Tag Archives: Daughters of Khaine

Tournament Review: Blood in the Snow

Advertisements

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

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

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

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


LEADERS
Melusai Ironscale
(115)*
General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Mindrazor
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur

Morathi-Khaine (680)*
The Shadow Queen (680)*

BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves
(115)*
Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá

Witch Aelves (115)*
Hag
– Death Pennant Bearer
– Hornblower
– Paired Sciansá

Blood Sisters (420)*
Gorgai

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
(480)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Horrorghast
(40)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000

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

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

So let’s delve into it…

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

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

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

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

Morathi – because its Morathi.

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

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

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

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

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

Advertisements

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

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

LEADER
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof
(150)
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150)
1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (220)*
General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Spells: Nasty Hex

1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)**
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Choking Mist
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Sneaky Miasma

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

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

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

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

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

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

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

Turn 2 dice off. I won priority.

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

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

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

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

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

Advertisements

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

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


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

1 x Warstomper (450)**
1 x Warstomper (450)**
– Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness

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

TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)

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

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

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

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

Game 2 finished 26-10 to DoK.

Advertisements

Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.

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


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

Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Warlock Engineer (105)**
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!

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


BEHEMOTH
Doomwheel
(165)

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

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

TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhol
e (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)
1 x Gnawhole (0)

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

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

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

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

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

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

Advertisements

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

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


Leaders
The Contorted Epitome
(245)*
General
– Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation
– Artefact: Oil of Exultation
– Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy

Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)*
Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)*
Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture

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

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

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head
(20)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Advertisements

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

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


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

Celestant-Prime (325)*

BATTLELINE
Tree-Revenants
(110)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Revenant Seekers (705)**
Revenant Soulwarden
– 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer
– 3 x Seeker Hornblower

Spiterider Lancers (420)**
Spiterider Scion
– 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer
– 2 x Spiterider Hornblower


CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faction Focus – Daughters of Khaine

Advertisements

The below stats are still based on the new General’s Handbook with data up to the 24th July 2022.

Win Rate

The Daughters of Khaine appear to be in a healthy position at present which at first glance seems to be a nicely balanced book. With an overall win rate of 50.9% it’ll be interesting to see if this changes over the coming weeks. Zainthar Kai, Khailebron and Hagg Nar all seem to be competitive with win rates of just over 50%. Although not ideal 45.0% sees Draichi Ganeth just inside the balanced win rate zone (45-55%). Both Draichi Ganeth and Khailebron are based on small sample sizes however and these are likely to fluctuate.

5 wins Results

DateTournamentName
24th July 2022The Outlaw Open at LSOJosh Bennett (USA)
Players who achieved 5 wins at a GT

4 wins Results

DateTournamentName
10th July 2022Kingdom of Skrappa SpillBaz Norman Jr (England)
10th July 2022Summer on the Coast GTThomas Zhennan Guan (USA)
17th July 2022The ATC Age of Sigmar Team EventJosh Bennett (USA)
Players who achieved 4 wins at a GT

Other Results

Tournament results broken down by Subfaction

Players using Draichi Ganeth and Zainthar Kai should aim for 3 wins, while Khailebron and Hagg Nar should aim for 2 wins. Zainthar Kai are the only subfaction to achieve the full five wins at a weekend, while Draichi Ganeth are yet to achieve 4.

Advertisements

Top Lists

Josh Bennett’s results from the Outlaw Open at LSO

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Army Subfaction: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x The Shadow Queen (680)*
1 x Morathi-Khaine (680)*
1 x Bloodwrack Medusa (130)*
General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts: Shadow Stone
– Spells: Mindrazor

BATTLELINE
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
Paired Sciansá
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
Paired Sciansá
15 x Blood Sisters (420)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)

OTHER
1 x Gotrek Gurnisson (485)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Brett: Morathi and Gotrek together feels wrong somehow, like shouldn’t Gotrek be after Morathi. Not in this army though, they’ve worked together to go 5/0 and take the event. Elves are fragile and die easily – not this army, that’s 1165 points of the nigh on impossible to kill. We saw a lot of Gotrek early in 3rd edition but he has faded as people have learnt to play around his slow movement. Including him here is a great idea because your opponent really wants to get at the Shadow Queen. You really need to be in combat with her to max your wounds against her. She only takes 3 a turn, so you need to be able to shoot or attack her in your turn and fight back in her players turn to get more than 3 wounds a round. Now you have to go through Gotrek.

Until you kill the Shadow Queen you can’t kill Morathi who is both casting spells and working as a blender in combat. A 3 cast wizard with a special command to make a unit shoot or fight in the hero phase (it’s eligible to fight again in the shooting or fight phases). She knows the full spell lore, includes a mortal wound and has 3 casts. All up the army has 4 casts and 4 unbinds available. The Bloodwrack Medusa has Zealous Orator for a boosted rally (models return on a 4+), Shadow Stone for +1 to cast and is casting Mindrazor (additional rend and +1 damage to a unit within 18). On the Blood Sisters that adds to 46 attacks on 3s with -2 rend and potentially 3 damage (into Galletian Veterans). The Medusa brings an interesting ability to advance the Blood Rites table for a single unit and her warscroll spell debuffs an opponents wounding rolls.

Advertisements
Thomas Guan’s results from Summer on the Coast GT

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Army Subfaction: Hag Nar
– Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (270)*
Artefacts: Crown of Woe
– Prayers: Blessing of Khaine
1 x Melusai Ironscale (115)*
General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
1 x Bloodwrack Shrine (200)**
Spells: Miniature

BATTLELINE
10 x Blood Stalkers (360)**
15 x Blood Sisters (420)**
10 x Blood Sisters (280)**

INVOCATION
1 x Heart of Fury (45)

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

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000)

Brett: Another solid showing for Daughters of Khaine (DoK) here with one of the alternate builds eschewing Morathi to put more units on the board. Only losing in the 4th round to the eventual winner we see some of the depth of the new book. However not having the Shadow Queen may have let the KO dominate a bit too much as they can stand off and shoot anything in this list. Lots of mobility with the Khinerai and a lot of board control, at least at the mid board, with the Blood Stalkers to screen the Blood Sisters. A good all round list that, with only a little bit of luck could be expected to go 4/1 or even 5/0 consistently as we are accustomed to.

Performance Against Other Factions

How Daughters of Khaine perform against the other factions

At present Maggotkin of Nurgle and Soulblight Gravelords struggle against the Daughters of Khaine. While they themselves appear to be struggling against Seraphon and Fyreslayers.

Top 10 Players

Top Three AoS Lists for the Outlaw Open at LSO

Advertisements

This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Outlaw Open at LSO that took place in Texas, USA on 23rd and 24th July. It involved 46 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament. A return to the correct order with a Daughters of Khaine (DoK) taking the event pushed hard by the Sons of Behemet. Ogor Mawtribes make a welcome showing at the top table as well, just underlining how open the meta is.

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

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

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Army Subfaction: Zainthar Kai
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x The Shadow Queen (680)*
1 x Morathi-Khaine (680)*
1 x Bloodwrack Medusa (130)*
General
– Command Traits: Zealous Orator
– Artefacts: Shadow Stone
– Spells: Mindrazor

BATTLELINE
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
Paired Sciansá
10 x Witch Aelves (115)*
Paired Sciansá
15 x Blood Sisters (420)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)

OTHER
1 x Gotrek Gurnisson (485)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Brett: Morathi and Gotrek together feels wrong somehow, like shouldn’t Gotrek be after Morathi. Not in this army though, they’ve worked together to go 5/0 and take the event. Elves are fragile and die easily – not this army, that’s 1165 points of the nigh on impossible to kill. We saw a lot of Gotrek early in 3rd edition but he has faded as people have learnt to play around his slow movement. Including him here is a great idea because your opponent really wants to get at the Shadow Queen. You really need to be in combat with her to max your wounds against her. She only takes 3 a turn, so you need to be able to shoot or attack her in your turn and fight back in her players turn to get more than 3 wounds a round. Now you have to go through Gotrek.

