So there’s probably no better timing for releasing a top three on an event than the day after a load of controversy gets talked about at said event?!

This is the top three AoS lists for the London Grand Tournament that took place in the UK on the 30th and 1st of October. It involved 82 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork
– Grand Strategy: Protect da Shrine
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Webspinner Shaman (65)***
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Madcap Shaman (70)***
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Skragrott, The Loonking (230)*
Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (110)**
– General
– Command Trait: The Clammy Hand

Battleline
15 x Boingrot Bounderz (450)**
– Reinforced x 2
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150)*
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150)*
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (140)*
36 x Squig Herd (420)**
– Reinforced x 2

Units
5 x Gobbapalooza (170)**
– Spell1: Lore of the Moonclans: Squig Lure

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

Total: 1955 / 2000

I’ve a 2-for-1 for you today because I’m not very organised, and my head has been filled with GT planning (no excuse!). So I rather stupidly asked both PlasticCraic (thanks again Pete – check out his site if you havent already!) and Phil Marshall to comment on these lists! So you have the benefit of both the players’ point of view and an expert AoS Analysts point of view..

Phil Marshall: Gloomspite Gitz – Jaws of Mork – How did it work?

I decided to go back to my routes and play an aggro combat army. Gitz the moment are super versatile and play lots of scenarios extremely well. With this edition lots of scenarios are fight in the middle and Gitz really lean into that. Yes, they have had their fair share of points increases but the army is still super strong with all the buffs and debuffs within the list. Lets take a note of a few of the key buff pieces, Skraggy knowing the full spell lore and also being able to help dictate battle tactic scoring by being able to manipulate the moon placement. Squig boss with the pre game move and MWs in addition for squigs, honestly its mental how far that unit can move in the turn you commit to this, in addition to this you have the clammy hand command trait to try and get two units out of the shrine. Madcap & Webspinner the combo allows you get acolytes in for hoarfrost, without being able to receive the commands on squigs hoarfrost works as your all out attack as minimum but when you can be hitting on 2s at potentially rend 3 with 150 attacks you really do see the value, the madcap also has moonface mommet to give a unit -1 to their save. Sneaky snufflers, 2+ 5 up ward yes please but oh wait if under the moon and you roll a 5+ you get an extra attack as well; mental. Then my buff piece MVP, these lads are sublime, the -1 to hit aura spell, the no command ability spell stoping redeploy from your none re-rollable charge on the herd, then a static aura of either +1 rend or plus 1 to run and charge. The list is then bolstered out by two units of 5 boingrots to grab objectives, do surround and destroy and clear screens, the real punch comes from the 36 herd and the unit of 15 boingrots.

How did the list play the? Aggressively, but when it needed to be. The way I played the list a lot of the time was as a castle waiting to capitalise on opportunities to explode out of it and ensuring that I was in range of all my auras and buff pieces ready to maximise my next movement phase. Depending on match up would be dependant on what would be used to screen with, if I was concerned about my opponent going first the screen was the two 5 of bounders and the terrain piece (assuming no monsters). Then I would have the hammers sat just off the screen ready to counter charge in my turn and make my opponent second guess about coming in. If I knew I was under no threat top of 1 I would screen with my gobbapalooza and snufflers and leave a squig sized gap as a screen as we all know 25mm is less than an inch so you can move through those gaps. The herd would then be set up in between so that if I wanted to maximise the potential hero phase move I was at no risk of missing out on the buffs from gobbapalooza and the herd at the start of movement. One of the hoarfrost wizards would also be close enough to make sure I can cast hoarfrost. Hoarfrost for me was the main spell I was always trying to cast as it makes the squig herds output substantially better no matter what you roll, I found myself always using it for hit rolls. The herd were always used at the 1st wave to commit and then follow up with the 15 bounders after the herd were now out of the buff ranges. This dual threat is horrible to deal with for your opponent again due to the speed in which your units can get across the table. In my opinion there isn’t a unit in the game that can survive the punch from either of these units when you have the buffs on. In the match ups that were perceived “easier” you can just throw the list at your opponent and its extremely hard for them to deal with, the speed it gets to them, the weight of dice you are throwing combined with the rend and damage made them quite straightforward. In conclusion it’s a super fast aggro army that suits a player that likes to put pressure on your opponent, however, it can play the passive game till you need to push out. It is the complete toolbox of buffs and debuffs that is a real pain to play around for your opponent.

