This is the top three AoS lists for the Midwest Bash 2024 GT that took place in the USA on the 17th and 18th of February. It saw 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Subfaction: Legion of Night
– Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses
– Triumph: Inspired

Leaders
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (400)*
– Lore of the Deathmages: Waste Away
Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares (300)**
– Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference
Vampire Lord (150)***
– General
– Command Trait: Unbending Will
– Artefact: Morbheg’s Claw
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Necromancer (100)***
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard

Battleline
3 x Fell Bats (100)*
3 x Vargheists (130)*
10 x Dire Wolves (150)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)**

Units
20 x Grave Guard (320)**
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Aethervoid Pendulum (50)
Suffocating Gravetide (30)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
***Andtorian Acolytes

Total: 1990 / 2000
Wounds: 126
Drops: 4

Roland Rivera: While we have seen Legion of Night lists starring Mannfred before, the tactical depth of being able to counter-charge enemy units (via Ageless Cunning), teleport your Heroes on demand (via Swift Form), or have Mannfred preemptively charge an opponent that merely gets near him (via Mortarch of Night) cannot be overstated. These tools (along with the gravesite deepstrikes that are available to every Soulblight player) let you dictate many engagements, which means you will have a strong chance to win almost any game.

Alongside Mannfred are the usual suspects – a Vampire Lord with Unbending Will magnifies the effectiveness of your Summonable objective sitters, Necromancers make good Blizzard caddies thanks to their bodyguard save, and Grave Guard make for a very reliable hammer that absorbs buffs extremely well.

There are some interesting additions in this list, however – Lauka Vai is a great independent operator that is also capable of some shenanigans if she resolves her 6″ pile-in spell, and a unit of Vargheists gives you a deepstriking unit with enough punch to force your opponent to respect the threat of it. All in all, this list has a seemingly endless bag of tricks to keep its opponents off balance, and has the results to prove its power.

Army Faction: Idoneth Deepkin
– Army Subfaction: Ionrach
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Akhelian King (220)*
– General
– Command Traits: Unstoppable Fury
– Bladed Polearm and Falchion
– Mount Traits: Voidchill Darkness
1 x Eidolon of Mathlann Aspect of the Storm (300)*
– Artefacts: Bio-shock Shell
1 x Neave Blacktalon (The Blacktalons) (340)**

BATTLELINE
6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (160)*
– Lochian Prince
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Musician
6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (160)*
– Lochian Prince
– 2 x Musician
– 2 x Standard Bearer
10 x Namarti Reavers (160)*
10 x Namarti Reavers (160)*
10 x Namarti Reavers (160)*

OTHER
1 x Lorai (The Blacktalons) (340)**
3 x Neave’s Companions (The Blacktalons) (340)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Regiment of Renown

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Jake Bentrup: This list revolves around a core of 2×6 eels and an akhelian king with the typical unstoppable fury, voidchill darkness load out. The game plan is to make the opponent go first in round 1 and stay in position to give away priority in 2–that way bottom of 2 the eel+king combo can pop Lord of Tides for d3 units fight first, and I get to remove key pieces without my opponent getting a turn to slap back before my high tide in turn 3. The supporting cast is a not-so-typical eidolon of the storm and The Blacktalons. The Eidolon is there for its +1 to wound(excluding mounts) aura and as an unexpectedly durable hammer. It also gets my Artefact choice of bioshock shell for a once per game chance to make an enemy hero fight last in case any big punchy heroes want to get in my face turn 1. The Blacktalons work rather well in Idoneth as Lorai has all the right keywords to get a ritual option, and the companions do a great job as a mid board anchor for Neave Neave herself is an absolute bully and works great either for harassing units that I’d rather not stay in combat with or taking out small heroes and then popping back to safety to repeat the process. Finally, we have 3 MSU reaver squads to act as a screen turn 1 and chip through screens or soften up priority targets.

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Darkwalkers
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Great Bray-Shaman (100)*
– General
– Command Trait: Slakefray Reveller
– Artefact: Brayblast Trumpet
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman (120)*
– Artefact: Bleating Gnarlstaff
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Grashrak Fellhoof (180)*
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Magister – The Coven of Thryx (320)**
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Ungors (80)
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (80)
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (80)
– Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungor Raiders (130)
10 x Ungor Raiders (130)

Units
5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)*
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened (180)
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened (180)
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch (420)
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Horrors of Tzeentch – The Coven of Thryx (0)**
– Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch – The Coven of Thryx (0)
Daemonic Simulacrum – The Coven of Thryx (0)
Tome of Eyes – The Coven of Thryx (0)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Regiment of Renown

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 320 / 400
Wounds: 151
Drops: 14

Eli Sweatt: I started originally with a plan to make a BoC list that worked without Be’lakor or Bullgors. It evolved into a list that punishes opponents that make me go first and counter deploying. Then harassing my opponent with chip dmg from while flooding the board and then following up with an Enlightended counter punch once turn 2 rend kicks in.