Until you kill the Shadow Queen you can’t kill Morathi who is both casting spells and working as a blender in combat. A 3 cast wizard with a special command to make a unit shoot or fight in the hero phase (it’s eligible to fight again in the shooting or fight phases). She knows the full spell lore, includes a mortal wound and has 3 casts. All up the army has 4 casts and 4 unbinds available. The Bloodwrack Medusa has Zealous Orator for a boosted rally (models return on a 4+), Shadow Stone for +1 to cast and is casting Mindrazor. Mindrazor has a CV of ,8 hence the stone, but provides (additional rend and +1 damage to a unit within 18) . On the Blood Sisters that adds to 46 attacks on 3s with -2 rend and potentially 3 damage (into Galletian Veterans).

The Medusa lets a single unit advance the Blood Rites table for that phase and her warscroll spell lets you subtract 1 from wound rolls for 1 unit. Blood Rites is a Battle Trait for DoK that gives an army wide buff starting with add 1 to run rolls and ending with a 5+ ward. Advancing the table might let you surprise your opponent with getting something into combat or being more lethal. This is a combat army with next to no range attacks (the Shadow Queen has some). It doubles down on the combat with Gotrek, Reducing incoming attacks to 1 damage, 3+ ward, as long as something is within 3″ fighting again (and again). Unfortunately most of the buffs in the army are keyworded to the elf units and Gotrek isn’t sharing them.

Choosing Blood Sisters and Witch Aelves with no Heartenders or Blood Stalkers is interesting. This list is either going to come at you hard (first 2 Blood Rite abilities) or force you to come to them through some heavy damage dealers. Which way you take it would depend on your opponent, as a 3 drop army it will choose priority much of the time. In this event 2 armies had strong shooting, although SCE have fallen off with the change to holy command. Really though that strong combat, particularly with the ever popular Blood Sisters, is going to let you dictate battle around the objectives you choose. Good solid on meta army that without specific experience is hard to counter. Well done.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Idiots with Flags)
– Grand Strategy: Stomping Order
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
General
– Command Trait: Monstrously Tough
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)*
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)*

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Unified

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 1

Brett: Did the Sons ever go away? Or did they just sleep for a little while. For a while they were taking less events but they are still a good army and difficult to play into. Using a faction Grand Strategy has attracted some attention lately with some of the Battle Traits and Grand Strategies being easier than the new Season 1 choices. Stomping Order means that they are going to run or charge every turn, it may be one of the less interactive ones. Bosses of the Stomp gives either one drop or an additional Enhancement. Christopher has chosen to go for a one drop, giving the opportunity of a 1st/2nd round double, very very frightening.

2 Gatebreakers, 2 Warstompers, no casting, the general has 40 wounds (up from 35) and a 6+ ward for that little extra something. The Fierce Loathing is a solid choice, any unit with a Totem or a Command Model gives up a +1 to hit. There are a lot of units with Command Models baked in particularly Stormcast but pretty much all of the troops with higher wound counts have the ability. A bit of extra work for players. Limited ranged attacks – Gatebreakers – and horrific melee. The Warstomper’s Titanic Boulderclub shouldn’t surprise anyone now with it’s attacks characteristic of however many models are within 3″, +4 for monsters and +* (for the warscroll table) to a maximum of 10.

His matchups for the most part were pretty favourable, although pulling KO twice must be pretty rare. The melee SCE list would suffer horrible clap back, interestingly those are shield Annihilators with much lower damage. The KO lists concentrate their shooting in Ironclads and use a “super hero” either the Incarnate or Gotrek. Gotrek is a bit slow to chase Gargants (but is effective into them since they struggle to kill him) and Sons are one army that can deal with the Incarnate quickly. The Kragnos/Ogor and Sons match up that ended in a draw would have been very interesting to watch live. Can Kragnos out stomp Gargants?

Advertisements

Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
Mawtribe: Bloodgullet
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)*
General
– Command Trait: Nice Drop of the Red Stuff!
– Artefact: Splatter-cleaver
– Mount Trait: Metalcruncher
Butcher (135)*
Tenderiser
– Bloodgullet 2nd Spell: Ribcracker
– Lore of Gutmagic: Greasy Deluge
Butcher (135)*
Tenderiser
– Artefact: Bloodrock Talisman
– Bloodgullet 2nd Spell: Molten Entrails
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Kragnos, The End of Empires (720)

Battleline
2 x Mournfang Pack (160)**
Culling Clubs or Prey Hackers with Iron Fists
2 x Mournfang Pack (160)**
– Culling Clubs or Prey Hackers with Iron Fists
2 x Mournfang Pack (160)**
Culling Clubs or Prey Hackers with Iron Fists

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 81
Drops: 7

Brett: An army that does extra damage on the charge with Kragnos who grants an 18″ charge to units within 12″. What could go wrong with that? A very clever army that probably shows the struggle for Destruction at the moment. Really strong units but it’s difficult to survive, score and hit back however Jacob scored well during the weekend.

Bloodgullet grants an extra spell (and cast but not dispel) to the Butchers. Both of the chosen spells are offensive (very – these are Ogors) – Ribcraker taking 1 from a unit and Molten Entrails for +1 to damage for a unit. As we are seeing a lot of there are 2 Endless Spells, Chronomatic Cogs (rerolls) and Gnashing Jaws. Bloodrock Talisman adds +2 to the roll for an Endless Spell so we know who is most likely to cast the 2 Endless Spells. Levitate is a useful spell, letting you grant flying to a unit. Flying Kranos anyone? Certainly doable, meaning you could easily prevent early rounds shooting but you probably want to get him out early to buff charges.

The Frostlord brings the mandatory trait and artefact on top of his ward and ability to command a unit to reroll their charge. Everything does mortal wounds on the charge (except the Butchers of course) and the Mournfang can do (really occasionally) MW on 6s with their range attack for just a little more sting. Good quality attacks punish MSU hurting several of his opponents. Short range shooting is very vunerable to the long charges Kragnos brings. The Frostlord and even more Kragnos could hit the Incarnate hard enough to slow it’s growth (but are vunerable to it’s type of attacks). And of course there is no battleline infantry for Bounty Hunters to worry at. All up a very well rounded army for the current meta. Coming 3rd by 1 pt with Mawtribes, not one of the stronger factions, is a great achievement.

Advertisements

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: Unrelenting efficiency
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)***
Mortisan Boneshaper (115)***
General
– Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefact: Godbone Armour
– Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Mortisan Soulmason (115)***
Artefact: Gothizzar Cartouche
– Lore of Mortisans: Drain Vitality

Battleline
20 x Mortek Guard (280)*
Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Mortek Guard (280)*
Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Mortek Guard (140)**
Nadirite Blade and Shield
10 x Mortek Guard (140)**
Nadirite Blade and Shield

Artillery
Mortek Crawler (215)
Mortek Crawler (215)

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chronomantic Cogs (40)
Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 9

Brett: This is the first time I’ve seen the same unit in both Bounty Hunters and Expert Conquerors, do they get on or is the squabbling in the ranks? Petrifix Elite, which grants -1 rend to all units and lets you increase rend by 1 for a unit per phase (so it can have +1 rend in both yours and your opponents combat phases). A better Armour of Contempt for the 40k players. Like most older books this has mandatory items, an artefact and command trait. Both are very good – +2 wounds and melee weapon set to rend -3 so they aren’t a burden. Command Entourage was taken as the battalion for the leaders to access an additional artefact, Gothizzar Cartouche, +1 to wound rolls is the target does not have the DEATH keyword. Particularly good with the crawlers.

For non DEATH targets that means hitting and wounding on 2s doing 5 damage. Nice. The army has very strong magic as we are seeing a lot in Season 1, with all up 6 casts covering 2 Lore of Mortisans spells, 3 endless spells and 3 solid warscroll spells. Arkhan’s +2 to casts/dispells is clutch for getting Purple Sun out, the play being Chronomatic Cogs then Purple Sun so you have a reroll. Bone-tithe can be cast by anyone that is close enough to make sure one of the Mortek Guard units gets +1 to hit. Arkhan’s Curse of Years from his warscroll sounds nasty but on average is slightly better than Arcane Bolt. If it spikes though, it could be a lot worse.