Pete Atkinson: We talk a lot in this game about “skill ceiling”, but less so about “skill floor”. I’d argue that filling your list with Squigs and pushing them forward again and again has an abnormally high floor, in that you could teach a small child to execute and they’d win a lot of games, much like Terrorgheists back in their day. There’s only so badly you can do with a list like this.

All the same, 5-0s with Squigs remain rare, and that’s what separates the Bosses from the Gits. Phil has encountered a broad range of challenges in this event, encompassing high-mobility combat giga-damage (S2D) and Order gunlines with phenomenal straight line speed (Fuethan), as well as highly competitive KO, layered screens in Nighthaunt and ambushing BOC rounding out the opposition¹. Phil managed to react accordingly to opponents that were corner-deployed, well screened or even off the board entirely, and that’s where the skill ceiling part comes in.

In terms of what the list does, it’s really just Squigs 102. I’d argue that Squigs 101 was profiting from the bent Hoppers interaction with Rally (deliberately breaking coherency to get outside of 3″ then Rally back), but since that got swiftly nipped in the bud, these are the standard units you’ve been seeing used in tandem. Gobbapalooza gets you a tough wizard with Recursion which also dishes out -1 rend; Moonface Mommet adds further to the rend jamboree.

Given Phil’s smart use of Squig Lure though (allowing for Squigs to reroll charges when they can’t use CAs at all), I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that he sometimes used the ‘Palooza for the +1 to run and charge ability instead of extra rend. With the Subfaction attacks and Squigboss buffs, the damage is already there, so it’s just the delivery mechanism you need to lock down; and making it impossible to fail a 3″ charge is massive. Those charge consistency bonuses can be the difference between being written about here on Woehammer, and spending the time before your next game pissing and moaning about how your dice fucked you.

Squig Herd in particular love Hoarfrost as a way to fix their 4+ to Hit Roll and it’s notable that Phil has doubled down on that for redundancy, rather than being tempted with Merciless Blizzard. You’re not going to have units camping within 12″ in front of you for protracted combats, because you’ve already Squigged them off the board.

Chuck the Herd forward, merck a bunch of stuff, pop out some Battleshock mortals. Send the Boingrots in next and do the same. Then rezz back your original Squigs (with the Clammy Hand CT to help) and at that point your opponent probably shakes your hand.

I played a tiny handful of games with Squigs myself when the book first dropped and that was enough for me to get bored (I’m talking Early-Third-Edition-Giants-Standing-On-Circles levels of bored), but the fact remains that guiding them to the full 5-0 is an extra level of challenge, and one that very few have proven capable of thus far. If you’re looking for a way to hit consistent rankings points for your local Masters though – or just keen to chase a podium – then I’d suggest you look no further, because this list is as tight as an Allopex’s arse. Everything is geared towards and refined around executing your gameplan, with vigour and consistency. Ruthless.

¹Bear in mind I haven’t seen the full lists Phil played against – but looking at the Factions and Subfactions he encountered, we can have an educated guess.

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Vyrkos
– Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Necromancer (100)*
– General
– Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
– Spells: Waste Away
1 x Necromancer (100)*
– Spells: Fading Vigour
1 x Belladamma Volga (220)**
– Spells: Spirit Gale
1 x Gorslav the Gravekeeper (140)***
– Artefacts: Ulfenkarni Phylactery

BATTLELINE
10 x Dire Wolves (150)**
– Doom Wolf
10 x Dire Wolves (150)**
– Doom Wolf
20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)***
– Skeleton Champion
– 2 x Standard Bearer
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)***
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)***
60 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)***

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Michael Attali: This was a test for the WCW in Atlanta where I’ll be representing France (as I did during the AoS worlds Team’s Tournament).

