatory requirements for Lurid Haze. Healing spell (Progeny of Damnation), turn off command abilities (Slothful Stupor) and hero heals (Born of Damnation). Sigvald is as always a swingy combat hero, the number of attacks determined by his charge roll and +3 to charge. He normally picks up something important. Neither Keeper of Secrets is a combat powerhouse (but they aren’t weak either) at least compared to other Greater Demons. The Soulfeaster is a forgeworld variant that loses the potential for a ranged weapon and has an intriguing warscroll ability. You offer your opponent to allow a hero to accept temptation. If they refuse, they take D3 mortal wounds. If they accept then they have 1 more attack this round, at the start of the next combat phase they roll a dice, 4-6 they are slain.

The battleline units are both thin and slightly fragile (as are the heroes for the most part). That allows Depravity Points to accumulate quickly though, Slaanesh relies on speed an summoning to overwhelm you. Shutting it down against invaders is tough with multiple generals and in this case multiple Keepers of Secret to play around. And a Purple Sun just to make life harder (the -1 to saves is pretty strong).Special mention to Synessa’s Staff, D3 if you make a save, D6 if you fail, you are only safe on a 6. Always an interesting army to play, their speed means it’s hard to prevent scoring but their fragility means you can score well into them.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Blessed Sons, Bloodtoofs, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Ironjawz, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Order, Orruk Warclans, Peter & Brett, Seraphon, The Scarlet Doom, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Nashcon GT 2022

August 29, 2022 Woehammer Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Nashcon GT that took place in the USA on 20th and 21st August. It involved 32 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

The format for this event was slightly different, in that every player built two lists and chose which of their lists to use based on the opponent before the round began. To keep this article short, we’re analysing their first lists only and the opponent’s first list has been used when showing their path through the tournament.

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

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

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

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

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

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***

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

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 8

Danny: Who can stop Ridge Hanna? The Season of War vet is a died in the wool Seraphon expert, and his Fangs of Sotek list is the one to beat.

We’ve covered it before, and no doubt we’ll be forced to cover it again… but on the off-chance you’re new to it, here’s how it works.

Unlike Thunder Lizard, who’re all about big beasties and Scaly Skin for the -1 damage, Fangs is all about tricksy movement and summoning. Units are able to come down from reserves near a Slann, and one unit per turn can teleport – this makes the Salamanders – free from giving up extra points since the latest GHB – a tactical nuke who can safely materialise near an enemy threat and nuke them. God forbid if they make the charge too.

Meanwhile, all the skinks have a small pre-game move for grabbing objectives, and can run away after unleashing hell on a 4+ once charged, meaning most of the time they’re incredibly hard to pin down – and with the buffs the various Skink heroes can throw out, they can end up doing serious damage too.

The reason the Slann has Arcane Tome is because of the Coalesced summoning mechanic – using up a spell slot grants an additional d3 summoning points, so the Tome allows him to rack those up and still use his super valuable normal spells into the bargain. On average, Ridge should be able to summon two more salamanders into the fray, or if, for some reason, he’s struggling with objective, a whole load more skinks.

A techy, frustrating to pin down list with some real teeth that proves Seraphon are far from a one trick-dinopony.

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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord of Afflictions (210)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Bloab Rotspawned (300)*
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Orghotts Daemonspew (300)

Battleline
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)**
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)***
– 1x Dolorous Tocsin

Units
3 x Plague Drones (200)***
1 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (110)*
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*
– Allies

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

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 143
Drops: 7

Ethan: Writing analysis of this feels a bit like cheating. For those not in the know, Tyler Emerson is one of the illustrious regular guests of Vince Venturella of Warhammer Weekly and “being considerably better than ok at painting” fame. Tyler spoke about his list on their most recent show, make sure to check it out if you’re after a more in-depth dive!