You’d also want the Soulmason to cast his Soul-Guide most turns, re-roll 1s to hit on a larger block of Guard. That’s worth 6 hits (if they have Empower Weapon) from the average 6 x 1s you roll in 41 attacks. Hopefully you’ve gotten the idea of what this list is like, other than Arkhan everything is only moving 4″ or 5″. Move a block to the centre or better yet stay back and make the opponent walk through your Endless Spells, spells and Crawler fire causing chip damage. Then fall on them with your Bounty Hunters Mortek Guard. The worst case is you attacked them with Galetian Veteran’s into a unit with empowered weapons and soul-guide. That averages 23.5 hits at rend -1, 2 damage before saves.

While not extremely hard hitting elite armies will struggle to field enough units in later turns and Bonereapers can start to dictate. You have to close with them because you need to shut the catapults down but that opens you up to the spells. Looking at his path to 4/1 his one loss was to a Skaven list with decent shooting from Stormfiends and melee from Thanquol. While short range they are beyond the threat range of Guard (or just inside it) and Stormfield are pretty fighty as well. Otherwise a lot of bodies to kill that all move a bit faster so a good counter. Watching Morathi against this army would have been interesting, that was Jonathan’s highest scoring round.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar – Daughters of Khaine Battletome Review

Advertisements

Many players have asked, ‘why Daughters of Khaine, and why now?’ – and who knows! Especially given not much has changed.

Daughters of Khaine (DoK) are an army of slithering and/or bikini clad glass hammers – ruled over by everyone’s favourite double-act, Morathi and The Shadow Queen. DoK enjoyed a period of dominance, largely thanks to their patented ‘Morathi and the Bow Snakes’ list, predicated on double-shooting 15 bows, with mortals on 6s – earning approving nods from Longstrikes.

For at least the latter half of 3e however, they’ve been hanging on in there but rarely wrapping their tails around that trophy. The question is, how can they be made more reliably competitive, while radically improving their internal balance, with a relatively small unit roster and while following the 3e tradition of clamping down on re-rolls, something they relied heavily upon?

Advertisements

A quick proviso, I’m not going to bother comparing what has and hasn’t changed the entire way through –  but most of the Traits, and Artifacts have, even if they kept the same name. So if you’re a returning player familiar with the old book, I encourage you to read on – I’ll call out when a unit is largely the same!

Read on to get the WOOT! (Woehammer opinion of Tome!)

Let’s start with a high level hypothesis, so that the rest of this review is contextualised. Overall, I think the new book is a slight diagonal-grade. I think DoK have the tools to podium again, without being broken, with better (but still not perfect) internal balance. There are however, some missed opportunities and some ever so slightly concerning trends.

Old DoK players who were happy with where things stood will have a good time with this. It should be pretty accessible for new players too. But I also think it’s launching into a fairly hostile meta. All that said, let’s dive in.

BATTLE TRAITS

Overall, the new and improved battle traits fit the bill – they allow you to slither or dance quickly into a good krump, even if they don’t set the world on fire creatively.

Blood Rites is the same idea, but without re-rolls as per the 3rd edition crack down. The following battle traits are all clearly aimed at combining with it, and there are plenty of options throughout the book to accelerate it. And I mean, it works. It’s functional. I feel like +1s to stuff is a nice way to not rely so much on CP, but it’s also just basic – and there are plenty of armies whose main battle traits are highly effective from battle round 1 or 2, so I don’t love the philosophy of playing around the timing of it, or leaning into various combos just so that it IS effective from turn 1 – but on the other hand, it does give you some flexibility with how the trigger-timings of your list.

Battle Fury is a heroic action that a non-monster can carry out, adding 2 attacks to all melee weapons used by that hero until the end of the turn. More attacks the better, and there are some heroes that benefit a lot from this – you’ll just have to time it right with Finest Hour, but it’s a good option to have in a pinch.

All-Out Slaughter triggers when you pick a unit to fight in the combat phase, and gives them exploding 6s. Does what it says on the tin, and obviously once you’re onto Rite 3 (+1 to hit) you don’t need All Out Attack anyway. Pop this on Morathi, a reinforced blob of Blood Sisters of Aelves and watch the sparks fly.

Fanatical Faith is a ward of 6. Better than nothing (just).

Advertisements

ENHANCEMENTS

COMMAND TRAITS

The command traits in this book are collectively one of the highlights, with a few things that allow you to really juice a favourite hero and affect the battle in meaningful ways. Most of them, however, we’ve seen before – and I do wish armies would get some more unique traits overall.

I’ve ordered these in order of my favourites first.

Zealous Orator rallies on a 4+. That’s big. Ardboyz have it conditionally, Fyreslayers got it, and now DoK have it – a 15 blob of bow sneks? A 30 blob of Aelves? Prime, prime targets.

Fuelled by Revenge allows Melusai Ironscale a once per battle, +1 attack to Melusai melee weapons within 12″ – not hard to guess the application of.

Sacrificial Overseer lets a general fight again, after killing a model, and after the unit it’s engaged with has fought back. Useful on smaller heroes you’ve chucked into chaff for finishing off a unit, or on a (well, the only) bigger one to go much harder into tougher targets.

Arcane Mastery teaches the general all the Lore. It’s a great lore – even though DoK lack great casters. It gives you flexibility though, which is powerful.

Bathed in Blood gives a general a wound back after killing a model – too niche for my tastes but it makes that ‘one big hero’ (have you guessed it yet?) potentially a lot tankier.

Master of Poisons procs on a wound allocated to a model – and does d6 additional mortals to it. Fits the name, but swingy, and therefore sub-par.

True Believer is +1 to Rites. Fairly useless on most heroes really. I guess if you really want to get a hero repeatedly stuck in, it could be useful, just seems to me all the above alternatives either have more utility or raw strength. Prove me wrong though!

ARTEFACTS

Artefacts can potentially change a hero’s role, help spike their output, or otherwise combo interestingly with a Trait, or otherwise. In theory. Unfortunately for DoK, theirs are boring, if relatively useful.

This time in no particular order, because I wasn’t enthused enough to pick a favourite.

DoK generic heroes

When Bloodbane Venom causes a wound that doesn’t kill a model, a roll of =/+ the model’s Wounds Characteristic kills it. Vaguely useful against heavily armoured but low-ish wound stuff like Annihilators, or getting luck against a Blightking I guess.

The Crone Blade gives one weapon the ability to heal 1 wound on a hit roll of 6. At this point, I’m just going to say it – most DoK heroes aren’t going to stick around long if they don’t immediately kill whatever they’re fighting, so gaining a few wounds here and there back feels niche. Apart from… the the one big hero – the Cauldron!

Slightly more interesting is the Crown of Woe, which prevents Rally or Inspiring Presence within 9″, or 15″ for rest of the battle once the hero kills a model. Potentially devastating AND, finally, something that can work without chucking the bearer into combat.

Rune of Khaine is a ‘fight on death’ effect. Great…so long as you die in melee.

DoK wizards

The Crystal Heart doubles the range an endless spell can be cast at. If the DoK endless spells were better, this would be great. But they aren’t, so it’s not. Because James Workchap largely refuses to make one of the coolest things about AoS reliably usable. But hey if you really want to pop that Viper up in someone’s face, here’s how you do it.

Aside from sounding like a long-fringed metalcore band, Sevenfold Shadows allows a once per battle teleport. Useful if you’re not playing Khailebron, while Shadow Stone is +1 to cast Lore of Shadows spells. Useful, but uninspired.

Priests

Priests are hugely important to DoK. So it stands to reason they only get a choice of two unique artefacts. The Blood Sigil learns ya an extra prayer. The prayers are good! Whereas the Khainite Pendant is a once per game auto-answer. DoK have a lot of pendants, sigils, stones and assorted gew-gaws knocking around, huh?

Advertisements

PRAYERS

So about those prayers I mentioned. These are mostly unchanged, which makes sense because by and large, they’re bangers – less ‘prayers’ and more ‘blood-curdling celebrations of gore’, but hey. I think with the new internal balance, there’s a little less a reliance on certain prayer combos, but they’re still at the heart of the army.