So Vyrkos is the best sub faction in my advice (tactic and strategy wise) even though LoN performs more, I have seen that it is more due to the fact that most people don’t know how to play against LoN.

The main part of my army is 120 zombies (60-40-20) seconded by 20 skeletons to be buffed by Gorslav with the Ulfenkarni Phylacteri. The aim of this portion of the army is to take primaries with it’s board presence. and recursion.

Belladamma with 2×10 Wolves, serves as a shield for the zombies during deployment and to click units or far away objectives.
A third pack is set up by Volga to protect herself with the Vyrkos heroic action.
Volga can pin some units with the lycancurse, creating more wolves and more recursion.

The three parts click together perfectly, I usually do all the primaries and secondaries. If you come at me you are pinned by the zombies and showered in debuffs. I can then counter attack with Under the killing Moon + Hoarfrost+ Danse Macabre (and maybe blizzard).

The grand strategy is easy against most armies except, for example, against Benjamin Savva on Nexus collapse, who had low damage input, so I had to put 3 units in reserves (40-20 zombies and 10 Wolves) and never bring them to the table. So, from turn 4, I would be able to bring them on with Gorslav, but you do score the maximum amount of points most of the time

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Urbaz
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumph: Inspired
– Stick To The Code (Amendments): Trust To Your Guns
– Stick To The Code (Artycles): Honour is Everything, Settle the Grudges
– Stick To The Code (Footnotes): Without Our Ships, We Are Naught

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (100)*
– Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
Aetheric Navigator (100)*
– Artefacts of Power: Voidstone Orb
Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ex-Grundstok

BATTLELINE
Grundstok Thunderers (480)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– 3 x Honour Bearer
– 3 x Aethercannon
– 3 x Aetheric Fumigator
– 3 x Decksweeper
– 3 x Grundstok Mortar
Arkanaut Company (90)*
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Volley Pistol
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt
Arkanaut Company (90)*
– Company Captain
– Light Skyhook and Gun Butt
– Skypike
– Volley Pistol
– Aethermatic Volley Gun and Gun Butt

BEHEMOTH
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Great Volley Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: The Last Word
– The Admiral’s Flagship: The Admiral’s Flagship

OTHER
Gotrek Gurnisson (480)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

Carl Stokes: Everyone knows I’m a fervent believer in the Gospel of Gotrek, and it’s lists like this that reinforce why he’s just such an incredible asset for KO. One of the major weaknesses of KO as a faction is their inability to reliably handle fast chunky monsters that can catch our boats and survive being shot long enough to make mincemeat of our troops. This is where Gotrek steps in and immediately turns challenging matchups into easy wins.

The rest of the army is also classic and battle-tested. The shooting-themed ironclad full of thunderers and characters with the Admiral-Khemist-Navigator combo designed to automatically unbind a single vital spell once per game while providing some movement shenanigans and consistent unbind attempts is something everyone expects to see when playing KO. Add in 20 arkanauts to screen and hold backfield objectives and there’s the army.

Which brings us to the greatest Old World Dawi to ever wield an axe… Gotrek! When wielded appropriately, he provides an immovable bulwark and melee blender that can reliably remove almost anything in the game. He’s the sort of model you run into the midfield and then just threaten the meat of your opponent’s army every turn. Sure, you may not reliably make a 10” charge, but you only have to do so once and you win the game. Worried something might get into the ironclad? With Gotrek around, nothing is gonna want to be within about 12” of his small but mighty footprint.