The punch of this list is the Enlightened Tzaangor. The ones on disc can be anywhere they need to be with their movement for the counterpunch. And the ones on foot are cheap and can trade up at an amazing price price. The only downside for the foot variant is their movement but Slakefray Reveller (+3 normal move for all units on field if unit is within 6″ of terrain) fixes that making their movement a respectable 9″ with some planning. Plus, denying cmds in the combat phase really messes with opponents’ expectations.

The ungor and ungor raiders are the workhorses. They screen, they poke, they darkwalkers away, they steal objectives and are my main battle tactic scorers.

As for heroes, my Brayshaman General’s whole life is one of solitude living behind a herdstone in the corner. Doing so helps keep the odds of the grand strategy spellcasting savant high and keeps my Slakefray Reveller active.

Fellhoof is just the best point cost for ritual of ruins off the table. He does ritual of ruins at 18″ like bray shamans but has 6 wounds so he can typically survive the 2d3 mortals to himself it costs for turn 1 and 2. Then he comes in with an amazing warscroll spell of +1 to hit and d3 mortals to a target. The extra lads that he comes with are just a bonus and a usually a throw-away screen or to contest an unappealing objective at the start of a game. Overall, he saves me 20 points vs. two shamans, and I get an extra screen.

The Tzaangor shaman is my Blizzard wizard due to his once per game cast at +3. But he does more his ability to zip around the table and use Bleating Gnarlstaff on terrain and objectives (End of my movement if he is within 6 of one on a 2+ he does d3 mortals to all Non BoC units within 6″ of that terrain or objective). That alone is amazing and made it my favorite artefact in the book, but even better, it combos with the Coven.

Now, the Coven of Thryx is the secret spice. Originally, I added it in to prevent all ins from opponents on turn 1. While it does that decently, It does something more to armies that want to give me the first turn and bunker. I realized that with Bleating Gnarlstaff hitting non BoC units, I can force the endless spells of the coven to swap during the end of movement so I can get a double tap off of the sigil switch. I call it the Coven trick.

The typical plan for this list goes like this. Once my opponent finishes dropping, I deploy the Coven with the magister outside of 30 of any opponent heroes. If giving second turn, I summon a sigil defensively before the game starts, but if given first, the Coven trick is on. I summon the Simulacrum before the start of the game from the magister. Do magical Dominance turn 1 and cast the Tome of Eyes. Run the magister, run forward 11, and move the pink horrors near a terrain. Use Tzaangor Shaman’s Bleating Gnarlstaff at end of movement on the terrain and hit the horrors. Turn the Tome of eyes into the sigil via Coven of Thryx end of phase ability creating a sigil in the opponents face that activates twice. Once for the swap (via Coven of Thryx warscroll) and again for the normal Sigil end of movement activation.

In the recent battlescroll the Coven did get a rewrite to clean up some of the wording and change some slight behavior of the trick (like make it easier to repeat) but the core basis of the Coven trick remained and still functions.

I suspect a hidden control build exists in Slaves to Darkness featuring this trick via a Fomoroid Crusher and include Belakor for more control but someone else can figure that out.

Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Subfaction: King’s Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Chasing the Moon
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Rabble-Rowza (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: The Clammy Hand
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
Grinkrak the Great (220)**
Skragrott, the Loonking (230)***

BATTLELINE
Moonclan Shootas (120)*
– Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
Moonclan Shootas (120)*
– Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher
Moonclan Shootas (120)*
– Moonclan Boss
– Bad Moon Icon Bearer
– Gong Basher

OTHER
Fellwater Troggoths (170)*
Fellwater Troggoths (170)*
Gobbapalooza (180)**
– Spells: The Hand of Gork
Grinkrak’s Looncourt (220)**
Marshcrawla Sloggoth (170)**
Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)***
Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)***
Loonsmasha Fanatics (110)***

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

David Erger: There is not much to say about the list, other than it’s all about deception. Only the gitz player knows where the fanatics are hiding at and with the clammy hand command trait, plus the King’s Gitz battle trait. You bring back almost guaranteed two units at the end of the turn.

A fun thing to do is to put your shoota units in a horseshoe formation. Depending on what is going to charge the shoota unit, you can put your fanatics in the open part, and they can swing over the shoota unit due to them having 3 inch melee range. And Grinkrak can “I Dub Thee” on them.

Final Tournament Placings

Best Coast Pairings