Catechism of Murder is the exploding 6s prayer you know and love.

EDIT/CORRECTION: Blessing of Khaine is currently in need of a bit of an FAQ – well, hopefully, otherwise it’s not great. The problem is, it currently reads ‘re-roll Fanatical Faith rolls’, i.e. your Ward of 6. But does Rite 5 IMPROVE your Fanatical Faith ward? Not currently as written. So does Blessing aim to re-roll your Ward save, just your Fanatical Faith roll, and/or does Rite 5 IMPROVE the ward or simply GIVE you a ward of 5. Grrrr.

Martyr’s Sacrifice gives each model in a unit the ability to do a MW on a 5+ upon dying in melee. Useful in a big blob of double-reinforced Aelves, if you really plan on them dying rather than killing… Crimson Rejuvenation heals d3 – big woop. Covenant of the Iron Heart auto-passes battleshock for when you really don’t want to save a CP for it – very handy in actuality if you’re leaning into the bikini-horde which this book definitely makes viable. And finally Sacrament of Blood gives +1 to the Rites table to a unit with an Answer of 3 – strong, for obvious reasons.

LORE

The spells are unchanged, rightfully so – this is a highlight of the faction – everything has a distinct use, and affects the game in a meaningful way. See, they know how to do it!

Steed of Shadows goes off on a 6 and makes the caster fly and move 16″. Pit of Shades pops on a 6, range 18″, picks an enemy unit and rolls 2d6 – difference between the roll and their move characteristic does mortals. Mirror Dance dings on a 6, 18″, picks 2 DoK heroes outside of engagement range and swaps them. The Withering procs on a 7, 18″, puts +1 to wound rolls on an enemy unit. Any attacks! This is stronk as it can improve Bow sneks, or allow multiple units to pile in and take down something juicy while you wait for the Blood Rites to catch up. Mindrazor – everyone’s favourite – dings on an 8 (so, risky with not many casting bonuses), 18″, gives a friendly unit +1 rend and additionally, +1 damage to melee weapons if you charged. Finally, Shroud of Despair gets jiggy on a 4 at 18″ and subtracts 1 from a unit’s bravery or d3 on a cast of 8+.  This could combo very nicely with Crown of Woe for battleshock shenanigans!

A lovely set of spells and I wish that kind of balance was present in some of the other sections.

SUB FACTIONS

Some fairly chunky changes here. Overall, a decent balance of competitive options with a few of your typical ‘what were they thinking’ moments thrown in just to temper your enthusiasm. As a general trend, sub-factions are pretty interesting in 3rd edition – and while none of these are bad per se, there are a few here that feel very uninspired.

Khailebron gives you access to a command at the end of movement phase and allows a unit to teleport. Teleportation is frankly super useful in a game of objectives – both defensively, offensively and for objective play. Want to deploy your bow sneks way back and teleport them up into range? Get something within charge range (preferably once the +1 charge Rite has kicked in)? Quickly screen something or help score Savage Spearhead, etc, all potential scoring applications. It also makes Shadowstalkers battleline, although why you’d want to take more than 1 unit of them is beyond me (you’ll see why)

The Kraith allows a Sisters of Slaughter (who are good now) unit to fight again on a 4+, with the strike-last effect applied, so they can’t fight twice in a row. Swingy, sure, but if you’re leaning into bikinki-aelves and running multiple squads of them AND charging multiple times, you could get a lot of value from this. But make no mistake – this hugely relies on bigger blobs of them, otherwise you’re not going to have a unit left after the enemy unit slaps back.

Zainthar Kai lets a Melusai unit fight on death. What, you want me to analyse that? Obviously it makes Melusai battleline too.

Hagg Nar adds 1 to the Rites chart. Simples! It also lets you include 1 Cauldron of Blood in addition to your behemoth limit, for some reason.

Draichi Ganeth improves the rend of both flavours of bikini aelf by 1 if they charged. Stack that with a Gladiatrix and Mind Razor and they can hit rend 3 – which is frankly brutal. This sub-fac also ups the reinforcement cap of Aelves by 2 (so you can include an additional reinforced or double reinforced unit) and your (power?) fantasies about flooding the table with murderous, lethal Morathi’s Secret models can finally come true. 

Khelt Nar (don’t exactly roll off the tongue some of these do they?) allows any unit to retreat and charge. Not my favourite but frankly, this is occasionally going to be clutch, especially against tar-pit armies or unfavourable engagements. It definitely has play even if it doesn’t jump off the page at you.

THE UNITS

There’s obviously the potential here to get really into the weeds. So instead of describing every part of every warscroll, i’m going to pull out the most interesting bits.

THE SHADOW QUEEN is more or less unchanged. She slaps, and her damage table got upgraded to 6 being the first threshold. If you didn’t know, her gimmick is you can only do 3 wounds to her MAX per turn – but she can’t heal. Interestingly, you could probably compete without her now, but I’m not sure i would trust anyone who left her at home.

Most of the on-foot heroes remain very similar. But they all have a little more utility because of the other changes. I think Melusai Ironscale risks getting  edged out since you don’t need her to make Sisters battleline. Her melee damage cap is 12 – not great with only Rend 1. The reason you take her is her command ability – to let a Melusai unit run and charge/shoot – and at 115 points, she’s takeable.

Morgwaeth finally got the true Underworlds treatment and got made redundant.

Shall we talk about the One Big Hero? The Shrine – and its various combinations. It got a LOT better. Try and bear in mind those past hints I made – you’ll see the synergies on offer here.

Firstly, the configurations are as before – the Cauldron ridden by the Bloodwrack Medusa on her own, or with one of either the Hag Queen or Slaughter Queen and the Avatar riding shotgun with either Queen. It’s a fun modular approach you don’t really see elsewhere – each hero retains the same abilities on foot, but on the Cauldron become way more durable and and therefore much better platforms for many of the above enhancements – overall I’d say the book pushes hard for you to take some version of what I’m now calling the Bloodwagon. The wagon’s base abilities are +1 to chanting (huge), an impact hit (standard 2+ for d3) and Bloodshield, a +1 save aura tied to the damage table, and starting at 18″.

Personally, I think the Slaughter Queen variant is the spiciest. This combo gains the Pact of Blood ability not found elsewhere, which is an unbind attempt. The Slaughter Queen herself brings two abilities to the table…well, cauldron – Orgy of Slaughter, a her phase CA with a 3″ range that allows a unit to fight.

Yep, this thing can fight in the hero phase. Is it any good at fighting? The mounted Avatar (who retains these same stats on foot as above) swings 4 times for 3/3/-2/3 – a good start. The Slaughter Queen brings 4 attacks at 3/3/-1/d3, and it’s topped off by the attendant aelves with 8 (bracketing) 3/4/-/1. Individually, none of that sets the world on fire, but it adds up – and at 13 wounds, albeit on a 5+ save, you actually have the ability to tank a round of attacks from plenty of stuff, meaning the fight-in-hero-phase ability will actually see play, and if it helps you finish something off, being able to then reposition defensively or set up for another charge is potentially huge.

So pop Bathed In Blood on it and so long as you’re fighting units rather than single/very small elite units, you could easily get a bunch of wounds back, in up to two phases per (your) turn. Sacrificial Overseer suddenly seems great – imagine finishing off a unit in your hero phase, charging two units at the same time, then getting to fight twice in the following combat. Crone Blade and Rune of Khaine could be brutal on this platform. Exactly how you pimp your ride is up to you but there are definitely some fun options here.

But I saved the best for last. The Slaughter Queen’s second ability, Dance of Doom, answers on a 3 (2 while on the blood wagon) and applies strike-first. Now we rollin’!!

The Hag Queen instead has Witchbrew, another source of +1 to Rites, and Touch of Death, a 3 answer prayer for d3 wounds to a unit within engagement range. Unless you’re really playing to Blood Rites acceleration combos, you can see why I prefer the Slaughter Queen – even though she’s 315 compared to Hag Wagon’s 270.