Getting to it, there are a fair few elements of this list setting it apart from the drone spam we’ve all come over time to know and resent. Blessed sons provides a nice platform for a mixed arms list employing more of Nurgle’s toolkit than we’re perhaps used to. The Lord of afflictions eschews the usual splithorn helm, sacrificing some resilience in exchange for rancid visitations, one of the best anti-horde spells in the game though, without other casting support, this is by no means consistent. The two Maggoth lords are incredibly strong pieces, providing all the usual benefits of behemoth-lords with Nurgle resilience and a small amount of spell-dom play, or great combat play. Combined these two give the list a capacity to play broadly across the map with the core of the list holding one flank while the creatively named heroes hold the other.

Plaguebearers and Blightkings form a durable core for holding objectives and placing them in Expert Conquerors makes retaking objectives a real commitment from the opponent while the Plague drones and Pusgoyles in a Bounty Hunter Battalion provide a mobile cav hammer which hits hard and takes a hit well in return. The two really interesting pieces of tech taken by Tyler in this list are the Mindstealer Sphiranx which has an ability to make enemies fight last, winning him at least one game singlehandedly, per his view. The other is his Battalions, he’s taken an “all the toys” approach to his regular units but has eschewed the usually accompanying Command Entourage/Warlord in favour of a Battle regiment to lower his drops. This isn’t going to give him priority vs anyone taking a Battle Regiment+ setup but does ensure he outdrops anyone taking the abovementioned Entourage or Warlord. Very clever decision making here.

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

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

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

Endless Spells
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

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

Ethan: Nate Trentanelli has proven he can win with a variety of armies and so it is only fitting that he see success with current meta darling, Nighthaunt. This list relies on a central castle built around the Krulghast Cruciator and it’s aura of -1 damage. Throw in Shademist (-1 to wound) and Seal of Shyish (5+ ward save) and all of a sudden your charge-heavy, mortal wound spamming Nighthaunt units are a brick that the opponent will struggle to displace. This kind of list sees great success in the current GHB as it has the versatility to play for multiple areas of the board or, as many current battleplans demand, meet your opponent in the middle and win the brawl for objective scoring. Nate has run the increasingly prevalent triple battalion of Expert Conquerors, Bounty Hunters and Command Entourage meaning he’s capturing better than you with his durable units, hitting hard on your units designed to do the same, and has access to the tools required to build and maintain this kind of board presence.

Also worth noting in this list is the Midnight tome – Purple Sun combination, guaranteeing the purple sun will come out for the Nighthaunt. Nighthaunt don’t mind losing a ghost or two when they’re bringing back d6 + d3 per round and their unmodifiable saves form a perfect combination with the sun. Myrmournes provide a brutal capstone on this, giving an additional chance to unbind any spell or endless spell affecting the area nearby. In combination, your opponent is far less likely to affect the board state with their magic while you have utter certainty that your sun is coming out at a crucial moment, creating a brutal momentum swing.

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Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Kastelai Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Coven Throne (290)
– General
– Command Trait: Rousing Commander
– Artefact: Fragment of the Keep
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (365)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
Vampire Lord (140)*
– Artefact: Grave-sand Shard
Watch Captain Halgrim (80)*

Battleline
10 x Blood Knights (390)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**

Units
5 x Black Knights (100)
5 x Black Knights (100)*
20 x Grave Guard (280)***
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 134
Drops: 11

Danny: Soulblight are slowly settling into their new competitive bracket of ‘close but no cigar’, it seems – the cool thing is, the breadth and relative internal balance of the book means that there’s plenty of variety between contenders.

This list is a nice, thematic looking balance of stuff, wrapped in Kastelai, which is edging out the others as Lineage of choice due to the strong selection of artifacts/command traits, the ability to make the excellent Blood Knights battleline, and the sub-faction trait that gives vampire units permanent, stacking buffs depending on what kind of unit they kill.