Specifically, he provides a way for KO to immediately remove things like Kragnos, Stonehorns, blobs of infantry, blobs of cavalry, blobs of monstrous infantry, etc, etc. People often forget that it’s fairly hard to pile in a blender unit into Gotrek to maximize their attacks into him, which means that units of 6 pigs or necropolis stalkers just simply can’t get enough models in combat to take him out before he minces the squad. And reducing all damage to one BEFORE his 3+ ward means that it’s reeeeeally hard to take him out (plus don’t forget he can Heroic Recovery if need be)!

Just to hammer home how stupid high Gotrek’s output is, I’ve included a little damage table of his average output into various saves:

Except that’s only one activation. And he gets to fight TWICE per combat phase. So yeah, that’s why he’s the Goat..rek.

As for the way this army plays, it’s fairly similar to many other top KO lists. You’ve got the incredibly high output shooting with 4+ rally for the thunderers and ironclad support backed up by ancillary characters designed to get the most out of both the thunderers and the boat. This is the sort of army that will absolutely dominate any low objective battle plan while likely going down early on points when playing multi-objective scenarios. But it rarely matters, since you’re just going to be erasing your opponent with overwhelming firepower and smashing them with Gotrek if they try to threaten your firebase. An incredible list and an excellent result. Well done!

Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Spells: Hoarfrost
Be’lakor (340)*
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (160)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Chaos Lance
– Artefacts of Power: The Conqueror’s Crown

BATTLELINE
Varanguard (560)*
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 6 x Fellspear
Varanguard (280)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– 3 x Fellspear
The Unmade (80)*

OTHER
Chaos Chosen (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Exalted Champion
– 2 x Skull Drummer
– 2 x Icon Bearer
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Geir Vedeld: What I like the most here is that it has several strong elements. It plays well on Battle Tactics. It has a strong control / alpha element combined with the opportunity to slow play.

The lone Mounted Chaos Lord can flank easily. He would, of course, be better on Karkadrak, but the list is 2000 points on the spot. He supplies the list with the battle tactic Lust for Power, which is otherwise harder to get to. With Conqueror’s Crown, he takes objectives from Chaff. Also, he is difficult to kill for chaff units, making it an investment for the opponent to take him out.

The 3-man unit of Varanguard is an MVP. It can either be sent on a mission alone, killing as many small units as possible before dying. Taking out 200+ points with it at an early stage is often quite important late game and ruins plans and battle tactics on the other side of the table.

The drawback with the Chosen is that it is slow, and the Knights of the Empty Throne sub-faction gives speed and punishes the opponent for making mistakes in positioning, etc. Chosen reduces that opportunity.

The drawback with Varanguard is that they do very little damage if they are tagged (by e.g., Murderlust from Khorne). Without retreat and charge and a corner tag, Varanguard are basically doing very little they are supposed to do.

Roland Rivera: Slaves to Darkness continues its post-Battlescroll ascent with another strong showing. This list pairs the devastating offensive power of Khorne Varanguard with an extra dose of speed by putting them in the Knights of the Empty Thorne subfaction, which enables them to run and charge. On the defensive front, this list runs a reinforced unit of Nurgle Chosen as its solid center that can take a hard punch and give one back. It also features a Sorcerer to hang out near the Chosen, providing Ward saves and Daemonic Power. Lastly, it also adds a dash of board control by featuring Be’lakor and his ability to shut units down for a turn.

Geir has made some interesting choices in support units to set his list apart – he has a rarely-seen unit in the Chaos Lord with Daemonic Mount as a dedicated objective snatcher (thanks to his speed and The Conqueror’s Crown letting him bully 1- and 2-Wound models off objectives) and a unit of Unmade, which project an aura preventing Redeploy and making sure the Varanguard’s devastating charges have a higher chance of hitting home.

All in all, this list clearly plays to the strengths of the Slaves to Darkness force, while featuring some interesting tech that make it quite an interesting read.

Final Tournament Placings

To view all of the results for the tournament please follow the link below to Best Coast Pairings

https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/3KbfYBCNzG