The Bloodwrack Medusa is your budget wagon pick at 200, or 130 on her own – a 1 cast, 2 unbind hero whose real value is a source of +1 Rites for Melusai and a nice spell (5 – 18″) for minus 1 to melee wounds for an enemy unit. She buff, she debuff, she whiffs in melee. However, her Bloodwrack stare – mortals on a 5+ for each model in a unit within 12″ has much more play on a durable platform as incidental chip damage given you want the Wagon up close and personal.

When he’s not riding the Blood Wagon screaming ‘I’m King of the wooorld!’, the Avatar of Khaine got way better. 10″ range, 6 attacks 3/3/-1/1 ain’t nothing (obvs applies to Wagon variants) and his aforementioned sword are perfectly fine, and with 9 wounds on a 4+ he’s one of your tankier options. What he gains for going solo is a built in Ward of 5 and Wrath of Khaine, allowing him to use the Stomp or Smash to Rubble Monstrous actions, while being immune to monstrous actions himself. At 155, that makes him a cheap Totem, with good utility who can still put a dent in things.

The rest of the book is more straight forward. Gladiatrix is a straight up Aelf buff piece – she adds rend, and changes their wound characteristic to 3+. Very strong. Witch Aelves rip and tear when buffed by her, and various aforementioned other buffs – and get +1 to wound while within 12″ of a totem. Sisters of Slaughter are less killy but are eligible to fight within 6″ and can pile in 6″ – this is not to be underestimated, as with careful positioning this can avoid unleash hell or just cause headaches for your opponent wanting to stay out of melee.

Khainite Shadowstalkers lost their -1 to hit, so become a lot less interesting. 9 bodies on a 4+ that can teleport – so 1 unit is probably fine for screening/scoring, and I guess it’s cute that in Khailebron you can run a shadow themed list.

Doomfires do a bit of everything, but nothing very well. Interestingly, while at 5+ models, they’re one of the army’s only source of +1 to casting/unbinding, making them potentially interesting for getting off early Mindrazor etc before zooming off to die. CORRECTION: A kind reader pointed out – correctly – that only heroes can take spells from the Lore! So this lowers Doomfires stock a little given their warscroll spell (scaling mortals based on size of enemy unit) is short range and will be tricky to get off while keeping them safe – but it does mean they still get a bonus to getting an endless spell off turn 1.

Blood Stalkers are unchanged, which means they’re still amazing given Shadow Queen kept her double shoot. Even though this is good for those of us who have 15 of ’em, It’s a worrying precedent – double shooting is not a popular mechanic, and for good reason. I’d have preferred to see that dropped in favour of a more interesting and tactical rule – standing still and raining hell from 24″ twice is uninteractive and bad for the game.

Blood Sisters however just became one of the best infantry units in the game, because Turned to Crystal now happens after their attacks have resolved. So, reinforce them, throw out 3 attacks each at 3/3/-1/1, add in Rites and buffs to taste, and whatever is left standing immediately takes 10 mws on a 2+. So that’s 8-9 MWs on average before everything else, before the unit gets to slap back. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

Both flavours of Khinerai got better. Heartrenders can drop from the sky, shoot (1 attack 3/3/-1/1) then move 6″. This gives them all sorts of positional utility and scoring potential. LIfetakers are less tactical but get a bonus attack and are 3/3/-1/1 in melee – plus, after they fight, on a 4+ they can retreat 6″. Swingy, but if it goes off this could be a massively frustrating hit’n’run tactic – worth trying for the look on your opponents face.

Now, I’m always gonna bang the ‘Endless spells should be great – or as good as they are now, but dirt-cheap’ drum. Given they’re usually easy to dispel – sure, your opponent has to use up a cast slot to do it – and cost valuable points when you might even fail to cast them – people gravitate only towards the absolute best ones, which are generic – like life-swarm and spell-portal. Faction specific ones usually look great and COULD offer a tonne of personality.

Bloodwrack Viper comes up on a 7 within 9″, then picks a unit within 1″ after it flies 9″ and rolls 3 dice – each =/+ wounds characteristic kills a model and it can also ‘do an Avatar’, i.e. make a Stomp or Smash to Rubble monstrous action.

Hang on – is the Viper actually good?! Casting on a 7 isn’t too bad, a 19″ threat range – but 80 points is dear. If it was 60, I’d say hell yeah!

The others actually aren’t that bad but you probably still won’t take them at a high level. Bladewind passes across units and does 1 MW on a 2+ and removes their cover modifiers within 12″. So niche, and hard to see when you’d cast this for 50 points over anything else in the great Lore. Heart of Fury (an invocation not a spell) makes you roll – on a 1-5, -1 damage within 12″ – potentially useful for the odd occasion you really want to charge something and think you might not kill it. On a 6, you also get +1 attack in the same range. If you have a spare 45 points, that’s not a bad shout potentially!

GRAND STRATEGIES & BATTLE TACTICS

I’ve left these for the end because it actually makes more sense to think about them once you know what the stuff can actually do. Overall, these are probably more viable than average, which is great.

For Grand Strats, you got Bloodthirsty Zealots which scores if all your units have fought at least once. This shouldn’t be hard – as long as you time it right with your weaker stuff. Say you have 15 Bow sneks – make sure you push them up throughout the game so you can charge them into something if necessary near the end-game before you table them – or the game ends. What’s nice about this is it’s VERY hard for your opponent to deny, and you can score it even more reliably when the game isn’t going your way!

Blood Bath however is a weak variation on that theme, requiring every enemy unit to have at least a scratch on it – i.e. not be at full health.

EDIT: On re-reading this, the wording is actually ‘all enemy HEROES and MONSTERS either have at least 1 wound allocated to them or have been slain and if all other enemy units on the battlefield have had at least 1 model slain.’

Overall, I don’t think it changes my analysis below, but it’s a tiiiny bit harder.

It’s not too bad, and means you don’t have to plan for your archers to be in melee somehow – but say a unit or hero is able to reliably hide in a corner or heal up in the last turn – could suddenly deny you. Overall, Grand Strats that are in your hands, so to speak, are quite good – and given DoK battleline units aren’t tanky and most everything else wants to be aggressive, I think these actually do compete with the Core options.

Naught but Destruction is your token ‘what the fuck were they smoking’ GS – you pick a defensible terrain piece in enemy territory, and if there isn’t one, the opponent picks one anywhere on the battlefield. Now you gotta demolish it. I mean – sure, the Viper or Avatar can smash to rubble, but what happens if there IS no defensible terrain? Every game should have it but…that’s just a ‘should’. Unless this is a hint the new GHB will mandate every game has to include some, this is a very strange one.

The Battle Tacs are actually fun, and continue the trend of really only 1-2 being doable by any one list – which isn’t a bad thing. Clash of Arms wants you to charge with 3 units and if two of ’em are bikini Aelves you get an additional victory point. Fine in a pinch, potentially great in Aelf spam lists given they will probably churn through Broken Ranks fairly quickly.

Tide of Blades is Savage Spearhead, but bonus point for doing it with two Witch Aelves units. Again, with Shadowstalkers, Khinerai and aggressive play in general, this become highly achievable.

Cruel Delight relies on 2 or more Khinerai units using their Fire and Flight or Fight and Flight ability – very doable and you’d certainly be within your rights to have 2 Khinerai units now. While Unexpected Attack wants Khainite Shadowstalkers to charge after deep-striking. Even with +1, the odds of a re-rollable 8 incher are far too low to ever pick this unless it’s an absolute last resort or you’ve gone full Khailebron and are popping 3 ‘Stalkers down in the same turn. Incredibly niche and risky.

On the more situation end of the spectrum we have Executioner’s Cult – which can be picked if you have a Gladiatrix – which well you might! She has to kill a hero with her Killing Stroke ability – this would be a flex to pull off – and certainly doable – but it would be so easy to either accidentally kill the hero beforehand or just…not. Why risk it? Baffling and risky specificity on this one.