The Coven Throne is often a lynchpin of Kastelai lists, mainly due to its command ability, offering one unit +1 hit, wound _and_ save. Pretty bonkers value for 1CP although you are paying a fair whack of points for it, given it doesn’t do a huge amount else. Neferata is also starting to challenge Mannfred as Mortarch of choice due to her spell to make a unit unrendable – dicey in the current magic-dominance meta, but when it does go off, combined with the above…you can imagine the shenanigans. She’s also a decent, mobile beatstick in her own right and has a dagger with a chance to auto-kill a unit if it inflicts wounds that aren’t saved, so she’s an excellent mind-warfare pick.

Watch Captain Halgrim might look like an odd and rare pick, and he is – but he offers up to 3 skellies (and the list takes all 3, conveniently) a 4″ ‘auto-run’ for 1 CP, which is a good way of guaranteeing they get up the board together.

Outside of that is standard but useful fair – the currently ever-present 20 Graveguard brick who are also an excellent recipient of the Coven Throne’s CA, and 2 units of Black Knights who are cheap, fast, and summonable – meaning they can start in grave sites.

A nicely mostly-mounted list with a few tricks up its raggedy sleeves that clearly works!

Final Tournament Placings (Top 32)

Age of Sigmar, Allherd, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Chaos, Death, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowed Knights, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Order, Peter & Brett, Stormcast Eternals, The Scarlet Doom, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Kings in the North

August 19, 2022 Brett & Peter Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Kings in the North Grand Tournament, the northernmost Warhammer Tournament, that took place in Tromso, Norway on 13 and 14 August. It involved 31 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. I had to do a bit of research because I didn’t know where Troms og Finnmark was, I knew the separate counties but not that they’d been joined. And having just found it I’ve discovered they are going to separate it all over again, I wonder if I can make it over there before it happens.

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Indomitable

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

Battleline
30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)*
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Chainrasps (110)**
10 x Chainrasps (110)**
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)**

Units
3 x Fell Bats (75)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

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

Total: 1955 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 114
Drops: 9

Brett: I’m running a little late this week so I am going to keep this shorter than normal (or try to). First up we have travelled to Tromso in Norway for Kings in the North which claims to be the most Northerly Tournament in the world. And now I want to go. No one went 5/0, Ben winning with a 4 wins and a draw. The list was similar to a few we’ve seen do well recently for Nighthaunt. The normal 3 heroes with Krulghast (-1 damage), Guardian and Spirit Torment for spells and returning models. Making the Spirit Torment General is a little unusual, Master of Magic is really good and having that reroll every round is very good. Acrane Tome to make the Spirit a wizard so 2 spells and 2 unbinds/dispels. The spells and artefacts all check out.

Running 2 x 30 blocks of Bladegheist is also unusual and difficult to cover with the heroes in this list. Normally lists sacrifice some of the hammer unit to get heroes that can buff them. It’s hard to overstate how devestating those 30 strong units are with 90 to 120 attacks. Rend isn’t important with that many dice. Chainrasps and Spirit Hosts are Eternal Conquerers – I don’t think enough people have been using them enough, it can be risky but paid off here. The Fell Bats are a great move, they replace Hexwraiths as a super fast unit to grab an objective or harrass a unit or even screen/block. Very useful to have in any list.

Take notice of the Grand Strategy – I don’t know how many times it was scored but it means Ben was looking to kill all of your Battleline every time. Really top notch performance in an interesting tournament and good to see some changes to a solid list.

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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

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

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

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 115
Drops: 4

Brett: Nurgle, loaded up with Blightlords and 3 big baddies, this is not a list to make friends but is brutally efficient. Drowned Men for an 8″ pre-game move and resonable casting with Bloab and Be’Lakor giving 3 casts. This list is meant to make things very difficult. It’s generally a good idea to focus fire as much as possible but there are 2 units (Bloab and Be’Lakor) that need to be focused but which do you take first. Chip damage isn’t effective against Be’Lakor if he can kill things near him. And both are mobile, for very elite armies that can be a problem if they split their focus. The Blightlords are capable of independent action as well, the combination makes it hard for an opponent to deny Battle Tactics.

His one loss was to a Beasts of Chaos Dragon Ogre army. Big chunky beasts that can absorb the disease mortals and hit back hard enough to over come the save, wounds and wards of the Blightlords (or Be’Lakor). This is another great army that is seeing a lot of play for good reasons. It’s also interesting to play with mobility and output.

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Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Allherd
– Grand Strategy: Protect the Herdstone
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*
– General
– Command Trait: Dominator
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)*
– Artefact: Blade of the Desecrator
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy

Battleline
10 x Ungors (65)***
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)***
– Mauls & Half-Shields
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
3 x Dragon Ogors (125)*
– 3x Paired Ancient Weapons

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)**
– Reinforced x 1

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

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 164
Drops: 10

Brett: Beasts of Chaos have seen a strong return to the competitive scene, King in the North included several armies. A few people don’t like the older models that make up the bulk of hte army but they are fairly unique and dynamic. The Herdstone isn’t shown but I’ll assume it was part of the army. All of the leaders are wizards (3 casts/dispels), beyond their interesting warscroll spells they debuff opponent’s saves, increase rend and do mortal wounds. He’s taken Chronomantic Cogs for rerolls to clutch spells or dispels (one per turn), since none of the wizards have bonuses to cast. The Dragon Ogre units are durable and mobile bringing a lot of potential damage with them as well.

The Tzaangor have extreme mobility (16″ and fly) and reasonable attacks. Sticking to the interesting warscrolls of previous editions though they have a special moral rule that means they lose an extra model if they fail moral. They gain a reroll to hit and wound rolls if they attack after an enemy unit within 3″ attacks first. Risky with a bravery of 6. The Ungors are cheap screens but contribute to the 164 wounds this army brings. In a meta where 100pt armies are the midpoint the is something to be said for bringing a lot of additional wounds. As an army that brings good quality attacks with amazing rend it’s not surprising when they struggle into an army that switches off rend (Nighthaunt).

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Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
– Army Type: Scions of the Storm
– Subfaction: Hallowed Knights
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance

LEADERS
Gardus Steel Soul (150)**
Runelord (95)**
Knight-Relictor (140)**
– General
– Command Traits: High Priest
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Celestial Blades
– Prayers: Translocation
Battlemage (100)***

BATTLELINE
Vanquishers (125)*
Liberators (115)**
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite Shield
Liberators (115)***
– Liberator-Prime
– Grandweapon
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Sigmarite
Shield

OTHER
Protectors (450)*
Stormstrike Chariot (165)*
– Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)***
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (240)***
Aetherwings (65)***

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

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Brett: There were quite a few Stormcast armies in the event, this was the highest placed. As a faction it remains one of the most played although maybe only middling power. People play a wide range of subfactions which is in contrast to most other factions. This is an interesting take, Hallowed Knights to make Gardus a thing. He provides 5+ ward to Hallowed Knight units. I’m assuming that Gardus would stay near the Protectors, they move slowly enough to make it worthwhile. Otherwise the mages are Cities units, the Battlemage is here for his Realm spell – Wildform – that gives +2 to run and charge. The Knight Relictor is taken over the Lord, the rank difference doesn’t apply to Prayers so that’s 5 points saved. However the Knight doesn’t have +1 to chants that the Lord does.

The choice of Hallowed Knights makes it harder to achieve battleline. Liberators are cheap screens, objective holders but they are very vunerable to Bounty Hunters. The Vanquishers have the same stateline as the Liberators without the shield but they gain attacks from the size of the unit they face (up to 4 attacks into a unit of 10). Unreinforced Raptors with Longstrikes – suggests that the Holy Command is Thunderbolt Volley. Aetherwings give +1 to hit a unit within 12″ to the Raptors. A lot of variety but outside of the Chariot and Aetherwings there is little mobility and that may have cost Simen.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Order, Peter & Brett, Quicksilver Dead, Soulblight Gravelords, Top three lists, Tournaments, Vyrkos Dynasty, Zainthar Kai