Hatred of Chaos is available if you’re running Hagg Nar or Khelt Nar and asks for 2 or more CHAOS units to be destroyed this turn. Highly situational, but not necessarily difficult, so it’s a perfectly nice option to have in your pocket, especially given they’re both perfectly viable sub-factions. And Chaos suck. And everyone plays Nurgle now – so this might come up more often than you think…

BATTALIONS

3e books have been circumspect with Battalions as they have the potential to tip the balance massively. Take Nurgle’s rotbringers cyst for an example that is almost certainly too good. On the whole, I’m happy with Battalions being fluffy or just matching the core battalion effects when you have a more unusual army make up – and that’s more or less what’s on offer here.

Vyperic Guard comprises Morathi+Shadow Queen, 1-3 Khainite Leaders – 1 mandatory (Bloodwrack or Ironscale), and ~6 Melusai warriors – 2 mandatory, and offers an extra enhancement – so it’s basically a bonus/tweaked Command Entourage. Not bad!

Shadow Patrol however is the fluffy, competitively rubbish one that isn’t worth the ink used to print it. 2 Mandatory Doomfires and FOUR mandatory Khinerai gives you either a one-drop or Swift. I mean…why?

CONCLUSION

Hopefully that gives you a good idea of the fun, competitive and creativity level of the new book. My takeaways are that the internal balance got much better with only a few sore losers (especially Shadowstalkers), the creativity level ticked up a little with some annoying missed opportunities (straight forward albeit useful Command Traits/Artefacts), and the competitive factor ticked up a fair notch. Will the increased options and killing power be enough to deal with the oppressive tankiness of Nurgle, or the strike-first brutality of new IDK (who seem a particularly brutal counter to DoK at first glance) or the forthcoming mobility, the ‘I laugh in the face of your rend’ and oppressive charging/tar-pitting potential of new Nighthaunt? We’ll soon see – my knee jerk reaction is ‘sometimes’ – which is, honestly, as it should be! Now, go forth and bathe (but don’t drink – leave that to SBGL) in the blood of your foes.

Top Three AoS Lists from Age of Sigmar Matched Play Event – 19/20th March 2022

Advertisements

Age of Sigmar Matched Play Event was a five game event that took place at Willow Road (GW HQ) on 19th and 20th March. It saw 58 players fight it out to be crowned champion.

Advertisements

1st Martin Morrin – Stormcast Eternals

Martin won all five games beating Slaves to Darkness/Hosts of the Everchosen in Round 1, Legion of the first Prince in Round 2, Soulblight Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men in Round 3, Beasts of Chaos/Allherd in Round 4 and Daughters of Khaine/Khelt Nar in the last round.

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knight-Draconis
(300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Thunderous Presence
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos (300)*

Battleline
5 x Liberators
(115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons

5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons

4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows
(480)*
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 87
Drops: 1

Declan: Martin has been playing for ‘a while’, and I’ve even been lucky enough to play against him before COVID at the Team Brotherhood event – his team smashed us… and you can see when this is the list taken. It’s got everything I’ve spoken about before – the Thunderstrikes with Thunderbolt Volley dish out mortal wounds 6 times a game, and the lack of teleport isn’t hurting too much with their obscene 30″ range.

These are backed up by four dragons, and a hero dragon – for when speed is necessary. It’s got all the tools, a one-drop to ensure he chooses who goes first (most of the time) and even the 87 wounds have a lot of resilience (either because of distance or armour).

The Battlescroll March patch looked to hurt two of his units (Dragons and Longstrikes give up 2 additional VPs each if they die), but that obviously did affect him adversely. Still need more playing time of course, but it it doesn’t tone this down I’m not sure it’s going to work.

It’s not possible to go 5-0 without beating some of the other top armies and Martin has done this as well – congratulations to him.

Advertisements

2nd Laurie Hugget-Wilde – Lumineth Realm-Lords

Laurie managed an impressive four wins and one draw, drawing against 3rd placed Andrew Currie and his Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men list in Round 5. He beat Sons of Behemat/Taker Tribe in Round 1, Sons of Behemat/Breaker Tribe in Round 2, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men in Round 3 and tournament veteran Freddie Leggett and his Cities of Sigmar/Hallowheart in Round 4.

Allegiance: Lumineth Realm-lords
– Great Nation: Alumnia
– Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh
(740)*
– General

Scinari Calligrave (115)*
– Artefact: Waystone
– Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse

Battleline
30 x Vanari Auralan Wardens
(435)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 2

20 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (290)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
– Reinforced x 1

10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh

5 x Vanari Dawnriders (140)*
– Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh

Endless Spells & Invocations
Emerald Lifeswarm (60)
Umbral Spellportal (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 91
Drops: 1

Declan: Laurie HW has been smashing up tables and opponents since we were allowed to see each other again… and with lots of different armies. Here he is again with LRL with zero (yes nil) Sentinels… was he mad, or did he just click the wrong unit on Warscroll Builder? Well it seems to have worked – who knew that 30 Wardens with -1 to hit, great speed and all backed up by a caster who can’t be dispelled would be good?

The good news is that there are alternative builds, the bad news that is a lot of pikes to accidentally break – I would be in fear with my hamfists that I’d break half the army by accident. An impressive run to remain undefeated at GW’s flagship UK event.

Advertisements

3rd Andrew Currie – Maggotkin of Nurgle

Andrew also managed to get four wins with a single draw during their weekend, drawing to 2nd placed Laurie in the final round. Along the way he beat Fyreslayers/Greyfyrd in Round 1, Daughters of Khaine/Khailebron in Round 2, Kharadron Overlords/Barak Zilfin in Round 3, and another tournament veteran James Eveleigh and his Sons of Behemat/Breaker Tribe in Round 4.

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Drowned Men
– Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Festus the Leechlord
(150)**
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease

The Glottkin (700)**
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations

Lord of Afflictions (210)**
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

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

Units
1 x Pusgoyle Blightlords – Single
(110)**
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)**
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)**

Core Battalions
*Hunters of the Heartlands
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 117
Drops: 4

Declan: Nurgle are back … and they have changed significantly. No more rushing across the board faster than a stead of Slaanesh they are much more resilient than before and the disease points is a very thematic rule – they really do feel like Nurgle.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Chaos list without some cheeky allies and Andrew has gone for 2 monsters in the form of the Mindstealers. I’ve written about these in other lists and in a game where they can be used to get extra points and give access to Monstrous Takeover, they are very good value! With the Glottkin I imagine Andrew got lots of bonus VPs for doing things with monsters.

What is interesting here though, is that there are no Beasts of Nurgle in the list which I haven’t seen since the booked dropped. All the Nurgle players I have spoken too swear by them – so it’s even more impressive that Andrew has gone against conventional wisdom and remained undefeated.

Advertisements

Wildcard – Adam Sinclair – Kharadron Overlords

Adam finished 8th overall with a very impressive 4 wins with Kharadron Overlords! Losing only in the 3rd Round to Andrew Currie who eventually finished third. Along the way he beat Legion of the First Prince in Round 1, tournament veteran Pete Brizio and his Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar list in Round 2, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men in Round 4 and Flesh-eater Courts/Gristlegore in Round 5.

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
Triumph: Large-calibre Augmentation

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist
(90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Collector
– Artefacts of Power: Staff of Ocular Optimisation

Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (180)*
– Artefacts of Power: Phosphorite Bomblets


BATTLELINE
1 x Arkanaut Frigate
(250)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon

1 x Arkanaut Frigate (250)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon

10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– Volley Pistol


BEHEMOTH
1 x Arkanaut Ironclad
(490)*
– Great Sky Cannon


OTHER
1 x Gotrek Gurnisson
(485)*
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155)*
– Drill Cannon


CORE BATTALIONS
– *Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Declan: 4 wins with KO – and with a little Ginger Ninja (Gotrek) as well. Okay he is Duardin, so it’s difficult to argue with his inclusion but he is a great addition to the list allowing Adam to close off large chunks of the board. Sure he only moves 4″, but if a double turn is possible his exclusion zone is huge.

I played against a similar list run by Ben at Reading Warfare last year and it’s a good mobile list which can pick it’s target, kill it and then move to the other side of the board, making it very difficult to catch.

A great result to take KO to 4-1 though and Adam should definitely be proud of the achievement.

Tournament Placings

Top Three AoS Lists from Dazmaul Wargaming 2022 – 19/20th March 2022

Advertisements

Dazmaul Wargaming 2022 was a five game event that took place in Daventry, England on 19th and 20th March. It saw 26 players fight it out to be crowned champion.

Advertisements

1st Declan Waters – Big Waaagh

Our very own Declan gets to feature in a top three after winning all five games beating Seraphon/Fangs of Sotek in Round 1, 2nd placed Baz Norman Jr and his Daughters of Khaine/Khailebron list in Round 2, Soulblight Gravelords/Legion of Night in Round 3, Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan in Round 4 and 3rd placed Tom Wainwright and his Slaves to Darkness/Hosts of the Everchosen list in the last round.

Allegiance: Big Waaagh
Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh!
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat

Battleline
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers

Units
4 x Ironskull’s Boyz (80)***
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)*

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands
***Ironjawz Fist

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 148
Drops: 11

Advertisements

2nd Baz Norman Jr – Daughters of Khaine

Baz managed an impressive four wins and one loss, losing against 1st placed Declan and his Big Waaagh list in Round 2. He beat Cities of Sigmar/Living City in Round 1, Daughters of Kahine/Hagg Nar in Round 3, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men in Round 4 and Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs in Round 5.

Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Subfaction: Khailebron
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumph: Inspired

Leaders
Morathi-Khaine(660)*
The Shadow Queen (660)*
Melusai Ironscale (115)*
– General
– Command Traits: Mistress of Illusion
– Artefacts of Power: Whisperdeath

Battleline
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced: Twice

10x Blood Sisters (280)*
– Reinforced: Once

5 x Blood Sisters (140)*

Other
9x Khainite Shadowstalkers (120)*
9 x Khainite Shadowstalkers (120)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total Points: 1975/2000

Advertisements

3rd Tom Wainwright – Slaves to Darkness

Tom also managed to get four wins with a single loss during their weekend, losing to Declan in Round 5. Beating Soulblight Gravelords/Legion of Blood in Round 1, Ogor Mawtribes/Bloodgullet in Round 2, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Drowned Men in Round 3, and Maggotkin of Nurgle/Befouling Host in Round 4.

Allegiance: Hosts of the Everchosen
– Subfaction: Sixth Circle
Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Archaon (860)*
– General
– Spell: Mask of Darness

Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

BATTLELINE
3x Varanguard (280)*
3x Varanguard (280)*
8x Iron Golems (75)*
5x Chaos Knights (170)*

UNITS
1x Chaos Spawn (55)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1975 / 2000

Tournament Placings

PlayerFactionSubfactionWDL
Declan WatersBig Waaagh!None500
Baz Norman JrDaughters of KhaineKhailebron401
Tom WainwrightHosts of the EverchosenSixth Circle401
Matthew BellLumineth Realm-LordsZaitrec401
Alex IrelandMaggokin of NurgleBefouling Host401
Daniel TadmanDaughters of KhaineHagg Nar302
Tom LawlerMaggotkin of NurgleDrowned Men302
Paul BurrowSeraphonFangs of Sotek302
Mark PooleIronjawzBloodtoofs302
Toby ThomasOgor MawtribesBloodgullet302
James LinfordBeasts of ChaosNone302
Kelvin MakepeaceSoulblight GravelordsLegion of Night302
Paul HeathOgor MawtribesBoulderhead212
Johnny PoyserIdoneth DeepkinFuethan203
Andrew CookStormcast EternalsHammers of Sigmar203
Cal EverittKruleboyzBig Yellers203
Marc PotterStormcast EternalsHammers of Sigmar203
Alex HamiltonCities of SigmarLiving City203
Jack HunterOssirach BonereapersPetrifex Elite203
Tom CareSoulblight GravelordsLegion of Night203
Barney CopperCities of SigmarHammerhal203
Jonathon BarlowSoulblight GravelordsLegion of Blood113
Steve HampshireSeraphonDracothion’s Tail104
Dan SmartOgor MawtribesBloodgullet104
Neil BowdenStormcast EternalsHammers of Sigmar104
Daz MaulSoulblight GravelordsLegion of Blood005

Top Three AoS Lists from Norsehammer Open 2022 – 5/6th March 2022

Advertisements

Norsehammer Open 2022 was a five game event that took place in Rogaland, Norway on 5th and 6th March. It saw 41 players fight it out to be crowned champion.

Advertisements

1st Ole Vatland – Seraphon

Ole won all five games beating Kruleboyz/Big Yellers in Round 1, Stormcast Eternals/Hallowed Knights in Round 2, Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan in Round 3, Kharadron Overlords/Barak Zilfin in Round 4 and Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs in the last round.

Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Beast Master
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Slann Starmaster (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Celestial Apotheosis

Skink Priest (80)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Engine of the Gods (265)*
– Artefact: Cloak of Feathers
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse


BATTLELINE
20 x Skinks
(150)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
– Reinforced x 1

10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers


UNITS
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)
– Reinforced x 1

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

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

Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

TERRAIN

Realmshaper Engine

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 109
Drops: 10

Advertisements

2nd Danny Elvestad – Ironjawz

Danny managed an impressive four wins and one loss, losing against 1st placed Ole Vatland and his Seraphon/Thunder Lizard list in Round 5. He beat Legion of the First Prince in Round 1, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Befouling Host in Round 2, Daughters of Khaine/Khelt Nar in Round 3 and Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar in Round 4.

Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Bloodtoofs
Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha
(480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork

Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat

Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat

Battleline
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas
(340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

10 x Orruk Ardboys (170)*
– 2x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
– Reinforced x 1

6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

Units
4 x Ironskull’s Boyz
(80)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 148
Drops: 1

Advertisements

3rd Lasse Kalberg – Daughters of Khaine

Lasse also managed to get four wins with a single loss during their weekend. Beating Flesh-eater Courts/Morgaunt in Round 1, losing against Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan in Round 2, then beating Cities of Sigmar/Living City in Round 3, Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs in Round 4 and Skaventide in the final round.

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Khailebron
Mortal Realm: Aqshy
Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Bloodwrack Medusa (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Mistress of Illusion
– Artefact: Whisperdeath
– Lore of Shadows: Mirror Dance

Morathi-Khaine (330)*
– Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor

The Shadow Queen (330)*

BATTLELINE
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced x 2

10 x Blood Stalkers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1

10 x Witch Aelves (120)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives


UNITS
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)*
5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (90)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 94
Drops: 1

Wildcard 15th Stein Gaarder – Skaventide

Stein performed fantastically over the weekend with an outdated Skaven Battletome. Stein managed an impressive three wins and two losses. Along the way Stein lost against Stormcast Eternals/Hammrs of Sigmar in Round 1, won against Nighthaunt/Emerald Host in Round 2, Legion of the First Prince in Round 3, ironjawz/Ironsunz in Round 4 before losing against 3rd placed Lasse Kalberg and his Daughters of Khaine/Khailebron list in Round 5.

Allegiance: Skaventide
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Verminlord Warpseer 
(335)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Arch-Warlock (175)*
– Artefact: Vigordust Injector
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!

Warlock Bombardier (125)*
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: More-more-more Warp Power!

Battleline
9 x Stormfiends 
(945)*
– 3x Windlaunchers
– 3x Ratling Cannons
– 3x Shock Gauntlets
– Reinforced x 2

5 x Skryre Acolytes (65)*
5 x Skryre Acolytes (65)*
5 x Skryre Acolytes (65)*
5 x Skryre Acolytes (65)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (70)
Vermintide (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
Drops: 1

The Final Tournament Placings

– Declan & Peter

Top Three AoS Lists from the Warpfire New Year Knockout (US) – 29th January

Advertisements

The Warpfire New Year Knockout is a one day event that took place in Florida, US. It involved 12 players duking it our over three glorious rounds of AoS.

Most Selected Faction/Subfaction

Win Rate

Advertisements

The Top Three Lists

These were the top three lists from the Warpfire New Year Knockout.

Karl Rohr – Legion of the First Prince

Karl won all three games beating Ossiarch Bonereapers/Petrifex Elite in Round 1, 3rd placed CJ Cole and his Daughters of Khaine/Hagg Narr in Round 2 and 2nd placed Shawn Todd with his Sons of Behemat/Taker Tribe in the last round.