Harambe’s Heroes and Goldmine Games Rumble In The Jungle

August 17, 2022 Brett & Peter Leave a comment

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Harambe’s Heroes and Goldmine Games Rumble in the Jungle held in Richmond, Texas, USA on 6th and 7th of August. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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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: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Zainthar Kai
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
The Shadow Queen (340)*
Morathi-Khaine (340)*
Bloodwrack Medusa (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Zealous Orator
– Artefact: Crown of Woe
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Battleline
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Blood Sisters (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers

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

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 94
Drops: 1

Brett: Another strong showing from Daughters of Khaine, with all the sisters in the one army. This is a hardcore shooting list with solid melee and fast movers for grabbing objectives/completing battle tactics.The Grand Strategy indicates all strategies and battle tactics were in play.

The Bloodwrack Medusa has girded herself for war with Crown of Woe and Flaming Weapon but I don’t think you want her in combat with 6 wounds and a 6+ save. She serves as a totem for the Sisters and Stalkers though advancing Blood Rites and potentially allowing Turn 1 charges. A double reinforced Blood Stalker unit and a reinforce Blood Sister unit are the damage dealers and will take some moving. The Witch Aelves are a screening unit early on and a combat threat in their own right although this list doesn’t offer a lot of buffs for them.

DoK isn’t thought of as a casting army but casting is really important to them, elite and squishy they need to either max their damage or minimist blowback. They achieve that through their spells, Chronomatic Cogs is a good choice for reliability to things like Zealous Orator (rally on a 4+) or Mindrazor. Rember that Morathi knows the entire spell lore. Not much more to say really, it’s an effective and efficient way to go into a tournament. So long as you can choose your combats it should go fairly well. During his run Gavin took down 2 very different Nighthaunt armies and Maggotkin (including 2nd and 3rd). Solid effort and demonstrating the depth in the new DoK book.

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Army Faction: Nighthaunt
– Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)***
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Seal of Shyish
1 x Spirit Torment (115)***
1 x Spirit Torment (115)***
1 x Guardian of Souls (150)***
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Chill Blade
– Artefacts: Midnight Tome
– Spells: Shademist

BATTLELINE
5 x Hexwraiths (160)*
20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)*
20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)*
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)**
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)**
10 x Chainrasps (110)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)

OTHER
4 x Myrmourn Banshees (105)***
2 x Chainghasts (95)***

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

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Brett: An interesting Nighthaunt list focusing on Harridans this time, I almost this army had taken the tournament. We’ve gotten used to Scarlet Doom as the most popular procession choice closely followed by Emerald Host (also the most popular in late AoS2.0) so Quicksilver is an unusual choice. Beyond making Harridan’s battleline it turns off ward save’s for anything hit by a Harridan. Harridan’s have no rend but do come with 4 attacks each. In Bounty Hunters for the larger units.

Taking that further, you always want to be attacking with the Hexwraiths or smaller Harridan unit first. When attacking a unit with wounds or slain models they drop from 4s to 3s to hit and wound. Otherwise the army is much the same as we are seeing from Nighthaunt players at the moment with 4 small heroes (Kruleghast, Spirit Host and Guardian of Souls), Hexwraith for oppurtunistic actions, a leavening of Spirit Hosts and Myrmourn for body guarding and dispells. The army does include Chainghasts, which aren’t a frequent inclusion. They provide Nighthaunt units with an additional attack within 12″ of them.

It would take careful positioning and awareness of where any ranged units are but it should be possible for both 20 model blocks of Harridans to be putting out 101 attacks. Even without rend that’s 60 damage on average into a Galletian Veteran unit (any battleline) with a 4+ save. That was a pretty effective combination on the weekend removing Thunder Lizard and Big Waagh armies but Gavin’s Blood Stalkers proved too much. They have the capacity to remove the 20 x Harridan block in a single turn and the Blood Sisters could do the same. Good to see some variation in Nighthaunt lists and for being different paying off. Kel’s more patient than me – I’ve only ever managed to build 4 Harridans. And I got all this way without mentioning the Purple Sun.

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (300)
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Lord of Afflictions (210)**
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm

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

Units
1 x Pusgoyle Blightlords – Single (110)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Vanguard

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 6

Brett: Maggotkin are very popular at the moment, interesting mechanics in even a simple build that isn’t going to tax you too much in how to play it. Interesting army in taking that extra Blightlord and only leaving enough for Gnashing Jaws, except that’s a pretty awesome spell. Rolling with 3 blocks of 4 Blightlords is an interesting idea as well, giving you a very durable block of hard to shift and damaging both to be near and also via their 44 attacks.

Using the larger unit groups limits mobility, you need to tie a few of the big units down to hold objectives or score no primary points. That means you also probably lose their MW on charges as well. All of those big blocks are in Bounty Hunters just to up that damage a lot more. Playing the army should be pretty straight forward and vary with the number of objectives. The single Blightlord is probably going to camp on a home objective while one or 2 of the large units hold another one or 2 objectives. That’s pretty intimidating unless you have ranged units to deal with them. The spell selection includes Rancid Visitations (short range MW spells) which isn’t as common at the moment and might surprise someone.

This is a popular army because this works, 4/1 in a strong field is a good effort only losing to the eventual winner. Well done and good work doing it a little differently.

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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Vengorian Lord (280)
– General
– Command Traits: Driven by Deathstench
– Artefacts: Cloak of the Night Prowler
– Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura
1 x Belladamma Volga (200)***
– Spells: Spirit Gale
1 x Radukar the Beast (315)***
1 x Necromancer (125)***
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Fading Vigour, Invigorating Aura

BATTLELINE
10 x Dire Wolves (135)**
– Doom Wolf
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)**
10 x Dire Wolves (135)**
– Doom Wolf

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x The Burning Head (20)

OTHER
3 x Vargheists (155)*
– Vargoyle
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
– Kastellan
– Standard Bearer
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
– Standard Bearer
– Kastellan

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

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Brett: In 6th we had an interesting Soulblight army, an army I’m seeing in top 10s a fair bit but not quite getting to the top. In this case he came back from losing his first 2 rounds and won the last three with good scores. All of the battleline are in Expert Conquerors and the mobile units in Bounty Hunters. Back to the battleline it’s an interesting set up, as Conquerors those Zombies count as 120 on objectives. Combining that with the Dire Wolves is a strong move, they can act as independent operatives and still give up to 30 on an objective. Great for stealing something important with their speed.

The Soulblight book is a little bloated at the moment and they have a lot of heroes, they rival Stormcast. For opponents it’s hard to keep track of all of the abilities. Since most (not the Necromancer) of the heroes in this army are vampires they have high mobility (Radukar only has 8″). They combine spells with reasonable combat meaning that there are a lot of threats to keep track of. And that’s without the Blood Knights and Vargheists. I know that both seem to underperform but really this army is quite aggressive. The Zombies can castle on something near the centre and out wait you. Attacking them may just strengthen them and unless you can do a lot of damage you aren’t going to shift them. That leave the wolves free to control other objectives and the Heroes to act as trading pieces.

Not an easy army to play and tracking all of the mobile elements is hard. Effective though and well done on bouncing back after losing to the Fyreslayers and Skaven. The Fyreslayers had 3 magmadroths which are hard to counter in this army and Skaven brought a Doomwheel and 2 Warp Cannons. If those roll well the Zombies are going to disapper and Thanquol or a Verminlord can deal with any of the heroes in this list. 3/2 is a good result with an off meta list and it’s good to see people pushing the edges of the meta.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

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Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings (Top 32)

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

The Top Three AoS Lists

Final Tournament Placings

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