Allegiance: Legion of the First Prince
– Subfaction: None
– Grand Strategy:
Triumph:

Leaders
———-
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (General) (280)*
– Command Trait: Ruinous Aura
– Artefact: Armour of the Pact
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
– Spell: The Master’s Command
The Contorted Epitome (255)**
– Artefact: fourfold Blade
– Spell: Flaming Weapon
Be’lakor (360)**
– Spell: The Master’s Command
Synessa (260)**
– Spell: The Master’s Command
– Spell: Entire Slaanesh Lore

Battleline
———-
10x Bloodletters (115)**
10x Bloodletters (115)*
5x Flesh Hounds (105)*

Endless Spells
———-
Umbral Spellportal (70)

Core Battalions
———-
*Battle Regiment
**Warlord

Total Points: 1995 pts

Advertisements

Shawn Todd – Sons of Behemat

Shawn won two of his three games and only lost to first place Karl and his Legion of the First Prince. He beat Sylvaneth/Harvestboon in Round 1 and Ossiarch Bonereapers/Petrifex Elite in Round 2.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Subfaction: Taker Tribe
Grand Strategy: Beast Master
Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
———-
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (General)(490)*
– Command Trait: Old and Gnarly
– Artefact: Glowy Lantern
– Spell: Flaming Weapon

Battleline
———-
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny
Warstompa Mega-Gargant (470)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Flaming Weapon
Warstompa Mega-Gargant (470)**

Core Battalions
———-
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Total Points: 1955 pts

Advertisements

CJ Cole – Daughters of Khaine

CJ also won two games and like Shawn, he only lost to Karl and his Legion of the First Prince. Along the way he beat the poor Kruleboyz/Big Yellers in Round 2 and Lumineth Realm-Lords/Helon in Round 3.

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Subfaction: Hagg Nar
Grand Strategy: Beast Master
Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
———-
Melusai Ironscale (General)(115)**
– Command Trait: Devoted Disciple

– Artefact: The Ulfuri
The Shadow Queen (660)*
Morathi-Khaine (660)**
Hag Queen (105)**
– Artefact: Khainite Pendant
– Prayer: Catechism of Murder

Battleline
———-
10x Blood sisters (280)*
– Reinforced: Once
5x Blood Sisters (140)*
15x Blood Stalkers (540)*
– Reinforced: Twice

Behemoth
———-
Avatar of Khaine (120)*

Core Battalions
———-
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage

Total Points: 1960 pts

Advertisements

The Final Tournament Placings

Warscroll Review – Khainite Shadowstalkers

Advertisements

Having written a few warscroll reviews for Destruction I thought I would branch out and talk about other Warscrolls – particularly those that you may not have seen or missed from the books; or those Warscrolls you may see at tournaments.

The only limit I’m setting myself at the moment is that I have to have seen the unit in action at least once, either playing or playing against!

The first of these are from Order, and Daughters of Khaine… but you may have missed them because they are from Warcry.

9 models, but 12 wounds… confused – all explained below

The Khainite Shadowstalkers are from the Warcry game and they are lovely models. They are 9 individual sculpts with great movement and a leader.

The Scroll

As before, all screenshots from the AOS App:

As with the Underworld Warband Rippa Snarlfangs, it is not immeditely obvious why anyone would take this scroll. Movement 6″, 1 wound each (so 9 wounds for 120 points) and 5+ save is hardly setting the world alight.

So this is a little better because it’s now 12 wounds for 120 points which in AOS isn’t bad. But range 6″ weapons and 2 attacks 4+/3+/-/1 is not going to set the world alight. Sure it’s okay but it’s not beating anything other than trash. Is there anything else on the warscroll, or have I gone crazy!?

Cursed Missiles gives the unit mortal wounds on a six – not bad for an Unleash Hell (but, see below), so it’s in keeping with the rest of the army. We’ll temporarily ignore that Spider Riders don’t have this on their poisoned arrows, but this article isn’t about Destuction.

Harness Shadow – is a great benefit giving them Grot nets for anyone who wants to fight them in combat. Ouch!

And finally, the ability that takes them out of mediocre and into great. Shadow Leap gives the unit a free teleport 5 times a game in each of your movement phases! So ignore the 6″ movement this is almost an infinite movement. In a game that is all about mobility for objective capture and for delaying and limiting your opponent this is a superb ability.

What’s not on the scroll

This would be great in almost any army – I’d certainly love a version of it in Gitz to give control of the board – but in Daughters of Khaine it just makes the army much better.

The AOS meta is changing with the arrival of the Ironjawz list as they have a very strong Alpha-Strike capability meaning that if you come to a tournament without screens you need units who can take charges from Maw Krushas and Gore Gruntas – which is very difficult – or put out screens. And these are great screens for the Bow Snakes.

They can be within 9″ of 15 Bow Snakes – 2 attacks, mortal wounds on 6+, shoot in the hero phase. So your opponent has to charge these units, you can unleash hell with the Bow Snakes, then when this unit is dead you can shoot in your next hero phase as well.

And because they teleport you can teleport them away their move almost anywhere, and then teleport the Bow Snakes behind them meaning they are always protected.

Added to that they are not Battleline, so there is no Battle Tactic available for killing them.

If you play Daughters of Khaine and don’t use this unit I urge you to give it a go – they are great.

— Declan

(Special thanks to my opponent at Warfare for showing me the unit and what a difference it makes to the DoK army… even if I did lose 1-19 to get this information to you!)

Top Three Lists from Northern Invasion 27th November 2021

Advertisements

These were the top three lists from Northern Invasion held on 27th November 2021.

Liam Watt – Lumineth Realmlords

Liam won the event with five wins from five and 120 tournament points.

Allegiance: Lumineth Realm Lords
Subfaction: Iliatha
Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
———-
Scinari Cathallar (General) (145 pts)+
– Command Trait: Warmaster
– Artefact: Simulacra Amulet
– Spell: Total Eclipse
Archmage Teclis and Celennar, Spirit of Hysh (740)+

Battleline
———-
Vanari Auralan Wardens (145 pts)+
– Spell: Speed of Hysh
Vanari Auralan Wardens (145 pts)+
– Spell: Lambent Light
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450 pts)+
– Spell: Total Eclipse
– Reinforced: Twice
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (300 pts)+
– Spell: Lambent Light
– Reinforced: Once

Endless Spells & Invocations
———-
Umbral Spellportal (70 pts)

Core Battalions
———-
Battle Regiment+

Total Points: 1995 pts
Made with AoS App List Cleaner

Adam Turner – Sons of Behemat

Adam came second with four wins from five and 100 points.

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
Subfaction:
Army Type: Taker Tribe
Grand Strategy: Beast Master
Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
———-
Kraken-Eater (General) (490 pts)*
– Command Trait: Extremely Intimidating
Kraken-Eater (490 pts)**
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom
Gatebreaker (525 pts)*
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny
Warstomper (470 pts)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Flaming Weapon

Core Battalions
———-
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Total Points: 1975 pts
Made with AoS App List Cleaner

Leigh Martin – Daughters of Khaine

Leigh also managed four wins from three and claimed 100 points.

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
Subfaction: Khailebron
Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
———-
Bloodwrack Medusa (General) (120 pts)+
– Command Trait: Mistress of Illusion
– Artefact: Whisperdeath
– Spell: Mirror Dance
Bloodwrack Medusa (120 pts)+
-Spell: The Withering

Battleline
———-
Blood Stalkers (510 pts)++
– Reinforced: Twice
Blood Stalkers (340 pts)++
– Reinforced: Once
Blood Stalkers (170 pts)+
Blood Stalkers (170 pts)+
Blood Stalkers (170 pts)+
Blood Stalkers (170 pts)+

Units
———-
Khinerai Heartrenders (95 pts)+
Khainite Shadowstalkers (120 pts)++

Core Battalions
———-
Battle Regiment+
Hunters of the Heartlands++

Total Points: 1985 pts
Made with AoS App List Cleaner

Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games

I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.

For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.

Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.